MagneticMediaFed

A Pimp Named Slickback

Remember Don Imus? He was this corpse-looking cowboy who used to have a radio show before saying racist comments on the air causing everyone in America to take a serious look at the country’s race relations (for two weeks). He was ultimately fired. I bring up Mr. Imus to illustrate what audience size allows one to get away with on the air with or without the masses calling for your head. His reach was millions (tens of millions?) whereas The Boondocks, which airs Monday’s on Adult Swim, maybe attracts one million viewers. The difference? No one is going to complain about The Boondocks, because most people in America, and certainly not those people with the power, even know the show exists. More after the jump…

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Now this isn’t exactly the most logical choice in live-blogging. A review would probably suffice. That being said, I’m off work today, and the opportunity has presented itself, and generally speaking, people love distractions while at work. More after the jump…

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I clearly don’t pay close enough attention. Oprah is in New York this week and right now Dave Letterman, my favorite talk show host, is her guest, and by-god is it a weird experience. Dave’s humor and general uncomfortability on any talk show, combined with what the typical Oprah audience member expects from their show mesh together like opposite greased magnets. Yet there is he is, talking about the “Oprah Log” and reading a not-that-jokey top ten list.

If you’re by a working television, it’ll probably be worth tuning in just to see it as something of an oddity. Whenever Letterman leaves his set (at least in the modern era), he is always incredibly cordial to the host, mildly funny and wholly forgetable (which I assume is intentional) — go in, get it done with, leave into the night.

Alton, lookout!

It’s no surprise that the Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain and Food Network’s Alton Brown share the same initials. They also happen to share the same show (kind of) and are utilized by their respective networks in the same way (sorta). That Alton Brown is basically the more sober, more geeky version of Mr. Bourdain should come as a surprise to no one watching food-based travelogues this summer on cable (and I must at this point add: if you aren’t watching food-based travelogues on cable this summer, what exactly are you watching — it couldn’t be more compelling television, for anyone who opts to nourish themselves with foodstuffs). The delicious comparisons after the jump…

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The summer is long. It’s hot. It’s frequently uncomfortable. It’s also lightly peppered with your favorite television personalities. The key word here is “lightly.” For me, as a huge fan of ESPN’s Pardon the Interuption, the summer is always a trying period. It’s either Wilbon with no Tony or Tony with no Wilbon (usually the former). Either way, you get a lot of Bob Ryan, you get a lot of Dan Le Batard (the best of the subs), you even get a little J. A. Adonde and Patrick McEnroe (who I didn’t even know existed until last week). More after the break…

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“One should never judge a nasty-smelling piece of tofu by the frighteningly hairy stuff growing all over it.”

Having just read Kitchen Confidential, one has to assume the release of the Catherine Zeta-Jones/Aaron Eckhart romantic comedy No Reservations three days before Anthony Bourdain’s similarly titled travel channel series returned for its third season must have driven the man crazy. If I picked up one thing from his love-letter to chefs, it was that the kitchen is a no-nonsense place filled with degenerates, alcoholics, thieves and general tough-guys — NOT beautiful square jawed hunks and the women who love them. The fact that this movie also happened to steal the title of his show and premiered in such close proximity had to just be a salt-covered rusty fork to the wound.

Luckily, the film’s modest box-office should make it a cinematic footnote, while Travel’s Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations started its third season Monday night and will be delivering new episodes for months. Point: Bourdaian. More after the jump…

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In a story certain to shake the entire man-doing-crazy-things-on-camera community to its very core, the New York Post is reporting that Discovery Channel dung-drinker Bear Grylls might be staging several scenes in his very popular and very awesome series Man Vs. Wild. I know, I know, how can something that airs on television be faked? Impossible, right? Not according to newsman Don Kaplan:

According to Weinert [an Oregon-based survival consultant, who said producers hired him as an adviser for the show], while filming in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains - an episode in which Grylls, 33, is seen biting off the head of a snake for breakfast - Grylls actually spent some nights with the show’s crew in a lodge outfitted with television, stone fireplaces, hot tubs and Internet access.

But what about the snake head, because really that’s why I’m tuning in? I could care less if he slept on a bed of soggy grass or a bed with a down comforter seven feet from a plasma HDTV.

The charm of Man Vs. Wild is half the fact that you get to see a guy do absolutely ridiculous things on camera (like jumping out of a helicopter in the middle of the ocean without a parachute, or biting into a live salmon, or drinking the water out of elephant dung) and the other half is knowing that there’s a camera crew right on the other side of the lens. In a way, I’d be more shocked to find out they weren’t staying in hotels at night. I mean, good lord, it’s dangerous out there!

