I finally caught up on my television this week. Last night I watched last week’s “Eli Stone” and I now feel like - after two episodes - I can profess my love for this quirky ABC drama. And now? It’s time for me to make sure you’re watching it.

The basic gist of the show is this: Eli Stone is a lawyer for a huge firm making good money, “making the rich get richer,” (as he puts it) when suddenly has visions of George Michael singing to him. Long story short…he finds out he has an inoperable brain aneurysm. This is probably causing the hallucinations. However, as his new spiritual guide/beer-drinking acupuncturist points out: It does not explain the weird coincidences pointing him in certain directions in association with the visions. By the end of the second episode, Eli is starting to believing listening to using these visions actually helps him help others. He is doing good and he decides that is what his life should be about. Visions or not.

The show is very funny…first and foremost. And lately - I like that in my dramas. I get enough of the serious from my CSIs and Law & Orders. This show makes me laugh but it’s not to over the top with the inspirational messages. It’s got a great cast led by Jonny Lee Miller. His assistant, the hysterical Loretta Devine, is fantastic. I’m not sure yet what I think of the actress or the character of his fiancé, but the rest I enjoy.

So - the new episode airs tonight at 10/9c. Why don’t you give it a try?

Somewhere along the L&O road, I ditched the original version and replaced it with Law & Order: SVU. I still caught a few episodes a year, but I had really stopped watching it all together about two or three years ago. I’m not sure why, I enjoyed the show, I think I just lost interest.

When I started reading about the new casting choices for this season - my interest was peaked. I liked the casting choice of Jeremy Sisto and I thought I’d give this season’s premiere a chance.

I’ve seen every episode so far. I’m in love with this cast. I think a few other characters are new as well, but since I haven’t watched it in years, everyone is new to me. The only face I recognized was Jack McCoy - but he was not the D.A. when I was watching it. I’m glad he’s still on the show though - and I think he’s great as the D.A. this season.

Have you watched it all along? What do you think of the changes? I’m curious what an Law & Order vet would think. Do you like Detective Lupo? Do you think the other changes are good? I’m not sure if I’ll stick with the show after the strike, when my other scripted favorites come back on - but I think I might. I’m enjoying it so far and would love to hear what you think.

Bravo’s Project Runway is back on the catwalk tonight.

It is my guilty pleasure.

I feel like a girl when I watch it. (Which is strange since I’m a guy.) But even though some of the contestants are just plain weird and others a little light in the loafers, they compete like NFL linebackers during the playoffs. MEOW! And that is why I watch. I like to see people who are good at what they do compete hard.

And while I think some of the designers are just plain nuts, most of them are highly accomplished and artistic people. With sharp elbows.

And I can’t pick the winners to save my life. I thought the person who won one of the early challenges this season (and the strangest designer there) had simply awful stuff. Some sort of plaid crap that WKRP’s Herb Tarlik wouldn’t even touch. I wouldn’t let me dogs wear it for Halloween. But my secret crushes Heidi and Nina drooled all over it and him. (Can you say Todd’s the meat in a Project Runway sandwich? I can.)

But I digress.

Someday I might understand high fashion. But I think that day is far in the future. However, I do think Tim Gunn dresses impeccably for a guy.

Anyway, the show is on again tonight and My Gal Audrey wants you to watch it. And I always do what Audrey says. I’m just glad I have some understanding of what I’m watching in this case.

Go Audrey!

Hope you are doing well!

Season 4 of Project Runway is already turning out to be awesome! Last week the contestants were faced with creating an outfit for Sarah Jessica Parker’s BITTEN line with only $14 to spend on fabric! The winner was Victorya…and she definitely turned it out for the challenge.

The Project Runway widget is updated on a weekly basis so make sure to share the widget with your readers so they can check out all the new exclusive content!

Here is the link to the widget once again:

http://www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway/season/4/widgets/index.php

PROJECT RUNWAY is on every Wednesday at 10PM et/pt ONLY on Bravo!

Enjoy!

http://www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway/

Audrey

Photo: Hey, Tim, no fair! I want to be the filling in the middle of that sandwich! (R) Elle fashion director and Project Runway judge Nina Garcia, (L)supermodel Heidi Klum and (C)Project Runway host, Tim Gunn at the “Project Runway” Season 4 Kick-Off and Fashion Show at Lincoln Center Plaza on November 6, 2007 in New York City.

