Is It The End "At 10" For Leno?

(Photo courtesy of NBC)

If I remember correctly, there was a book published back in the 70’s with the title “If You Can’t Dazzle Them With Brilliance…Baffle Them With Bullshit” and on a cold January day in 2010 the people who program NBC are bringing that title to life right before our very eyes.

Some five or so years ago, NBC decided that Conan O’ Brien would be the next host of the “Tonight Show”, but he had to wait until 2009 to get the show. When NBC signed Conan for the gig, Leno was still behind the Tonight Show desk consistently beating David Letterman on CBS – which should have been a clue right then and there that NBC programming executives didn’t know what they were doing. Call me wacky, but it’s hard to find a good reason why you would go and replace a proven commodity in the 11:30 time slot (Leno) with someone whose show features such characters as a masturbating bear and an insult spewing dog (Conan). It didn’t make much sense then and it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense now.

Leno – being the good company man that he is – went along with the move. As 2009 approached – NBC watched as Leno still got big ratings on the Tonight Show and they knew that they had to do something to keep him under the NBC umbrella after Conan took over the show or risk losing him to the competition.

What was NBC’s solution to keeping Leno? Put his show on five nights a week at 10pm. This is where the "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance baffle them with bullshit" theory really came into play: NBC admitted before Leno's first 10pm show ever aired that it didn't need to big ratings, because the show would be cheaper to produce than a filmed drama. NBC saw it as a win-win….they kept Leno and they had five nights a week of fresh programming at a fraction of the cost. What they didn’t realize was how big this little experiment was going to bomb. Not did Jay Leno's 10pm show get being beaten in the ratings by ABC, CBS and Fox – one-hour dramas on USA, TNT and FX were attracting bigger audiences than Jay. And, if you talked to an NBC programming executive about the 10pm situation – they would deny that there’s a problem.

Now, let’s fast forward to January 7, 2010. Rumors and gossip are coming out of Burbank, California about the future of Jay Leno at 10pm at lighting speed. It all begins with news that NBC has seen the errors of their way and will be canceling the show. The cable news networks and the internet are abuzz with the news – only to have NBC come out and deny that they show is being cancelled and saying, "Jay Leno is one of the most compelling entertainers in the world today.” If you call bombing at 10pm -- Leno is really compelling.

Before night falls though – a new rumor comes out of Burbank. TMZ is reporting that on February 1, Leno’s 10pm show will go on hiatus and return to the 11:30 time slot after the Olympics. (And here’s the big crunch) Supposedly, Conan’s show will follow Jay and Jimmy Fallon’s show will still follow Conan’s -- but will all of the shows still be an hour in length? Dunno. Rumor has it that Leno will be doing a half-hour show and Conan and Fallon will be doing an hour – which doesn’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense, does it? If NBC says they’re giving the Tonight Show back to Jay and they’re only giving him a half hour are they really giving it back to him? I wouldn’t think so. Plus, I think if you cut the Tonight Show down to a half-hour you’re diluting what has been one of television’s most prized institutions -- which is another indication that NBC programmers must be smoking crack somewhere in the halls of beautiful downtown Burbank..

When it comes right down to it....three little words sum up all of the craziness happening right now with Leno, Conan and NBC -- and those three words: "It's only TV".

It's Dr Drew's World -- We Only Rehab In It

Tonight (January 7th) is the night that I have been waiting for. Tonight is the reason I pay the big bucks each month to my satellite TV provider, because there’s no way in hell over-the-air commercial television is going to show this. Even during one of their “incredibly entertaining” non-stop fundraisers, public television wouldn’t take the time to air this. I’m not talking about some special pay-per-view sporting event or a concert to raise money to save starving children in some third world country from dying or to provide coloring books to blind children in Chicago. This is more important than anything that I just mentioned or even an Anderson Cooper 360 special report on Larry King’s suspenders , because tonight at 10pm, VH1 is proud to present season three of “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew”.

