TV, movie and theater writer Larry Gelbart died today at age 81. The war comedy M*A*S*H was not the sum total of his career—he also wrote for Sid Caesar, wrote the movie Tootsie and the Broadway comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum—but it’s what I’ll remember him for. Because, of course, it was a landmark comedy; it …
TV Weekend: American Dad
This Sunday, Fox’s King of the Hill airs its last two episodes. Year in and year out, for thirteen seasons, it has quietly been the best family comedy on TV, despite being overshadowed for many reasons: because people (and Emmy voters) have a hard time taking a cartoon seriously (compared with the funny but much more cliched and …
Don't Tell Me What 9/12 Means, Glenn Beck
Today, you are already aware, is the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Tomorrow, you may or may not be aware, is the date of Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project, which the Fox News host will be marking with a live-TV event in Washington, and which he announced in March in an effort to
bring us all back to the place we were on September 12,
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The Morning After: Still Sucking It Up
Between Leno duty and returning from vacation, I never got around to reviewing The CW’s The Vampire Diaries, but judging by its premiere last night, I’ll have plenty of time to get around to it. The Kevin Williamson show ended up being The CW’s highest-rated debut ever at 4.8 million viewers, proving there’s still blood in …
My Jay Leno Interview: The Extended DVD Outtakes
I did a long interview with Jay Leno for my cover story on him last week. As usual, a lot of it ended up covering material and going in directions that I just didn’t have a place for in the article. But I hate transcribing interviews for nothing, so you get to read it here! What follows is not the whole interview, but some …
Ratings Roundup: Policy, Harmony, Anarchy
A few bits of ratings news as we start to get warmed up for premiere season:
* President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress drew 32.1 million viewers, up from the 24.5 million his last primetime health care press conference drew (though not not up to the massive audiences he was getting just after his inauguration).
Meet the New Jay, Same As the Old Jay?
The point of the article is that …
Corporate Press Release Theater: FNL Sets a Date
Riggins-philes, rejoice. At least those of you who have DirecTV, or friends with same. Friday Night Lights returns to the satellite provider Oct. 28 for its fourth season. As for the rest of us, NBC has set no date, though it won’t be before midseason (the talk now is late spring or early summer).
Interestingly, it sounds like the new …
The Networks Start a New Ratings Service. But It Won't Be CIMM-ple.
A coalition of advertisers and media companies (my corporate master Time Warner included) today announced the name of a planned new ratings service to compete with Nielsen: the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, or CIMM. (Not actually sure how the acronym is pronounced, but “simm” works for my headline, so I’m sticking with it …
Top Chef Watch: The Impossible (Almost) Happens
Spoilers for last night’s Top Chef, translated from the original French, coming up after the jump.
The Morning After: "Lie!" to Me
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyTelRaoBAI]
This is the media world we live in: you can sweat for days over an hourlong speech, and the next morning, some yahoo gets all the attention for barking out two words. “You lie!” shouted Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) at President Obama when the chief executive, addressing a joint session of …
What the Ellen? Idol Replaces Paula With DeGeneres
Yep, she’s the 4th judge.
Word came tonight that American Idol is reportedly hiring Ellen DeGeneres as the permanent judge to replace Paula Abdul. It seems like a smart decision. Is it the right decision?
TV Defeats Literary Criticism
You know that I don’t normally shill other time.com blog posts, because I am a petty, ungenerous little man despised by my coworkers. But this Nerd World post by Matt Selman is pretty awesome:
Okay, look, I’m fine with people never watching TV. They’re lying, but I understand. I don’t watch that much TV myself. But why do people at
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