This morning I was watching the replay of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. And as I was watching Jay's monolouge I was thinking back to the PBS special about Johnny Carson.
And I was thinking that as the years have gone on, how Johnny Carson matters now as he was so superior to any of the four men and one woman hosting late night television at this time. I was really going to type in something like "Jay could hold Carson's shoe lace, bla bla bla..."
Then...this happened.....
And when he came out....he almost did it. The crank-up.
And for two seconds, it was 1992. It was stage 29 at Paramout Studios. It was the Night Thing and "Let's....get....bizzzy" all over again.
And the last line that got the biggest response. That a network could hire a black man to host a late night talk show. It should. This man.
My case was made through four years of the most innovative, aware late-night programming. The Aresenio Hall Show was truly the first late night series that spoke to a generation that did not think all entertainment came from Vegas, Broadway, and the Borscht Belt. While Carson had on Vic Damone, Aresenio hosted Tupac. Carson would bring out Joe Namath, Arsenio hosted Magic. Carson would trade one-liners with Reagan, Aresenio all but created Bill Clinton.
And Hall had no problem put it all on the line to put on a guest no one else would put on....Louis Farakkan.
Not to mention, that Hall cared about people and the community. On the night of the Los Angeles riots, Hall did a show like none other before or since (why that show is not available on You Tube or anywhere is is, IMHO, a sin and a shame). Famous names and average folks from the community were in the house. It was bare bones. But people wanted to be there to help Hall try to calm a community.
Afterward, Hall went to the First A. M. E. Church. A KNBC crew was there and talk to Hall and Rev. Cecil Murray. Here you get a bit of the heart of a man at a time when heart was needed.
And we are at that point now. With almost every side of every point of society at war with each other, we need that heart before we go to bed.
Hall is 56. He would be younger than Leno or Letterman. He can still reach a younger audience than Leno or even Letterman. And if you are, say, Fox Broadcasting, Aresenio would definatly put you back in the late-night game. If you're ABC, you'd probably think, you can get rid of two albertross' around your neck, Nightline and JKL.
The bottom line, the time is right, the man is hot, and boy...do we need him now.
My reaction to the ugly drama between Mssrs. Leno and O'Brien.
No one is mentioning who are the true villians in this melodrama: The imbecilic dufuses better know as AFFILIATES! These A-holes have been complaining about NBC's performance since this started, mainly because they didn't have that blockbuster lead in for their sorry local newscasts.
If these pie...ces of human feces would simply spend more time trying to create a news product that people will watch instead of blaming The Network for all their troubles, we would not be in this mess. Remember, Leno was making and saving NBC more money that they could have spent on really bad traditional programming. Not to mention Conan was doing very well in his spot.
And its not just the NBC affils. It's all over. I was in broadcasting for 20 years and I know what vermin local station managers are. And if Conan goes to FOX, he'll have the same problems. The reason Leno is where he is is that his tounge is almost irremovably attached to the affiliates asses, as was Carson, and apperently Letterman.
Unfortunatly, nothing can be done here. All I can do is feel sorry for the poot talent that has to endure the affiliate upfronts, smile at the same dorks and pseudowhores show displaye their local charm every year, and for the poor network who cannot truly innovate because they have to keep that porker of a GM at WFUK in BumFoo, Indiana happy.
But you got your wish. No more Leno at nine. Hope you're satisfied. Oh, I've got four words for you mukluks:
Gunsmoke? Mary Tyler Moore? Carol Burnett? M*A*S*H? Maybe CSI? Uncle Walter?
How about swingers?
Yes SWINGERS! As in wife swappers and stuff.
Well, if this bit of business from CBS ever gets on the air, that's what we are talking about. CBS has mentioned that one of the shows they have in thier bullpen is a show called Swingtown, about a strait-laced couple who moved to Chicago and meet up with a couple of spouse-swappers.
It helps that, like in most TV, there is not one fat, old, or ugly person in the bunch. Kinda like real-life swinging, eh?
Anyway, here is CBS' OFFICIAL preview. (Damn, this is a BIG screen!)
Oh, and I have not forgotten the pervs.
You know that NBC Dateline feature, "To Catch A Predator?" You know....the one where some Chester the Molester walks into a room thinking he's getting Dakota Fanning and winds up getting Stone Phillips instead (come to think of it, that's punishment enough in itself!)
Didn't it strike you as a weeeeeeeee bit unconstitutional?
Well maybe not unconstitutional, but maybe more unethical..