Only in America can we take the fucked-up lives of drug addicted celebrities going through rehab and turn it into an hour of television entertainment. I’m sure that Dr. Drew has good intentions with the show and hopes that some people watching the show might seek some help with their addictions, but when all is said and done…it’s entertainment. Yup, pop me up a bowl of popcorn and grab me a soft drink – Dr. Drew and this season’s bunch of airheads and assholes are on the air.

Dr. Drew and his crew haven’t wasted any time in loading up the rehab with some serious whackjobs:

There’s McKenzie Phillips, of “One Day At A Time” fame, who visits rehabs like some people visit 7-Elevens to buy Slurpees. It’s too bad that her visit to Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab was filmed before she popped up on Oprah to talk about her drug and incestuous relationship with her famous father, because that would have really added to entertainment value of season three.

He was “outted” as an alcoholic on last season’s “Celebrity Apprentice” – now he’s come to dry out with Dr. Drew -- he's the reason God created the reality show -- former NBA superstar Dennis Rodman.

Every Celebrity Rehab needs an addicted rock n’ roll star on it and the good doctor doesn’t disappoint – checking into rehab this season will be the former bass player for Alice in Chains, Mike Starr and country music fans Mindy McCready will give the old rehab a little bit of what its like to be a wasted in Nashville. (And you don’t want to miss the episode when McCready is flopping around the floor in a seizure – as they say in Hollywood – “it’ll have you on the edge of your seat”.

Ripped from the pages of your daily newspaper – and why doesn’t it surprise you that this person is on drugs – the Hollywood Madam herself, Heidi Fleiss takes a turn at getting herself clean on this season of Celebrity Rehab. If Doctor Drew can get her to clean up her act maybe she can hook her up with the folks at “Nip/Tuck”,

The producers had to know that they couldn’t bring Jeff Conaway, of “Grease” and “Taxi” fame, back for another season of rehab – but they needed a reoccurring celebrity in the show and he’s got one – fresh from “Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew – it’s ex-Miss United States Teen, Kari Ann Peniche. If there ever was a more unlikable and irritating human being on the planet earth – it’s Kari Ann Peniche. Kari is the reason that they make rubber bricks to throw at your television – she’s that friggin’ irritating. If she’s as much of a bitch in Celebrity Rehab that she was in Sex Rehab – people will be cheering for drugs to take this bitch out.

There are a couple of other celebrities attending this season’s rehab – but none as colorful and as attention getting as those that I have just mentioned. Who knew that going to rehab would be so fun. It’s television worth paying for -- don’t miss the show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, Thursday nights at 10 on VH-1 (and repeated numerous times throughout the week).

Who Needs A Life When You Have Facebook

It all began somewhat innocently. Someone told me about it and I thought that I would give it a quick look see and be done with it. Who knew that it would become an addiction that I would have to feed several times a day – even when I said that I’d back off from it, but never did. It’s now come down to this: Every evening around 9pm – I join a special chat room on AOL Instant Messenger – where some of us even come clean about our addiction.

I get in this special chat room and I type in the following words: “Hello, my name is Rich.”

And for about a minute or so – I see a stream of “Hello Rich” on my computer screen that people around the world have typed on their computer keyboard for me to read and feel like I was one of them..

I continue the chat by saying,“My name is Rich and I’m addicted to Facebook.”

And then the stories begin.

I never thought that I would become addicted to a social network on the web – I mean, come on, it’s an internet web site -- what can be so fucking addictive about that? That’s what you say until you join this little group where people speak in short little bursts of status updates and it takes you in and you become a part of it.

It all starts out pretty innocently when you hook up and become buddies with a couple of friends and then it grows and grows. Late in the evening – you’ll sign on Facebook and do a friend search in the hopes of expanding your Facebook friend base. That growing need to get people to become Facebook friend takes over and you can’t control it. You’ll want to be friends with people you agree with…people you don’t agree with….people you wouldn’t stand next to at a urinal in a men’s public restroom…you want Facebook friends! The more the merrier, God-Damn It!

