Two Cents
By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/13/2003
"I don't know if it's a fear of seeming unpatriotic. But there are times when you're thinking back to the week's events, and you can't wait to see how they'll cover them, and you get a skit about how Saddam Hussein combs his mustache."
Former Saturday Night Live player Will Ferrell to The New York Times. Ferrell is concerned SNL might have lost its political edge.
"But Marriott, 28, is dumb as a box o' rocks. Flummoxed by the simplest questions—including one from a woman who simply asked his middle name—he came off like a real-life version of Seinfeld's David Puddy: hopelessly handsome and just hopeless everywhere else."
Eric Deggans, St. Petersburg Times, believes Fox's Joe Millionaire is one big bore.
"At the end of the first hour, you want more. You shouldn't, it's embarrassing, but then again it's perfectly executed trash and certainly no more damaging than a Dateline episode."
Tim Goodman, San Francisco Chronicle. Goodman found The WB's reality show, The Surreal Life, addictive.
"The truth of the matter is that reality TV is a superficial version of documentary filmmaking to begin with. ... I'm not knocking success, but I don't think they're necessarily advancing the idea of what documentaries are supposed to do, which is hold up a mirror to society or to your own life."
Alan Raymond, one-half of the team behind PBS's 30-year-old An American Family series, to The Miami Herald.
"Isn't it weird to be the black Johnny Carson and the black Ed McMahon? That's more pressure than a Nubian brother needs!"
Arsenio Hall to The Philadelphia Inquirer on his new gig as host of CBS's Star Search.
"Viewing the premiere show was like watching fluid drain from an IV bag. Life seeped from my TV set, drop by drop, with every performance, every vote, every stultifying minute."
David Bianculli, New York Daily News on CBS's Star Search .
"Television has developed an entire cottage industry around has-beens, and the has-beens are playing along, desperate to feel the warmth of the spotlight one more time—with or without their dignity. It's the price of continued admission to the celebrity culture, and they're not too embarrassed to pay."
Alan Sepinwall, The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, on the cult of personality now invading reality television.
