TVSquad

(S03E07) "Maybe I was late because I was with my family reading the Bible." - Don, to Conrad Hilton

I've never understood why some people say they can't get into Mad Men (or they watch the show and think the same thing) because "nothing ever happens." I think a lot of stuff happens in every episode, but a lot of it is done with silences and not something more intense. But even the people who think that the show is too "slow" will have to admit that like last week's episode, this episode had a ton of character development, mystery, and plot twists.

I had a very interesting week last week. The high point was an interview I did with Laura Silverman for my podcast. Most of you will know Laura from her role as Sarah's sister on The Sarah Silverman Program. However, she also had major roles on HBO's The Comeback and the comedy classic Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.

She had some funny things to say about working for HBO and Comedy Central but the best part of the interview was a story she told about Sarah's pooch, Duck, who plays Doug on the Comedy Central show.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Rumors of Aflac retiring their duck are not true, according to the company.
  
• A computer programmer in Britain legally changed his name to Jack Bauer.
• Lost's Michelle Rodriguez is complaining in her personal blog about the sentence she received for drunk driving.
  

The video's embedded below, or you can download the file directly (Quick time required). You can also subscribe to this podcast via our feed.

The new Chief of Marketing over at supplemental insurance company Aflac, Jeff Herbert, is planning to silence the duck. Despite the little quacker having garnered the company an 85% brand awareness rating, Herbert feels that people just don't know what Aflac actually does. So, expect to see the duck minimized in future Aflac advertisements.

Poor,duck. It probably doesn't know how to say anything other than "Aflac," which could cut the second phase of his career awfully short. Perhaps, he could go into early "fallen corporate mascot" retirement. There's got to be a pasture out there somewhere where Morris the Cat, Spuds McKenzie and the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales sit around and bitch about their agents.

UPDATE: The duck lives! The AdAge story which this post referred to was picked up by news outlets all over the country. Apparently, the piece overstated Herbert's intention of expanding beyond television ads to other media where the duck's "quack" would not be heard. Aflac has officially announced that they have, "no intention of abandoning the duck."

A few people pointed out in the season premiere review of Battlestar Galactica that Jammer might very well be a not-as-of-yet revealed Cylon. The tell-tale proof seems to be during the NCP graduation ceremony, where Duck detonates a bomb planted on himself that decimates everything and everyone in the area (or at least a great lot of them). The image above is taken from that very graduation, where Duck passes by Jammer. Obviously by the look on Jammer's face, he recognizes Duck, but does he figure out what's going on and hoof it out of there? Well, the next image may say he didn't.

While each of the Looney Tunes characters had their own personality, even those personalities would differ depending on which era the cartoon was made, and who was directing. Porky Pig, for example, was often portrayed as the neurotic foil, but in later cartoons with Daffy Duck he was often the calm voice of reason. Daffy also differed greatly in personality from his early days under the supervision of Bob Clampett when he truly lived up to the name "daffy" to his eventual evolution into the selfish but lovable duck most people know him as today. Trying to keep these two sides of Daffy's psyche in mind, I've come up with five of what I think are his best shorts:

Duck Amuck (1953): "And on this farm he had an igloo...." This was one of my favorite cartoons growing up, and still is today. Daffy finds himself at the mercy of an unseen director who erases and paints in new scenery, erases Daffy himself, and even messes with the music soundtrack and Daffy's own voice. Al the while Daffy tries to reason with him, but to no avail. In the end it's revealed that the man with the magic pencil and paintbrush is actually Bugs Bunny.