One More Lost Spoiler

In case you can't wait until tonight's episode, here's a look at the first island scene from tonight's new episode -- the first of the season four!

CBS' Bob Schieffer Sets Retirement Date; But He's Said That Before

  I had a bit of a chuckle when I read the New York Times article in which Face the Nation host and former CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer announces he's "probably" going to retire after January's inauguration. I was laughing, because Schieffer told me two years ago that he'd probably retire in a year when he turned 70.

Now the fact that the 71-year-old anchor told the New York Times about his plans "probably" means he's a bit more serious. And the retirement target date he told me just happened to be the time of most turmoil at the Katie Couric-led CBS Evening News, when then-executive producer Rome Hartman was fired and Couric was absorbing a tremendous amount of flak for the show's tanking ratings. Schieffer leaving then would have been taken as a vote of no confidence, particularly since he's faced a mountain of speculation that he was the anonymous source of some anti-Katie press stories.

Still, Schieffer has been talking about retiring since before he took over the Evening News when Dan Rather was ousted. And at a news organization when guys like Mike Wallace (81) and Morley Safer (76) are still contributing, there may be pressure for Schieffer to hang around and keep the Katie Couric-led news department from floundering.

Here's what he told me in 2006:

Deggans: Is there a point where your patience is going to run out?

Schieffer: "I'm going to be 70 years old a year from now, and I've kind of set that as the place where I'm going to hang it up. I would guess long before then they're going to know who's going to have this job permanently. I had planned to retire last year, if the truth be known. I wasn't going to retire completely - I hope they can find a place for me on election night in 2008 - (but) I have reached the stage of my life where I want to spend more time doing other things."

Liveblogging Rather One Last Time: His Strength is In the Charts

Rather has just finished a 15-minute Q&A with a surprisingly sparse audience here at Eckerd College's Miller Auditorium -- facing a group which seems evenly divided between young hopeful students and older folks who may be teachers or activists.

It's in settings like this that Rather shines best, wearing his avuncular Texas formality like a comfy old overcoat, offering folksy phrases and straight-talking charm to hold the audience in his sway.

One person asks how pundits can make predictions for the general election when Florida has so many independent voters, and Rather notes "he who lives by the crystal ball, often winds up eating a lot of glass." When an earnest young woman asks about the importance of the youth vote, the 76-year-old anchor gently notes that old political hands often dismiss young voters as vocal enthusiasts who don't show up to the polls.

"I'm not one to give advice," he said to chuckles from the small crowd. "But if you're asking, I'd tell young people to circle election day on their calendars and make sure they get out and vote."

To my eyes, this was not the Rather we'd come to see during CBS election coverage -- a time which seems an eternity away. Back then, the famously tense anchor seemed wound tighter than a porcupine in a balloon factory, balancing the weight of CBS News' reputation on every prognostication and observation.

On the smaller stage offered by HD Net and Eckerd College, Rather could relax a little, throw out some interesting questions and let the conversation flow. It might not have felt as important as the big shot network or cable TV presentations, but for political wonks who want a bit of smart political strategy with their election returns, it was a pretty good broadcast.

To prove my wonkiness, I'll admit my favorite aspect of the show was the data Rather's team collected on the election. Here's a sample of the stats they gave viewers:

From Jan. 1 to 22, Giuliani ran 2,878 TV ads in Florida, compared to 1,392 for Romney and 470 for McCain -- the exact inverse of election results (if I were Gov, Crist, I'd keep those numbers in my back pocket to show the power of an endorsement from one popular politician, versus a blanket of expensive TV ads). Romney aired more ads over the entire election -- 4,475, compared to Giuliani's 3,067.

Rather also listed where candidates' money came from. Clinton and Obama got the most money from commercial banks; Giuliani and Clinton got the most money from Big Tobacco companies; McCain and Clinton got the most money from telephone companies and utilities; Clinton and Obama got the most money from big pharmacy companies; Giuliani and Romney got the most from oil and gas companies and Clinton and McCain got the most money from lobbyists. (Donnie Fowler noted Obama had 100,000 more individual donors than Clinton, suggesting more people writing smaller checks).

The former CBS anchor pledges to offer five hours of coverage during Super Tuesday next week from California. And my inner wonk might not be able to resist tuning in.

 

Live Blogging Rather: 2nd Ratherism of the Night

By 8:30 p.m., we had our second homespun Dan Rather quote, when the Texas native noted "you can't put a cigarette paper" between warring Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney.

Local pols such as Herb Polson, Earnest Williams and Jamie Bennett sat in the audience at Eckerd College's Miller Auditorium. Demand prompted the college to open up its much larger Fox Hall for observers to watch a simulcast.

So far, the discussion has been informative, if low key and a bit wonky. George Lemieux, a former staffer for Gov. Charlie Christ, joined the two political consultants with Rather onstage, drawing chuckles when he noted that officials had a bit of trouble with touch screens in Palm Beach County -- deja vu all over again! -- but expected few glitches besides. (he also stressed the touch screens will be gone by November's presidential election)

Rather also offered an update on his voting machines story.

With 44 percent of precincts reporting, McCain still has 34 percent compared to Romney's 32 percent. Lemieux claimed 40 percent of people questioned in one poll said Crist's endorsement of McCain changed their vote (I know we have a popular governor, but really!) He also noted that McCain's ability to take Giuliani votes and Romney's ability to take Huckabee votes may decide the contest.

Each consultant also had at least one good line. Red stater Mike Murphy noted the high volume of robotic phone calls, saying "I always though the one tax a candidate could run on was a tax on automated phone calls (applause); people hate them, but they're really cheap." Democrat Donnie Fowler noted blue staters were 10 times more pessimistic about the economy "because Republicans watch Fox News, which tells them everything is great...maybe you believe what you want to hear."

