Mailbag: When flashcubes were high-tech

My story about the perils of live TV back in the early days prompted a reader to write:

When I was just starting out in the advertising business at J. Walter Thompson in New York as the lowliest of lowly paid writers, one of my jobs was to get up every morning at 5 a.m. and go down to the Today show studios at 30 Rock.  Eastman Kodak, the account I worked on, was a sponsor of the show and back then many of the commercials were done live by the hosts.  So I had to make sure that the latest scripts were transferred to cue cards and coordinate with the producers about who was doing what each morning.

Kodak was introducing its latest innovation: the flash cube. 

Joe Garagiola, the baseball player turned sports commentator, was doing that morning's spot.  The action was for him to deliver his lines about how easy it was just to pop on a flash cube, point and shoot the picture.  The trick was that, because the set's main camera was very light-sensitive, he had to point the Instamatic camera away when he demonstrated the flash. 

Of course, live, he popped on the flash cube showing how easy it was, and shot the flash right at the camera.   

For the remaining 25 minutes of the show every main shot of the set had a big, purple, pulsating blob in the middle of the picture.  All the flash cube commercials after that had to be written without any actual demonstration of the flash. 

This was 1972.

Bob Bishopric

Miami

Thanks for sharing that, Bob, and for giving me a chance to utilize once again one of the hardest-won skills of my childhood, the ability to spell Garagiola. That's him on the right in the photo, trading jokes with former Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda at a game last month.

Mailbag: Where's 'Deadwood'?

The readers write:

If you have any opportunity to inquire about the Deadwood mini-movies promised for this
summer, we would appreciate it.  I'm sure you have heard how everyone is anticipating more of Deadwood -- in any form.

Toni Newton-Townsend

Jacksonville Beach, FL

When HBO canceled Deadwood last year, it promised the story would continue in two movies. Since then, however, HBO has undergone some management changes, Deadwood producer David Milch has gotten wrapped up in the network's surf noir series John From Cincinnati and the movies have pretty much vanished from public discussion -- until Thursday, when TV critics pressed HBO executives on the subject during a Q&A session in Los Angeles. And I'm afraid it doesn't sound good, Toni.

"It is complicated," said Michael Lombardo, HBO's chief programmer. "We don't have have holds on the actors anymore. David is busy doing John...It's doable. It will just be daunting." HBO Co-President Richard Plepler didn't even sound convinced that Milch wants to do the movies. He said even if all the Deadwood actors can be rounded up (many of them have contracts for other films or TV series) there's a question of "whether or not David is fully committed and motivated to getting the script written."

"I spoke to him the other day," added Plepler. "He's obviously exhausted in concluding this project with John. And I think he wants a little time to think about it."

The chances for the movies may hinge in large part on whether HBO decides to pick up John From Cincinnati for a second season. A month ago, that would have been unadulterated good news for Deadwood fans; the mystical and mysterious John was tanking in the ratings despite its heavy promotion during the final weeks of The Sopranos. But Plepler said the show has rallied, with 4.3 million viewers watching the latest episode. "The show is really finding an audience," Plepler said.

It's hard to know how much of that is spin -- Plepler also claimed HBO is happy with the ratings for its phlegmatic sitcom Flight Of The Conchords, which had less than a million viewers last week -- but a renewal for John From Cincinnati seems at least possible, if not exactly likely. If the show is picked up, the HBO bosses said, Milch will have to go right back to work writing new episodes, and the chances for the Deadwood movies shrink considerably.

That, by the way, led to one of the most interesting asides during the HBO presentation. A critic, noting that The Sopranos sometimes went a year and a half between seasons, wondered why a renewed John From Cincinnati couldn't be put on hold until at least one of the Deadwood movies is done. Lombardo said, quite firmly, that the long gaps between seasons of HBO series are a thing of the past.

"Waiting a year and a half between shows, I think we've discovered, is probably not ideal for the viewer," he said. "I think viewers have expressed that to us." That's exactly 190 degrees the opposite of what HBO executives used to tell us when we asked why it was taking so damn long to produce another season of The Sopranos. Back then, they claimed, all the complaints about long hiatuses were from TV critics, not viewers, who didn't care. On Thursday, HBO finally admitted the truth: They were willing to put up with just about anything in order to get another season of The Sopranos from perennially reluctant producer David Chase, but those days are done.

