As you can see from this photograph, I can’t quite reach Sarah Palin.  This is a group shot of Sarah with my fellow Tea Party Express-ers in Boston. I’m on the left in the back row next to a man holding up an Anti-AARP bumper sticker.  Palin is in the center in the red leather jacket.

Happy mayhem surrounds Sarah Palin.  Pushing, snapping, hugging.  I couldn’t get near her if I tried, so I just stood in the back watching the circus.  At one point, I couldn’t resist, while she was signing Ron Rivoli’s guitar, I reached out my arm through the crowd and touched her red jacket with my finger!

I spent one week on the Tea Party Express’s three week bus tour across the country.  In each city from Searchlight to Sioux St. Marie to Washington D.C., this great group of patriots and I were received by throngs of loving, passionate Americans who share our concern about the TYRANNY that has hijacked our government.  It’s amazing how many different creative, original ways that FREEDOM can be expressed.  The signs were hilarious and righteous.  Lots of smiling, singing, and photographs. (more…)

Wall Street Journal:

Forget product placement, NBC Universal is trying “behavior placement” with some of its shows. Characters from programs such as “30 Rock” and “The Office” are acting out eco-friendly behaviors that advertisers hope will sway viewers. WSJ’s Amy Chozick reports.

In just one week on NBC, the detectives on “Law and Order” investigated a cash-for-clunkers scam, a nurse on “Mercy” organized a group bike ride, Al Gore made a guest appearance on “30 Rock,” and “The Office” turned Dwight Schrute into a cape-wearing superhero obsessed with recycling.

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Forget product placement, NBC Universal is trying “behavior placement” with some of its shows. Characters from programs such as “30 Rock” and “The Office” are acting out eco-friendly behaviors that advertisers hope will sway viewers. WSJ’s Amy Chozick reports.

Coincidence? Hardly. NBC Universal planted these eco-friendly elements into scripted television shows to influence viewers and help sell ads.

The tactic—General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal calls it “behavior placement”—is designed to sway viewers to adopt actions they see modeled in their favorite shows. And it helps sell ads to marketers who want to associate their brands with a feel-good, socially aware show. (more…)

So Ted Koppel was on the BBC to discuss a survey that finds roughly 60 percent of news executives thinks journalism is headed in the wrong direction.

Here’s a surprise. He, and his hair, agree.

Listen up, up-listeners.

So there you have it, a venerable old-fogey harkening back to the good old days when no one had cell phones or breast implants -and all the news came from three boxes – NBC, CBS, and ABC – or more to the point: old fogeys like Ted Koppel. As the world changed, Ted became less important. No wonder he’s grumpy. I want to give him a big hug.

Now I’m 45, and I remember those good old days. Those good old days sucked. We had three networks, all pumping out the same crap, day in, and day out. Was it all factual, like Koppel remembers? I don’t know – since there was no choice – it didn’t matter. (more…)

Success in Hollywood is, for the most part, random.  

Now, there are certain projects that even a Bedouin nomad knows will be a monster hit.  Lord of The Rings is one.  It also happened to be executed with near perfection. There are also certain projects that any inmate of Shutter Island knows will be a total disaster. Battlefield Earth is one.  Catwoman is another.  

Otherwise, it’s a total crapshoot.  But there’s a difference in perception depending on how things turn out.  If it’s a hit, it’s easy to look like a genius by saying you knew it would be a hit the day the project came across your desk.   Or, if it’s a surprise hit, you can coo,“we were just passionate about the project and knew audiences would love it if it was given a chance”.  Presto.  

But it’s easy to look like a fucking moron when a movie or TV show fails and it usually is because the programmer is a fucking moron.  Because anyone can tell when a truly crap project is a crap project from day one.  (The exceptions to the failure rule are those truly great works that fail, but find reverent critical reception – thus saving all involved from embarrassment and even giving them bragging rights by creating a “cult classic”).  (more…)

In addition to its well-publicized, disastrous experiment with moving Jay Leno to primetime, NBC has done some good things this year. Perhaps the best of these is the new sitcom Community.

The concept is simple but rich in characters and potential comical situations. Suspended lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) has been sent back to college because his academic degree was discovered to be phony. Now he’s stuck at the local community college—which he describes as a “school-shaped toilet.”