And when you’re not searching for friends – you start joining groups or making up groups to join. There are the “groups of people who use to work somewhere groups” – I joined one of those lickety split and I still check back occasionally to see if some of the people that I worked with there even remembered me. I’m waiting to read something like, “Yeah, I remember Rich and he had to be the biggest douche ever to work in the traffic department.” (Yeah, I’m talking about you people at FOX 66 in Flint).

When you’re not searching for friends or groups to belong to – there’s always the games on Facebook. There are some people who are literally addicted to “Yo’Ville” and that mafia deal and I’ll be honest with you…..I have better things to do with my time – such as searching for words on the Pathwords app on Facebook. I have now played more games then my highest Pathwords score and for some reason I just can’t beat my own score and it frustrates the hell out of me – that’s why I’m up sometimes until 2:00 in the morning in front of this computer. (And don't get me started on how Pathwords pisses me off when they won't except to word "Zen" but accepts "Jew" -- two words that Scrabble doesn't even recognize.)

Oh, I’m addicted to Facebook and it hurts. It hurts so much that I have even had to write about it. I know that I should do something about this addiction – maybe even attend another one of those meetings that I mentioned earlier – but I’ve got to check out my Facebook page to see if someone said something. Who knows maybe I’ll hook up with a couple of new Facebook friends.

Fox Broadcasting vs Time Warner Cable: It's All About Money (ours)

There’s a battle going on as I write this entry to this blog between Fox broadcasting and Time-Warner cable. This battle really doesn’t affect me as a DirecTV subscriber and it probably doesn’t affect many of the people who are reading this – but eventually it will – and within the next couple of years.

The battle that’s going on all boils down to money and the money that these two media giants are fighting over will eventually come from you and me – the people who rely on cable companies for our television programming. What is happening in this battle is pretty simple – Fox broadcasting wants cable operators (such as Time-Warner) to pay them for the programming they get when they broadcast a Fox broadcasting owned and operated station (which the cable company is pretty much forced into carrying on their system due to FCC must-carry rules). Here’s the big rub in the battle that’s going on -- Fox Broadcasting is asking the cable companies to pay them around a dollar per subscriber – which is more than the amount of money that cable systems have to pay each month for such cable channels as USA, TNT, TBS, Lifetime, CNN, Fox News, etc.

What’s going to happen in this little battle between these two media giants is simple – they’ll reach an agreement and Fox is going to get their financial coffers filled with a nice sum of change by the cable-satellite companies. The people who own ABC, CBS, the CW, Univision, and NBC are going to see all the money that Fox is reaping from this agreement and they’re going to go to the cable-satellite companies and ask for their piece of the pie. The cable-satellite companies will pay, but they still want to make the big bucks – so – they’ll hike up the rates that they charge us for the programming we receive – and that’s where this whole deal sucks.

Many of our favorite cable channels are owned by the big networks:

NBC owns the Weather Channel, USA Network, Bravo, MSNBC, SciFi, Oxygen

CBS owns: MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TVLand, and BET

ABC owns: ABC Family, Disney Channel, Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network, ABC Soap Net and ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic

Fox owns: Fox News, Fox Business, FX, Fox Reality, Fox Movie Channel, Fox Sports Channels around the country and they have an interest in other cable channels such as The Big 10 Network and National Geographic.

ABC and NBC jointly own A&E (and if I’m not mistaken – the Biography Channel)

Looking at all of these cable channels – these four companies alone get a good hunk of money from each and every one of us each month and now they want their broadcast signals to get paid the same at their cable counterparts. Well, it’s time that we said, ‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!’

It is a fact that of all of the monthly programming fees that cable and satellite companies pay – ESPN leads the pack in what they charge per subscriber. ESPN will justify their huge fees by saying that the major league sports packages that they carry cost a lot of money and somebody has to pay for it…so because ESPN is a basic cable channel (and they make sure they’re a basic cable channel) everyone who subscribes to basic cable pays for ESPN whether they watch it or not. It doesn’t sound fair to me -- but who are we – we’re just the consumer, right?

