A huge thank you to Rob and the good folks at ETV, who have posted the special Mother’s Day episode of The Big Picture on their website. You can watch it there; they’ve got a nice link to a radio interview with Stephen (with his accent popping into evidence, y’all!) from a couple of days ago, too.
The Big Picture Mother’s Day Special. This tribute to mothers of famous South Carolinians includes Gov. Mark Sanford’s mother, Margaret Peyton; NFL player Richard Seymour’s mother, Deborah; actress Kristin Davis’ mother, Dorothy; and comedian Stephen Colbert’s mother, Lorna.
Television repeats will air Saturday, May 10 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, May 11 at 1:00 p.m.
So cute, that Lorna Colbert was “bewildered” when Stephen announced his candidacy for the office of President of the United States! That’s just adorable.
Here’s the YouTube clip of Stephen’s greeting to his mom, featured on Entertainment Tonight on Wednesday (Stephen’s full greeting was posted earlier on ETV):
Thanks so much for the great clips, Rob and ETV (and Stephen and Mrs. Lorna Colbert)!
After a year of upfront presentation silence, MTV Networks rocked the house with a celebration of its connection to its audiences and advertisers.
. . .
Colbert and Stewart riffed on the commercial partnerships, with Colbert coming out with a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and integrating it into their bit.
Stewart opened the show’s remarks, saying that he didn’t think upfront presentations like this were done anymore. “I thought that was the point of the writers strike … so we didn’t have to do this s#!t anymore,” he quipped.
Stewart and Colbert poked fun at the advertisers, thanking them for their mini-operas (30-second spots) “extolling products both needless and unwanted.” Stewart noted that their two talk shows on Comedy Central score well in adults 18-34.
“They trust us, and I think you can exploit that,” he said.
Evidently, Jon is hosting the “upfront” for MTV Networks right now. And, according to The Washington Post, he was joined onstage by Stephen (and a bag of Doritos).
[In progress] MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) is bringing out as many diverse stars as possible for what is nevertheless considered a more scaled down upfront presentation this year. Justin Timberlake, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, George Foreman and Sarah Silverman have been enlisted to help convince advertisers to part with more of the budget.
. . .
MTV is hosting its event around the corner from its offices at Times Square’s Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Theatre. The show is beginning now with a performance by hip hop dance troupe Jabbawockeez, with Jon Stewart taking the stage to host. “I thought we don’t do these anymore; that’s why we had the writers strike,” he quipped at the opening, as he was joined on stage by Stephen Colbert with his ever-present bag of Doritos.
Jon and Stephen, together again! A job in advertising hasn’t sounded this exciting since Cary Grant played an ad man in North by Northwest … and I doubt many people would have gone into the ad biz after watching that.
NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, who is currently orbiting the Earth aboad the international space station, matched wits today with Stephen Colbert, who polks fun nightly at world events from the anchor desk of The Colbert Report.
. . .
“You are an astronaut, you are a scientist. you are an engineer, but more importantly you are a member of the Colbert nation, correct?,” the mock anchor puffed.
“Actually, I would say the Colbert universe, that would be more appropriate,” said Reisman, 40, who holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
“We have gone galactic,” crowed Colbert. “I should say something really profound. Eat it, Jon Stewart! I’m talking to space.”
. . .
Reisman, who is scheduled to return to Earth in mid-June after two weeks on the space station, explained his preparations for the flight included a two-week stay in an undersea habitat off of Florida’s Atlantic Coast in 2003.
“What do you have against the rest of humanity that you have to flee from us every so often,” asked Colbert.
“I think it’s more what the rest of humanity has against me. I keep being sent off to these far places. I try not to take it personally,” Colbert’s space guest responded.
“OK, we have a great job for Reisman,” Colbert chortled in his best bureaucratic personna. “Send him to the bottom of the ocean. That’s not far enough. Launch him into space.”
Reminder: if you missed it this morning, you can watch the full interview on NASA TV; they appear to have the feed cycle back to it every hour or two from this page (go to the “Media Channel” or “Public Channel” section - thanks, LaColberta!).
Broadcasting & Cable is reporting on a new study that the Project for Excellence in Journalism conducted analyzing The Daily Show’s content. Bottom line? The Daily Show is not *news*, exactly, but it *is* something significantly more than mere comedy. In fact, the show’s percentage of “news” content isn’t far off of what can be found on many cable news shows.
