Posts tagged television network
“Morning Glory” Delightful Look at Today’s Television
Dec 9th
“Delightful Look at Today’s Television”
MORNING GLORY is an amusing little comedy about the people in charge of a television network’s morning show trying to increase their ratings and keep from being canceled.
Starring Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, and Diane Keaton, the movie can bring back memories of when these morning shows were more about news than they were about entertainment, more about information than they were about ratings, and when they didn’t require their hosts to become buffoons.
Good times.
McAdams plays Becky Fuller, who gets fired from her producer’s job on a morning show in New Jersey and finally gets an interview in New York City for the job of executive producer of “Daybreak,” the morning show on IBS, the fourth-place network.
Jeff Goldblum plays Jerry Barnes, the head of the news division who interviews Becky, and he tells her that her boss in New Jersey had said that Becky was the most promising producer he had ever fired.
Despite that less-than-glowing recommendation and despite the fact that Jerry tells her she has never been an executive producer before and she is too young, she gets the job of executive producer of “Daybreak.”
However, when she shows up for her first day of work and tells the guard in the lobby who she is, he tells her, “Another one? Don’t unpack.”
Becky’s first meeting with her staff is chaotic, but after she takes control, she surprises everybody by firing the male co-host on the spot.
Now she has to find someone to replace him who won’t cost a penny and still get the ratings up, which leads her to Mike Pomeroy, played by Ford, who is still under contract to the network after being fired from the network news desk.
Mike refuses to be the co-host at first, but Becky finds a loophole in his contract and essentially blackmails him to join the show, which annoys the other co-host, Colleen Peck, played by Keaton.
Mike refuses to say the word “fluffy,” Colleen insists on being the one to say “Goodbye” at the end of the show, and you can see where all this bickering is going to end.
Even so, it is very funny getting there.
MORNING GLORY is a delightful look at today’s television, and for some a wish that it would become as serious as it used to be.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Morning Glory – Movie Trailer
Dec 6th
A romantic comedy set in the hilarious and dysfunctional world of morning television. When hard-working TV producer Becky Fuller (McAdams) is fired from a local news program, her career begins to look as bleak as her hapless love life. Stumbling into a job at “Daybreak” (the last-place national morning news show), Becky decides to revitalize the show by bringing on legendary TV anchor Mike Pomeroy (Ford). Unfortunately, Pomeroy refuses to cover morning show staples like celebrity gossip, weather, fashion and crafts, let alone work with his new co-host, Colleen Peck (Keaton), a former beauty queen and longtime morning show personality, who is more than happy covering morning “news.” As Mike and Colleen clash, first behind the scenes and then on the air, Becky’s blossoming love affair with fellow producer, Adam Bennett (Wilson) begins to unravel. And soon Becky is struggling to save her relationship, her reputation, her job and ultimately, the show itself.
“Frost/Nixon” Worthy Opponents
Dec 31st
Worthy Opponents
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
FROST/NIXON is the fantastic film based on the award-winning stage play, and if you think it is going to consist of two men playing David Frost and former president Richard Nixon just sitting down and conducting the interviews that resulted in the May 1977 broadcasts, think again.
Directed by Ron Howard and starring Michael Sheen as Frost and Frank Langella as Nixon, the film covers the time between August 1974 when Nixon became the only president to resign while in office and immediately after the last interview was broadcast three years later.
In other words, we also see the beginning of Frost’s idea to conduct the interviews in order to rejuvenate his own career in television, the tricky negotiations to get Nixon to agree, the preparations on both sides for the taping of the interviews, and then the interviews themselves, which resulted in Nixon’s famous exclamation, “I’m saying that when the president does it, it’s not illegal!”
Yes, there are many obvious parallels between Nixon’s presidency and the current President Bush Administration and the situation in Iraq, and those parallels are obviously intentional.
It was also obvious from the film that Nixon didn’t agree to the interviews just to set the record straight. He was paid $600,000 and would receive 20% of any profits, the interviews took place in a rented house not far from Nixon’s home in San Clemente, California, Nixon would not see the questions beforehand, and Frost had total editorial control of the finished product.
The only stipulation was that no more than 25% of the interview would be about Watergate, and as we see from the film, that led to a controversial discussion as to the definition of “Watergate.”
Kevin Bacon plays Jack Brennan, an aide to Nixon who figures prominently in the preparations, and based on the film’s publicity, you might not even have realized that he appears in the film.
Even given the importance of the two people involved and the subject matter of the interviews, Frost and his producer had a difficult time selling advertising for the project and even getting a television network to air the results.
If you want to see the finished product as broadcast, those interviews are now available on DVD.
FROST/NIXON is an excellent dramatization of those worthy opponents, and there is suspense up until the final shot.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
