Happy Birthday Sesame Street!

Forty years ago today, Sesame Street first premiered on PBS. Four decades of children have grown up with Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert & Ernie, the Cookie Monster, Grover, and many other Sesame Street friends.

But not me. Sesame Street was not allowed in my house. I don't know why. I also wasn't allowed to watch The Electric Company, but Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and Captain Kangaroo were okay, in limited amounts.

Anyway, happy birthday to Sesame Street!

Bad News for Blago and Illinois

In spite of my obviously compelling plea and the Tribune's Eric Zorn hopping on my bandwagon in his column today, U.S. District Judge James Zagel today refused to allow former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to participate in the upcoming NBC reality show "I'm A Celebrity . . . Get me Out of Here!"

To say I'm disappointed would be an understatement. As both Eric Zorn and I argued, participating in this show would allow Governor Blagojevich not only an opportunity to earn money to pay for his defense (saving the State of Illinois money) and there's a chance (albeit a small one) that Governor Blagojevich might not return (saving the State of Illinois even more money).

Oh, well, I can't have everything I want in life.

Please Take Our Former Governor, I Beg You

Did you hear about how former Governor Rod Blagojevich is hoping to appear as a contestant in the upcoming NBC reality show "I'm A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here" in Costa Rica? Of course, the federal court has to give him permission to participate because he's currently under federal indictment for 16 racketeering, fraud and extortion counts and leaving the country is not allowed.

Now, I know he's pled not guilty, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that he might actually have done some of this stuff and did try to sell President Barack Obama's Senate seat. No matter the ultimate verdict, this is going to be one long, drawn out, and expensive trial. Not to mention the cost of keeping him in prison, assuming he's found guilty.

I say to the court: Let him go. Seriously. Let Governor Blagojevich go to Costa Rica and live in the jungle.

Think about it for a minute. The man is broke. He's got no money. So Illinois taxpayers are not only going to foot the bill for the prosecution, but we'll also have to give him a public defender. But NBC is willing to pay him $80K a week. If he holds his own on the show, he could make a nice amount of money that could be used to pay some of his legal bills. If he gets lost in the jungle, that will save taxpayers A LOT of money. Blago gone. The State of Illinois saves a ton of money and resources. No matter what, it seems like a win-win to me.

Chris Brown OUT of the Kids' Choice Awards!

I wish I could tell you that Nickelodeon did the right thing and booted him out. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Much to my surprise, Chris Brown withdrew from the Kids' Choice Awards nominations himself. I have to say, I'm impressed with this move, although not his statement. I'm certain though that my scathing post yesterday helped Chris see the light.

According to the statement released from Chris Brown's rep on TMZ.com,

"Chris very much appreciates the support of his fans and the honor they have paid him in the way of nominations for Favorite Male Singer and Favorite Song.

Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding the incident last month has shifted the focus from the music to whether he should be allowed to be among those nominated.

While Chris would like to speak to his fans directly about this and other issues, pending legal proceedings preclude his doing so at this time. Once the matter before him has been resolved, he intends to do so."

I don't like the statement because what I want him to say is "I appreciate the support of my fans and honor they have paid me in the way of nominations for Favorite Male Singer and Favorite Song. Unfortunately, as a role model to my fans, I have failed them and cannot accept their nominations. It is never acceptable to hit a woman and I have no excuse. There is nothing she did or could ever do to deserve the beating I gave her. No one should ever resort to violence for any reason. There are simply no excuses and I hope that my fans will learn from my mistakes."

What's worse is the statement from Nickelodeon to TMZ: "We are confirming that Chris Brown has decided to withdraw his nominations from the Kids' Choice Awards. We agree with and respect his decision, and are looking forward to presenting a great event for our audience." (emphasis mine).

Okay, if Nickelodeon agreed with Chris Brown's decision, why didn't they take a stand and boot him off the list of nominations? Do any adults work at Nickelodeon?

Is Hosting the Oscars Naked Really Too Much To Ask?

Why would you tease us like that, Hugh?

The Oscars were 3 1/2 long hours. Despite what others may say, it was not original or funny. It was long and drawn out and often boring.

What would have made it less painful?

YOU, NAKED. Just like you promised.

CNN Heroes - Ordinary People Extraordinary Impact

I love that CNN is focussed on the positive and is making such a big deal out of the ways previously unsung heroes are changing the world. If only everyone did one thing everyday to make the world better, I believe we could solve most of the world's ills.

CNN has compiled their Top 10 Heroes of the Year and now we get to vote on the winner, who will be announced on Thanksgiving.

Go read the stories - I promise they will inspire you - and vote on your favorite.

But hurry! You only have until 6am ET on Thursday, November 20th to cast your ballot.

Click here to read about CNN's Heroes of the Year and vote.

Dan Savage Asks A Great Question

Dan Savage makes an excellent point in The Slog (the blog of The Stranger) and one that deserves an answer from NBC. For the record, if I can stay awake, I'm planning to watch SNL too.

