October 4, 2003
Oh, yeah ... it's back!! I was a big fan of the original (through reruns, naturally, when I was a kid ... no, seriously), but even though this is quite different, I think it's captured the original's spirit. It's one of the few episodic shows I consider must-see on TV, and it has a high-priority setting on the TiVo....
October 7, 2003
Jesse Ventura's new TV show aired on MS-NBC this past weekend, and as Glenn Reynolds points out, the ratings were abysmal -- only an estimated 194,000 people watched it. Glenn is being generous and suggesting that MS-NBC didn't give it the proper PR support. The Post reports: Ventura fans would have had to be paying close attention to even know the show was on the air. MSNBC barely promoted it, running on-air promotions for the debut on Friday night and Saturday. The network bought no print ads and no commercials on other networks. Ventura's show was troubled almost since MSNBC hired him. It was envisioned as a daily, prime-time fixture, but after its premiere was delayed several times, the network said it would run just once a week on Saturday - generally the least-watched night of television. However, I had the opportunity to listen to the "Dork of the Week"...
October 9, 2003
Ever wonder what it takes to get someone fired? If you're Deborah Norville, not much, although it's not clear if she actually initiated the termination. Last week, [Norville] was in town and had to stop by the KTVT-Channel 11 Dallas studios to do a live spot at 2 p.m. For the past year, Richard Daniels, 72, has been the front desk security guard in Dallas. At about 1:45, he looked into his monitor and saw Norville hurriedly approaching, assistant in tow. Daniels went to meet Norville--whom he did not recognize--at the door, which stays locked. According to Daniels and another Channel 11 employee who witnessed the following, Daniels began to say, "May I help you?" At this point, they say Norville--lessee, how would Inside Edition put this?--[deep baritone] they say Deborah Norville began acting more like Diva Norville. "I'm Deborah Norville!" Daniels said she screamed. "I'm late!" According to Daniels...
October 15, 2003
CBS has run a truly egregious hit piece on home schooling, which is also posted to their web site: "I think there's so little supervision that they really are not protecting those kids," Marcia Herman-Giddens, of the North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute. Herman-Giddens is on the state task force that reviewed the Warren case. The conclusion: home school laws "allow persons who maltreat children to maintain social isolation in order for the abuse and neglect to remain undetected." Let's see ... because of the three or four cases of child abuse (including murder and suicide) of home-schooled kids they found, this is supposedly an evil trend, a conspiracy of child abusers to keep their victims from being noticed. Where is any mention of the hundreds of thousands of abuse cases that occur with children taught in public schools? Or, perhaps, a litany of children assaulted, molested, and murdered in public...
October 20, 2003
According to the Drudge Report, CBS will be airing a bio-pic about Ronald Reagan during next month's sweeps. Great! It should go well with the new book of Reagan's letters: In the upcoming CBS telefilm on President Ronald Reagan producer fail to mention the economic recovery or the creation of wealth during his administration, nor does it show him delivering the nation from the malaise of the Jimmy Carter years ... It stresses Reagan's moments of forgetfulness, his supposed opinions on AIDS and gays, his laissez-faire handling of his staff members. The scenes often carry a disapproving tone. During a scene in which his wife pleads with him to help people battling AIDS, Reagan says resolutely, "They that live in sin shall die in sin" and refuses to discuss the issue further. Or maybe not ... The film's producers, Zadan and Meron, acknowledge their liberal politics, as do the stars...
October 31, 2003
The Republican National Commitee appears ready for a public-relations disaster in demanding that CBS allow them to preview the Reagan miniseries prior to broadcast: The Republican National Committee Friday asked CBS to allow a team of historians and friends of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife to review a miniseries about the couple before it airs. ... Gillespie said that if CBS denies the request, he will ask the network to run a note across the bottom of the screen every 10 minutes during the program's presentation informing viewers that the miniseries is not accurate. Well, ouch, won't that hurt! Is the RNC the last group of people on Earth that hasn't figured out that Hollywood is almost never historically accurate? Here's a list of educational items if they've just stumbled onto this: * The British did not burn down churches full of people during the American Revolution (that...
