January 31, 2005

Hey

    Sorry I didn't write last week. My inspiration like the weather went cold. Not that its gotten any hotter,
but I hear the natives are getting restless.


The Blizzzzard

    Ever notice when you are sitting at home during one of these big snow storms, and the local TV
stations just go on and on about the snow? They have people in all 5 boroughs, standing there like
schmucks going "Well its still coming down hard here in Forest Hills" and then up to another reporter on
the Island, saying "People in Hicksville are stocking up on supplies." And then up to Westchester where
"we think were going to end up with about 2 feet of snow here in Scarsdale."
And on it goes, all day and night.
   I had to sit and watch all of the local stations plus NY1 last Saturday because I was at the office. One
idiot on NY1 was standing in Central Park with a ruler! I realize now that the reason these newscasts love
the weather so much is that it requires no work whatsoever. Now having been a reporter on stories where
you have to actually do some legwork, I can tell you that standing outside and asking people How about
this snow?" is like money for nothing. Its schmuckwork.
    And of course you have Mayor Bloomberg the dashing and exciting leader of our city, rallying his
troops:
   We've been through this before, we know how to handle it. We have plenty of plows and salt. There's
no need to panic." Every newscast in NYC had him on, and they all acted as if it was a big exclusive.
Have we ever had a more sleep inducing public official?
   Last Sunday was a different story. I got to work early and worked at the city desk and I swear that
phone did not stop ringing. Between the weather, Johnny Carson and those poor firefighters who died, it
was a crazy news day.

About the firefighters, what else can you say. There's been some negative stories recently, but the
overwhelming majority of these guys are just regular people doing extraordinary things. The firemen who
died in the Bronx Sunday did so after giving up their hose because they thought the guys on the floor
below were in greater danger. What do you say about guys like that? They're amazing.

Johnny Carson 1925-2005.
     Jay Leno amongst other comics, in paying tribute to the late night legend, talked about the thrill of
performing comedy on the Tonight Show and getting invited over to the couch to chat with Johnny and
Ed McMahon. I wanted to hear about the comics who Johnny didn't like, whose careers went down the
drain after a Tonight Show bomb. (and I'm sure there were plenty) How did they feel?
      In all seriousness though, Carson was not only arguably the biggest TV star in history, he was one of
the most powerful. In the book Live from New York, the history of Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels
recalls, how he had to go and sell the idea of SNL to Carson, after he had already sold it to NBC and all
its executives. All this stuff about him being a simple farm boy from Nebraska may have been true, but
by the early 70's, he was as powerful as anyone in TV.
       Everyone has their favorite Carson moment, one of mine was when he had Michael Landon on in
May 1991. Landon had been diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer, which is one of those cancers that
carries a death sentence. Landon went on with Johnny and told the world he was going to beat it. He had
the money to use experimental drugs, and he had the willpower to fight it. When did Little Joe ever lose a
fight? For a man who had cancer, he looked remarkably well, he even joked that he got "a blood
transfusion and a hairdo" to come on the show.
     These guys were good friends. They both lived in Malibu and had been with NBC for over 30 years at
that point. Johnny asked all the right questions, but mostly let Landon have the spotlight. Carson was a
master at knowing what a situation called for.
    It was a good thing too. Almost 2 months later, Landon died. His Tonight Show appearance was the
last time the public ever saw him. Carson would later say that Michael Landon's death and that of his son
Rick around that time, was one of the things that made him consider retirement the next year.
    I also thought of Carson back in July when I was in Boston for the DNC. Carson once did a spoof of
the delegate roll call. He gave cards with all the states to 50 people in the audience. As he called the
states, the person with the card would stand up. When he called South Dakota, a Chinese woman stood
up, and Carson yelled out "Madam Secretary we the state of South Dakota, the state with the lousy
Chinese Restaurants..." he spent the next 10 minutes trying to compose himself. Hell, that was over 15
years ago and I still crack up.
     There won't be anyone like him again. Its impossible. You have a million channels to choose from
now, you have a choice between Leno and Letterman, and if you want cutting edge TV, you have to get
HBO or some other premium pay channel. To say that Johnny Carson was cutting edge may seem silly
now in this day and age, but when you talk about late night talk TV, it really did start with him.

The Mets not getting Carlos Delgado is addition by subtraction. He's a lousy fielder and his numbers are
starting to decline. He's also a bit of a jerk. He claimed he wanted to play for a winner, but invoked his
no trade clause last year to stay with also ran Toronto. I believe he used the Mets to drive up his price for
the Marlins.
    He also refuses to stand for God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch. The Mets should
want nothing to do with and a$$hole like that.

The Iraqi Elections were yesterday, and while there's no guarantee that they won't be rife with corruption,
it was encouraging to see that nearly 60% of the eligible Iraqi voters made it to the polls. That's more
than the turnout we usually get here. And we don't have people threatening to kill us if we vote. (Well,
most of us don't)

It was a very quiet weekend, so no good gossip to report. I'm taking a trip down South this week. More
on that next week

Have a Great Week
Wild Bill