Posts with tag president bush
Posted Jul 4th 2008 5:52PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Programming, Reality-Free
Amid controversy and the threat of certain world leaders boycotting the upcoming Beijing Olympics, the word came out yesterday that President George W. Bush would attend the opening ceremonies. According to the Hollywood Reporter, this is good news for NBC, and the c
ompanies that have bought advertising for the Games.
While I can see how a boycott based on human rights abuses in China and Tibet would be a serious problem for the network -- and it still may lose viewers who choose to individually tune out rather than give positive sanction to China's misdeeds by watching -- I don't see how NBC can think a Bush appearance will bolster ratings.
Continue reading Will Bush at the Olympics really help NBC?
Posted Apr 3rd 2008 11:02AM by Jay Black
Filed under: OpEd, American Idol, TV 101, TV Squad Lists
Here is an unimpeachable truth: anyone who
wants to be president probably shouldn't
be president. If you spend $400,000,000 for a $400,000 a year job, you're either stupid or corrupt or (most likely) both. In an ideal world, a presidential hopeful accepts the nomination with reluctance, George Washington style.
It's with this in mind that I'd like to start a movement to draft the one man who I think can turn this country around. The one man who has the credibility and the credentials to unite a society fractured by war and recession. The one man who connects with young and old; gay and straight; really, really gay and butchy gay. That's right, I'd like to nominate Simon Cowell for president.
Continue reading TV 101: Seven reasons Simon Cowell should be our next president
Posted Mar 19th 2007 1:31PM by Elizabeth Chan
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, ABC, NBC, CBS, Late Night, News, OpEd, American Idol, Syndicated, Watercooler Talk, Game Show
When you think you know something so well, you don't realize that there might be some surprises waiting for you. Sure, surprises may be a bad thing, like when the love of your life tells you that they have been with someone else, but in terms of television surprises that is thankfully not the case, we have been privy to some great surprises this past weekend.
First off, you've heard.
Jeopardy had its first
three way tie in its decades long history. Alex Trebek's job must be as predictable as a bowl of cornflakes, so it's understandable and nice to hear him yelp in a cry of genuine surprise when the quick math was done and all the contestants would return to
Jeopardy next week. In a mostly unexciting show,
this was a very exciting moment for millions of Jeopardy fans everywhere. In other surprising news...
Continue reading Alex Trebek, Simon Cowell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus have surprises for us
Posted Jan 12th 2007 12:44AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, Late Night, OpEd, The Daily Show, Comedy Central
Of course, the big news of the episode was the previous night's presidential address about Bush's
new plans to move forward in Iraq. Such a historical speech was undermined by the fact that none of the networks managed to catch the first few words of the plan. I liked the audio that
The Daily Show's crew managed to get... "Good evening. I am standing in front of books. Please don't let them eat me." Anyway, the gist of the speech was: "Sorry about the mess in Iraq. We're gonna
send more troops."
Continue reading The Daily Show: January 11, 2007
Posted Dec 21st 2006 5:45PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, Late Night, OpEd, The Daily Show, Comedy Central
Luton First
recently surveyed a couple thousand ten year-olds to find out what they considered to be the best things in the world. God took the tenth spot, surprisingly enough. However, He topped the list of most famous people. I don't think I've ever heard God called "the Paris Hilton of deities" before... That's... one way to put it, I guess.
"
More is Hell": Bush has been getting snippy. Jeez. That's no way to behave if you want to send more men to Iraq. And the president suddenly doesn't seem so quick to answer that we're winning in Iraq, anymore. And what's up with Tony Snow's
sudden interest in grammar? Gerunds... Hm.
Continue reading The Daily Show: December 20, 2006
Posted Dec 19th 2006 4:40PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: TV Royalty, OpEd, The Colbert Report, Festivus, Celebrities
... a great TV momentI remember. It was the evening of April 29th, and I had opted out of attending a major social event to watch, of all things, C-SPAN. Honestly, it felt a little pathetic. Well, not "a little". It felt
really pathetic. Little did I know that I, sitting in front of the television with my laptop resting on my tacky pajama bottoms, would soon be witnessing something remarkable.