November 3, 2003
Drudge Report has a headline without a story saying that CBS has dumped the miniseries on the Reagans. In the little Matt Drudge has posted, apparently Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone got involved and moved the miniseries to another Viacom subsidiary, Showtime, where it will run uncut. Of course, this will allow Showtime subscribers to demonstrate their displeasure by canceling and switching to HBO ... they may have done better to just cancel it altogether. Maybe they will. Expect squeals of McCarthyism from ultraleftist Judy Davis and Jim Streisand, er, James Brolin....
November 5, 2003
ABC struggles to keep its hit show, '8 Simple Rules', going without its star, the late John Ritter: Ritter had completed three episodes for the new season when he died of a heart ailment Sept. 11. His last episode aired Oct. 7. Gambling that a lighthearted sitcom can sustain the loss of its central figure, "8 Simple Rules..." is making a desperate bid to carry on as one of ABC's higher-rated series. Doing so, the producers and the network have risked conspicuous failure as well as criticism for tastelessness. Let me tell you, I watched last night's episode, and I was mightily impressed with their effort. They made an excellent decision to film the show without a live audience, and so even the humor was muted and sad. James Garner and Suzanne Pleshette did an excellent job as a bitter and bickering couple who try with limited success to bury...
November 8, 2003
I hate it when they cancel my favorite TV shows: Bad guys no longer have to fear the "L.A. Dragnet" crimebusters. ABC on Thursday canceled the show starring Ed O'Neill as police Sgt. Joe Friday. The series, based on the classic Jack Webb "Dragnet" series, had low ratings despite a second-season makeover. I could see this coming -- they had moved the show to the Dead Zone of network programming, Saturday nights -- but had hoped that the quality of the show and Dick Wolf's influence would keep it on the air a bit longer while it found its niche. I liked the original line-up but thought the second-season improvements were very good. I loved Ed O'Neill as Joe Friday, too. What a bummer. I'd call for a viewer protest, but three out of the five of us are out of town this weekend....
November 11, 2003
Michael Kantor over at The Calico Cat confesses to his secret vice of late: Despite the name of the show, Average Joe, these guys range from a little below average to downright ugly. I expected to hate the show like I've hated all other reality shows I've seen. But I was surprised to discover that I actually enjoyed the show and I'm looking forward to the second episode on Monday night. What's going on here? Have my tastes in entertainment sunk to the lowest common denominator? Will I take up bowling and hunting next week? Michael's post is, as always, well-written and entertaining. More so than the television show, I suspect, but then again I'm no fan of reality TV. He suspects that the guys are the butt of the joke despite the advertisements we've seen, depicting the show as a karmic payback to a pretty woman with overweening hubris....
December 23, 2003
It looks like the Seinfeld DVD project has hit some snags -- three of them, in fact: Three of the four leading cast members of the hit television comedy "Seinfeld" are declining to participate in the making of a DVD series of the show because they are unhappy with the related financial deals they have had over the years, people close to the actors and the show said on Monday. These people said that the three actors — Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who played Elaine; Michael Richards, who played Kramer; and Jason Alexander, who played George — made the joint decision not to give on-camera interviews for the DVD or otherwise participate in it. First, let me make it clear that I am a believer in free-market capitalism. However, it seems to me that the show made everyone a lot of money, not just the owners, although they have raked in the...
December 24, 2003
According to MS-NBC, our proud ex-Governor will not be returning from his, er, "hiatus": "I've decided to focus the majority of our resources on Monday-Friday primetime in 2004," the cable news channel's president, Erik Sorenson. said in a memo to his staff Tuesday night. "Consequently, the holiday hiatus for 'Jesse Ventura's America' will continue indefinitely." ... Sorenson said that Ventura will continue to serve as a political commentator for MSNBC during the 2004 campaign season. Sorenson finally came to the same conclusion that Minnesotans discovered shortly after Jesse took office: he's not terribly bright, nor is he terribly interesting. The combination makes a deadly dull recipe for a talk-show host, as I posted when it first launched. Among the disasters the show visited upon hapless viewers was a recurring segment called "Dork of the Week", which would have been a more apt title for the entire show. As I related...
