All that white hair and he's two years younger than I am.
Anderson Cooper's birthday was June 3 (mine's June 9 - I like money and DVDs!), and he was surprised on the set the other night by two special guests: Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly. Just kidding! Actually, it's a woman who hasn't made the A-list of celebs yet and a woman who is sure you can't afford anything.
Of all the networks, CNN probably had the stupidest election coverage trickery (unless you count all of the stupid things people said on MSNBC). For example, will.i.am being interviewed via hologram (that wasn't even really a hologram) instead of just appearing via satellite or in the studio, and that goofy hologram graphic that Anderson Cooper had to hold. The Daily Show took that on in their "Moment of Zen" last night, while talking about CNN's Peabody Award win. (Video also here or here.)
Anderson Cooper is not only an intrepid reporter, traveling to the ends of the earth to report on war, environmental issues, and famine, he also likes to watch American Idol. He knows Simon Cowell and likes him, and he doesn't know Paula Abdul and he...well, he fast forwards through her inane judging comments whenever he watches the show. Cooper is a funny guy. I always have thought he should get his own morning or late night show, but then again maybe his humor is more effective because he has another life as a news guy, like Brian Williams. (If this video doesn't work try here.)
The silver fox has been popping up all over the continental US this week for his CNN show, AC360.Two nights ago Anderson hung out with some do-gooders in New Orleans, profiling the efforts of volunteer groups rebuilding Katrina homes. Last night, he made an appearance in Warren, Michigan, right out side Detroit to talk to hard hit auto workers.
Now, I enjoy it when they take him out of the studio and dump him among the commoners, since that's when his real talent of connecting with people comes through. But, as a viewer who might actually be interested in the news, it's getting hard to hear him over the whoops and hollers of his live audiences. It really hit a sour note last night while he was reporting on the death of Natasha Richardson.
If you're anything like me (first of all, you have my deepest sympathy), you haven't been able to sit still since The Daily Show and The Colbert Report went off the air for the holidays. It also may be because my body has absorbed more sugary fat from the holidays than one of Tyler Durden's homemade soaps.
Both shows returned to the airwaves Monday with new episodes. Both also had cable news celebrity cameos so big, no lightning fast news ticker announcing an accidental nuclear missile launch could draw your attention away from them. The Daily Show returned with another appearance by CNN's gray-haired uber-anchor Anderson Cooper and an interesting interview with new Meet the Press moderator David Gregory. The Colbert Report picked up former Hannity and Colmes pushover Alan Colmes and wound things up with an interview with CNN reporter John King.
I think one of the weirdest things that happened on election night were the hologram thingies that CNN used. It was OK when they showed an image of a building, but it got really strange when Anderson Cooper interviewed will.i.am (almost as weird as me having to write someone's name as will.i.am). Cooper was standing there in the studio, looking off to the side, waiting for am (is that his last name? Or is he one name, like Twiggy?) to pop up in front of him like on Star Trek. The whole thing looked kinda cool but also kinda cheesy, and it was funny when Cooper introduced the interview by saying "we're joined now via hologram..."
The continuing adventures of Anderson Cooper, Mr. Magoo and the magic board. 10:20: They've moved out to the lawn in Phoenix. The atmosphere there is quite a bit more, uh, subdued than in Chicago. 10:19: Yikes. Dana Bash looks more and more depressed each time they show her. She's reporting that McCain's camp has given up. 10:08: Wolf Blitzer: "Arkansas. Put that in John McCain's column right now." Is it wrong that that made me snicker? It doesn't even make sense! 9:59: Iowa was just called for Obama, and Anderson Cooper just asked what they're going to do when he gets to 270 electoral votes. "We leave!" was the reply. We'll see if that actually happens. Could we have an empty eleciton center soon? Check back for more coverage! 9:55: Roland Martin compared the Obama supporters in Grant Park to Lollapalooza. Meanwhile, back at the Biltmore, an unidentified old man is wandering around aimlessly on stage.
