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I’ve watched The Simpsons since the very first episode, decades ago. Like many fans of the show, I would say the series reached its zenith some time around 1993-1995. I thought the program was becoming stale as early as the late 1990s, and since then I have found myself thinking it would not be too bad a thing if the series came to an end, if only to preserve its reputation.

But it never fails that at least once a season the writers of The Simpsons give us something inspired – something that lives up to the high standards the show set in its better seasons. Last night’s episode, “Replacable You”, was outstanding, and a splendid reminder of how the show used to make me laugh until my guts hurt.

Filed under: Comedy, Television on November 7th, 2011 | No Comments »

Several years ago I saw one of the big late-night talk show hosts interview a fellow who was known for catching home run balls in the bleachers at baseball games.  He had a whole video reel of him snagging balls right out of the air, or diving under seats and coming up with a souvenir.  He had even retrieved some fairly significant hits.  I was a little amazed that one guy could be in the right place at the right time so many times, but, to be completely honest, I also thought this fellow a bit obnoxious.  After all, many of the fans you see scrambling for baseballs are impolite at best, and occasionally a threat to public safety.  Remember the man who tumbled from the upper deck at a Major League game last season?

Today I was reading the UniWatch Blog, one of my favorite internet destinations (for reasons I will explain in the future), and I came upon a story that surprised me.  It was about the same fellow I saw interviewed on television years back.  At this point he’s caught thousands of balls, but, to his credit, he has parlayed his hobby into a fine charitable enterprise benefiting underprivileged youth.  He recently caught a home run ball at Citi Field that had been hit by a young Mets player.  It was that player’s first Major League home run.  On this fellow’s blog, he tells a great story of how he gave the ball to the player, who gave him an unexpected reward for the gesture.  The tale is long and somewhat boastful, but well worth reading.

Huzzah, sport!

Filed under: Sports, Television on April 28th, 2011 | No Comments »

If you’ve ever seen a crime-themed film or television show, you have no doubt heard a character–generally a detective or investigator–instruct a lowly technician to “zoom and enhance” some bit of surveillance video.  No matter how distant or grainy the footage, the technician merely turns a few knobs on a console, and, ta da!, perfect high-definition video quality.  It’s ridiculous.  Or so I thought.

Tonight the History Channel is broadcasting a special entitled Stealing Lincoln’s Body.  “Outstanding”, I thought when I saw the listing, since not only is the Rays vs. Red Sox game currently on a rain delay in the ninth inning, but I am a passionate Lincoln fan, and am presently reading David Herbert Donald’s wonderful biography of the greatest of all Americans.  History Channel productions, however, have frequently failed to impress me, commonly employing silly reenactments, and generally lacking the authoritative scholarship associated with PBS efforts.  Stealing Lincoln’s Body has some slightly silly reenactments, sure, but it is much better than average for a History Channel project.  And it has something else that struck me as revolutionary.

Describing Lincoln’s funeral procession through New York City, a famous image of a young Theodore Roosevelt observing Lincoln’s coffin passing beneath his window is shown.  But, like magic, the image appears to come to life, and from the apparent distance at which the photo was taken, the camera zooms in on the two figures in the window, and, lo, there is the boy Roosevelt.  They zoomed and enhanced!  They did it with a couple other historic photos, too, and each time the effect was startling.

I’m sorry I ever doubted you, television detectives.

Filed under: History, Technology, Television on April 16th, 2010 | No Comments »

I just finished watching the most recent Frontline episode, entitled “The Suicide Tourist”.  It was, simply put, the most powerful and affecting thing I have ever seen on television.  I write this with tears in my eyes, and an entirely new perspective on physician assisted suicide.

The program documents a man named Craig Ewert, who, five months earlier had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease.  After his diagnosis he began to rapidly lose motor function, and when the film begins, he is paralyzed from the neck down.  His wife of several decades is with him constantly.   Mr. Ewert has decided that he would prefer suicide to total paralysis followed by prolonged death, so he travels to Zurich, where assisted suicide is legal, and with the help of a group called Dignitas, ends his life, with his wife holding his hand, and Beethoven playing on the radio.

