I was really excited to start 2021. As those of you who know me already know, 2020 was a year of profound change for me and the world in general. I navigated the birth of coronavirus, the death of Kobe and the summer of George Floyd protest riots with my own near-death, the end of … Read more
Those of us seasoned enough to remember when late night television was actually watched late at night recall when Johnny Carson would trot out his Carnac the Magnfiicent act, blithely and sarcastically guessing the answers to questions that were hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnall’s porch since noon that day. (My … Read more
I’ve had the good fortune of meeting a lot of famous people but I’ve not yet met Spike Lee. From those I know who have, I think we’d get along great. He’s a passionate basketball fan, a brilliant storyteller and uncompromisingly honest. And he loves to write. So do I. It’s therapy. And boy do … Read more
Caught WEST SIDE STORY in a nearly deserted movie theatre on Christmas Night. As someone whose earliest memories of his childhood involve the original Broadway cast LP of the 1956 stage play that started it all being played at least once a week on the console RCA Victor turntable despite the many scratches the album … Read more
The last time anyone was capable of having a normal Christmas Day (let alone a fourth day of Chanukah), this is how I spent it. Lying with tubes stuck in me, an ugly white beard making me itch and grateful I had bid farewell to my diseased gall bladder less than 24 hours earlier. As … Read more
Twas the morn before Christmas, when all through my ‘hood Not a creature was stirring, ah, the silence was good The CDs are stacked by our chimney with care My roommate’s an atheist; there’s no room to spare His child isn’t here, so I sprung from my bed, While visions of this post danced in … Read more
Last week was the final Thursday Night Football game for FOX, a significant event if only because it was the first time in FOX’s 27-year association with the league that it let a package of games they acquired go. One could have also watched that game on Prime Video. Since I’m a person who prefers … Read more
Two years ago today may have been the shortest day of 2019 for the world at large, but for me it turned out to be the longest day of my life. And almost my last. Two days previously, as I was packing up my office at Sony for a holiday move down the hall, I … Read more
MEMO TO: WENDY MC MAHON, PRESIDENT AND CO-HEAD, CBS NEWS AND STATIONS CC: JOHN BUDKINS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PROGRAMMING AND SCHEDULING FR: STEVE LEBLANG, MEDIA CONSULTANT RE: JEOPARDY!/WHEEL NEGOTIATIONS Dear Wendy, Belated congratulations on your recent appointment to these two crucial positions. I am writing you to help you justify what I believe could be … Read more
Yesterday Sony Pictures TV (in full disclosure, the source of my health insurance for another 15 days) announced that actor Jeff Garlin will be leaving THE GOLDBERGS, its ABC network sitcom. Garlin had been accused on multiple occasions of inappropriate language and personal conduct with colleagues and staffers. Several quotes from an article earlier this … Read more