Anyway, bottom line on the Deadwood: not so good. When we asked for odds on whether the movies will ever be made, Lombardo dodged: "I'm not a betting guy." Plepler guessed about 50-50, but his voice seemed pained. You want to see Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen again, my suggestion is to buy the DVD.

Mailbag: King, O'Reilly and Grace

The readers write even more about that Larry King story on Sunday:

Great article, and the following phrase, itself, is a splendid, provocative essay: "The parasitic culture of celebrity that's slowly strangling journalism." What an astute assessment. Wish I'd thought of it. Are you and I the only ones who realize the truth of it?

Paul Lyle

Texas

I used to enjoy listening to Larry King on his midnight-to-5 a.m. Mutual Broadcasting System program. I wonder if he ever tells the story anymore of the time when the record stuck when he ducked out of the studio to visit a "friend'' that had called in and told him what a sexy voice he had? My favorite was around Xmas one year when Danny Kaye was his guest.  Danny asked Larry if he knew why grandchildren & grandparents got along so well.  Larry answered "No." Danny said: "Because they have a common enemy."

Larry Sheker

Camp Hill, Pennsylvania
   

Great King interview ... he's one of a kind. Thanks.

David Saldior

New York City

It's no surprise that Larry King doesn't like Bill O'Reilly...O'Reilly has almost double the audience that King does on CNN. In fact, King's viewership is lower than those of O'Reilly, Hannity & Colmes, Great Van Susteren. Larry's anything but a "king'' anymore. His show is now a cartoon of what it once was -- and he's losing the demos most advertisers want. He's had an incredible run -- but it's over, and been over for a long time.

Steve Meyer

Las Vegas, Nevada

I think you're way premature on declaring King's run "over," Steve. He's still got the highest rating on any network in the CNN family -- better than Anderson Cooper's, than Nancy Grace's, than Glenn Beck's. Fox News would sign him in a second if he were available. Lots of people (including everybody else on Fox News) have lower Nielsens than O'Reilly; that doesn't mean their careers are over.

In this interview with Larry King, it's one thing for King to criticize Bill O'Reilly, who broadcasts on another network, quite another to go after Nancy Grace, a CNN colleague. Where does his obvious anger for Ms. Grace spring from? Is he angry because on numerous occasions, in the past, when Ms. Grace was his guest and guest host, she brought her marvelous knowledge of the law, sharp wit and yes, grace to his show, outshining him?

Is he angry because, unlike himself, Ms. Grace has led an exemplary life, caring deeply for others as a fervent advocate for victims rights, over the last 25 years? Is he angry because she has been tagged as the next "Larry King'' & does he worry that she will knock him off the air as his popularity & style continue to decline? In criticizing Ms. Grace's style, Mr. King  becomes harpoonlike himself, trying to defame his colleague.

Finally, Mr. King hits bottom saying: "I don't think it's fair to the judicial system," referring to Ms. Grace's popular program. What does he actually know about the justice system, except as an arrested escapee from a possible conviction for fraud, when the statute of limitations saved him?

No one ever accused Mr. King of being a classy guy and he proves it with his attack on Nancy Grace.

Joe Feinberg

Coral Gables, Florida

Perhaps I should make it clear, Joe, that King's criticisms of Nancy Grace were purely professional. "Nancy is a very sweet person off the air," he told me. "Alway hugging. She gives me credit for her career."

Unfortunately for Larry, he never heard the word research -- nor, it seems, has his
staff. They fly by the seat of their pants and it shows.  Perhaps this is why their
ratings aren't what they were. And, Bill O'Reilly comes up with good topics.

Anne Snyder

Miami

Larry King (like your article) is the triumph of form over substance. He is the worst
of the empty suits in media and he's been bad at it longer than anyone else. Not even
Barbaro's doctor's can help him. You are not helping him, let him pass, please.

John Sneed

Houston

Sorry, John, but I couldn't disagree more with your comment about form over substance. King's show has never been short on celebrity news, of course, but it can also be a forum for interesting and intelligent policy debates. Way back in 1978, when I was a young reporter in Austin, Texas, King brought his Mutual radio show to town and I sat in one night to write a story. His guest was Walt Rostow, the Lyndon Johnson aide who was one of the principal architects of the Vietnam war. They talked for two hours on the air, then threw it open to callers for another. The rest was an intelligent, articulate debate on the war that was notably absent of the kind of abuse that dominates talk radio today. King also hosted the debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot on NAFTA that, President Clinton said later, resulted in the treaty's enactment. Not exactly Hollywood fluff.

