Poor Thanksgiving; it certainly doesn’t generate as much holiday ruckus in Hollywood as Halloween or Christmas do. While it may not be Tinseltown’s favorite holiday, there are still several television shows and films that center on Turkey Day.

As you prepare to fill up on stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie, I’ve whipped up a short list of favorite Thanksgiving moments on screen.

10. “The Mouse and the Mayflower” – I watched this made-for-TV movie growing up, and it’s probably my all-time favorite Thanksgiving story. The score really sets it apart from the rest, with original songs “November” and “Mayflower,” which my family and I always associate with the holiday. Families will love it for the cutesy mice and the fun little story about how Thanksgiving came to be.

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9. “Pieces of April” - Before she was Mrs. Cruise, Katie Holmes starred as April, the family oddball who is stressed about preparing Thanksgiving dinner for her entire clan in her small apartment with a broken oven. If anything, it’s kind of a hoot to see Holmes dressed in punk clothes. (more…)

Leave it to Cartman to give Occupy Wall Street a much needed dose of reality.

Cartman, the foul-mouthed lad from Comedy Central’s “South Park,” savaged the nascent movement during last night’s new episode.

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The story involved Cartman’s girth throwing off the school’s score in a standardized physical fitness test. The students swiftly rebel against Cartman, the one percenter who wrecked the results of the remaining 99 percent. Cartman becomes a target at school, and he rushes home to his mother for consolation.

“Don’t you get it, Mom? People voted for Obama, and now that everything sucks they have to blame me!” he wails.

In case the show’s message didn’t hit home there, the show’s writers flipped the race card on its ear moments later.

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Leave it those ‘South Park’ button pushers Trey Parker and Matt Stone to go where other comedians fear to tread.

This week’s new installment of ‘South Park’ will deal with the Occupy Wall Street movement – indirectly, of course. The episode in question, airing at 10 p.m. EST Wednesday, finds the calorically challenged Cartman throwing off the school’s fitness curve.

“I know how this works. You’re the 99 percent ganging up on the one percent,” Cartman cries in a preview clip supplied by Comedy Central.

Weight warfare ensues, apparently.

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The episode, dubbed ‘1 %,’ marks the show’s first, full-on commentary on the fledgling political movement. The beauty of ‘South Park’ is how even-handed it can be in tackling tricky subjects that otherwise split audiences. So expect both sides of the OWS debate to take a licking during the 30-minute show.

Here’s the official episode description:

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IDRIS ELBA AS JAMES BOND?  

Because I’m such a fan, I watched more episodes of Elba’s BBC series “Luther” than I normally would’ve. The problem is that I simply didn’t like his character. Luther’s just a little too preoccupied with himself and the subplot involving his relationship with a serial killer never rang true.

But Elba is an extraordinary talent, no question. His scenes as Stringer Bell in “The Wire” sizzled and I have no doubt he could transition his undeniable presence and charisma to the big screen. Furthermore, there’s a playfulness about him that would do the Bond franchise an enormous amount of good after what will be at least three VERY stoic Daniel Craig turns.

Just as “For Your Eyes Only” was a nice grounding of the franchise after the outlandish (but fun) space adventures of “Moonraker,” “Casino Royale” felt like a necessary reboot after the ice castle and invisible car-nonsense of “Die Another Day.” But after the awfulness that was “Quantum of Solace,” I’m ready for the series to get its sense of humor and charm back.

Elba could do that. The man has panache, depth, and a knowing sense of humor. Watching the shallow, race-obsessed Left celebrate the color of his skin would be nauseating (who cares that he’s black?), but it would be more than worth it.   

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One of the reliable joys in entertainment during the Bush years was knowing that despite the relentless, insipid hate passed off as comedy about our President, every week South Park would serve up truly independent, politically incorrect satire which skewered actual sacred cows. When virtually all players in the film and TV industry were brown nosing Al Gore as though they were born without lungs, Trey Parker and Matt Stone mercilessly mocked him. When Hurrican Katrina was the cause du’jour for leftist hatemongers, fictional 4th graders Kyle and Stan called them out for exploiting the tragedy. And, even early on in the show, the hyperventilating, totalitarian dark side of the green movement and multicultural “tolerance” received scathing send ups.

