One thing that makes Freddy’s the perfect spot for a comedy show is the patrons. Freddy’s, being a drinker’s dream local bar, gets some fun characters that are always looking for a big laugh. Guys come to Freddy’s for a drink, stay for Ed Sullvian on Acid and then spend the night drinking with the comedian’s on the show. After two cans of PBR the regulars often prove to be just as funny as many comic’s they see and are told to get on stage sometime. But they’re just there for a good laugh.

Every other Monday night Bostonian comedian Pat O’Shea hosts a series of local New York comedians in the bar’s back space since 2004. Even then they expected the bar to be closed by the city within the year. There have been articles about the bar in the New York Times, NY Post and New Yorker magazine. They hang on the wall in the back room like a patriotic flag. There have been protests in and outside a bar; protests where protests should be, the bar.

Pat himself is a comedy foot soldier. He began performing stand-up in Boston where he was quickly welcomed with open arms. In 2009 Pat released his first comedy album Not Friendly. During the day Pat writes jokes for iPhone application iLarious.

On Thursday, January 21, The Office aired its worst episode ever. The “all new episode” was a clip show.

I had thought of about twenty different ways to start this post, but whatever. It doesn’t matter. Here’s the truth – Thursday’s The Office was terrible. And I think it’s a tell-tale sign of the decline of a great TV show.

The episode, structured around the thin plot of a consultant (well played by Flight of the Conchords’ David Cosgtabile) interviewing Toby about the company, was totally unnecessary and actually angering. TV needs to, and should have already, figure out that Clip Shows are irrelevant in the internet age. But more on that later.

Six seasons may just be too much for this (once?) great show. Feel free to compare the runs of the American Office to the British original, which purposefully limited itself to just two season. But I don’t know if it’s appropriate. The Office was a success in the United States, and kept getting better as we got more invested in Jim and Pam’s relationship. But in a few years, when we can buy the completed series on DVD, it might become apparent that the show peaked around season 4.

Clip shows are the mark of a dying series. It takes just about no writing, costs nothing and are usually sappy and lame (side note: Saved by the Bell had a least four different clip shows). But The Office on Thursday seemed particularly bad. Here’s why:

Clip shows are exceedingly pointless in a world with perpetually available internet, On Demand television and cable syndication. Clip shows just don’t make sense anymore. With the internet, I can watch The Office, or really any show past or present, whenever I want. I can watch whole episodes and then find clips I like and then clips related to those first clips. There are dozens of free site I can watch The Office, including NBC.com,  Hulu and iTunes, and I can watch clips on Youtube. Imdb has 247 The Office videos available. All these sites even have clips you can see only on the internet. If I wanted to watch a clip show of the The Office, I’d just make my own.

And if I don’t feel like watch a show on my computer, not a problem. My TV automatically records every new episode of The Office and used to record the show even when reruns aired. Again, I can watch anytime I want to. But even in a time when TV shows are literally at my finger tips, a clip show is extra annoying for a show like The Office.  The series is only half way through it’s sixth season, but already I’ve seen each episode probably an average of three times, certain episodes maybe even a dozen. There are Office reruns on every day. It plays on three different channels – NBC, TBS and FOX. It’s on hours a day. Once I looked at my guide and saw it was on for eight hours one Tuesday. Check out this week’s air schedule. That’s a lot of episodes. Sometimes, the exact same episode is on two different channels at once.

I’m honestly sick of rewatching old clips of The Office. It’s a truly great show, I just see it too often.   So every Thursday (actually usually Friday after work, when I watch my DVR recording) I get really excited to see a new episode. So if you’re going to show a clip show, I better have some warning. And I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.

“I felt insulted,” said Ryan Morris, The Office expert and devotee. “If I wanted to see clips from the ‘A Benihana Christmas’ episode again I would just turn on TBS or one of the other 3 networks that airs reruns 24 hours a day.”

Maybe the real problem is that The Office is winding down; and that’s hard to take. The shows isn’t as good as it used to be. A big reason for that, I think, is that the tension, the dramtics, surrounding Jim and Pam is over. It was great watching Jim’s painful love of Pam and their hilarious flirting. But now things are fine between them. They’re married and happy. The show’s root has been, well, uprooted. Carell is still funny, but the show has eliminated a lot of the really awkward jokes and caustic edge it used to have. Michael is still funny, but he rarely makes you cringe like he used to. Also, Jim’s a boss. I don’t know about anyone else, but I liked Jim a lot more when he was a prank playing slacker.

