Posted Feb 3rd 2009 12:45PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Sports, Cable/Satellite, Reality-Free
So you've probably heard about the
30 seconds of porn (video is
unbelievably NSFW. You will be fired and embarrassed if you watch this video. Please don't show to your parents, kids, or clergy. Warning! Graphic!) that many Tucson residents saw during the Super Bowl. And if you lived in the area and actually saw it, you might be getting some money from Comcast.
The cable company has
decided to pay ten dollars to each person who was "affected" by the showing of porn during the game. I have no idea how you're supposed to prove you saw it or even what "affected" means. Annoyed? Ticked off? Embarrassed for your family? Aroused? Did it make you want to strangle a puppy?
Comcast, the nudity you showed on Super Bowl Sunday made me rethink my career path. I want my ten dollars!Comcast is still investigating what exactly happened, but they're pretty sure it was done by someone on purpose. Only people who didn't watch the game in HD actually saw it, which is a great ad for HDTV. Not sure if the spokesperson for the company helps by using the words "aggressively pursue" and "come to a resolution" in the statement.
Posted Feb 2nd 2009 2:10AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Sports, OpEd, Video, Commercials, Super Bowl, Reality-Free
(Editor's Note: In anticipation of editing the Best/Worst Super Bowl ads, I paid close attention to the ads while I was watching and decided that some could go either way. Sure enough, Rich and Bob picked a couple of the same ads - Cash4Gold and CareerBuilder. Check out Rich's Best Super Bowl ads, and tell us which category you think the ads fall into ... Jane Boursaw)There weren't any
Super Bowl ads that made me want to kick in my television set this year, but I think that says more about the dullness of the ads rather than any brilliance. There weren't many memorable ads. I asked a friend of mine about the ads, and she said, "I think there was a cute one, I don't remember what it was."
Below are the five ads I chose as the worst of the night (not including the movie ads - those are in a different category and shouldn't be counted when you're judging the commercials). They range from confusing to lame to downright sad.
Continue reading The Super Bowl Commercials: The Worst - VIDEOS
Posted Feb 1st 2009 9:55AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Sports, Cancellations, Super Bowl, Reality-Free
God has offered us another conflicting sign that depending on who you ask, he either loves and respects us or is punishing us for doing something really, really bad. Check which chromosome they are carrying before you ask.
Lingerie Bowl VI, that pay-per-view hotbed of halftime entertainment for lonely fantasy football players with too much time and money on their hands,
lost their first venue in Florida awhile back. Then, the doomed franchise rose from the ashes like a mighty phoenix when the league's owners found a new venue at
a nudist colony in Tampa.
But just as that majestic phoenix spread its flaming wings and took to the skies once again, someone blasted it with a fire extinguisher. The game has been canceled for the second straight year because of
a dispute with their new venue. Continue reading Lingerie Bowl canceled, then renewed, then canceled again
Posted Jan 30th 2009 5:21PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Sports, Commercials, Super Bowl, Reality-Free
NBC is airing the
Super Bowl this year. Sunday's all-day telecast (several hours of pre-game and probably another four or so for the game itself) will feature a wide variety of guests. Which of these guests are not going to be seen during the broadcast?
Keith Olbermann
Sarah Palin
Tina Fey
Top Chef's Tom Colicchio
Matt Lauer
Al Roker
Bruce Springsteen
Bob Costas
Jay Leno
Conan O'Brien
Continue reading Everyone in the world will be on NBC this Super Bowl Sunday
Posted Jan 22nd 2009 5:03PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Sports, Industry, Commercials, Web, Super Bowl, Reality-Free
Two things about Darren Rovell's CNBC.com story about the famous
Apple Macintosh Super Bowl ad shocked me:
- That it aired for the first and only time (at least as an ad, not a cultural icon) 25 years ago today, during the broadcast of Super Bowl XVIII (when the Los Angeles Raiders crushed the Washington Redskins, for you sports fans); and
- That the Super Bowl was once played as early as January 22.
The NFL season has slowly gotten longer and longer, hasn't it? Anyway, Rovell has an interesting interview with Mike Murray, Apple's marketing manager for the then-brand-new Mac. The best thing to come out of the interview was the fact that Apple's board of directors
hated the completed ad, which was inspired by George Orwell's novel
1984, and never wanted it to air. But they couldn't sell back their 60-second spot and had nothing else to put there.