From Broadcasting & Cable (internal links omitted):
PEJ: The Daily Show Borders on News Show
Project for Excellence in Journalism: Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Blurs the Line Between Comedy, News
By John Eggerton — Broadcasting & Cable, 5/8/2008 10:58:00 AM
Jon Stewart has long maintained that his Daily Show is not a news program, but the Project for Excellence in Journalism isn’t so sure.
. . .
Among the study’s findings: Washington-related pieces, foreign affairs and politics accounted for almost one-half (47%) of the show’s content. “In that regard, by the numbers, The Daily Show closely resembles in its topic agenda the news menu of many cable ‘news’ shows,” the study concluded.
It also called the show’s use of video “quite documentary … culling through archives to show official hypocrisy, abuse of language and spin.”
. . .
As for the show’s popularity, the PEJ found that when spinoff The Colbert Report was factored in, Comedy Central’s satirical political duo was regularly watched by 16% of Americans, two percentage points higher than PBS’ NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
Speaking of Jon Stewart, he’s set for another round of stand-up gigs, as we noted here earlier. He’s given a few interviews that are worth mentioning, heading into those gigs.
The other, lengthier interview is from Nashville Scene:
Daily Dose
America’s reluctant anchorman talks about Al Gore, the Jewish media conspiracy and his upcoming Ryman appearance
by Jack Silverman
. . .
Scene: So do you really hate Tucker Carlson, or just bow ties?
Stewart: Barely know him. It’s amazing—it’s been set up as the Hatfields and McCoys, as though it’s this longstanding thing. Met the guy once, didn’t have enough to eat before I went on the show, hit ’em all pretty hard and then never really saw him again. Can’t lie and say I was a fan, but it certainly wasn’t personal.
Scene: So you have nothing against bow ties.
Stewart: Look—do I like seeing them on people under, let’s say, 80? Probably not. Feels a little bit like a monocle…unless you’re Mr. Peanut.
Scene: Besides Tucker, has anyone else not really gotten that the show was a parody?
Stewart: Oh, they all do. I think they believe that because we comment on social events and political events, somehow we believe ourselves to be a part of that. And we don’t. We’re not trying to get anybody, we’re not trying to accomplish our agenda, we’re trying to do an entertaining show. If the criticism of us is, “I don’t really find your show entertaining or funny,” that’s a valid thing to feel and say, and I know a lot of people feel that way. But to suggest that somehow we have failed our responsibility to the public discourse by not exercising the same journalistic standards that we demand of CNN, then you’re a little lost up your own a$$ at that point.
Station flight engineer Garrett Reisman, a New Jersey native who threw out a ceremonial first pitch from the outpost prior to a New York Yankees game against the rival Boston Red Sox last month, will do a space-to-ground interview with Colbert at 10:50 a.m. EDT today. The interview, which will be webcast live here in The Flame Trench, will be aired on “The Colbert Report” at 11:30 p.m. EDT that night.
I’m at work and can’t watch it, so if anyone out there can catch it, please post spoilers in the comments.
And if you want to avoid spoilers, um, don’t go to the comments. :)
EDITED TO ADD: If you go here, you can watch the interview at the “Media Channel” portion of the page (thanks for the hint, LaColberta!). - Ms I
“You know what they say: when in Rome, get on a plane back to America. This is The Colbert Report!“
List and Shout: “Tonight, who is on the terrorist watch list? And why does the terrorist watch list know so many terrorists? Better put that list on the list.”
Desk Guest: Hasan Elahi, professor, artist, and self-surveiller
Primary Schooled: “And then, more analysis of the primaries. How many d*mn states do we have, anyway?”
Democralypse Now: The Delightful Dismemberment of the Democratic Hopescape
Tech Johnson: “Plus my guest George Johnson has written a book about the ten most beautiful experiments. I’ll conduct a beautiful experiment on how a guest responds to six minutes of sustained shouting.”
INTERNET COL-BOMB SITE OF THE DAY: Trackingtransience.net - Hasan Elahi’s ‘livelogging’ site In closing: That’s it for the Report, everybody. Goodnight.
Video Highlight — George Johnson: George Johnson and Stephen re-create one of the ten most beautiful experiments.
NOTABLE MOMENTS - Video links and more after the fold!
[In progress] MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) is bringing out as many diverse stars as possible for what is nevertheless considered a more scaled down upfront presentation this year. Justin Timberlake, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, George Foreman and Sarah Silverman have been enlisted to help convince advertisers to part with more of the budget.
Jon Stewart has long maintained that his Daily Show is not a news program, but the Project for Excellence in Journalism isn’t so sure.
We just got this tip in from Jennie:
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INTERNET COL-BOMB SITE OF THE DAY:
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