Mailbag: Larry King, yutz or scumbag?

The readers write:

Enjoyed your piece about CNN king Larry King, and I'm pleased that you portrayed the sorry side of him when it comes to his stay in Miami. Now a multi-millionaire, that yutz has never paid back the people he fleeced here in South Florida: the countless loans, the unpaid restaurant and bar tabs. Sure, some of those place are out of business, and some of the people he fraudulently borrowed money from are dead. But a debt is a debt is a debt, unpaid or otherwise. What a scumbag.
   

Ed McLean

Ft. Pierce, FL

It would have been interesting to read whether Larry King thinks he has a moral obligation -- clearly he doesn't have a legal one -- to pay the debts owed to many Miamians when he filed for bankruptcy now that he is a multi-millionaire.

Mike Rosenthal

Miami

This is the first article I can recall about Mr. King since his success at CNN where anyone speaks about his financial woes in Miami. Credit goes to a man that can leave an area in shame and make himself a legend elsewhere. Who knows what he disclosed or how much
due diligence CNN did then.

Real credit and fortitude would be how he handled those issues once he became successful, like Valjean in Les Miserable. It could make an interesting article to find out who were his creditors and if they were ever paid back any principal, interest, or other remunerations.

Rafael R. Palacios

Miami

It's interesting that most of the mail I got from Miami on Sunday's story on Larry King concentrated on the bad debts he left behind in South Florida, while the letters from the rest of the country -- we'll get to those later today -- were directed more toward his qualities as a broadcaster. It's not hard to understand why; King left a lot of Miami people in the financial lurch when he moved to Washington in 1978 and declared bankruptcy. That wiped out more than $332,000 in debt, to everybody from ex-wives to Disney World. A tiny handful of individual debtors -- like a junior-high teacher who had paid King to pitch an idea for a TV show to the networks -- got their money back, but they were the definite exceptions.

King has never kept his financial shenanigans a secret, from CNN or anybody else -- there's an entire chapter of his autobiography devoted to them -- but neither does he feel any obligation to pay them. "The reason they have bankruptcy laws is to give people a chance to start anew," he told the Herald in 1991. "Bankruptcy is not a dishonorable thing -- I believe it's part of the First Amendment. If it was dishonorable, a lot of people in Miami would be in big trouble."

Mailbag: The (separate) adventures of Doug, Carrie and Flavor Flav

The readers write:

What is up with the show Flavor of Love? Is that not the most disgusting of all time
reality shows? I'd say it very well could be pornography. Those poor stupid girls? And
their humiliated families too! Please tell me its gonna go.

Anonymous

Las Vegas NV

I wish I could, Nono, but the viler a program is, the longer its shelf life on MTV or VH1. For those of you lucky enough never to have seen it, Flavor Of Love is a reality show in which 20 young women with no brains and even less of a sense of shame "compete" to become the, um, girl of rapper Flavor Flav. The very first episode was called Fifteen Beds and a Bucket of Puke, and -- impressive in its own way -- the show has gone down hill from there.

It is certainly a legitimate contender for the title of most disgusting reality show of all time, but this is a crowded field with keen competition. Don't count out Fox's My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, in which a young woman got paid to break her parents' hearts by convincing them she was marrying a loathsome pig, or Oxygen's Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty, in which she dumped other women's boyfriends for them on hidden camera. And let's not forget about ABC's Wife Swap, where parents give over their children to total strangers. When it comes to reality TV, calling something the absolute worst is generally regarded as a challenge to all the others.

Is The King Of Queens coming back for a new season?

Anonymous

Glendale, AZ

Indeed it is, Nono-2. The new season debuts at 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 6, when Doug is trying to convince Carrie that he didn't hook up with some young hottie, only to discover that she's not jealous. CBS won't tell me why she's not jealous, but I assume it has something to do with Flavor Flav, 15 beds and a bucket of puke.

Mailbag: "Lost," the Parcheesi of television

The readers write:

I have enjoyed the TV program The Closer with Kyra Sedwick this summer. Is she coming back anytime soon?

Kim

Alameda, Calfornia

Coming back, yes; soon, no. TNT has picked up a third season of The Closer, but it won't air until sometime next summer.

