(S07E08)NCIS did something so great on tonight's episode that I'm surprised I haven't seen it done on another procedural until now. If you haven't seen the show yet, I won't spoil it, but I will say that it was a complication that really made the show.
There were moments for DiNozzo to reference all kinds of TV shows from the past, a chance for Gibbs to prove that there's nothing he can't handle with aplomb, and even the opportunity for Abby to show that sans Cafe Pow, she's still the sharpest lab tech in NCIS. More on the case after the jump.
It looks like we've got the makings of a fight on our hands.
Robert Halderman, the man accused of extorting David Letterman and turning the always funny Late Show into a storm of innuendo and gossip, wants his case to go to trial and most likely won't accept a plea deal or make some sort of arrangement with prosecutors.
So far, he's got two things going for him: a whirlwind of press surrounding his case and the fallout of his arrest and money. The New York Observer reports he's raised almost $100,000 in legal funds for his case.
I hope this doesn't happen, but is it just me or is it starting to look like Halderman's trial could actually hurt Letterman and company more than it helps him?
Today I made an executive decision and gave the podcast an oh-so-creative name: "The TV Squad Podcast." This was after we recorded it on Tuesday, so I still refer to it by its old APB name. If you have any suggestions, let me know at tvsquad [at] gmail [dot] com.
In this episode, Late Show writer Bill Scheft joins me, Danny Gallagher and Kona Gallagher to talk about his new book Everything Hurts. Of course, there's lots of good behind-the-scenes info about what it was like to work at The Late Show, especially on how the events of the past month affected the staff and the show's writing, including the monologue.
He also tells some funny stories about being canned from Sports Illustrated (and spawns a new catchphrase), feeding lines to the guy who played Mike Singletary and more. It's 45 minutes of fun.
After the interview, Kona, Danny and I give our picks of the week. Run time is 1:03:02.
A former female writer at Late Night with David Letterman has dropped a bombshell in a Vanity Fair article in which she complained of a "hostile work environment for women". While he didn't hit on the writer, she claims that she noticed Letterman paid "extra attention" to her and had a reputation of sleeping with female workers.
While this could be a legitimate complaint, I find it somewhat suspicious that she waited until now to write about this. It could be a case of jumping on a bandwagon or she may have been afraid to say anything for fear of repercussions (as in "you'll never work in this industry again").
There is also that fine line between taking advantage of a subordinate and flirting. Not having been there, it's difficult to access what the case actually was. Mind you, flirting with subordinates at the workplace is probably not a good idea in this litigious society, but he was likely so busy with the show, how else was he going to meet single women? Match.com?
It turns out the David Letterman sex scandal hasn't reached its climax. It was just napping.
The National Enquirer reports that the Late Show host may have been caught on camera getting it on with a member of his staff.
The footage in question came from a surveillance camera in the show's offices that Letterman and his "much younger female co-worker" did not know had been installed in the building. The tape may be released when Robert Halderman, Letterman's extorter, goes to trial or when some sick son of a bitch with nothing but time on his hands and bandwidth to waste decides to post the thing on the Internet. For the sake of humanity, its vision and waning sex drives, don't. Just don't.
I don't mean the endlessly publicized sex scandal or the Sarah Palin controversy. I don't mean the ham-fisted and unfunny political commentary -- or even the strange tales of stalkers around every corner. I mean what happened to the guy from the mid-late 1980s who seemed so above and beyond any such tired showbiz cliches?
When Letterman followed Carson during the Golden Age of NBC late night TV, his show was admittedly quirky. But it was one of the best examples of post-modern comedy in the medium's history. Late Night with David Letterman not only mocked TV entertainment while being a part of it, but the show made fun of the very idea that people get paid to gab or act silly in front of millions of people.
It's official, "pulling a Letterman" means sleeping with a co-worker. Why? Because I said so.
It seems that ABC's late night host Jimmy Kimmel has been in a relationship with a member of his staff as well. This time, the host has been dating the show's head writer Molly McNeary for "several months."
This forced Fox News to pose the question if Kimmel is "pulling a Letterman" and ask if he should be forced to apologize on the air to Ben Affleck. That normally would be hilarious if Fox News didn't handle all of their news with the same level of integrity and tact.
And yes, I'm jealous they came up with that line first.
As part of our ongoing efforts to infiltrate every one of your senses, we've decided to bring back the APB Podcast, last seen in various forms around two years ago. In this first podcast, Jason Hughes, Kona Gallagher and myself discuss the following topics:
The Letterman scandal
A minute (if that) about Jon and Kate
How the fall season's going so far, including why Dollhouse's ratings are so bad,
Ask TV Squad, where we answer a question submitted to Isabelle's column,
That bastion of journalistic excellence, Entertainment Weekly, unveiled their new cover and (surprise!) Letterman made the cover. It features the Late Show host without pants, which in any other context would be the lowest selling issue of EW since Ernest Borgnine forgot to put on underpants.
My problem isn't with the picture, although it seems it probably should be. It's the headline. Is "Oh, Dave" the best they could do? Hell, "Where the Wild Things Are" would be ten times better and save a fifth of the print space. Write a better headline in the comments section below and we'll feature the best ones in a future post.
One notably close figurehead in David Letterman-gate seems to have gone overlooked, a shiny bald one.
