Talk Soup

Lots going on around the talk dial. Larry King's Out. Piers Morgan is in. And David Letterman did his very first appearance on that super estrogen fest you love to hate, The View.

You'll have to wait till November 8th to catch Conan on TBS.

Back to Letterman for a sec. I've always been TEAM LETTERMAN ever since the Leno/Letterman late night wars (remember when that poor actor dude had to don a prosthetic chin in the MOVIE about this? Eek.). Let's be honest, the Letterman/Leno spat is old news, but I can't help it, the Conan dustup got me all interested again.

And it got Babs interested, too. God bless her, she got right in there and asked Dave about it and it's pretty juicy. Dave even impersonates Leno. Love it!

So how come the ABC marketing machine isn't putting this clip everywhere? Boooo ABC. Bad marketing. Bad.

Instead, the clip they are pushing everywhere is Dave and Barbara talking about their heart surgeries. Yes, I'm glad they didn't croak but if I wanted to hear about heart stuff I'd re-watch the Boston Med episodes still clogging up my DVR.

Or maybe a Denny Duquette rerun on Grey's Anatomy.

Well, some dude had a heart and cared enough to upload the Leno bashing, so you can watch it here...even if it's VIDEOTAPED off the tv. Oh dear, this is worse sound quality than when I used to hold my cassette recorder up to the tv to record that Joanie loves Chachi song. Anyhoo, the juicy stuff starts around :30 in.


Or, if you've got some time to kill, you can sit through the whole episode all bright and shiny on ABC's website. Hmm, maybe they're smarter than I thought.

As for Piers Morgan replacing suspenders spokesperson Larry King, I guess he's ok. I would've preferred someone with a little more spunk. Lately my choice for every tv host vacancy seems to be Bret Michaels or Chris Harrison. Bandana or Fantasy Suite?

You decide.

Time Management

Did I miss something?

Other than my new obsession, Mad Men, I admit I've been uncharacteristically distracted. Besides my steady diet of Friends and Sex and the City re-runs, the dog days of summer have taken their toll on my tv viewing and my DVR isn't even in the danger zone of running out of room.

It's shocking.

So when I turned on Larry King on Tuesday night, I realized that frankly, I need to pay attention. Joy Behar was hosting a roundtable-ish political discussion with some pundits, and mixed in was...FRAN DRESCHER. Fran Drescher of the nasally, whiny-voiced Nanny fame?

I don't understand.

What TV Land reunion did they dig her up from? If you want to spice up the commentary with a little Hollywood, why not Beatty or Baldwin? Hell, I'd even settle for Ben Affleck.

Rounding out the 'panel' was Ben Stein. BEN STEIN?!! Did I go to sleep for 50 years like that Mel Gibson character does in that movie where he wakes up 50 years later from the cryogenic machine and hooks up with Jamie Lee Curtis and realizes he has missed everything, including the girl he went to sleep for who he thought was dead but as it turns out, isn't?

It kind of feels like that...'cause last I knew Ben Stein had 2 claims to fame. One involves winning his money on an aptly named game show. The other is simply this: Bueller...Bueller...Bueller.

I didn't know he was now the go-to guy for politics.

Just out of curiosity, is Matthew Broderick president?

Food for Thought

When are we gonna beeeeeeeeee there? Labor Day is over, and now we're in that odd pre-fall season no-man's land of nothing to watch for a few more weeks.

Don't worry little campers, I'll help you find something to pass the time. I'm not gonna force you to get outside and enjoy the waning nice weather.

First off, Tuesday night boasts a special "The Biggest Loser". While the premiere episode of the new season doesn't start till Sept 11th, you can at least check out a 'Where are they now?' update show. So, if you're a skinny optimist, you can watch and hope all those contestants have stayed svelte. Or, if you're a porky pessimist, you can feel better about yourself knowing that they couldn't keep it off, either. See, don't you feel better already about that 2nd burger you had at the Labor Day BBQ?

Tuesday is also Whoopi's first day on The View. Her first guest is Danny DeVito. No word on whether Whoopi has a new "get hammered with the guests" segment...but that sure would be fun!

Finally, Wednesday, Matt Lauer and Larry King are both claiming EXCLUSIVE interviews with Bill Clinton. I guess we should watch both cuz he's hawking his new book to show us how to change the world...um, that's kind of a lot of pressure but, ok.

Anyhoo, we'll get through these next 20 days together, somehow...1 show at a time. In the meantime, just sleep soundly knowing Scott Baio is 45...and Single Season 2 is already in production....