December 30, 2003
Fans of "Home Improvement" never saw his face, but no one can deny that Earl Hindman, the actor that played Wilson on Tim Allen's hit television show for nine seasons, provided a large measure of the show's heart and soul. Unfortunately for all of us, Earl Hindman has passed away at the too-young age of 61, of lung cancer. CNN provides a brief obituary for Hindman but neglects his role in Silverado, Lawrence Kasdan's Western from the 80s, which features Hindman in a small supporting role. Fans of the movie may remember that he played the brother-in-law of Scott Glenn's and Kevin Costner's characters and his face was fully visible during his fine performance. My wife and I, big fans of Home Improvement, send out our prayers to Earl Hindman's family, and our gratitude for the wonderful entertainment he helped provide our family....
January 9, 2004
It's events like this that cause other countries to decry American cultural imperialism and make us look like a bunch of mouthbreathing morons: Barry "I still look like Greg Brady" Williams will be touring NSW in March with his more-than-just cabaret show, in which he sings, "teaches Brady Bunch choreography to audience members" and recounts stories from the show. "Brady Bunch choreography"? Does he mean like the dancing featured on the disastrous Sid & Marty Krofft variety TV series, The Brady Bunch Hour? Perhaps he means the choreography he demonstrated as Danny Partridge was kicking his ass on Celebrity Boxing. Or he could be referring to the moves he tried putting on Florence Henderson while appearing as her son on the original series. When Williams sticks to telling stories, he can be entertaining and self-deprecating, but Aussies aren't going to be that lucky: "Barry Williams raps, rocks, belts, sings ballads...
February 17, 2004
This ... is not good news: Sherman Hemsley of "The Jeffersons" fame is lending his voice to the title character in Fox's updated version of "Mister Ed." Hemsley joins David Alan Basche, who was previously tapped to play Wilbur Post, and Sherilyn Fenn, tapped as Wilbur's wife. "Mister Ed" is a remake of the 1960s talking-horse sitcom. This time around, the equine title character has an urban sensibility. I have lived my entire life being compared to that friggin' talking horse, and now it's going to start all over again. But now, instead of Rocky Lane's sonorous baritone, I'll have Hemsley's snappy, screechy voice being parroted at me every time someone says my first name. It's Captain Ed, dammit ... Willll-burrrrrrr. [sigh]...
February 28, 2004
In the furor over the FCC's decision to put more effort into enforcing its own regulations on decency, NCPPR exec David Almasi speaks out against a more subtle but pervasive issue, published in Amy Ridenour's excellent NCPPR blog: While listening to the radio on the way into work Friday morning, I heard a real concern that so far seems to be flying under the radar. Tonight's "George Lopez" on ABC (a Disney-owned company) features a guest starring role by socialite/heiress/amatuer porn actress Paris Hilton as "a beautiful tutor for [George's son] Max." The clip they played in the radio commercial had Max learning algebra, with Paris's character telling him he needs to "find her X." Max responds that he felt a chill when she said that, and laughter ensues. Upon reaching the office and cracking open the paper, I saw a photo of the same scene -- and Max appears...
March 3, 2004
I noticed during the Oscar broadcast that our local ABC affiliate, KSTP, began running a new commercial for its news shows. Ed Asner, reprising his Lou Grant role but without using the name, stands in front of the KSTP newsroom and gruffly tells them that the nonsense stops now, and if they're looking for dancing bears, they need to work somewhere else. I remember thinking at the time that the whole concept was pathetic; it's been twenty-two years since the Lou Grant character was last performed. Today, the Star Tribune explains it all -- the desperation, the dropping revenue, and the tortured explanation of how KSTP News sold its brain, if not its soul, in order to attract viewers: KSTP-TV, Channel 5, has launched an image-building campaign featuring actor Ed Asner, who reprises his signature role of Lou Grant, the gruff, no-nonsense news director beloved by Minnesota audiences since his...