L'homme s'accroche amèrement.

Yet since Obama’s election, their aim has tilted right. While they revisited the nonpartisan issue of censorship over fear of jihadist violence in their 200th episode, the only overtly political targets of the past two seasons have been Glenn Beck in “Dances with Smurfs” and the Tea Party in last week’s episode, “TMI.” In “Smurfs,” Cartman starts to do the school’s morning announcements, quickly transforming into a conspiratorial nut who accuses the school president of murdering the titular cartoon characters. Now, Glenn Beck’s TV show is certainly ripe for parody (not a fan myself), but the episode plays as though Parker & Stone have only seen second-hand accounts of the program (which they’ve admitted regarding other episodes’ source material), and the satire, because it’s only mocking a straw man version of Beck, lacks the bite of their previous work.

In the same way, on “TMI” (spoilers ahead), South Park rips on the Tea Party– which, again, could be a source of truly funny jokes, even mean-spirited ones– with recycled second-hand stereotypes.  Cartman’s principal sends him to a counselor when he measures his and his classmates’ penis sizes. Eventually, the counselor recommends an anger management session, wherein a Tea Party member complains about “stupid-ass blind liberals” while wearing tea bags draped over a tri-corner hat. The counselor quickly surmises that all the anger management attendees act out because of insecurity over their penis sizes. (more…)

On April 21, 2010, Comedy Central aired episode “201” of South Park. The previous episode, “200,” which was a celebration of their 200th episode, sparked controversy from a radical fringe Muslim group who threatened violence on the show’s creators because of their use of the character Muhammed. After seeing the season 14 DVD of South Park, the cowards at Comedy Central continue to bow to the wishes of radical Muslims, showing that our free speech can be silenced by violence or the threat of it. Following this path, which runs contradictory to almost anything Comedy Central has done in the past, willingly provides a disturbing upper hand to any groups wanting to limit free speech and the power of our popular culture.

When a new episode of South Park airs, it is generally available for streaming shortly thereafter from South Park Studios. In the case of “201,” we got this message:

Following this message, there was a long list of people upset that the network, who has courageously stood by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone over the years, decided to cower in the corner and bleep important sections of episode “201.” In fact, Muhammed was shown in a bear suit, an obvious play on the fear of showing Muhammed on TV. Even that was censored out (important note: Comedy Central has allowed South Park to show Muhammed in the past). As the dust settled, many people (including myself) felt that the truth would be told and free speech will prevail, on some level, when the episode comes out on the season 14 DVD.

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Several weeks ago, the Emmy nominations were announced and many media outlets celebrated some of the great new programs that were nominated. For instance, USA Today’s Robert Bianco wrote that, “After years of recycling nominees and ignoring new shows, the Emmy voters produced a list that actively celebrates the joy of  TV discovery.” However, along with highlighting some new worthy programs and bringing attention to some solid performances, the Emmy nominations did include some disappointments and also featured a few controversial choices. 

The Good: Two of the best things about this year’s nominations were Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, who were nominated for outstanding lead actor and outstanding lead actress in a drama series for their work on “Friday Night Lights.” These actors have been in their respective roles for four years but have never received the recognition they deserved for their strong performances. “FNL” was also recognized in several other categories with nominations for  “Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series” and “Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.” That latter nomination was specifically for a heartbreaking episode about a former quarterback coming to grips with his father’s death in Iraq.

In addition to recognizing the strong talent of often neglected shows, the nominations also brought more attention to some critically-acclaimed new programs. I still haven’t watched ABC’s new comedy hit “Modern Family” but in its first season, the show has received numerous Emmy nominations to go along with the rave reviews it received when it premiered. In fact, out of the twelve nominations for outstanding supporting actor and outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series, “Modern Family” captured five of them in addition to other major nominations, including a best comedy nod. I am looking forward to checking this show out when it comes to DVD.  (more…)

Art is a tricky subject. Everyone’s a critic and some react a little more strongly than others. Just ask Molly Norris. Art critics in the Muslim world have put her on a hit list for some of her work.

Ms. Norris is a cartoonist who stood up for freedom of speech…for awhile. After the animated show “South Park” bowed to pressure and threats and removed a piece from a show showing the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit, Ms. Norris started a movement called “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.” The idea took off and groups both left and right got behind the idea of standing up for freedom of expression.

