BC Beat

June 4, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

Switching to CNN during post-Obama speech coverage yielded this wondrous nugget: the strangely innocent foot-in-mouth exchange between anchor Anderson Cooper and political analyst Donna Brazile.

Discussing a prior phone conversation Brazile had had with Obama, Cooper playfully tried to pry some juicy details out of her. Brazile’s response: “Anderson, you’re not my boo.”

While it did, for an instant, bring me right back to 1988 and Lloyd Bentsen telling Dan Quayle, “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy,” Cooper’s schoolyard crush response—“I wanna be your boo”—made the whole thing pretty hilarious.

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Industries: Washington

May 30, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Comic actor Harvey Korman died Thursday at the age of 81. I spent some time reviewing some of his greatest bits on YouTube, from his comic duets with Tim Conway on The Carol Burnett Show to (my favorite) his role as the ruthless Hedley Lamarr in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles. 

The Archive of American Television has also posted a wonderful series of interviews with Korman, both solo and with Conway. Check it out:

Industries: Fates & Fortunes

May 21, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I'd like to recognize a stroke of genius from the folks at National Geographic Channel. For its upcoming special Stonehenge Decoded, NatGeo has turned to the foremost authority on the mysterious ruins: Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel.

Check out the series of videos featuring deadpanelist Christopher Guest reprising his role as the befuddled and peevish lead guitarist from the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. Here's one of five:

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Industries: Business and Deals, Programming

April 2, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Proving once again what a good sport he is, presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain showed up on CBS' Late Show With David Letterman last night, "surprising" Dave as he delivered a string of one-liners on how old McCain looks ("...he looks like the guy who's always got wirey hair growing out of new places"). The senator then gamely lit into Dave with a few insults of his own (supplied, no doubt, by Letterman's writing staff). 

Now, McCain is an amiable TV presence. Whether he's on Hardball or The Daily Show, he manages to show good humor without embarrassing himself. And given his reputation for occasional outbursts of pique, I can't help but think he has taken steps--whether through media coaching or good old self-discipline--to be soft-spoken and unflappable. 

But wa...Read More
Industries: Business and Deals, Programming

March 31, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (16)

Shaun Daily may have lost the battle for Jericho, CBS’ twice-canceled post-nuclear-war drama, but he hasn’t conceded the larger war for quality TV.

Daily, you may recall, is the talk-radio host who inspired legions of Jericho fans to protest the show’s first cancellation, in May 2007, by deluging CBS with shipments of nuts. The network agreed to resurrect it for a seven-episode run that ended last week, but dismal ratings sealed its fate.

Reached Wednesday in Las Vegas, where he hosts Shaun OMac Radio on Web radio network ...Read More