It wasn’t that long ago that a typical cable bill was somewhere around forty dollars a month and that amount included a pay cable channel such as HBO or Showtime. America’s cable-satellite companies knew that forty dollars a month was a breaking point for the customers and they did their best to stay as close to forty dollars as possible…but not anymore. I can’t tell you what the average cable rate is these days – but I know that each month I’m paying nearly seventy-three dollars – and most of the time all that I get are half-hour infomercials airing on one of the basic channels that I’m supposedly paying big bucks to be entertained by and then there are the round the clock shopping channels. It’s like the Bruce Springsteen song – “fifty-seven channels and nothing on.”

But, let me get back to this battle between Fox and Time-Warner cable and address the both of them. To Fox – if you want to get paid the same as your cable counterparts – allow the cable companies to 1) insert their own commercials in your over-the-air programming like they do on the basic cable channels that they pay for (and you own) that might prevent the cable-satellite program provider from hiking their rates , and 2) allow cable and satellite companies the right to sell your programming ala carte to their customers I can understand that everyone wants to make a buck – but why should I have to pay for something I never watch and could care less about. Hey, I don’t mind paying for your Fox broadcast signal – but why should I have to pay for Fox News when I don’t watch it? It makes sense to me, but I’m sure that Fox doesn’t see it that way.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Look for your monthly cable and/satellite bill to go up because Fox wants to charge you for NFL football, NASCAR, House and American Idol whether you watch them or not. And the bad thing is – it’s only going to get worse. Looking to be entertained? Buy a book – it’s a lot cheaper.

Health Care Reform: It's The Same Old Song -- Different Singers

The health care debate is slowly coming to an end and what do we really have to show for it? The way that I see it – not a whole lot. What could have been a shining moment for our country only produced a lot of heated noise and rhetoric; and the end result is a reinforced feeling of powerlessness mixed and the knowledge that the “change we could believe in” promise is never going to come true.

I have to admit that on the night that Barack Obama was elected President of the United States – I got sucked into that whirlwind of belief that we were finally going to see some change in this country. I jumped onboard the Obama Change Train and was beginning to feel positive about this country after eight years of the politics of George W. Bush. I was looking forward to seeing policies made in Washington that would benefit the working class man and woman and not just the corporate fat cats and Wall Street manipulators. With Obama in our corner and a Democratic majority in both the house and the senate – there should not have been anything to stop our elected representatives from turning this country around and changing things for the better. Or so we thought.

Looking back at the past twelve months – Who won this health care battle? It wasn’t the “gang that couldn’t shoot straight” bunch from the Republican Party. The Republicans idea of leadership was to make up things like “death panels” or to try and convince people that there was nothing wrong with the health care system as our nation’s health care costs continued to rise and the people’s ability to pay for it increased.

The health care debate felt like a replay of the McCain presidential campaign – full of lies and fear mongering. People who wanted change to our health care system were branded as socialists. The opposition to health care reform could only equate change with big government, which in turn gave birth to the tea bag protest movement that fueled the health care debate with images of Obama as Hitler and comparisons of “Obama Care” to Nazi death camps.

The Democrats are not walking away from the health care debate looking much better than their Republican counterparts. In January – we were to believe that with the Obama’s change team in office things were finally going to be different only to find out in December that it’s politics as usual in Washington. It’s hard for me to look at the Democrats passing the health care bill in the Senate as a victory when two Democratic Senators were given a sweetheart deal for their states that has the other 48 states shouldering the cost of health care reform. That’s not a victory – it’s the same kind of old backroom politics that got us into this health care miss to begin with.

Now that we have seen how the Obama team has handled health care reform – what do you think the odds are for them to reform the banking system that will prevent another economic meltdown from happening again? I’ll be honest with you – it doesn’t look good – but he wanted to job – but don’t try to sell us on “Change we can believe in”, Mr. President – because we know that that’s one promise you can't deliver on.

