Archive: June 2009 (41-50 of 68)

Jun 12 2009 12:50 PM ET

Norm MacDonald on 'The Tonight Show': He's a national treasure

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Categories: TV Last Night

Is there a funnier talk-show guest right now than Norm MacDonald? I think not. Check out his appearance last night on The Tonight Show. After telling what he called a few old jokes he’d “pulled from the vault” (his decade-old Winona Ryder jokes still killed), MacDonald talked about the TV pilots he’s worked on, including his versions of Jon & Kate Plus Eight and Rock of Love: 

Watching MacDonald, you wonder why he’s not a bigger star, and are almost glad he’s not, because his status as a stealth-talk-show secret-weapon is so enjoyable.

Did you watch? What do you think?

Jun 12 2009 12:14 PM ET

Palin attacks Letterman again: Joke was about 'statutory rape'

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Categories: Television

Gov. Sarah Palin told The Today Show this morning that she continues to be offended by David Letterman’s joke “about the statutory rape of my 14 year-old daughter.” Interviewed by Matt Lauer, Palin referred to Letterman as a “so-called comedian” and said his humor “erodes a young girl’s self esteem.”

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Meanwhile, last night on the Late Show, Letterman made one joke in his opening monologue about the ongoing controversy, saying, “I think everything’s fine now: She called and offered to take me hunting.”

Palin’s remark to The Today Show suggests she still doesn’t get the idea that Letterman’s self-admittedly “cheap” joke — that during a Yankees game, “her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez” — had nothing to do with rape, nor was she buying Letterman’s premise that he wasn’t referring to 14-year-old Willow but to 18-year-old Bristol. Lauer cited a remark from Palin’s spokesperson: “It would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman.” “Are you suggesting David Letterman can’t be trusted around a 14-year-old?” Lauer asked. “Take it the way you want to take it,” said Palin. “It’s from the heart.” Lauer then asked, “But is that [comment] also not in bad taste?” “No, it’s not,” said Palin.

What do you think? Has this controversy gone on long enough, or will it continue?

For more on the Letterman-Palin controversy:
David Letterman vs. Sarah Palin: ‘This could be my last show’

Jun 12 2009 02:19 AM ET

'Burn Notice': Is Michael's new foe worthy of him?

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Categories: Television

This week’s Burn Notice had a nifty double-crossing-a-kidnapper plot, but its real purpose was to introduce a new enemy for Jeffrey Donovan’s Michael Weston. She’s Miami cop Michelle Paxon (the woozily-named Moon Bloodgood, from Terminator Salvation). Paxon was labeled “Michael’s Worst Nightmare” right there on the TV screen, so we know her investigation of Michael as an undercover spy will be ongoing. Here’s their first scene together from this episode:

Now, I’m guardedly optimistic about this development, but wary: Remember how last season, Tricia Helfer’s Carla character dragged down the action? Frankly, if I was Gabrielle Anwar, I’d be pissed: Why does Burn keep introducing women that are supposed to flirt with Michael in a tough-gal way and distract his attention from his other cases? That’s what Anwar’s Fiona is there for, and she does it well. (In fact, Fiona seems re-energized as a character this season so far.) I’m glad Michael muttered of Paxon, “I am not her type.” She might not be ours, either, but we’ll see what happens. Oh, well: Still a good episode. Lots of Sam hitting Michael when they assumed other identities. Nice birthday scene at the end, with Fiona giving Michael a bayonet as a gift.

What did you think of this week’s Burn Notice? Any gut reactions to Officer Paxon?

Jun 11 2009 12:48 PM ET

David Letterman vs. Sarah Palin: 'This very well could be my last show'...not

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Categories: TV Last Night

Last night on The Late Show, David Letterman said that Gov. Sarah Palin had called him “pathetic” for making jokes about her and one of her daughters. “I haven’t been called pathetic once since [my] honeymoon,” he joked. “This very well could be my last show,” he said, as though the controversy was making him an endangered species. “Oh, great,” he said. “I pissed off a hunter.” The Late Show host responded to accusations by Gov. Sarah Palin that he had made inappropriate jokes about her and her family in his Monday-night Top Ten List. Here’s what he said last night in his semi-defense:

To Palin’s accusations that he was making a joke about “raping” one of her daughters, let’s go to the text: Letterman’s self-admittedly “ugly” joke was that 18-year-old Bristol was “knocked up” by baseball’s Alex Rodriguez. That phrase doesn’t carry the implication of forced sex. I mean, I didn’t hear that association applied to the title of the Judd Apatow movie Knocked Up, did you? (And: “Where’s Alex Rodriguez’s [complaint]?” he asked parenthetically.)

