Monday, August 24, 2009

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly....

Some highs and lows from the broadcast weekend.

The Good. Last night's retrospective on 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt did not disappoint. However, there were a few surprises. Morely Safer fronted the open and called his old boss a pain-in-the-ass. From there, I knew we were in store for some good stuff. There was plenty of historical footage and Hewitt at work in the editing studio. The special left me with some questions, such as why wasn't Mike Wallace featured more? Is the nonagenarian ailing? And the people 60 Minutes interviewed about Hewitt was strange...although it was interesting to learn that actor Alan Alda was Don's best friend. But why the quotes from former CBS president Sir Howard Stringer? And the quotes from CBS president Les Moonves...what else is he going to say. I have a feeling Hewitt himself might have left the last two interviews on the cutting room floor.

The Bad. From the what-happens-when-you're-15-games-out file. Sunday on WFAN, whilst killing time in another loss, the usually reliable Howie Ross became fixated on a reference from the Odd Couple sitcom. To his credit, Rose immediately knew the reference was tortured at best couldn't stop it. He kept trying to make it funny. Wasn't going to happen at least yesterday.

The Ugly. Regular readers of the Daily Del Franco know of my
fondness for Yankee radiocaster John Sterling. But when he and Suzyn Waldman began making excuses for CC Sabathia (the Yankee defense let him down again) I began screaming at the radio. "How do you like that?" Sterling asks, "another seeing eye flyball falls for a basehit." Twhich prompts Waldman to come to sabathia defense. "CC will get out of this. He's durable. He's not going to wilt out there, John," which prompted a "shut-up Suzyn" response.