While taking a break from cooking Thanksgiving dinner, Mrs./Dr. TVBloggin watched CBS’s The Price Is Right for a while with new host Drew Carey.

Here’s her succinct and tough review.

“The show is bad. Carey is bad. I liked him in Whose Line Is It Anyway and the Drew Carey Show. But he doesn’t get a chance to be funny on this show.”

Ouch. Tough room.

Photo: Drew Carey, “The Aristocrats” Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals, July 20, 2005.

Technorati Tags: The Price Is Right, Drew Carey, The Drew Carey Show, game shows, CBS, Whose Line Is It Anyway

In many ways, there is no more important federal agency than the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Besides serving the needs of our wounded veterans, it also provides much needed health care to many others who can’t afford health care elsewhere.

And it is fact of life that the VA is always woefully underfunded in the best of times and particularly stressed now with the return of service members from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.

Further, many veterans do not qualify for VA services because of their income–they’re not too poor, they make too much or have too much in retirement.

It’s a hell of a way to treat our men and women who served their nation.

To add insult to injury, chickenhawk Republicans like Sen. John Thune support the Iraq Civil War but aren’t so supportive of helping our men and women who have served once they returned.

So, what does the VA and the Bush Administration do to help the situation?

They put on their own TV “reality” show.

Um, how about putting that money into more doctors, better facilities, and letting all veterans have access to health care as a small token of our nation’s thanks?

Here’s the VA’s press release in large part. I hope you don’t puke at the end of it like I did when I read it the first time.

‘The American Veteran’ is Reality TV - VA Style

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Using the latest in video and broadcast technologies, stirring music, creative graphics and solid writing, “The American Veteran,” a monthly half-hour news magazine from the Department of Veterans Affairs, tells compelling stories of real-life veterans who have taken advantage of the many and varied benefits and services available to them as a result of their military service.

“We are committed to informing veterans and active duty military alike about VA’s many benefits and services and we are very pleased with the quality and reach of ‘The American Veteran,’” said Acting VA Secretary Gordon H. Mansfield. “The feedback and recognition the program has received is a testament to the effort put in by all involved.”

The series is designed to inform active duty members, veterans, their families and their communities about the services and benefits they have earned and to recognize and honor them. VA’s Office of Public Affairs and the VA Learning University/Employee Education System (VALU/EES) produce the program and broadcast it to VA facilities on the department’s own internal network and around the world on The Pentagon Channel and community cable outlets.

Aimed at veterans of all eras, their families and the American Public, VA also tells stories of heroism, sacrifice and relives moments in history with those who lived it reminding veterans of the bond of service they all share.

The VA Office of Public Affairs offers the program to local broadcasters and cable outlets and makes it available for viewing on the VA Web site www.va.gov, just click on “public affairs” and then “featured items.”

“The American Veteran” schedule on The Pentagon Channel is available at http://www.pentagonchannel.mil/ where you can also view the program as it is broadcast. The Pentagon Channel has more than 1 million military viewers and is delivered domestically via DISH, EchoStar, T-Warner and Cox cable systems. (Check for service in your area.)

(Cross-posted to TVBloggin, the Home Edition of SD Watch, and SDW at KELOLAND.com.)

Technorati Tags: government waste, VA, Department of Veterans Affiars, The American Veteran, stupidity, waste, thank you veterans

Powered by ScribeFire.

You may find this hard to believe.

Your NFL loving, soccer coaching, beer swilling, TV reviewer is a HUGE fan of Bravo’s Project Runway.

Huh?

While there are a number of sissy boys and prissy girls competing, there are also a lot of really, really, REALLY competitive people who are extremely talented. (Some are not so talented but nonetheless competitive.) They are put under intense pressure in not silly ordeals but projects that truly test their design skills, ability to work within a budget and a deadline, and their practical skills–like sewing.

And these people compete as hard as any middle linebacker, power forward, or soccer striker. They play hard, they play to win. I love their competitive spirit–with seersucker, cotton/poly blends, and silk.

And even the judges are not critical for the sake of being critical but are accomplished designers, models, etc. They know their clothes and the difference between what is good and what is great. Tim Gunn has tremendous taste and knows what works and doesn’t. And host Heidi Klum ain’t hard on the eyes either.

So yes, this red-blooded, meat eating, football loving middle aged whiteboy from the Midwest who loves Project Runway.

Which is a good thing for My Gal Audrey. She’s finally got me schilling for a show I actually: A. Watch and B. Enjoy.