Fowler also read off emails from both the Obama and Clinton campaigns spinning the election results (Obama's people called a tie with Clinton; both got zero delegates). He also found it surprising that Hillary Clinton hasn't yet earned more than 50 percent of the vote, despite status as the best know candidate in a field which didn't campaign here.

Fortunately, the commercial breaks are short, giving Rather lots of time to speak on the unfolding drama. Prepared pieces on the I-4 corridor and election machine controversies also helped keep the evening humming along.

Murphy's big prediction: both Romney and McCain are going to try and get Giuliani and Huckabee out of the race, to try and get voters friendly to those candidates to turn their way during Super Tuesday. No wonder these guys get six-figure consulting fees!

Live Blogging Dan Rather in St. Petersburg: Early Call for Clinton and McCain Looking Good

Former CBS anchor Dan Rather brought a stripped down show to Eckerd College tonight for reporting on the Florida primaries -- but he seems to like it just fine.

In a converted classroom staffers jokingly call their "war room," Rather whiled away the minutes before his broadcast joking about longtime pal and Texas Tech baskeball coach Bobby Knight, along with plans for his own Web site, as a way of helping out with HD Net's lagging, bare bones online platform.

Despite his hope of playing down polling in coverage, Rather opened his broadcast here at 8 p.m. noting that early projections give Clinton a big win in Florida and exit polls show Giuliani placing third with about 18 percent of the vote. McCain seems to be doing well with Hispanics, senior citizens and -- though not as much as you would expect -- military veterans.

Rather told me before the broadcast his figures showed more absentee ballots cast by Democrats than Republicans and more absentee votes cast now than for the 2006 election.

Democratic strategist Donnie Fowler just compared Clinton to Peanuts' Lucy Van Pelt, lifting the football from Charlie "Obama" Brown every time he tries to kick the nomination into the goal posts (would that have anything to do with his past as a Clinton strategist?)

Republican Mike Murphy points out Clintons presence in the state allows her to mount a victory party, despite the fact that no Democratic candidate has campaigned here. Obama will "have 100 press secretaries calling reporters and saying 'come on, it's just a beauty contest.'

Murphy says Romney seems to be losing Brevard County, Pasco County and Sarasota. He also gives romney credit for flying in big donors to Florida, so they can either "have a big party with champaign, or have a serious meeting."

The crowd here seems earnest. engaged and a little star struck. Every joke gets a healthy laugh, especially Fowler's comment that "Democratics are loking forward to running against any Republican."

And we can now note the first Rather-ism: He just said "this race is loser than hairs on a frog." Soon after he asked whether is was time "for their fingernails to start sweating." I can die happy now.

 

For Fans, Loving ABC's Lost Means Accepting Your Powerlessness

Here's what I know, after deliciously devouring the first two episodes of the highly-anticipated fourth season of ABC's castaway drama, Lost (which returns for a writers strike-shortened eight-episode season at 9 p.m. Thursday).

WARNING: this post is chock full o' spoilers.

Point # 1: Enjoying the show requires a Zen-like approach to television. in short, you must accept that there may be no real answer the the show's mysteries and if there is, you will not be able to predict it.

Point #2: Though producers have said they plan to resolve the show in 2010 -- and its hard to know how the production disruptions caused by the writers' strike will affect this timetable -- you wouldn't know it by the first few episodes of this newly truncated, eight-episode season. As I say in a full-blown Floridian review running Thursday, it's like peeling an onion, only to find a puzzle box inside.

Point # 3: The coolest trick in the first two new episodes involves scenes which flashback and flash-foward. As rabid fans remember, we learned at the close of last season that a clump of scenes which seemed to feature our beloved castaways in typical flashbacks at home before they landed on the island were actually depictions of their future – after at least some of them have been rescued.

The new episodes’ action alternates between flashbacks explaining the background of a curious team which comes to the island as a rescue squad, and scenes which take place after some characters leave the island, but before the off-island scenes we saw in last season’s final episode. If you're already confused, see point Number One.

Point #4:  SPOILERS GALORE -- At least one dead character makes an appearance, one of the new characters has a talent for communing with the dead and castaway John Locke (TV’s second-best character actor, Terry O’Quinn) sees his mysterious bond with the island growing deeper. One nugget which does drop for us hopeless followers: the notion that the island itself is an entity acting consciously gains more relevance here.

Point #5: Just as modern-day whodunit series such as Monk and Law & Order present mysteries too convoluted for any viewer to puzzle out, Lost’s brain trust offers a show which is impossible to big-picture. The trick here, is giving viewers enough clues to feed the idea that they know enough to solve the riddle -- when in reality, they don’t.

And the few hints available only shed a bit of light: we know the future-flashes in the first two episodes don’t go far as last episode’s finale, for instance, because stalwart hero Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) is only just starting the full-blown alcoholism we saw last year, and his bushy beard is still a sexy stubble.

Point #6: Producers also learned from a previous mistake; fans won’t accept writers pulling new characters from the 30 or so castaways who are not regular stars and somehow never figure in the series action. So this season, new figures literally fall from the sky as the team trying to reach the Losties parachute out of a spiraling helicopter to join our hardy band.

Point #7: What I really like about the new season: the addition of Ken Leung (the spiky guy from the last X-Men movie) as an aggressively cynical medium and Wire castmember Lance Reddick as a mystery man behind the new rescue team. Beyond bringing some multicultural flavor, they’re also among the coolest actors now working on TV.

Point # 8: Also, the first two episodes feature three things I love most about Lost; the heroic tussle between Locke and Jack Shephard, lots of sarcastic mind games from Others leader Ben Linus (Michael Emerson, the best character actor on TV) and a heaping helping of overweight lottery winner Hugo “Hurley” Reyes (Jorge Garcia).

Gayle Guyardo's Gasparilla Moment Spreads Across the Media

The story has appeared everywhere from MSNBC.com to TV industry Web sites and the pages of the Tampa Tribune.

