Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills); Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz); Ruth of Ruth's Report; Trina of Trina's Kitchen; Wally of The Daily Jot; Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.
Jim (Con't): "It's a story, of a man named Brady . . ." Sing those words and chances are, at least in the US, most people will instantly know what you're singing. The theme song to The Brady Bunch. It's one of the best and most well known themes. Let's start by tossing out some other well known ones.
Betty: "You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have, The Facts of Life, The Facts of Life, There's a time you gotta go and show, you're growing now you know about . . ." The Facts of Life theme.
Stan: That's a good one. I'd go further back with, "Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale," Gilligan's Island.
Kat: For me, I'd say the theme to Welcome Back, Kotter. With the "welcome back, welcome back, welcome back." After that, "Moving On Up," the theme to The Jeffersons.
Rebecca: And, of course, Charlie's Angels was one of the classic themes and openings. It sets up the show perfectly, which is what the theme is supposed to do.
Jim: Correct. And these days we rarely get that. In part because there are even more commercials than there were a decade earlier. The FCC obviously approves since they're the ones allowing it. So what you have is shorter themes and more commercials. Is there any show on the air now that really has an opening theme that sets up the show?
Mike: Well the theme is instrumental but, as with Charlie's Angeles, there's a voice over that explains the show, Chuck. It sets up the whole show in the opening.
Elaine: The way Mission Impossible, another famous theme and opening, used to.
Mike: Yeah, maybe spy shows require that.
Isaiah: What I dislike is when they chop up The Simpsons in syndication. Sometimes they lose the opening theme or the full opening theme but most of the time it's the lead in to the credits when they reduce the screen to a tiny box and talk over it so you miss the last scene.
Wally: Yeah, if you want to enjoy The Simpsons or any other animated show, you've pretty much got to get it on DVD because they really slice and dice those episodes in syndication.
Jim: Okay, let's move from music themes to themes or devices. What turns you off quicker than anything else?
Cedric: Voice overs. I want to watch a show, I don't want it to be narrated. I can't stand Grey's Anatomy or How I Met Your Mother for the same reason, they have to layer words over words over words. They don't trust me, the viewer, to grasp what I just saw, they have to yack about it.
Ruth: I would agree with Cedric on that and also add that I am so tired of the comedy device of 'reality show.' I enjoy Parks and Recreations so much . . . until the episode is broken up with someone speaking into a camera and I am reminded that, like The Office and Modern Family, this is a show about a reality show.
Marcia: That was my least favorite part of Arrested Development and, I agree, it's just irritating as hell.
Jess: Right and, as Cedric was pointing out, you've just seen what happens. Instead of allowing you to react to that, they bring on a speech that really drives you out of the moment. I can't stand that sort of thing. It's like watching an Aaron Sorkin show and wondering if the characters will ever shut up.
Dona: On themes, one thing I wanted to toss out was Katie Couric. She has now left the desk and is no longer the anchor of the CBS Evening News. Any thoughts?
Ann: Absolutely. Katie Couric was never going to succeed. It didn't matter what she did. Read "Katie was a Cheerleader" by Ava and C.I. That documents the war on Couric and it's months before she ever anchors. As Ava and C.I. document, people were out to get her, they were out to destroy her. That includes sexists of both genders. Some women just couldn't stand the idea that Couric would succeed. She got great ratings when she debuted. But the attacks on her had only increased and that was really it. She wasn't able to overcome those attacks. No matter what she did. No matter what news the program broke and whether or not she had a hand in it. She did a great job, in my opinion, but she was never going to overcome that wave of hatred.
Dona: So should she have even tried? My opinion's yes, but what's your opinion, Ann?
Ann: I agree with you. Katie Couric could have stepped down at any moment. Instead, she honored her contract and took the lumps and took it for all women -- even those who tried to get ahead by tearing Couric down. Katie Couric is a trailblazer who made history and I thank her for that. And, this is something I'm rushing to weigh in on because I did watch her evening news and I have discussed this a lot with Ava and C.I., if you look at it, Katie blazed the trail and changed the world. If you doubt that, look at Diane Sawyer. Katie was trashed for coming from daytime. Diane becomes the evening news anchor over at ABC shortly after Katie Couric and she gets a pass. It's not fair to Couric but it's a sign of how much Katie Couric accomplished that even the sexists knew they couldn't use the same attacks so soon after deploying them on Couric. So they did, instead, what sexists always do, ignore Sawyer -- who I do not think has done a good job, by the way.
Dona: I agree with you. I haven't talked to Ava and C.I. about it, but -- by the way, they're doing two TV pieces this edition so they're not participating in this roundtable -- Diane Sawyer had it very easy because of all the attacks Katie Couric stood up and took. I don't think anyone's ever been so little criticized when they moved to the evening news as Diane Sawyer was.
Betty: And, of course, last week, Diane and her program didn't even have time to note the 5 US soldiers had died that day in Iraq. Her interviews with officials are always fawning. Katie Couric wasn't afraid to get tough with officials. There was her interview with a VA official that I'm thinking of, in particular.
Jim: If you had to pick a theme for broadcast news in 2011, what would it be?
Ty: "Watch us ignore the Iraq War."
Trina: I was thinking that as well.
Ty: Right because it's the disappeared war. Can you imagine 5 US soldiers dying in one day in any country around the world and a network newscast ignoring that?
Trina: And let's point out that not only was C.I. writing about those deaths Monday morning, NBC's Today Show was reporting on the deaths Monday morning. So for the Monday broadcast of World News Tonight, that evening, to ignore it? There's no excuse. They had more than enough time to prepare something.
Ty: But it's just not important to them so they ignored it. And let's also note that all The NewsHour could do was toss out three measly sentences on the issue.
Trina: But, as Stan pointed out in "PBS is becoming a cesspool," they had time to do a whole segment on a non-sex 'scandal.' As a woman still in my first marriage and the mother of eight children, let me state that if sex isn't involved, it's not a sex scandal. Texting isn't sex. But The NewsHour had time for that but not time to do a segment on the attack on the 5 US soldiers. And they didn't even note it on Wednesday when another US soldier was killed in Iraq. And those five deaths Monday? As Ruth pointed out in "Free Speech Radio News ignores Iraq," Free Speech Radio News didn't cover it in headlines or in a report. 30 minutes of commercial free broadcast and they couldn't even note the death of 5 US soldiers on one day in Iraq.
Jess: With regards to PBS and Pacifica, when I see things like that, when I see them actively ignore the real news, I don't feel any need to contribute to them via a pledge or via my taxes.
Jim: Agreed. And we're going to wind down now. This is a rush transcript, enjoy typos.