So, as a gift from the lovely Audrey and me, here’s a Project Runway widget you can grab to help you countdown until the show starts again in five days.

Grab the widget here.

Now kids, go out and “make it work.”

Below: (R) Elle fashion director and Project Runway judge Nina Garcia, (L)supermodel Heidi Klum and (C)Project Runway host, Tim Gunn at the “Project Runway” Season 4 Kick-Off and Fashion Show at Lincoln Center Plaza on November 6, 2007 in New York City.

Technorati Tags: Bravo, Heide Klum, Project Runway, fashion, reality TV, Tim Gunn

Powered by ScribeFire.

Syndication’s Entertainment Tonight is one of the most attractive, most highly produced “news” programs on television.

Flashy graphics. Great pacing. Attractive anchors. Excellent writing. Celebrity exclusives. A set with like a couple hundred HDTV monitors on it.

I dare you to name a more highly produced informational show in all of TV.

And, of course, it’s a complete piece of crap.

Mrs./Dr. TVBloggin and I watched, or perhaps better stated, waded through the weekend edition of ET, awaiting the show we love to hate, the weekend edition of CSI: Miami.

After teasers for some wacky New York socialite (is that a nice way of saying unemployed rich person?) who has had maybe tens of surgeries to make her look like a cat, a plastic surgeon in a zoot suit describing how Britney Spears had her lips plumped (like that will fix what ails her!) and Jann Karl literally stocking tiny actor Tom Cruise around Europe last week and asking him about why he was carrying his baby into a restaurant several months ago, the light bulb went off.

“Mrs./Dr. TV Bloggin, why are we watching this spuge? We are getting dumber by the minute sitting her watching this.”

(I always call Mrs./Dr. TV Bloggin Mrs./Dr. TVBloggin, BTW.)

“Mr. TVBloggin, because it is so utterly mindless,” she replied.

This is what I think the show is analogous to. Imagine your dog takes some massive steaming poops all over your yard. You then hire a famous sculptor to take that poop and turn it into a replica of the Statue of David. It’s looks great but it is still made of poop. People will look at it from miles around but eventually wonder why it smells so bad. They then go home missing brain cells.

That’s ET, the best packaged ca-ca on TV.

Above: ET weekend co-host Jann Karl. So much beauty wasted on such complete nonsense. Jann Karl at Hollywood Film Festival - 10th Annual Hollywood Awards - Arrivals, October 23, 2006.

Below: My tribute to Entertainment Tonight.

Technorati Tags: Entertainment Tonight, Jann Karl, Tom Cruise, ET, spuge, entertainment, TV

Powered by ScribeFire.

I only caught the last half of NBC’s The Office last night but the half I saw was really funny.

Apparently Dunder Mifflin held a contest where employees and branches could submit a TV ad they made. The winning ad would air nationally on TV.

In his usual nutty way, Michael Scott gets the Scranton crew to assemble a “Chariots of Fire” inspired TV ad. It was hokey but actually better than the winning ad where people simply waved at the camera like grinning idiots.

The end of the Scranton produced ad was subtle but classic with the all important tag line. “Dunder Mifflin: Limitless Paper for a Paperless World.”

Think about it. Infinite paper that you really have no use for. Brilliant! The tag line was stated so matter of factly that when you first hear it, it kind of makes sense. But obviously, it doesn’t.

These are the sorts of touches that give The Office its comic genius. Now, where can I order some of that paper I don’t need?

Photo: Cast of “The Office,” NBC 2007 Upfronts, May 14, 2007.

Technorati Tags: The Office, Dunder Mifflin, Michael Scott, advertising, NBC

Powered by ScribeFire.

Hopefully, the anti-Rachael Ray haters will give me a reprieve now. Not that I really care.

I like Fox’s (and the BBC’s) Kitchen Nightmares.

And Fox is bringing the series back for a second season, according to Broadcasting and Cable:

Fox Picks Up Kitchen Nightmares Fox is cooking up another season of Kitchen Nightmares, the freshman reality show featuring Hell’s Kitchen’s Gordon Ramsay playing an angel to struggling restaurants.

Chef Gordon Ramsay definitely has hoity-toity cuisine bona fides. He’s not simply putting CheeseWhiz on a Ritz (as good as that is, I might add.)

Gordo is passionate–nay, CRAZY–about good food and the art of being a chef and restauranteur. In Kitchen Nightmares, he goes into loser eateries and tries to not only make the food edible, but make them profitable.