The Office had a great run. I’ll still turn it on a rerun while I make dinner, letting Dwight lecture over the sound of banging pots. But last Thursday’s episode was a loud signal that the show is coming down from its peak. Maybe the US version should take a cue from its English parent.

Nice of Trex to include their email address (and fingerprints).  According to Zeke, the hackers didn’t actually do anything, aside from taking over the page.  Still not cool, Turks.

The problem is with NBC executives of course, but the one guy you’ve got to root for is Conan O’Brien. He is the best host NBC has right now, being the second best late night host currently on television. Of course the king right now is David Letterman. I’d root for Conan in a war with him and Letterman. Not against Jon Stewart though if he ever gets a late night talk show. Always root Conan over bear though; always!

But then there’s Jay Leno. Yo, fuck that guy. Jay Leno is beyond redemption. I’ve always heard Jay Leno was funny, but fuck all if I’ve ever seen it on either of his TV shows. His version of Tonight was always too lame to be considered great and his new TV show is boring and long. I guess in the 1980s when he was on the Tonight Show performing and guest hosting he was brilliant, but good luck finding anything documented. Jay Leno never had an hour television special, a CD or a anything.

Jay should’ve recorded a CD a long time ago. J used to be funny, reportedly. Bill Hicks (whose lost Letterman set was aired by the King earlier this year) has a bit dedicated on how Jay Leno has sold out recorded in 1994 off of Rant In E Minor. The bit is called Artistic Roll Call and uses Jay Leno as a prime example of a sell out for Doritos and NBC.

He could’ve lasted in primetime, but the problem is Jay Leno has no more self awareness. Jay Leno is that guy that tells jokes on TV, but no one would ever want to have a conversation with him. The Jay Leno Show should be a half hour and steal the format of The Ed Sullivan Show. Jay Leno hosting the acts of the day. Bill Cosby was known for talking to kids so he ended up with Kids Say The Darnedest Things. This is your Kids Say The Darnedest Things, Leno! NBC, come out this fall with The Ed Sullivan Show hosted by Jay Leno.

I’m with Coco.

Go to Fox, Coco. Put a coonskin cap on that red hair and be a pioneer.

Well, it’s almost over. The decade is about to finish up and people seem to be somewhat indifferent about it. Makes sense since everyone knows the world is ending in two years anyway.

Every year in Times Square, New York City some teenager’s balls drop and everyone gathers around to see. It’s an impressive sight live in the freezing cold, I’m sure, but I’ve always caught the last two minutes of the year on television surrounded by friends and drunkards at a house party. I’m sure most of us usually witness the event live on television watching “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” often hosted by, I’m pretty sure, Dean Martin.

This year (2010 the year of someone’s lord) DCNYRE will be hosted by a slew of stars: Dick Clark, Ryan Seacrest and Fergie. That’s really great for them, because what else can they possibly do? I would only watch the three of them if they were the only people hosting an event that is as unavoidable as time itself.

Jennifer Lopez and Daughtry are going to perform live in Times Square. Out of the 1,000,000 people in attendance I can only think of two people that will be interested in their performances: J-Lo and Daughtry.

American Idol participant Adam Lambert says he was booked, but was bumped for previous televised performances that were too “controversial” (see: gay).

This will also be the first year where there will be taped musical performances from Las Vegas, which is what Fergie will be hosting. Thankfully she will not be singing.

The only worse than watching New Year’s on ABC this year would probably be watching it on MTV. They’ll probably just play a marathon of Jersey Shore anyway.

Happy new year/decade! This is going to be the one!

J/K. Actually, I like Jay Leno. He is funny. I just think he wasn’t funny at all doing The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It was middle-of-the-road, middle-America, mid-west, lowest common denominator bullshit. The thing that always killed me was he’d start every show with “Headlines”. Come on. Your main bit after the monologue is a series of typos from newspapers? Why not make fart noises then for ten minutes of the show?

