Upfronts: That was the week that was ... not much of a week; plus, "Dollhouse" video!

My week-in-review piece is up:

Kansas City Star | The fall TV previews, such as they were

For whatever reason, the following pithy observations were cut from the story:

In hindsight, the moguls should have put their negotiating prowess to work a few months ago and struck a deal with their show writers before there could be a strike. Still, most of us had expected that things would be pretty much back to normal by now. Clearly that’s not going to be the case.

ABC chief Steve McPherson never let on to advertisers, but “Wipeout” is a blatant knockoff of the Japanese stunt game show “Takeshi’s Castle,” which you may have seen on the Spike cable channel, where it was dubbed into English and retitled “MXC.” Four producers talking into a camera and two carbon copies of shows that have aired elsewhere — this is ABC.

And my favorite, regarding the NBC Universal Experience:

Lights blared. Music pulsed. Reporters who emerged from their “Experience” spoke as if they had survived a passage through one of Dante’s circles of hell.

"Gas tax holiday" video; also, I can't get enough Bill O'Reilly dance mix!

And now for something a little lighter for your weekend enjoyment ... some harmless video chicanery, courtesy of the YouTubers.

Freddy Rhoads, a KU student who goes to my church and has helped me with some of my fumbling documentary video efforts in the past, sent me this mashup he made about the gas tax holiday. Maybe "mashup" isn't the right word for it, but I enjoyed it.

The John Hagee-Jeremiah Wright media file

I don't usually dive into the deep end of the political pool, but a longtime reader of mine overheard me saying something on a podcast, probably with Chip Franklin (who's always provoking me to say something I'll regret later), about why it is we haven't seen equally incriminating videos of John Hagee, the nutty televangelist who couldn't let a moment in the spotlight -- namely, while introducing John McCain at a political rally -- pass without pouring boiling oil on the heads of anti-Christ-worshipping papists everywhere.

So this reader sent me a detailed reply, which I admired for its balanced and well-argued points. I haven't really seen the case for not blowing up the Hagee deal quite so well made.

New sheriff at the Star; also, what's the point of watching CBS on Fridays?

Well, regime change at the Kansas City Star seems to be complete for the next decade or so. By the time Mark Zieman retires as our publisher (he's the one on the left) and Mike Fannin takes his office, you'll probably be able to download the paper to the spillproof, kitchen-table-sized flat screen that you eat breakfast off of every morning.

Mike Fannin was my boss's boss's boss for the past two or three years. He gets the Internet, he deserves credit for putting out a sports section that's even more award-winning now than it used to be, and he's easy to talk to. He's the third editor-in-chief in my 11 years here and the first one from my side of the tracks -- the personality slash entertainment slash lifestyle side of the newspaper. Now, I suspect that people will wonder how such a person will run a newspaper well known for its enterprise and investigative reporting, its focus on hard news and its desire to play a major role in the public conversation about where Kansas City is going as a community. I think, actually, that sports and features are good training for leadership in these others. They are highly competitive news holes and arguably the areas of most rapid growth for blogs and online audience, which are just other words for conversation and community.

Hell, for years papers used to turn city reporters into TV critics and nobody ever batted an eyelash.

We'll be fine. As fine as a newspaper can be these days.

Perspectives from Mr. and Mrs. TV Barn; RIP, Robert Rauschenberg

My wife, Diane Eickhoff, has an op-ed piece in today's Kansas City Star reviewing one of the earlier chapters in American history that remind one that we have, unfortunately, been there and done that. It's about the little-known but hugely influential 1867 Kansas universal suffrage campaign. If successful, it would've given blacks the vote (three years before the 15th Amendment was ratified) and granted women their long-sought goal of suffrage. Instead, the historical initiative for women got pitted against the historical initiative for African Americans and ... well, let's go to the tape:

Diane Eickhoff | Democrats shouldn't repeat 1860s Kansas mistake

(P.S. While blacks waited just three more years to get the vote, the women's movement was deeply damaged by the campaign and had another 53 years ahead of it before suffrage was finally passed.)

Did I mention Diane's book just went into a second printing? And that you can buy it from us here? (Or them there?)

***

Meanwhile, turning to the familiar green pages of FYI -- by the way, we were green before it was cool -- here's sort of part two to my late-night commentary that began here yesterday:

Kansas City Star | Is Fallon right for "Night"?