And WFLA-Ch. 8 morning anchor Gayle Guyardo remains upset by reports recounting how she was briefly removed from coverage of the Gasparilla parade Saturday after viewers complained about her slurred speech and seemingly disoriented comments.

Guyardo, 41, who has co-anchored parade coverage for 14 years, said she resented the implication of some critics: that she was drunk. Instead, the anchor said she had been sick with the flu since early last week and that her illness may have affected her performance.

  “The only feedback I’ve gotten is from e-mails by people who have been extremely supportive,” said Guyardo, who was in tears Saturday after the two-hour Gasparilla broadcast, when she realized what some people were saying. (This photo, taken shortly after Guyardo was informed of the calls from viewers, was shot by Times photgrapher Willie Allen)

The anchor insists that she did not even take medication before the show, forwarding to me e-mails from encouraging fans and a doctor. It was a close call for me on whether I should write a story, but after I saw how other media picked up on the issue, my editors and I decided to pull together a story for Tuesday's paper and this blog item.

“No one could say that they saw me consume any alcohol, because I didn’t,” Guyardo said. “Channel 8 would not let me go up there if I was showing signs of being drunk... I was burning up with fever, my throat was closing up and it was clear that I was sick.”

Guyardo’s co-anchor during the parade, Bill Ratliff, supported her. “I’m not covering for a friend … I never noticed anything,” said Ratliff, who has also co-anchored WFLA’s morning and midday newscast with Guyardo for years. “If she had come to the parade inebriated, I would have told her to get some coffee or you’re not going on.”

MSNBC.com on Monday linked to the Tribune story, which noted “some (callers) urged she be relieved of parade duties to avoid embarrassment.” The local TV-focused Web site Newsblues.com bluntly asked “Was Tampa anchor drunk during Gasparilla broadcast?”

WFLA news director Don North could not say how many complaints the station received about Guyardo, but he did remove the anchor from coverage long enough to speak with her by telephone and determine whether she could finish the broadcast. He allowed Guyardo to rejoin coverage for the show’s end around 4:30 p.m.

North also said he didn’t expect the incident would have any long-term impact for Guyardo at WFLA. Both the Tampa Tribune and WFLA are owned by Richmond, Va.-based Media General.

Guyardo said some viewers complained when she appeared on WFLA’s morning and midday newscasts while ill early last week, suggesting she stay home and recover. The anchor — who eventually took last Wednesday off to rest — wondered whether Gasparilla’s hard-partying image led viewers to assume the worst Saturday.

“I watched (a videotape of parade coverage)…and I was not on my ‘A’ game,” she said. “If I had it do over again, I would have called in sick 1,000 times over.”

Dan Rather Swears Off Polls for St. Petersburg Stop

It's hard to imagine how he's going to fill a two hour show without it.

But former CBS anchor Dan Rather swears he's going to avoid the kind of poll-based prognostication which got anchors in trouble earlier this month in New Hampshire, when he brings his reporting on the Florida primary to Eckerd College in St. Petersburg on Tuesday.

"Polling is a crude art...more art than science," he told me in an interview last week, which I featured in a Floridian story today. "Time after time, polling proves unreliable. Those who do the polling say 'look at how many times we’re right.' But I turn it around and say 'look at how many time it was wrong.' Campaign coverage is too poll driven, and I do not exempt myself from that criticism. The herd and flock goes in that direction and once it gets moving, its hard to stop."

Rather's pitch is that his coverage, which will be featured from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the HD Net cable channel, will take viewers inside the campaigns, focusing more on what strategies the campaigns may be employing and taking a look at where the donations are coming from -- and what people might expect for their money.

After watching Rather's New Hampshire coverage -- his reports are archived on HD Net's Web page -- it seems he's mostly replacing poll-based speculation with speculation from his political experts on campaign tactics. That is, after all, the bread and butter of election coverage -- load of speculation based on opinion polling and exit polls until the returns actually arrive.

Folks who would like a chance to see the old lion in action, can email Eckerd College for the chance to get a seat in Fox Hall, where they will simulcast Rather's report, which will take place in the much smaller Miller Auditorium. The college will provide light refreshments and Rather is expected to show for a Q&A session after his coverage has concluded.

He'll be trying to spread the word about his reports on HD Net, which get a fraction of the attention he once received as the top anchor at CBS News. In particular, he's proud about his story questioning the accuracy of touch screen voting in Florida, though the impact of his work may have been blunted by the decision to discard the machines in favor of optical scan devices last year.

"My own personal opinion is somebody somewhere in some governmental body needs to do a real  investigation in what’s going on in these voting machines," said Rather, who probably would have sparked such an investigation, had his report aired where he used to work, CBS' 60 Minutes. "There are real problems with them and no amount of denial will excuse the fact there are problems with these machines."

And don't bother asking him about the candidates debates, which he calls "forums" because of their lack of substance: "All too often, they descend into this trivia, or near trivia. Parsing words about small things. Where is the talk about what we’re going to do? What are you going to do about the exploding situation in Pakistan?...What are the candidates' plans to deal with China's exploding economic strength? Every time they deal with what I consider to be marginal or trivial subjects, it takes away from the time for ore substance. Seldom have so many talked for so long about so little.”

He pins most of these problems on the way candidates prepare for elections -- focus group-ed and poll-driven to the point where they're not articulating their own views, but a strategy designed for victory.

"The candidates, they market research, they go to focus groups, and they try to find out what they think people want to hear as opposed to what they think people need to hear," Rather said. "This game has gotten ever more expensive...They mold their sound bites, they mold their attacks and defenses rather than taking the view, 'this is what people should be caring about, and let’s call their attention to it.' That’s when they get into these small, trivial (fights)...they’re looking for a gotcha moment, but they don’t illuminate, inform or educate."

Deggans Weekend Funnies: Barack Obama's Top 10 List on Letterman

Ever since I heard Barack Obama nail an appearance on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, I've always felt that the increasingly competitive presidential race hasn't allowed him to show off his best quality: he's a funny guy.