Maybe The Jay Leno Show will be good, but odds are if he’s going an hour earlier he’s going to pander even more. Hopefully not. Hopefully he’ll make it the show he wants and hopefully that show is good. Like a Japanese game show good.

It’ll do fine in the ratings no matter what. Jay Leno had a big following of seniors that Conan hasn’t nabbed. And those old people will tune into TJS. But Conan will get those seniors just when his audience ages a bit more.

What’ll happen when Letterman retires (or dies)? Maybe that position at The Late Show will be taken by Jon Stewart, Jim Gaffigan or Brian Regan. Any of those three would be great replacements and fun “competition” with Conan aka non-competitive competition.

People in Hollywood are not too happy with Jay Leno for putting this cheap show on instead of letting sitcoms or dramas have any primetime slots. It takes jobs away from actors, directors, writers, film crew, caterers, everyone. But Jay Leno’s not selfish; he just needs to be in the spotlight at all times.

NBC even offered him a morning show! Which is annoying, because if Jay Leno hosted a morning show I might actually watch a morning show. He’s old and stale for late night, but for 9 am he’s sharp and edgy. Leno, read that morning’s headlines and make topical jokes about it or something. Don’t be lame. Too late… night.

(Formatting note: there’s basic information that is always covered in each call; the show, the age, race and sex of the actor, the actual role, and if it’s a union job or not. Italics are my thoughts. Random note: I might never work in this town again for publishing this list of secrets)

————————————————-

• GOSSIP GIRL: NON SAG TO PORTRAY FOOD VENDOR AGE 20′S TO 30′S WITH REAL WAFFLE MAKING EXPERIENCE 8/18

1) You just put batter in a machine!  2) I have real waffle eating experience. That work?  3) Does this mean that a fresh waffle will be made on every take?

• MERCY: NON AFTRA MEN AVAIL 4/5 ALL DAY NO CONFLICT THAT CAN PORTRAY ASIAN MEN IN THEIR 30′S & 40′S – Extra Male / 30 to 40 / All Ethnicities

All ethnicities! “Must be comfortable making squinty eyes by pulling at the sides of your eyes with your fingers”

• LAW & ORDER CI: SAG – MALES 25-45 TO PORTRAY DEAD BODIES. FLEX BET 4/21-4/29. MUST BE COMFORTABLE BEING SHIRTLESS ON A SLAB. UPPER BODY SHOULD BE BLEMISH FREE. ALSO MUST BE OK WITH MAKEUP/LATEX – WILL HAVE TOOL MARK/INDENTS ON FACE. MUST BE PAID UP SAG. PLEASE DO NOT CALL US!

Shirtless – I’m ok with that. Slab! f-that! Please note that playing a corpse is a UNION JOB!

• MERCY: DO NOT RESPOND IF YOU ARE NOT A GREAT SOFTBALL PITCHER!

I shouldn’t have changed all the spelling errors in these posts. This agency really doesn’t care about spelling. I fixed a word in every single one of these.

• LAW AND ORDER SEASON 20: must be comfortable portraying a lesbian.

• MERCY: Featured Dying AIDS Patient Extra Female / 50 to 65 / AfricanAm

why does the aids patient have to be black? Huh!? Ok, enough of that.

• WHEN IN ROME: GOOFY FACE HISPANIC MALE

Ouch. Who watches “When in Rome” anyway. I’ve barely heard of that.

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New Additions – hot from my inbox – 9/9/09

It’s Not Cricket

Published: August 6 2009 19:05 – Financial Times

The cricket authorities in England are awaiting the opening of Friday’s Test match with Australia with a mixture of anticipation and dread. Anticipation because the cricket this summer has been superb – and another England victory would clinch a rare triumph in an Ashes series against Australia. Dread because the English supporters have taken to ill-mannered booing of the Australian players, and this match will take place at Headingley, where the crowd is notoriously drunk and rowdy.

Cricket is a game that has always prided itself on its tradition of sportsmanship, captured in the very phrase – “It’s not cricket.” The chairman of the English cricket board has appealed to the crowd not to barrack Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, when he walks to the wicket. But the chairman may be disappointed.