March 4, 2004
The FCC will have the ability to levy much larger fines for indecent broadcasts if a bill approved by a Congressional subcommittee passes: A House committee voted Wednesday to increase from $27,500 to $500,000 the fines that could be imposed on broadcasters for airing indecent material. A House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee had approved a tenfold increase, to $275,000, in fines the Federal Communications Commission could impose for each indecency violation. But the full committee voted 49-1 Wednesday to nearly double that. The Super Bowl broadcast exposed CBS to fines that potentially reached $5.5 million -- or less than the revenue it received for three minutes of advertising during the event. Under the new rules, if adopted, CBS could have faced upwards of $100 million in FCC fines. Faced with growing anger in Congress over the perceived rapid degradation of broadcast material, perhaps especially in radio, the industry lobbying...
April 16, 2004
Wired runs an interesting article today on a new Nielsen television ratings system that eliminates the decades-old practice of using diaries to calculate viewership. The computer-based "people meter" attaches to the television, VCR, and game box to give a 24/7 report on what Nielsen families watch. This new system has brought a change that has called into question its accuracy: Just this month, the company came under attack from television networks, minority groups and even lawmakers when a test of its electronic "people meters," newly installed in select New York homes, began reporting a sharp decrease in viewership for television shows that feature minorities. Because the current system -- a decades-old technique involving week-long diaries that are mailed to the homes -- had never yielded such a drastic swing, the critics contended that the new technique must somehow be unreliable. For those of you with a TiVo, the system connects...
April 29, 2004
Bloomberg reports that the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns 62 ABC affiliates, will preempt the Nightline broadcast when Ted Koppel spends the hour reading off the names of American servicemen killed in Iraq: Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. ordered its ABC affiliates to preempt tomorrow's broadcast of "Nightline,'' which will air the names and photos of U.S. military personnel who have died in combat in Iraq, saying the move is politically motivated. "Despite the denials by a spokeswoman for the show, the action appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq,'' the company said in a faxed statement. Sinclair, which owns 62 U.S. television stations, said ABC is disguising political statements as news content. Many readers may not recall this, but during the Teheran hostage crisis, Dan Rather traveled to the Iranian capitol in order to televise interviews with the...
April 30, 2004
I received an e-mail from reader Vayapaso who regularly watches the Imus show on MS-NBC. Today's guest was Chris Matthews, who infuriated Vayapaso by equating George Bush and Dick Cheney with the notorious parricidal killers, Lyle and Eric Menendez. Here's an excerpt from her e-mail to Matthews, which she copied to me as well: Dear Mr. Mathews: I rarely ever write to people in your industry but you said something this morning on the Imus show that shocked and amazed me; so much so, I had to write you. It was when you compared the President and Vice President to the Menendez Brothers. I realize that your philosophy differs from this administration but there should be a line that you should not cross over and I believe that you crossed that line. I have watched you for the seven years you have had Hardball and felt that even though you...
May 1, 2004
Romanesko passes along a story regarding a Chicago ABC affiliate who not only could not get a news story correct, but then in its rush to get a hot story on the air, informed a mother her son was dead after asking for an interview. The problem, besides the soulless, heartless TV news crew? They had the wrong family: After she had arrived, the crew returned to her front door. According to [Doris] Glenn, one staffer asked her for an interview, but she was reluctant. "I said, 'What is this about?' and (the staffer) said she just wanted to interview me," said Glenn. "I said I wouldn't do an interview unless I first knew what it was about. "And then she said, 'I'm sorry to inform you that your son is deceased,' " Glenn said. The crew showed up at Glenn's house earlier in the day without explaining why, and...