Letterman's longtime sidekick and band leader Paul Shaffer has just released a new memoir called We'll Be Here the Rest of Our Lives about his rise to late night music infamy. He talked more than a few ears off about his own life in music, but he's kept very hush-hush on the whole Letterman brewhaha.
"You know, I just can't talk about it," Shaffer told a Time reporter in a recent interview. "There is a legal proceeding going on. I've been advised that I can't comment on that stuff."
He couldn't even tell Harry Smith on CBS' Early Show on his own network just what the mood is like around Late Show central. However, the rest of both interviews offer a very interesting peak into a life in music that has spanned just about every end of the TV dial and a very funny diversion from Smith's persistent reporter powers to get something out of him about the whole scandal. Something tells me Shaffer would have made one hell of a good press secretary.
The funniest thing about the season so far is that, after all the attention NBC's move to put Jay Leno at 10 PM generated through the spring and summer, The Jay Leno Show itself has been getting very little in the way of audience or viral buzz.
But those among you who are rooting for this experiment to fail, it's not time to break out the Champagne just yet. Although Leno's ratings are low and continue to sink, NBC isn't pulling the plug anytime soon. And the reason why is the most intriguing part of this whole experiment.
Just as one broadcasting legend faces his slow downfall, this week also marked the triumphant return of another to the airwaves.
Don Imus, MSNBC's former morning show man who was ousted from his TV and radio time slots for racially charged comments he made about the Rutgers' women's basketball team, returned to TV on Monday on the Fox Business Channel.
The morning shock jock wasted no time at his new home by getting back to his old tricks, lambasting everyone in the biz from David Letterman to his new co-worker Glenn Beck. And the move seems to be paying off since Fox Business scored their biggest ratings hit since ... well, ever.
It's become the new scandal of the week of the century that just won't go away. Now TVTattle.com has discovered that Stephanie Birkitt, the "former" Late Show employee who had a fling with host David Letterman, is still getting credit in the show's closing credits.
The image above lists Birkitt, the girl who also worked in front of the camera as Vicki the prize girl during the show's "Know Your Current Events" bit, as Letterman's assistant.
Talk about a scandal that literally just won't go away. Of course, there are a number of explanations for this (it's just an inside joke, it was a mistake, etc.) Keep watching the closing credits and see if her name still pops up under the "assistants" slot and be sure to let us know below if you see it.
You knew that after a weekend of blackmail scandal news and tabloid stories, David Letterman wasn't going to open his show on Monday just telling jokes about Chicago losing the Olympics. In fact, he started off the proceedings with a bang, asking the audience, "Did your weekend just fly by?"
Then he proceeded telling some pretty funny jokes about the scandal; he spent the weekend "raking my hate mail," that it was "chilly outside the house and chilly inside the house," and that the next phase is to go on Oprah and sob. He even acknowledged his odd comedic predicament by trailing off on jokes about Bill Clinton, Mark Sanford and Eliot Spitzer, realizing that he's not in the position to poke fun at those folks.
But then, after the break, he sincerely apologized to his staff for putting them through this mess, and said he had a lot of work to do to repair things with his wife, Regina Lasko. It was at that moment (video below) that I realized that Dave needs to stop talking about this mess... immediately:
In the wayback days of my entertainment journalism career (2004, to be precise), I had written a few poorly-executed but fun articles for a wonderful little site called Knot Magazine (not to be confused with The Knot, a website which I'm unfortunately all too familiar with these days). After publishing a couple of my missives, the editor had an idea for me: why not interview that spunky assistant Dave Letterman has on his show?
Sounded like a cool idea. It's not like Stephane Birkitt hadn't been interviewed before; she had spoken to a couple of papers from her alma mater and her hometown, and seemed approachable. And it would have been a fun story to try to figure out how she went from anonymous assistant to the girl who talked about her weekend on the phone to the on-stage presence Dave often called "Vicki." How hard could it be to get an interview?
It looks like we've got the makings of a fight on our hands. 
Today I made an executive decision and gave the podcast an oh-so-creative name: "The TV Squad Podcast." This was after we recorded it on Tuesday, so I still refer to it by its old APB name. If you have any suggestions, let me know at tvsquad [at] gmail [dot] com.
A former female writer at Late Night with David Letterman has dropped a bombshell in 
It turns out the David Letterman sex scandal hasn't reached its climax. It was just napping. 
What happened to David Letterman?
It's official, "pulling a Letterman" means sleeping with a co-worker. Why? Because I said so. 
That bastion of journalistic excellence, Entertainment Weekly, unveiled their new cover and (surprise!) Letterman made the cover. It features the Late Show host without pants, which in any other context would be the lowest selling issue of EW since Ernest Borgnine forgot to put on underpants. 
One notably close figurehead in David Letterman-gate seems to have gone overlooked, a shiny bald one. 
The funniest thing about the season so far is that, after all the attention NBC's move to put Jay Leno at 10 PM generated through the spring and summer, The Jay Leno Show itself has been getting very little in the way of audience or viral buzz.
Just as 
In the wayback days of my entertainment journalism career (2004, to be precise), I had written a few poorly-executed but fun articles for a wonderful little site called 
The TV Squad Podcast: The Prisoner, '80s TV, soap news and more
Let's talk about spoilers ...
The Prisoner -- An early look
