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Chris Knight's avatar

Keep in mind that what you’re about to read is as of right now a pilot episode and maybe not even that much.  I thought it noteworthy that the CBS execs are describing this not as a pilot but as a “proof of concept”.  Meaning the idea is being explored but it may not go any further and I doubt it will.  But hey, stranger things have happened in Hollyweird…

Mayberry, The Andy Griffith Show, remake, reboot, April Fools :-)
MAYBERRY pilot episode title card.  Copyright CBS Television

Entertainment and celebrity gossip website TMZ.com is reporting this morning that CBS Television head honchos have sanctioned and produced a pilot for Mayberry: a modern-age remake of the network’s classic Sixties comedy The Andy Griffith Show.  Seems that when star Andy Griffith passed away last summer his last will and testament stipulated that CBS would enjoy uncontested rights to do with the show – along with spinoff Mayberry RFD – ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

The apparently big story right now is about the estimated fewer than 1,000 who marched in Washington D.C. today against the Second Amendment. I understand that this has made all of the major evening new broadcasts: CBS, NBC, CNN etc.

To the very best of my understanding, there was NO such coverage at all of yesterday’s March for Life, which many have calculated drew more than 500,000 to the Mall to protest abortion -the premeditated murder of unborn children – on the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Now, applying some logic here, you would think that a story regarding half a million people would dwarf that of an event which drew, at most, several hundred.

But I suppose when it comes to stories and their coverage from big media, some of them just don’t fit the expected narrative…

...

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Chris Knight's avatar

AMC has been doing multiple broadcasts of A Christmas Carol, the 1984 television movie adaptation with George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge, for the past few nights. It’s easily my favorite version of Charles Dickens’ timeless potboiler (no really, he only wrote it to sell and pay some bills) although Patrick Stewart’s one-man performance runs a very close second.

But have you ever wondered what happened after Scrooge changed his ways at the end of that story?

Well wonder no more! Back in 1985 there was a short-lived show called George Burns Comedy Week. It was a comedy anthology series hosted by Burns: sorta The Twilight Zone but all about the laughs. And just before that Christmas, Burns and company produced a follow-up to A Christmas Carol.

So without further ado, here is Roddy McDowall, Ed Begley Jr., Carolyn Seymour, Paul Benedict, and the one and only ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

If CBS or any other “major media outlet” alleges that this is a matter of time constraint, then I’m gonna have to call it that I see B.S.

Look, five years ago I was one of sixteen candidates for school board in my home county, and in the final week before the election we all took part (well, one of us declined to participate, but that’s another story) in a public candidates forum. A “debate”, if you will. And each of us got ample time to state our beliefs and opinions on the various issues. For the very same questions, mind ya. Many people to this day still tell me that they got a kick out of my answer about whether school boards should have the power to tax: I told the audience “Look, if I get on that board and we have that power, there are good people ...

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Only a month after his final appearance on 60 Minutes, the sad news is coming out this morning that commentator/curmudgeon Andy Rooney has passed away at the age of 92.

Whether you enjoyed his segments or not (and there were more than a few which were downright infuriating) it can’t be denied that Rooney was one of the most accomplished performers of the very fine art of satire. The man had a way with taking the routine and miniscule elements of daily life, and turning them into fodder for good laughter… and even serious contemplation. Even if one didn’t appreciate his cantankerous style, Rooney was still to be respected for his many years as a broadcast journalist, especially his time as a war correspondent on the front lines of the European theater in World War II.

Thoughts and prayers going out to his family today....

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Neil Gaiman, in the opinion of a very many people, is one of the greatest and most masterful writers of our modern age. Lately I’ve found myself re-reading his classic Sandman series and found myself enjoying it just as much today as I did when I first discovered it years ago… if not more so.

Well if you also appreciate Gaiman’s work, you’ll be pleased to know that according to his Twitter page, Neil Gaiman will be the focus of a segment this weekend on CBS Sunday Morning…

Looks like the CBS Sunday Morning profile of me goes out this Sunday. In the morning. Barring natural disasters or breaking news of course.

Very cool! I’m a way longtime viewer of CBS Sunday Morning and have always enjoyed its stories and unique pace. Somehow, a feature on Neil Gaiman seems just perfect.

(By the way, have I ...

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Today marks an extraordinarily dubious anniversary for the Star Wars saga. Because it was thirty years ago tonight, on November 17th, 1978, that CBS aired the first and last broadcast of The Star Wars Holiday Special.

The two-hour schlockfest is now widely considered by many to be the absolutely worst block of television in the history of anything…

“One of these things is not like the others…”

I’m not even going to try to pretend to make sense of this… thing. If you want to see it, you’ll be able to find it all over the ‘net and if you don’t want to see it well, that’s two hours of your life that’re your own to spend how you wish. I remember watching this as a way wee lad on the night that it aired, and even then I thought it was pretty terrible. I mean, Harvey Korman as ...

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