May 4, 2004
Al Gore finally closed the deal on the launch of his long-desired television network. Gore led a group of investors in the purchase of Newsworld International, a cable/satellite television channel which broadcasts 24-hour news programming from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. While Gore often spoke of creating a liberal television network to counter what he claimed was the right-wing bias in the American broadcast networks, he now says that the programming will remain neutral: "This is not going to be a liberal network, or a Democratic network in any way, shape, or form," the former vice president said. Rather, he said, the reason for buying the network was to create an independent source of information. If that sounds like a distinction without a difference, the list of Gore's investors will only reinforce that opinion: Gore made the announcement with business partner Joel Hyatt, who founded a chain of low-cost storefront legal...
May 10, 2004
The New York Times reports this morning on a tempest in the teapot of the reality-TV world, as NBC and Fox duke it out over their upcoming, competing boxing shows: The producers of NBC's "The Contender," which has secured a financial commitment of $2 million an episode, accused both Fox and Endemol, the production company behind "The Next Great Champ," of stealing their idea, an idea that Fox had had access to, because every network had bid on "The Contender." The result has been a nasty dispute, even for television where thievery has been standard operating procedure. The Fox boxing show is now expected to get on the air before the NBC show, possibly damaging that show's chances - clearly part of the point of its creation. The dispute involves big Hollywood names - Peter Chernin, the president of the Fox Entertainment Group; Jeffrey Katzenberg, the co-founder of the Dreamworks...
June 8, 2004
I just finished watching Biography's review of Ronald Reagan on A&E, and I would highly recommend watching it on its later showing if you missed it on the 9 PM EDT slot. A&E treats the subject with respect even when reviewing the more controversial aspects of Reagan's presidency. For a one-hour show, I found it comprehensive and actually quite touching....
June 16, 2004
Joel Steinberg started a nationwide focus on child abuse when he beat his 6-year-old live-in ward, Lisa, to death for staring at him. His wife Hedda claimed at the time to have been chronically abused herself, and pictures backed up her story. Outraged New Yorkers gladly saw Steinberg off to prison for 8 to 25 years and blocked efforts for early parole. Steinberg remains a nationwide symbol of unchecked child abusers and the inevitable result of failing to intervene on behalf of children in those circumstances. Now, since Steinberg has served two-thirds of his maximum sentence, New York must release him rather than parole him, and the only condition of his release is that he has to have a place to live. No word on whether he's managed to find new digs, but New Yorkers may be pleased to know he's found gainful employment (also at this link): It has...
July 15, 2004
Agence France-Presse notes the upcoming release of HBO's six-season paean to liberated single women, Sex And The City, in the ultraconservative city-state of Singapore. The Asian state, which made headlines in the US when authorities caned a young American teenager for defacing a car and which still prohibits selling chewing gum, seems an unlikely venue for the sexual adventures of four sophisticated New York ladies: US cable channel HBO took out full-page newspaper advertisements to announce the premiere of Season 5 in the late evening slot on the city-state's sole cable operator StarHub. Season 6 will premiere in August. ... The showing of 'Sex and the City' came after the government regulator introduced a new television rating system which allows programmes with mature content and themes to be aired from 10:00 pm for viewers aged 18 and over. Singaporean fans of 'Sex and the City', which has a worldwide following,...
November 3, 2004
The Guardian reports that British television broadcaster Channel 4 has become so desperate for material that they have created a new "reality" TV show -- watching a human body decompose (via Drudge): Channel 4, no stranger to challenging broadcasting taboos, is about to cross another televisual rubicon by filming the decomposition of a human body. The broadcaster, which billed the show as a "unique scientific experiment", has in the past featured controversial documentaries showing the first images of aborted foetuses seen on British TV and, two years ago, Britain's first public autopsy for 170 years. ... The plan is to film the body decomposing, which could take several months, in London's Science Museum, though not in an area open to the public. So they plan to keep the decomposition outside of public view, but then broadcast the film of it across the British Isles? Laughably, the broadcaster defended the programming...
