(S04E04) "That's what I'm talking about, empathy. It's about as useless as the Winter Olympics. This February on NBC." - Jack
Could this be the end of the "new TGS cast member" storyline on 30 Rock this season? Will the robot guy work out well or will he turn out to be a nightmare and Liz will have to find a replacement for him? I'm curious to see if this ends the storyline and they just use robot guy as a visual joke for the rest of the season, the cast member who is always in metallic makeup and never says a word. Or maybe he'll turn out to be someone brilliant and that will mean more jealousy and paranoia for Jenna and/or Tracy. I guess we'll have to wait and see where they go with it.
I can't wait until the fourth season of30 Rock starts a week from Thursday. Here's a sneak peek/behind the scenes look, with the cast talking about a new plot, guest stars, and what it's like working on the set. I'm already laughing. (Note: it's a bit spoilerish; not necessarily the plots but some great lines you'll hear this season).
[Watch episodes and clips of 30 Rock and other shows at SlashControl.]
The Beatles Rock Band video game came out yesterday. The only way you couldn't have known that is if you took your head off your neck, preserved all of the necessary blood vessels and spine connections, and then placed said head (heh) in cryogenic storage for the last two days.
That's because my TV was filled with not just advertisements, but personal appearances, morning show demos, and even news stories about the release of the game.
Even Jesus doesn't get this much attention in the media. Oh crap.
Apparently, it wasn't The Ed Sullivan Show, as most of us think.
Sure, that was their first major, nationwide U.S. TV appearance where they actually performed, but what show did they first appear on in general? When Walter Cronkite died recently, CBS showed footage of Cronkite's CBS Evening News broadcast from December 1963 -- a rebroadcast of what ran on the CBS Morning Show on November 22; it was going to run on Cronkite's show that night too but you can guess why it didn't -- where they showed footage of an interview that someone did with the group. Sullivan saw the footage and called Cronkite because he wanted them on his show.
But now Brian Williams' NBC Nightly News blog says that the group's first appearance was actually a few days earlier, on November 18, a piece by Edwin Newman on The Huntley-Brinkley Report.
As we've said here many times before, Brian Williams is a funny guy. It's great to see a newsman be able to do really funny bits while talking to Conan O'Brien or Jon Stewart. But should he be doing it all the time?
Williams is going to be a regular on The Jay Leno Show when it debuts next Monday, introducing a regular segment titled "Stories Not Good Enough For Nightly News". Will it hurt your opinion of him (he got some negative press when he hosted SNL), or can you separate the serious news Brian Williams with the Jay Leno Show Brian Williams?
When Peter Jennings passed away and Bob Woodruff was injured, one of the names that popped up as a replacement on ABC World News was Diane Sawyer. Now, a couple of years later, that's actually coming true.
ABC has announced that Charles Gibson will step down as anchor of the show in January. Sawyer will take over for him. Of course, that means that Sawyer will step down from her hosting gig on Good Morning America. No, I don't think there's any chance that Gibson will switch places with her and go back to GMA, but who the heck knows (ABC is using the word "retires"). Gibson does say that he wants to continue working with ABC News in some way.
So we have two big stories here: two women as network news anchors (Sawyer and Katie Couric at CBS) and the question of who will replace Sawyer in the morning. Or maybe they'll just stick with three hosts/co-hosts (Robin Roberts, Chris Cuomo, and Sam Champion). Who do you think should take over on GMA?
This is from last week but I think it's worth showing today, because when Brian Williams went on The Daily Show they didn't just talk about politics, they got into a sometimes good-natured, sometimes prickly trade of insults (some of Stewart's digs are clearly serious, but Williams can give as good as he gets). They also mention Walter Cronkite and Billy Mays.
Walter Cronkite is a tougher act to follow than letting Metallica open for William Hung.
But now that the news legend and former most trusted man in America has passed on to that big newsroom in the great beyond, America needs someone else to trust. They need someone they can depend on to get the hard, cold facts about the important stories that truly affect their lives. They need someone to cut through the political haze of misdirection and mediocrity that cloud almost every major news story like a lingering beer fart.
