Free Republic

Ron Jaworski is out at "Monday Night Football." ESPN announced Wednesday that the analyst would be removed from the network's signature broadcast beginning in August. Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden will operate as a two-man booth. Jaworski will remain at the network and appear on various programs, including "Countdown" and "Matchup." < -- SNIP -- > This paragraph, from a December article in The New Yorker about Gruden, was a perfect microcosm of Jaws' time in the booth: When it was Jaworski's turn, he issued a stern proclamation. "Call me crazy, but I'm really excited for Tyler Palko tonight," he...

International talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has issued an apology for breaking TV ratings rules and urging fans to watch her Oprah's Next Chapter show instead of the Grammy Awards, according to reports. Oprah invited followers to turn off music's big night and switch to her network, OWN, on Twitter. "Everyone who can please turn to OWN, especially if u have a Nielsen box (sic). Commercial Grammy people..you can turn to Own," she tweeted.

Review: Netflix and Hulu's new scripted originals Within just over a week, Netflix and Hulu are both debuting their first stabs at original scripted programming. The shows amount to a milestone in Internet television, an early sign of the leveling between broadcasting and streaming. Programming options between TV and the Web are increasingly separated by little more than the "video source" button on your remote. But the most salient thing about the new offerings from Netflix and Hulu are just how "TV" they are. Earlier this week, Netflix released all eight episodes of "Lilyhammer," a fish-out-of-water drama starring Steve Van...

Dear FReepers, I live outside Chicago. My current provider for bundled Cable, Internet and home based landline costs 179 dollars a month. I have the large selection of cable stations including History, Military etc, without any premium channels. or DVR. I'm coming to you my friends to see what suggestions, or ingenious Freepers have come up with to obtain service; I'd like a large number of Cable stations plus a DVR. My son insists upon Internet fast enough to play video games inter-actively online. We need wireless internet for our laptops. I would like a DVR machine with any new...

Premiers April 1st.

I watched an extremely disturbing TV program about two boys in high school who killed a girl solely for the experience. Both boys, having aspirations of becoming movie producers, documented their murder adventure on video. Their video included a playful interview with their unsuspecting victim at her school locker. The obviously bright and beautiful girl looked into the camera, laughing while answering the boys' silly questions. Later that evening, the boys bludgeoned and stabbed her to death. One of the two boys commented, "Making murder illegal makes people want to do it." I realize that this case is an extreme...

This suspicion that we have exorcised the fear of the law from the criminal mind with soft policing and a “caring” judiciary is often reinforced by the actions of the law when an ordinary citizen seeks to defend his or her property or physical safety when confronted by lawbreakers – hence the frisson of delight most of us have in movie scenes where the tables are turned on some criminal who expects his victim to be terrified into meek obedience when faced with the threat of violence by knife….

MADISON — A little advice for those who want to pop in and observe the recall petition review: Stay home and watch it on television. Only staff members and temporary employees of the Government Accountability Board, or GAB, which oversees state elections and campaigns, will be permitted in an at-present undisclosed location. And speaking of temp jobs, the board has had a hard time filling the petition review positions, mainly because too many prospective employment candidates have signed recall petitions targeting Gov. Scott Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. GAB employees Thursday continued scanning some 1.9 million signatures, after having...

...WSVN announced it will lift its blackout of DirecTV satellite dishes Sunday night to air an NFL playoff game and American Idol special. ... WSVN and its owner, Sunbeam Television Corp., (which has also yanked the signals of its two Boston TV stations from the satellite company) contend they are asking for a raise of only “a few cents a day” in payments from DirecTV, less than — for example — the $4 per subscriber fee demanded by ESPN. DirecTV counters that the few cents a day is actually a few cents a day per viewer, which quickly mounts into...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An anti-profanity crusader on Tuesday asked ABC to pull this week's "Modern Family" episode in which a toddler appears to use a bleeped curse word. "Our main goal is to stop this from happening," said McKay Hatch, an 18-year-old college student who founded the No Cussing Club in 2007. "If we don't, at least ABC knows that people all over the world don't want to have a 2-year-old saying the 'F-bomb' on TV."

