Part 4 in a series. It sometimes seemed like MTV in the 1990s was little more than a video résumé for one Adam Spiegel, aka Spike Jonze. He seemed to be the guy directing all the damned videos, and some of the era’s most inventive concepts were his. Here’s a sample. Up first, let’s watch some […]
Tag Archives: television
Five reasons why soccer will eventually surpass football in the US – #3: Soccer is already blowing up in America
Part three in a series. Thanks to expanding TV deals, smart entrepreneurs in the MLS and a Millennial-fueled supporter culture, soccer is the fastest growing spectator sport in the country. There has been a good bit of talk over what pro soccer in the US will do now that Becks has departed the Galaxy. It is […]
The truth about Mayberry
There’s a famous scene in a season one episode of The Andy Griffith Show, “Ellie for Council.” A battle of the sexes erupts when the local pharmacist (and Andy Taylor’s first love interest on the program, Ellie Walker, played by the wonderful Elinor Donahue), a woman, runs for town council. Just at the moment when […]
Good night, Andy
I suspect I am not alone in saying that for me, Andy Griffith was like family. It’s not just that he was from North Carolina, my native state, or that Mayberry was based on his hometown of Mt. Airy, maybe an hour up the road from my little burg. It’s not just that he wove […]
RIP Andy Griffith: he was more than Mayberry
The Andy Griffith that I grew up with was the kindly, somewhat bumbling sherriff of Mayberry, North Carolina. I can’t remember whether I was introduced to him first on the Andy Griffith Show or Gomer Pyle. Given my Appalachian roots and the innocuous safety of the shows, the distinction is minor. The shows were increasingly […]
Imagine there's no boycotts: that sounds like Communism to me
Following up on yesterday’s post about how unfair it is when progressives fight fire with fire… One of the architects of the modern conservative boycott movement back in the day was the now-deceased Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the “Moral Majority.” His strategy was simple. Identify those television and radio stations whose programming “promoted” a […]
Parents Television Council pitches hissy over the use of the word "fudge" in prime time
Can’t make this stuff up, folks. I mean, you could, but everybody would think you were, well, making stuff up. On tonight’s episode of Modern Family (perhaps TV’s best sitcom), one of the storylines deals with what happens when a young child starts using curse words. One of America’s more prominent gatekeepers of the public morality, […]
Stuart O'Steen is not a crook
But he is Richard Nixon. Stuart, longtime friend to S&R, is a veteran stage actor who portrays the former president in the Longmont (Colorado) Theatre Company‘s ambitious take on Frost/Nixon. I had the great pleasure of recently seeing the production. As a politics junkie and student of American political history, particularly of the Watergate debacle, […]
Jesus wept: Sports, reality TV and those embarrassing public displays of piety
Some people think I hate Christians. My occasional comments on Tim Tebow probably have something to do with that perception, although you have to aggressively project a hater stereotype on me to make that work. Which a lot of Christians are happy to do, make no mistake. I won’t lie, though. I’m very much not […]
The lie detector is a lie, the polygraph is my bitch, and Americans should stop acting like slack-jawed yokels
Last week I found myself in a doctor’s waiting room for a few minutes, and the staff had the TV tuned to one of those daily Dr. Phil/Maury/Jerry/Montel type freak circuses where the host knows everything and fixes all human problems in 30 minutes. I tried to read my book and ignore it, but you […]
Hell no, Chaz Bono should not be on Dancing With the Stars. Wait – never mind…
Sweet hell – can you believe they’re going to let Chaz Bono compete on Dancing With the Stars? What a travesty. Oh, no. Not because of that. We’re perfectly down with a transgender competitor. That couldn’t bother us less. No, the issue is more essential: since when did Chaz Bono become a star? His Wikipedia entry […]
News-of-the-World-gate: the empire strikes back
This just keeps getting better and better. Alexander Cockburn is right—this is just like Watergate. The steady drip, drip, drip of bad news. The iconic hate figure, a man who pretty much singlehandedly created a global media empire against very significant odds, which in any other context might be seen as plucky and admirable in […]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- “Where Girls Grow Strong” – and Boy Scouts follow
- Atheists in heaven? Vatican spin machine leaps into action
- I-5 bridge collapse: reflecting on our crumbling infrastructure
- UPDATED: Pope Francis says atheists can go to heaven: Sweet Jesus! The College of Cardinals done elected a hippie
- Magic Hat vs. West Sixth brewhaha: will MH win the battle that costs them the war?
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
