SteveSilver.net

Convention TV Notes

- On Thursday night C-SPAN replayed Bush’s speech while C-SPAN2 unspooled the 2000 version; the difference was like night and day. Bush looked uncomfortably nervous at the podium back then, and had that ever-present squint that made him look more like Will Ferrell’s impression than the Bush of today.

- The Wednesday “Daily Show” segment making fun of the Zell Miller speech may be an all-time high-water mark for that show, which is reaching new heights practically, well, daily during this campaign. And speaking of Stewart, that Ted Koppel quote from the other night was:

"For the sake of argument, let's say President Bush comes out there Thursday night and out of the blue talks about that well-known drug dealer and pedophile Ted Koppel… And my colleagues then, the next morning say the President of the United States last night in a surprising diversion from the rest of his speech accused ABC host Ted Koppel of being a pedophile and a drug dealer. Are they factually correct in reporting that the President of the United States said that? Is it news that he said that? Sure it is."

- Before signing off Thursday night, Chris Matthews thanked all his producers and numerous other off-camera people, but did not see fit to thank the security guards who saved him from that guy who charged the set.

- And finally, MSNBC’s “After Hours” segment on Thursday night with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was one of television’s great moments. In fifteen minutes Triumph:

- Shattered a longstanding on-air taboo by telling Mike Barnicle “don’t steal any of my jokes.”

- Teased calling Ron Reagan gay, before switching gears and saying that he supports stem-cell research because “it might make my testicles grew back.”

- Made numerous “there are only five people watching right now” jokes.

- And best of all, in a face-off of two of his blog’s icons, Triumph went head-to-head with Ron Silver- and Silver began debating issues of war and peace with Triumph, before catching himself and realizing that he was arguing with a plastic dog puppet.

All of this, mind you, took place at about 2:15 in the morning, a timeslot much more conducive to Triumph’s talents than 8:00, which may explain his lackluster recent appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor.” The early time slot prevented him from making many of the obvious jokes (“Fox News is about as fair and balanced as my nutsack”; “We report, you decide, for me to poop on.”) Then again, if O’Reilly knew that Triumph creator Robert Smigel was discovered and brought to “Saturday Night Live” by his nemesis Al Franken, the interview never would’ve happened in the first place.

Posted by Stephen Silver at September 6, 2004 03:20 AM