This Top 10 list helps, allowing Obama to play along with Letterman's silliness like the good sport he was -- at least, before the presidential race turned into an 11-month=-long gaffe patrol:

PolitiFact Hits the National Stage; But Emphasis on Polling Remains Media Flaw

It's been great fun to see the hard-working folks from the Times' political fact-checking site, PolitiFact, expand the brand. At a time when presidential candidates are slinging all sorts of charges, CNN, MSNBC, the Dallas Morning News and a wide assortment of bloggers have regularly turned to Politifact to sort truth from fiction.

Wondering what the make of the charges and counter-charges thrown around during last night's GOP debate? Check Politifact's nearly live coverage of the event, featuring several assertions vetted with admirable speed (Times editor in chief Paul Tash even managed a good zinger, asking Giuliani why he spends so much time talking about how immigrants should learn to speak English, and then drafts campaign commercials for Florida in Spanish?)

But you can't have a compliment from a critic without a little qualification. And what's bugging me about recent coverage of Florida is our continued reliance on polling to forecast the results.

Pundits and anchors spent weeks apologizing for the mess that was New Hampshire coverage, admitting  that Obama's performance in Iowa's caucus, and polls suggesting he might find similar success in New Hampshire's primary, faked them into believing an Obama surge would overwhelm Hillary Clinton.

Now we have polling suggesting that Giuliani is about to lose big in Florida, dooming his campaign amid a risky strategy to focus on this state as his first real proving ground. Our own poll, conducted with the Miami Herald and Bay News 9, was widely quoted Thursday as proof, with folks saying he's fallen "faster than the Dow Jones average."

Giuliani, asked about the poll results Thursday, neatly compared himself to the New York Giants rather than use the most recent political example of resurrection and poll defying success which comes to mind -- namely, his nemesis Hillary Clinton.

I think the Huffington Post may have the best idea here, vowing to treat polling results with the same amusing superstition we reserve for astrology columns and fortune cookie predictions (I'm not, however, down with their advice that readers should hang up on pollsters and refuse to participate).

How many times do journalists need to get bitten by this issue before we put polls and horse race predictions in the proper perspective?

WTVT-Ch. 13 Anchor Tom Curran Reveals He Has Parkinson's Disease

It started with a twitch in the index finger of his right hand; a movement so slight, his wife had to point it out during a car ride.

Months later, WTVT-Ch. 13 morning anchor Tom Curran faced a jarring diagnosis. He had Parkinson’s disease, a progressive nervous disease marked by increased tremors and muscle weakness.

The disorder, which most famously struck actor Michael J. Fox in 1991, would be a challenge for anyone. But Curran, 54, has been a news anchor at Tampa’s Fox affiliate for 14 years; when viewers began writing emails asking about his health, he knew he had to respond, somehow.

“I figured, better to share it with them, than to look like I’m having a nervous breakdown,” said Curran, who discussed his condition earlier this month in two posts on a blog he maintains for WTVT.

“Some (people) were perceptive enough from having seen the symptoms of Parkinson’s to ask directly about it,” the silver-haired anchor said, reached at his Tarpon Springs home. “Parkinson’s has the ability to change you like that — physically change the way you walk, and your face can almost get a mask-like look, showing no emotion. Hopefully, I won’t get like that for a long time.”

Curran’s Jan. 9 blog post began simply: “I feel I need to clear the air...Some of you had already guessed what is going on with my health. For a little over two years I have been dealing with Parkinson’s Disease. Only recently have my symptoms reached a point where they are more pronounced than before...I’m ready for what ever battle P.D. has to throw at me in the coming years. After bringing you the morning news for nearly 15 years, I’m not done yet.”

Indeed, Curran intends to stay in his anchor job at WTVT for as long as possible, despite a work schedule which requires rising at 2 a.m. to begin anchoring the station’s morning news for two hours each weekday at 5 a.m. “One of the things which can exaggerate symptoms is nervousness,” he said. “So letting people know what I have actually helps, because I had been trying so hard to cover it up.”

It has been about 2 1/2 years since that first finger twitch revealed a possible problem. When he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s — initially, the first doctor he consulted thought it was a milder disease — Curran began telling WTVT management and later, his co-workers. The disease robs the brain of dopamine, a neurotransmitter which helps regulate muscle control. Obvious symptoms include uncontrollable tremors and an affected gait; less obvious effects include cognitive impairment, ranging from mild memory difficulties to dementia.

And every affected person — statistics estimate there are 1-million people with Parkinson’s nationwide — exhibits symptoms differently.

Curran’s blog post drew about 40 responses, including folks who shared inspirational stories of friends and relatives who live with the disease. Curran has also said that WTVT management has been very supportive, though officials declined to comment on the record for this story, citing concerns about obeying laws regarding the release or public discussion of employees’ medical information.

A native of Toronto, Canada who moved here from California in 1994, Curran remains an avid hockey fan and amateur referee, who continues to officiate games. He’s also open to the idea of speaking out about Parkinson’s to raise awareness and money, though as a devout Christian, he remains conflicted about the stem cell research touted as the possible route to a cure.

He also maintains a powerfully positive attitude, cracking an awful joke in response to a tough question: Does he know how long he can live with the disease? “It’s different from one person to the next; it could be a few years, or a couple of decades,” he said. “At least, if I’m not in an accident, I know what’s going to kill me.”

More seriously, Curran remains thankful his wife Christina, 15-year-old stepson Cody and colleagues at WTVT are supportive. So far, he’s taking one day at a time, declining to speculate much on when he might leave the anchor chair or what he might do for a living afterward.

“I had, basically a perfect 52 years of health and...this happens,” he said. “Now, I tell people, every day you have on God’s earth, you’ve got to be happy. Because when you lose your good health, you’re facing a whole new set of rules.”