I have a GREAT idea! How about a TV show titled, “All-American Christian”? Christians have been getting a bum rap in cinema and the mainstream media for quite a while. In a spirit of fairness, compassion and tolerance, a TV show promoting Christianity is simply the right thing to do. After all, the last thing we need are Christian-phobic Americans. We must educate Americans to realize Christianity is a religion of peace. Christians are not anti-American. The TV show will confirm Christians are not much different than you and me and just as patriotic. Also, Christians would never attempt...

It’s a great time to buy a television, and Ram Lall, a television salesman, isn’t happy about it. In a basement showroom of J&R, the huge electronics store in Lower Manhattan, Mr. Lall says the days of making big money from televisions are in the past. Pointing to a top-of-the line, 55-inch Sony television, Mr. Lall said it would have sold for $6,000 a few years ago. The current price? $2,599. “We are making less money because the company is forcing us to slash prices,” ..Televisions have become so inexpensive that the profits have largely been squeezed out of them,...

Ultra- D is the company’s display technology that can carry out realtime conversion of 2-D to 3-D without necessitating the use of special glasses for viewing. What’s more, the technology enables the realtime conversion of 3-D content with glasses to 3-D content without glasses. The company’s press announcement describes this approach as autostereoscopic 3-D imagery. The company’s Ultra-D is dependent upon custom hardware, middleware techniques and software algorithms to give viewers the instant conversions. The company says Ultra-D works with Blu-ray, DVD, PC gaming, Internet, cable and satellite content. The technology allows users the freedom to customize the 3-D effect...

*Despite being ousted from the GOP presidential race, Herman Cain believes that his opinion matters to somebody. So the former candidate plans to broadcast his ideas on TV soon. “The doors to radio or TV, those doors are open,” Cain said in an interview with Fox News, considered by media watchers to be the most likely place the conservative former pizza magnate would go. “I’m considering all of these options because I want to create the biggest platform for me to be talking about the trifecta: replacing the tax code with 9-9-9, energy independence and national security,” Cain said.

For the Monty Python fans here.. This is neat video from Terry Gilliam..

NEW YORK — Veteran film and television actor Dan Frazer, best known for his role as Captain Frank McNeil on the long-running 1970s television series "Kojak," has died in New York. He was 90.

Every so often I want to watch some TV program in my PC. Ok, it usually is football! When I google "this game lifestream" I usually get lots of sites from where I can download something for free that will allow me to watch the game. But I don't know anything about that site, how safe it is... Does any body have any recommendations? At least, does someone know how I can watch the Denver-New England game tomorrow? Thanks

Who would you feed off of? Boy, that would be fun, because you could feed off of people you hate. You could feed off of people you thought were hot. You could feed a little too much off of some politicians or celebrities you’re sick of. So, feeding off of Sarah Palin? That would be kind of awesome.

Earlier, I wrote about Rick Perry’s late push in Iowa, and how the momentum from a couple of very good debates could convince some conservative caucus-goers to return to his banner. That could also be said about Rick Santorum, whose performance in the last two debates this week looked more polished and presidential. His campaign has worked on a shoestring and relied more heavily on an incredible number of personal appearances in all 99 counties in the state. Santorum hits the airwaves today in Iowa with his first ad, an introductory spot that uses supporting words from some heavy conservative...

Senators pushing for Supreme Court to televise arguments on Obama’s health care overhaulBy Associated Press, Published: December 6 WASHINGTON — Senators are once again pushing the Supreme Court to televise its courtroom proceedings, especially since justices will have an election-year argument over the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s signature health care overhaul. A Senate Judiciary subcommittee debated Tuesday whether Congress should or — even could — force the Supreme Court, a co-equal branch of government, to allow cameras to broadcast live during arguments.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve rules implementing legislation that makes it illegal for advertisers to pump up the volume during television commercial breaks. The law, called the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, aims to answer the complaints of Americans who have for years protested that commercials are too loud. "The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today took a major step toward eliminating one of the most persistent problems of the television age - loud commercials," the FCC said in a statement following the passage of the CALM rules. "Congress gave the Commission, for the...