Have you seen the website www.LOSTisaGame.com? This dude claims that Lost is actually a game, it's pretty convincing

Beachfreak

Tampa. FL

Well, I'd say "interesting'' rather than convincing. It would be sort of amusing if in the final scene of the final episode, the camera pulled back and you find, say, God and the Devil, or even just Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie, hunched over a gameboard filled with little Kate and Sawyer and Jack playing pieces. And clearly the show has gotten too weird for anything resembling a conventional ending. Really -- there's been a whole second island sitting there all along and nobody's ever noticed it before?

But the idea that it's all a game is just one of several theories of overarching metaphysical causation in Lost. Some fans think the survivors have died and are stuck in a Biblical purgatory; others that the whole thing is a stray plot line from Jules Verne's novel The Mysterious Island; or even that's it's a behavioral experiment conducted by Rambaldi, the mad and possibly mythical genius of Alias, another ABC show produced by Lost guru J.J. Abrams. If it's really Rambaldi, Sawyer and Kate are really up Fecal Matter Creek without a paddle, because Alias has been canceled.

I love reading you in The Miami Herald. It's refreshing to have someone on the "right side," as in winners. I love The George Lopez Show and can only take so much of these reality condiments. You stated earlier it would be back in the fall lineup. Please tell my children and I how long (like month/year) we have to wait for the new season. Thanks.
and keep up the good work.

Rosa StClaire

          Miami, Florida

Unfortunately, Rose, that's still up in the air. ABC can't make up its mind about any of its comedies, including three new ones -- Notes From The Underbelly, Big Day and The Knights Of Prosperity -- that have all yet to air. It's certain that The George Lopez Show will be back -- ABC has ordered 18 episodes from Warner Brothers, and the studio is in full production. But when they'll actually make their way onto TV remains a mystery. The show was originally scheduled to come back in November, but now the rumor is it might not be until January. And ABC is mum.

What happened to the most recent winner of The Next Food Network Star competition, Guy Fieri? He seems to have vanished after a scant few weeks of his series Guy's Big
Bite, and a special called, Gotta Get It, about food-related gadgets and appliances.

Jeff

Hollywood, FL

Thirteen new episodes of Guy's Big Bite will beging airing on the Food Network in January. But if you can't wait, Jeff, you could always visit his restaurant, Johnny Garlic's California Pasta Grill, in Santa Rosa, Calif. Personally, the onion rings at Burger King are good enough for me.

What impact does the invention of television have upon society?

Anonymous

Detroit, Michigan

Mostly that people ask too damn many questions about Guy Fieri.

Mailbag: None dare call it mail fraud...

Hey!!! Ever watched the show Criss Angel Mindfreak by on A&E? What do you think of it?

Lidia Martinez

Miami, Florida

Never have, Lidia, but I've got some good news for you. Two special episodes of Criss Angel Mindfreak are coming up next week. On Oct. 31 at 10 p.m., Criss is joined by a bunch of alleged celebrities -- they include Steve Valentine of Crossing Jordan, the musical group Three Six Mafia, and Deborah (or Debbie, as we old people still remember her) -- to spend a night in the Armagosa Hotel in Death Valley, where everybody tries to contact the dead. Why a ghost would be willing to go to a hotel in Death Valley instead of haunting, say, the Stanford Court in San Francisco, is not clear. This younger generation of dead people is none too bright if you ask me.

Then, at 10:30 Halloween night, Criss is back with a show of  what he calls "mysticism, mentalism and death defying stunts." These include "a mass interactive experiment with the television audience -- right through their screens." Not to give anything away, but what he's going to do is beam you mental instructions to send all the money in your wallet to me at the Herald. You can go ahead and get a head start today if you'd like.

Mailbag: The abandonment of Meg and "Smith," and other TV atrocities

The readers write:

Please, o guru, do you have an explanation  of the abrupt vanishing of CBS's Smith from the Tuesday lineup?  Have they killed it after only two weeks?  Or. is it on hiatus until something else falters? I kind of liked it but I must have been the only one watching. By the by, I like your column,keep up the good work.

Bob Joslyn

As any good guru can tell you, Bob, you hold the answers within. Yes, you were the only one watching -- well, except for me, and I'm outside the 18-49 demo so I don't count. CBS cold-bloodedly murdered Smith (its decaying corpse will figure in a December episode of CSI: Miami) and its replacement will debut Nov. 14: 3 Lbs., a drama starring Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) and Doug Hanson (The West Wing) as neurosurgeons. I'm guessing the title is a reference to the weight of the average brain, though if CBS viewers didn't like Smith, I'm guessing they come in a little light.

