You watch TV, you read about TV and, sometimes, you write about what you have read about TV.
Check out the announcer who leads into Channel 5’s newscasts. I noticed it yesterday while watching the local newscasts done in the half-hour during the “Today” show: “Live from dubba-ya MAQ Chicago. This is NewsChannel 5.” As opposed to “Live from double-U MAQ . . .”
I realize this country has been dumbed down, but this is low class!
–Terri, Munster, Ind.
Next thing you know, they’ll be inviting a daytime talk-show host onto the news set.
Who the hell do you think you are! You have no right to talk about Dennis (Rodman) that way. I know you wrote that a long time ago, but still, unless you know Dennis personally, you don’t do that. He’s not a bad guy at all. Personally he’s my roll model. If you ever write something bad about him again, I will personally cut off your hands and feed them to hungary wild animals. So I think it would be a good think if you didn’t write about him again.
P.S. I hope you burn in hell!!
–JoAnna, via the Internet
Everybody needs a roll model, but no one more than people who have access to feral creatures from former Soviet satellites. Isn’t it great, by the way, how the Internet has revived the lost art of letter writing?
Ken Finkleman is hilarious on “Newsroom” (10 p.m. Sundays, WTTW-Ch. 11, except during the recent pledge period). He reminds me of our President Eddie Haskell.
–Kurt, Chicago
You think you are making a political joke, Kurt, but do not forget that Gopher (“The Love Boat”) and Sonny (“The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour”) have been and are elected representatives in the U.S. Congress. While the comparison to Finkleman’s shifty news director character seems apt, the Haskell one doesn’t feel quite right. Any thoughts out there on which classic TV character Clinton most reminds you of, and why?
(I have a beef with) the “new, improved” WTTW-Ch. 11, whose self-congratulatory format and smarmily middlebrow populism confirm my admittedly offbeat preference for the disarmingly amateurish WYCC-Ch. 20, whose very best has left me open-mouthed with viewing pleasure.
–Roger, Evanston
Somebody’s tote bag must have arrived bearing the logo for “Barney” instead of “Masterpiece Theatre.” I agree that WYCC does some good things (see today’s Channel Surfing), including airing “Austin City Limits,” and that it will often surprise you in ways that WTTW almost never does.
But despite the fact that WTTW becomes virtually unwatchable during the frequent pledge periods, when the regular schedule is scrapped for the kind of smarmy, John Tesh-esque fare to which you refer, WTTW still is the home for the biggest and best of the PBS series, such as “The American Experience,” “Frontline” and the British imports. It also deserves points for its commitment to local affairs via John Callaway’s fine nightly “Chicago Tonight” program, and “Chicago Week in Review” on Saturdays. Its biggest problem in my mind is that it should be a lot more ambitious about producing national-minded programs.
An Open Letter to TV Directors and Sound Engineers:
Have you listened to television lately?
The background music and/or noise is so loud it’s almost impossible to hear the story. You seem to put in noise when the total effect would be stronger with dialogue only. In some programs you cut back the background during speech, and then increase it again with no speech. I understand that music is used to set the mood for the situation — but not to overwhelm it. The same goes for simulated street noises.
If I have to strain to know what’s going on, I think I’ll read a book.
–Bill, Bradenton, Fla.
The point is well-taken, especially with the late-night talk shows and some of what are otherwise the better dramatic series on TV. But I’m not sure a threat to take up reading is going to strike fear in the hearts of TV people.
Re: Tom Snyder. Once a British friend of mine, visiting America, phoned me and said, “I saw the most insane thing last night . . . this white-haired man, sitting alone in a studio, rambling about nothing and cackling like a madman.”
–A reader, location unknown
That’s nothing. I once visited England and saw that they serve warm beer and laugh at something called “Benny Hill.”
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Write to Steve Johnson at the Tribune, 435 N. Michigan, Chicago, 60611, or via E-mail at SteveJ999@aol.com.
