As I suspected, the Clint Eastwood “Halftime in America” commercial for Chrysler that aired during last night’s Super Bowl turned out to be quite controversial. This AP article discusses some of the reaction to the ad from various points on the political spectrum and quotes Eastwood as saying the ad was not intended to be [...]
Posts Tagged ‘TV’
Halftime In America? (II)
Posted in America, Politics, TV, tagged TV, Politics, America, Chrysler, President Obama, Detroit, Clint Eastwood on February 6, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Halftime In America?
Posted in America, TV, tagged America, Chrysler, Clint Eastwood, Detroit, Super Bowl commercials, TV on February 6, 2012 | 1 Comment »
I expect that the most talked-about commercial from the Super Bowl is the Chrysler ad featuring Clint Eastwood. In the commercial, the gravelly voiced Eastwood says that just as it is halftime in the Super Bowl, it’s halftime in America, too. Times are tough, he says. We’re down and out of work, we don’t understand [...]
Tuning Out
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, TV, tagged America, Politics, President Obama, recession, State Of The Union speech, The Economy, TV, Unemployment on January 26, 2012 | 1 Comment »
I didn’t watch the President’s State of the Union speech earlier this week. It turns out I’m not alone. According to the New York Times, 37.8 million viewers watched the President’s speech. That’s down from 42.8 million in 2011, 48 million in 2010, and 52.3 million for the President’s 2009 speech to Congress. In short, [...]
Ending Endorsements
Posted in America, Politics, TV, tagged America, Chicago Sun-Times, Fox News, MSNBC, Newspaper endorsements, newspapers, Politics, TV on January 23, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The Chicago Sun-Times has announced that it will no longer endorse particular political candidates for election. The Sun-Times concludes — accurately, in my view — that people don’t pay a lot of attention to newspaper endorsements anymore, that there are lots of other sources of information available to voters now, and that many people just [...]
Hot Cereal Days
Posted in Breakfast Cereal, Growing Up, TV, tagged Bewitched, Breakfast Cereal, Coco Wheat, Cream Of Wheat, Growing Up, Hot Cereal, Malt O Meal, Maypo, Quaker Oats, TV, TV Commercials on January 21, 2012 | 1 Comment »
In the Webner household during the 1960s, there was a hard and fast breakfast rule: during the winter months, you ate hot cereal, period. No Frosted Flakes or Quake! No sir, winter was for Malt O Meal, Cream of Wheat, Coco Wheat, Maypo, and particularly Quaker Oats. On a cold day like today, my mother [...]
Getting To Choose A Super Bowl Commercial
Posted in Humor, TV, tagged Doritos, Humor, Super Bowl, Super Bowl commercials, TV, TV Commercials on January 11, 2012 | 1 Comment »
If — like the vast majority of viewers — you watch the Super Bowl only to see the commercials, you now have a chance to influence what you really care about. Doritos is sponsoring a contest that allows us to visit this website and vote for which of five commercials should be aired on Super [...]
That Pesky Inner Jonny Quest
Posted in America, TV, tagged Adventure, America, cartoons, Humor, Jonny Quest, Men, Snowmobiling, TV on January 10, 2012 | 5 Comments »
Hey, ladies! Do you ever wonder why . . . well, why men seem so stupid? Why men seem to crave taking dumb risks? Why men go sky-diving, and bungee jumping, and engage in X Games sports when they could be curled up in cozy pajamas, drinking warm cocoa with marshmallows in it and having [...]
The 24 Movie
Posted in Humor, Movies, TV, tagged 24, Deadwood, Humor, Jack Bauer, Kiefer Sutherland, Movies, Star Trek, TV, Twin Peaks on January 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
When a popular TV show ends, it’s not unusual for fans to be promised that a movie will be forthcoming. Sometimes it happens (think Star Trek, for example) but often it doesn’t. Deadwood fans were told movies would happen, but they haven’t. (More’s the pity!) It’s looking more and more like 24 will actually make [...]
“I’m A Doctor, Not . . . .”
Posted in TV, tagged DeForest Kelley, Leonard McCoy, Star Trek, TV on December 16, 2011 | 1 Comment »
God, I loved the character of Leonard “Bones” McCoy as played by DeForest Kelley. Crusty, unforgiving, gravel-voiced, and possessed of no people sense whatsoever, Bones had no problem with calling it as he saw it, even if it was in the middle of a crisis. And, of course, no other doctor in the history of [...]
Mr. Jingeling On The Brain
Posted in Growing Up, TV, tagged Cleveland, Cleveland TV Personalities, Growing Up, Halle's Department Store, Mr. Jingeling, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Wizard Of Oz, TV on December 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The human brain is strange. Why is it that I sometimes struggle to remember the names of people at my office but can recall — with sharp, striking clarity — every word to the stupid theme song of Mr. Jingeling? If you lived in northeastern Ohio during the early 1960s, you knew Mr. Jingeling as [...]
Frozen Planet Follies
Posted in TV, tagged BBC, Documentaries, Frozen Planet, Nature shows, TV on December 14, 2011 | 1 Comment »
There’s a controversy brewing around the BBC nature show Frozen Planet. It involves striking footage of newborn polar bear cubs that some viewers thought was filmed in a snowy bear den in the Arctic. It turns out that the footage was shot in a Dutch animal park, instead. The BBC denies that it sought to [...]
Boardwalk Empire, In Hell
Posted in TV, tagged Boardwalk Empire, Oedipus Rex, TV on December 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Wow, things have gotten disturbing on Boardwalk Empire. This season we’ve seen the show morph from a relatively innocent, Prohibition-era tale of Nucky Thompson and corruption, bootlegging, and the rise of organized crime in Atlantic City and Chicago into a very dark story, indeed. We’ve seen babies borne out of wedlock, then deserted by their [...]
“Arise, Sir Loin Of Beef!”
Posted in TV, tagged Bugs Bunny, TV on November 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Every once in a while, a snippet from a Bugs Bunny cartoon will stick in my head. So it was today with this classic bit.
The Most Popular Game In Town
Posted in America, sports, TV, tagged America, Cable TV, Monday Night Football, NFL, NFL Football, sports, TV, Two and a Half Men on October 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
In the current “fall season” — to the extent such a thing even exists anymore — 13 of the 14 most-watched TV shows have been NFL games. The only non-NFL program that makes the top 15 is Two and a Half Men. Why is the NFL so popular? For one thing, it’s the perfect American [...]
Catch Phrase Fever
Posted in TV, tagged Catch Phrases, Colonel Hogan, Colonel Klink, Hogan's Heroes, Sergeant Schultz, TV on October 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
It’s hard to believe now that a show like Hogan’s Heroes was ever on the air. Can you imagine making a sitcom out of life in a German prisoner of war camp, where the Nazis were cowards and idiots who were easily duped by the crafty Colonel Hogan and one of the running gags was [...]
