TV Barn's TV Picks for Mar. 30-Apr. 1

SHE WOULDN'T TAKE A WILLY OR A SAM
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, now playing a young, virile King Henry VIII, was previously known for playing what other icon?

A) Dean Martin
B) Elvis Presley
C) Jerry Lewis
D) JFK
E) John Lennon

TV Barn's TV Picks for Mar. 29

SEE YOU ROUND LIKE A RECORD
Fox's "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" boasts that it had "the biggest television premiere in the United States in over eight years." What series' debut ratings record did it beat?

A) "Becker"
B) "Jesse"
C) "That '70s Show"
D) "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place"
E) "Will & Grace"

“Office” mashups and mixes: At least it isn't fan fiction

On first glance, the characters of Pam and Jim on "The Office" seem like little more than the new Niles and Daphne — an on-again, off-again romance to string along viewers of an NBC sitcom until they're out of the 18-49 demo.

But "Frasier" didn't have YouTube. Go there, or any other site where people post homemade videos, and you'll find scores of musical mashups posted by diehard "Jammers" (Jim + Pam ... get it?). Many are clip reels of the "Office" mates making goo-goo eyes at each other, or looking off in the distance, thinking about unrequited love, while a power ballad like "Shelter" or "Far Away" pounds away.

The tributes to "The Office" don't end there. A brilliant mashup set to Nelly's "It's Getting Hot in Here" takes dozens of scenes, many of them of people taking off articles of clothing, and edits them into a fast-paced party video that could play on MTV. (Speaking of taking off clothes, Jenna Fischer has got to be the unlikeliest pinup girl since the Ladies of Rylstone.)

I've watched YouTube classics that pay tribute to "Heroes" (one parody, featuring stand-ins doing stupid human tricks, is called "Zeroes"). If I had a theory as to why these tributes to NBC-based fare, it's because the bar was set high by the network's own amazing promos, like the headbanger salute to "Office" nitwit Dwight Schrute and the hilarious tribute to that overused guy punchline, "That's what she said."

But being the most mashed-up network on TV hasn't helped NBC off the internets. The Peacock is expected to finish fourth in prime time for the third year in a row.

TV Barn's TV Picks for Mar. 28

OH MY GOD, THEY THUMBTACKED KENNY!
Matt Stone & Trey Parker have an autographed photo of whom on their office wall?

A) Hillary Clinton
B) Isaac Hayes
C) Saddam Hussein
D) Jerry Mathers
E) Charles Schulz

Thanks, Kansas City, for making us no. 1 in Wikipedia entries!

Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday we were raining hellfire and severe umbrage on Katie Horner for interrupting our favorite CBS shows to bring us Doppler radar from Baldwin City. But those memories are fleeting, so thank goodness someone had the presence of mind to record, for posterity, the events of early March. From Wikipedia's entry on Horner's station KCTV-5:

In February 2007, viewers angry over what they deemed as "excessive" severe weather coverage on KCTV (and other stations in the city) created a Web site called FireKatie.com. The site called for the termination of KCTV meteorologist Katie Horner, but thus far, has proven unsuccessful.

And who do we have to thank for immortalizing FireKatie.com on Wikipedia? Why, none other than longtime TV Barn reader, blogger, Wikipedia contributor and ... employee at KCTV's archrival, KMBC-9, Troy Diggs. I like Troy and I'd like to think, if he were in my shoes, he'd admit this was kinda funny.

Credit goes to Derrick at FireKatie for spotting that. Derrick has added a special section for KSHB's high-energy show interrupter, Gary Lezak. Gary's response to FireKatie was posted here.

TV Barn's TV Picks for Mar. 27

CATCH A FALLING STAR
Richard Belzer, Arsenio Hall, Charles Fleischer and Fred Willard were among the supporting cast on whose late night talk show?

A) David Brenner
B) Rick Dees
C) Dennis Miller
D) Pat Sajak
E) Alan Thicke

Jenna Fischer nude (that's for all you geeks using Google)

On KMOX today, Paul Harris and I yakked about Ron Jaworski replacing Joe Theismann on "Monday Night Football" broadcasts, the geek fascination with "The Office" (including Jenna Fischer's nude cover of Wired magazine), and the legacy of Calvert DeForest, a/k/a Larry "Bud" Melman.