But of course, breaking down any joke into serious, word-for-word analysis misses the spirit and context in which it was told. Letterman said he knew they were “cheap laughs” he was going for; in his usual self-deprecating way, he noted that’s what he’s been doing “for 35 years.” As for his joke about Palin’s “slutty-flight-attendant look,” he said unrepentantly, “I kinda like that joke.”

“I mean, look at me,” he said, facing the camera directly. “I would never, never make jokes about raping.”

It seems absurd to have to say this, after all the years we’ve all spent seeing what an interesting, complex, funny man Letterman is, but here it is anyway: I believe him.

Then later Kathy Griffin came out and, with typical bluntness, said blithely that Palin is “a moron” and her husband Todd “a tool.” “But that’s just my opinion,” she said. Jokes and opinions: what trouble-makers.

Did you watch The Late Show last night? What did you think of Letterman’s response to Palin’s accusations? Do you think Sarah Palin should accept Dave’s invitation to appear on his show?

For more on the Letterman-Palin controversy:
David Letterman responds to flap over Sarah Palin jokes.

Jun 11 2009 03:30 AM ET

'Top Chef Masters': Good cooks, good sports, no celebrities squawking to get out of the kitchen

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Categories: Television

Top-Chef-Masters_lHaving recently logged TV-critic-time gazing at the hideous I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, watching Top Chef Masters seems like a delightful palate-cleanser after eating way too much bad junk food. The show is charming because most of the personalities themselves are charming. Two dozen well-established chefs are competing against each other. They take the competitions seriously, they make a few mistakes. When one chef’s cakes failed to rise, the others chuckled: Hey, dude, it happens, was the implied agreement. When chef Tim Love accidentally put his ingredients in a freezer instead of a refrigerator, it just made him seem more human. And who couldn’t love that competition in which these culinary big shots had to cook with the humble implements in a college dorm room?

Granted, it’s not like good old regular Top Chef, where the players are young and hungry, so to speak. It’s not as though any of these top chefs will be out of work and scrounging if they lose. But watching Top Chef Masters sure beats feeling like a lamb being brought to the slaughter of I’m a Celebrity. And Masters works on its own, as good summer fare, in the months before the crispy original Top Chef begins.

Did you watch Top Chef Masters? What did you think?

Jun 10 2009 12:34 PM ET

Julia Roberts to David Letterman: 'You are so much funnier'... and, last night at least, more-watched!

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Categories: TV Last Night

Hmmm. A certain theme is emerging on The Late Show with David Letterman. Earlier this week, Howard Stern went on a tear about how Letterman was “the host we want to watch” in late-night. 

Then last night, Julia Roberts said, after a particuarly good Letterman ad-lib, “You are so much funnier than other people who talk at this time of the evening.” Check it out:

Julia is a Dave loyalist, to be sure, and her comment could not be more pointed about the new Dave vs. Conan late-night competition. Last night on The Tonight Show, the scheduled Norm MacDonald seemed to have been bumped for a bigger star, Eddie Murphy. Are the booking wars heating up?

(By the way, Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal were great last night on Conan.)

Did you watch Julia Roberts on Letterman? What did you think?

UPDATE: Last night’s ratings are in, and Dave beat Conan last night for the first time in household ratings since O’Brien took over The Tonight Show.

For more on the late-night wars:

Howard Stern uses Letterman platform to rip on Jay Leno

Jun 10 2009 11:06 AM ET

'Mental': David Carradine gets a grim send-off

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Categories: TV Last Night

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Obviously the producers of the new Fox show Mental had no idea that this week’s guest star, David Carradine, would die before the broadcast of the episode called “Book of Judges.” And so there was a lot of unintentional eerieness in seeing Carradine playing an author who’d been struck by lightning and was immobile, in a catatonic state. For most of the hour, Carradine’s limp body lay on a bed or was propped up in a wheelchair.

Some dialogue description of Carradine’s character, Gideon Graham — “He’s an icon, a national treasure” — sounded to me like last-minute dubbing, especially given the fact that the rest of the hour established Graham as a rather arrogant adulterer. Adding to the awkwardness was Mental‘s difficult-to-buy plot: Carradine’s Graham was being subjected to electrical-stimulation sessions to his skull, but the show’s hero, perpetually smirky Dr. Gallagher (Chris Vance), suspected that Graham was actually conscious — that he was faking his coma.

And, oh yes: Gideon Graham also had a “super-model” daughter whom our Dr. Gallagher romanced. Add typical Mental lines like, “Dr. Gallagher is… dynamic,” and — well, while this series could, in general, use a booster-shot of quality, it’s just plain bad luck that one of Carradine’s last performances couldn’t have offered a better showcase for his talent.

Jun 9 2009 11:14 AM ET

'Weeds' season premiere: The Big Bong Theory

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Categories: TV Last Night

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Weeds returned where it left off last season, with Mary-Louise Parker’s Nancy pregnant with the child of the drug lord Esteban. This came as sad news to Justin Kirk’s Andy, or as he put it, “You’re a slutty, irresponsible, slutty slut.” 