Can you tell me why the season premiere of Las Vegas wasn't shown on Oct. 20, as the Miami Herald's TV Book said it would be? Thank you.

John Pitrelli

Because the TV Book is a liar, John. And a thief, too -- several times we've caught it taking spare change off people's desk. We suspect it's on drugs, though we have no concrete evidence. And Rene Rodriguez once said the TV Book gave him a wedgie, but most of us agree he was probably asking for it. Anyway, Las Vegas makes its season debut on Oct. 27 at 9 p.m. and anything the TV Book says to the contrary should be filed under "bovine scatology."

I know you were a big fan of American Dreams; so was I. If I remember correctly, you
wrote that the last episode shown (Meg riding off with her neighbor on a motorcycle) would
not be the last; that a final episode would be shown in the future. Is that correct? If
so, can I see the new episode by ordering it? Did you review the episode?

Alan Spector

Plantation, Florida

In the spring of 2005, with the 1960s family drama American Dreams dangling on the cancellation bubble, NBC shot two versions of the season finale. The hour-long version that aired ended with a cliffhanger: Teenage sweetheart Meg running away to Berkeley with her violent anti-war activist boyfriend. The other version, 90 minutes long, was intended to air if the show was canceled. The final scenes took place several years later, with Meg's mom and dad dispatching her ex-Marine brother J.J. to rescue her from the countercultural underworld of drugs and anti-war terrorism into which she'd fallen.

Unfortunately, the second version has never aired, even though American Dreams was indeed canceled that spring. NBC programming chief Kevin Reilly told me the network thought the price tag for the music in the extra 30 minutes (American Dreams brimmed with '60s rock and roll) was just too big. Reilly didn't give me a number, but the rumor in Hollywood was that it was close to $150,000. My guess is that eventually somebody will include the expanded finale, perhaps with a bargained-down soundtrack, in a DVD package of the second and third seasons of American Dreams. If that day ever comes, Alan, trust me that you'll read about it -- many, many times -- in the Miami Herald. Not only did I love the show, but the thought of Meg spending the rest of eternity in a cesspool like Berkeley is taking untold years off my own life.

That's Brittany Snow as Meg on the left, and Michelle Branch as Lesley Gore on the right, by the way. And among the many reasons to mourn the loss of American Dreams is that it was the only show on TV with songs like It's My Party and Judy's Turn To Cry on the soundtrack.

Listen, I'm a Friends FANATIC, and I've heard so many rumors it's coming back on for a reunion. Can you tell me anything maybe a spinoff or anythinggg? You know, it was supposed to be for four one-hour time slots.

Cate

New York

Not gonna happen any time soon, Cate. Even though Friends alumni have had their share of screen catastrophes (Matt LeBlanc with Joey; Matthew Perry with The Full Ten Yards and, it's starting to look like, Studio 60 From The Sunset Strip; Lisa Kudrow and Comeback), nobody is yet ready to surrender to being Rachel or Chandler or Ross or Phoebe for the rest of his or her life. The latest attempt to forge a new identity will come in January, when Courteney Cox's new show Dirt debuts. She's both the executive producer and one of the stars, playing a reporter for a Hollywood gossip rag. Wondering if (okay, okay, hoping) one of the plots will involve publishing nude photos of Jennifer Aniston?

Mailbag: Send lawyers, guns and Lamar

Lamar Thomas' televised meltdown during the Miami-FIU football brawl this week really hit a nerve out there.

Thomas' apology speaks volumes. He says that had he known he would get fired he would have been more careful about his choice of words. What he doesn't say is that encouraging
the football players to fight was wrong.

This guy is an [digestive-tract portal]. The only difference between him and the gang-bangers who regularly shoot up Miami is that Thomas enjoyed some measure of success as a football
player. Without that he would undoubtedly be doing 25-to-life.

James

As you can see from reading my earlier posts on Thomas' commentary, James, I was pretty harsh on him. But I have to my opinion changed for the better while talking to him on the phone Monday. He came across as intelligent, thoughtful and polite -- none of which showed during his game commentary. As he admits, he's anything but objective about the University of Miami. I wouldn't mind if, after a cooling-down period, somebody else gave him a shot at football color commentary --as long as it doesn't involve UM.

And they talk about hockey violence!  Ha.

Paul Davey

Vancouver, BC Canada.