Continue reading On the 1st day of Festivus, TV gave to me
Posted Dec 4th 2006 1:28PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Animation, Comedy Central
More than five years after Comedy Central cancelled
That's My Bush!, the network is planning to air another series that mocks the president. This time it's a cartoon called
Lil' Bush: Resident of the United States. It portrays Mr. Bush and key members of his administration as "elementary school misfits". Characters include Lil' Cheney, who mumbles, and Lil' Condi, who does Lil' Bush's homework for him because she has a crush on him. Capers include torturing the lunch ladies Abu Ghraib-style when they serve falafels instead of hot dogs for lunch. The shorts are pretty funny, though they go for the easy laughs about the president's vocabulary and his cowboy attitude. It's a little more low-brow than edgier Comedy Central shows,
The Colbert Report and
The Daily Show.
The network has ordered six episodes of
Lil' Bush, which got its start in September as animated clips through Amp'd Mobile. It's also up on YouTube, where it has been viewed more than 230,000 times. This news isn't going to sit well with the creator of
Lil' Bill and Lil' Hill cartoons, who accuses the Lil' Bush creators of
ripping him off.
YouTube video of the falafel episode is after the jump.
Continue reading Comedy Central orders Bush cartoon satire
Posted Oct 22nd 2006 9:02PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Cable, News, Celebrities
If you've been watching
Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, you know that Olbermann is no fan of President Bush. Lately he's been doing a lot of "Special Comments" in which he criticizes the administration for how they've dealt with Iraq and how Olbermann feels they've misused their power. I've talked enough about Olbermann before, so I won't get into that here, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find his impassioned rants at least intriguing.
However, David Burn on the blog
Ad Pulp wrote that Olbermann could take a lesson from someone in the advertising world who realizes that selling ideas is always the same. He argues that Olbermann's approach is too "didactic," and relies more on berating the president for what he's done rather than convince people his point of view is the correct one. I think he has a point, but what do the rest of you think? I'm not interested in opinions about Olbermann himself, but rather, do you think news analysis like him, on any side of the political debate, spend too much time saying what's wrong and not enough time explaining why their view is right?
Posted Oct 7th 2006 8:04AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, Comedy Central
On the surface,
That's My Bush!, the
short-lived series from
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, seemed trite and silly, a collection of tired sitcom and cliches and lame one-liners. Really, though, it was a show that was too damn smart and funny for its own good. The series ran for eight episodes in 2001, and ended four months before the 9/11 attacks. It's interesting to think how or if the show would have continued in the wake of the attacks, but while it was set in the Bush White House, its main target was not the president, but sitcoms in general. Every episode played with the sitcom convention in some way, and if that made you roll your eyes at the inane plots and over-the-top acting, well, that was exactly the point. The complete series will be released on DVD on October 24. The disc will include extra footage, bloopers and commentaries.
Posted Sep 13th 2006 11:10AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, Late Night, OpEd, The Daily Show, Comedy Central
"
Pleading The Fifth": Of course, it wouldn't have been the anniversary of an American tragedy without the president weighing in.
"The attacks were meant to bring us to our knees, and they did, but not in the way the terrorists intended." Ha. He can't say that and expect us not to snicker! The Metaphorical Mapquest bit was beautiful. Being a Daily Show writer must be fantastic... How would you feel if you were paid to hang out with Jon Stewart all day, coming up with stuff like the World's Biggest Ball of Hope or the Jihad Junction? C'mon. It doesn't get much better than that. The Bush/Little Richard Geico commercial was absolutely hysterical. Maybe I found it amusing because I loathe those TV spots (well, not the one with Charo... Charo can do no wrong). Good line from the segment: "Say what you will about this presidency, but after that speech... it's fifteen minutes shorter."Continue reading The Daily Show: September 12, 2006
Posted Sep 6th 2006 3:22PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: American Idol, Music and Variety, Celebrities
There are three bits of news involving former and current
American Idol stars so I thought I'd lump them into one post. First, President Bush
appointed Clay Aiken to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. Oh, there's a political joke here but unfortunately this is a television blog. It's not just some random appointment. Clay actually has a degree in special education and worked with disabled kids before appearing on
American Idol.