National Public Radio Picks Up TV Theme Song Story

  Man, when a story touches a nerve, it can really touch a nerve.

A friend just emailed me a link to NPR's music home page today, which features a digested version of the interview I did last week for WNYC about TV Theme songs. They do a great job of summarizing our discussion, with links to the blog and other resources. It's very gratifying to see how long the legs on this story have become -- I can't remember the last time I wrote something which has had such a long shelf life.

Here's the text of NPR's mentions. Click here to check out the page:

"WNYC, January 23, 2008 - Sit right back and you'll hear the tale — of the long-lost television-show theme song.

If you're a TV viewer of a certain age, you can probably sing a few lines from at least a dozen theme songs, from Gilligan's Island to The Brady Bunch. But as memorable as classic TV themes seem to be, few of today's programs open with one.

Eric Deggans, media critic for the St. Petersburg Times, says that while TV themes still exist, most are no longer as memorable as themes once were. For example, he notes that the theme to Friends was a radio hit, and that many can sing along to the Gilligan's Island theme.

"You could go on and on and on naming theme songs that were either memorable because they were great songs, or memorable because they reminded you of really great shows, or memorable because they reminded you about wonderful things in your life that were going on at the time," he says.

Deggans surmises that both valuable advertising space and the growing popularity of cutting quickly to the action have caused the shift. He cites Frasier, where the theme comes in at the end of the show, and ER, where the departure of original cast members rendered the opening montage useless, as examples.

Alan and Marilyn Bergman, the legendary songwriting duo who crafted opening themes for shows like Good Times, Maude, and Alice, have a distinctive approach to songwriting within the constraints of a TV theme.

"We most of the time viewed these songs as kind of writing entrances for these characters," Marilyn Bergman says. "Maude, for example. We wrote that as an entrance for the Bea Arthur character, Maude. And why did we write it? We thought the show was terrific.

"Norman Lear called us and asked us if we would write it. We looked at a couple of the shows, the pilot, we loved them, and thought this was a great way to write a Hello Dolly for a television show that people might want to listen to week after week and not get bored hearing it."

Dexter Appears on CBS Feb. 17; Expect More Problems With Language Than Gore

I've been assured by the good folks at CBS that I'll get a look at their edited version of Showtime's serial killer drama Dexter before it debuts at 10 p.m. Feb. 17 on CBS.

And I'm going to go out on a limb with a wild guess. The CBS editors will have bigger problems with language while getting a version of their explicit show ready for commercial television than any gore or nudity.

Fans of Dexter know that it can be brutal stuff; Six Feet Under alum Michael C. Hall shines as a serial killer who works for the Miami Police Department as a forensic technician, killing murderers who escape traditional justice in his free time. When CBS announced plans to air Dexter's first season on the broadcast network -- likely a reaction to the writer's strike, since CBS Corp. also owns Showtime -- some people assumed the show's sweaty love scenes or gory depictions of killing would be a problem.

But based on the work preparing explicit HBO shows such as Sex and the City and The Sopranos for he world of syndicated reruns, I'm thinking cutting down the cursing will be the hardest part. Especially on the Sopranos, watching mobsters substitute "freakin' " and "friggin" for the four-letter f-word has been painful -- if they clip similar dialogue on Dexter, his sister Deb and nemesis Sgt. Doakes will literally have nothing to say.

See what I mean in this clip here:

 

After Heath Ledger's Death, Is Media Ignoring Hollywood Males in Crisis?

At a time when we're drowning in dispatches about the various debilitations of Britney, Lindsey, Amy and Paris, news about the death of Oscar-nominated actor Heath Ledger seemed to hit us from a pop culture blindspot.

Sure, we knew he was struggling a bit, having separated from his ex-fiancee, Brokeback Mountain co-star Michelle Williams and their two year old daughter Matilda. But a gossip press that goes into convulsions when Britney drives over a paparazzi's foot or Lindsay gets a parking ticket, seemed oblivious to Ledger's struggles until he was found dead in his apartment, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication reportedly in his apartment.

To be sure, no one has concluded he died of deteriorating personal circumstances. But if he was a male celebrity in crisis who was overlooked by the media, he's not the only one. 

Actor Brad Renfro, who nailed roles in Apt Pupil and The Client, struggled with substance abuse problems for years before his unexpected death Jan. 15. Wedding Crashers co-star Owen Wilson offered a clown's smile to the world before his unsuccessful suicide attempt in August.

And I've already written about how 24 star Kiefer Sutherland hasn't received one-tenth the media attention for his 48-day stay in the slammer over drunk driving charges in December. Though he parties hard enough that entire episodes of 24 reportedly have been re-written to cover his injuries, Sutherland still escapes the kind of attention lavished on young women self-destructing in Hollywood.

As '80s TV icon Michael J. Fox recently noted in Esquire "I have such empathy for all these young women. I was there, and I did all that crap. We'd rip it up, y'know? And we never got busted on any of that stuff."

Ben Montgomery's excellent Floridian story Tuesday cobbling together a possible obit for modern starlets was a wonderful piece of writing, but it too focused on females. And when the Associated Press admitted preparing an advance obiturary on Britney Spears -- an honor usually reserved for much older celebrities -- managing editor for entertainment editor Lou Ferrara cited Anna Nicole Smith as inspiratino for the "pre-bit." (my fave line from that story: "Who in the 60s would have thought Keith Richards would outlast John Denver?") 

Of course, I'm not advocating the kind of senseless media fixation which so often marks Paris/Britney/Lindsay coverage. But it seems we are ignoring one end of the problem while over-covering another. It's time to bring some quality journalism attention to both sides of this equation and highlight these struggles before anyone else dies unexpectedly.

Dissecting The Moment of Truth: Can You Trust a Game Show About a Lie Detector?

I'll admit it. I've fallen for the images as much as anyone.