I Wish I Knew What I Know Now...When I Was Younger

There’s a new television drama/comedy on TNT called “Men of A Certain Age” that looks at three men who are going through a mid-life crisis. The music that they are using to promote the premiere of the show is an old Rod Stewart song called “Oooh La La” that has a refrain in it that says: “I wish I knew what I know now (when I was younger)”…which brings me to this:

Some Things I Wished I Knew What I Know Now (When I Was Younger)

#1) Girls don’t have cooties. There are a lot of thing that girls do have, but I have come to the conclusion that cooties isn’t one of them. I wouldn’t doubt that somewhere on this vast planet that there are scientists in a lab trying to document the “girls have cooties controversy”, but they’re just wasting their time and money in doing so – because once you get to know girls you discover that you let the fear of cooties get in your way of getting to know them. Trust me -- girls are ok.

2) Sooner or late – we all become our parents. While attending Northern High School in Flint, Michigan some forty-one years ago, I was a walking “Hey Look At Me” billboard. If weighing in at some three hundred or so pounds with hair that went down to the middle of my back wasn’t enough to get your attention then maybe the white bib overalls that I tie-dyed four different colors could get you to turn your head. My divorced parents were basically split on “the look” I had in high school….Mom basically accepted me for who I was and didn’t make a big deal out of it – but my Dad with his flat top haircut hated “my hippie looking ways”.

As I have gotten older a lot of things have changed – especially when it comes to my hair. What once flowed down to the middle of my back has now turned gray and is now even shorter in length than what my Dad’s hair was when he died. How in the hell did that happen? Who knows? As I have gotten older, I have found myself saying things out loud that our parents use to tell us. I’m usually taken back by what I have said , because even though it was my voice that spoke the words there was a voice of one of my parents in my head that shoved the words out of my mouth. Most of the time that voice was my Dad and every time “his voice” enters my head it scares the shit out of me. It scares the shit out of me only because it reaffirms that no matter how hard we fight it -- we eventually become our parents.

#3)In looking back…I know that I made a memorable impression on people when I was young and back then I enjoyed making that kind of flamboyant statement – but when I see kids today – Oy Vey! Kid’s hair today is pretty short – compared to when I was a kid – but when they dye it purple, green or some day-glo pink color you have to say….(reverting back to “the we have become our parents” theme)….what the hell! Now add the piercings and the tattoos – the sometime Goth look – and I find myself asking why do they have to look this way….but then I remember the bib overalls and long hair that I wore and I really don’t have a right to judge them. In the not too distant future, the kids of today will have their “ah ha” moment and when they come to that intersection where youthful expression takes a backseat to the realization that you’re an adult and you have to act like one. (I just wonder how they’re going to hide the tattoos and piercings.)

#4) When you’re young…If you read the newspaper – it was to find out what time “Star Wars” was playing at the local movie theater or to check out the box score of your favorite baseball team – you never read the newspaper for the news. Duh! Then slowly but surely, you're not checking the times at the movie theaters anymore and you start to become interested in some of the news stories and articles in the paper; and then before you know it the first thing that you go to when you grab the daily newspaper are the obits. If we just went to the obits and read them that would be find, but then we take it another step further by reading them aloud and then asking our friends or significant others, “Did you see who died today?”. Then you have long discussions about the deceased person. Then you attend the person’s funeral, because believe it or not, funerals have become a social event. You check out all of the people and wonder aloud why this person or that person didn’t attend the funeral. All I got to say is if I would had known when I was younger that death plays a big part in your life when you get older, I would have invested a little money in a better suit.

5) Enjoy it while you can. When you’re young, you can do anything. You’re indestructible and nothing’s going to harm you. When you’re young, you can get shit-faced drunk and laugh off the hangover the next day. When you’re young – you don’t think twice about eating this or doing that – you just did it. It’s only when you get older that you have to deal with some medical professional in a white coat telling you, “You can have pizza, but only in moderation – have a piece, not the whole pie.” Or be asked" “Is there diabetes in your family?” Or be told: “I think that it’s could be tumor – I’ll set up some tests.” Or you have to deal with the ball buster of ball busters: “I got the results back from the lab and I’m going to set up an appointment for you with Dr. So and So because I think you might have.....”

It's like the song says...I wish that I knew what I know now…when I was younger. Ooooh La La!