Last night on The Late Show, Drew Carey formally announced that he is going to be the new host of The Price Is Right, replacing animal/spokesmodel lover Bob Barker who retired last month after hosting the show for 35 years (since Letterman is taped around 5:30, most of this info had hit the digisphere earlier this evening). Now we’re basically left with one question: how do we feel about this decision?

Personally, I think I’m for it. I mean, why not. He seems jolly, and jolliness is a prominent trait in most successful game show hosts (except for Trebek… that guy seems overly concerned with correct punctuation to be even the slightest bit jolly). Plus, given the names that were thrown around for this position, Carey was an obvious best-fit. On one end there was John O’Hurley who seemed like he might have worked, though perhaps too overtly cartoonish. Sometimes it’s hard to tell where he ends and where J. Peterman begins. On the other side of the spectrum was Rosie. She never had a chance, though I’d argue that she’d have been a perfect for the job. She has a tendency to be jolly. She also has a tendency to say things that are batshitinsane. Luckily, The Price Is Right, like all game shows, are all about a familiar pattern. There’s no room in TPIR for excessive extemporaneous speaking. It’s all about name the price, spin the wheel, win the car.

So all in all, I say Mr. Carey, go get’em! If I were unemployed, or able to awake before 10am, I’d totally watch.

So, I’m watching VH1’s World Series of Pop Culture last night and one of the teams, “Westerberg High” had a member who I was certain I’d seen before, and maybe even knew. During the team introductions at the beginning of the round NY1’s Pat Kiernan says that two of the three members have a music background and that the team is from Lawrence, Kansas. Then it all comes flooding back to me, Eric (pictured) played drums in one of my favorite bands from high school Ultimate Fakebook. I loved those guys and saw them what seemed to be every other month for about two years.

And when I say “played the drums” what I really mean is attacked the drums. I have no idea if he was any good in the technical sense, but he played louder than anyone I’d ever seen — which is worth more than gold when you’re a 17 year-old in the suburbs.

What really tipped me off was the fact that Ultimate Fakebook used to have as many movie reviews on their website as they did show dates, so seeing this guy from my youth on WSOPC was hardly a surprise. Unfortunately, they were knocked off by “Three Men and a Little Lazy” who I’m now rooting for.

Listen to Eric’s kick ass drumming in “She Don’t Even Know My Name“

I didn’t know until I clicked over to Alan Sepinwall’s TCA Press Tour-blog, and read about her recent non-answering of critic’s questions while plugging her new show on TruTV. It’s an interesting read as it really gives one a sense of the crazy B-S synergy that runs like a river of blood through most of the mainstream media. I mean, if you’re going to sit behind a mic in front of hordes television journalists just answer the question.

What do you do when you’re an extremely likeable on-air personality in an increasingly irrelevant medium? This is the problem that has seemed to plague NBC’s one-time heir apparent to the newsman throne, Brian Williams. On Sunday Associated Press writer David Bauder wrote an interesting piece looking at Williams recent fall to the middle. Amidst all of the anchor shuffling over the past year and a half (some necessary, some greedy) Williams was the one constant. He was named early to replace Brokaw and the transition seemed almost invisible. And yet here he is sitting in second place behind one former morning show host and in front of another.

One area on which the article touches is the fact that Brian Williams has become a favorite guest on Conan and The Daily Show — not because of his keen insight into the stories of the day, but because he happens to be really funny (add to this his recent, and incredibly curious, role as Sopranos-blogger for Slate). The problem is the people who are watching Conan and The Daily Show are not the people who watch the Nightly News and they never will. It’s a format for the old and the conditioned.

The question then becomes, is Brian Williams losing viewers, or is the format losing viewer (and Charles Gibson just happens to be attracting people at the moment)? In either of these scenarios one also has to wonder what the “face of a news division” will ultimately mean as fewer and fewer people stop feeling the need to tune in to a program whose information they could easily find on the web in half the time (and with considerably fewer ads for denture cream and adult diapers).

I don’t watch any of these broadcasts, but I feel like I should. The fact of the matter is if I were left to my own devices nine times out of ten I’m going to read an article on what new deal a studio executive was able to make instead of reading the article on Iranian peace agreements, even though I know the latter is ultimately more meaningful. Hopefully Mr. Williams (and the rest of the gang) can somehow trick us into watching more often — just hopefully not like they did at CBS. No, that was a complete disaster.

Last night I watched Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. As a disciple of late night talk, I used to watch all the time but until Monday’s show hadn’t seen it in years. There was a point in my life (lets call it 2002) when I would watch The Daily Show, The Late Show, and Late Night every time they were shown. The problem with doing this is the burn-out factor. Too much of a good thing is never positive, but late night talk shows seem to have a quick fuse – this is especially true if you aren’t in love with the personality behind the desk.