Also, season one star Tamyra Gray got married to a guy who used to be in Color Me Badd. Yes, that '90s group that sang "I Wanna Sex... You Up" (since then he's been a successful songwriter and producer). Tamyra, 27, and Sam Watters, 36, wed in Capri, Italy on Saturday, according to People Magazine. Check out
their wedding photo: they look downright gloomy. Tamyra had a short run on
Boston Public in 2003, but there's no word on whether she's returning to television.
Continue reading Clay, Tamyra and fashion: American Idol round-up
Posted Jul 27th 2006 1:08PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, Late Night, OpEd, The Daily Show, Comedy Central
Okay, so Condoleezza Rice
went to Rome for a meeting about the Lebanon situation. It didn't go so well. Jon showed a Condimeter graphic to illustrate just how bad it was (
TDS has been really graphic-happy lately). Of course, the meeting wasn't as great as "Three days alone at Camp David with the President" or "Christmas morning"... It ended up somewhere between "Kofi Annan cops a feel" and "Bin Laden determined to attack WHERE?!". I have a feeling I may have switched up a few of those details, so apologies ahead of time. I swear
TDS knows I'm scrambling to type this all down. They probably have a hidden camera on my monitor, broadcasting live right into Jon's office so that they can giggle at my panic.
Continue reading The Daily Show: July 26, 2006
Posted Jul 22nd 2006 1:00PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: FOX, Music and Variety, Celebrities
The top ten finalists from this season of
American Idol will have an audience with the President on Friday. The performers will already be in Washington, D.C. for their "American Idols Live" tour. They are the first group of American Idols to meet the President and the group may have Taylor Hicks to thank for that. His ninth grade teacher is now Laura Bush's personal secretary! I'm sure some jokes will be made about how Taylor Hicks got more votes than the President did in the last election, but that's super lame. Teen-agers with speed dial aren't exactly a fair comparison.
I wonder if the President watched
American Idol this season. What do you think President Bush watches on television (other than Fox Newschannel)?
Posted Jun 16th 2006 11:50AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd
Yesterday, President Bush
signed into law a bill that increases FCC indecency fines tenfold, from $32,500 to $325,000 per violation. The sponsors of the bill, as well as the members of the Parents Televison Council, pushed for the higher penalties so they can make more of an impact on the networks. "For some broadcasters, this amount is meaningless," said Bush at the signing ceremony.
The law states that broadcast networks cannot air any obscene material and no indecent material from 6 to 10 PM. The problem is, the definition of "indecent" is still up in the air, and the mechanism for the FCC to intiate indeceny investigations is
coming under fire for its inequites (as in: 4,000 PTC members with Internet access and a form letter can trigger an investigation). The push for higher fines was sparked, of course, by Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl.
Oh, Janet. What have you gotten us into here? All this hoo-ha over a misshapen, nipple-ring-clad breast. And, to be honest with you, considering what's happened since, that looky-loo you gave us
so wasn't worth it.
Posted Jun 14th 2006 5:51PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, Late Night, OpEd, The Daily Show, Comedy Central
Hey, guess what?
Karl Rove is not going to be indicted. Jon Stewart's audience doesn't take this very well and starts boo-ing and hissing. Jon finds their reaction pretty amusing and says of his audience, "You may remember them from Salem. 'See if she floats! If she does, she is a
witch!'"
Continue reading The Daily Show: June 13, 2006
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