2009 -- Who Cares -- A Year In Review

We’re approaching the end of another year and you know what that means – a lot of people and their lists of what they thought was the best and what was the worst (fill in the blank) of the year. I’m not going to some best or worst list – mine is going to be a little different – so allow me to present to you:

Rich Frost’s Who Really Cares List for 2009

News bulletin -- Michael Jackson is dead. Who cares! I have no desire whatsoever to rush out to my local movie theatre to see “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” or even rent a DVD of the movie when it’s released; and I could care less about seeing with any member of the Jackson family talk about their brother Michael in exclusive interviews with Larry King, Barbara Walters or Anderson Cooper.

A lot of people are wondering if I am I going to read Sarah Palin’s book? Here’s a quick answer -- Hell no! Sarah Palin wrote a book -- Who fucking cares! It’s incredible how someone as stupid has gone so far doing so little in such a short amount of time and in the process has managed to attract people who not only support her, but will seriously defend her to the end of the earth. Has the pool of legitimate political candidates hit rock bottom or what? How can one take Palin seriously when she actually says that CBS’s news anchor Katie Couric does “gotcha interviews”? Having watched Palin on the talk shows during her recent book tour has only reinforced my opinion that one day historians will proclaim the Sarah Palin era of American politics as “the ultimate dumbing down of America”. Whether we're talking about the book or the politician -- when it comes to Sarah Palin -- all I have to say is "Who cares!!!!"

The movie “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” has taken in some $230 million in at the box office in its first ten days. Who cares? The phenomenon surrounding the “Twilight” movies and the books is crazy. ‘Twilight Fever’ has even affected people who I never would have expected to get hooked by a hokey vampire/love story series, and what’s even more amazing, these people aren't afraid to make public their love for the Twilight series. Me? I could care less.

It was announced five years ago that Conan O’Brien would become the host of the “Tonight Show” on NBC in 2009 and it took the brain trust at NBC a few months in 2008 to finally figure out what to do with Jay Leno to keep him in the fold. What was their solution? Get rid of scripted dramas and move Jay Leno to 10 o’clock. NBC network brass will be the first to admit that Leno at 10 saves them lots of money not having to produce those expensive dramas – but you’d be hard pressed find anyone at NBC that will admit to the show being a colossal failure for the network and the affiliates who carry it. Jay Leno has always been a lousy interviewer – now combine those lousy interview skills with such audience attention grabbers such as “Earn Your Plug” (where celebrities have to do something to earn the right to plug their new movie); or where celebrity guests are timed doing two laps around a race track in an electric car and you can easily see why people are tuning out Jay Leno at 10 in droves….Who cares!!!

Remember when there were just a couple of reality shows on television and we either watched them or didn't? Those were the days – now we can’t get away from these damn reality shows. We have literally have people bumping into other people for their fifteen minutes of fame. We have housewives and chefs, drug addicts, sex addicts and people wanting to be the next superstar model or top forty idol. It has gotten to the point that in 2009 reality TV stars are bumping into one another just so they can get a taste of that elusive fifteen minutes of fame that Andy Warhol warned us about. I say, “WHO CARES!!!!!”

This last past year – we have had to deal with Kate and Jon and all of their kids and the freak show known as “the Octomom”. Then there’s the parents of the ‘balloon boy’ who were so desperate to become reality TV stars that they perpetrated a hoax that captured the attention of the cable news networks eager to fill up air time and had the nation worrying about whether or not a little boy was floating in the air aimlessly in what looked like a Jiffy Pop popcorn like flying saucer.

We can't forget about the tiff that went on between Miss California and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton about gay marriage and now we have a reality TV star wannabe couple crashing a White House state dinner that raises the bar on what people will do to become famous. I would like to say “Who cares” about this incident – but it would only challenge the dumb to do even dumber things for us to write about in 2010.

East Side Memories

What has become of one of those “showplace homes” on the east side during the 60s-80s. (Photo courtesy Google Earth)

I lived a good half of my life on the east side of Flint, Michigan – residing mostly in the working class Franklin/Dort Hwy/Leith Street area and not the more affluent East Village part of the east side.