And a goodly amount of the time the persnickety Brit is there, he is yelling and screaming and swearing. But if you saw some of the filthy kitchens he has to get cleaned up, rather than screaming, I’d be blowing chunks. Imagine a Bangladeshi street cafe after a typhoon and you have the idea of how nasty some of these kitchens are. No wonder the food stinks.

What is fun to watch is Gordo telling the chef his food sucks. Or telling the owner that his menu sucks. Or the wait staff that they shouldn’t chew gum.

But what is reallly fun is simply watching Gordo try to eat the swill when he first comes into the restaurant. Yes, it sounds as interesting as watching paint dry (or in this case, paint peel). But his facial contortions at the gorp he’s eating and his comments are priceless.

• “I think I detect spoiled mayonaise.”
• “This is crap.”
• “Why is this salad shaped like this?”

The problem with Gordo is, while he has the bedside manner of Captain Bly, he obviously knows a thing or two about good food and running a good business. You really can’t criticize his ideas and analysis of the problems in the restaurants. And unlike most consultants, he doesn’t pussyfoot around.

He simply asks, do you want to get better and make money and serve good food or not?

And as someone who loves to eat out, I can safely say I appreciate his efforts. While the show is a bit formulaic, it is good story telling–you have man v. man, man v. food, man v. himself, dramatic tension, rising action, a climax, and a denouement.

And screaming Gordo is pretty entertaining all by himself.

Hey, it’s Fox: it can and does a lot worse with its programming on a consistent basis.

Photo: Gordon Ramsey, host of Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares, arrives at the ‘High School Musical 2′ - European Premiere at the O2 Arena on 2 September 2007 in London England.

Technorati Tags: Gordon Ramsay, BBC, Fox, Kitchen Nightmares, food, cuisine

Powered by ScribeFire.

I was not a big fan of AMC’s Mad Men when it premiered this summer. I kept wondering why I should be liking it. It was well crafted, the set and art direction were fabulous, but it seemed to lack a soul.

Well, Mad Men had a soul in tonight’s season finale. Top Mad Man Don Draper is put to work on the Kodak slide projector. (Think of it as the iPod of its time.) The geeks who invented it want the advertising to focus on its use of a circle–the round cylinder where the slides go in, the “donut”–as the selling point.

In perhaps the most enthralling five minutes in TV drama history–that’s meant as a huge compliment, not a slight–Draper talks about the power of “new” in advertising but the even greater power of “nostalgia.” While he talks about the power of nostalgia–Greek for remembering a wound–he projects happy moments of his marriage to Betty, their kids, the smiles, the goofy good fun, and the poignant moments of their lives.

He then talks about the projector as a time machine that you ride that can take your forwards or backwards in time. It is like a children’s ride–a Carousel.

It is the birth of one of the definitive must-have objects of the 1960s–a Kodak projector.

I’m sitting on my living room couch with tears in my eyes, thinking about my own families’ good times and the photos and slides that commemorate those times. And thinking about the old Kodak projector in my own closet.

And the tough, cocky, smart but shallow men in the Cooper Sterling conference room are also in awe, taken aback and back in their own lives at the utter humanity and transendence of Draper’s presentation and idea.

The moment is foreshadowed by Don looking through his own photos of his now disowned childhood, but it is unexpected, giving the moment even more force.

If that ain’t good TV–and a soul–I don’t know what is.

I’m now hooked on Mad Men.

Top: Actor John Hamm and actress January Jones attend Smoke and Sympathy: A Toast to Mad Men at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills on October 10, 2007 in Los Angeles, California.

Bottom: Writer Matt Weiner and the cast of Mad Men attend Smoke and Sympathy: A Toast to Mad Men at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills on October 10, 2007 in Los Angeles, California.

Technorati Tags: Mad Men, 1960s, AMC, Kodak, Kodak projector, Kodak Carousel projector

Powered by ScribeFire.

Why is CBS’s CSI: Miami such an odd TV show?

Mrs./Dr. TVBloggin and I can’t help but to watch the show on Monday evenings and again on the weekends late at night when our local CBS affiliate runs repeats.

We don’t watch because the show is so good. I save that for ESPN’s The Sports Reporters, AMC’s Mad Men, NBC’s Law and Order: SVU, Fox’s Family Guy and King of the Hill, and HBO’s Big Love.

No, we watch because the show is, well, odd.