Radical Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki

Some liberal cowards like Atlanta Journal Constitution “political cartoonist” Mike Luckovich didn’t join in because they were already aware of the way Islamic critics give a bad review. As were the folks at one of my favorite shows “The Simpsons.” After the “South Park” incident they had Bart do his punishment on the chalk board by writing, “South Park – We’d stand beside you if we weren’t so scared.”

I’m not sure of Molly Norris’ political leanings but after her crusade for freedom took off, she backed away. She apologized to Muslims for offending them. She was honest as to why she was backing away when she drew a cartoon with herself saying, “I said that I wanted to counter fear and then I got afraid.” (more…)

Our friends at Comedy Central have found their cojones again. Although if you’re mining for brass there, move along. This same network that so quickly retreated in the face of threats of bodily harm from a militant Islamic website regarding their South Park episode which depicted the prophet Muhammed in a bear suit, has somehow mustered the intestinal fortitude to go after that most fresh and elusive of targets. You guessed it, (*yawn*) Jesus Christ…again. The haute irreverent network is set to announce “JC,” a half-hour show about Christ wanting to escape the shadow of his “powerful but apathetic father” and live a regular life in, where else, New York City.

Apparently the free speech warriors discovered that their beloved First Amendment has an “on/off” switch. It reserves them the right to offend with obvious intent only those religions that profess such core tenets as “turn the other cheek” and “do unto others” when slighted. Of course, when the target of their rapier wit responds not with quiet resignation but rather the banshee wails of “Allahu Akbahr!” followed by exploding IEDs in their fruit of the looms—well the art warriors tune changes to free speech, schmee speech just don’t slit my throat bro! Wow, if only those God-fearing wimps at Normandy and Iwo could have mustered such courage of conviction!

Oh my…there are just so many places I can go with this story but to rehash the topic would demonstrate a lack of originality that only another trite lampooning of such a docile target as Jesus in the name of “art” could top. I suppose I could berate the absolute hypocrisy of those on the left who rail with such self-righteous piety against the imagined intolerance of others while demonstrating their very real, almost bizarrely manic, hostility towards Christianity. (Except of course when they are on one of their ”Jesus was a liberal” or “what would Jesus do” soap boxes to justify this or that expansion of the entitlement state on my dime. Then suddenly “JC” as the self-proclaimed hipsters call him is a handy God to have on their side, but that is another story.) (more…)

Dhimmitude: an attitude of concession, surrender and appeasement towards Islamic demands.

South Park, equal opportunity satirists, have finally met their match.

No, not the Islamist barbarians who have issued an indirect fatwa against South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the unforgivable crime of satirizing the notion of Muhammed’s appearance.

The veiled threat posted on a jihadist website, is, I’m afraid, totally expected.

It is Hollywood itself that has betrayed Parker and Stone. 

In the episode—I viewed the original before it was censored—Muhammed was shown inside a U-haul, inside a mascot’s uniform, and finally as a child’s stick figure drawing.

It was hilarious.

And deadly. (more…)

Last week a rather odd story broke on Big Government and Big Hollywood. The voice-over guy for Geico, D.C. Douglas, was fired after he left a voicemail with Freedomworks. On the voicemail he called Tea Partiers homicidal retards.

My first thought wasn’t “what kind of drugs is this guy on?” It wasn’t about the legal or “First Amendment” issues surrounding the case (there aren’t any). And it wasn’t about this guy’s future MSNBC show. My first thought was “no way, I know that guy!”

Indeed the artist formerly known as the Geico voice-over guy and Leigh Scott share a page on the IMDB. We have mutual friends. In the early 1990s I rented an Avid from him to finish my first film.

We’re not friends. We’re barely acquaintances. It’s safe to say we know of each other more than we actually know each other.

Working in Hollywood, I’m the odd man out nine times out of ten. That’s what Big Hollywood is all about, giving a voice to the conservative minded folks in the media. There are far more D.C. Douglas types than Leigh Scott types making the movies, music, and television shows that fill the airways and Al Gore’s Internet. (more…)

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto waded into the “South Park” - Muhammad controversy with a column employing this title, subtitle and closing summary:

Everybody Burn the Flag
If we don’t act like inconsiderate jerks, the terrorists will have won ….