The neighborhood that I lived in was definitely what you would call “working class” – where people had dreams about buying that cottage up north with all of the overtime money they were making at one of the General Motors plants in town. My neighborhood was a good neighborhood – where neighbors talked to one another and wouldn't think twice of coming to your aid in time of need. I can’t tell you how many times one of our neighbors mowed our lawn and never charged us – but it was many. And my Mom wouldn’t think twice about making an extra pumpkin or cherry pie for one of our neighbor’s Thanksgiving table.

Like any good neighborhood – there were characters like Mr. Marcel (not his real name) – an old man of Indian heritage who would come home at night and sit on the front porch in his boxer shorts. If was a hot enough summer night – Mr. Marcel would end up sleeping on the front porch. If Mr. Marcel was late coming home – the odds were pretty good that he was sampling the beverages on tap at the old Cozy Corner bar.

Then there was the German woman with two children that was getting a divorce from her husband who people loved to tease because of her thick German accent.

And when it comes to characters – you can’t forget about me – the first hippie in the neighborhood. Yup, I was the kid with hair that went down to the middle of my back who wore white bib overalls (that I tie-dyed with three different colors) and played Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” on his record player loud enough for the entire block to hear it. Needless to say – my hair, clothes and the music that came blaring out of my record player speakers made a statement and it’s a pretty safe bet that I was the talk of a few dinner conversations in that east side neighborhood in the 60s through the 80s.

The east side of Flint – there was no place like it. You could sleep at night with your doors wide open and actually feel safe. Neighbors would not only lend a helping hand – they would watch out for you and keep you informed of anybody who stopped by your house or even asked about you. It’s not like that any more and probably never will be again.

I feel sad when I drive though the east side of Flint today – homes that people once took pride in and were the showplaces of the neighborhoods are now either boarded up or are over run by weeds and garbage. People that lived in my old neighborhood felt safe – now they live in constant fear that their house might be burglarized or that a drive-by shooting could happen at any time.

If there’s one thing that I can point to that illustrates just how much things have changed on Flint’s east side – it was when I was driving by St. Mary’s Church on a Saturday about a year ago or so. I don’t know if there was a wedding going on at the church or if they were holding Saturday services – it’s what I saw happening in the parking lot at the church that surprised me. While people were inside the church worshipping – hired rent-a-cops were in the parking lot of the church watching over the cars. I couldn’t help but mumble to myself, “That’s just not right…that’s just not right.” Has it come down to the church having to hire people to protect the parishioner’s vehicles while they’re receiving the Lord’s word? It looks that way at St. Mary’s and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other churches in the Flint area that have to do the same thing.

Things will never be the same on Flint's east side -- but at least we have the memories.

Sesame Street Remembered

Forty years ago – if someone would have told you that a television show featuring a big yellow bird, a Cookie Monster, a couple of guys named Bert and Ernie and a vampire that would teach kids to count would revolutionize children’s television – you’d probably think they were nuts. Well, kids – it was forty years ago that a little show from the Children’s Television Workshop called “Sesame Street” premiered on public television stations across America and it turned kids TV on its head and changed children’s television forever.

Forty years ago – most television stations popped on “Popeye”, “Bugs Bunny” and “Beany And Cecil” cartoons or dusted off the “Our Gang” or “Three Stooges” film shorts from the 30s and 40s and they called that “children’s television. The cartoons and films shorts were money makers for the TV stations and there was really no thought behind the programming that they were airing for children. TV stations figured that they were entertaining kids and the shows were attractive to the advertisers that wanted to sell them sugared cereals, candy bars and soda pop and that’s all that mattered to them.

Then there was “Sesame Street” – a children’s program that was unlike any other at the time. The people at the Children’s Television Workshop figured out a way to do a television program that not only entertained young minds – but educated them as well. While the commercial television stations aired old cartoons sponsored by toy companies tied to the programming that they were airing – “Sesame Street” was sponsored by the letters A, G, and P and the number 3. A children’s television show sponsored by letters of the alphabet and numbers – now that’s crazy – crazy like a fox.