I cannot believe that Comcast would wait 24 hours to fire that MORON Lamar Thomas.  What was shown by both teams was unexplainable and the players that were kicking and throwing helmets should lose there scholarships.  As a former captain in 1990 for a D 1 football program, we were told again and again that it is a privilege to play for the university, and our coach was 110 percent correct.  As for Lamar, the guy sounds like he has a second grade reading level.  Hey Lamar, set an example for the kids that are watching.  I am tired of hearing about the T.O.'s of the programs.  Have some class.

Paul Rogan

Without defending Thomas' remarks, it's important to remember he wasn't the only guy in that broadcast booth. His play-by-play partner. Jason Solodkin, made no attempt to interject any note of sanity, just chuckled moronically at everything Thomas said. And Thomas told me the game's Comcast Sports Southeast producer, the guy in charge of the telecast, never told him to cool it or suggested he was crossing the line. CSS needs to quit acting like Thomas was a lone nut and acknowledge that the network itself bears a great deal of the responsibility for what happened.

Justice is served, you hate to see a man lose a job but this was JUSTICE.

Andre Ross

Lamar Thomas fired by Comcast...but hired by WWE (Jesse Ventura who?).

Dan

Hollywood, FL

Hmmm. You think Thomas might be our next governor?

What kind of an education did this moron get at UM? Evidently, it wasn't one that would
give him any skills in life other than being a football commentator which requires no
brain cells. I have watched this video several times and it looks to me 99 percent of the
teams were black. I notice no sportswriter points this out since it is politically
incorrect to mention color when reporting on criminals. Smack, our school, our field, what
the hell does that mean? These people don't thank the school for giving them a chance to do something in life worth while, they take it over and claim it as theirs.

I recall several similar brawls in college football and most of them came from UM teams.
Remember the Miami team who showed up for the Fiesta Bowl in military gear? Again, we
hear, let's move on. How come we always "move on" when there are black riots but when it is
a white problem (Duke Lacrosse team) we go on forever.

Kenneth Parady
Grand Rapids, MI

I saw plenty of white players out there throwing punches, Kenneth. The dominant factors here are stupidity and arrogance, not race. And while I agree with you that UM in the past has treated football gangsters more like conquering heroes than guys who deserved punishment, I think the school may finally be getting the message. Thirteen suspensions (one of them indefinite), Donna Shalala's angry open letter and the dismissal of Thomas (which UM supported): That's a much different reaction than back in the days when UM players fought with Colorado, Notre Dame and seemingly everybody else under the sun.

I am just glad the players on both teams weren't anywhere near their guns during the fight. That would've been really ugly.

Steve Madonna

If you've been watching Dexter, Steve, you know we Miamians have to pack heavy armament to protect ourselves from the several thousand serial killers out on the street. Have a heart, man.

Mailbag: Nancy Grace, feminist icon

In a review the other day of the new CBS legal drama Shark, I made a passing comparison between James Woods' character in the show and "the one-woman lynch mob Nancy Grace." That prompted this letter:

Yeah Nancy Grace !!!!!! Go Nancy Grace!!!!!!   She has all you pathetic male losers crying every day about her. . Just can't stand a woman that kicks ass. . Get used to it boys, she's been doing it all her life  and is only getting warmed up. . . Go Nancy Grace.

Linda Mervar

You're right, of course, Linda. I'm just afraid of Nancy Grace because she's such a feminist warrior. I'd guess Gloria Steinem herself called Nancy to congratulate her after that woman committed suicide a couple of weeks ago after being bullied on her show.

 

Quick question. How did $450.000 of our money  get into the first episode of Dexter?

Michael Weber
Miami Beach, Fl.

Michael is referring to an observation in my review of Dexter, the new Showtime series about a lovable serial killer that was being shot in South Florida until it was driven out by the high cost of hurricane insurance. I called Dexter, among other things, a "statement of profound civic self-loathing" because "$450,000 of our taxes went into the first episode." Michael, the state of Florida has an incentive program that offers hefty subsidies to films and TV shows that shoot here, and the $450,000 was for the pilot episode shot last fall. From this bulletin from Governor Bush's office, it appears that Dexter is getting further subsidies for continuing to shoot some exteriors here, even though principal production has moved to Hollywood.

Money well spent, I say; South Florida hasn't looked so exciting since Al Pacino was greeting tourists with a chainsaw in Scarface. Personally, I was hoping the state would dump a bunch of money on the cable channel Spike to get its new series A.M.P.E.D. -- which centers on a police unit that must "deal with a small but growing percentage of the population that is falling prey to strange genetic mutations, causing them to do destructive things to the city and those around them," according to production notes -- set here. Unfortunately, Minneapolis beat us out.   

