Originally posted by AWArulzEllen who never went off the air and said she had a responsibility to her employer.
You watch Ellen?
I have. Like, I am working (so called) then, just like I am (so called) now. Ellen's amusing. I thought her sitcom was a hoot until it became all about her being a lesbian. It's up against Oprah in our market and some judge program. If there was nothing else on and I needed background noise at 4PM in our market, yep, I'd turn on Ellen and if it was interesting or funny, I'd pay attention.
Somebody must be watching, she got renewed.
Seldom catch it but I like Ellen. And I agree with AWA, before it got heavy into sexual politics, her sitcom was quite funny. Perhaps the most bizaare thing I saw her in was a film on energy at EPCOT a few years back.
Here are some more thoughts from a demented mind in Central Florida: Edith-Bunker-does-Sabotage? Not so funny for me.
On the other hand, Conan wandering the halls of NBC, trying to annoy people by playing "Sunshine of Your Love"? Damn. Now I'll never be able to hear that song again without thinking of that and without trying to keep from cracking up. Thanks, Conan. Thanks a fucking lot. ;)
Why yes, I am both a musician and a lawyer. Thanks for asking. :)
You'll have to forgive the righteous indignation, but Johnny Carson would never have resorted to this bush-league shit. Of course, Johnny never had any real competition...
"I could drown the pain, and drink upon commuter trains and here you stand in eastern standard time" - Mike Doughty
Jay's latest ratings grab: another Ron Paul booking - TONIGHT. His first appearance was - how you say - not so dynamic (youtube.com) but a lot's happened since November...
United Artists on Monday announced an interim bargaining agreement with the WGA as speculation swirled over whether other indie film companies also might make deals with the guild.
Details of the pact weren't disclosed, just as with the interim contract the WGA reached last month with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants.
...
The agreement does not extend to MGM, but it does represent the first such deal with a film company. An insider said MGM technically might have prevented the UA move but as a practical matter was bound by the spirit of its agreement with division heads Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise to let the indie go its own way.
Since all of these details of these deals are all "undisclosed", I wonder what exactly "interim" means, and if we could wind up right back where we were two months ago. Still, if individual production companies are making agressments, how long can the whole industry hold out?
The Daily Show and the Colbert Report came back last. Both are available online.
TDS spent basically the whole episode talking about the writer's strike, and at first I thought it would bore me. I'm tired of hearing about the writer's strike. Like most things, though, Jon Stewart seems to have a pretty nuanced view of the situation, doing a nice satire "explaining" why the writers didn't deserve to get paid for online content, but at the same time making fun of certain elements of it, showing off his "strike unibrow" at the beginning of the show. I thought his guest was interesting, and was surprised to learn that the professor had gotten flack for crossing the picket line.
Colbert started with a nearly two minute ovation. Once Colbert got in character, he wondered why there were no words in the teleprompter, because he believed that it simply read his thoughts and displayed them for him. He ran two interviews, which I don't recall him ever doing before.
Bottom line is that I'm glad the shows are back, but I hope it's not just all strike talk all the time.
You know, one of these shows needs to be all 'Strike News' and John Stewert's a good one for it. His show's been on long enough that he could get away with and I think he'd be a perfect host to just harp on it every night putting down his own network for not getting a deal together.
If you were a studio exec, and you had to hear an employee bash the company night after night but since he gets good ratings and you kinda forced him in to doing it in the first place, I think you'd get your ass back to the bargaining tables.
Originally posted by LeroySince all of these details of these deals are all "undisclosed", I wonder what exactly "interim" means, and if we could wind up right back where we were two months ago. Still, if individual production companies are making agressments, how long can the whole industry hold out?
As I understand it, "interim" deals usually have a clause in them (called the "favoured nations clause" I think, I think) that allows the company that signed early to change to the new deal when that is signed if they so choose.
Basically, so that they won't be penalized for agreeing to the Guild's demands early.
From what I have read, the Letterman deal agrees to all the WGA demands. Not sure about the UA deal, but it is probably pretty similar.