The show includes at least a few genuinely amusing moments per episode, but it also takes its characters seriously to some degree, which makes it more than just a string of gags. In the first episode, Winger ends up leading a Spanish-language study group even though he has little grasp of the language. The various members of the group are comically beset by a multitude of emotional, social, and functional problems.

Winger, however, very quickly (and somewhat implausibly) turns the group into what he describes as a “community.” The tables are soon turned on him, however, as he is revealed to all as a shallow, selfish, conceited moral relativist. This is not characterized as a good thing. (more…)

If you want to identify the most controversial person in television, forget about Glenn Beck and Keith Olberman. The answer is obvious: Jay Leno. 

The once and now returning host of NBC’s Tonight Show has incited hostility and outright hatred for many years, simply by virtue of being more commercially successful than rivals David Letterman and Conan O’Brien. In particular, fans of his competitors have derided Leno for being overly conventional and failing to challenge late-night viewers by pushing the boundaries of taste. 

That, however, has almost certainly been a primary reason for Leno’s success: he amuses viewers without overwhelming them with sensational material such as O’Brien’s masturbating bears and potty-mouthed dog and Letterman’s aggressive non sequiturs. Leno is clearly out to amuse, not to change the world, and that is exactly the sort of programming most people seem to want in that 11:35 time slot. 

As a result, Leno returned to his Tonight Show helm last night after a hiatus of several months in which NBC tried moving him to primetime and shifting O’Brien from The Late Show at 12:35 a.m. to the Tonight Show at 11:35. As has been well-documented, the change was a predictable disaster both for NBC’s primetime ratings and for the Tonight Show. O’Brien toned down his comedy for the earlier audience, which didn’t work, and Leno could not make a nightly show consistently special enough to draw viewers at 10 p.m.  (more…)

Imagine there was a bank — you know, one of those evil fat cat banks the Obama Administration loves to hold up as Economic Bogeyman — that had taken a large piece of financial backing from The Federal Government. Now imagine there was a guy working at that bank for 17 years who was a rising star in the financial world and who landed a big promotion after the bailout of this bank. Then suddenly this rising star isn’t performing so well. The profits in his division are down. He has a contract, but because times are tough and the guy’s falling performance the bank gives him the ax.

So the guy makes a big stink and demands that if he is going to be replaced the bank has to buy out his contract.

The bank offers him 30 million dollars to take a hike.

“That isn’t good enough,” the guy says. Not only does he want his money but since he is being let go a lot of his staff will also lose their jobs. So he demands another 12 million so they all enjoy a soft landing.

The bank says “ok” and pays out the money. (more…)

Conan supporters gathered outside NBC stations across the country to protest the move of the Tonight Show from 11:35 to 12:05.

If there is any real blame it should go to Conan’s attorneys who didn’t think of writing a specific time slot for the show into his contract. Yet Conan’s supporters insist that Jay Leno is at fault.

Jay is being caricatured as a cry-baby by Conan supporters. In my opinion, Conan is the one being immature, acting like a sixteen year old, who can’t believe his parents are taking the car away … after he wrecked it.

Few remember that Conan isn’t a pacifist. When his contract was up for re-negotiation back in 2003, he told NBC that he wouldn’t sign the contract until the Tonight Show seat was added to the contract. Jay never really raised a stink about being forced out, because he remembered how he got the Tonight Show in the first place. (more…)

So the White House has a new communications director, and he’s just as adorably misguided as the previous one. During an interview with The New York Times’ The Caucus blog – whatever that is – Dan Pfeiffer (no relation to Michelle, darn it, she has my sweater), explained his revolutionary point of view toward FNC.

“I have the same view of Fox that Anita [Dunn] had, which is that Fox is not a traditional news organization. They have a point of view. That point of view pervades the entire network both the opinion shows… but also through the newscasts during the day,” Pfeiffer said.

The man who refuses to learn from history, continued on with his cogent analysis…

“We don’t feel an obligation to treat them like we would treat a CNN or an ABC or an NBC or a traditional news organization. But there are times when it would make sense to communicate with them and appear on the network.”
Well, thanks for that. Glad to know “there are times” when the White House might drop Fox News a line about upcoming Easter egg hunts and what not. (more…)

NBC CEO Jeff Zucker

In a move that bodes well to strengthen TV programming overall in both primetime and late night, NBC has confirmed that Jay Leno will be moved back to his original 11:30 slot and his 10 p.m. show canceled on February 11, as rumored over the past week. USA Today reports:

Under the new plan, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon would move from 12:35 a.m. to 1:05. (Carson Daly’s talk show, which now follows Fallon, would be canceled, though Daly would remain under contract at the network.).