So, basically, a lack of productivity on the part of Apple's marketing department allowed us to see what became the most famous Super Bowl ad ever. You can see the ad after the jump.
Continue reading Someone fetch me my cane: Apple's "1984" ad is 25 years old today - VIDEO
Posted Jan 19th 2009 10:02AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Sports, News, OpEd, Reality-Free
Now, before you raise your pitchforks in a move to skewer me as a "liberal journalist," I just want to clarify what this item will be about. This is not an article about the job President Bush has done over the last eight years. You all have your differing opinions (which should be vented on politically-based sites) about how good or bad he did when it comes to policy. What I am going to talk about here is more of an image issue than a job performance one. We good? Good!
I'm going to ask a simple question: Was George W. Bush a good television President? Let's face it, the way that any famous person, whether they be Hollywood star or politician, is prepped for the TV cameras can make or break that person. Take the example of the Kennedy-Nixon televised debate in 1960. While many people have said that Nixon 'won' the debate on his statements, they also say that the way he looked in front of the cameras made voters uneasy about him and, eventually, cost him the election.
Continue reading Was President Bush a good television President? -- VIDEO
Posted Jan 18th 2009 11:06AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Sports, Cancellations, Reality-Free
If part of your Super Bowl plans consisted of watching the Lingerie Bowl on pay-per-view at halftime, then first of all find a girlfriend immediately and secondly, think again.
The St. Petersburg Times reports that the owners of the four-years-young full contact football floozy-off lost their playing field in the zero hour.
This, of course, is a double whammy for the Lingerie Bowl organizers who had to
cancel last year's game and hoped to make their big comeback with Super Bowl XLIII. They've also got less than three weeks to find a new venue, or the tears of hundreds of thousands of very, very, very lonely men will evaporate into sorrow vapor, form into a sadness cloud and create a tribulation hurricane the likes of which we have never seen.
Continue reading The Lingerie Bowl is without clothes, dignity and a venue
Posted Jan 16th 2009 2:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Sports, Late Night, Reality-Free
All you insomniacs, speed freaks and nightwatchmen (some of you might be all three) might have noticed David Letterman's picking on Mike Singletary. Given Letterman's latest ratings, that's probably not many of you.
Every week, Letterman has interrupted his show to conduct a live via satellite interview with San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary about last Sunday's game. A Singletary impersonator appears in a split screen shot in full 49ers regalia and answers questions with the fluidity and grace of Ralphie May in ice skates.
How did this slice of sports satire get started, and how long will it stick around?
Continue reading Why is Letterman always picking on Singletary?
Posted Jan 7th 2009 8:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Sports, Commercials, Chuck, Reality-Free
We told you last month about
NBC's plan to plug their shows during the Super Bowl game on February 1. Now it turns out that they're also going to show some stuff in 3-D.
Two commercials during the game will be
broadcast in 3-D: one is for the new animated movie
Monsters vs. Aliens, and the other is another ad for Sobe that features wacky lizards dancing (because
last year's ad was so great?). If, however, you're not a fan of commercials but are a fan of wearing red and blue eyewear, you're in luck: the episode of
Chuck that airs the night after the game will also be shown in 3-D. You can get the glasses (thanks to Intel) in Sobe displays in supermarkets and other stores.
3-D movies and shows are always disappointing. For every effect that makes you smile, there are 27 that are just really lame. Besides, I think
Heroes might be more fun in 3-D. I think it lends itself to 3-D more than a show like
Chuck does. We'll probably have these silly scenes of Chuck throwing a cell phone towards the camera or someone suddenly using a javelin.
[via
AdFreak]
Posted Dec 31st 2008 3:04PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Sports, Programming, TV on DVD, OpEd, Festivus, Reality-Free
Being that we eat, breathe, drink, sleep, pee, poop and vomit television here at TV Squad, we like to gauge the pulse of the community once in awhile. It gives us a chance to see what others are thinking and doing as well as see what the new and continuing trends are. Plus, it fills up some white space on the site. So, the question I am tabling is this: What are you going to be watching this New Year's Eve and Day?
