These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. When I was a kid, a few different magazines jostled for the unofficial position of being my … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — The TV Guide Fall Pre-View issue
Frank Oz on life as Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and Yoda: ‘I’d love to do the Muppets again but Disney doesn’t want me by Hadley Freeman It’s a shame that The Guardian editors chose to headline this articles with its … Continue reading Outside Reading — Return to Oz edition
These posts are about great acting performances sustained across the full run of a television series. Even more than the slightly more famous line that follows it in the pilot episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, “You know what? … Continue reading The Long Haul — Edward Asner in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant
Eyewitness Who Snapped First Picture Of Would-Be Bomber Gives Her Account by Kate Riga This week, another delusional reactionary drove to the nation’s capital excited about harming others because he hasn’t gotten his way. This will keep happening because one … Continue reading Outside Reading — A Regular Tuesday Here edition
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. Harry Shearer is one … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Stereo 105
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. TV Workplaces for $200: … Continue reading Laughing Matters — LeVar Burton on Community
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. Although I’d quickly concede … Continue reading Laughing Matters — “New York Lonely Boy”
On the eve of the main awards-giving entity for the field of television announcing their nominations celebrating the excellence of the season past, I adhere to my tradition, which is by now long-standing, of tossing my modest couple of pennies … Continue reading Top Ten Television, 2020-2021 season
Since great television comedy always begins with the script, this series of posts considers the individual episodes that have claimed the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series over the years. According to Carl Reiner, the script … Continue reading Golden Words — The Dick Van Dyke Show, “Coast to Coast Big Mouth”
When a former writer for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons, an individual with practically no professional background in performing, was given the task of succeeding David Letterman, the consensus opinion was that this new fellow with the distinctive name … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Conan O’Brien, “Kids Got the Blues”
Coffee for Two 