SarahPalin-related stories
Posted Jun 28th 2009 9:03AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Not only did the
"Fire David Letterman" crowd completely fail at their attempt to oust the late night host from his desk chair, but they actually helped him.
That makes them the least successful protest effort since 1977's memorable campaign to
"Keep Pies Away from Anita Bryant." I believe it had something to do with preventing the spread of diabetes.
Variety reports that Letterman surpassed
The Tonight Show in the ratings for the first time in nearly three-and-a-half years while the whole Palin family "Jokegate" debacle was still slowly being scraped off the fan.
Continue reading Letterman has the last laugh on Palin's "Jokegate"
Posted Jun 16th 2009 3:33PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Late Night, Industry, In the Limelight, Celebrities
The shame (one of many) about David Letterman's tired, ham-fisted grasp at humor this past week regarding the daughters of Sarah Palin is that it's become such a political hot potato. It's gotten to the point where, despite the fact that Dave apologized and Palin accepted, Palin's supporters
still want to see the late-night host fired.
Danny Gallagher says a joke is a joke, but it's taken on more significance than that -- for better or worse.
Liberals point and say, "See! Conservatives can't take a joke. They're too bitter and uptight after losing the presidential election." Meanwhile, conservatives shout back that liberals are "out of touch with decency and only get offended when
liberal women are attacked."
What both sides miss is that Letterman's clunky "knocked up" gag is a problem because it attacks a kid (be she 14 or 18, if you want to split hairs). While Sarah Palin is fair game and any comic or pundit can verbally knock around her "slutty flight attendant look" without fear of reprisal, it's an unwritten law that you don't go after the kids when doing political material.
Continue reading Point/Counterpoint: Letterman's reach for relevance should lay off the kids
Posted Jun 16th 2009 2:01PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
A lot of dissecting and exploratory surgery has been done on the jokes that David Letterman made about the Palin family. Even after
Dave apologized and
Palin accepted, people still want to perform a comedy autopsy to figure out what Dave's intent was and why Palin was so vocal in her reaction to it.
The problem is it's an unnecessary surgery and it fails to attack the root of the problem while the real cancer spreads like a California wildfire. E.B. White once said about such procedures that, "
Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it." The only reason this frog hasn't died is because someone wants to keep it alive and no one has dared to touch the heart.
This is the side I will debate in the never-ending Letterman vs. Palin "Joke-gate" controversy while our very own John Scott Lewinski will offer a rebuttal later in the day that a public figure's children should always be off-limits.
Continue reading Point/Counterpoint: Letterman's joke about the Palins was just that
Posted Jun 16th 2009 8:11AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Late Night, News, Celebrities, Talk Show
Though David Letterman officially apologized last night for his controversial Sarah Palin joke, it's not stopping Palin supporters from calling for his dismissal.
It's the latest chapter in a story bearing an uncanny resemblance to herpes. It never goes away, and you're never sure when it's going to pop up again. In an attempt to end the furor, Letterman took a moment during his Monday night broadcast to
apologize directly to Palin and her family.
"It's not your fault that (the joke) was misunderstood. It's my fault," Letterman said. "So, I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke."
He added, "I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself. I'm sorry about it, and I'll try to do better in the future."
Continue reading Letterman's apology doesn't deter Palin fans
Posted Jun 12th 2009 10:32AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
It looks like Sarah Palin
got her chance to respond to Dave's inappropriate joke about her daughter. You know, the one he
already apologized for. Palin chided that Dave should apologize to all young women around the country rather than just she and her family.
Was it a legitimate mistake on Dave's part and the part of his writers? I believe it was. Is Sarah Palin using this as a political opportunity to get her name even more out there than it is? Yeah, I believe that's the case too.
A more appropriate response from the Alaskan governor would have been to accept the apology and, if she wants to hold a grudge, simply never appear on Dave's show or give it him any further publicity. She's a public figure, and sadly so are her children even if they didn't choose to be. No doubt they will be the targets of inappropriate jokes time to time.
Video of her response is after the jump.
Continue reading Sarah Palin rips Dave a new one
Posted May 9th 2009 12:50PM by Eliot Glazer
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Reality-Free
Radner.
Louis-Dreyfus.
Poehler.
Fey.
Shannon.