O’Brien, however, decided not to agree to the changes, in a public statement:

I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.

Thus Leno will return to the Tonight Show in its usual time slot, and O’Brien will move on to presumably greener pastures. (more…)

Just released statement from Conan O’Brien:

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35.  For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news.  I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting.  The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show.  Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot.  That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it.  My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.  Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter.  But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more. (more…)

I first met Jay Leno back in the early 80’s. I had gotten my first television gig as a reporter on WJBK in Detroit working for the local version of PM Magazine.  At that time Jay was the hottest comic on the booming comedy club circuit and he was coming to the Comedy Castle. I called his publicist and asked if Jay would be interested in doing an interview with me. He graciously consented and we did a few funny bits and a short interview. My cameraman went nuts with the taping that night, I needed thirty seconds of Jay on stage and he taped almost the entire set. Jay was a little miffed but he never held it against me. A few years later we met again in Hollywood and he invited me over to “the house.” I got to go to Jay’s a few times and got a personal tour of the cars and bikes he was keeping there. Through the years whenever we ran into one another, usually at the Comedy Magic Club in Hermosa Beach when we were working together, he was always quick with a comment to let you know he remembered the last time you had talked.

The recent war of time slots and words between Jay Leno and NBC brings two thoughts to mind. First is that Jay should adopt the old hook of Rodney Dangerfield because he isn’t getting any respect. Second it reminds me of one of the most brilliant and simplest things ever written about show business. One of my favorite books about show business is “Adventures in the Screen Trade” by the great screenwriter William Goldman. Perhaps the most significant insight he gives about show business and especially those who try to run things is that, “Nobody knows anything.”

This has never been a more perfect example of this than in the recent actions by the geniuses running NBC Television. Starting about two years ago the top brass at the peacock network made a decision that the smug hipness of Conan O’Brien was more important than the steady high ratings and common man touch of Jay Leno. Jay’s real sin was that he was getting older. His shock of black Elvis-like hair had gone salt and pepper and then gray. He wasn’t the young hip motorcycle guy with a beef, he was a late middle aged guy who told great jokes and had great numbers. Not good enough! (more…)

Press reports and even jokes on last night’s Jay Leno Show point to the likelihood that NBC’s experiment with moving Leno from late night to prime time is over, and that the instigator of the changes, Conan O’Brien, will have to accept a diminished role as a consequence of his successful campaign to force Leno out of his 11:30 slot.

The reports are that the Jay Leno Show will stop producing new episodes on February 1 or possibly February 12 when NBC begins broadcasting the Olympics, and will not return thereafter. Leno will go back to 11:35, and O’Brien-well, nobody is quite sure what’s happening with him yet. NBC execs are reportedly considering having a half-hour Leno show at 11:35, the Tonight Show with O’Brien at 12:05, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at 1:05. Carson Daly will presumably remain the only thing in the world that’s not funny at 2 in the morning (hat tip to my number 2 son for that joke).

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I’ve noticed a lot of my brothers and sisters on the right are up in arms at Law & Order: SVU after last week’s episode. I did not see the whole episode in question but did see a clip where a character played by John Larroquette mentions three well know conservative talk show hosts and calls them a cancer on the land.

Before I get rolling, in the spirit of full disclosure I will admit to being a Law & Order junkie. My DVR is full of my favorite Law & Order: Criminal Intent episodes, which is by far the strongest of the three series. I will also admit that in my mind Law & Order: SVU is to the Law & Order brand what Deep Space Nine was to the Star Trek brand. It is a weak cousin that may have been spreading the brand a little too thin. (more…)

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[Editor's Note: This is a small portion of a comprehensive interview that  originally appeared in the Irish Examiner on Monday, November 24th. You can read the full piece here.] 

Recently I was sent an email complaining about the season premier of the TV Show, “Law & Order.” My correspondent asked what I thought about the plot in which the local Manhattan district attorney Jack McCoy prosecuted a former Justice Department lawyer for “depraved indifference murder” following the lawyer’s memo on the techniques which could be used on terrorists. An astonished “Executive Assistant DA Michael Cutter says, “Jack, you want to prosecute a member of the Bush administration for assaulting suspected terrorists?” To which, a cocksure “McCoy” declares: “The word is torturing. And, yes, it’s about time somebody did.”