• Download the podcast

• Earlier: The interview so simple, a Geico caveman could do it

I guess that's why they didn't call it "This North American Life"

Some of my best readers are Canadians, so I'm first to hear it whenever some short-sighted, dim-witted Canadian broadcaster decides to hold up the telecast of a TV show for weeks after it aired in the U.S.  But what happened to one of my readers is, sadly, all too typical of a Web that is something less than World Wide.

Last week I provided a link in the TV Barn Ticker to the full episode of "This American Life," the highly watchable adaptation of Ira Glass's radio show.  Guess what?  You can't get it in Canada.  Here's what the reader got:

"We at Showtime Online express our apologies; however, these pages are intended for access only from within the United States."

TV Barn's TV Picks for Mar. 26

DOCU-DRAMA
Which of the following was hosted by Tom Kennedy?

A) "An Inconvenient Truth"
B) "Jesus Camp"
C) "March of the Penguins"
D) "Murderball"
E) "Wordplay"

From the department of non-sarcastic Woo Hoos! ...

Proud to announce that today, Mrs. TV Barn's labor of love was named a finalist in the nonfiction category for the William Rockhill Nelson Award, handed out annually by the Writers Place of Kansas City and the Kansas City Star.

Link: Kansas City Star | The 2007 Nelson nominees are ….

Now, you might wonder if being married to a Star employee has given Ms. Eickhoff any kind of advantage in this competition. If anything, I think it's held her back. When you consider that she spent six years on a biography assembled from the scattered writings of a woman (Clarina Nichols, pictured) who didn't keep a diary but did keep changing addresses, and produced a helluva read, Diane has probably gotten less publicity from the newspaper than she would've had she not been married to me. Newspapers are funny that way.

At any rate, Revolutionary Heart also recently was named the 2007 pick of Lawrence, Kansas, for its annual citywide read-along. Diane is making several area appearances this spring, including our first-ever co-presentation, April 15 (Sunday) at the Kansas City Public Library on the Country Club Plaza.  Check out the news page and then mark your calendar!

Hallmark Channel's Henry Schleiff as the Fram Filter Guy

I sat in recently on lunch with our paper's media biz reporter, Jennifer Mann, and Henry Schleiff, the ex-Court TV chief now running the Hallmark Channel, who was in town for a meet-and-greet with the company that ... oh dear ... holds all the cards.

Henry has an interesting pitch he makes to cable operators. Pay me now or pay me later.  It's audacious enough that it just might work ... especially when someone as charming as Henry is saying it. Link: Kansas City Star | Hallmark Channel looking for clout.

"Planet Earth": There's no place like home

Every few minutes during the first two hours of Discovery Channel's “Planet Earth,” narrator Sigourney Weaver stops whatever she's doing to remind us what an unprecedented, spectacular, history-making program we're so privileged to watch.

There I was, on the couch, watching an exotic long-tailed spotted creature and her offspring eke out an existence along the rugged cliffs of the Himalayas. And I heard Weaver say, “These are the first intimate images of a snow leopard ever filmed in the wild.” I did not know that. A few minutes later, as Mama Leopard stalked some prey, Weaver piped up again. “A snow leopard hunt has never before been filmed,” she said.

  What kept this drumbeat of self-congratulatory observations from ruining my night was this: “Planet Earth,” an 11-hour indulgence beginning at 7 p.m. CT Sunday on Discovery, is that good.

TV Barn's TV Picks for Mar. 23-25

TEN HUT!
Where did Major Dad show up for duty?

A) Camp Lejune
B) Camp Pendleton
C) Ellsworth Air Force Base
D) Quantico
E) The Presidio

"Nelly Don" on local TV tonight

The story of Nell Quinlan Donnelly, aka Nelly Don, is one part Horatio Alger, one part women's lib, and one part stranger-than-fiction crime story. Having played for 34 weeks at the Screenland Theater, the documentary "Nelly Don" makes its television debut at 7:30 tonight on KCPT.

