Monthly Archives: April 2015

Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times tweeted that during the Q-and-A warmup of a recent taping of his Late Show, Dave Letterman said they'd invited two more guests to appear before their last show on May 20. One is Jay Leno and the other is Brian Williams.

If that's so, I can't imagine why Leno wouldn't say yes. Presumably, the two of them would spend the segment burying all hatchets and speaking well of each other. I can imagine why Brian Williams wouldn't. It looks like NBC is getting ready to dump him and settle his contract. I doubt that will happen in the next three weeks and until it does, he'd be wise to lay low. But maybe they'll work something out.

Okay, it turns out there is an extended (full) version online of the discussion on last night's Daily Show between Judith Miller and Jon Stewart. The portions that were trimmed for broadcast are mostly near the end of it and they show Stewart being somewhat harder on Ms. Miller and her being somewhat worse at defending her reporting. That's probably the opposite of the way most shows would have edited the interview and I wonder if it was deliberate.

In any case, here's a Comedy Central embed. These can get funky at times so if it doesn't play — or if it does weird things to this page and I have to delete it, here's the link to watch it at the Daily Show site. If you saw it on the broadcast, be aware that it's not that much longer but there are a few new exchanges of note. Boy, I wish all interviews on TV could be like this — an actual discussion of issues — instead of just trying to generate a slap fight to attract viewers…

Thor Benson has an explanation of why Bernie Sanders is not a Socialist. He isn't really but of course, these days, anyone who doesn't want to see the tax burden in this country lifted from rich people and placed more heavily on the poor and middle-class is a Socialist to some people.

Jon Stewart had Judith Miller on his show last night for the kind of one-on-one discussion that I rarely see on any so-called "news" show. He politely — without using any inflammatory language — accused her of being a bad journalist who was duped into reporting Bush Administration propaganda in the New York Times that helped lead the U.S. into the Iraq War on a lot of false premises. He gave her ample time to respond and state her case and did not turn it into a wrestling match with theatrics and outbursts. He was well-informed and it ended with one of those agreements to disagree with both sides stating their case rather well.

For what it's worth, I thought both scored some good points and I'm a wee bit more sympathetic to Miller's position, which is not to say I think she didn't do a bad job. But she has been singled out for a sin committed by quite a few others, the Times editors included. And a large part of what I think was wrong there was not that the Times reported a lot of bogus information but that once it became evident that so much of it was not true, they did a tepid job of correcting the record and holding the exaggerators (the most charitable thing I can call them) accountable.

I've seen some one-time lovers of Mr. Stewart's work say they think he's tired and the show is not what it once was. I disagree…and it was all real good last night, not just the interview but also the first segment which mocked some of the arguments made against Gay Marriage at the Supreme Court.

I'm not certain but I don't think there's an Extended Interview that will be available tomorrow on the Daily Show website. I think we got the whole thing. But if there is a longer version, I'm eager to see it.

I just looked at the posting dates of the previous two items and for about two seconds thought something was wrong. Then I realized that as counter-intuitive as it may seem, 12:46 PM comes before 10:39 PM. We really ought to start AM and PM at 1:00 but I suppose it would screw up way too many things to make that change now. Next time, we start a world, let's keep that in mind.

Two intelligent men on opposite sides of the political spectrum debate ("discuss" is more like it) the possible treaty with Iraq over its nuclear future. I don't know what to think.

Here we have a medley from Mary Poppins performed by Ruthie Henshall, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and an awful lot of people in the audience who know and love those songs…

It's going to be interesting to have Bernie Sanders in the presidential race. Folks who thought Bill Clinton and Barack Obama represented the Far Left are going to have a hard time figuring out how to describe Sanders, who comes a lot closer to that label. I gather we'll hear that a President Sanders would implement total Soviet Communism and make us all eat nothing but borscht.

I have this e-mailbox that just collects mail sent to me by political websites where I have to sign up, which I do under a bogus name and special e-mail address. Right now, it's full of calls to arms because the Federal Government has troops training in Texas to implement martial law all across America, suspend the Constitution and enslave us all. This is all part of Obama's secret plan to suspend the constitution so he can have a third term and a fourth and a fifth and a ninth. You get the feeling that the folks who buy all this are the same folks who fire off their banking info when they get one of those e-mails that tells them some lottery they never heard of has twenty million bucks waiting for them?

I erred the other day here to suggest Alan Cumming is not a CBS star. He is, of course, on The Good Wife. If I'd ever watched that show, I might have known that. In any case, I don't think his co-hosting the Tonys has the same promotional value that would result from, say, James Corden hosting it.

I have nothing to say about the Baltimore rioting except that Jon Stewart's right. Why are people running around saying, "Nothing like this has ever happened before in a major American city"? It's happened before, it'll happen again and they'll say that again. It's so nice to be living a post-racial America.

Yesterday, I was in a Costco where I was disappointed — as I have been my last few visits to one — that nothing happened to yield an interesting blog post here. I did notice this, though: My doctor has me on one of those aspirin regimen programs where each day, you take a baby (81 mg) aspirin. I was going to buy a new supply of them but I realized a problem with the two different mega-sized packages that Costco offers. There was one that contained a two-year supply of one-per-day pills — two bottles each containing 365 pills. The package carried an expiration date of 07/16 meaning that almost half the pills will expire before I get around to taking them. The other package offered had a similar problem. It expired three months before I'd use up all the pills in it. I can't be the first person to notice this.