In fact, I invented a drinking game to go along with the show. But that’s another story.

Actually, much of the show and most of the characters are pretty good. Characters Eric Delko, Alexx Woods, Ryan Wolfe, Det. Frank Tripp, and Natalia Boa Vista all seem like people I have met or could imagine meeting. They seem like “normal” people who work hard at their jobs and interact with each other and other characters in a “normal” way.

I also enjoy the beautiful vistas of Miami and Miami Beach and the exteriors of the great architecture in the area.

And I often enjoy the story lines, even if they seem a little fantastic and that CSIs can carry guns and shoot people just like regular cops.

But I digress.

As I’ve watched over the past year, I kept wondering, “why is this show so odd?”

Then I put my finger on it. It’s Horatio Caine (David Caruso) and Calleigh Duquense (Emily Procter) who I find supremely odd.

David Caruso is not just the president of the Over The Top Actor’s Club, he’s also a member. He never looks anyone in the eye. He’s always standing in some contorted position with his head cocked in an unnatural position. He takes his sunglasses on and off probably a hundred times during the episode. And after he talks, he leaves the scene, like Snidely Whiplash pulling up his cape and skulking off stage right.

Whereas Caruso is overacting Emily Procter is barely acting. Her style would be late Stepford Wives. She doesn’t even really blink. She has some half-smile pasted on her face. She never gets mad, she’s never happy, she like in some mega-Prozac induced state.

So, like a car wreck–with Horatio and Calleigh at the wheel of the CSI: Miami Hummer–I can’t help but to watch.

Top: The cast of CSI: Miami.

Middle: One of the “normal” characters on CSI: Miami–Dr. Alexx Woods. Khandi Alexander - Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series “CSI: Miami.” The 36th Annual NAACP Image Awards - Press Room, March 19, 2005.

Bottom: And yet another of the “normal” characters on CSI: Miami–Eric Delko. Adam Rodriguez of “CSI: Miami,” the CTV New Season Preview Launch Party - June 6, 2005.

[tags] CSI: Miami, CSI, CBS, crime shows, David Caruso, Emily Procter, Adam Rodriquez, Khandi Alexander [/tags]

I’m probably the last TV critic to run this, but Saturday Night Live funny lady May Rudolph changed her mind after a couple days before the start of the new season and decided to stay at SNL.

I reported otherwise prior to the premiere of SNL.

However, I do strive to be accurate in this blog on factual matters. Hence, the correction. Digital Media Week has the story:

• Read: Maya Rudolph Leaves SNL, Only to Return

Excerpt:

But it turns out Rudolph has changed her mind, and decided to remain with SNL for at least another season.

As I’ve written before here, Maya is one of the few remaining reasons to watch the now creaking show.

Her ability to slip into roles and own them is extraordinary.

But it may not be enough.

Last night’s show with Seth Rogen as host was abysmal. The only thing that I thought was funny was the “Really” section of “Weekend Update” about apparently gay sex seeking but anti-gay U.S. Senator Larry Craig. The rest of the show just stunk and was unfunny.

Maybe Maya should have stuck with her original decision and pursued other showbiz gigs that don’t suck. I’m not sure that her comedic talents are enough to save the venerable SNL.

I suppose it could be worse. She could be in the cast for ABC’s awful Cavemen.

Above: Donatella Versace and Maya Rudolph, 2002 VH1 Vogue Fashion Awards - Backstage and Audience, October 15, 2002.

[tags] Maya Rudolph, Sen. Larry Craig, SNL, Saturday Night Live [/tags]

Today on his myspace.com page, Deadwood actor W. Earl Brown (”Dan Dority”) says that as far as he is concerned, HBO’s western is never coming back for an abbreviated season or otherwise:

RIP DEADWOOD

In press interviews for THE SEEKER: THE DARK IS RISING, Ian has been quoted as declaring DEADWOOD’s demise. Sorry to say, it appears to be true. HBO had a five year lease on Melody Ranch. That lease is ending. The sets which have sat dormant, and around which JOHN FROM CINCINNATI was filmed, are being dismantled and leased props/costumes are being returned.

It is over. That beautiful chestnut stud-horse has died, I will now stop beating it.

The logical part of me that understands the business side of TV is not surprised. The emotional side of me is horribly disapointed. HBO’s Deadwood, as far as I am concerned, was like watching a modern day Shakespearean play. Producer/writer/Deadwood’s God David Milch re-created the western and turned it into a study of character, history, and language.

