Posts with tag congress
Posted Feb 26th 2007 7:41PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, ABC, Celebrities
Christopher Guest has agreed to direct the pilot for
The Thick of It, a comedy being created for ABC by
Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz.
The show is being adapted for an American audience from the popular British comedy by the same name. In Britain, it was about a member of Parliament who had to deal with inept politicians, a prime minister and other silly minions. I can only guess that the American version will take place in Congress?
According to his
IMDB bio, Guest hasn't done much directing for television lately. He seems to stick to the "mockumentary" (he hates that word) movie genre that's heavy on improv, such as
Best in Show and
Waiting for Guffman.
Posted Jan 18th 2007 4:31PM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, ABC, Celebrities, Ugly Betty
The temptation to make the headline "America salutes America" was great, but I resisted. Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis took the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday to salute America Ferrera for her Golden Globe win and for "breaking down barriers for Latinos in prime-time television...I commend America and everyone involved in Ugly Betty for helping break down stereotypes and provide a role model for young Latinas." (Heck, she deserves praise for being one of the only non-Brits to snag an award. It was a regular Anglophile-o-rama at the Globes on Monday.)
Solis' own work in "breaking down barriers" isn't too shabby either. She was the first Latina elected to the California State Senate, and she is serving her third Congressional term. She was also the first Latina to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Maybe giving Betty this nod will win her a guest spot on the show where she can come and convince Betty to give up the frivolous world of fashion for a turn at politics.
Posted Jan 10th 2007 7:37AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, Late Night, OpEd, The Daily Show, Comedy Central
"Global War on Terror" (dun dun dun!): The Taliban has regrouped in Afghanistan, it seems. And there's also some al-Qaeda business going on in Somalia, so "we're
back in Somalia, a country so poor, its charity ads run in Ethiopia."
As for terrorism-related goings-on in the States, Barack Obama hasn't been having much luck with his name. People keep
botching it up accidentally (I'm tempted to put quotation marks around that) to connect it to Osama and stressing his middle name, Hussein. Correspondent Aasif Mandvi talked about the issue... His "My Cock Taintstain Osama" joke didn't get a very positive response... I was surprised!
Daily Show audiences always love the word "taintstain"!
Continue reading The Daily Show: January 9, 2007
Posted Dec 12th 2006 8:55PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, Late Night, OpEd, The Daily Show, Comedy Central
"
Indie Rock": The Seminole tribe are taking over the Hard Rock Cafe chain. Fun Fact: Smallpox jokes are still too soon... Apparently. Fun Fact 2: Korn (or... Maize) fans are still alive and well.
"
That's All Folks!": The 109th Congress is finished! Hurrahs all around in the Daily Show crowd. I liked the little montage at the end (Katherine Harris: Still haunts the dreams of children). The bit with Lincoln Chafee, the night's guest, was a special treat.
Continue reading The Daily Show: December 11, 2006
Posted Nov 8th 2006 3:20PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, Late Night, OpEd, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Comedy Central
After seeing Comedy Central's as for this
Daily Show/
Colbert Report "Midterm Midtacular" mash-up , I expected a lot more integration. Aside from the obvious change in content, this special wasn't all that, um, special. It was just like the usual Stewart/Colbert block, but with one or two more check-ins. No breaking news. No balloon drops. No t-shirt giveaways. Ehh.
Continue reading The Daily Show/The Colbert Report: November 7, 2006
Posted Oct 14th 2006 7:07PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Cable, Celebrities
While Duane "Dog" Chapman awaits trial to decide if he'll be tried in Mexico after his recent arrest for illegal detention of convicted rapist and Max Factor heir Andrew Luster, twenty-nine members of Congress have asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to deny the Mexican government's extradition request to have Chapman sent there for trial. Chapman, along with his son Leland and partner Tim Chapman, were arrested by Mexican authorities for illegal detention after capturing Luster in 2003. The three posted bail but never returned for their court date. Bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico, and Chapman refused to relinquish Luster to the Mexican authorities. Plans to have Chapman extradited to Mexico were put in motion only a few days before the statute of limitations was set to expire.