This coming Sunday evening, MeTV — the channel I like to believe was named for me — is rerunning the entire, historic final episode of M*A*S*H…and just because it's not quite long enough on its own, they're adding in some interviews with the cast and crew. I only saw that show the first time it aired, which was when every single human being who was ever alive on this planet watched it at the same time. I recall it as being really good…longer than the Korean War itself but really good. I've set my TiVo to record it so I can see if it's still really good when interrupted by commercials targeted for people born on or before the day of Harry Morgan's birth.

David Letterman reflects on 33 Years in late night teevee. You get the feeling he's still a little confused about why he's leaving now and where he's going?

The gent seen above at left is the late Johnny Olson, the great announcer and the man who brought the concept of the audience warm-up to the status of Fine Art. The gent at right is the current great announcer, Randy West, who has mucho experience at doing audience warm-ups…and you know who else does? Stu Shostak, the host of Stu's Show does! Randy and Stu and producer Bob Illes (who's done a few in his day) will be discussing the art and their experiences today on Stu's Show. At times, it's a thankless job. If the audience doesn't laugh, some producers blame the warm-up guy instead of the program itself…but it's a vital part of any TV show that has live human beings in to watch the performance. As you'll hear if you tune in.

Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go to three or beyond.  Shortly after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a paltry 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three. Just see if you can get a deal like that when you go shopping for new cars!

Leonard Maltin on 42nd Street.

(NOTE: I mean he's writing about the movie, not that Leonard is actually, physically on 42nd Street. Then again, I don't know for a fact that he isn't…)

William Saletan points out a basic contradiction in the argument against Gay Marriage. Its opponents are down to arguing that gay couples should not be allowed to wed because they cannot possibly procreate…but neither can straight couples when the woman is over 60 or either is simply infertile. And others might ask if marriage is really about nothing more than procreation and why straight couples would not procreate just because the two gay women down the street get to marry.

If you read certain of the reports on today's arguments before the Supreme Court, you could come away with the sense that the S.C.O.T.U.S. will not rule that there is a constitutional right for folks of the same gender to wed each other. If you read other reports, you'll sense that the Court will rule that way. I think we're all kidding ourselves if we think we really know. The folks on the Supreme Court may not even know at this point…and if they don't, we sure don't.

Meet Shade, a master of sleight of hand with cards…

Two of my favorite political writers are battling over how much (if any) trouble Hillary Clinton is in or should be in for financial dealings relating to the Clinton Global Initiative. Jonathan Chait wrote this. Then Joe Conason wrote this in response. Now, Jonathan Chait has written this to respond to the response.

If you care about this matter at all, you oughta read all three plus whatever Mr. Conason writes in response to the response to the response. I read all three and I'm not sure I do care. One of these days when I can bring myself to write it — and probably after I make up a big, flashing CYNICISM ALERT banner to post before it, I'll write here about how I'm dreading this whole presidential election even though I think it will have a happy ending for my point o' view. But I'm also dreading writing that piece so it may be a while.

The Tony Awards nominations are out. Of perhaps more interest to some is that they finally announced who'll host the ceremony on June 7. It'll be Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming.

Not that we're likely to ever hear it but there must be an interesting story why it took so long to announce who's handle the hosting duties, a decision usually announced in February or early March. That story presumably involves Neil Patrick Harris and Hugh Jackman, and maybe Stephen Colbert and/or James Corden. It's interesting that whichever network hosts the Emmy Awards almost always selects as host someone who's starring on one of their programs…but CBS doesn't seem to insist on a CBS star. (Yes, Mr. Harris was one when he hosted but that doesn't seem to have the reason for his selection.) You'd think they'd want to promote Colbert or Corden or even Jim Parsons.

Interesting too that Mr. Colbert has so totally disappeared from television since the last Colbert Report. I talked about that gap with lots of people in the TV biz and everyone agreed that 274 days was way too long for someone to be off the screen if he expected to keep his fan base. But he's about halfway through that period and he hasn't shown his reportedly-now-bearded face. I like it when someone in TV doesn't do what's widely expected but I'm usually curious as to the thinking behind that decision.

Here's another thing to think about: On Jimmy Fallon's first Tonight Show, Colbert made a surprise cameo appearance even though he was on a competing show in that time slot. Will Mr. Fallon return the favor when Colbert debuts? Would Colbert's show even want him to? Hmm?

I'm intermittently watching Mr. Letterman's last shows. Maybe it's reading too much into stray remarks and attitude but Dave's really coming off as a guy who's unhappy to be leaving and clueless as to what he'll do after. When Johnny Carson did his last Tonight Show, he did not intend to disappear from show business. He honestly figured he'd find some project via which he could return to the air and it (a) wouldn't seem like a massive step downward and (b) wouldn't risk a massive flop that would tarnish his legacy. Johnny never did and he eventually decided that the classiest thing he could do would be to do nothing. Dave strikes me as a guy who, perhaps through the example of Johnny, already knows that and doesn't like it.

Again, I wonder. Did Dave and CBS really discuss anything? Saturday night at 11:30? A weekly prime-time hour like Jack Paar did for a few years after his Tonight Show? I'm guessing the core problem is that for a long time, Letterman has had total control and a safe gig. The gig finally stopped being safe and he's unlikely to ever get anything like that again…which means he probably also won't get the absolute control he seems to need. He could get another show somewhere but not on those terms; not unless it was on some tiny cable channel that would be an embarrassment after a real TV network.

I hope some miracle happens and he finds something. He's too good to go away at his age. I'd love to see him find something which would be a new challenge and which might bring out some of the Old Dave who looked like he cared…but I sure don't expect that.