November 2009 Archives

My Smothers Brothers Book "Drops" This Week -- And So Do I, Into a Few National TV and Radio Shows

November 30, 2009 5:49 AM

Well, this is the week I've been waiting for -- for some 15 years -- so please forgive a little pride, and self-promotion. But Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' hits bookstores Tuesday -- and this week, I show up on a few national shows to promote the book. Here's the breakdown of where and when...

MONDAY, NOV. 30 -- NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. This is a very exciting show for me. For the first half, I'm the guest, interviewed by Terry about my book. Then, in the second half, I turn around and talk with Hal Holbrook, who has a new movie out. Interviewee, then interviewer, in the same hour. I'm proud of both halves of that double feature.

(Check local listings for air times, or click HERE after about 5 p.m. ET to listen to the show.)

TUESDAY, DEC. 1 -- ABC's Good Morning America. So far as I know, a pretaped segment featuring Tom Smothers and me will run Tuesday during the show's second hour (8-9 a.m. ET). The interviewer is Tom Bergeron, who was very nice and well-informed. And I didn't even have to dance.

FRIDAY, DEC. 4 -- CBS's Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Again, so far as I know, I'll be appearing on this show Friday, in a segment to be taped this Thursday. More on this later -- but much as I'm petrified by this appearance, I know I'm in good hands.

And that's pretty much my major media blitz. After that, like a locust emerging once every 15 years or so, I'll burrow back underground (well, to my basement office) for another long round of dormancy.

Oh, and one more thing: A website devoted to the book launches today: dangerouslyfunnythebook.com. Click on it, and you'll get the main page, which we've just made live. (Thanks, Rich and Eric!)

And over the next couple of days, we'll add quotes from, and links to, the latest reviews of the book, like the Daily Beast nod shown above. (To read the review, click HERE.) Also, we'll add detailed chapter-by-chapter book notes, for those interested in my research.

Remember, also, that you can BUY this book, too. (Links to that are at the top of this site, and the new one.) You must know SOMEONE old who doesn't want another tie for the holidays...

Anyway, wish me luck. Hell has frozen over for real -- and the ice slide looks like a hell of a lot of fun.

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Avoiding Crowds on Black Friday? Burnt Sienna Saturday? Chartreuse Sunday? Shop TV WORTH WATCHING Instead!

November 26, 2009 6:07 PM

On Thanksgiving weekend, if you want to get a jump on holiday shopping, but don't want to deal with the traffic and crowds and lines, TV WORTH WATCHING is happy to provide an easy solution, Several of them, actually...

Diane Werts, who already has compiled a too-cool-for-school compendium of TV-on-DVD gift ideas for this shopping season, has added to it with another, more specialized list, this one gathering the best TV-on-DVD offerings keyed specifically to the holidays.

Both of these TV WORTH WATCHING Virtual Shopping Centers can be accessed, from now until the New Year, by clicking on the respective banners just above the daily BIANCULLI'S BEST BETS on the home page.

Also, to make it easier, you can jump to them by clicking here for TV WORTH WATCHING'S HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE...

...And here for TVWW's GUIDE TO CHRISTMAS SHOWS ON DVD.

As always, I'll add the honest admission that anything you buy from these lists, by following the links to Amazon, results in TV WORTH WATCHING getting a small percentage kickback. That may be the only money we generate this year, so every penny, truly, is appreciated.

And wait, that's not all. Diane also has toiled, like an elf in late December, to compile her peerless annual lists of where to find various holiday-themed TV shows on television. These lists have just been posted, and are only preliminary. Return often, and watch Diane's FOR BETTER OR WERTS blog, for continued updates.

Meanwhile, follow these links to amass your own lists of Christmas TV Yet to Come. If you're looking for a particular special or episode, this is how you'll find it.

TV Christmas Family Favorites (animated shows and more)

TV Christmas Movies

TV Christmas Episodes

TV Christmas Specials (music, unscripted and more)

-- And come back Monday, because I'll be posting my TV and radio appearances for the week as my Smothers Brothers book finally is published!

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Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm"/"Seinfeld" Combo Platter: Pure, Delicious Brilliance

November 23, 2009 12:48 PM

Sunday's season finale of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, which served up a savory Seinfeld reunion as well, was everything I hoped it would be, and more. What an episode. What a delight.

And, if Larry David chooses to end Curb with this most recent episode, what a sneaky, perfect-pitch series finale...

There's a lot to say about the way this episode did so much so well. The cast, the plot, the twists, the execution -- all brilliant. And I DO say a lot about it on today's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, which you can read and hear later today by clicking HERE.

