Jeanne Cooper passes away

I was saddened this morning to hear of the passing of Jeanne Cooper, star of "The Young And The Restless" on CBS. My mother has watched the show since it started in 1973, and Ms. Cooper had starred as Katherine Chancellor almost since the beginning. I grew up watching the show with my mother, at first during the summer when I was home from school, then sometimes at night when we would record that day's show and watch it on the VCR. About a decade later, my then-wife (who is also a longtime fan) would watch the show on VHS or on our DVR. So I spent at least 20 years off and on watching Ms. Cooper on the show. My mother said she feels like she's lost a member of our family, and I feel the same way.

Dan Fienberg's takedown of the CW's new show "H8R" is required reading for TV fans, reality show fans, or people who just enjoy rants about terrible people doing terrible things.  Don't miss it. 

If you missed me this morning...

I am exhausted and worn out from almost 24 hours of phone calls, texts, e-mails, and tweets.  It's been a unique experience but I'm really looking forward to putting this whole story behind me.

If you didn't see one or more of these shows today, here are the links I could find:

The TODAY Show


CBS Early Show

CNN American Morning

I can't find the FOX News segment on their website so if anyone else finds it please let me know.

Thank you to everyone who e-mailed, commented, or tweeted to me or about me today.  I really appreciate all the support of family and friends.

To anyone who's new here, I usually write about classical music, Pittsburgh sports teams, and life in New York.  I hope you'll stick around.

Thanks again!

A better way to cover the Olympics

Many sports bloggers and friends have taken up the cause of "NBC FAIL" this past week as it pertains to the Winter Olympics.  (The greater cause of "NBC FAIL" as it pertains to the rest of the network is a subject for another time.)  NBC has run nearly all of its events tape delayed in prime time, diced up with commercial breaks and fluff pieces, and then held the entire package an additional three hours for the Pacific and Mountain time zones.  Let's not forget that the Olympic Games are being held in the Pacific time zone.  It doesn't matter to the network.  By the time the Games air at 8 PM on the East Coast, anyone with an Internet connection or even cable TV can and likely does know the results of the events they're about to watch on the NBC broadcast channel.  And if you're in LA or Seattle, you've known the results for almost an entire day.  The network has run hockey and curling live on CNBC and MSNBC and on nbcolympics.com all week long, and as a hockey fan I applaud this decision.  But the fact remains that NBC's coverage of these Games (and the Games in years past) is built on a model that assumes the average viewer turns on the TV when they get home and leaves it on the same channel all night long.  They pick and choose what to show in prime time based on advertising revenue targets for the audience they want to reach.  But people don't watch TV like that any more.

Network coverage of the Olympics has to change.  As people in my generation get older and have more buying power, we're going to demand that the network cater to what we want and not accept the bite-sized chunks that get laid out for us.  Some of us want to see the entire mens' downhill ski event, not just a few skiers and the winners.  Some people want to see all the figure skating they can have and then some.  And there are people who like cross-country, biathlon, speed skating, and other events that would love to see those events in their entirety, but they have to take what NBC gives them.  We know that NBC has cameras at all of these events.  And we know that the network can put events online all day long and they will find an audience.  Why not go the whole way?

What I imagine is a hybrid of what CBS does with the NCAA tournament and what Versus does with the Tour de France.  First, show all the events live, no matter what the time of day.  Even if the Olympics are being held 12 time zones away, people will watch them live.  Use all the networks (CNBC and MSNBC in NBC's case) and show as many events live as possible.  The Olympics only come around once every four years for sixteen days.  If NBC is going to lose money on the Games, why not go all in and preempt Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann for two weeks?  And show the Games online and elsewhere with the same ads that will run when the events are shown in prime time later that night.  While the events are running online, run a crawl or an ad every few minutes that tells the online viewer when the same event will be on in prime time that night. People who watch during the day while they're at work might want to see the same event in glorious HD later that evening.  Or they might call their parents/grandparents/friends who can't watch online and tell them "you have to see this downhill race later tonight. It's on at 9:30 PM."

