George Carlin’s Mark of Distinction
There once were seven words that you couldn’t say on TV. Luckily for George Carlin, you could say them on stage.
The 71-year-old comedian, whose half-century in stand-up has been spent pointing out the funnier foibles mankind has to offer, will receive the 2008 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
The honor will be presented to the bearded society-skewerer Nov. 10 at the JFK Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The ceremony will later be televised on PBS.
Richard Pryor was the first comic to receive the award in 1998. Past honorees include Steve Martin, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Lily Tomlin.
Sesame Street makes a deal with New Balance
Can you tell me how to get, how to get a pair of the New Balance Sesame Street sneakers?
That’s right, the long-running PBS children’s show has made a mega-deal with the shoe company to create a line of sneakers for infants and grade school kids. The infant sneakers will cost $43 (cough) and the grade school sneakers will be $65. The shoes will be available in major chain retail stores and the shoes will also be pushed during episodes of Sesame Street.
I grew up on Sesame Street, but I don’t remember ever wanting anything from the show, not even a Cookie Monster doll or Big Bird game. $43 seems like a lot of money to spend on infant shoes (even if they do have Elmo on the side), but then again I’m not a parent so I have no idea how much infant shoes are.
There aren’t any plans for adult sneakers, for obvious reasons.
Ex-CNN anchor Aaron Brown returns to television
Aaron Brown is ready to return to television. After a two-year hiatus the 59-year-old journalist and ex-CNN anchor will be joining the PBS series Wide Angle as an anchor, producer and part-time field reporter.
Brown left CNN in November of 2005 after a network shake-up that gave his coveted 10:00 PM time slot to up-and-comer Anderson Cooper. He remained off of television due to contractual regulations and instead filled his time with teaching at Arizona State University as its first Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism. According to an interview with the Associated Press, Brown said he decided to work at Wide Angle instead of another cable news channel in order to “work in an environment where people just think about making good TV and good journalism.” He added that cable news networks could be pushed into focusing on sensational, tabloid-like stories.
Wide Angle will begin its seventh season on PBS starting on July 1st. Topics that will be covered this season will be the crisis in the Sudan and the changing role of the military in Japan. Brown hopes to do some field work in Venezuela or the Middle East for future Angle stories.
Least surprising news of the day: Valerie Bertinelli gets a talk show
We seem to be in the middle of a Valerie Bertinelli renaissance.
First Bertinelli signed up with Jenny Craig and is the new spokesperson (bye-bye Kirstie Alley), then she became a correspondent for Rachael Ray, then she released a memoir, and then she made the inevitable appearance on Oprah. She was also on Larry King Live earlier this week and when he asked her if she would like to do a talk show, she didn’t say “hey, I already have one!” but that must have been the case, because she has one. Bertinelli has signed with CBS to develop a new talk show for the 2009-10 season.
I’m assuming it’s going to be a daytime talk show where she talks about women’s issues, family, fashion, and celebrities. Unless she surprises us all and joins PBS to talk about politics and world affairs.
I used to have a crush on Bertinelli, since her One Day At A Time days through the underrated sitcoms she did years ago: Cafe Americain’ and Sydney (with Matthew Perry). I’d like to see her in a scripted show again and not a talk show.