Hey, Zoners, happy Sunday! It’s great to get back into a normal schedule after the holidays, and I’ve been enjoying the new shows with their new look while getting excited about the upcoming Olympics. We’re still waiting to see the results of Stephen’s visit with the US Speedskating team out in Salt Lake City, but to tide us over, we had the Olympic curling segment this week. How great was that? Not only was it hilarious, but Stephen really seemed to be enjoying himself, and that was half the fun of watching. Now to catch up on other news, we’ve got articles about the new show open, some commentary on the continuing epic fail saga of NBC’s late night programming, general Colbert news, and Bigfoot. (What?)
TCR’s shiny new look
- ‘Mr. Wonderful Has Created the Avatar of Show Opens’ – Stephen Colbert – PR Newswire: “‘The show open is a result of weeks of hilariously entertaining collaborative brainstorming sessions between Stephen Colbert, his writing team, and our talented creative staff,’ notes [creative director Beirne] Lowry… In addition to the concept, shoot, animation, and effects for the open, the team at Mr. Wonderful refreshed the show’s on-air packaging and several set-based elements to reflect the sensationalized patriotic tone of the show, including billowing flags, stars, abstract stripes, and of course, an All-American color palette.”
Vancouver ’010
- Ludus Tours Signs Agreement with “The Colbert Report” – PR Web: “Vancouver, BC, January 8, 2010 — Not all Canucks are prepared to lock out their friendly American neighbors. In the land of igloos and anti-freeze, Ludus Tours has secured a safe haven for host Stephen Colbert and the rest of “The Colbert Report” team during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. As part of an agreement signed recently, Ludus will execute the on-site hospitality needs of the popular show.”
No pun intended
- Weeks Added to NYC’s Circumcise Me, Now to Feb. 28, 2010 – Playbill.com: “The life of some shows are cut short, but the producers of Circumcise Me, a new comedy written by and starring comedian Yisrael Campbell, announced an extention to Feb. 28, 2010.” (Of course, one of those aforementioned producers is Evelyn McGee Colbert. And this is good news for me, since I want to see this show but haven’t been able to get into the city for it yet.)
Erick Erickson
- Erickson offered an apology of sorts for saying that Linda Douglass had called anti-health care reform activists “brown shirts,” when in fact she hadn’t done so. Apparently he confused her with Congressman Brian Baird, who accused the GOP of “Brown Shirt tactics” in opposing health care reform. The entire story is over at Redstate.com, if you care to read the whole thing.
- Erickson makes appearance on Colbert Report – Macon.com: A brief article with Erickson’s own reaction to his appearance on the show. He was told by one of the producers that they’d like him to come back in the future.
Late night soap opera
- To Conan: Break up with network TV – Boston Globe: “…I’d rather see Conan leave NBC, and leave network TV entirely. Network TV is no longer the only game in town. I’d love to see what he’d do on Comedy Central, in the company of talents like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and the ‘South Park’ guys. Of course he wouldn’t draw network-sized numbers, but he’d have the chance to let his humor go to those un-mainstream places we know he enjoys.”
Gratuitous name dropping
- Welcome back, Mr. Manners – ESPN’s Mr. Manners (aka DJ Gallo): The second letter is from “Shani D.” of Chicago, and asks “Is it poor manners to speak ill of someone who is paying all your bills?” Check out the full post to see the letter in its entirety and Mr. Manners’ amusing answer.
- Stop Trading Good Sleep for Great TV: DVR Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report – Huffington Post: “Especially when it’s time for Mr. Jon Stewart who is so funny he could almost be British (I’m sorry, what?) and his erstwhile colleague, the inimitable Mr. Stephen Colbert. Both are (in my opinion) potent non-pharmacologic mood boosters…”
I’m sorry, what’s happening?
- Some WTF postings just have to be shared, if for no other reason than so you can all join me in asking What are they smoking?: Stephen Colbert Asked to Join Search for Bigfoot. (At least it includes a pretty picture.)
(h/t DB, Ms I, and Katt)
Wow! What a diverse post- so much going on…I love it!
Poor Conan…I would love to see him with Jon and Stephen but what I would love more is for NBC to live up to and support its commitment!
Yay! We’re going to the Olympics! I knew the show was, but this makes it seem more real and I can’t wait to see what the show does while there!
When was the last time Stephen reported on Bigfoot? Was it while working on The Daily Show? Could be interesting…
Here is a link to some behind the scenes from the Mr. Wonderful shoot:
http://www.sneakpeek.ca/2010/01/stephen-colbert-american-superhero.html
Enjoy the rest of the weekend everybody!
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Interesting article about Conan you found there. I happen to kind of agree with it. The odd thing about Conan is that he has proven time and again that he really does have a brilliant comedic mind (e.g. Simpsons), but it seems like the late night talk show format is not necessarily the best way to bring it out. He’s terrible at the monologue, IMO, but in field segments, he’s on par w/ Stephen and the best of TDS’ correspondents (e.g. old-style baseball, Intel Rockstars). If he had the freedom to go to Comedy Central and do something a little different from what he’s doing on the Tonight Show right now, he has the potential to do some golden stuff.
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I hope hope hope Conan will be a guest in Vancouver. It would be epic especially if they had a musical fight.
“Buck up Irish, a lot of people still love you.”
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Wow…that search for bigfoot news piece is, undoubtedly, the strangest one to be connected with Stephen that I’ve seen! :P
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Didn’t Stephen do a long ago segment on the Daily Show interviewing people who claimed to have seen Bigfoot?
As for poor Conan – The idea of him going to Comedy Central is interesting, but what happens to his staff? At least half of them would end up unemployed because the cost would be too high for CC I have to think – Stephen and Jon don’t have a band like Max and his 7 for instance. I think Conan would be putting a lot of people out of work if he went to Comedy Central unfortunately. He might stay at NBC at 12 (in which case he’s not on against Stephen anymore at least) and wait for Jay to really retire or he might take some other offer and at least move everyone back to New York. It has been cute when Stephen made a couple of shout-outs to Conan this year; maybe if Conan moved back to NY they could “feud” again.
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I love that it took Stephen calling out Erickson’s tweet for Erickson to apologize. But I just read the actual post, and it wasn’t really an apology – it was more of an excuse, and he still stands by his comparison of Douglass to Joseph Goebbels. Anyway.
I honestly would not mind if Conan moved to Comedy Central – his comedic style would be absolutely perfect lined up with TDS and TCR.
Love the Jellineck quote above the Bigfoot story! The fact that they are asking Stephen to join in the search when he’s up in Vancouver for the Olympics is wonderfully odd. That would definitely make for a hilarious TCR segment!
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Mr. Manners’ response to Shani D. was priceless! Ouch!
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Ann, you should not be so surprised about Colbert and Bigfoot in the same sentence. In fact, Colbert and Conan O’Brien chatted about Colbert’s multiple Bigfoot pieces for The Daily Show back 2003. http://www.bigfootlunchclub.com/2010/01/stephen-colbert-and-conan-obrian-talk.html
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Hey Ann, thanks for the comment on Facebook the other day! Btw I completely agree that the curling segment was a blast to watch. I definitely expected to see some speedskating last week but I guess we’ll have to keep waiting…
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You’re welcome! I’m really enjoying the speedskating coverage on FB and Twitter, and it’s been helpful, too. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we see the speedskating segment on TCR this week.
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Soon we will have some great behind-the-scenes footage of the Colbert Nation’s speedskating team…so stay tuned…and I’m hoping that even if we don’t have speedskating on TCR this week, there will be some sort of Olympic coverage. Can’t wait for the games to start!
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