You can also watch a rerun of the season finale tonight at 9 ET on HBO2. It's perfect -- and even though our website designer, Eric Gould, predicted one plot twist with uncanny accuracy (that Cheryl would fall for Jason), that was only the tip of a very cool iceberg.

Bottom line: It was the best ending imaginable to the year's best TV comedy. And the fact that it, like the Seinfeld reunion within it, was on cable, not broadcast TV, in 2009, is a fitting analogy for all quality TV these days.

As I say on Fresh Air: Cable TV, more and more these days, is where it's at.

Broadcast TV, sadly, is where it was.

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Early, Easy Quality-TV Shopping: The TV WORTH WATCHING Holiday Gift Guide Rises Again!

November 18, 2009 4:21 AM

Give Diane Werts all the credit for this puppy. She's been toiling long and hard, and has compiled a terrific sampler of new holiday TV-on-DVD treats to give as gifts. Wait till you see her lineup - but you don't HAVE to wait. It's ready now, by clicking the banner just above BEST BETS...

We'll have more on this later, but I wanted to give all Diane's hard work an early boost, and give all you internet holiday shoppers a head start. And remember, because we want to be totally upfront about this, a small percentage of everything you buy from Amazon, once linking there from our site, goes to support TV WORTH WATCHING.

In this economy, your support is sorely needed. So ordering from our list is like giving two, two, two gifts in one. One for your targeted gift recipients, and one for us.

If you don't want to hop back to the main page, here's another handy link to the holiday gift page. And remember -- that new Smothers Brothers book makes a good gift, too...

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AMC's "The Prisoner" Remake: Not Worth the Wait, Or the Time

November 15, 2009 11:19 AM

Despite a fine performance by Ian McKellen as the chief antagonist, AMC's six-hour miniseries remake of 1968's classic The Prisoner series is not worth watching. And that's not news I'm pleased to report...

Whereas Patrick McGoohan's original series was playful as well as thoughtful, this new remake, which runs Sunday through Tuesday nights at 9 ET on AMC, is depressingly dour, and, with its rethought finale, ultimately unsatisfying. Much as I love the original Prisoner, I can't recommend this remake.

For my full review, from Friday's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, click HERE.

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How will "Curb Your Enthusiasm" End This Year? Our Website's Designer Has a Bold Prediction

November 11, 2009 12:36 PM

Eric Gould is an architect in Boston, the designer of this TV WORTH WATCHING website, and now is eyeing a new specialty side interest: he wants to be the Nostradamus of TV critics. Specifically, he has a bold -- and, I think, brilliant -- prediction about how this season's Curb Your Enthusiasm will end on HBO...

This season, of course, has featured as its continuing plot line the making of a Seinfeld reunion show, in which Larry David, who co-created that series with Jerry Seinfeld, agrees to mount a reunion special for NBC with Jerry and former costars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards.

The meta jokes behind this plot thread are delicious. Jerry and Larry have refused to do a "real" reunion show for NBC, the network that aired Seinfeld all those years. Yet here they are, essentially stealing the project from NBC and handing it to HBO, the cable home where Larry plays an exaggerated version of himself. On Curb, they're mounting the reunion on NBC. But in real life, it's not on NBC -- it's on HBO.

The other conceit is that the HBO Larry's motive for all this, after years of refusing to consider a reunion show, is to win back his ex-wife, Cheryl, played in the series by Cheryl Hines. Larry figures if he casts Cheryl as the new ex-wife of George, the Jason Alexander character who was Larry's alter ego on Seinfeld, Cheryl will be so grateful, and see Larry as such an admirable authority figure on the set, that she'll fall back in love with him. An early show this season even presented Larry's fantasy version of that scenario, with an adoring Sheryl hanging on his every word.

Episodes this season, when they've returned to the Seinfeld plot line, have dealt with the threat of other actresses vying for the same role as Cheryl, and with comic explorations of the relationships between Larry and his former Seinfeld stars.

The TV Jerry has as many social and verbal quirks as the TV Larry. The TV Michael is easily distracted, the TV Julia is easily offended, and the TV Jason has a lot of problems with the TV Larry, including his tipping policy, his overall attitude, and the NBC Seinfeld finale show.

All very funny. But Eric suspects more is going on, and with two episodes left in the season (Sunday nights at 9 ET on HBO), is convinced he's right.

"Cheryl David will be cast on the Seinfeld reunion..." he texted me in a prediction sent before, but confirmed by, Sunday's episode was televised on HBO. But his prediction didn't stop there:

"...And end up with Jason Alexander, the doppelganger of David's doppelganger -- Larry David's character's character."