From CBS News, ROTFLTHO:
"Predator" Catchers Become Lawsuit Prey
(CBS/AP)“Although the reports have been subject to some controversy, audience reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.” --An NBC statement responding to a lawsuit from former "Dateline" producer Marsha Bartel, who claims she was fired for expressing ethical concerns to her superiors about the "To Catch A Predator" series. Among her complaints: That NBC "unethically pays" law enforcement officials and controversial vigilante group Perverted Justice; that the network "covers up the fact that law enforcement officials act improperly;" and that the identities of most of the Perverted Justice volunteers were kept secret from her, making it impossible to vet them. You can read the lawsuit at The Smoking Gun. And check out our take on the series from last February. http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/05/30/publiceye/entry2866517.shtml
Oh....and there's more...
Sex-predator arrests in Murphy rejected Collin County official says 'Dateline NBC' evidence isn't sufficient 12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, June 2, 2007 By TIARA M. ELLIS / The Dallas Morning News tellis@dallasnews.com A sex-predator sting that led to more than 20 arrests in Murphy – with one suspect committing suicide – will never make it to a courtroom.
Collin County's first assistant district attorney said Friday that his office did not accept the 23 cases. So they were never presented to a grand jury, and they are not expected to be considered again.
"We've made our final review of the cases and declined prosecution," Greg Davis said. "The bottom line with every case [that was declined] is that we don't feel the evidence is sufficient for prosecution."
Mr. Davis wouldn't explain why the cases presented to his office by the Murphy Police Department were insufficient, citing a policy against commenting on cases not prosecuted. Last year Murphy police worked with the television show Dateline NBC and Perverted Justice, a watchdog group whose members troll the Internet posing as children to attract potential child molesters, to lure men to a house in a Murphy neighborhood.
One suspect – former Kaufman County District Attorney Louis "Bill" Conradt Jr. – did not show up at the Murphy house. But as police officers stood at the door of his Terrell home with a search warrant, he shot himself.
His sister, Patricia Conradt, could not be reached for comment Friday. Just after the November incident, she blamed his death on a rush to grab headlines. A Dateline crew was outside Mr. Conradt's house that day.
NBC spokeswoman Jenny Tartikoff said the network doesn't comment on the prosecution of cases because that is a matter for law enforcement.
Murphy Police Chief Bill Myrick and City Manager Craig Sherwood contacted Perverted Justice last summer and invited the group to their town. Mr. Sherwood said that, as far as he's concerned, the cases are not over.
"I don't think that's a final answer," said Mr. Sherwood, referring to Mr. Davis' announcement. "Any district attorney's office is going to look again if you can provide additional information that makes this a better case."
Murphy police have provided all of their investigation materials, Mr. Sherwood said, but Dateline and Perverted Justice still need to give some information to the district attorney. Chief Myrick was out of town and could not be reached for comment.
In Texas, those who solicit sex from a child don't have to act on the solicitation in order to be arrested. The Internet chat is enough.
The men arrested in Murphy were charged with online solicitation of a minor. Depending on the circumstances of their cases, the charges could have been a second-degree felony, punishable by two to 20 years in prison, or a third-degree felony, punishable by two to 10 years in prison.
Perverted Justice founder Xavier Von Erck said his Oregon-based site has contributed to hundreds of arrests that resulted in 194 convictions.
He said this is the first time that any cases on which his grass-roots organization has worked with law enforcement have been dropped.
That's part of the reason Mr. Von Erck is vexed by the Collin County decision.
"The claim that there is inadequate evidence is ridiculous," he said. "A majority of these individuals made confessions to the Murphy Police Department, and we have every piece of evidence under the sun regarding these individuals. [The] same evidence that is used quickly and efficiently in every single case we've done across the country."
Mr. Von Erck pointed to two other Murphy cases that went through other prosecutors as examples.
Ali Vagefi, a 62-year-old Tyler man, pleaded guilty in February to federal counts of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor. He was sentenced to five years in prison for having sexually explicit online chats with a Perverted Justice employee who posed as a 14-year-old Murphy girl. He was arrested after asking to meet at a Murphy convenience store.
Mark Anthony Adameck, 33, received eight years' probation on deferred adjudication in February for online solicitation of a minor, according to Dallas County court records. The 13-year-old boy Mr. Adameck was chatting with and tried to meet was actually a Perverted Justice decoy.
These two cases were the result of a summer sting with Perverted Justice in which Dateline did not participate. There were four arrests then. Later Dateline joined Murphy police and Perverted Justice during a four-day operation that led to the arrests of 21 men.
"We handled these cases the same as we've done in California, Ohio, Georgia ... all the locations where we've done these large-scale stings, Dateline involvement or not," Mr. Von Erck said. The men arrested in the Murphy operation ranged in age from 23 to 58 and included a middle school teacher.
Stanley Kendall of Mesquite taught at Dallas' Spence Middle School at the time of his arrest on a charge of online solicitation of a minor. He was initially placed on paid administrative leave after his arrest in November. He later resigned, school district officials said Friday. ]
The sex-predator sting deeply divided residents in Murphy, a southeastern Collin County city of about 11,000.
