Posted 9:29 AM by Dave

Is it just me, or does Pat Sajak's forehead get bigger with each passing year? When he started on "Wheel Of Fortune" in 1981, it was a manageable size. Now his cranium is just plain out of control. I think "Wheel" has been renewed through the 2010-2011 season, and by that time they'll have to strap that sucker down to keep it from exploding in the middle of the Mystery Round.

Posted 5:02 AM by Dave

Just a note to all those TV and radio stations out there....

The proper website address for relief donations for the Asian tsunami disaster is

www.redcross.org

NOT your local station's web site. This is no time to use this tragedy to appease your advertisers in the form of hits to your website. Thank you.

Posted 2:24 PM by Dave

Hal Seeger's Place In Warner Bros. Cartoon History

You're looking at it, folks. It's the main title sequence from "The Porky Pig Show", the 1964 ABC-TV series featuring old Porky toons and an absolutely mind-boggling title sequence by that master of cartoon lunacy, Hal Seeger (?). Read why on our new Porky Pig Show page.

Posted 5:36 AM by Dave

Goodbye, Public Service

The price of progress: energy company Excelon, which just purchased PSEG (the holding company which owns Public Service Electric and Gas), says the company will assume the name of its corporate parent, laying to rest a proud name in New Jersey energy and transportation circles for the last century.

We do our part in keeping the Public Service alive here.

Posted 4:21 PM by Dave

We Don't Go Down Often...

... but when we do, it's a doozy. Our hard drive on our server at Webmasters failed, so a new one is being installed and backup is being prepared. If you can see this message, then we're back up. (The reason this notification is so late is because of a firewall issue.)

Posted 7:16 PM by Dave

Poker Is The New Wrestling

I was watching an episode of the syndicated "Ultimate Poker Challenge", which airs very high channel numbers in a lot of markets, and I came to the above conclusion today.

Robair, who was in the room with me, noted, "All you gotta do is give Vince McMahon a deck of marked cards and let his wrestlers have at it."

Back to the above observation: the plethora of televised poker has reached a point where it is as ubiquitous as pro wrestling was in the days of the WCW/WWF (or, as it was originally called, WWWF) rivalry. Now, sadly, WCW is no more, and WWE (as it's now called) has the market pretty much to itself.

Now, as for poker, you've got the aforementioned syndicated show, Travel's "World Poker Tour", Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown", the new "Poker Royale" premiering tomorrow night on GSN, the endless ESPN rebroadcasts of "World Series Of Poker", and Fox Sports has "Championship Poker at the Plaza" and a show currently not on its schedule, the British import "Late Night Poker". NBC is even planning on televising poker sometime this winter (NBC, of course, owns Bravo, so they know how well "CPS" has done for them). So there's gotta be a shakeout real soon.

But do all these shows, now, feel they have to tell us how to play No Limit Texas Hold 'Em every time out? Anyone who's seen enough of it has probably picked up the rules. It's like baseball - you're not told the basics of how the game is played every time it's broadcast. So, to modify a trademark phrase of a certain tournament director - "SHUT UP AND DEAL!" (I'd also like to see a little more balance as far as keeping younger viewers away from the card tables until they're of age, not to mention messages deterring compulsive/problem gamblers to get help.)

UPDATE: GSN does indeed carry advisories on "Poker Royale" advising against compulsive gambling and promotes the 1-800-GAMBLER phone number, for those who need help with that sort of thing. To my knowledge, it's the only televised poker extravaganza that does so.

Posted 4:01 PM by Dave

The Answer Is...."Offer to do his taxes free for life"

How does America's leading tax preparation company get publicity out of Ken Jennings' loss?