Hey boys – what should you be when you grow up? I know a lot of young men out there are trying to decide what to do with their lives. Fireman? Policeman? CEO? Doctor? Lawyer? Low-level marketing manager? Great ideas, all, but here in America it’s important to take your cues from our alpha arbiter of social possibility, network television. So,
Read moreJean Stapleton is dead at 90. She was most famous for her portrayal of the longsuffering Edith Bunker in All in the Family, one of the most important shows in television history. As the tragically underappreciated wife of arch-conservative, verbally abusive, racist blowhard Archie Bunker, Edith may well have been be the most patient woman in the history of TV. The show itself aged
Read morePart 4 in a series. It sometimes seemed like MTV in the 1990s was little more than a video résumé for one Adam Spiegel, aka Spike Jonze. He seemed to be the guy directing all the damned videos, and some of the era’s most inventive concepts were his. Here’s a sample. Up first, let’s watch some television. Like, that time when
Read morePart three in a series. Thanks to expanding TV deals, smart entrepreneurs in the MLS and a Millennial-fueled supporter culture, soccer is the fastest growing spectator sport in the country. There has been a good bit of talk over what pro soccer in the US will do now that Becks has departed the Galaxy. It is a little hard to fathom
Read moreI suspect I am not alone in saying that for me, Andy Griffith was like family. It’s not just that he was from North Carolina, my native state, or that Mayberry was based on his hometown of Mt. Airy, maybe an hour up the road from my little burg. It’s not just that he wove an idyllic little haven off
Read moreWant to know who woke up screaming this morning? This guy: Miami, home to one of the NBA’s showpiece franchises, is in deep trouble versus Indiana.
Read moreFollowing up on yesterday’s post about how unfair it is when progressives fight fire with fire… One of the architects of the modern conservative boycott movement back in the day was the now-deceased Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the “Moral Majority.” His strategy was simple. Identify those television and radio stations whose programming “promoted” a “liberal agenda” or “secular humanist”
Read moreOh, the horror….
Read moreCan’t make this stuff up, folks. I mean, you could, but everybody would think you were, well, making stuff up. On tonight’s episode of Modern Family (perhaps TV’s best sitcom), one of the storylines deals with what happens when a young child starts using curse words. One of America’s more prominent gatekeepers of the public morality, the Parents Television council, immediately
Read moreSome people think I hate Christians. My occasional comments on Tim Tebow probably have something to do with that perception, although you have to aggressively project a hater stereotype on me to make that work. Which a lot of Christians are happy to do, make no mistake. I won’t lie, though. I’m very much not a Christian myself and I’ve
Read moreLast week I found myself in a doctor’s waiting room for a few minutes, and the staff had the TV tuned to one of those daily Dr. Phil/Maury/Jerry/Montel type freak circuses where the host knows everything and fixes all human problems in 30 minutes. I tried to read my book and ignore it, but you know how hard it is
Read moreSweet hell – can you believe they’re going to let Chaz Bono compete on Dancing With the Stars? What a travesty. Oh, no. Not because of that. We’re perfectly down with a transgender competitor. That couldn’t bother us less. No, the issue is more essential: since when did Chaz Bono become a star? His Wikipedia entry calls him a “transgender advocate, writer, actor, and musician.”
Read moreFirefly fans rejoice – they finally got the opening credits right! Thx to Lara Amber for the link.
Read morePart two in a series. Yesterday I explained why I think Survivor is the ultimate game. Today I want to talk about the players – and to solicit your opinion on the subject. On the reunion show the other night the question was quickly raised: does this victory make Sandra Diaz-Twine the greatest player ever? Sandra says yes. Russell Hantz
Read morePart one of a series. The 20th season of Survivor, Heroes vs. Villains (or, if you prefer, Revenge vs. Redemption) is now in the books, and Sandra Diaz-Twine is the game’s first two-time champion. Many fans regarded HvV as one of the best seasons ever, if not the very best. I don’t believe I’ve ever written about Survivor before, but
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lullaby pit 