By combining the talent of Jim Henson’s Muppets and children educators from around the country – the Children’s Television Workshop created a program that not only entertained children – adults like it as well and parents discovered that TV could be more than a babysitter -- it could be a tool in the education of their children.

When “Sesame Street” premiered forty years ago – my hometown of Flint, Michigan didn’t have a public television station at the time. There were public TV stations in Lansing, Detroit and at Delta College – but they were on the UHF band which wasn’t that easy to tune it and cable television had yet to really make any inroads – so, the only thing that we knew about “Sesame Street” was what we were reading about the show in the newspapers or weekly newsmagazines.

I was in 10^th grade at the time when “Sesame Street” debuted on public television and I can remember stopping in to a friend’s house after school one day to watch “Sesame Street” for the first time. My friend had a antenna on his house with a rotor and he could pick up the signal of the Detroit public television station that was airing the show. Here I was a 10^th grader in front of a television set watching show where a puppet monster ate cookies, another puppet lived in a garbage can, and another puppet sang a song about his “rubber ducky” and I’ll be damn if I wasn’t entertained by it all – but when will the rest of my hometown be able to see this show.

Because of the popularity of “Sesame Street” – a commercial television station (WJRT TV 12) did something unusual for a commercial television station at the time – they worked out an agreement with public television and the Children’s Television Workshop to air “Sesame Street” on a commercial broadcast station with no commercial interruption. “Sesame Street” continued to be sponsored by the letters of the alphabet and numbers – but TV 12 wasn’t allowed to sneak in any commercials for any hamburger chains or even promote their own “Bozo” show that aired later in the day. Imagine a commercial television today giving up five hours a week of air time to air a children’s television show from public television – it ain’t gonna happen – but things were a lot different forty years ago.

Byte Me -- You Gotta Love Them Computers

Can we talk? The odds are pretty good that if you’re reading this entry in my blog that you own a computer. It might be a top-of-the-line computers or one of the lower priced E models that you can get at Wal-Mart – but it’s a computer. The odds are also pretty good that no matter how much you paid for your computer – it has done something to piss you off. Whether its froze up on you and you had to reboot the damn thing to get it to work again or you hit the wrong button and you lost whatever you were working on in the ether of your computer or somewhere in the vastness of the world-wide web – your computer at one time or another has pissed you off.

I was literally tied to a computer when I wrote commercials and handled the production department for a group of five stations in Michigan. The computer made my job a little easier – instead of having to get my fat ass up and in the production room to get commercials recorded and in the studios – I could pretty much do everything from my office desk with a fresh cup of coffee by my side. It was nice – but there were those times when you wished that these damn computers never existed – like when your system crashes and you have to retrace your steps because everything that you had done that day is lost.

Computers – they’re not the most reliable invention ever made – yet we have accepted and embraced them and have made them a vital part of our life.

Now, imagine paying top dollar for an automobile that decides that it is only going to let you drive no faster than 30 mph on that day that you have to get that throbbing tooth yanked out of your mouth at the dentist office. On other days this car could run fast enough to qualify for the Indy 500 -- but on this day it's 30 mph and no fast – I’m sure you would get a little pissed. You want that tooth out now and this expensive car is making you wait a little longer.

At that point, you would probably take this car back to the dealership and say, “What gives?”

But what if he said to you, “Hey, they do that sometimes. All you have to do is turn off the car and restart it again – you know – reboot your car – and the car will work the way you want it to.” You would be so angry they would probably have to put you in restraints to prevent you from driving that car though the display room windows.

Why is it that we can accept a computer that occasionally freezes up or a computer that runs slow – even though you have a decent internet provider? We wouldn't accept a car (or any other product) that we had to reboot to get it to run the way it should – but with a computer – we embrace (and tolerate) all of their imperfections and we cherish those days when our computers run the way that they’re suppose to, because we know that tomorrow our computer can make our life a living hell.

Why am I writing all of this now? The answer is pretty simple. My computer is taking a break today from running slow, freezing up and popping up with messages about my installation and allowing me to share this with you – and tomorrow might be another story.