The nerdy polygraph examiner hunched over his machine, poring over the indicator pens while police detectives ask pointed questions. With every query,the examiner looks up and nods curtly yea or nea. And before long, the subject is nailed.

Bunk, says longtime polygraph expert and former Brooksville police officer David Bryant. After years of learning how to administer the complex tests, Bryant can't help bristling when he sees a phony Hollywood portrayal of what he does. And there's nothing which spins his top more than Fox-TV's new polygraph-centered game show, Moment of Truth.

"In a real test, all the questions are carefully reviewed in advance word for word," wrote Bryant in an email today; he had contacted me over the weekend after seeing my capsule review of the show in Saturday's paper. "There are no tricks and no surprises.  Interrogation is done before or after the collection of charts: not during.  The questions are repeated on several charts....One reaction to one question on one chart equals no opinion to deception."

In reality, it is surprising how inaccurate the popular depictions of the process is. Bryant says a good test may last more than two hours, with the polygrapher asking and reasking questions which get suspicious responses before concluding he has heard a falsehood. And many typical tents: that nervous people fail, you can defeat the process with a tack in your shoe, or tests are never admissible in court, are also wrong.

Bryant expects to get lots more "Jerry Springer-style" requests from customers after Wednesday's debut of Truth, which subjects contestants to off camera polygraph tests and then re-asks the questions in a public setting, with significant people in their lives looking on. So a long-absent dad may ask his son if forgiveness is ever possible or an obese person may ask ho they feel about fat people. Lie and you lose.

"Movies give the image of tough, confrontational style interrogation that often crosses the line from intimidation to outright torture," said Bryant, who also administers the test to sex offenders who must take it as a condition of parole. "Not only is this illegal and unethical, it is counter productive and simply not the way it is.  Polygraph examiners are first and foremost interrogators.  My job is to obtain accurate and complete information.  I use the polygraph instrument (not a machine) to do this.  The negative connotation of interrogation is so prevalent that many agencies don't even like the word and euphemize it with "interview".  Real interrogation looks more like selling a used car.  One must build bridges with the subject, overcome his resistance to telling the truth and create an environment where the subject is comfortable in disclosing truthful information.  Polygraph is much better when used to confirm truth than to detect lies."

Bryant would really hate this: Fox has set up lie detector booths in public areas, building awareness for the show by giving quickie analyses under the watchful eye of host Mark Walberg and Fox late night host Spike Feresten.

"Done correctly, polygraph is a valuable tool to aid in an investigation by detecting those who are deceptive, confirming those who are truthful, and providing information to guide the successful interrogation," he said. "If done improperly (fast and cheap), there is no validity...Various validity studies show us at 85-95% accurate although there are tests for certain circumstances that can reach the 99.9% level.  In short, polygraph is a combination of art and science.  If the art is done poorly, the science quickly becomes worthless."

Here's the preview. You decide whether they've handled it well or not.

What Would You Ask Dan Rather About Political Coverage?

You may have seen my blog post last week noting that former CBS anchor Dan Rather is coming to St. Petersburg's Eckerd College to deliver live reporting on Florida's primary Jan. 29 for his new employer, HD Net.

What I didn't know then, was that the folksy anchor is going to grant me an audience today to talk about election issues, media coverage and his own efforts to stay in the hunt, three years after losing his prime perch at CBS.

My question to you is simple: What should I ask Rather?

Yeah, we'll talk about overcoverage and the media's rush to pronounce winners. But what should I be asking Rather that folks aren't tlaking enough about? What's the unexepcted question? And how should i hold the big dog responsible for his own electoral reporting?

Expect to see the results of our enterprise in the newspaper and on this blog early next week. until then -- please fire away! Believe me, there are few questions which would be beneath either one of us.

Here's Dan's observations on what ails mass media today:

Media Question of the Day: What Would Martin Luther King Jr. Think?

It's become a familiar semantic game, particularly in the wake of controversy over Hillary Clinton's   comments about how civil rights gains were achieved in the 1960s.

Still, as we all head to breakfasts and parades today celebrating the birth of the nation's greatest civil rights leader, it is a question worth asking. WWMT: What Would Martin Think?

The thought came to me watching news accounts on Clinton supporter Bob Johnson, a black man who made $1-billion cynically pandering to black viewers through his Black Entertainment Television, clumsily trying to make an argument against Barack Obama his candidate never could.

It's something that's happened with increasing regularity as the South Carolina primary approaches, with its huge black vote. Established black leaders who know the Clintons will owe them big if they move black voters away from Barack Obama have begun taking potshots -- from Johnson and former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young to Rev. Al Sharpton, civil rights pioneer Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.).

Here's what Johnson said, while trying to avoid the apology he eventually delivered for a ham-handed insult made during a Clinton rally referring to Barack Obama's admitted past drug use: ""We've always said we need a perfect, well-spoken, Harvard-educated black candidate who would prove we've transcended race," the billionaire African American businessman and supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) said in an interview with the Washington Post. "Well, now we've got him and nobody knows how to campaign against him."

So, now that there's the kind of candidate for president folks like Martin Luther King probably dreamed about in 1964, the first black American billionaire thinks it makes sense to take him down?

I also wonder what Dr. King would make of the dustup over Golf Week magazine's decision to feature a noose on its front cover. According to blogger and former Sports Illustrated staffer Roy Johnson, the magazine's now-fired editor initially wanted to create the image placing a noose around the neck of a suspended TV personality who said in a fleeting joke that Tiger Woods should be lynched by younger golfers hoping to match him.

I didn't write about the initial comment when it happened because it seemed like an ill-chosen joke, not a pattern of discrimination worthy of dissection. But Golf Week's decision compounded the mistake by amplifying the central error -- refusing to acknowledge or respect the intense power nooses and lynching have always had in our racial history. Fortunately, the magazine's biggest advertiser, which Roy says left the publication after the noose cover hit newsstands, understands the power of symbol much better.