  Born to a poor Irish Catholic family in rural Kansas, Donnelly built the Nelly Don dressmaking empire in the 1920s in Kansas City, bore an out-of-wedlock child by a U.S. senator and survived a kidnapping that took a bizarre turn when local mobster Johnny Lazia dispatched 25 carloads of his goons to hunt down the kidnapper.

  “Nelly Don” is by local insurance maker Terence O'Malley, who became fascinated with the Nelly Don story and produced the film on his home computer. The film is also available on DVD.

TV Barn's TV Picks for Mar. 22

DA VINCI'S INQUEST
Leonardo Leonardo is the villain in what animated series?

A) "The Boondocks"
B) "Clerks"
C) "Family Guy"
D) "King of the Hill"
E) "Moral Orel"

Local stations administered a dose of medicine by CJR

Kansas City's two most-watched TV stations got their knuckles rapped by the Columbia Journalism Review for the way they cover health news.

  The report, appearing in the March/April issue of CJR, cited a nationwide trend toward partnerships between television newsrooms and health care providers. CBS affiliate KCTV-5 and ABC affiliate KMBC-9 were both scrutinized, and none too favorably, by the report's author, Trudy Lieberman, who directs the health and medical reporting program in the graduate school of journalism at City University of New York.

  KMBC news director Michael Sipes said he will review his station's policies in light of the CJR report, while KCTV general manager Kirk Black, who is currently without a news director, said he is comfortable with his station's policies.

Calvert DeForest, RIP

(From the publicist:) David Letterman, host of The Late Show With David Letterman, issued a statement today on the death of Calvert DeForest, who made numerous (the word is "countless" -- AB) appearances on both The Late Show and Late Night With David Letterman.

“Everyone always wondered if Calvert was an actor playing a character, but in reality he was just himself - a genuine, modest and nice man,” said Letterman “To our staff and to our viewers, he was a beloved and valued part of our show, and we will miss him.”

DeForest passed away on Monday, March 19^th at age 85. His debut on “Late Night,” as Larry Bud Melman, came in 1982, and was followed by dozens of appearances as various characters on the NBC show and on the “Late Show,” which Letterman has hosted since 1993.

(NOTE: The show's out of production until next week, so don't tune in tonight expecting to see a Larry Bud tribute.)

"I've used up all of my nine lives and I'm definitely going to die"

As a hungry stringer for ABC, Richard Engel (left) bribed an Baathist Party official to get into Iraq in 2003, just before American troops invaded. Today, four years later, he's still there (right) ... the only American network correspondent to remain continuously in Iraq throughout the war. Looking at the now-and-then pictures, Engel hasn't aged as much as our president. But that doesn't reflect the changes that have gone on beneath the surface as the now-seasoned war correspondent has dug in for what looks like a permanent assignment in Baghdad.

That's my conclusion from watching "War Zone Diary," a one-hour special featuring Engel's intimate video diaries and recounting of his nearly 1,500-day exile, his brushes with death and his coming to grips with the deaths and social breakdown around him. The program airs at 9 tonight, reairing at 10 p.m. Central time, on MSNBC. (More airdates on the jump.)

Watching "War Zone Diary," you see a country crumble before a reporter's eyes. In July 2003, Engel was able to drive down to Najaf and witness Shiites lining up to join militias that were being formed, he was told, to counter the U.S. presence. By September those militias were armed and operational; perhaps not coincidentally, Engel was no longer able to move about Iraq freely. That month NBC's Baghdad bureau was bombed -- for the first, but not last time.

"Andy Barker," three and out?

I just got a screener for "Fireworks," an upcoming episode of NBC's "30 Rock," which I had been led to believe was on hiatus for five weeks while "Andy Barker, P.I." took its time slot.

The screener and accompanying press release didn't list an airdate.  Odd.  So I checked online.  It's got an airdate of 04/05/07. That's two weeks from now.  "Andy Barker" will have only aired three episodes by then.

Richter is cursed......   

TV Barn's TV Picks for Mar. 21

FANTASY Y-7
What's the name of the new Merv Griffin "crossword-themed" game show about debuting this fall?

A) "Double Cross"
B) "Jumble-aya"
C) "Let's Play Crosswords"
D) "Tales From the Cryptic"
E) "Wordplay"