Retail giant Lowe's has pulled advertising from Discovery Communications-owned TLC's reality show All-American Muslim. But a TLC rep says: "There is strong advertising support for the show."

DUBLIN, Calif. (CBS) — A cast iron cannonball rocketed through two homes and landed inside a minivan Tuesday when a “Mythbusters” TV experiment went wrong. Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage are hosts of the scientific experimentation show, which airs on The Discovery Channel. The pair was reportedly trying to figure out how fast a cannonball would travel, when it misfired and shot hundreds of feet in the air. “This cannonball was supposed to go through several barrels of water and through a cinder block, and then ultimately into the side of the hill,” said J.D. Nelson of the Alameda County...

San Antonio, TX – A young woman was fired from a Macy’s department store for refusing to violate her religious beliefs by permitting a young man dressed as a woman from entering the women’s dressing room. Natalie Johnson claims she saw the young man walk out of the women’s fitting room and politely told him that he could not go back in because it was for women only. The cross-dressing young man claimed that he is a “female.” Johnson said that he was wearing make-up and girl’s clothing, but clearly he was a male. The cross-dresser was accompanied by five...

So if the Republican party has shifted so far to the right, and the Democrats have shifted to adjust, doesn’t that mean the populace has as well? Those changes are not at all reflective of what the population believes

They’ll still be annoying — but soon TV commercials won’t hurt your ears. A law mandating a volume cap on ear-splitting commercials will go into effect Dec. 15, at which point broadcasters have a year to turn down the volume. “The intent of the act is simple: to make the volume of commercials and programs uniform so that the spikes don’t affect the consumer,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), who sponsored the legislation last year. People will be uncupping their ears in joy.

...Glee dropped 6 percent, two tenths of a point, in adults 18-49 for Fox, down to a 2.9. The series posted modest gains in viewers, however, up to 7.1 million from the last outing.

Older women who got more exercise and less television time were the least likely to be diagnosed with depression, according to a U.S. study of thousands of women -- with physical activity having the biggest impact. According to findings published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers found that women who reported exercising the most in recent years were about 20 percent less likely to get depression than those who rarely exercised. On the other hand, the more hours they spent watching TV each week, the more their risk of depression crept up. "Higher levels of physical activity were associated...

In 90 seconds this advertisement says more about love and family than a regiment of pundits could ponticate about in a thousand books….

November 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com)  - This week’s episode of Fox Television’s prime-time musical comedy show “Glee� featured two teenage couples, one heterosexual and one homosexual, engaging in sex for the first time. Titled “The First Time,� the episode depicted two couples - a young man and woman, Finn and Rachel, and two young men, Kurt and Blaine - each losing their virginity. The development occurs after a fellow student and school play director tells Blaine and Rachel, who are practicing their roles as Tony and Maria for a production of West Side Story, that they won’t be believable as...

I cannot believe what I just saw. It was a commercial for "stuff" that makes "you know what" supposedly "explosive", but the kind for women. It was 2 LESBIANS!!! Are you kidding me??? Did I just see that, on TV???? I know I know, they're shoving it in our faces, but this??? I am absolutely flabbergasted!! Someone call 911 because I am about to drop dead.

Television celebrates a monumental anniversary today: it has been exactly 75 years since the first public service broadcast was transmitted. On 2 November 1936, the BBC began filling the airwaves, broadcasting from its Alexandra Palace facility in North London. The one station started with just two hours of programming a day. Folk at home tuned in with their Marconi TV sets and saw some the likes of actress Adele Dixon's rendition of Magic Rays of Light, pictured above. These days, broadcast telly seems to barely get a look in, what with viewers increasingly watch programmes when they, not the broadcaster,...