The problem with the “in-your-face message” of “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” is not just that it is inconsiderate of the sensibilities of others, but that it defines those others–Muslims–as being outside of our culture, unworthy of the courtesy we readily accord to insiders. It is an unwise message to send, assuming that one does not wish to make an enemy of the entire Muslim world.

Comparing a drawing of Mohammed to flag burning completely misses the point of the energy people have towards the idea driving a Draw Mohammed Day (which looks as though it might have been cancelled anyway on account of…something). Taranto also looks at what kind of behavior will or will not place the Muslim community outside of our culture in a fashion that leans heavily on the politically correct at the expense of logic. 

When our culture is working the way it should there are no sacred cows. When our culture is firing on all cylinders we collectively take the same amount of incoming fire from our national satirists. Taranto’s belief that Muslims should receive some sort of special treatment — a unique inoculation when it comes to this sort of satire — that’s the act that puts the Muslim community outside of our culture. To be a part of our culture and community means taking the good and the bad. (more…)

“We sent a clear message to the West regarding the red lines that should not be crossed.”

That was the arrogant declaration of victory from the Organization of the Islamic Conference nearly two years ago, regarding the shrewdly orchestrated Muslim mayhem around the world protesting such infidel abominations as the Danish Muhammad cartoons and Geert Wilders’ short film Fitna.

“Red lines” indeed – a phrase chillingly reminiscent of Samuel Huntington’s famous observation that “Islam has bloody borders.” Except that the red lines the OIC is referring to aren’t geographical – they are the ever-tightening limits that Muslim fundamentalists are imposing to choke off our freedoms.

The influential OIC is the world’s largest Muslim assembly, consisting of 57 member states (you know, the same number of U.S. states candidate Obama campaigned in). Its primary aim is “conducting a large-scale worldwide effort to confront Islamophobia.” (As I’ve written here before, Islamophobia is a mythical beast that the OIC and collusive groups like CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, use to intimidate us into craven appeasement.) Their goal is to abridge our free speech by making criticism of Islam an international crime; their strategy works because the West has been so emasculated by multiculturalism that we’d rather embrace cultural suicide than offend the tender sensibilities of such violent barbarians as the Danish cartoon rioters. (more…)

While doing research for my upcoming book, tentatively titled Programming America (Harper Collins, due 2011), the inside story of the politically-motivated evolution of television from The Dick Van Dyke Show to Sex and the City and the very real bias of the industry against conservative content and creators, I interviewed Doug Herzog, President of MTV Networks Entertainment Group.  He oversees Comedy Central, and he was kind enough to grant me some time and consent to taping our conversation on June 22, 2009.

During the course of that conversation, I asked Mr. Herzog about the network’s decision to censor South Park in April 2006 – in particular, the network shut down a segment that featured a cartoon image of Mohammed.

Here’s the audio:

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT:

SHAPIRO: I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the controversy that surrounded the South Park/Mohammed controversy.  How did that come about and what was the real story there?

HERZOG: The real story was the story you know, which is that the guys wanted to depict Mohammed and the network wouldn’t let them.  And that was the whole story.  And while I think if we had to do it all over again we would do it differently, that was the decision we made at the time.  And I regret it somewhat but I’ve made worse decisions in my life. (more…)

Give Comedy Central an anal probe. Not because of Jon Stewart’s ongoing tiff with Bernard Goldberg and Fox News, which is just polite, interesting fun. Rather, it has to do with the disturbing news that the creators of the animated sitcom “South Park” were threatened by an apparent jihadist organization called Revolution Muslim over an episode that contains some (mildly) irreverent material about Mohammed – and the cable network caved.