What makes this program so powerful is that one gets to know Mr. Ewert.  He is a likable, chatty person, who, until his diagnosis was living an active, interesting life, which, were it not for the disease, he would love to continue.  But he fears that if he waits too long, he will lose the ability to move a muscle, at which point assisted suicide would be impossible, leaving him in a prolonged vegetative state, causing his family years of agony.  No one watching could feel anything but profound sympathy for him and his family.  And when he finally drinks the drug that will stop his heart, which he knows will separate him from everyone and everything he has ever known and loved, the tragedy is overwhelming.

I used to think that only ghoulish doctors exploited suffering people by helping them end their lives.  But “The Suicide Tourist” depicts something else entirely.  I am a man of strong faith.  I don’t take matters of death lightly.  But as someone who feels for those who suffer, I cannot ignore that, for some, death is the more dignified, humane, and, ultimately, loving alternative.

I don’t want to take the smile away from anybody’s face, but if you want to witness the most profound portrait of human courage and dignity, watch “The Suicide Tourist”.

Filed under: Health, Television on March 4th, 2010 | No Comments »

Though my website fiasco has put me a week behind, you can rest assured that the Tonight Show debacle has me deeply depressed (as much as one can be for a television show).  As you might expect, I came out strongly for Team Coco.  As I wrote back in June, when O’Brien began what I expected to be a long career as the host of the flagship late-night talk show, I have been watching Conan since the mid-1990s, when he, Andy, and Max did the goofiest things on Late Night.  I was sad when Andy left that show to try his hand at sitcom fame.  I was sad again when one show after another was canceled after only a few months, leaving him off TV for years at a time, only to turn up in small roles on other soon-to-be-canceled shows, like Arrested Development.  So, when it was clear that Andy would be rejoining Conan for the Tonight Show, it seemed that all was right in the television world.  And, though the show got off to an awkward start, with Andy spending most of the time behind his podium off screen, by late autumn he was spending most of the show on the chair next to Conan, just like in the old days.  When Conan announced that he wouldn’t be moving the program to 12:05, my first thought was, “Poor Andy, he can’t keep a job for more than six months”.

While my heart wishes that Conan would have just taken the later time slot, I cannot blame him for standing up for his convictions.  The blame for all of this lies with the staggeringly incompetent NBC executives and Jay Leno.  I remember the Leno/Letterman feud back in the early-1990s, and while I certainly preferred Letterman to Leno even then, I felt that Leno did have a valid claim to take over for Johnny Carson.  And, while I recognize that Leno must have been bitter that NBC asked him to step aside in 2004, even as he was the top-rated late night show, that cannot excuse his conduct now.  As David Letterman explained, when the network does you wrong, walk.  If Jay resented losing the Tonight Show, he should have gone somewhere else.  And, when their ten o’clock experiment failed and NBC told him he was canceled, he should have said, “Thanks, guys, but that’s enough.  I’m out of here”.  But no.  He must really, really have been desperate to get back what he once had.  Nothing else can explain why he would have been willing to either a) force all the other late night programs back a half hour, or b) put Conan in the untenable situation of having to decide to go along with it or leave.

Once it was clear that Conan’s days were numbered, the shows became more poignant and even more hilarious.  The audiences were in a frenzy, and Conan was on fire.  It made it that much more heart-breaking when, last Friday, they played a montage of clips from the run of the show, including the fantastic bit that opened his first episode as host, when he ran from New York City to Hollywood.  It ended with the message “To Be Continued…”, but who knows what will happen.  Neil Young playing “Long May You Run”, Tom Hanks, and “Freebird” with an all-star band, ended the show on an epic high.

My greatest hope is that Conan took the forty million dollars, handed it out to his staff including Andy and Max, and told everyone, “Take this money, have an eight month vacation, and meet me in September.   We’re starting a new show”.  But, even if he gets an offer from Fox, I don’t know if Andy and Max will join him.  No matter the time slot, and no matter that Fox is the highest rated network, a new show will never be the Tonight Show.  If he doesn’t get an offer from Fox he’s sunk.  Cable would be an insult.

I was looking forward to spending the next decade watching The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.  But last Friday, that dream died.

Filed under: Current Events, Television on January 28th, 2010 | No Comments »