presidential election-related stories
Posted May 6th 2009 12:03PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: The Daily Show, Reality-Free
When Jon Stewart announced before a studio full of deafening cheers and Stephen Colbert's deafening silence that Barack Obama would become the 44th President of the United States, the show seemed to be in an interesting pickle.
Could the show be just as funny as it had been under an administration that didn't blur the line between setups and punchlines? Could Stewart and friends find the funny in a president who inspires more love and fear in people than a teddy bear with a switchblade?
So let's grade
The Daily Show's first 100 days under
socialism President Obama report card.
Continue reading The Daily Show's first 100 days under Obama
Posted Dec 22nd 2008 5:02PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Saturday Night Live, Video, Watercooler Talk, Festivus, Celebrities, Reality-Free
...Ew, not like that, you guys. Although, I'm sure if you did just a few minutes of Googling, you could find that too, in one form or another. What I'm talking about is
Tina Fey's brilliant impression of vice-presidential candidate
Sarah Palin. How good was the impression? It was so good that the episodes featuring Fey, and the one that featured Palin herself, were some of
SNL's highest-rated episodes in years. Tina Fey's brilliant but ratings-challenged sitcom,
30 Rock received a ratings bump, she scored a
multi-million dollar book deal, and
newspapers sometimes forgot that they were actually two different people.Not bad for a funny lady who had never been known for her impressions and a governor from a small town no one had ever heard of.
Obama may have been our first celebrity candidate, but Palin was our first beauty queen. Whether you loved her or hated her, it's hard to argue that she was a captivating figure.
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2008: Fey does Palin - VIDEOS
Posted Nov 5th 2008 12:32AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: News, OpEd, Reality-Free
Well, at 11:00p/10:00 Central, with the polls having just closed in California, Fox News Channel officially projected Barack Obama to win the presidency by taking California and jumping to 297 projected electoral votes. It was nice of them to make the projection exactly on the hour. Everyone likes a nice round number.
Then, the election panel said that no one could have predicted this even a year ago, but
24 predicted it seven years ago with President David Palmer. That's a sister station, Fox. Didn't you see it? This year they're saying they can see a woman president. Does that mean Clinton in four or eight years? Palin in four? Oprah?
Continue reading Election Night: Fox News (Part 3)
Posted Nov 4th 2008 9:56PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: News, OpEd, Reality-Free
FOX NEWS - AMERICA'S ELECTION HQ. Not dramatic enough? Maybe we could spruce it up a bit. "Fox News - For Election Coverage that's Guaranteed Right!" Even some of their analysts were reluctant to think that the country could go to the left of center.
Fox News Channel is a part of the new media, running streams of election data along the bottom, including a static corner box tracking projected electoral votes. We get two different bits of election data next to that, changing about every 7 seconds. Above that is an Alert bar with text data "Fox News Projects John McCain has won Kentucky." And, of course, they kept it scrolling through the commercials, too.
Continue reading Election Night: Fox News (Part 1)
Posted Oct 14th 2008 6:38PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl
There is definitely a generational gap with this presidential election, with the elderly favoring McCain and the youth favoring Obama. I'm generalizing of course, but it certainly seems like the campaign advertising is geared that way. One piece of evidence is two cast members of
Gossip Girl appearing in an anti-McCain ad.
Granted, since the elderly isn't exactly the target demographic of
Gossip Girl, I doubt anyone's grandma is going to stop voting for McCain because Blake Lively asked her to. I doubt said grandma even knows who Blake Lively is. At least the ad acknowledges that most of the demographic for the show aren't old enough to vote and therefore have to convince their parents. When have parents ever listened to their children with regards to their voting preferences?
The campaign is kind of reminiscent of
Sarah Silverman's "Great Schlep" Obama ad. That one garnered a response
by comedian Jackie Mason. I wonder if this advertisement will get a similar response. If so, will the response be done by the cast of
Matlock?
Posted Dec 26th 2007 8:00AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Celebrities
It seems like Dr. Stephen T. Colbert never stops working. Not only does he lead one of the most consistently funny programs on TV, but he spent 2007 releasing a new book,
I Am America (And So Can You!), and running for president. And what was the rest of America doing? Obsessing over
Sanjaya's hair. Colbert's brief but exciting 2008 campaign showed us that there are bigger and better ways to have fun.