The increasingly leftwing comments injected into the plots of this once fine show had turned me off many seasons ago and I answered my reader, “I haven’t watched that show much since they replaced Michael Moriarty as the lead in 1994.

Mr. Moriarty has always been one of my favorite actors and given that he is an Irish American, I thought he’d be the perfect lead off to a series of interviews with notable Americans of Irish ancestry. I was thrilled to be able to connect with Mr. Moriarty, who now lives in Canada, and he graciously agreed to this Q&A interview. (more…)

The NBC reality program “The Biggest Loser” has the potential to create a lot of winners. Aside from the obvious winners of the weight-loss competition, there are other opportunities for people to “win.” For instance, all of the contestants have a chance to leave the show as victors if they use the opportunity provided to lose weight and become healthier. Viewers have the same opportunity to win if they decide to change their lives because of the show. Without being overt, the show has a strong underlying message about weight loss and self-worth, but in a recent episode the underlying message about weight loss was overshadowed by a preachy and overbearing “green” campaign by NBC.

“The Biggest Loser” has a typical reality show premise. A large group of contestants starts out at the beginning and as the weeks go by contestants are eliminated until the end of the season. Unlike other reality shows, though, this show has an important message to send out to viewers about living healthy, taking care of your body and maintaining your self-esteem.

On last week’s episode though, the show’s message was overwhelmed by a push from the NBC network about staying green. During the ninety-minute episode that aired last Tuesday, there were numerous public service announcements about taking care of the environment. Those announcements tackled such issues as fixing leaky faucets, using less plastic and buying local produce. (more…)

Perchance, just a few days after posting this piece about “Law & Order’s” jumping of the shark or nuking of the fridge — whatever the term is now — I came across the first five seasons of this once great television drama on DVD  for a mere ten bucks each at – cover your eyes lefties – Walmart. Not having seen a single episode since their first run in the early nineties, there was no way to know how well it would hold up. But I bit the bullet, took a chance and for the next six weeks every free moment was devoted to devouring a hundred-plus episodes that told the story of the police who investigate crime; and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.

dun DUN

Those early seasons aren’t as good as I remember, they’re better.  Not every episode’s a home run, the first dozen or so struggle in search of the tone and pace that will eventually define the series, but afterwards nothing but a few drop below a standing triple — easily better than 99% of movies produced this decade. 

Not to take anything away from the excellent work done by the rest of the cast, but the heart and soul of those first four seasons, what elevates the series into something truly unique and special, is Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Michael Moriarty’s outstanding portrayal of Executive A.D.A. Ben Stone — a brilliant and fascinating character whose moral center anchors the show. (more…)

“My role in life is to be a burr under the saddle. I didn’t pick that for myself, it just happens that’s the way I am. I wish I could be one of the really sweet guys, but for me nobody has a good word. That’s because my allegiance is to art, to the work. I have no allegiance to magazines, producers, studios, networks or anything. The work is what counts.” – Harlan Ellison, on writing in Hollywood.

For those of you here at Big Hollywood who think you are playing a whole new game in taking on the Tinseltown establishment in force, I have news for you. Scribe Extraordinaire and futurist iconoclast Harlan Ellison beat you all to the punch by about forty-five years. And if you don’t know who Harlan Ellison is, shame on you! He is a living legend with more Hugos and Nebulas than I care to count, as well as four WGA Awards and an Emmy nod. And all that’s just for starters. (more…)

Last night, GE-owned NBC pulled out all the propaganda stops on “3o Rock” to help Al Gore, the face of Global Warming Climate Change and all things red green, burnish his image as an appealing everyday guy with a sense of humor about himself.

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Don’t be fooled by the self-effacing humor or Gore’s willingness to engage in gentle self-mockery. As the leader and symbol of this socialist-wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing movement, GE/NBC understands that Gore’s popularity can only aid in the passing of legislation beneficial to GE. And Gore’s “30 Rock” enablers also understand that the more appealing he is, the more appealing his leftist ideas seem…

“Gee, why would such a nice guy want to hurt America?” (more…)