"Project Economy"

The Hearst stations are trying something similar to their Democracy initiative -- sharing stories among stations to help viewers cope with the sluggish economy.

A simpler solution for the South Bend Tribune staff

Much reaction today to the leaked memo from the assistant managing editor of the South Bend Tribune ordering staff to write a memo at the end of the day explaining -- in excruciating, kill-me-now detail -- what they have done and what they will do tomorrow.

Rather than take sides on this issue (although one could argue this, like kitten torture, is a story for which there is no equal and opposite reaction), may I propose that every reporter at the South Bend Tribune:

• start a blog or open a Twitter account;

• post links to their stories as they go online;

• tell their readers what they'll be covering tomorrow.

I mean, why keep all this juicy newsroom detail under wraps? Unless, you know, the editors are paranoid or something. Oh, wait ... well, that's why I posted CareerBuilder's Super Bowl ad.

No need to watch!

My buddy Eric Deggans has already picked the best Super Bowl ads from the online video!

Lawrence, your long local nightmare is over

KMBC and KCWE are back on Sunflower Broadband. Not sure if it had anything to do with this, but a man can dream, can't he?

PR below.

The "Mentalist" set visit mystery Post-It note

I've got a story about "The Mentalist" for next week, and in the course of writing it, found a funny item from my notes. A bunch of us TV critics were milling around the show's set on the WB lot when one person opened a desk drawer and found the following, written in pen on a Pink Post-It note:

THAT'S HOW THEY GOT KEIFER (sic) SUTHERLAND

The real reason Team Obama picked Al Arabiya over Al Jazeera

I guess it's nice to see that Americans are not alone in their fascination with celebrity and television. Check out this clip from Al Arabiya after its Washington bureau chief, Hisham Melhem, scored the first major TV interview with President Obama of any news outlet, English or Arabic, in the world.

"You deserve all this celebrity attention in light of your interview," gushed the news anchor. "How is the U.S. President? ... Did he joke around? How is he as a human being?"

"He's very humble and a gentleman," said Melhem. "He maintained a normal relationship with his assistants. ... He's very cool. It's like a mountain that can't be shaken by the wind."

Is "Gran Torino" the new "Shawshank"?

First off, please don't read any further if you have not been to see Clint Eastwood's beautiful hand-carved little creation, "Gran Torino," that is currently blowing the doors off the box office. I wouldn't want to think that I've spoiled even a moment for you by writing about it. But seeing as how it is well on its way to a $150 million domestic BO -- and the 78-year-old Eastwood is heading to the biggest surprise hit in a career full of surprises -- I think it's safe to write this column right now, because enough of you have seen it to appreciate what I'm about to say.

"Idol": Simon Cowell STILL the only reason to watch

Tim Finn's recap of Tuesday's episode is a sobering rebuke to anyone who actually believed Ken Warwick's assertions that there was going to be something new and improved about "American Idol" this season.

Despite all the format tweaks, despite desperate attempts to spice up the auditions (did you know that sitting in judges' laps = comedy gold? Me neither), there is still only one compelling person on "American Idol" most nights. And he knows it.

"The extra-judge experiment has been a dud," my colleague concludes, and after making him sit through 10 hours of "Idol" this season, I'm not inclined to question his judgment. Read more...

Closure, after all these years, for Bill Hicks

UPDATE 2: I've added video of all three segments.

UPDATE/SPOILER ALERT: The third comment below is from an audience member from the taping. Based on what another source told TVB, I believe the comment is authentic. On a semi-related note, B&C is reporting that Dave has begun talks to stay at CBS past 2010. -- AB

Here is how long it's been since David Letterman and his then-producer, Robert Morton, decided to cut Bill Hicks' controversial monologue out of a "Late Show" broadcast -- in one of the very first editions of Late Show News that I wrote, 15 years ago, I was already referring to the Hicks incident as old news.

Since then it's gone on to become one of the most fabled TV moments of all time, probably because it never aired. Until now. Actually, it's possible it aired in 2003. Trio -- remember Trio?, the network Lauren Zalaznick ran before she became Queen of All Cable? -- did a documentary on Hicks called "Outlaw Comic," of which the Letterman excision was the central moment. (It was subtitled, "The Censoring of Bill Hicks," which Virginia Heffernan, citing Stanley Fish, high-handedly asserted was not censoring according to the First Amendment ... although I would point out that according to the original Latin, it actually is.)

DTV deadline extension killed! But it wouldn't have helped much anyway...

UPDATE 12:30 PM: This just in -- the House GOP mustered enough opposition to kill the bill that would impose a four-month extension in the digital TV transition. Unless Nancy Pelosi or President Obama has something up their sleeve, the transition is going ahead on Feb. 17 ... ready or not.