Internet-streaming company Netflix experienced its biggest exodus in its history after a price hike earlier this year - the loss of 800,000 customers. But the web-streaming giant isn't washed up yet. TV shows and films streamed via Netflix account for a third of total downstream bandwidth use in the U.S - an astonishing amount for any one company to control. Neftlix use accounts for 32.7 per cent of total bandwidth use in the U.S., UP from 29.7per cent a year ago, says Canadian company Sandvine.

There is no possible interpretation of this under which this isn't wildly unconstitutional. While the test is only going to be TEMPORARY, I DO NOT TRUST THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WITH THIS POWER, NOR SHOULD ANY AMERICAN! No one man should have the ability to shut down ALL RADIO & TV broadcasting. If this were to be done when the Obama Regime actually intended to carry out certain plans to further consolidate and usurp power, rather than a 'test,' it would constitute the grossest violation of the Constitution in American history. It would mark the beginning of a real-live dictatorship...

Most FReepers are not aware of this, but the past six or seven months have been full of disruptions: the biggest being our having to move from our home of 28 years to a new abode. And there is no cable out here (and analog aerials don't work any more). So yes, I must now ask the question which other FReepers have asked on prior occasions: which is better, Dish Network or Direct TV? I have long assumed that satellite is cheaper than cable. Well, it is cheaper, but not by nearly as much as I thought. Dish Network has...

San Francisco - Steve Jobs told his biographer that he had cracked the problem of creating an effective interactive television, fueling rumours that Apple will release such a device next year. Jobs made the comments to author Walter Isaacson, whose portrait of the technology visionary was released Monday. Titled simply Steve Jobs, the book is the only biography authorized by the Apple co-founder, who granted Isaacson some 40 interviews to outline the parameters of his life from his early years as an adopted child to his last months, as he raced to finish the development of products when he knew...

Wasn't sure exactly Where this post belonged so I hope I'm in the right place!? The other night I turned on the tv and was greeted with an up close shot of a couple kissing. As the camera panned outward, the scene was of two 'guys' sitting on a couch with their arms around each other .. going at it like two boars in heat! The show is a regular which I've never seen and which I Will Never See again. The show is/was "The Good Wife". Tonight, I turn to FX (Fox) a few minutes before the movie "District...

When monster smash hit Charlie's Angels first hit the tube in Fall of '76, I sure didn't have to think long when anybody asked who my favorite was: Jaclyn Smith - the young actress that played "Kelly Garrett" on the show- was to me always the  most heavenly Angel, hands down... This was for reasons I was largely unable to convey to those with Farrah posters in their bedrooms, back in the days when that one with the red bathing suit was all but ubiquitious.  But the somehow Jaclyn Smith just had a sexy vibe, bit more real/natural-look than Farrah (smile/hair), imho- plus I guess I...

This one's for you, readhead lovers... Marilu Henner as 'Elaine Nardo' on Taxi (1975-1983): Man, I absolutely loved this show, seen every episode 3x by now... Trivia: Marilu Henner is an accomplished dancer that started classes at age two. She played "Marty" in the original Chicago stage production of "Grease"(1971), before it moved onto Broadway and Hollywood fame. She also possesses a rare ability called hyperthymesia: a form of super-memory that allows her to recall specific autobiographical events from every single day of her life, even from an early age... She's got a fitness website these days, Marilu.com Show 'em your stuff  Elaine... (cue 1:40):...

Just being amused by the pro-Hussein media and the nearly entirely positive coverage of these Occupy dorks. I wonder what kind of love there would be if they decided to Occupy the Big Media...and then proceed to foul up 30 Rock, or CBS and ABC headquarters.

... During the recent eighth-season premiere of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) had an abortion. It was not the first abortion for a character on network television — that would be "Maude's" in 1972, just before Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal nationwide — but it was the most culturally significant since then. Because unlike virtually every character who has ever had, or contemplated, an abortion (and on TV, fewer women have abortions than have brain surgery), Cristina is not a teenager, or a rape or an incest victim. She is not poor with eight kids and...

