TVSquad

Dennis Haysbert recently claimed that his role as President Palmer on 24 may have helped pave the way for a viable African American presidential candidate. He went on to claim that his portrayal of Nelson Mandela in the movie Goodbye Bafana ended apartheid and that his role as Jonas Blane in The Unit cured polio. Haysbert was then wrestled to the ground by his handlers and is now "recuperating" at the Clay Aiken Home for Delusional Celebrities.

My first thought upon hearing this news was that Dennis Haysbert is obviously insane. Since I've been criticized in this space for not having an open mind about insane things, I decided to take Mr. Haysbert at his word. I then went even further and went to work putting together a list of other politicians who exist mainly due to the hard work done for them by TV actors. After researching Wikipedia for almost a full fifteen minutes, this is the list I've managed to put together...

(S04E17) I don't want to seem like I'm not happy for Jerry but did we really need to know so much about him losing his virginity and by "so much" I mean anything at all? More importantly, I have to call BS on Jerry's glowing review of his opening night performance. In my many years of "intimacy," some experiences have certainly been better than others but none of them have ever made me nostalgic for my first time. Not that I don't remember it fondly, it's just not something I would brag about and I really doubt that anyone involved would describe me as caring, respectful or wonderful.

I must admit, Mr. Kelley had me at "THE United States Supreme Court." This was a real test for Alan. On one hand, how does he justify defending a man convicted of raping a child? On the other hand, how will his huge ego be able to pass up the opportunity to argue in front of the highest court in the country?

Slate magazine is running an article regarding how weak most of what passes as political satire on television is. They quote heavily from Russell L. Peterson's new book Strange Bedfellows: How Late Night Comedy Turns Democracy into a Joke and also take some time to body-slam CNN's new comedy show, Not Just Another Cable News Show (Wait. What? CNN has a new comedy show on it? I thought that was the thing Wolf Blitzer hosted every day. Are you telling me that's not a comedy?)

Peterson's book, at first blush, seems to be another overly-alarmist, semi-academic attack on pop-culture -- Darrell Hammond is destroying democracy? Really? -- that I usually just ignore. Well, maybe it's the Tylenol PM I took to ease the pain of being in Utica tonight, but after reading Slate's discussion of it, I started to come around to Peterson's way of thinking...

As the race between Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barak Obama heats up for the Democratic party presidential candidacy, here comes news that should throw the spotlight onto Hillary...if she's savvy enough to say yes. During a recent visit to The Tyra Banks Show, Hillary revealed that "if (paired) with one of those really good partners" she would someday like to compete on Dancing with the Stars. When the powers that be at Dancing heard that, they wasted no time in sending the former first lady a formal invitation. While they acknowledge that the show is not currently in production, dancers from the show are performing around the country in Dancing with the Stars - The Tour. They invited Hillary to choose any one of the dancers and take a try at a cha cha, pasa doble or tango. Or, if she prefer, she could always call on hubby Bill for a pas de deux.

"Indecision 2008": The first news to note was Barack Obama's landslide victory in South Carolina. Of course, the win did not go unnoticed by the haters, specifically Bill Clinton. I was surprised that strange little pocket Clinton thing actually worked, too! Yay for successful gags. As for the Obama lovers, Ted Kennedy has publicly joined the fan club. I would like to direct Jon to check out this Clone High clip to improve his every-Kennedy accent.

In other news, Mitt Romney makes my brain hurt. Why? Well, many reasons, but most recently, he, umm--Okay, I'll leave you with: "Who let the dogs out?". Black potential voters. MLK Day. Don't believe me? Take a look.

Jon kicked off the episode by running a few rounds of paper football. Not that I'm a big paper sports enthusiast, but I couldn't help but notice that he wasn't holding the football quite right. Jon, your story just doesn't add up. He then flubbed a gag with a toy robot, which was pretty precious, even though it didn't make much sense. What can I say? I like satirists and robots.

"Indecision 2008": The Democrats took on Nevada and the media took on the world's most cliche Las Vegas metaphors to cover Hillary Clinton's win. However, Jon had them all beat with his "bet on black" comment. Of course, Hillary's win was met with criticism and Bill Clinton defended her like he's already the First Laddie. And then that drew even more criticism. So it goes.