But there are problems with the transition that moving the deadline would not have fixed. Let me name three in particular that came up Tuesday during my appeance on the "Walt Bodine Show."

Obama to school districts everywhere: It's not cold, it's brisk, baby!

I spotted this story while checking out Fox 4's new, post-Fox-era Web site (wow, streaming video! how very second-term Bush-era ...). The new President -- in what we can only assume was a calculated sound bite -- expressed his incredulity about what it takes to close a school in D.C. Substitute "Kansas City" for "Washington" and these words would ring just as true:

"Can I make a comment that is unrelated to the economy very quickly?" the new president told reporters at a gathering with business leaders. "And it has to do with Washington. My children's school was canceled today. Because of, what? Some ice? ... As my children pointed out, in Chicago, school is never canceled," Obama said to laughter. "In fact, my 7-year-old pointed out that you'd go outside for recess. You wouldn't even stay indoors. So, I don't know. We're going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness."

"Father's Promise": "7 Up" for Black History Month

Here's another one of those MSNBC in-house longform productions that I discussed with the network's VP of longform, Michael Rubin, a few weeks back. It's a sort of "12-Up" that updates the lives of three kids whose births NBC documented -- along with their fathers' promises to guide their upbringing -- a dozen years ago. Afterwards, a panel including "Today" show mainstay Al Roker and "Rachel Maddow Show" favorite Cory Booker discuss the role of men in the lives of African-American kids.

Does ABC want a do-over on "Commander in Chief"?

Lost in the announcement that Shonda Rhimes had pitched yet another likely half-baked idea to ABC -- and ABC, despite the fact that her last half-baked idea, "Private Practice," has given them no end of trouble, said yes again -- is the fact that ABC also picked up a drama pilot from John Scott Shepherd.

The novelist has successfully pitched "I, Claudia," about a woman who doesn't realize she's about to contend for the presidency. Thus ABC continues to go where other networks fear to tread: dramas involving women in their 40s. (You can't be president if you're the age of the average female crime-solver on CBS.)

TV Barn Radio - Jan. 28, 2009

AUDIO: Problems with the DTV transition

I talked about it today on KCUR's Walt Bodine Show, and then took phone calls.

Download kcur_012709_dtv.mp3

How "Lost" creators cured their writers' block

You can learn things about a TV show just by watching it with other people. At the television critics' winter get-together earlier this month, 200 of us watched the third episode of the new season of "Lost" -- the one airing tonight on ABC -- on the biggest high-definition screen west of Kauffman Stadium (or so it seemed). At regular intervals the whole room would erupt in laughter -- it was the sound of 200 "Lost" fans being served up another unexpected, what-in-the-hell twist ... and loving it.

Talking TV with Chip

Download KOGO-20090126.mp3

NBC borrows BBC's great genealogy-show idea

Frankly, the shocking thing about "Who Do You Think You Are?" is that it didn't happen sooner. A few years ago, PBS launched the series "African-American Lives," looking deep into the family trees of celebrities. Black celebrities, but you could easily see the series expanding out to non-black celebrities. Basically viewers can't get enough of famous people, and taking them through their family tree -- with all the emotions inherent in that -- it couldn't lose!

But PBS isn't made of money, so it has stayed with its niche, producing a followup series and then one focused just on Oprah. It was an idea ripe for some other network to develop, and now one has.

Not again! Ted Haggard stars in another Pelosi film AND another sex scandal

The premise for the first film was strange enough: Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of the Speaker of the House, not much of a believer by her own admission, palling around with fundagelicals while making a HBO documentary called "Friends of God."

Her secret weapon in making that film -- and its sequel, airing this week on HBO -- was the Rev. Ted Haggard, a hugely successful pastor in Colorado and president of the National Association of Evangelicals. While another documentary, "Jesus Camp," depicted Haggard as a kinda creepy fire-and-brimstone type, Pelosi found him to be helpful, accommodating and, well, fun.

"If 'Friends of God' is able to overcome the doubters and become a useful document of today's Bible Belt, much of the credit must go to Haggard," I wrote in 2007. "Pelosi said he took her into his family and on trips through the evangelical world; opened doors to Jerry Falwell, who allowed her to film inside his Thomas Road Baptist Church; and turned her on to subculture phenomena like Christian wrestling, which looks just like the blood-and-guts version on cable TV, except there's an altar call at the end."

What's working ... Jan. 26

1. Chesley B. Sullenberger III. After withdrawing from a "Today" show appearance that would have featured only him and his family, the pilot who safely landed US Airways 1549 in the Hudson River will be interviewed Feb. 8 by Katie Couric for "60 Minutes" ... along with entire crew.