And what might our greatest civil rights advocate make of how certain male pundits have treated Clinton herself?

The liberal watchdog Web site Media Matters has gathered a damning litany of references MSNBC host Chris Matthews has made about Clinton -- comments centered on her gender which seem to alternate between patronizing and pejorative.

Matthews is particular has been a lightning rod for this kind of criticism, both for being tone deaf to  how awful some of his comments sound (though he did recently apologize for implying Clinton's entire political career stems from sympathy over her husband's infidelity) and for his longstanding resistance to admitting any wrongdoing.

He sounds like somebody from the 1950s trying to get used to liberated women. But at a time when we have a female House Speaker, female Secretary of State and a female front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, this stuff just can't go on.

At least, that's what I hope Martin Might Think.

   

Idol Unearths, Extra Exploits: Glitter Girl Gets a Makeover

Never one to pass up a chance to rip off a successful TV show, Extra gave a much-needed makeover to American Idol nutcase Alexis Cohen, who judge Simon Cowell quite accurately compared to Willem Dafoe from the Spider Man movies. Judge for yourself who she most resembles, then and now:

 

Writer's Strike Breeds the Rise of Good Enough TV

It's a concept that came to me while watching -- and loving -- Fox's reboot of the Terminator franchise on TV, The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Last year, when I saw the initial pilot of the show, I wasn't nearly accommodating. I believe the phrase  "stinkier than a roomful of Limburger cheese" came up a few times. But when I watched the show earlier this week, after 10 weeks of the Hollywood writers' strike, I realized my standards had lowered a bit.

I think this is a new phenomenon. And I’d like to call it Good Enough TV. Here's a few more new shows which fit that label:

Breaking Bad
Debuts: 10 p.m. Sunday on AMC (check the opening sequence here)
Good Enough If You Like: Showtime’s housewife-sells-pot drama Weeds.
It’s not totally fair to call this dark drama a cross between Weeds and Michael Douglas’ middle-class-white-guy-loses-it film Falling Down. But ex-Malcolm in the Middle star Bryan Cranston is typically adept as Walt White, a high school chemistry teacher who turns to making methamphetamine. The series' most affecting moments come in the middle of White’s breakdown, as he and a partner are trying to get rid of two bodies – rivals who have been killed – and we learn Walt’s sad story from asides, character reactions and flashbacks. It takes a bit too long to paint the show’s full scope, but it’s hard not to like Cranston’s everyman gone sour. Especially when you learn why he’s gone off the deep end.

The Moment of Truth
Debuts: at 9 p.m. Wednesday on Fox. (See preview here)
Good Enough If You Like: Who Wants to be a Millionaire and a good game of Truth or Dare.
It’s always dangerous to pass along a critical opinion based on a preview reel. But Fox’s new game show is so scandalous, it’s already marked a new low for reality TV in another country. Contestants are hooked to a lie detector and asked 21 highly personal, embarrassing questions hoping to win $500,000. An overweight person will ask “Do you find fat people repulsive?” or host Mark Walberg might ask “Do you wish you had married another person?” Lie and you lose. It’s so edgy, the Columbia version was shut down when a woman revealed she had once hired a hit man to kill her husband. Talk about Must See TV.

Eli Stone
Debuts: at 10 p.m. Jan. 31 on ABC. (See George Michael's appearance here)
Good Enough If You Like: Boston Legal’s morally conflicted yuppies.
This is one show that could have gotten an A-plus review anytime. Jonny Lee Miller shines as a self-obsessed corporate lawyer whose life changes after he starts having visions pushing him to be more altruistic. The catch: these visions may be cause by a brain aneurysm which could rupture at any time, killing him. Add a helping of witty dialog and inspired cameos by everyone from Ed’s Tom Cavanagh to pop star George Michael, and you have a surprisingly affecting comedic drama about a good man trying to stay positive in a complex world.

Lipstick Jungle
Debuts: at 10 p.m. Feb. 7 on NBC. (See preview here)
Good Enough if You Like: Sex and the City with a little Suddenly Susan thrown in.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve always felt Brooke Shields was a little smarter than her bombshell image, but I liked this Sex and the City knockoff much more than ABC’s high-powered-women-in-Manhattan series, Cashmere Mafia. In part, I’m onboard because NBC isn’t seeking quite so many laughs, casting Shields as a film studio executive struggling to be a good mother and handle her husband’s bruised ego. Ex-24 co-star Kim Raver is also delicious as a powerful magazine editor whose sexless marriage prompts an affair. There’s even a juicy part for Andrew McCarthy, playing a wealthy ladies man who meets his match in Lindsay Price’s failing clothes designer. Throw in ex-Sopranos castmember Lorraine Bracco as a Judith Regan-style nemesis for Shields (the former Dr. Melfi actually says as a comeback, “tell it to your shrink!”), and you have a tasty diversion for a post-strike TV schedule.   

Dan Rather to Report Florida Primary Results From St. Petersburg

If you're a local fan of former CBS anchor Dan Rather, I've got good news and bad.

The good: Rather will brings his election primary coverage to St. Petersburg on Jan. 29, presenting live reporting and analysis of Florida's results from Miller Auditorium at Eckerd College for his latest employer, the HD Net high definition TV cable channel.

The bad: Unless you know somebody, you're probably not going to watch his coverage in person.

So far, the general public won't be admitted to the Eckerd College site, which will only hold a select crowd of about 200 people. But fans can watch the coverage on Bright House Networks HD channel 705 or see the channel's Web site, where the anchor's reporting on New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries is already available via streaming video.

An Eckerd College official tells me Rather's people were led to their auditorium by the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club, which was contacted by the anchor's producers and asked for a suitable space.

I don't think the broadcast will be available live on the Web, but it should appear online shortly after his report, scheduled from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. His reports will also feature political consultants Mike Murphy (Republican) and Donnie Fowler (Democrat).