And therein is the problem: I don’t like Conan. No. I like Conan. I believe he is one of the most talented comedy writers working today. I don’t like Conan’s on-screen persona. It’s irritating and painfully repetitive. Granted, this coming from a huge fan of David Letterman – the man who made irritating and painfully repetitive into an entire career – seems at best like a homer call and at worst horribly short-sighted.

I’m not claiming to be a barometer for the television masses as a whole. God knows Conan is very popular and I’m the same person who thought Studio 60 was going to be a massive hit after watching the pilot episode. I would argue, however, that there is a growing contingent of former fans who are starting to feel the same way. More after the break…

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I just finished watching Regis’ return to Live after being on the DL for six months following heart-bypass surgery. The episode itself was kind of meh outside of having Letterman on as the guest (which I’ll get into more in a minute). Of course, Live wasn’t going to be able to do what The Late Show had done with Dave because Live isn’t the same kind of show as The Late Show. If I were a die-hard daytime television viewer and rarely stayed up past 10pm, I’d probably have thought yesterday’s Regis tribute was top-notch. However, I am not a 55 year old woman, and thus it didn’t strike me as monumental television.
Honestly, Regis seemed a little rusty — like he maybe came back a week or so too early. Even the desk-chat segment seemed off. At one point Regis tried to steer the conversation away from his repaired ticker and toward the news about Rosie leaving The View, presumably in hopes of returning the segment to its current-events roots and away from himself (not a technique known by Kelly Rippa). It completely stalled the conversation and after about 20 seconds Regis just didn’t have anything to say on the subject, despite him being the one who directed the conversation in that direction in the first place.

Regis looks like a million damn dollars, but at the age of 75, why rush the return?

As for Dave’s appearance, I can’t exactly say it was fantastic (most of his best lines were recycled from 2000 — This was my first bypass since I didn’t get The Tonight Show), but it was certainly interesting to watch — especially for fans of his show. It’s weird to see the man out from behind the desk.

He clearly isn’t comfortable in this capacity, which I suppose is what makes it kind of fun to watch. In my experience Dave outside of The Late Show can get you two different personae. One would be the quiet DeNiro-esque non-responder, like when he was interviewed by Ted Koppel back in 2002. The other would be the loud storyteller, like yesterday’s appearance on Live or any number of appearances on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. neither one seems like it represents the true “Dave” which we’d have to believe is best represented weeknights at 11:35 on CBS.

The dream is dead, America. Rosie O’Donnell, actor, comedian, talk show host, horror show, has decided to leave The View this June. During contract negotiations ABC had wanted a three year commitment, whereas O’Donnell was looking at a one year re-up.

Since O’Donnell joined the show last year its ratings were up over 15% in key demographics. Though most of us who watch little daytime television will likely remember Rosie O’Donnell and her stint on The View as providing more material for The Soup and Best Week Ever (as well as gossip blogs) than they probably ever imagined. Was Paris Hilton sleeping and thus not exposing herself in public? No worries, there’s always Rosie on The View!

I’m sure many of us will miss her presence on the show. Not myself, but certainly many. Maybe tens.

More at TV Squad

Okay. Here it goes. After two weeks of “really, this?” reaction to Ho Gate, I feel like I should weigh in on the matter. There was, after all, a prominent TV angle to this whole thing (one could argue that it was the TV audience that started the commotion in the first place, not the radio audience). Now that the man has been fired from the radio as well as dropped from his MSNBC simulcast I think it’s safe to say the following: regardless of your thoughts on Mr. Imus’ statement, everyone should agree that the MSNBC might have been the worst television program ever.

Oh sure, there might be worse offenders when it came to content or production value or general lack of inspiration, but no one on God’s green earth can successfully argue that watching radio makes for good television.

Back when I was in college, or when I used to work the overnights and I found myself wide awake at 6:00am on a weekday, I’d sometimes flip across MSNBC and catch bits of the Imus show. I remember distinctly the first time I saw the show. I was shocked. Shocked not at the content but that someone actually sold a major cable network on the idea of simply airing a radio show. “Radio” is key in that statement, because radio, as you might have deduced lacks a certain… um… VISUAL element. Seriously the show was litterally two cameras trained in on some Skeletor-looking cowboy man and his mustachioed Tonto. That’s it. That’s the show.

Since then (and since moving to New York) I’ve also found that the YES network (the television home to the New York Yankees) broadcasts the Mike and Mad Dog program during the afternoon (which also originates from WFAN). Same set-up as Imus: two cameras, no frills, RADIO.

This nonsense had to end. It’d be like VH1 Classic starting a radio station claiming that “it will play all of your favorite classic rock music videos.” It doesn’t make any damn sense.

Sure, Stern pulled it off on E! for what seemed like generations. The difference is that Stern’s show had something to look at (primarily pixelated breasts).

In short, good riddance to Mr. Imus, don’t let the door hit you on your way out (actually DO! At least that would be something to look at!).