Which leads me to the second part of my suggestion (the Versus part).  Keep the tape-delayed pre-packaged prime time coverage model that has worked for thirty years.  While there is a large audience of geeks and bored workers who will watch events online, there are many, many other viewers who will still want to tune in at 8 PM and watch all evening long.  So cater to them as well.  Even though the events have already aired on other networks and online, people like the fluff segments and the studio interviews.  It works for Versus.  They run the Tour de France live in the morning straight up, with play-by-play and instant commentary.  And they advertise during the broadcast for viewers to tune in at 8 PM for expanded coverage of the same stage.  Then they repeat the broadcast at 8 PM, but with more interviews, more studio analysis, and more pre-taped segments.  It's almost exactly the prime-time Olympics model.  And people will tune in.

What's it going to take to make these changes?  We'll need a young sports division head who knows the online viewing habits of 18-34 year-olds.  They'll be the ones calling their parents and telling them to watch the Games that night.  And this sports division head will need to do their homework and be ready to stand up to network executives and show them that there's a better way to cover these Games.  And we'll need a network president that understands that old models don't work any longer. 

The networks have to change to fit the times.  They can't force us to watch their outdated prime-time package and only that.  We want sports when we want them, and we'll find ways to get the sports elsewhere if we have to.  Why make us go to those lengths?  Give us what we want, and we'll sing your praises to anyone who will listen.

What's the deal with fruit?

Matt at Warming Glow posted this delightful "60 Minutes" clip of Andy Rooney checking out the fruit selection at Fairway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I've sat through many of Rooney's commentaries over the years, and he's long past the point of thoughtful insight. Now he's like the old uncle that you visit at the retirement home, the one with the weird view that the 'guvmint' is stealing his Social Security to pay off Fidel Castro. Last year Rooney opined that Barack Obama didn't sound like a presidential name. In another segment, he talked about ways to save money during a recession and admitted that he pockets dinner rolls from restaurants for use in the next day's lunch.

This time, Rooney talks about all the bad melons he's bought over the years, reveals that he's stolen cherries from supermarkets, and doesn't think green is a good color for fruit. Green is the color of vegetables, he claims. But that's just Andy being Andy. The part that scared me the most was Rooney's shriveled hands. Are my hands going to look like that when I get older? I'd better pick up some hand lotion on the way home.

Train-wreck television

I missed the premiere of "Joe Buck Live" last night, but the best parts are online today. For some reason, Buck (or his producers) booked Artie Lange for the first show as part of a comedians' roundtable discussion. Lange proceeded to do what he does best and rip Buck a new one. Watch the first part of the show (second clip, while it's still available), then see the online "extra" portion that HBO took down from their site. Poor Paul Rudd and Jason Sudeikis look like they want to be anywhere but on that stage. And Joe Buck's new HBO show might be over before it starts.

UPDATE: The more I think about this and read the popular reactions, I agree that HBO and Buck got exactly what they wanted by putting Artie Lange on the show. Many sports bloggers and media columnists are talking about Buck Vs. Lange today. If nothing else, this kerfuffle should boost the ratings for the next "Joe Buck Live."

First impressions of Conan on "The Tonight Show"

Based solely on two shows, I like what Conan has done with "Tonight." He's transplanted his old show to LA and kept the same zaniness that he had at 12:35 AM in New York. His interview style is the same, his rapport with his guests (Will Ferrell and Tom Hanks thus far) is well established, and I love that they kept the old band and the old show theme. Having Andy Richter back as his Ed McMahon-esque announcer is a great move, partly because it's good to see Andy getting work. I loved Conan's interview with Tom Hanks. Hanks is a great sport. One of my favorite jokes on "Late Night" was an early interview with Hanks where Conan presented him with a dog skeleton that he claimed belonged to Hanks' one-time co-star, Hooch. Last night, Conan hit Hanks with a meteor, and Hanks played along, even losing a shoe in the assault.