Suffice it to say, the number of women who became famous on
Saturday Night Live before graduating to solo success is few and far between. Sure, Gilda Radner can be considered a pioneer in the art of sketch comedy. And
Julia Louis-Dreyfus undoubtedly honed her comedic skills before becoming a sitcom icon on
Seinfeld. And, yes,
Tina Fey can easily be considered a heroine to comedy nerds everywhere who have witnessed her climb from
Weekend Update anchor to
Mean Girls scribe to single-handedly decimating the vice presidential chances of one certain gun-wieldin', six-pack-totin' Alaskan governor.
But, sadly, the number of men who left Studio 8 for the superstardom of Planet Hollywood (not the theme restaurant) easily outnumbers the ladies. For every
Amy Poehler, there's a
Will Ferrell. And a Bill Murray. And a
Mike Myers and
Eddie Murphy and
Adam Sandler (although, to be fair, there's also a
David Gary Kroeger, A. Whitney Brown, and Charles Rocket for every Melanie Hutsell, too). (And for the record, no, you shouldn't recognize those names.)
Continue reading Why isn't Jan Hooks famous?
Posted Apr 14th 2009 9:04AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
The network that brought you a movie based on the 2000 Presidential Election and would have brought you a movie based on the 2004 Presidential Election had it been more interesting is bringing you another one.
Variety reports that HBO Films has optioned the rights to a book based on the events of the 2008 Presidential Election for another made-for-TV movie. The book, "Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime," written by political writers Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, will be released later this year.
So will the movie, written by
Blood Diamond screenwriter Charles Leavitt, be fair and balanced? Will it give both sides equal time? I honestly could not care less. As long as it pisses off the Elizabeth Hasselbecks and Joy Behars of the world, that's fine with me.
Continue reading HBO is making a 2008 election film, but who will play whom?
Posted Mar 15th 2009 11:09AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Who knew this was George W. Bush in reflection week? I must have missed the memo. But when I tuned in to watch the HBO debut of
Will Ferrell: You're Welcome, America, his take on President Bush since the end of this presidency, I couldn't help but recall that just a couple of days ago on
Hard Ball, MSNBC's
Chris Matthews was going at Bush's former
press secretary Ari Fleischer hammer and tongs as Fleischer defended his old boss.
Don't these post-mortems usually take a few years to take place? But this post isn't about politics. It's about
Will Ferrell, and my thoughts are mainly about Ferrell's show, which has a certain raunchy charm, which apparently offended quite a few people when it played on Broadway. All the raunch is still in place in the HBO version, so if you're curious about Bush's little George (allegedly), check it out.
Continue reading Will Ferrell's Broadway Bush - VIDEO
Posted Jan 8th 2009 6:01PM by Eliot Glazer
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Video, Watercooler Talk, Retro Squad, Reality-Free
It seems that there has never been a period of time when critics (and the masses) didn't chide
Saturday Night Live, claiming the show to be in a "creative slump," or even going as far as calling it - get this -
"Saturday Night Dead."
But for stalwart fans like myself who tend to consider every nuance and minor detail of the show's sketches, the sentiment is either only partially true or not true at all. Sure, the show saw a spike in viewership thanks to
Tina Fey's
Sarah Palin impression, leading critics to praise
SNL's "creative resurgence." But the buzz was just as strong when
Will Ferrell played George W. Bush nine years ago. (And, furthermore, it wasn't as if the show didn't have its culturally resonant hits in recent years, not limited to
Maya Rudolph's Donatella Versace impression or
Andy Samberg's fusion of Internet humor into the mix).
So to those who say SNL is back, I say, have you ever seen
Molly Shannon's Jeannie Darcy? Because it is, by far, one of the most brilliantly executed, underrated characters to ever appear on the show. (Or maybe I just have a thing for mullets and bolo ties. Same difference.) See what I mean in the video after the jump.
Continue reading Jeannie Darcy: SNL's most underrated character? - VIDEO
Posted Jan 8th 2009 11:03AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Festivus, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
Ah, 2009. Come in, come in! Have a seat at my crystal ball. Oh, I know it's cracked, but don't worry -- it's still useful.