News that the cases would not be prosecuted renewed worries about neighborhood discord, said Murphy Mayor Bret Baldwin.
"This has been one crazy battle," Mr. Baldwin said. "The whole thing has been insane. It has really torn our community apart. I hate to open that door again to battle it out in the media." Some residents were proud of their city for taking a pro-active stance. Others were angry that police were luring sexual predators into their neighborhood.
Responding to the criticism, Mr. Baldwin offered one solution last year by suggesting that Mr. Sherwood, the city manager, could resign.
The mayor said he is waiting to hear the details of the cases and what fell apart in the investigations before speaking his mind.
WFAA-TV Also Online Byron Harris reports After a series of Murphy sex stings that were played on television last fall, the Collin County district attorney said the cases in all 24 arrests made were not adequate for prosecution. While the Murphy Police Department resubmitted sex sting cases in April, the Collin County district attorney said it still will not prosecute.
Uncut video from the sex stings led to more questions about who actually ran the stings. It might be called the final scene.
The NBC video footage for a another sting, highlighted for To Catch a Predator, was shot on a Sunday afternoon last fall in Terrell, south of Dallas. But this scene would end with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
TV crews and producers from the NBC Dateline show sat outside the house as the host stood with Terrell and Murphy police.
It was all supposed to be about justice. Defense Attorney David Finn, a former prosecutor and judge, reviewed case documents for News 8. "It's a prosecutor's worst nightmare," he said. "In fact, I've had this when I was a federal prosecutor. The last thing you want is the news media or reality TV shows to be involved in the prosecution of a case or the investigation of the case."
Some said they saw flaws in the procedure before the sting began.
An email revealed that the Plano Police Department wanted no part of the operation. "The chief wants to ensure we have no one assisting, consulting or being involved in their operation with Dateline," it read.
A letter from the assistant Collin County district attorney to Murphy police said they were in the law enforcement business, not show business.
"You've got problems from beginning to end," Finn said. "This whole scenario is garbage-in-garbage-out, and here we sit with a pile of garbage."
Murphy went ahead anyway with a sting they said they worked on for two months. However, News 8 learned that Murphy's lead investigator, Snow Robertson, didn't work for Murphy until one day before the sting began. That put more pressure on the group Perverted Justice, a group which NBC pays to conduct internet chats with alleged sexual predators.
The group's methods have long been questioned.
Marsha Bartel, a former NBC producer, is suing NBC for $1 million after she was fired when she voiced concerns about To Catch a Predator's ethics.
Her lawsuit alleged that Perverted Justice chats are "trolling operations" in which chatters "sometimes beg individuals to come to the sting locations" so they can be captured on camera. "[NBC] unethically provides local law enforcement with video equipment and video tapes" in exchange for dramatically staged arrest video, the suit said.
During the stings, Murphy police appeared to wear NBC cameras. Neither NBC nor Murphy police would comment.
"In regards to the series itself, we have been transparent about our reporting methods, including the role of law enforcement and Perverted Justice," said NBC. "...NBC News is proud of its reporting, and this lawsuit is without merit."
Before the final scene in Terrell, NBC was briefed on how they could get pictures of the man, Bill Conradt, inside the house.
Conradt, a former Kaufman County district attorney and, at the time, current assistant Rockwall County district attorney, was to be To Catch a Predator's last and most notorious Murphy target.
"These people were acting not only as police, but judge, jury and executioner," said Patricia Conradt, Bill's sister.
Perverted Justice chatters, posing as a young boy, said Conradt solicited them on the internet and then talked to an NBC decoy on the phone, which led to the sting that Sunday.
When he didn't answer the door, police decided to phone him with the number they got from NBC.
"If you have a suspect who's not responding, do you storm his house?" Mrs. Conradt said. "I don't think so."
After phone contact failed, the Terrell police's tactical team was called in to serve a search warrant. When they broke in the door they heard a single shot. Conradt shot himself in the head. "It was about headlines," Mrs. Conradt said. "Making a splash. Making a story. Jumping to conclusions. We've got something that is really going to bring up our ratings."
Well the new season will be announced this week. And as usual, people are recalling the corpses of this season past. Kidnapped? Kaput. Big Day? Big Bust. Studio 60? 86'ed. No one Jonesed for Smith. One and on we go. Looks like the only way you could have made it this season is if you flew, time-traveled, or wore braces.