Palin on SNL
posted by Dan Savage on October 18 at 13:31 PM

Why didn’t NBC insist on Palin sitting down for a real, substantive interview—or, better still, calling a full press conference—as a condition of Palin appearing on SNL tonight? Candidates don’t go on Letterman, Leno, SNL, The Daily Show, et al, to take a break from the campaign trail. Comedy programs are stops on the campaign trail. Palin is running from the press, refusing to answer any questions, lying her ass off on the stump, and attacking the people who could call her on those lies—reporters, news anchors, cable news networks—at her rallies. So why the fuck should NBC allow Palin to reap the political rewards of an appearance on SNL if Palin isn’t willing (or able) to answer questions from NBC news reporters?

NBC’s negotiations should with the McCain/Palin campaign should have gone like this:

MCCAIN CAMP: “We want Palin to go on SNL, and show Americans that she’s got a sense of humor about herself.”

NBC: “Of course you do, and we’d love to have her on the show—after she grants an open-ended, no-preconditions interview to Brian Williams.”

Yes, yes: the news and entertainment divisions at NBC are separate entities—blah blah blah—it would be an unprecedented development for the news and entertainment divisions to work together on this, to stand together, and use their combined power and influence to hold Palin accountable. But Palin’s refusal to answer questions or hold press conferences is also unprecedented. Extraordinary times, extraordinary measures.

Allowing Palin to appear on SNL while she stonewalls and attacks the media is a betrayal of NBC’s news division and of NBC’s viewers by NBC’s entertainment division—but, um, I’ll watch SNL tonight, of course.

TiVo Alert! Sarah Palin WILL be on SNL!

Sarah Palin will appear on Saturday Night Live this Saturday, October 18th! (Link)

No word on whether Tina Fey will also appear, but my money is on Tina showing up.

Saturday Night Live airs on NBC at 11:30/10:30 E/C.

Must See TV!

Set your TiVos, DVRs, or VCRs. You must see "The Choice 2008" from Frontline on PBS tomorrow night. Yes, I know you've already decided to vote for Obama, but watch it anyway.



From the Frontline Press Release

IN A HISTORIC ELECTION YEAR, FRONTLINE PRESENTS
THE STORY OF TWO UNLIKELY PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDERS AND WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT AMERICA

FRONTLINE Presents
The Choice 2008

Tuesday, October 14, 2008, from 9 to 11 P.M. ET on PBS
Encore broadcasts: Sunday, October 26, and Monday, November 3, 2008
Download free from iTunes beginning October 15, through the end of November.

It has been called one of the most historic presidential elections in our nation’s history--Barack Obama versus John McCain. It is a race that pits the iconoclast against the newcomer, the heroic prisoner of war against the first African American nominated by a major party. FRONTLINE's critically acclaimed series The Choice returns this election season to examine the rich personal and political biographies of these two men in The Choice 2008, airing Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008, from 9 to 11 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings).

The Choice 2008, part of "PBS Vote 2008" election coverage, draws on in-depth interviews with the advisers, friends and those closest to these unlikely candidates, as well as with seasoned observers of American politics, who together tell the definitive story of these men and their ascent to their party's nominations.

When FRONTLINE first aired a profile of presidential candidates during the 1988 election, The Choice redefined political journalism on television. Now, in an unprecedented election year, veteran FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk (Bush's War, Cheney's Law) goes behind the headlines to tell a deeper political story about the candidates, the decisions they made, and why their nominations may indicate a historic change in American politics.

The story begins at the Democratic Convention in 2004 when Barack Obama, a little-known candidate for the U.S. Senate from Illinois, stepped forward to tell his personal story and to call for a move beyond partisan politics.

"All around were people with tears in their eyes," Obama's chief political adviser David Axelrod tells FRONTLINE. "And I realized at that moment that his life would never be the same."

Also that summer, the future Republican nominee John McCain, a self-described maverick and sometime adversary of the Bush administration, took the stage at his party's convention to defend the president's national security policy. In an effort to win the support of his party, the longtime senator from Arizona had decided to try to walk a fine line--a line he had had trouble walking all his life--between being an unconventional outsider and a team player.

"I think McCain's goal was to make himself more acceptable to the party base without completely surrendering his outsider independent persona, and that was a very complex balancing act," says Mark McKinnon, a member of McCain's inner circle and former media adviser to President Bush.

As McCain the maverick was trying to make peace with his party, Obama the newcomer was discovering the afterglow from his speech was leading party elders to suggest the freshman senator consider a future run for the White House. Within two years of his arrival in the Senate, a window of opportunity seemed open if he was willing to take the chance.

"I told him he should do it," former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle tells FRONTLINE. "The longer he's in Washington, the more history he has, and the more history he has, the more he's going to be explaining his votes and his actions and his statements and his positions that undermine his message"--a message that was all about breaking with the past.

FRONTLINE follows the two candidates from deep inside their campaigns as they run the gauntlet of the 2008 primary.

"This primary, more than any in recent memory, severely tested the candidates," says producer/director Kirk. "Watching how Obama and McCain won reveals much about the men, their ideas, the kind of organizations they have built, and the way they face adversity."

In the summer of 2007, only months after McCain had officially launched his campaign, he was declared a "dead man walking" by the media and party leaders.

