Vision

Handshake or No Handshake

NBC's web site offers a Flash version of Deal or No Deal, an odd new game show that pits a player's greed against the arithmetic mean. I've only caught a few minutes of the show, which aired last week and will be repeated Monday on CNBC, but I may start watching to see Howie Mandel not shake hands with the contestants. Mandel's a germophobe, writes Mark Evanier: I think it's weird that NBC has one reality show where the contestants are expected to eat rat --------- but they also have two -- ... (read more)

2005/12/25

CNN Dicks Cheney with Subliminal Messages

The Drudge Retort has obtained video footage that proves the superimposition of an X mark over Vice President Cheney during a televised speech Tuesday wasn't just an innocent technical glitch by CNN, as claimed by anchor Daryn Kagan-Limbaugh. In a story impacting hard across the conservative blogosphere, Matt Drudge reported Tuesday on a "large black 'X' repeatedly flashed over the vice president's face!" The X, which appeared for two frames displayed over one-fifteenth of a second, turns out ... (read more)

2005/11/23

Jerry Lewis vs. Jerry's Kids

At an appearance in Chicago Wednesday night, Jerry Lewis flew into a rage when heckled off the stage by disability activists in wheelchairs, telling security to eject one overweight protester by commanding "move that living waterbed out of here." The hecklers were from Jerry's Orphans, a group begun in the early '90s by Mike Ervin, a former Muscular Dystrophy Association poster child. They're angry about their portrayal in the Labor Day Telethon, as described in a documentary The Kids Are All ... (read more)

2005/11/18

Mark Evanier attended an onstage Jerry Lewis interview Thursday night, learning an odd bit of trivia about the comedian's socks: Asked about the white sweatsocks that he usually wears, sometimes even with formal garb, he said, "I wear them because I like them. They feel comfortable to me. I change socks about four times a day, always putting on a brand new, never-before-worn pair. Each year, I send hundreds of pairs of socks to --" and he gave the name of some charitable organization in Las ... (read more)

2005/11/05

Viva BBC America

I caught the first episode of Viva Blackpool last night on BBC America, a six-episode mini-series that features the most wonderfully vile lead character since The Sopranos. The show's a funny drama about Ripley Holden, an Elvis-loving Brit trying to bring Vegas-style excess to Blackpool, England, in the form of the Yankee Dollar Casino. When a dead body turns up one morning, a Scottish detective shows up poking around Ripley's business (and his wife). The comparisons to Tony Soprano are ... (read more)

2005/10/30

A story on the 10th anniversary of the O.J. Simpson verdict notes his recent plans: Last year, on the 10th anniversary of the murders, he told Fox News that he was about to re-enter public life with a TV show in which he would pull practical jokes on unsuspecting victims. On a scale of one to 10, "it's 7 or 8 that it's gonna happen," he said. It never happened. I haven't seen much reality TV since Married by America perfected the form, but I'd watch an alleged double murderer being sprung on ... (read more)

2005/10/03

Casting a Dark Horse as the Sixth 007

James Bond producers are searching for a new actor to play the role after dumping Pierce Brosnan this week. Media favorites for the next 007 include Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger, Jude Law, and Clive Owen. I imagine they'll pick someone from this demographic: Top-of-the-marquee actors under 40 from the U.K. or Australia who can handle a black-tie dress code. British bookmakers have Owen as a 4/5 favorite, but some of their other choices are so odd you have to wonder at the collective intelligence ... (read more)

2005/08/21

Katherine Harris Sways Florida Voters

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris announced her Florida Senate bid on Hannity & Colmes last week in one of the most bizarre interviews I've ever seen a politician give on television. She's sitting awkwardly in three-quarters profile, sways back and forth, and keeps moving her facial muscles around as if she's forgotten how to keep them still. Harris spokesman Adam Goodman has attempted to explain her conduct as fatigue from a long first day of campaigning. "She was just a little tired," he told a ... (read more)

2005/08/17

It seems a little dumb to care about such things, but I'd like to see Elizabeth Vargas or another talented female newscaster replace Peter Jennings on World News Tonight. We've ventured far enough into the 21st century to retire the idea that the voice of authority in this country comes in only one octave. ... (read more)

2005/08/09

Robert Wilonsky: Fully Loaded

Dallas Observer film critic Robert Wilonsky: To damn Herbie: Fully Loaded as soporific crap, as lazy profiteering, as yet another needless and cynical remake in a season populated by such con artists, would be as pointless as the movie itself. If you had any hope for it, you're either a Walt Disney executive or Gordon Buford, author of the story "Car-Boy-Girl" that birthed five prior features, including 1969's The Love Bug and the 1997 made-for-TV redo with Bruce Campbell in the Dean Jones ... (read more)

2005/07/15

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