A gem of classic comedy — that’s both entertaining and of comedic historical value — via You Tube: the great Jack Benny and the great Mel Blanc. To younger readers, Benny was a vaudeville star who later made the jump to radio — and invented the situation comedy in the process. Before Benny, most comedy radio shows were collections of jokes, but he preferred attitude and situations. The...

One more time, there’s going to be a dead-end argument about what liberals are made of and what conservatives are made of. Yet neither Elizabeth Hasselbeck nor Rosie O’Donnell are on TV as representatives of either group. They are/ were on TV to bring life to The View and to gain audience and advertisers. The underlying issue about The View, I think is about Miss O’Donnell’s bigness....

UPDATE: Rosie O’Donnell will not return to ABC’s “The View.” Basically, a few weeks ago she quit but planned to be back. This time she quit sooner: In a statement today, Brian Frons, the president of Disney-ABC’s Daytime Television Group, said, “We had hoped that Rosie would be with us until the end of her contract three weeks from now, but Rosie has informed us that she would...

Mike Lester, The Rome News-Tribune

This is the film that has been marketed with the help of the Bush administration (which let it be known they are investigating his unauthorized trip to Cuba and have surely helped increase interest in the film). An AP video posted on You Tube:

Remember this song by the late, great song parody master Allan Sherman next time you go to the dentist: You can buy CDs by Allan Sherman HERE.

The revenge of Fredo aka Alberto Gonzales. Here’s the trailer: TMV thanks Andrew Sullivan for the tip.

An epic television mini-series is now available on DVD. From the review by Booker Rising’s Shay: “Roots” did not present a moonlight-and-magnolias version of slavery, as does “Gone With The Wind” and other movies. The slave ship that brings Kunta Kinte to America is dangerously crowded and full of human waste and sick, tortured passengers. The graphic realism persists throughout...

It’s out…and the new movie even has some religious implications.

….or your play could be suspended.

The Sopranos are playing on A&E with lots of bad language, sex and violence trimmed out. But what happens when The Sopranos realize it? THIS:

(Sign of the Apocalypse #46 at The Reaction.) I’ll admit it. I’ve watched pretty much all of American Idol this season. And it has been clear for a long time that the best of them all, by a lot, was Melinda Doolittle. Sure, she had her neuroses. Sure, she seemed a bit old, or old-fashioned. Sure, she didn’t always seem to reach the high standard she had set for herself with some exceptional...

CBS bet its future — and a ton of money — on Katie Couric, who became NBC Today Show’s mega star due to her TV presence, excellent features and (yes) tough interviews. But mostly because Couric was young, a break from the stodgy old TV newscast mold — and was highly popular. Now it’s clear Couric has tanked in the network newscast ratings, CBS is in third place and unless there...

Following up on their atrocious rape “joke” towards Condi Rice and Laura Bush, XM Radio has suspended the shock jocks for 30 days.

From Charlie Chaplin’s film The Gold Rush, his famous “table ballet” where French rolls take on a special grace:

It’s controversial filmmaker Michael Moore versus the Bush administration — again. And it’s Michael Moore getting a Santa Claus stocking full of free and priceless promo publicity to ensure his movie will be a smash at the box office….promo gifted to him by his opponents…again. At issue is a trip the opinionated documentary maker who liberals love to love and conservatives love...

Illinois Senator and 2008 Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has commented on the mini-firestorm surrounding conservative mega talk show host Rush Limbaugh’s airing of a song parody titled “Barack The Magic Negro” (also posted on Limbaugh’s website). His reaction? It really didn’t bother him, didn’t really enrage him — and in the end if sounded as if Limbaugh...

UPDATE: The Horse of the Moment is Street Sense! For full Kentucky Derby coverage, visit the Louisville Courier-Journal. Looks as if the TV broadcast is on NBC.

This Entertainment Tonight video clip of an apparently intoxicated David Hasselhoff shot by his daughter has received nearly 1,000,000 views so far on You Tube: This shows the “synergistic” nature now of the “old media” and the new media. In addition to being on You Tube, it’s also posted www.TheInsiderOnline.com PS, Mr. H: This video is probably not a positive career move… UPDATE:...

NOTE: The Moderate Voice frequently reviews books, dvds, movies and music in reviews written by both our co-bloggers and guest reviewers. One of our most popular guest writers is Dan Schneider who writes highly thoughtful reviews of classic films. Here’s his latest. DVD Review: All The President’s Men Copyright 2007 © by Dan Schneider Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 hit film All The President’s...

This is the first 9 minutes of what was essentially a quickly-arranged on-the-air-audition as a Don Imus replacement: What’s always refreshing about Stephanie Miller is that on her radio show she doesn’t have that perpetually angry, outraged attitude that most talk show hosts (and, alas, many of us bloggers) have. She looks at most things with a sense of bemusement and playfulness, shooting out...

Progressive comedian-talk show host Stephanie Miller appears on MSNBC. Will it lead to a full-time gig?

During my brief stint as a journalist with the Saudi Gazette at Riyadh in the late 1970s, my favourite question to the Saudis from different walks of life was: “What would you do if, suppose, your country runs out of oil?” The general refrain then was something like this: “We are not prisoners to our present lifestyle. God has been kind. If He wishes otherwise…we would still thank him...

So much for all the talk about how talk radio and American culture entered into a more respectful era when it comes to racial sensitivies. The talk about how times had changed already seem quaint since the New Era lasted not even two weeks. Rush Limbaugh is now embroiled in a new controversy involving literally playing the comedy race card about a Democrat named Barack Obama running for President. Watch and...

(Photo courtesy Pierre Verdy — AFP/Getty Images) The celebrated Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, affectionately known as “Slava”, has died at the age of 80, reports BBC. James Jolly, editor-in-chief of Gramophone magazine, looks back at his musical legacy. “With the death of Mstislav Rostropovich, the musical world has lost not just one of its greatest interpreters...