Tom Shales of The Washington Post doesn't agree with my sentiments. He didn't like that on Conan's opening night Ferrell appeared on the show after midnight. However, I don't remember too many nights when Jay had his guest on the show before midnight. Also, Shales pointed out that Conan's opening routine in which he ran from New York to LA was accomplished via "the magic of editing." Thank you, Captain Obvious. Did anyone watching the show really think Conan ran to LA? Finally, Shales said that Conan's monologue was "weak" and that "the sooner O'Brien stops introducing himself and starts telling funny jokes, the better." Conan has never been the stand-up comedian that Jay Leno is. He acknowledges that all the time and makes fun of his lack of joke-telling skills in his monologue. His strengths have always been his sketches and taped segments and his chemistry with his guests. I thought that Shales would know that, but maybe he never stayed up late enough to watch "Late Night."

The Fox News-Simpsons connection.

Glenn Beck is trying so hard to be a blowhard, he's turning into Kent Brockman. I can just see Brockman ranting like this clown.

If there's no Oscar party, did the show actually happen?

I watched last night's Oscars even though my heart wasn't really in it. My friends and I didn't have our usual party this year, so it was just Kate and I at my apartment eating Indian food and frozen yogurt. (We did honor the spirit of the party by sticking to Best Picture nominee-themed food.) I'd only seen two of the five Best Picture nominees and a couple of the other movies. 2008 was a bad year for me for the Oscar contenders. As a result, I didn't have my normal level of investment in the awards ceremony. But when it came time for the show, I couldn't stay away.

I enjoyed Hugh Jackman's attempts to liven up the proceedings. His opening musical number was funny, but I could have done without the salute to movie musicals later in the show. Every year the show's producers throw in a salute to something or other, and unless it's done exceptionally well, it falls flat. The presenters were forgettable, except for Tina Fey and Steve Martin, who I think should host the show next year. They had the best material and have the kind of comic timing that most hosts have to fake. When he wasn't singing, Jackman was invisible. Maybe that was part of the show's format changes, but I like the show better when the host pokes fun at the stars and their reactions.

At first, I liked the way the presented the acting awards, with five former winners each saluting the nominees. Christopher Walken could have brought Joel Grey out in his suit pocket. But by 11:30, I just wanted the show to be over. Instead, we had to sit through tributes to the Best Actor and Best Actress nominees, and the segments dragged. (Plus, I might have been the only one to notice this, but in the Best Actor category, one of the former winners they trotted out was Anthony Hopkins. Another former winner introduced Frank Langella and said something that his performance as Nixon was instantly the best one the movies had ever seen. I checked on IMDB, and my memory was correct: in 1995, Hopkins was nominated for the same award for his performance as Nixon in "Nixon." I wonder if his reaction to the praise for Langella was "yes, that's right, Frank's work was much better than mine in the same role," or if instead he thought "Hey, Oscar writers, I'm right here!")

The whole show felt forced, like those of us watching at home were all going to have a good time no matter how miserable we all might be. Next year my friends and I will have to bring back the party. While I enjoyed relaxing at home without a crowd and the corresponding mess, we always have fun when we watch the Oscars as a group. And it would be better for my eating habits. I'm still full from last night's chicken curry.

Be seeing you...

Patrick McGoohan died yesterday. His passing reminds me that I've only watched a handful of the original episodes of The Prisoner. I should get back on that.

Re-watching the opening credits, I realized that Number 6 must have been a crappy secret agent. He resigns, then he goes home to pack a suitcase to make a quick getaway, where he is captured by the mysterious forces who imprison him in The Village. Why didn't he pack the suitcase first and bring it in his car? Why did he take his own tiny sports car? Why not take a cab from MI 6 right to Victoria Station or Heathrow? And how could he not notice that he was being followed all the way home? They're following right behind him! I've read too many spy novels and seen too many movies.