Rumbling, stumbling, bumbling: Chris Berman enters his 30th year with ESPN

From the Associated Press, by way of Yahoo! News:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081225/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_espn_berman

Bizarro’s 2008 Year in Review: Events Not Widely Reported

We are partial, of course, to the Nov. 2 listing:

http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20081228&name=Bizarro

Ed Robertson
Author, MAVERICK: LEGEND OF THE WEST and other books on television
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner

The Best and Worst of 2008: This Week on TV CONFIDENTIAL

The year in television will be the focus this week on TV CONFIDENTIAL, Tuesday, Dec. 30 beginning at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org.

2008 said goodbye to The Shield and The Wire, but hello to Swingtown and Life on Mars. It was a year that saw the election of a new president, and an award-winning HBO series about the life of one of our first presidents. It was also a year in which Saturday Night Live rose once again to watercooler status… while CNN went just a bit overboard with some of its high-tech graphics. We’ll look at the good, the bad, the ridiculous and the sublime… both as we see it, and as you see it as well.

Join Frankie Montiforte and me, along with our guest, David Krell, as we look back in the year in television—the good, the bad, the ridiculous and the sublime… both as we see it, and as you see it as well. It all starts Tuesday, Dec. 30 beginning at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org.

Ed Robertson
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes

Obama to boldly go where no geek has gone before

From the Associated Press:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ixvi5avc-QWh9S5ygTyJrsysIVaAD9595LI00

See also Wired’s Five Signs President-elect Obama Is a Geek:

http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/11/5-signs-preside.html

Lines I Wished I’d Thought of First: “NBC executives are the Detroit Lions of broadcast television”

From San Francisco Chronicle TV columnist Tim Goodman’s overview of the year in television:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/24/DD3P14QU7R.DTL

Don’t forget to tune to our next broadcast, Tuesday, Dec. 30, when Frankie and I weigh in on the Best and Worst of TV in 2008, along with our guest, TV historian David Krell.

Ed Robertson
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner

Fitzgerald on film

In light of the release of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the Golden Globe-nominated film starring Brad Pitt, which was based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle takes a look at other notable (and not so notable) movie adaptations of the works of the author of The Great Gatsby:

 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/24/DDA814JQ3L.DTL&type=movies

Ed Robertson
Co-Host, TV CONFIDENTIAL
Every other Tuesday at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner

Hulu.com convincing skeptics

From the Associated Press, by way of SFGate.com:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/12/18/entertainment/e181306S71.DTL

Majel Barrett Roddenberry dies at 76; widow of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry kept the legacy of the series alive

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-roddenberry19-2008dec19,0,1017655.story

Cheryl Burke: Dancing for the holidays

Cheryl Burke may have finished a disappointing fifth last month on TV’s Dancing with the Stars, but that has hardly slowed her down. The Bay Area native, Menlo-Atherton High School graduate (Class of ’02) and two-time Emmy-nominated choreographer is not only busy expanding her Cheryl Burke Dance Studio in San Francisco, but recently partnered with Crest for its “What’s Your Catch Phrase?” contest, a national promotion that asks Americans to create a catch phrase that describes how the flavors of Crest’s new whitening products makes them feel. Burke’s catch phrase? “Makes me dance.” “My dad is a dentist,” she explains. “He doesn’t really relate to the dancing part of my career, but he was very excited that I teamed up with Crest.”

Burke and her TV dance partner this season, Olympic gold medalist sprinter Maurice Greene, will be among the cast of celebrities performing in 37 cities across the country this winter as part of Dancing with the Stars: The Tour, the live show based on the top-rated ABC reality competition series. I had a chance to chat with her recently for The Wave Magazine:

http://thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=26911

Ed Robertson
www.tvconfidential.net

From USA Weekend: The ultimate pop culture museum pop quiz

http://www.usaweekend.com/08_issues/081207/081207american-quiz.html