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Perkins’ Celia is being held hostage in Mexico by her estranged daughter Quinn, but the laugh-material here is that no matter which of Celia’s friends or family Quinn and her boyfriend call, none of them wants to pony up cash for the obnoxious Celia. And meanwhile yet again, Andy, Hunter Parrish’s Silas, and Kevin Nealon’s Doug plan to move out of the house and grow their marijuana crop in a national forest.

At this point in its evolution, it’s probably best to think of Weeds as a slapstick comedy no more rooted in any sort of realism than an old Cheech and Chong movie. 

It was not always so: When Weeds premiered in 2005, creator Jenji Kohan had crafted a satire of suburbia that stood out from the Desperate Housewives/American Beauty/John Updike versions in two ways: (1) it starred Parker, whose wide-eyed intensity was more Manhattan-neurotic than Connecticut- or California-WASP, and (2) it was about pot-dealing. In its first season, there was real drama surrounding the question of whether Nancy could be a good mother while breaking the law.

Now that question is moot, irrelevant, up in smoke. We’ve reached the point where, in next week’s episode (don’t worry, no real spoiler here), Shane can take a cellphone pic of his aunt having sex and it’s played for both laughs and as a sign of Shane’s healthy resilience. I don’t know whether to laugh or be appalled, which I think is probably the reaction Kohan and her writers are going for these days.

For sheer wackiness, Weeds is hard to beat. I’m not buying most of what’s going on on Weeds this season, but it’s still good for a few chuckles — about the same as your average good network-TV sitcom. Weeds has become, in this sense, The Big Bong Theory.  

Did you watch the Weeds season premiere? What did you think?

Jun 9 2009 04:33 AM ET

'The Colbert Report' in Iraq: Obama says, 'Shave that man's head!'

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Categories: TV Last Night

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The Colbert Report went to Baghdad for the first of four episodes last night, and it was a victory for comedy both satirical and silly. Walking onto a stage dressed in a business suit made of camouflage, Stephen Colbert brandished a golf club: an unspoken homage to Bob Hope, who used to swing a putter during his numerous USO tours. Facing an audience of enlisted soldiers, he made Hope-style jokes about the heat as well as warfare (“Iraq: a country so nice we invaded it twice”). 

In a gesture much appreciated by his audience, Colbert had his head shaved to a military-regulation buzz-cut by Gen. Ray Ordierno, under the direct order of the Commander in Chief. (President Obama, in a taped message that included the command, “Shave that man’s head!”)

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Obama Orders Stephen’s Haircut – Ray Odierno
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq
Not entirely avoiding politics, Colbert declared victory in Iraq, as he put it, “by the power vested in me by basic cable,” and an on-screen joke told the troops, “Obama should deploy you to GM.” Indeed, Colbert’s visit is intended, in part, to remind those of us here stateside that there are a lot of men and women doing very difficult work overseas, even as the news media is dominated by our economic woes.

But you’re not going to catch me, as someone who blogs about Jon & Kate Plus 8 among other topics, chiding the news media… the great thing is, Colbert does it all by himself. What he’s also doing, via his hilariously huffy, cowardly Colbert persona, is continuing a great tradition of entertainers who make the effort to travel to where troops are deployed and give some brief pleasure to soldiers. More power — and less hair — to him. 

Did you watch The Colbert Report in Iraq? What did you think? 
Jun 9 2009 02:42 AM ET

Patti Blagojevich on 'I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!': 'This is a piece of cake compared to the nightmare I've been living'

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Categories: Television

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I will spare you the details of the inevitable return of Heidi and Spencer to the damp bosom of I’m a Celebrity on Monday night. I’m not going to quote any of their mindlessly incessant invocations of God and Jesus lest a Higher Being smite me down for repeating their fervent blather. 

But there was a moment of interest for anyone still following the travails of disgraced governor Rod Blagojevich, who was denied his moist spot on the I’m a Celebrity log in favor of his wife, Patti. 

Until now, Patti has been pretty tight-lipped — keeps her head down, does her chores. But this night she finally did what she undoubtedly hoped to do all along: Sob in front of a network audience about, as she put it, “the nightmare I’ve been living through the past six months.” 

“We’re just trying to keep our house,” said Patti, wiping away tears. “I’m driving around in a 21 year-old car.”

Aw, boo-hoo, Patti. Tell it to folks who’ve lost their jobs and don’t get to go on TV reality-game shows.

Then again, she did have to listen to Heidi sing an a capella version of some godawful “original” song. “You’re twisted/As a liar you’re gifted,” Heidi yowled. Then she explained, “That’s my, like, rock song.” Eeek.

Maybe the court deciding Rod Blagojevich’s fate should just lock him in a room with an endlessly-repeated Heidi song for a month…

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