Now comes an unexpected twist to the story. Leading members of the Australian team have said that they do not mind the barracking from the crowd – some even claim to find it inspirational. Shane Watson, Australia’s opening batsman, has said that “It’s a great part of being here in England.”

Being insulted by a drunk Yorkshireman in a polyester replica shirt is not normally counted as one of the highlights of a visit to England. But if the Australian team do no object to the abuse, do the rest of us have any right to complain?

Actually – yes, we do. It can be a real pain to sit anywhere near the “Barmy Army”, the rabid England supporters who do most of the chanting. At their worst, they are drunk, foul-mouthed, mindlessly partisan and curiously uninterested in the cricket. If they are allowed to set the tone at matches, supporters who prefer to watch in a more civilised atmosphere will simply stop going.

To be fair, on good days the Barmy Army can be funny. When Mark Waugh, an Australian player, was caught up in a betting scandal a few years ago, they came up with the song: “Mark Waugh is an Aussie/He wears the baggy cap/But when he saw the bookie’s cash/He said I’m having that.” This is Wildean wit compared with the one-word chant of “Ingerlund” favoured by football supporters.

The trouble is that too many England cricket fans crossed the line between “banter” and boorishness a long time ago. Chanting and booing the opposition have their place – at football matches. But if Test match cricket abandons its own tradition of sportsmanship, it will lose a large part of its charm along the way.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

Something I looked up today and found tickled my mind a bit was that of these five networks only four of them have ever had a top Neilsen rated show for a year and FOX only within the past four years.

That show is of course American Idol, but before Idol FOX never had the top rated show. For the first twenty years of the Neilsen ratings only CBS and NBC had a top rated TV show, but ABC’s first was in 1971 with Marcus Welby, M.D., which I have never heard of, but I assume is about a doctor named Marcus.

CBS dominated the early 70s and the early 80s, but The Cosby Show on NBC held the mid-late 80s and then in the 90s and 00s CBS, NBC and ABC split it up all over the place with Seinfeld, ER, Roseanne, CSI, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Home Improvement, 60 Minutes, Cheers and Friends each taking it occasionally.

What kind of surprises me is that Married With Children was never the top rated show. FOX was a young network so I understand why not, but if American Idol is appealing to a low demographic then Married With Children and a few other early FOX shows were scraping the bottom of the barrel. And American Idol is still on top even though there are 800 copycat shows all over the world these days. I didn’t know Simon Cowell was that big of an asshole.

The movie looks really good, but that trailer is incredible, isn’t it? I’m not sure if I’ve seen a more artful trailer ever. That incessant beat from the head hitting the wall and the accumulating noises from other parts is so crafty and well done. It’s so much more effective than any voice over could be. Did the Coen Brothers edit this trailer? Probably not, but to whoever did, I see a Golden Trailer Award in your future (that’s right, there is an award for movie trailers).

Watching it made me think of this blog post I wrote for a different blog about The Planet of the Apes and its trailer. I’ve pasted the post, along with the trailer, below.

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So, I just watched the original Planet of the Apes today. I was really just looking for something to watch while I ate lunch, but I got completely sucked in. And being unemployed, I got the time. I watched it all the way through, and I’ve got to say, the movie was fucking good. Not just fun to watch, but legitimately good.

I think it’s interesting that we all know the plot, we all know the quotes. It’s one of those movies that’s been inaugurated into our pop-culture, so much so that it feels like we’ve all seen it, without actually seeing it. When it’s referenced, we all get it, and can laugh at jokes about it, and make our own jokes without ever having to actually see it (this idea can also relate to the DVD collection, or the DVR, where just owning a copy of a movie gives us a level of satisfaction nearly equal to that of actually seeing the movie, but that’s a different topic for another time).

Back to movie. It’s great. The first quarter is masterfully suspenseful, packed with incredible landscape shots and great cinematography and music. Then come the apes, which are surprisingly not too dated. Then we get to an examination of ethics and humanity, then a sweet reveal, which we all know, but still gives you the chills, because Charlton Heston really was a sick actor. The movie also made me further realize how much the Mark Walburg one sucked.

How great is that trailer? Sure there’s some cheesy voice over, but you get to hear the man himself, Charlton Heston, explain the film. And how about that “This is a madhouse!” part? There’s a well made movie trailer.