Gotta say, I'm more excited than a porcupine in a balloon factory. Or something like that.

Hanging With Jack Harris; More Talk about TV Theme Songs on WNYC in New York

I'm not sure what possessed me to spend a day hanging with good-guy radio/TV personality Jack Harris, other than my fascination with how many jobs this guy has.

When we met for lunch last month, we counted five official jobs: morning guy at WFLA-AM, afternoon commentaries for ABC Action News, co-hosting the Mayor's Hour for Tampa city government television, announcing Tampa Bay Storm games and helping with Tampa Bay Buccaneers radio coverage.

That doesn't factor in the endless charity events he hosts, often for free, or all the commercial endorsements he does for radio and television. Over the years, he's worked for nearly every local TV station with original broadcasting (Ch. 8, 13, 28, 44 and Bay News 9, to be exact), three different local radio stations and even occasionally wrote columns for the St. Petersburg Times.

I thought it might be fun to spend a day bird-dogging his trail; the story which resulted ran today. I'm chalking his success up to a good guy demeanor and insane work ethic, which finds him getting up to work at 3 a.m. and getting home after 10 p.m., some days.

WNYC Discusses My TV Theme Song Story

  I had a wonderful time yesterday afternoon discussing my story about the vanishing TV theme song with the folks at WNYC-FM's Soundcheck program. The show, produced by New York's National Public Radio station, is a compelling program about music, and we spent about a half-hour yesterday discussing the state of the TV theme song with Alan and Marilyn Bergman, the husband and wife team who wrote the theme song to Good Times among other things.

The best revelation: The Bergmans finally cleared up the question of the second-to-last line in the Good Times Theme.

If you know the song, you know what I'm talking about. There's a portion right before the end where the singers do a call and response: "Temporary layoffs. GOOD TIMES! Easy credit ripoffs. GOOD TIMES! Scratching and surviving. GOOD TIMES!"

And this was where they lost me. What was the woman saying in the next line? The Bergmans say the line is "hanging out and jiving." Check it out through this link and tell me what you think.   

WNYC also has a pretty cool page set up around the discussion, complete with a link to streaming audio of the show. I remain amazed at how far word of this story has traveled; the WNYC story was the third radio interview I've done regarding the piece, which has been reprinted in the Miami Herald, Denver Post, Chicago Tribune, Wired.com, the Victoria Times Colonist (in Canada) and elsewhere. The page on WNYC's site turned out to be one of the most emailed stories of the day.

Just shows how far an interesting idea can travel in today's media universe. 

Deggans' Favorite Bloopers of 2008: Diane Keaton Drops the F-Bomb on GMA

What's best about this clip, is that the relentlessly conservative idealogues at the Media Research Center tried to make this into a "Hollywood is Babylon"-type argument, insisting that the FCC should take action against ABC and Good Morning America.

Robert Knight, director of the MRC's Culture and Media Institute, put it this way in a statement: "“There’s no reason ABC should not take full responsibility....The presence of Hollywood celebrities, who are known for vulgar outbursts, ought to send the in-house monitors at Good Morning America into High Alert mode.  But this morning, they were asleep at the switch. At least, that's the most generous interpretation of this unfortunate incident.”

Watch the video and judge for yourself:

Idol viewers a Mixed Bag: Down But Better Than Anyone Else

The good news for the Fox network is that American Idol's debut Tuesday once again obliterated the competition, drawing an average 33.2-million viewers over two hours and 13 percent of all TV viewers aged 18 to 49.

The bad news: That's the show's lowest performance in four years, down 13 percent from last year and down 10 percent from 2006.

Locally, Idol performed similar magic, attracting an average 539,025 total viewers in Tampa Bay from 8-10pm last night. That was 29 percent of all area people watching TV and 36 percent of all area TV viewers aged 18 to 49. The closest competition was WTSP-Ch. 10, which drew 13 percent of all TV viewers to a combo of NCIS and the first hour of the Comanche Moon miniseries. And it seems Idol drew more ratings than all the other network affiliates combined.

Nationally, Idol performed similarly, drawing more viewers aged 18 to 49 than all competitors put together, offering the highest-rated night of the 2007-08 season.

But with the ratings lower than previous years -- for a debut which came during a writer's strike, when so many hit shows are in reruns -- the viewership results hint at dark clouds on the horizon of a show struggling mightily to win the nation's heart once again.

Check out the weird stalker dude from Tuesday, if you missed it:

American Idol Season Seven: The Freak Show Begins

I think the most diabolical minds in network television work for American Idol.

How else to explain the lengths to which they make some of the freaky rejects at their auditions go through, just for the privilege of being ridiculed by the largest audience in modern TV?

Case in point: the hairy, bellydancing fat guy.

Sure, beefy Ben Haar planned to face the judges at Philadelphia's auditions in a skimpy Princess Leia outfit, prompting Paula Abdul to exclaim "I can't get past the chest hair." But it took a truly fiendish producer to encourage the guy to go out and get his voluminous chest hair waxed -- which they filmed -- just so he could come back with a smooth chest and stomach to complete the gag. (thank God Simon called an end to the whole awful display before Harr could sing, noting it was "all because that fat lump wanted to be on TV.")

And so it went on last night's two-hour debut of Idol's seventh season, which told the story of auditions in Philadelphia in a rhythm familiar to fans: nice enough people who can hold a tune, spiced by freaks who shouldn't get within the same time zone as a live microphone.

It's an odd game in the early days (more than 100,000 people auditioned this year). Most of the people passed through these tryouts to auditions in Hollywood we will never see again. And the freaks have become so freaky, they are almost painful to watch. Funny as it was to see a guy dressed like Howard Stern in drag wearing a "Gender Chameleon" t-shirt, you mostly wanted to steer him to some serious psychological help and a good barber.

Longtime fans also know singers pass through two auditions with no-name prod