I imagine every show has its "blind spot," the thing they never mention, because if you did, the show wouldn't work anymore. I'm not experienced in hour shows, though I imagine they have them too. I'll stick to the stuff I know.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Mary Richards was...

I once wrote an episode of Rhoda called "Brenda, The Bank Girl." The story involved Rhoda's sister, Brenda, who, despite being congenitally non-competitive, is goaded into entering a contest at the bank she works at, the winner of which gets anointed, "The Bank Girl."

As the episode goes on, Brenda...

Of all the major sports -- of which I include hockey, though others may disagree, believing it can't be a major sport if its nationally televised games are broadcast on Channel two hundred and seventy-five -- the sport I am least enthusiastic about is football.

There are reasons for that....

Free speech is a wonderful thing. When used responsibly. But right now, that's not happening. People are saying things, for example, about health care, that they know are not true, and nobody can stop them. You can challenge their arguments with evidence proving what they're saying is not true, but...

It happens to everybody. Today was my turn.

Backstory

For a number of years, we've been signed up with a low-priced, long-distance service called Telecom USA. Really liked it. No basic fee. Pennies a minute to call England and Canada. I have family in Canada, and my daughter Anna spent...

It's Pilot Season. The time of the year when the commercial television networks make sample episodes for series they hope will be more appetizing than the series whose sample episodes they made during Pilot Season the year before.

The problem is, the same executives, or people cloningly similar those...

The assumption is that a blog represents the uncensored expression of the blogger's
thoughts and feelings, hopefully skillfully enough delivered as to be worthy of the busy time of strangers. But that's a bonus, the "skillfully enough delivered." On its most basic level, a blog is simply a platform...

Years ago, I watched a documentary on PBS that came to a disturbing conclusion about the television rating system. This was no phony-baloney opinionator talking off the top of his head like, well, okay, me. The producers interviewed many knowledgeable people in the field. These guys were legit. Wait, I'm...

I'm surprised I haven't told you this already. It's maybe my favorite analogy formula of all time. Lemme tell you something. This thing changed my life. Okay, that's over the top. But I promise you, after you hear it, you'll be noticing analogizing examples everywhere you look.

The prototype...

Come on, Nephew. One more post.

Cable news. Again?

They're driving me nuts!

If it's driving you crazy, don't watch it.

"Pay not attention to that mole on your nose." That's no answer. You ignore something important, you wind up with half a nose.

Look, nobody takes...

I watched the last hour of the Oscars. Before that, I was at a yoga class. This particular practice is called "Restorative Yoga." You do an hour-and-a-half of poses without ever standing up. When I originally took "Restorative", I characterized it as napping with strangers.

(This is a tiny...

You hear it all the time: There's "nature" and there's "nurture." "Nature" implies, "Chip off the old block." Literally. "(S)he's just like me." This is usually expressed in a positive context. You rarely hear, "(S)he sets kitties on fire, just like me." On the negative side, "nature" provides a ready-made...

Once, when she was younger, my stepdaughter Rachel and her mother were driving past a mall when Rachel, always curious, asked her Mom this question:

"Why is a store called Robinsons?"

"What do you mean?"

"How did that store get the name Robinsons?"

Her mother explained. "Robinson is the...

Recently, on a TV news report, the reporter observed that when economic times get tough, movies inevitably take a turn to the "feel good" variety. During periods of gloom, audiences gravitate towards movies offering uplift and hope. You go in feeling bad; you come out feeling better. That's the theory.

Look out! He's on the rampage! What can I do? He's my uncle.

As usual, criticisms and complaints - directly to him.
-------------------------------------
Cable news.

I hate it. I watch it. I hate that I watch it. Then I watch it some more.

And I hate it.

I looked it up. It seemed close, so I checked to find out

Sure enough, today marks the one-year anniversary of my having started this blog. Isn't that something? Echoing the great Jackie Mason (to be read in a thick and belligerent Jewish accent):

I'd like to thank myself,...

After Best of the West debuted on ABC, a review of the show appeared in the Los Angeles Times the following morning. Dr. M (though merely M at the time) brought me the "Entertainment Section" while I was still in bed. When I turned to the review of my show,...

I once sat on Santa Claus's lap.

A Jew at Christmas. It's a complicated time.

I'm seven years old, standing in line at Eaton's Department Store, waiting to meet Santa, and tell him what I want. My mother, also a Jew, seems untroubled by these circumstances. There was this...

There are group of people out there called cultural relativists. No need to name names, you know who you are. Cultural relativists believe it is inappropriate to judge the behavior engaged in by members of other cultures. That's us, being smug and superior. You can't do that. The right way...

Here we go, boys and girls. It's Uncle Grumpy - on race. Please, always remember. It's Uncle Grumpy talking. Not me.

Uncle Grumpy. Not me.

My grandmother was left-handed. She told me how, when she was a kid, the teachers would strap her left hand to her side, and...