Mailbag: More Wallace/Clinton

So Clinton upset Wallace..too bad...maybe he'll learn to do NEWS, not right-wing neofascist propaganda, but I doubt it...he just follows the party line like any good toadie.

Mal in Tallahassee

I'm curious, Mal. Was Chris Wallace a neofascist when he was working at ABC or NBC? Was he a neofascist when President Reagan's press secretary shouted "Screw you!" at him in the middle of a news conference and then refused to speak to him for four years? Was he a neofascist when he was hammering Condi Rice two weeks ago? Gosh, he must not be a very good one.

Well, don't just parrot every other inept (or worse, biased) reporter and commentator...Just answer the question:  "Why haven't the media asked ANY responsible Bush White House official why they did not do more to get O. bin Laden (and al Qaeda) in the EIGHT MONTHS-PLUS prior to 9/11?"

The Bush administration, with the complicity of 90 percent of the Main-Stream-Media, has succeeded in keeping their bad judgment re the 'terrorist threat to the U.S.' during 2001 shrouded in 'national security' necessities. 

Richard Clarke's views, if they are referenced at all, are usually presented in such a light as to reflect doubt on the Clinton administration's concern with bin Laden, but, if they are studied in detail, leave no doubt that George W. Bush and cohorts are preponderantly to blame for 9/11 and its devastation.

Craig Davie

So, let me get this straight: It was unfair to ask Clinton why he didn't get the job done in eight years. But it would be OK (more than OK, necessary) to ask Bush he didn't get it done in eight months?

And if you really think 90 percent of the mainstream media are lying, I don't know why you're bothering to read me or the Miami Herald. For that matter, I don't know why you read anything at all. All those progressive blogs you no doubt are so fond of get virtually all their information from the mainstream media. You think the Daily Kos has reporters in Baghdad and Kabul, or at the Pentagon or the State Department? Without the mainstream media, you'll be an even bigger fool than you already are, Craig, though I'll admit that's hard to conceive.

Mr. Garvin:

I just read your article and I would like to say who really gives a hoot over Clinton's pouting.   President Bush continuously endures personal attacks and disrespectful comments by the useful idiots of the media and you don't see anybody including the President get upset.   

As it was noted by one of the actors who played a warlord in the ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11, when Clinton was in the White House, there were no men just cowards running the White House. Now, we have true men running the White House and the media is always undermining them.

Ileana Shafer
Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Ileana, meet Craig and Mal. Whatever else you might say about them, it's pretty clear they give a hoot.

Mailbag: Dead guys

From time to time, I'll answer reader mail here. At least until the first email asking, "Can God make a rock bigger than He can move?"

Dear Glenn,

Both Grey's Anatomy and Weeds had the same male actor who always dies. He played Denny in GA ,the love interest of the pretty blonde intern and he died in bed of a heart attack. In Weeds he was the father who died causing his wife to sell pot to support the family.

I love this actor with his big eyes and loving face. He is never named. I think he is very good and I wish the writers would let him live. Do you know his name? Also I thought Huff was so fabulous and I wish it was not canceled.  I don't think Showtime does a good marketing job. So many people never heard of Huff. If that show was on HBO it would have made it. Your thoughts please.

Thanks, Kathryn

Indeed I do know the identity of that dead-guy specialist. His name is Jeffrey Dean Morgan. He is practically the best dead-guy actor who has ever lived, so good that the producers of Supernatural, where he has a recurring role as the elusive dad of Sam and Dean Winchester, may be kiling him off too. He was in a big cliffhander car-crash at the end of last season, and I don't know if he survived. Hmm. Maybe all his various dead-guy characters will get guest slots on Ghost Whisperer.

I, too, loved Huff. But watching somebody's mid-life crisis week after week may not have been appealing to a lot of viewers. I can't blame Showtime, which marketed the heck out Huff -- not to mention The Brotherhood, the excellent Irish Mafia series that just ended a three-month run with nary a viewer in sight. We could be headed for real disaster here -- Les Moonves, the CBS boss who recently wound up in control of Showtime as well in a corporate shuffle, has been grumbling that Showtime's programming is aimed at TV critics rather than viewers. That could mean Showtime will shortly become the all-CSI-all-the-time-network.