They bent over and censored the show. According to the New York Times arts blog posted this morning, the episode in question, a follow-up to the one that showed the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bear costume, was edited by Comedy Central to avoid further offense. The version that aired Wednesday contained audio bleeps and image blocks (“CENSORED”), apparently inserted by the network, after the Muslim group warned on its website that show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker “will probably end up like Theo Van Gogh.” This is a reference to the Dutch film maker who was murdered – shot eight times then stabbed, with a note pinned to the knife, like in an Eric Ambler story — on an Amsterdam street after he made a documentary critical of Islam’s treatment of women. Fearing for her safety, Van Gogh’s collaborator, Somalia-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, was forced to flee the country, and the Dutch Parliament engaged in vigorous debate on the subject of banning certain kinds of speech as “blasphemy.” In other words, they unheroically blamed the victim. (more…)

***VIDEO FIXED!!!***

Watch the full episode here.  ACORN segment begins after the last commercial.

Comment at Big Government.

The ACORN scandal was immortalized tonight on “South Park.” The plot of the season 13 episode “Butters’ Bottom Bitch” is that Butters, the adorably naïve fourth grader starts a “kissing company” that grows to the point where he is a pimping out 10+ prostitutes, many of whom are underage. Always the sharp social commentators, the “South Park” crew sent Butters and Co. to ACORN to try to get a housing grant for these prostitutes:

…Butters get TWO housing loans, and tax-exempt status.

This isn’t your typical ACORN office. The employees are sharply dressed and working off of widescreen computer monitors in a lavish building (actually, it looks like the woman is sitting in an Aeron chair… we’re not sure even ACORN gets enough government handouts for those). But that’s beside the point. The joy in this scene is that at long last, ACORN is officially a punch line. Anyone who has followed ACORN throughout the years knows this is long, long, long overdue, but today, ACORN’s calling card is that they are the company that, as Butters puts it, “helps pimps and their bitches.” Not sure it gets more damning than that.

The MSM discreetly reports that President Obama hasn’t exactly been making good on his pledge to appoint ambassadors from the ranks of foreign service professionals rather than campaign contributors. His pick for Canada, for example, as well as his choice for the Court of St. James, are both Chicago political cronies. And the list goes on.  But in news, just about to break, Hollywood is preparing to reap some plum rewards for its own zealous support.

While what follows is not yet official, my sources are well-placed and their information almost always reliable.

The President, who made commitment to a more animated foreign policy a campaign priority, is apparently about to take a literal step in that direction with two key appointments. (more…)

Since the election of Barack Obama, aggressive political parody has been hard to come by outside of Comedy Central. But, as noted here on Big Hollywood, ABC and Mike Judge are taking on political correctness and progressive activists with The Goode Family.

When Bush and Cheney left office, they became old news. Mocking them now is like making Eisenhower jokes, but that doesn’t stop the occasional hack like Wanda Sykes trotting out tired material. And Obama seems off limits lest anyone wants to look like a buzz kill during the ever-lengthening, forced-fed honeymoon. In fact, the only show that really dared effectively to venture into political mockery consistently this season was South Park.

Mike Judge

And spare me any mention of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. Both shows kiss the Democratic ass (the donkey, I mean) all week until they realize how biased they’ve become. Then they scramble around to make fun of some minor Dem Congressman for 30 seconds and applaud their own objectivity. Meanwhile, Stewart rages at every conservative cause he can find with the furor (not the wit) of Murrow until he’s called on it. Then he scrambles back into his hole screaming, “I’m only a comic!”

Fortunately, The Goode Family levels the satirical skills of Judge (creator of Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill) at the taboo supporters of global warming, racial hypersensitivity, animal rights and any other cause over-hyped by self-righteous busybodies. (more…)

I’m tired of ignoring the elephant in the room, so I’ll just come out and say it. Christians are corny, out of touch, lonely creepers who generally end up becoming murderers or rapists…. At least that’s what Hollywood’s taught me.

Not to mention they’re all a bunch of minority-bashing fear mongers. Why does anyone continue to allow this hateful, extremist group to exist? Am I the only one who feels that they could stand to learn a lot from the peaceful, Muslim folk?

If I hadn’t been raised in such a logical household, the entertainment industry would have elicited only one reaction from me in regards to “Christians”; “Good God, these people are crazy.”

It all started with the flick “Carrie.” Who can forget Sissy Spacek’s loopy, evangelical mom citing Bible verses amidst insane spiritual tirades until she was finally skewered with every kitchen utensil in the cabinet…all to a disturbing orgasmic moaning session. The scene was used to drive the point home: Christians are dangerous and nuts, but they’re great to make fun of. (more…)