Posted Oct 12th 2006 3:04PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, The Apprentice, Celebrities
You knew this was going to happen eventually; one of the rejected contestants
from
The Apprentice is now running for Congress. Raj Peter Bhakta, a "fired" season two participant, is the
Republican candidate in Pennsylvania's 13th district, and he's using some grandiose methods to discuss his platform. For instance,
this article mentions that earlier this week he marched an elephant and a six-piece mariachi band across the Rio Grande in Texas to demonstrate how easy it is for illegal immigrants to come into the country (suffice to say, Bhakta wants a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border).
Those of you who remember the bow-tie-clad Bhakta from the Tump-fest already know he had a bit of the showman in him; he wore colorful suits and walked around with a cane on the show, and in one episode tried to get a date from tennis babe Anna Kournikova (he lost the challenge she proposed, and he had to run around Arthur Ashe Stadium in his underwear with his team firing tennis balls at him).
Oh, and because I'm nothing but fair, here's the website for Raj's opponent, incumbent Democrat
Allyson Schwartz.
Posted Oct 6th 2006 12:20PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, HBO, Premium Cable, Late Night, Web, Celebrities, Talk Show
Tonight's episode of HBO's
Real Time With Bill Maher will air live from Washington, D.C. His guests will be National security expert Richard Clarke, Robin Williams, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Senator Lincoln Chafee. We know they'll touch on all of the topics in the news this week (the war in Iraq, Mark Foley, next month's elections), but Maher ends the show with a special D.C.-centric set of "New Rules," his very funny (but often wise) series of observations about, well, just about everything. Check out a special preview video of Maher's D.C. rules after the jump.
My favorite line, about certain Republicans: "I know it's D.C. and I know it's hard out there for a blimp, but it's time to come to grips with the fact that there's only one woman in town who finds you two attractive, and she's banging Carville."
Continue reading Real Time With Bill Maher preview - VIDEO
Posted Oct 5th 2006 4:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: FOX, American Idol, Music and Variety, Celebrities
OK, is it possible to find
a weirder picture? Maybe if we had a picture of President Bush, Carrot Top, Adam West, and Jessica Simpson together it would be more bizarre, but this one's pretty good. In the pic: IM aficianado Mark Foley, Lou Gossett, Jr., Kelly Clarkson, producer Terry Likona, and
American Idol judge Randy Jackson. It was taken earlier this year at a Grammys on the Hill dinner.
Foley and Likona look really, really happy, Gossett and Clarkson look like they don't know what's going on, and Jackson looks like he really doesn't want to be there at all.
Foley...out!
[via
Gawker]
Posted Oct 5th 2006 1:37PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, OpEd, The Daily Show, Comedy Central
"Paged Heat": Groans for the "GOP BBQ and nude Cub Scout wrestling" joke. Well, actually, the reaction for all the Mark Foley coverage can probably just be summed up in one massive, disgusted groan. How could Jon have possibly been surprised when the audience got all grossed out from his joke about Foley finger-banging two sophomores from Model UN on the catwalk of the rotunda? Eww.
Continue reading The Daily Show: October 4, 2006
Posted Sep 25th 2006 4:15PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, TV Royalty, Industry, Law and Order
Dick Wolf, who has brought NBC success with various versions of the
Law & Order franchise, has two comedy scripts lined up for NBC. One is a single-camera comedy about a fumbling U.S. Congressman and the staff that try to handle him. The other is a medical sitcom about ER docs and paramedics. I think I've seen both of these shows before, they were called
Spin City and
Scrubs. Right now, neither show has a title.
I'd be interested to see what Dick Wolf's sense of humor is like. The man's entire resume is made up of crime dramas.
Posted Feb 2nd 2006 11:02AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Industry, HDTV
They've been kicking it around for years, but the House of Representatives has
finally (and barely) approved a budget legislation that requires all broadcasters to get rid of their analog signals
and switch to a digital format by February 17, 2009. The new legislation also results in "modest cuts to Medicaid,
Medicare and student-loan subsidies and adds $10 billion in new revenue from auctioning television airwaves to the
highest bidder."
The transfer to DTV will allow broadcasters to have one of two channels in HDTV or several channels in standard
definition. Broadcasters are being told to ditch their frequencies this year, or when digital TV reaches eighty-five
percent. In addition, congress will be setting up a program in which a family may be eligible for up to $80 to convert
their sets to digital.
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