Election night! Election night! Let's check out the folks at CNN. Is Wolf Blitzer going to lose his mind? Is Anderson Cooper going to be pretty? Is John King going to lovingly stroke the magic board? Let's find out.
9:00: That's what we've got for now. I'll be back shortly with more updates-- and maybe we'll have a new president. Not that CNN will project that. 8:59: Soledad O'Brien is looking at demographic information with Mr. Magoo. Poor Mr. Magoo can't work the touch screen because he's not tall enough. Hilariously, this comes at the point in which they're talking about how age is a factor in the way people vote. 8:57: Drink. They're not even making a projection in Arizona. 852: Can someone tell me what is up with these clean coal commercials? This is the 7,000th one I've seen today. 8:48: James Carville looks more and more like a reanimated corpse every day.
Don't tell Keith Olbermann -- he of the Countdown special commentaries -- but CNN's Anderson Cooper is the Edward R. Murrow of our era. That's according to Lisa DePaulo of Elle, but the popularity and proliferation of Cooper, from CNN to CBS's 60 Minutes to anchoring Times' Square on New Year's Eve and filling in for Regis Philbin on Live with Regis and Kelly, backs up her assertion.
"He is our generation's Edward R. Murrow; that is, if Murrow were this good-looking and had lived in a world with Gawker and TMZ," DePaulo writes. "This is not just because of Cooper's exacting standards of journalism-hard work, legwork, no-divaness. He's a purist, really-like Murrow."
Earlier this year I asked readers which network had "the best political team on television." CNN officially uses the line, but it doesn't mean it's true. Though I do have to say that I find myself watching CNN the most this election season because they truly do seem to go out of their way to be fair and bal...
OK, I won't say that exact phrase, but they do have a good mix of people, from Dems Paul Begala and Donna Brazille to Republicans William Bennett and Alex Castellanos, not to mention analysts like Gloria Borger and John King. It can get pretty unwieldy though, all those pundits spread across various tables. It's like that big World Series of Poker room mixed with a game show set, and if you have HD and can see the scorecards on the sides of the screen, it actually is like a game show.
No, that doesn't say "Elmo," though I could understand the confusion because Anderson Cooper was on Sesame Street last year. I mean emo.
USA Weekend interviews Cooper and he talks about a lot of subjects, from the places he hasn't gone in the world that he'd like to visit (China), what's on his iPod (Marisa Monte), what he watches on TV (Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List?!), Hurricane Katrina, that he hasn't gone to the dentist in five years (I used to be like that too), and why his dog is almost human. When asked what he does on the weekends, Cooper says he works for 60 Minutes. Seems like even his vacations involve work too.
Conan O'Brien sent Triumph The Insult Comic Dog to St. Paul last week to cover the convention, and as usual the results are hilarious. He manages to get an interview with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. Well, at first Cooper just sends him a note from across the convention hall (I won't spoil for you what the note says) but Triumph finally gets a face-to-face interview with Cooper, where he lays down an awesome dig at MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews that Cooper laughs at (Cooper should be looking at Triumph during the interview but keeps looking at Robert Smigel instead).
Triumph also gets Wolf Blitzer. Actually, Wolf doesn't talk to Triumph, but that doesn't stop the dog from thanking Blitzer for keeping his porn name even after he got into journalism. There's also a mention of Law and Order, thanks to Fred Thompson, and he screams to Greta van Susteren and other pundits and hosts.
Now that the confetti has been swept away, all the balloons popped, and the St. Paul cops are stowing their riot gear, it's time to recall the surprisingly eventful Republican National Convention in Minnesota. Is it really only one week ago today that Senator John McCain pulled a rabbit out of his hat and introduced little-known Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate? She's not little-known anymore. In fact, the 2008 Republican Convention is forever more to be remembered for her ascent, whatever her future portends.