It's a strange time of year for television as viewing selections are all over the map. If you are a lover of college football this is your Christmas as the tube is filled with the antiquated Bowl games that constitute "playoffs." For science fiction fans there's the annual Twilight Zone marathon on Sci Fi Channel. Those who can barely move from the couch for fear of talking on the porcelain phone once again, there's plenty of inane marathons to provide ambiance while you try to sleep it off.
Continue reading What will you be watching this New Year's Eve and Day?
Posted Dec 17th 2008 11:34AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Sports, Industry, Programming, Commercials, Reality-Free
I don't like football, but I do watch the Super Bowl for the
commercials. This year there might be a little bit more for other non-football fans to watch.
NBC is airing the game this season, on February 1, and they
plan to use some of the ad time to "reintroduce" people to several of their shows. God knows they need it. They're going to show clips from several series, remind longtime fans of each show what's important to keep in mind about the show, and also take some time to try to lure new fans to the shows as well. That's a tall order. The shows that will probably be plugged include the entire Monday night lineup (
Heroes,
Chuck, and the returning
Medium), as well as the special episode of
The Office that will run after the game, the new drama
Kings, and perhaps Amy Poehler's new comedy. The network might even use USA and Bravo to promote stuff during the game.
This could possibly work.
Heroes,
Chuck, and
Life are taking January off so it will be good to remind viewers, "hey, remember these shows?"
Posted Nov 28th 2008 2:32PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Programming, Reality-Free
If you're like a lot of other American families, Thanksgiving dinner included not only turkey, cranberries, stuffing and pumpkin pie. You also had the TV on and the football game playing.
Every year there are two games that are locked in -- by tradition -- to the Thanksgiving game, the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys. Well, it's time to end tradition and end it now. While Dallas has remained a national favorite -- whether you like them or loathe them, they're relevant -- the Detroit Lions are not. There aren't many times a year when family gets together and TV viewing is a big part of it. It's fun to watch the NFL with family and friends, but the game has to be potentially a good one. Some of my favorite memories are of watching football on TV on the holidays.
This season they are winless and looking at their schedule, not likely to notch a single victory the rest to the way. They are awful and unwatchable. Yesterday the Detroit Lions
were trounced 47-10 by the Tennessee Titans and the game was over in the first quarter, ruining the viewing for the entire nation. It had to be an embarrassment for the people of Detroit!
Continue reading Time for the NFL to end a Thanksgiving tradition
Posted Oct 30th 2008 2:15PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Celebrities, Reality-Free
At the rate they're going, the 2008 presidential candidates will have made appearances on every kind of TV program before voting day arrives. No show is too insignificant, it seems. (Seriously, if only we could have seen Obama and McCain do the cha-cha on
Dancing with the Stars!)
Therefore, it comes as no big shock that on the eve of the election -- Monday, November 3 -- the presidential
candidates are going to appear on ESPN's Monday Night Football.
They will be interviewed -- separately on tape -- by half-time anchor Chris "Boomer" Berman. The anticipated time is 10:15 p.m. (ET), but because of the flow of the game, it could be closer to 10:30.
Continue reading Monday Night Football to feature McCain & Obama on election eve
Posted Oct 28th 2008 4:26PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, News, Programming, Reality-Free
How long will baseball fans have to wait to watch the end of game five of the World Series between the Phillies and the Rays? Well, it'll be at least another day. Major League Baseball commissioner
Bud Selig has canceled tonight's resumption of the suspended game five.
Oh, and you know that Barack Obama ad that is going to be shown from 8-8:30 on NBC and CBS (
but not ABC)? It's also going to be on Fox, too. The World Series game will be pushed back to accommodate the Democratic Presidential candidate.
Don't flip out and cry foul! The TV gods anticipated that there might be a conflict when they sold the time slot to the Obama campaign. In fact, they had the opportunity to turn them down. But Fox was inclined to take the ad revenue.
Continue reading Obama trumps suspended World Series game
Posted Oct 22nd 2008 1:51PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Sports, Industry, Programming, Cancellations, Reality-Free
If you've been used to getting your dose of fighting action on CBS Saturday nights, you're going to have to look some place else.
CBS has
canceled its popular Saturday Night Fights show after the company that produced the show, Pro Elite, went out of business this week. They were supposed to film a match on November 8 in Reno, NV (and Showtime was supposed to air it later) but the company has canceled that show. No word on why the company is no longer operating.
Continue reading The first rule of Saturday Night Fights is that CBS has canceled it
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