While critics may heap criticism on the torture-heavy Fox thriller 24, a former commander in chief -- and spouse of a current Democratic presidential candidate -- is a fan of watching Jack Bauer hunt down terrorists.

Former President Bill Clinton said even though 24 is run by "an uber right-wing guy" (referring to producer Joel Surnow), he thinks the show is fair in making both Democrats and Republicans look equally evil, according to a Reuters article.

Of other contemporary programs, Clinton said he's fond of Boston Legal and that his McFavorite is Grey's Anatomy. (Wonder where he stands on the Callie-Izzie contretemps?)

The Hollywood Reporter also said Clinton likes watching TV Land -- I Love Lucy, All in the Family and Bonanza -- because his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, is frequently away campaigning and it gives "me something to do at night."

(S05E13) Ya know, no matter what part political affiliation you claim, I think we can all agree that Bill Clinton lends himself well to comedy. There's just enough hillbilly in his character to make him easy to laugh at. Family Guy certainly isn't the first show to take a run at Clinton, and they've now featured the former president four or five times, but there's plenty of room at that party.

That's getting ahead of the game though. Before we could get to the Peter and Bill hijinks, there was the loosely relevant opening at the Quahog Marine Center. While it was a long way to go to get to the main plot, there were a lot of funny bits in that opening. Herbert at the fondle tank, Stewie's stripper line, and Seamus saving Peter from the octopus were all good bits. I especially liked the Wacky Wall Walker finish to that.

Barney Fife, Herman Munster, James T. Kirk...and President Bill Clinton?

Yup, the former President is going to be the keynote speaker at TV Land's March 23 event to announce their lineup and programming future. It's the ultimate Baby Boomer talking about the ultimate Baby Boomer network. To quote TV Land spokesman Paul Ward, about the speech: "You better believe it's going to be about the economic and cultural and social influence of Baby Boomers (I don't know why I keep capitalizing "Baby Boomers" but it just looks right).

The event is being held to announce new shows that TV Land is going to air this year. It will be held at Jazz at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.

[via TV Tattle]

What happens when you mix Bill Clinton, a morning issues show produced by the conservative FOX News Channel, and a question that he didn't do enough to capture Osama bin Laden? You get the tirade below, which aired yesterday morning on FOX News Sunday. When host Chris Wallace questions the former president on how his administration failed to get bin Laden, Clinton got increasingly upset, to the point where he was almost yelling at Wallace. I could go over what he said, but you're better off watching the ten-minute video and you can decide for yourself whether he is right or not. Embedded video is after the jump; it's been one of YouTube's most-watched videos to date.

By the way, here is Wallace's reaction, care of FishbowlDC.

[video via FishbowlNY]

During an appearance on C-SPAN, Robert Novak, certified prick, claimed to have never seen The Daily Show and that he will go to the grave never having seen it. He then went on to call Jon Stewart a "self-righteous comedian taking on airs of grandeur". Jon, of course, found this absolutely hysterical because didn't Novak just say that he's never seen TDS? Silly Novak, uninformed opinions are for bloggers. Jon faced the camera and asked Novak to join him on neutral ground (Food Network, perhaps) and discuss. And I know it's wrong, but I find it highly amusing when Jon attempts a complicated prop joke and fails miserably in the process. C'mon, it's adorable.

ABC's TV movie The Path to 9/11, based on the 9/11 Commission report and other sources, is supposed to be a dramaticized account of the lead-up to the attacks on that date in 2001. But it seems like a few of the segments in the two-part movie, set to air this weekend, are a little too dramaticized for Bill Clinton's tastes. According to the New York Post, aides of the former President have fired off a letter of ABC's Bob Iger complaining about three segments in the movie that they feel portray the Clinton Administration's handling of Osama bin Laden in an unfair light.

The three segments in question are one that implies that Clinton was too distracted by the Lewinsky scandal to bother with bin Laden, one where they had the al-Queda leader cornered but didn't act, and one where Madeline Albright somehow gave away information prior to a missle strike that allowed bin Laden to escape it. Clinton and his people claim these were all untrue -- the 9/11 commission's report seems to support them -- and they want ABC to pull the miniseries. A network spokesman defended the show, calling it a "dramatization, not a documentary." But since they're offering the movie to high schools for teaching purposes, you'd think they'd be more careful with the "dramaticized" parts.

[via Mediabistro]