Here's some other thoughts from the TV coverage of the RNC:
Media matters Having the two political conventions back to back was a plus for the TV pros. All the mistakes from Denver were rectified in St. Paul. The MSNBC set ups avoided train stations and noise interruptions. Splitting up Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews worked better, with Olbermann as the point man throwing the coverage to the other news pros. And there was less bickering and fighting, at least compared to the week before.
"The Heart of Hopeness": Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech the other night, to a stadium full of insanely excited Democrats. John Oliver filed a report live from the site of Obama's speech. Man, John has really been putting himself on the line this week, being incredibly annoying in front of so many overexcited people. I mean, chanting "Osama!" at a massive crowd of Obama lovers is almost a sure to bring about a beating, but he totally lucked out with some relatively mild verbal confrontation. Other great moments included dancing to Jeremiah Wright's "white friends" song and making his move on hot strangers. As we would see later in the episode, it seems like the Democratic National Convention brought out the friskiness in the correspondents.
This could be the first of a new series of features here at TV Squad, where instead of reviewing shows ourselves, the ones we wouldn't ordinarily review, we get celebrities to review them. So Tom Hanks and Kathy Griffin, get your video cameras ready!
The clip after the jump is from Live with Regis & Kelly. Anderson Cooper is guest hosting this week, and during yesterday's show he took the opportunity to review Living Lohan, the E! reality show that stars everyone in the Lohan family not named Lindsay. This isn't some "oh, I don't bother with that show because it looks stupid" brush off, Cooper really goes after the people in the show, calling them "horrific" and saying that Ali Lohan "is 14 but looks 60...but I say that with concern and love."
The silver fox has been popping up all over the continental US this week for his CNN show, AC360. Two nights ago Anderson hung out with some do-gooders in New Orleans, profiling the efforts of volunteer groups rebuilding Katrina homes. Last night, he made an appearance in Warren, Michigan, right out side Detroit to talk to hard hit auto workers. 
If you're anything like me (first of all, you have my deepest sympathy), you haven't been able to sit still since The Daily Show and The Colbert Report went off the air for the holidays. It also may be because my body has absorbed more sugary fat from the holidays than one of Tyler Durden's homemade soaps. 
I think one of the weirdest things that happened on election night were the hologram thingies that CNN used. It was OK when they showed an image of a building, but it got really strange when Anderson Cooper interviewed will.i.am (almost as weird as me having to write someone's name as will.i.am). Cooper was standing there in the studio, looking off to the side, waiting for am (is that his last name? Or is he one name, like Twiggy?) to pop up in front of him like on Star Trek. The whole thing looked kinda cool but also kinda cheesy, and it was funny when Cooper introduced the interview by saying "we're joined now via hologram..."
The continuing adventures of Anderson Cooper, Mr. Magoo and the magic board.
Don't tell Keith Olbermann -- he of the Countdown special commentaries -- but CNN's Anderson Cooper is the Edward R. Murrow of our era. That's according to Lisa DePaulo of Elle, but the popularity and proliferation of Cooper, from CNN to CBS's 60 Minutes to anchoring Times' Square on New Year's Eve and filling in for Regis Philbin on Live with Regis and Kelly, backs up her assertion. 
Earlier this year I asked readers which network had "the best political team on television." CNN officially uses the line, but it doesn't mean it's true. Though I do have to say that I find myself watching CNN the most this election season because they truly do seem to go out of their way to be fair and bal...
No, that doesn't say "Elmo," though I could understand the confusion because Anderson Cooper was on Sesame Street last year. I mean emo.
I thought I'd get this in before we get too far away from the Republican National Convention.
Now that the confetti has been swept away, all the balloons popped, and the St. Paul cops are stowing their riot gear, it's time to recall the surprisingly eventful Republican National Convention in Minnesota. Is it really only one week ago today that Senator John McCain pulled a rabbit out of his hat and introduced little-known Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate? She's not little-known anymore. In fact, the 2008 Republican Convention is forever more to be remembered for her ascent, whatever her future portends.
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