So I am looking at the possibilities that maybe offered at this week's upfronts. These stuck out:
Swingtown (CBS): Are you ready for swingers on TV? CBS might think you are ready, though my fear is that this will probably be (A) cleaned-up too much to keep a certain NoNeck at bay and (B) another cautionary tale about what happens when you are honest about your sexuality in this castrated society
Grant Snow, the artist formerly known as Melrose Place Jake, heads the cast of this drama set in the pre-AIDS 70's
K-Ville (Fox): If Fox Entertainment can remember the passion the Fox News reporters Geraldo Rivera and Shepard Smith reported the tragedy that still is New Orleans after Katrina, this may have a life to it. It does have an impressive crew: the showrunner is Jonathan Lisco, who did the same duties for NYPD Blue and The District. Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser star, with Tawny Cypress commuting between this and Heroes. The show details how NOLA has become the New Wild West, although if I can remember, New Orleans has a pretty high crime rate before the storm hit.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox): First off, Heroes fans, Zach is not coming back. Esepcially if this hits. A lot of eyes are looking to see if this Terminator continuation will pass muster.
No one involved in movies, except for the executive producers, is involved with the series. No Linda Hamilton. No Edward Furlong. No Kristanna Loken. And we understand Mr. Swartzengger is busy with other projects.
Basically, Sarah(Lena Headly)'s still having nightmares about the coming end-of-world and the Terminator bots. A new terminator has been sent to protect son John. Her name is Cameron (!) and now one knows that she is a T-model. All we know is that the bot is 15, looks a lot like Summer Glau who starred Firefly, and is cute enough to make Thomas Dekker, who plays John, forget about a certain cheerleader he left behind in Texas....or was it NBC?
We'll see.
The (New) Bionic Woman (NBC): How many Heroes can you put on a schedule...as many as can get you from being #4 to a more respectable placement. This is one of those re-imaginings they do to freshen up a franchise. It usually does not bode well.
This time there is no Steve Austin, stone cold or otherwise. Actually, there will be two. Katie Sackhoff (Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica) will play a crazed out Bionic whos nanos drove her nuts. She also drives a semi into a bartneder who just happens to be named Jamie Summers and whos boyfriend just happens to be a doctor in a bionics lab.
You can tell what happens next, she gets the grand prize: new legs, new arm, new eye (not the ear like Lindsay Wagner had).
And British actress Michelle Ryan will have to work her tail off to make us forget Lindsay. In fact, I have a funny feeling that we may all wind up rooting for the Bad Bionic Babe, played by Sackoff.
No word yet on whether either one will be selling Fords during the off-season.
If it was up to the Parents Television Council, NBC would be getting coal in its stocking this Christmas.
The conservative watchdog organization is calling on the network to rethink its decision to post an uncensored version of a Saturday Night Live skit on both its own Website and YouTube, in which the word dick is used multiple times.
The skit in question features host Justin Timberlake and cast member Andy Samberg singing a holiday tune about presenting their ladyfriends with the very special gift of their male members, wrapped up in a box with a bow on top.
"It's my dick in a box," the duo croon in the song's explanatory refrain.
When the skit aired on SNL, NBC bleeped out the word dick a total of 16 times. However, since the FCC has no jurisdiction over the Internet, the network was able to leave the online clip uncensored.
As of Friday, more than 4 million people had watched the clip on YouTube, with countless others taking it in through NBC's official site, much to the dismay of the PTC.
"This is a new low for NBC," PTC president Brent Bozell said in a statement. "Clearly, the network will stop at nothing to find loopholes for its indecent programming to reach the public."
In NBC's defense, the version airing on YouTube contains a cautionary warning, lest viewers are unclear as to what they are about to watch.
"The following sketch contains explicit lyrics that were not contained in the orignal [sic] broadcast," reads a message appearing before the video begins.
On NBC's site, both the censored and uncensored versions are available. Those who want to watch the unbleeped version must affirm that they are over 18 as of Dec. 15, 2007—a date that may have been a typo on the network's part.
"Moving objectionable content that would not meet FCC standards directly to the Internet is blatantly irresponsible and unacceptable," Bozell stated.
In an interview with the New York Times, SNL producer Lorne Michaels said that posting the equivalent of a "director's cut" of the show on the Internet "will be the exception" in the future.
However, he opined that other networks would be likely to follow NBC's lead in using the Web to broadcast material deemed inappropriate for the airwaves.
Despite its decision to put the clip online, NBC wasn't allowing just anyone to post the uncensored version of the skit. All unauthorized versions of "Dick in a Box" were being yanked from YouTube at the network's request.
The skit is something of a follow-up to NBC's last viral hit, "Lazy Sunday," which featured Samberg and former SNL cast member Chris Parnell rapping about topics such as eating cupcakes and taking in a matinee of Chronicles of Narnia.
After "Lazy Sunday" popped up on YouTube and became an instant Internet sensation, NBC ordered the site to remove it, later making the clip available for purchase through iTunes Music Store.
