Jeff Simon
Jeff Simon: Unfortunately, some TV types get swept away
My vote is “no.” I don’t like any of it. What the November Sweeps have so far meant all over the tube is a lot of good-byes. In the case of the announced endings of “Dollhouse,” “Hank,” and “Eastwick,” let us sing “hallelujah” in response. (And now turn to Page 28 in your TV Guide for the Benediction.) (Updated: 11/20/09 9:09 AM )
Jeff Simon: Will Palin talk the talk?
“Should I be worried?” asked Oprah Winfrey of Sarah Palin. It was her final question. In truth, it was the only question I wanted an answer to –the only reason I watched the full hour “Oprah Winfrey Show” launch of Sarah Palin’s book tour on behalf of her memoir, “Going Rogue” (HarperCollins, 432 pages, $28.99). (Updated: 11/17/09 7:37 AM )
Jeff Simon: The way to salvation for NBC (just maybe)
A new game and anyone can play: Let’s call it Extreme Makeover, the Network Edition. (Updated: 11/13/09 8:22 AM )
The posthumous publication of Nabokov’s highly original dream
It’s the literary story of 2009. But it begins almost 60 years ago with the most famous Conflagration That Never Was in American literature. (Updated: 11/10/09 9:16 AM )
Jeff Simon: When the id goes on the Internet
I believe the expression is: “It’s a learning curve.” For me it is, to be sure. I just don’t expect viciousness, viruses and venality—the three new Internet V’s—around every corner. (Updated: 11/03/09 9:33 AM )
Jeff Simon: Snubbing Fox News is just wrong
I watch Fox News. Sometimes. No, not Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity or the dreaded Glenn Beck, but I’ve been known, every now and then, to spend 10 or so transient minutes watching Fox—even a whole half hour on occasion. (Updated: 10/27/09 8:04 AM )
Weeding through the fantasy world of reality TV
“Greed is good,” affirmed the big shot investor on prime-time TV. “We just have to figure out a way to be greedy together.” (Updated: 10/23/09 7:15 AM )
Jeff Simon: When history is soft on the details
The music, God knows, was wonderful. But everything else about the gig was as bizarre as any jazz event I have ever witnessed. (Updated: 10/20/09 8:32 AM )
Jeff Simon: Betting on the ‘break-out’ stars
Tracy Morgan had strong things to say about his old “Saturday Night Live” cast mates Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan. Very strong things. (Updated: 10/16/09 8:25 AM )
Jeff Simon: Paul Shaffer’s saga has its own uh-ohs
Page 264 brought me up short: “Donna [then] takes me to the trailer park run by her Dad, who turns out to be rock and roll royalty. He was the saxman for the Rockin’ Rebels. Suddenly we all break into a video-style romp, doing the Rebels’ 1962 smash ‘Wild Weekend’ and everyone in the trailer park is dancing up a storm.” (Updated: 10/13/09 8:40 AM )
Jeff Simon: Dave’s mess reaches past ‘Late Show’
I dearly wish it didn’t sound like such hindsight now. But, I swear, you could see on the air where an unhappy lover could make David Letterman vulnerable. (Updated: 10/06/09 9:35 AM )
Jeff Simon: Polanski's 'Chinatown' moment
Her name is Samantha Geimer. It was Samantha Gailey in 1977, when it happened to her at the age of 13. There isn't a decent news organization in the world that would have outed her as the young victim of Roman Polanski's statutory rape. Geimer has not only identified herself but, in 2003, wrote a piece doing so in the Los Angeles Times that recommended that Polanski win an Oscar for directing "The Pianist" (he did). She even went on "The View." (Updated: 09/29/09 6:23 PM )
Jeff Simon: What we need is an Alt-Emmy
It was a clean sweep, I tell you, at the Emmys on Sunday. Almost nothing I watch regularly won anything. But then I didn’t expect them to. I know better. I didn’t even root, therefore, for Kyra Sedgwick in “The Closer” or Holly Hunter in “Saving Grace” because I knew that Glenn Close had it all sewn up for “Damages.” (Updated: 09/22/09 8:04 AM )
Jeff Simon: The break-in period for new TV shows, faces
It’s a thing I learned from Nick Clooney, father of George. When Nick Clooney was, ever- so-briefly, tapped by an old Cincinnati friend to be Ch. 2’s News anchor during the station’s ownership crisis, Clooney was godawful on his opening day in the anchor chair. Because he’s a class act, he freely admitted it to me later. (Updated: 09/18/09 9:47 AM )
Buffalo is a first-rate city for veteran newscasters
What do John Beard, Kevin O’Connell and Irv Weinstein have that Jacquie Walker, Don Postles, Scott Levin and even Carol Jasen don’t? (Updated: 09/04/09 6:54 AM )