That man is ... Jon Stewart. Don't like it? Blame the rest of the news media for not doing a better job.
Think about this for a moment: who is the person on television that viewers trust the most to get their news from? Someone from the cable news channels? One of the network news anchors?
Time conducted a survey across the country, asking people who the most trusted newscaster is now that Walter Cronkite is gone. Not really sure why Cronkite matters in this context because he hadn't been a newsman in quite some time, but it's interesting to see all of the statistics by state. You probably won't agree with who came in first with 44%.
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.
I've mentioned before how funny a guy Brian Williams is. It doesn't usually come out on NBC Nightly News, of course, but it shines on talk show appearances. On Friday, he was on Jay Leno's show and talked about the type of ads that run during his new show, including spots for products that help men ... in various ways. (Video also here.)
I was just over at TV Newser looking at the latest ratings for the cable news outlets. FOX News beats CNN and MSNBC combined all day, Nancy Grace has been beating Keith Olbermann lately, MSNBC has been beating CNN in primetime. On the networks, NBC is still ahead, followed by ABC and CBS. And that got me thinking: what do you watch for news now? I work from home and watch TV all day long, so I watch both CNN and FOX News. At night, I usually watch Katie Couric on CBS.
Lauer returned to Today this morning, arm and shoulder in a giant sling, and you knew the wisecracks were going to come. But where the humor came from was a bit of a surprise. A producer from rival morning show Good Morning, America brought a present for Lauer. He also read a funny note from ABC's president, who suggested that Lauer take some time off.
Brian Williams also sends a funny video message to Lauer, which is worth seeing just for hearing Williams use the phrase "gooned up on Percocets." There's also footage of Jay Leno joking about the incident. The funniest part of the video for me are the Today fans in the background, all wearing antlers.
If you asked the average TV watcher what celebrity makes the funniest late night interviews, news anchors would probably be the furthest answer from their minds. It would also just be after physicists, felons convicted of violent crimes and Joaquin Phoenix.
Lately, however, one dedicated newsman has become the most entertaining guest on the late night talk show circuit with the kind of timing, humor and comedic gravitas that even some so-called "professional" comedians have trouble displaying. It could with the greatest of ease turn his own news program into the most hilarious show on television, if the news he reported didn't make us want to jab a corkscrew in our eyes.
Seeing Brian Williams sitting next to Matt Lauer on Today was a bit disconcerting, wasn't it? I knew NBC was having some budget problems, but I didn't realize how thin of a bench they actually had. Williams subbed in for Meredith Vieira, but only stayed on the show for an hour, as I'd imagine he'd rather spend the 8:00 hour putting together tonight's Nightly News lineup than talk about ten ways to keep your car running or what Drew Peterson ate for breakfast.
Anyway, Williams was at times a bit too stuffy for the morning gig, but his famous sense of humor showed through a number of times, including the clips after the jump. The first one is a clip reel of some strangely homoerotic interplay between Williams and Lauer, which Al Roker called "a Whitman's Sampler of man candy." The second one is of Lauer, Williams, and Natalie Morales making their Oscar picks.
Apparently, it wasn't 
As we've said here many times before, Brian Williams is a funny guy. It's great to see a newsman be able to do really funny bits while talking to Conan O'Brien or Jon Stewart. But should he be doing it all the time? 
When Peter Jennings passed away and Bob Woodruff was injured, one of the names that popped up as a replacement on ABC World News was Diane Sawyer. Now, a couple of years later, that's actually coming true.
Think about this for a moment: who is the person on television that viewers trust the most to get their news from? Someone from the cable news channels? One of the network news anchors? 
I was just over at 
We told you the other day about 
If you asked the average TV watcher what celebrity makes the funniest late night interviews, news anchors would probably be the furthest answer from their minds. It would also just be after physicists, felons convicted of violent crimes and Joaquin Phoenix.
Seeing Brian Williams sitting next to Matt Lauer on 
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