Oh how I yearned to be stranded with her... Former 'Miss Nevada' Dawn Wells as  'Mary Ann Summers' - Gilligan's Island (1964-67): Decades later, we at long-last know how they killed the time  on that (dopey) island: while going some ways towards  explaining the bizarre tree-licking episode above,  something still largely frowned upon  back in here in (what passes for) civilization... You know ALL bout that stuff, doncha lil' buddy... "All day... all night... Mary Ann"... Video tribute/more at Reaganite Republican _________________________________________ IMDb   Wikipedia

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A period drama glorifying the promiscuous lifestyle of Playboy prostitutes has been dropped from network television following a successful advertiser boycott led by morality and parenting advocates. Morality in Media (MIM) stated in a press release Tuesday that NBC has “closed the club� thanks to “dismal ratings and viewer outrage, cancelling a series that glorified the sexual exploitation of women and the Playboy philosophy that women are to be used, abused and then discarded.� “It is great news that the ‘Playboy Club’ is cancelled after just three episodes. Clearly viewers are not interested in...

Last night I was channel surfing and happened across about the last minute of a show called "Mike and Molly" It was, as far as I can tell, the final closing credits. It showed somebody holding an Ipod or some kind of hand-held and they were flicking through a bunch of pictures. Presumably, the stars. even though the two people in the pictures were clothed, it was totally obvious from the first picture *there were about 8 of them) that the two people were in sexual positions. I was just wondering if other FReepers had caught this and what they...

The Fall TV Season: Pro, Cons and Pans My opinion and yours...

Two nights in a row, huge fight between me and She Who Must Be Obeyed. I can't watch this carp, I hate it. Before my head explodes I have to say the show is stupid, the talent is stupid, the whole idea of this is stupid. And Bruno is a wiggler, which is stupid. I'll take my lumps on this, from her and all y'all, I just can't watch this show. I brought my Hamburger Helper out here to the DawgHouse so I could surf something, anything, but DWTS. Ended up here on FR, as usual. I bought her a...

'Bailey Quarters' @ WKRP in Cincinnati! Always did go for the bookish one  over the D-cup bimbos it seems... Jan Smithers _____________________________________________ 'Bailey Quarters' (Jan Smithers)  fr. WKRP in Cincinnati (CBS 1978-82): I remember really digging the 'glasses' look, heh- More pics/video at Reaganite Republican...

There’s a memorial in Brooklyn that honors all the first responders that were killed on Sept. 11 called the Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance. There are 417 faces of first responders that were lost that day. Back in 2006, they had completed about one-third of that memorial and they ran out of money. A firefighter friend of mine took me out to see it and I offered to try and help them raise the additional money to complete the memorial. They liked that idea, so we put a concert together at Brooklyn College where my band, Lieutenant Dan Band, played, and...

'Children of 9/11,' among the best, represents the wide variety..Caitlin, was 12 at the time. "I would give anything in the world just to give my dad a hug again," and it's clear.. the span of 10 years cannot truly diminish her pain.. Focusing on the children gives the horrors of 9/11 a more human face.. Discovery and Science Channels' "Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero" .."FOX News Reporting Freedom Rising: More than 3,000 children lost a parent on 9/11, .. NBC's presentation of "Children of 9/11"[...] "Children" is at times heartbreaking, but the overall message is that children are resilient, if...

Designed for camping in the great outdoors or entertaining guests while tailgating, Dish Network announced the release of the Tailgaiter, a mobile satellite television antenna that’s compatible with Dish Network service. Weighing in at 10 pounds, the satellite antenna is encased in a 10-sided plastic shell with a handle for lugging around the device. The shell is designed to protect the antenna in poor weather conditions and allows the dish to rotate within the casing to align with the satellite. The Tailgater portable antenna also requires a Model ViP 211k HD Solo receiver to pick up high definition stations. The...