This explains, Eric insists, why the TV versions of Larry and Jason have been at each other's throats all season, arguing over checks and such. When the reunion starts filming, Eric thinks, Jason -- playing Larry's comic alter ego of himself -- will win Cheryl's heart. By casting her in the reunion show, Larry will lose her to... himself, almost.

If this isn't the ending of Curb this season, it should be.

"Given that The Producer season," Eric argues, alluding to an earlier brilliant Curb season-long story, "was the meta-plot of the producers undoing a real production of the play using its own plot as the road map, why should this season miss similar meta-opportunities of the same kind?"

Why indeed? I think Eric is on the right scent. What do you think?

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Why Has TV WORTH WATCHING Been Sluggish of Late? Guilty -- with an Explanation

November 10, 2009 12:33 PM

Last week, I posted a picture of my basement office, post-book, with a vow to clean it up because my life had gotten too disorganized. Well, I haven't even gotten down the stairs yet. And last weekend, when I was out of town, my laptop decided to break by refusing to have the space bar operate...

Have you ever tried to write blogs and entries for a website without a space bar? My temporary solution was to save a space from a stored story, write a new story as one long word, then insert spaces as required. I'm happy to report my computer is now fixed.

I'm less happy to report that, when the guys at the Apple Genius bar turned on my computer and saw my desktop, all they said, at the same time, was a very loud "WOW."

So I now post a picture of my laptop above, for your amusement as well as your sympathy. Give me a few more days to get back on schedule, please, friends. The nearness of the book publication has made things nuts around here, even for me.

But very soon, I'll have some good news to report...

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AMC's "Mad Men" Serves Up a Stunning Surprise -- And a Modern-Day TV Triumph

November 3, 2009 8:07 AM

If you've recorded, but haven't yet seen, last Sunday's episode of AMC's Mad Men, don't read any more of this column until you've watched the episode. It contains surprises too potent to spoil - but too artistic and well-handled, on the other hand, not to celebrate. So if you HAVE seen it, read on, as I praise Matthew Weiner's series for playing its hand magnificently...

When the current season of Mad Men began, one of the most anticipated secrets to be revealed aboutthe show's 1960s world was exactly what date it was. Was the show coming back before the assassination of John F. Kennedy, or after? Would Weiner, perversely, skip over one of the most tragic and significant events of that decade, or build up to it as the season progresssed.

We learned instantly that, in the Madison Avenue world of Mad Men, the unforgettable date of Nov. 22, 1963 was still in the future. But then, all this season, Weiner and company did something impressive. They made us forget that the tragedy might be coming.

And, in the most amazing magical feat of all, they managed to sneak it up on us and stun us with it, just as people were stunned in 1963. Advance promos of the episode on American Movie Classics revealed no hint of it. Nor did publicity photos, advance TV log-line descriptions, or anything else. In short, Mad Men took its biggest plot point of the year, and kept it secret, in an age when almost NOTHING is kept secret any more.

And my, was it a fabulous TV viewing experience as a result. So much to remember. So much to love. So much to praise.

I love, for example, that Mad Men didn't take the obvious approach of showing only Walter Cronkite, whose CBS reporting we now see as synonymous with JFK assassination coverage. Instead, the first image we saw, as folks from Sterling Cooper turned on their TV at work, was NBC's Chet Huntley.

And we got to see the reactions of many major characters as the news developed. Peggy, still flush with the thrill of illicit afternoon sex with a colleague from a rival agency, was stunned.

Betty Draper cried when she first saw the news, then, witnessing Lee Harvey Oswald's shooting on live TV, screamed in anger, demanding to know what was happening. Then she fled the room -- leaving Don, whose secrets she had discovered the episode before, as well.

The master stroke of the episode, though, was another continuation of a plot thread from a previous episode. Peggy and Don had been among those working on a new campaign for Aqua-Net hair spray, and the approved campaign, which we had seen illustrated in storyboards, had two couples driving in a convertible.

One woman wore a scarf to protect her hair from getting mussed by the wind. The other -- the Aqua-Net user -- needed no such protection, and enjoyed the open-air ride with giddy abandon. Excellent campaign -- until, the Monday after the JFK assassination, Peggy and Don, the only two people who came in to work on a national day of mourning, looked at the storyboards and saw two couples in a convertible... an eerie, uncomfortable echo of the last TV images of the presidential limousine driving through Dallas before JFK was shot.

When I saw those Aqua-Net images the first time, the Kennedy connection never occured to me. When the camera closed in on them in Sunday's episode, those same images took my breath away. Matt Weiner had played his cards extremely close to the vest, yet let us peek at them at the same time. That episode was a major payoff, and a master stroke of TV direction. And misdirection, too, because we never saw it coming.

This Sunday at 10 ET is the season finale. Is there any question it's an hour not to be missed?

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