..at least Donald Trump can say he still has his integrity.

I have slagged Donald Trump in this here blog a bunch of times. I think I do it because I don' t like the way (IMHO) he has morphed into a caricature of the guy I admired as an impressionable youth.

That being said I am nothing if not fair and I believe it is worth noting when someone shows integrity....so I figured I should mention something that happened on the last Celebrity Apprentice and why it impressed me.

So before I begin I should say that I am not sure why I am watching CA because like Celebrity Jeopardy, it doesn't seem as hard or as interesting and I won't even get involved in the speculation as to if half of these folks are even Celebrities but that is not what this post is about.

Ok so in the last episode things happen that find Gene Simmons (Project Manager of the all woman team) in the board room and when The Donald asks Gene "The Tounge" Simmons who he is bringing back he chose two people who had no direct result in the teams loss.

This put Trump in a weird position...."Do I fire the guy who is the only reason to watch the show and will probably kill my waining ratings...or do I fire one of these other two who had nothing to do with the team but by firing them I will keep Gene Gene the Dancing Machine on the Show"

This was a legitimate "tough choice" but I was glad to see Trump exercised integrity and fired the correct person....Gene Simmons......even if it does kill his show.

Oh well, Good for Trump. I am not sure if I will continue with the show...oh who am I kidding....I am still in as long as Jennie Finch is there.



-saul

If you love freedom...you should read this interview

I mentioned in my last (mostly incoherent) post about the fact that I have little memory of my time in High School....while that is 100% true I do remember a few things and one those "things" is my school girl crush on Chris Elliot.

Just so we are clear...I didn't have a crush on the man but rather his work.

His appearances on early episodes of Letterman were wacky and delicious at the same time (like this one)



I am glad to see he is getting some recognition again with a couple of best selling books and I really enjoyed this recent interview with him

Read it with me....wont you?

....and if you are too tired to read (people tell reading this blog is sometimes a workout) then just enjoy another easy to digest video



-saul

Forget Must See TV. Now it is Must Green TV!

Two things I don't post a whole lot about about are:

- TV Show Plots
and
-The Environment

The reasons are simple. Even though I watch more then TV then most folks I rarely watch them on the broadcast day (thanks to Tivo/PVR) so I would just feel silly talking about shows that are a few weeks old..........and I choose not to talk too much about the environment (even though I have in the past) because....well....everyone else is and I don't think I have anything interesting to add to the conversation.

That is until today....and I am combining/complaining about both!

This week NBC launched a GREEN IS UNIVERSAL campaign where for a whole week NBC shows worked a "green" message into every one of their prime time shows and interstitials.

This may have seemed like a great idea in a board room but in execution it left me feeling as if I was being pandered to. Shows like 30 Rock, My Name is Earl, ER, The Office, Life, Chuck, Bionic Woman all have smart writing staffs and I watch and enjoy every one of these shows (yes...even Bionic Woman...and geez I watch a lot of NBC shows) but the Green Messaging in these episodes seemed forced (by the studio and the dialog) because......and I am making a HUGE assumption here.....I imagine this green decision came after the shows where plotted out or even written.

I feel this way since in Bionic Woman (and I am going by memory here) the good guys looked for the bad guys at an environmental fund raiser but instead of just saying in passing that "this is a environmental fund raiser" they instead worked in a full soliloquy about how this fund raiser was helping save this and that they are happy to be looking for the bad guy here. ER was almost as bad because they had a character complain that his carbon footprint increased due to a prank they pulled on him. 30 Rock was funny because they pretty much admitted they were doing this because they had to.

Anyway my point here is this "Don't mess with my TV" or better stated....this seemed crass and commercial. Two things that saving the environment are not supposed to be about. These episodes will seem strange out of context and if you are going to do a promotional tie in like this you don't want it to harm your product in the process.

NBC dropped the ball here and could've achieved the same results they set for their Green is Universal week by not playing with their shows and just had the stars/characters do the PSA's and interstitial in between the episodes. This could have saved them from getting characters to comment on how they are giving up Styrofoam cups only to have them go back to their old ways in future episodes.

Oh Ya....and don't mess with my TV

saul