December 5, 2004
The Hollywood Reporter analyzes the relationship between CBS News and its parent, Viacom, in the latter's promotion of its assets. Earlier this year, the news show 60 Minutes raised eyebrows throughout the media world when they interviewed Richard Clarke and helped him promote his new book -- without revealing that Viacom published Clarke's book through one of its publishing subsidiaries. The Hollywood Reporter (via Netscape News) informs us that this practice continues at CBS even tonight, with their highly-promoted interview of singer Bob Dylan: A "60 Minutes" interview with Bob Dylan that was set to air Sunday about his new autobiography marked the third Simon & Schuster book this year to get exposure on television's most venerated newsmagazine. The publisher's marketing department might want to take all the credit. But it probably doesn't hurt that S&S and the network "60 Minutes" calls home, CBS, are owned by the same parent...
January 4, 2005
Al Gore's new TV "network", dubbed INdTV for now, recently sent out a prospectus for potential partners that outlined the type of original programming the former VP plans to air. Richard Leiby reports in today's Washington Post that INdTV hardly appears ready to raise the level of politics in the US: An insider cautioned us yesterday that the e-mail represents just a sliver of the conceptual pie, but the potential must-see lineup includes: • "That's F*&#ed Up: Is there something unfathomable going on around the corner or down the street? Some state of affairs that just doesn't make sense? You can rant all you want -- it just better be good TV." It looks like Gore aims at what he and his backers see as the hip-hop audience, complete with expletives -- even if they don't have the cojones to spell it out. In fact, the rest of the lineup...
January 23, 2005
I found out earlier today that Johnny Carson passed away at 79 from emphysema. I haven't blogged about it as I couldn't immediately articulate my thoughts about Carson and his impact on our culture, or at least not in any way that hadn't already been written elsewhere. Like Mitch Berg, I came late to the Carson fan club, and at first his utter domination of late-night television appeared to me to spring from a lack of competition than anything Carson did. Sure, he could make me laugh, but lots of people make me laugh. I kept expecting someone to knock Carson from his perch, and I watched luminaries like Pat Sajak, Joan Rivers, Alan Thicke, and the execrable Chevy Chase (after Carson's retirement) try and fail miserably. Only Arsenio Hall managed to carve a niche against Carson, but only among an urban demographic Carson didn't reach anyway. During the 80s,...
February 28, 2005
Despite earlier reports, the viewership of last night's Oscar telecast attracted significantly less viewers than the year before, with the biggest loss in suburban and rural viewers, David Bauder reports for the AP. A total of 41.5 million viewers tuned in Sunday to watch "Million Dollar Baby" take the Oscar for best picture. That's down 2 million from last year's show, which honored "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," according to Nielsen Media Research. ABC undoubtedly hoped for better, after preliminary figures released earlier Monday from the top 56 markets were the strongest they were in five years. The drop in total viewership was an indication that this year's Oscar ceremony was more popular in the big cities than rural areas, more so than an average Academy Awards, said Larry Hyams, vice president of audience analysis and research for ABC. ABC and the Academy aimed at...
March 16, 2005
I'm watching South Park on the Comedy Channel right now, and Cartman is fighting an infestation of hippies in the town. They've convinced Stan, Kyle, and Kenny to hate corporate America and the "little Eichmanns" of capitalism. Guess where they go to college? This is a laugh riot ... UPDATE: Well, you should catch the rerun later tonight. They don't take on Ward Churchill, but it's still pretty damned funny....
July 20, 2005
Fans of Star Trek are mourning the loss of the colorful actor who brought the Enterprise's engineer, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, to life on television and the silver screen. James Doohan passed away early this morning from pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, at age 85: Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said. He had said farewell to public life in August 2004, a few months after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. I spent many wonderful moments watching Doohan portray the ever-resourceful Mr. Scott, whose love for the ship surpassed even that of the captain, James Kirk. My nickname comes from my earlier passion for the series, which has lessened considerably over the years, but the fondness remains. Doohan's Scottish...