But apparently even Shakespeare had his off days. John from Cincinnati was abysmal. One can only imagine how much capital–both money and good will–that debacle cost Milch.

Perhaps some day, like the old Star Trek series, it will get resurrected on the big screen. But for three special seasons, a talented band of writers, directors, producers, actors, craftsman, artists, and others created a gritty but magical place out of national mythology.

Like 1876 Deadwood, Dakota Territory, Deadwood succumbed to the same themes it so artfully portrayed–greed, missed opportunities, a bad roll of the dice, duplicity, and all the human qualities and faults that Deadwood explored each week.

That we had any Deadwood at all is a miracle in an age where the progeny of Al Swearengen who run netowork and cable TV surpass his greed but lack his guts, intelligence, and culture. Deadwood is dead but not the memories and insights into the human condition that it leaves.

Top: Deadwood’s W. Earl Brown at Krol Vodka, Primary Action’s and Adwil Agency’s Emmy Suite - Day 1, August 23, 2006.

Bottom: Deadwood’s David Milch and Robin Weigert, winner of Hollywood Life Magazine’s Breakthrough of the Year Award Hollywood Life Magazine’s 5th Annual Breakthrough of the Year Awards - Portraits, December 4, 2005.

[tags] W. Earl Brown, Dan Dority, Deadwood, HBO, David Milch, Robin Weigert, Star Trek, Al Swearengen, Ian McShane, Shakespeare [/tags]

My wife, Mrs./Dr. TVBloggin, does not like football.

She used to sort of be a Dallas Cowboys fan when she was a kid, but she views watching football on TV like I view watching the Zirconium Emporium on the Home Shopping Network–really, really boring and pointless.

But on Sundays, Mrs./Dr. TVBloggin will sit with me and watch at least a quarter or two of a football game. This past Sunday, she caught NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

During the middle of one of color commentator John Madden’s meandering “analysis” of a play, my wife noted, “That’s really obvious.”

My wife is a very smart woman, a Ph.D. in sociology, a manager of multi-million dollar dialysis unit, and just plain smart, but she doesn’t know the different between a draw play and a post pattern.

But if even she thinks John Madden can tell her nothing new, there’s no hope for actual NFL fans.

As I’ve thought about it, I’ve never thought after a John Madden comment, “Damn, that was really interesting” or “Wow, I never thought about that type of play or strategy like that before” or “Gee, this really helps me appreciate the finer points of the game.”

What Mrs./Dr. TVBloggin lacks in football knowledge she makes up for in her ability to perceive people. And she perceives John Madden to be Mr. Obvious.

When I listen to Troy Aikman on Fox do an NFL game, I often think, “That was a really interesting comment. I didn’t know that.” When I listened to JC Pearson and Ron Pitts, also of Fox, do the Green Bay v. Minnesota game Sunday, I often caught myself thinking, “These guys know what they are talking about.” Same with Phil Sims on CBS. I always feel like he’s made me a little smarter about the game after I watch his games.

Not so with Madden.

Obviously, John Madden is no dummy. He’s coached in the NFL, won a Super Bowl, and been on TV forever. He’s forgotten more football that I’ll ever know. I respect all that he has accomplished in his chosen profession.

But let’s face it. He never was a picture of articulation and he’s less so now. Comedian Frank Caliendo’s spoof of Madden has more insights into football than most of Madden’s actual comments now.

Madden has had the good fortune to work with two of the best PBP guys in the history of sports–the hugely underrated Pat Summerall at CBS and Mr. Smooth As Silk himself, Al Michaels at NBC. What if Madden hadn’t been paired with these legends? Would Madden have been Madden? I have my doubts.

Mr. Madden, when even my wife thinks you say obviously obvious things about a game she barely understands, maybe it is time to go and take the MaddenCruiser on a nice long vaction to visit to see all your money from your Madden 200X video game sales.

Top:  John Madden, NBC 2007 Upfronts, May 14, 2007.

Middle: Troy Aikman on the field before the NFL game between the New England Patriots and Chicago Bears at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA, on November 26, 2006. The Patriots won the game 17-13. 

Bottom: Frank Caliendo, MADtv Special Emmy Screening, June 3, 2003.

[tags] NFL, football, Frank Caliendo, John Madden, Pat Summerall, Al Michaels, Troy Aikman, JC Pearson, Ron Pitts, Fox, NBC, CBS, Sunday Night Football [/tags]