Although I did write part two first. Anyway, in the back of that story is a long sidebar I wrote assessing each of the major personalities in late night, so even if you aren't interested in Fallon, check that out. And see if you can set those commenters straight. Thanks.

***

Finally, I see that Robert Rauschenberg has died at the age of 82. The famed creator of "Erased de Kooning Drawing" and the "Red Painting" series and "Bed," of course, not to mention tons of other sculptures created out of found objects, lived off the coast of Florida in a mansion with, I believe I read somewhere, nine TVs, which were usually all on. Long before the age of information, RR was living it, and his work was his payback.

My first exposure to RR was the ginormous Rauschenberg retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in 1997. I hadn't known about all his TV sets at the time, but I do remember being impressed, like so many before me, at his talent at assembling detritus from the American overload of information into forms that were both coherent and incoherent. To me in hindsight, it's a humbling fact of working in media that we are awash in data, that we have our whole careers to sort through the data and make sense of it, and as a critic I have the double privilege of being able to interpret them in my opinion without worrying that someone will complain about my "bias." I'm paid to be biased. Fair, but biased. And yet rarely am I able to make a story, a thought, a concept, complete to my satisfaction. Writing for me is a battle with incoherence, and rarely do I feel I've completely vanquished my foe. So yeah, I liked the old guy and his crazy quilts of media.

Lots of RR paintings (and commentaries!) on Flickr

Thoughts on NBC's supposedly doomed late night future

I always thought that there was something a little off about the whole Jay Leno narrative. You know how it goes: Funniest standup alive turns into atrocious laughmonger, purveyor of Dancing Itos and Jaywalking, pandering to the lowbrow tastes of the masses ...

Now, with the announcement that NBC has decided to move on, Leno's brand of humor suddenly is being portrayed as indispensable, vital, having that certain je ne c'est quoi that keeps the NBC network from dropping completely off the map.

The truth is that Jimmy Fallon, or someone like him, was an inevitable next step for NBC, which has called Leno one of its own, not for 16 years, but 22 years, ever since he was named Johnny Carson's permanent guest host in 1986. Though it is always poignant to recall that early chapter where Leno was supposedly on the outs with Carson's people and had to work his way back to the couch by appearing on his dear friend Dave's show ... how long was that purgatory, really? Two years? Letterman signed on "Late Night" in 1982. Leno was made PGH four years later. And in between, you have to figure, was time for Leno to rehab himself not just on Letterman's couch but Carson's. So all told, Rick Ludwin, the long-suffering NBC executive overseeing late night, has been listening to Robocomic rattle off jokes for more than a quarter century.

It's time to move on.

It's upfronts week*! (*offer valid only on ABC, CBS, Fox) Also, heeeeeeeere's Jimmy! Uh, no, the other Jimmy

In some ways, it's possible to measure the changes in the television world by what I don't do anymore. I don't go to trade events like NATPE or the Cable Show. I don't save shows to my DVD or TiVo that I can just stream. And now, I don't go to the upfronts in New York. Here's my story from Sunday's paper explaining why:

Kansas City Star: Upfront and personal

But, of course, I will be blogging the upfronts, so keep coming back now, y'hear?

Here I am on KNX News Radio this morning in Los Angeles, contributing to a short piece about the upfronts:

KNX - 5/12/2008

Does it sound like I just rolled out of bed? Ha! I was still IN bed.

***

Shortly after that, I did my weekly chat with Chip Franklin at KOGO in San Diego. Chip started out by roping me into his issue-of-the-day: namely, why is it OK to tell jokes about poor whites from Appalachia ... and for that matter, make zillions of jokes about John McCain's age?

Oh, and we talked about the Jimmy Fallon news and this weekend's "SNL" ... eventually:

KOGO - 5/12/2008

Later this week, I'll have a piece about all the changes going on in late night TV and what's on the line for everybody involved.

Ann Coulter's website brags about her appearing on "David Leno"

Mark Bunker writes: "I don't know what came over me but I went to Ann Coulter's website just now and I spotted something in her bio I thought I'd share. Yes, it's TV related. That's why I'm pestering you. She has a listing of shows on which she is a frequent guest and this one caught my eye:

The Tonight Show with David Leno.

No, I'm not kidding. Here's the page:



I know she's always caught saying horrendous things which she explains by saying she's a comedian. So maybe this is one of those fabulous jokes of hers."

Thanks, Mark. In 2008 she may want to fix the several typos and glaring redundancy in her resume ... in 2008.--AB