March 10, 2006
This weekend ends the longest hiatus in recent memory for a television series as The Sopranos returns for its sixth and final season on HBO. Having watched the series since its inception -- and maintaining my subscription to HBO largely because of it -- the anticipation of the final season and the resolution of its many story lines has created a strong possibility of creating almost impossible expectations for the creators and cast to meet. According to the New York Sun, however, the last twenty shows deliver in every way on the promise built up over the series' first five seasons: It's every man for himself in the final season of "The Sopranos." The New Jersey crew of captains, thugs, and murderers, led by its charismatic general, no longer manages its mid-range Mafia business with precision; the money doesn't flow the way it used to, and neither does the blood....
March 12, 2006
Tonight HBO airs the first episode of the last season of The Sopranos. It starts at 9 pm ET with Episode 66, "Members Only", a title with more than one point of reference. Since this season is the assured valedictory for one of the best television series ever aired, no character is safe from the button man -- or the writers. In that spirit, CQ offers readers a poll to predict who gets the rest of the season off: Who Gets Whacked On Tonight's Sopranos?Vito Spatafore , the gay MafiosoMeadow's fiance Finn, who knows Vito's secretPhil LeotardoBobby Baccala, the family schlemielLittle Carmine Lupertazzi (does he try to upend Johnny Sack?)Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni (in jail)Janice Soprano Baccala (and who would miss her?)Christopher MoltisantiSomeone else? Free polls from Pollhost.com At the end of last season, the final two characters to make their curtain call were Adriana LaCerva and Tony Blundetto, killed by consigliere...
March 13, 2006
Isaac Hayes has left South Park and his role of Chef, one of the original characters in the series. Hayes says that he disapproves of the religious mockery that has long been part of the show, but the show's creators have declared shenanigans on Hayes: Isaac Hayes has quit "South Park," where he voices Chef, saying he can no longer stomach its take on religion. Hayes, who has played the ladies' man/school cook in the animated Comedy Central satire since 1997, said in a statement Monday that he feels a line has been crossed. "There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," the 63-year-old soul singer and outspoken Scientologist said. "Religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honored," he continued. "As a civil rights...
March 19, 2006
For those of us who watched the first episode of the new season of The Sopranos, we got a number of surprises to start off. After a rather strange but compelling opening montage accompanied by William Burroughs' 'Seven Souls', the storylines took into account the time gap between this season and the previous one. Uncle Junior has almost completely succumbed to dementia, Janice and Bobby had a baby, Johnny Sack sits in a prison going broke, and Vito Spatafore lost about a hundred pounds. Oddly enough, no one got whacked, although one character (Gene) committed suicide, Ray died of a heart attack in an FBI car, and Uncle Junior shot Tony at the end of the episode, thinking in his senility that Tony was an old nemesis from years back. The New York Times editorial board notes the surprisingly low numbers for the episodes and wonders whether fans of the...
March 21, 2006
Last night I watched a rerun of South Park -- my TiVo grabs them automatically and nothing much else was on -- when I noticed that the promos for the new season included a new ad in the rotation. This commercial referenced the "return of one of the most beloved characters," and had the four main characters of the show delightedly greeting Chef at the door. This piqued my curiosity, and the First Mate wondered if Isaac Hayes had returned to the show. Apparently not, but it looks like Trey Parker and Matt Stone plan on giving him some payback for leaving: The tenth season of "South Park" will launch on Wednesday with a new episode titled "The Return of Chef!", marking the "triumphant homecoming" of lusty school cafeteria cook James "Chef" McElroy to the show, the network said in a statement. ... [A] network synopsis said the fictional town...
March 22, 2006
I think Isaac Hayes may regret his decision to leave the show in the manner he chose (or others chose for him). Tonight's South Park episode has cut and pasted previous Chef dialogue to turn him into a paedophile -- one brainwashed by an evil group that got its hands on him. I think even Scientology will regret taking on Matt Stone and Trey Parker ... UPDATE: I'm pretty sure that the guys don't want Hayes to return any time soon ... but even in their revenge, they had Kyle deliver a final reminder to remember Chef for all the good times on the show -- and blame the "fruity little club that scrambled his brains" for his betrayal this last week....