Ya gotta give Drew Carey a lot of credit. Going into his third season on The Price is Right, he's been able to step in the shoes of an icon, Bob Barker, and do a good job. He's also his part to drag the 38-year-old show into the 21st century, whether it wants to be here or not.
Look, we have just about as good an idea as you as to what happens on the eleventh fourth hour of the Today show.Hoda Kotb (who won a Peabody Award) and Kathie Lee Gifford (who is loud) sit together, morning after morning, drinking, chatting, and generally swishing about in a televisual escapade that brings into the mix - among other things - Facebook, "cougars," breast cancer, and wine. Needless to say, we will be first in line when they invite a studio audience (although the appeal of hearing camera men laugh at Kathie Lee's menopausal delirium stands very well on its own).
Considering that we don't get to watch the show as often as we'd like, we very much appreciate being steered by The Soup toward a clip taken from a segment on Today called "I Got Played."
Since there's news today that Johnny Depp and Tim Burton will make a big-screen version of the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, I think it's appropriate that the TV show premiered on this day in 1966. It ran for around 25,000 episodes. It's weird to think about what this show was, a soap opera that happened to include vampires, werewolves, creepy mansions, and thunderstorms. I was mesmerized by this show as a kid. The theme is still haunting, and forget Barnabas Collins. I was freaked out by Quentin just sitting in a chair, staring ahead into the air. And those sideburns!
Here's the color opening from the late 60s/early 70s.
Elizabeth Hasselbeck has been sued by another author who accuses her of stealing ideas for her book The G Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide. The plaintiff, Susan Hassett, says she sent a copy of her own book Living with Celiac Disease to Hasselbeck last year. And now this year Hasselbeck comes out with her own book (written with Peter Green) on the topic, and there seems to be a lot of similarities, including chapter titles and certain phrasing of words.
Gawker has some of the similarities and TMZ has the court documents.
The funniest part of this video (and there are many funny parts of this video, trust me) is the fact that Spencer wants a copy of NBC's feature about them, completely clueless to the fact that it makes them look really, really bad. Or maybe they just don't care. (And Spencer, believe me, NBC is not the only one saying these things about you). Roker can barely keep in his disgust for these two.
Update:Al made Heidi cry! She advises women to "be careful of him." WTF?
Another feud is boiling, this one involving Jon Stewart and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough. There have been things said lately (including The Daily Show taking on Starbucks' sponsorship of Morning Joe), and it continued this morning.
On behalf of short guys everywhere Joe, I take exception to your Napoleon remark.
Note to self: if you're picked for jury duty, don't bring a cell phone camera and take pictures.
Yesterday, Today co-host Al Roker was picked for jury duty, and like a lot of people he decided to tweet his adventures in real time for his followers, including taking some pics for his Twitter page. The court never told him he could (he took pics outside the court not the courtroom itself), and when they found out they politely asked him to stop.
Late last week, actor Chris Engen reportedly bolted from The Young & the Restless, walking out on a front-burner story line on the number one rated daytime drama because he objected to his character sharing a kiss with another man. This week, Y&R's former Adam Wilson issued a statement online to tell his side of the story.
Engen wasn't unhappy with the gay twist, declared that he is not homophobic and said he didn't quit the show over religious objections. According to the first-time soap actor, "I felt generally unhappy about my contribution to the show, and had greater and greater difficulty making any sense of the challenges they were asking me to face."
I'm not sure why Today ran this segment this morning. You'd think that a "day in the life of Jay Leno" feature would run when he starts his The Tonight Show, not when he's one day from ending it forever. This isn't going to be his day anymore. I hope they do one for Conan when he takes over the show. Anyway, we get to see Leno from morning until the taping of his show (and what he does when taping ends, which is still more work). (Video also here.)
After weeks of hype, scoops and spoilers, message board fodder and threats against columnists to not reveal a thing lest they be flogged and embargoed out of the business, All My Children's big murder mystery kicked into high gear when it turned out that the victim was not really one of the characters on the cover of Soap Opera Digest.
For the network, all this was great. ABC Daytime got a bump in the Nielsens and it seems the post-murder intrigue, i.e. whodunit, is keeping viewers DVR'ing, Soapnet watching, or just planning on watching during their lunch hours (like the old days). But getting back to the victim, AMC had a chance to do something really bold and dramatic. Instead head writer Chuck Pratt Jr. played it safe. More on the victim, including the name in case you don't know by now (yes, that's a warning), after the jump.
They have feuds. They have babies (at least one of them). They have daily debates. But the ladies of The View have no sway with the Daytime Emmys. Well, that's not entirely correct. The ladies themselves, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Barbara Walters, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck, received an Emmy nomination in the category of Outstanding Talk Show host(s), but their show was snubbed.
Whether it's deemed a Talk Show/Entertainment or Talk Show/Information, it's not deemed worthy. But The View's missing nomination is merely one of the many oddities of the 36th Annual Daytime Emmy nominations. Something is really bizarre in the batch of noms.
Hearst, who was facing the prospect of a demotion to recurring status (as opposed to a contract player), will return to B&B as Whip Jones, a character he introduced and played for a brief stint in 2002.
It was a nice idea. Oprah does a promotion for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) involving their new grilled chicken offering. She mentions on her talk show that the chain is offering a free grilled chicken meal if you hand in a downloadable coupon available at Oprah.com. Sadly, it didn't turn out so well for the franchise.
Oprah's insane popularity caused about a bazillion people to download the free meal coupon. So many, in fact, that KFC wasn't ready to give out so much free grilled chicken and has now offered rainchecks for the existing coupons.
Like a lot of Star Trek and classic TV fans, I'll be in line for the new movie when it opens tomorrow (actually, tonight in many cities - check your local listings, as they say). Leonard Nimoy is in it (no, that's not a spoiler), and this morning he sat down to talk with Al Roker on Today (video also here). Roker says that Nimoy put the ears on for the first time in 18 years. Wait, 18 years? That can't be right. I feel old.
First Facebook, then Twitter, now chicken. It's one of Oprah's favorite things!
Oprah is giving away a coupon to KFC. It's valid until May 19 (though you only have until the end of today to print it out*). You get a free 2 Piece Meal, which includes their new grilled chicken, two sides and a biscuit. What, nothing to wash it down with? Thanks a lot!
Ya gotta give Drew Carey a lot of credit. Going into his third season on The Price is Right, he's been able to step in the shoes of an icon, Bob Barker, and do a good job. He's also his part to drag the 38-year-old show into the 21st century, whether it wants to be here or not.
Look, we have just about as good an idea as you as to what happens on the 
First Jerry Seinfeld's wife, now a View host.
Note to self: if you're picked for jury duty, don't bring a cell phone camera and take pictures.
Late last week, 
After weeks of hype, scoops and spoilers, message board fodder and threats against columnists to not reveal a thing lest they be flogged and embargoed out of the business, 
It was a nice idea. Oprah 
Seven greatest hand cannons in TV history
TV Squad previews NBC's new shows (part 1)
TV 101: How ESPN controls the world and what the other networks can learn from it
