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Reality Check: Life Is Not Fair. Nowhere Is That More True Than in Hollywood, Where Values Depend Upon Your Value to Hollywood

So let me get this straight. Charlie Sheen, model citizen that he is, threatens his wife with a knife one Christmas Day. On probation for that nicety, most recently he allegedly picks up a porn star after boozing and doing…

Oct 28, 2010

Leo Burnett, One of the Great Ad Men, Said, ‘Make It Simple. Make It Memorable. Make It Inviting to Look At. Make It Fun to Read.’ Burnett Would Have Been In Love With This Season’s Startling, Surprising ‘Mad Men.’ An Appreciation

The shock waves are still reverberating from the turn of events in the life of Don Draper that left viewers of “Mad Men" literally gasping during the stunning finale episode of Season 4. Fans of the highly-awarded show will have…

Oct 26, 2010

The Final Minutes of the 24-Hour LiveCocoCam…

After spending a day in front of the LiveCocoCam, the interns and other staff at Conan O’Brien’s latest world headquarters — conveniently located above Stage 15 on the Warner lot, where “Conan” begins taping Nov. 8 — must have realized…

Oct 25, 2010

Escaping the Competitive Herd: Why the CTAM Summit is the Best Conference in the TV Industry

The annual summit put on by Char Beales and her team at CTAM, the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, is, year-in and year-out, the smartest event we attend. As regular readers of this blog know, I’m a big believer in…

Oct 20, 2010

Recalling June Cleaver: A Classic Mom, and a Little Boy’s Friend

A childhood friend’s mom died last month and when he called to tell me, I felt a real sense of loss because she had made such an indelible impression on me as a child. She was intelligent, caring and sincere, ever…

Oct 18, 2010

Stephen J. Cannell’s Greatest TV Achievement and How It Almost Didn’t Happen

For any of us who have enjoyed TV since the 1970s, part of what we enjoyed was the work of Stephen J. Cannell, who died on Sept. 30–much too young at 69–of complications from melanoma. He wrote more than 1,000…

Oct 12, 2010

Has There Ever Been a More Beloved Show on TV? ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ Turns 50, And the Crowds Still Turn Out For ‘Mayberry Days’

“The Andy Griffith Show” signed on Oct. 3, 1960. It went on to become one of TV’s all-time successes and a career changer for Griffith (who was trying to live down his all-too-memorable performance as a drunken, angry broadcaster in…

Oct 6, 2010

In Truth, Jon Stewart Was No Harder on Rick Sanchez Than on Any Other News Anchor That Stewart Uses As Daily Fodder (And Stewart Was a Lot Easier on Sanchez Than He Was on Jim Cramer)

Without intending to, Jon Stewart has become quite influential over CNN’s personnel decisions. Before Rick Sanchez, people may forget there was Tucker Carlson, whom Stewart made mincemeat of after a disastrous guest spot on “Crossfire”—a show that was canceled after…

Oct 5, 2010

OMG: We Share With You the Latest, Hottest Social Networking Site. We Wish You’d Keep It on the Down Low, But We Realize Most of You Won’t

We are giddy with excitement today. We just saw a movie and think that, with your help, we’ve come up with something that might strike a chord with you. At least we think so. We rarely come up with something,…

Oct 4, 2010