You are so young, so virile, my little new year. You are also ripe...ripe for me to predict your future. I see plenty in my cracked crystal ball -- yes, yes, it's working just fine. Some of it is good, some is bad, and the rest I can't see because of all the cracks. Those predictions probably don't mean much anyway. I mean, Dustin Diamond being cast in a remake of Cop Rock? Who would believe such tripe?
Oh, don't get up! Yes, Allison gave us her predictions already, but that was with a different ball. So, sit, sit, and let me predict your future in television through my fractured sphere.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: 2009 predictions from the cracked crystal ball
Posted Jan 2nd 2009 2:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, OpEd, Festivus, Celebrities, Reality-Free
What was the top TV story of the year? The choice was obvious to all of us, and probably all of you, too: The election. The 2008 race for the White House was not only historic, it was dramatic and played out more on TV with recognizable star personas than any election in recent memory.
And like a great TV show, it was a season-long run of highs and lows, tension and release, defeat and victory. Along the way, Americans made a choice about who will run the country for the next four years, but they were also entertained by a near constant barrage of media coverage in the form of maximum cable news, thousands of commercials, daily political commentary both serious and comic, a plethora of debates, and -- naturally --
Saturday Night Live's take on it all.
It all started about a year ago in the cold of Iowa and New Hampshire...
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2008: The election - VIDEOS
Posted Dec 22nd 2008 5:02PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Saturday Night Live, Video, Watercooler Talk, Festivus, Celebrities, Reality-Free
...Ew, not like that, you guys. Although, I'm sure if you did just a few minutes of Googling, you could find that too, in one form or another. What I'm talking about is
Tina Fey's brilliant impression of vice-presidential candidate
Sarah Palin. How good was the impression? It was so good that the episodes featuring Fey, and the one that featured Palin herself, were some of
SNL's highest-rated episodes in years. Tina Fey's brilliant but ratings-challenged sitcom,
30 Rock received a ratings bump, she scored a
multi-million dollar book deal, and
newspapers sometimes forgot that they were actually two different people.Not bad for a funny lady who had never been known for her impressions and a governor from a small town no one had ever heard of.
Obama may have been our first celebrity candidate, but Palin was our first beauty queen. Whether you loved her or hated her, it's hard to argue that she was a captivating figure.
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2008: Fey does Palin - VIDEOS
Posted Dec 20th 2008 11:34AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Late Night, OpEd, Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, Festivus, Reality-Free
...Four impressions we'll be missing
When John McCain and Barack Obama became the clear front runners, no one thought anyone could pull off a decent impression of either guy. They were both bland, articulate politicians who could speak in clear, concise sentences and didn't sound like someone had stepped on their larynx with a golf cleat.
But in the zero hour, we were saved ... and not just by Sarah Palin.
These are the impressions that we're sorry to have to say goodbye to, even if we're glad the people they poke fun at may not be coming back.
Continue reading On the 4th day of Festivus, TV gave to me... - VIDEOS
Posted Dec 19th 2008 2:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Reality-Free
No one's accused the cast of
How I Met Your Mother of having a collectively crummy sense of humor. Quite the contrary; every time I've seen them either in person or in a behind-the-scenes video, they always seem to be goofing around and having fun. At the very least, I'd imagine that neither Jason Segel nor Neil Patrick Harris allows things to get too heavy on the set.
So when
Entertainment Weekly asked the cast
to pose as various celebrities in a "The Best of 2008" pictorial, I'm sure they didn't need much time to say yes. In the pictorial, the cast portray the Olympic 4x200m relay team, the Jonas Brothers, and the cast of the
Indiana Jones and
Sex and the City movies. Finally, Segel and Alyson Hannigan pose as Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, respectively, during the VP debate. It might have been more interesting if they reversed roles in that photo, but I guess Segel didn't have the legs for it.
[via
Pop Candy]
Posted Dec 6th 2008 2:31PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Earlier this week, I was watching the
CBS Evening News while I was at the keyboard. That means I wasn't really watching the TV screen; I was listening to the tube while working on the Mac. Therefore, I didn't even notice that
Katie Couric had a new haircut. Then, from the other room, my husband called to me and asked what I thought. "Thought about what?" I answered.
That was how I heard the "big" news that
CBS anchor Katie Couric has a new look. Really, what does it matter? Why should it matter? She's presenting the news, not selling hair gel or mousse, right?
Continue reading Katie's got a new haircut; does it matter?
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