"McCain was stuck in this political purgatory where the people that liked the maverick, the independent, didn't trust him anymore, and the establishment conservatives still wouldn't embrace him," says political observer Charlie Cook.

But McCain persevered, firing much of his staff, scaling back the campaign, and focusing almost entirely on New Hampshire. FRONTLINE tells the dramatic story of this turnaround, with insiders involved every step of the way, which friends say was reminiscent of his determination during his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

At the same time, an Obama candidacy was still seen as a curiosity by the Washington punditry. He was a newcomer to national politics and facing the formidable political team of Hillary and Bill Clinton, but Obama and his advisers sensed an opening.

"The Obama campaign felt that Clinton was vulnerable if they would make the race about something different than the old rules," journalist Mark Halperin tells FRONTLINE.

One key to that strategy, Obama told his advisers, was to avoid being pigeonholed as an "African American politician." But as the contest between Obama and Clinton heated up, comments by former President Clinton and the release of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright tapes brought the issue of race, always lurking, to the forefront of the primary campaign.

"In the long run," observes House Majority Whip James Clyburn, the highest ranking African American in Congress, "it allowed Barack Obama to confront the one thing he was trying to avoid, and that's the whole question of race, because sooner or later, he would have to confront it."

With the race narrowed to two men--one whose life was focused by his military service and his years as a POW in Hanoi, the other a black child raised by his white family who found identity in grassroots organizing and politics in the African American community of Chicago--America is truly at a crossroads: historic lows in the public's confidence in our country's future; a battered incumbent overseeing an unpopular war in Iraq; a faltering economy as gasoline prices soar.

"This is a moment where people are both terrified and also hopeful," says Kirk. "They have a choice between two extraordinary candidacies, two men who are trying to embody change in a time where many Americans seem to believe partisan dysfunction has curtailed the ability of our political parties to lead."

As journalist Matt Bai concludes, "Both of them in what they convey to voters--one in a long career spanning decades, the other in a lightning flash of a career spanning what seems like minutes--[is] a sense of breaking with the status quo, a sense of change, a sense that things need to be done differently than they've been done before. And the question I think a lot of voters will have to ask themselves is, who's actually going to deliver?"

The Choice 2008 is a FRONTLINE co-production with Kirk Documentary Group, Ltd. The writer, producer and director is Michael Kirk. The producer and reporter is Jim Gilmore. The co-producer and co-writer is Paul Stekler. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation. Additional funding for The Choice 2008 is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting/PBS Program Challenge Fund. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and described for people who are blind or visually impaired by the Media Access Group at WGBH. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is David Fanning.

PBS goes behind the headlines throughout the summer and fall with the "PBS Vote 2008" election lineup, offering Americans a unique opportunity to explore the presidential election. PBS' trusted news brands and personalities bring viewers in-depth information and insight into the issues and candidates. PBS' election coverage will be led by The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Washington Week with Gwen Ifill & National Journal, NOW on PBS, Bill Moyers Journal and Tavis Smiley, and enhanced by programming from other trusted PBS sources, including American Experience, FRONTLINE, Nightly Business Report and P.O.V. PBS.org's election hub page, pbs.org/vote2008, will provide further perspectives. The site will aggregate video from PBS, feature syndicatable content from across public media and highlight innovative Web-only projects from PBS producers and stations.

Free on iTunes and YouTube Beginning Oct. 15, Plus Elections '08 VOD

This election season, PBS's flagship documentary series FRONTLINE offers voters more options than ever to view its quadrennial award-winning election special The Choice 2008, premiering Tuesday, Oct. 14, from 9 to 11 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), with encore broadcasts Sunday, Oct. 26, and Monday, Nov. 3, 2008.

For the first time, viewers will also be able to watch the complete two-hour dual biography of John McCain and Barack Obama on YouTube ( youtube.com/pbs ) and download it free from iTunes beginning Oct. 15 through the month of November. The Choice 2008 will also stream in the high-quality News & Public Affairs Player at pbs.org/frontline and on many local PBS station Web sites, where visitors can select from a rich archive of more than 45 full-length FRONTLINE reports, as always with no commercials.

"Now more than ever, new media plays an important role in how Americans learn and share information about the election," says FRONTLINE executive producer David Fanning. "It's important that we continue to fulfill the mission of public broadcasting by extending free viewership of The Choice 2008 to as wide an audience as possible and by reaching out to voters across these digital platforms."

Digital Cable television viewers will also be able to access The Choice 2008 via Elections '08 On Demand, a voter-education VOD channel that is being offered across the country on America's leading cable operators, including Comcast, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable among many others. The Choice 2008 also will be offered On Demand through additional local cable operators in select markets. Please check with your cable provider to find The Choice 2008 and Elections '08 On Demand. Finally, repeat broadcasts of The Choice 2008 are scheduled on the digital channel PBS WORLD on Oct. 15 at 7 P.M.; Oct. 16 at 12 A.M., 8 A.M. and 2 P.M.; and Oct. 19 at 12 P.M. ET.

Here are two more videos to tide you over til tomorrow night.