It has been announced that Michael Jackson's public funeral with be held next Tuesday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. CBS has revealed that they are going to cover it extensively, with The Early Show broadcasting live from the Staples Center on Monday and Tuesday and Katie Couric doing The CBS Evening News from there as well. No word yet on what ABC and NBC will be doing, though I assume they'll do similar coverage (not to mention the massive coverage we'll see on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News).
But how extensive should the coverage be? Should the news channels cover it all day long? Should the networks report live from the funeral? Should the funeral be televised live on all channels? Should there just be stories of it and no live coverage at all?
I like seeing commercials from overseas. They aren't usually something we'll see on American television, so it's good that the web can fulfill all of our foreign advertising needs. This European McDonald's ad shows a nightmarish world where two guys share one nose. I can't imagine something that two guys could share that would be so creepy and uncomfortable.
If anyone in the press should ever ask you, "What were you doing when you heard the great Michael Jackson was dead?", be sure to answer with: "Reading one of your stories on what a lowlife you thought he was just prior to his death."
There are times when I'm ashamed to be a part of the media. The 48 hours after Michael Jackson's death was just such an epoch. I chose that last word carefully because the endless, maudlin, self-congratulatory coverage the major news networks wallowed in following Jackson's death was as long-winded as it was embarrassingly dramatic.
While that coverage is sure to continue throughout the memorial services, unavoidable custody and estate battles and forthcoming autopsy reports, none of that will compare in sickly sweet sensation to what CNN, Fox News and the others lowered themselves to just following the singer's death.
I don't know if the word "obitutainment" has been used before, but it's here now. Jon Stewart mentioned it last night in this installment of the Rippy Awards (I just now realized it refers to R.I.P., ha). And this isn't about Michael Jackson! It's about Karl Malden and his connection to an NBC anchor Brian Williams. I think I'm as connected to Malden as Williams is.
NBC isn't exactly engendering a lot of goodwill among people, with their cancellations of shows like Life and Medium, and My Name is Earl. The fact that they're replacing these shows with not one but two medical shows, isn't exactly a confidence booster. NBC hasn't sent screeners of all their pilots yet, hence the "Part 1" in the title. But I have gotten a taste of both their comedy and drama offerings with Community, a comedy starring The Soup's Joel McHale, and Trauma, one of the aforementioned medical dramas.
Going into this, I didn't have high hopes for Trauma, and while I wanted to like Community, I had a bad feeling that it wasn't going to be the vehicle that would change Joel McHale from cute host of a basic cable show to primetime star. Now, after seeing both of them, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by one.
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption! Last week's winner is RobynM, with this:
"...and here's to the on-staff STD specialist."
This week we have a picture from a recent episode of MTV's Real World: Cancun.
It has been announced that Michael Jackson's public funeral with be held next Tuesday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. CBS has revealed that they are going to cover it extensively, with The Early Show broadcasting live from the Staples Center on Monday and Tuesday and Katie Couric doing The CBS Evening News from there as well. No word yet on what ABC and NBC will be doing, though I assume they'll do similar coverage (not to mention the massive coverage we'll see on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News). 
If anyone in the press should ever ask you, "What were you doing when you heard the great Michael Jackson was dead?", be sure to answer with: "Reading one of your stories on what a lowlife you thought he was just prior to his death."
NBC isn't exactly engendering a lot of goodwill among people, with their cancellations of shows like 
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption! 
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