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2007: Stephen Colbert for prez
Posted Feb 12th 2007 7:11AM by Jen Creer
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, ABC, Brothers and Sisters
(
S01E14) I continue to like Brothers and Sisters more and more every week. And one of my favorite things is the fact that the writers constantly give Rob Lowe lines that reference his famous past.
Continue reading Brothers and Sisters: Valentine's Day Massacre
Posted Nov 20th 2006 1:35PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: ABC, News, Industry, OpEd
Page Six in the
New York Post is reporting that Diane Sawyer will take over for Charlie Gibson as anchor of ABC's
World News after the 2008 presidential election, at least according to industry insiders. Gibson took the job in June knowing that he'd step down after that election, but his replacement wasn't named. The choice of Sawyer is curious, since she's only about two-and-a-half years younger than Gibson (but
looks a whole heck of a lot better). You'd think ABC would go younger with the next anchor.
Anyway, the article goes on to speculate what Sawyer will do in the meantime. One theory is that she'll take over hosting duties for
Nightline, with Kate Snow, Daryn Kagan, or Campbell Brown taking over for her on
Good Morning America. But, remember the source, folks: Page Six's batting average on things like this is around utility-infielder level, so take this whole thing with a lump of salt.
[via
Mediabistro]
Posted Sep 8th 2006 11:47AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: NBC, CBS, News, Talent
It's not often that TV news executives are well-known, but Gordon Manning was one of those people.
Manning was with NBC and CBS news for several years, involved in many of the top news stories of the 20th century, including the student uprising in Tiananmen Square in 1989 for NBC, CBS' Watergate and Nixon's trip to China coverage in 1972, and even set up an interview between NBC's Tom Brokaw and Mikail Gorbachev in 1987, just before his meeting with President Reagan.
Manning was famous for something else we all see now: the color-coded election night map! NBC first did that in 1976.
Manning died Wednesday in Westport, CT of a heart attack.
Posted Jul 27th 2006 9:32AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV Royalty, TV on DVD
Well, I know what I'm giving myself for Christmas this year.
Warner will release The West Wing: The Complete Series on DVD November 7. The set will include every single episode of the series (154 episodes) on 45 discs. The set will contain the same sets as the individual sets already released, but will also include a copy of the pilot script, including a special intro by creator/head writer Aaron Sorkin. The set will sell for around $300.
The set for the last season will also be released that day, separately, with bonus materials.
Posted Apr 9th 2006 9:22PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, OpEd, West Wing
(S07E17) This must have been the hardest episode for
the cast to film. How do you even go about filming the onscreen death of a beloved character when the equally beloved
castmate also died in real life?
NBC is fond of calling their comedies "Must See TV." But this was
truly the one must see episode of any NBC show in quite a while. Leo dies, and the election goes down to the wire, all
in one episode. Must see, but not handled as well as it could have been. Some good scenes with Josh, and some nice
moments in the White House between Bartlett and C.J., but they really should have given Margaret more to do, get more
of a reaction from her besides one shot of stoic tears.
And...no Toby?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Continue reading The West Wing: Election Day, Part II
Posted Apr 2nd 2006 9:22PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, OpEd, West Wing
Did someone put
something in the water that the Santos campaign workers are drinking? Everyone's hooking up! Lou (Janeane Garofalo) and
the 23 year old campaign worker; two women who work on the staff; even...Josh and Donna! Yup, even they go off to Josh's
hotel ro...HOLY CRAP, LOOK AT JANEL MOLONEY IN HER UNDERWEAR!!...room. Later in the day Matt and his wife get into the
act, waiting for numbers to come in.
Are they sure the title of this episode isn't "Erection Day"?
Continue reading The West Wing: Election Day
Posted Mar 12th 2006 9:13PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, OpEd, West Wing
It seems like such a long time ago that we had a new episode
of
The West Wing. We had John Spencer's death, then the Olympics. Seems like
it's been forever. So when they showed the "previously on
The West
Wing..." recap, I was actually interested in it. Where exactly did we leave off? Oh yeah, the nuclear
accident in California, Santos starting to creep up on Vinick in the polls, the aftermath of the live debate. And now
we see that Santos isn't just creeping up on Vinick, he has tied him in several states (including Vinick's California),
and surpassed him in others. Donna and the gang is so happy by the polls that they go crazy and start waking up everyone
in the hotel. Donna goes into Josh's room, and they are so ecstatic about the numbers that they...
Continue reading The West Wing: The Cold
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