Mike Asks WHAT THE HECK? about Television

CONAN...WE WILL MISS THEE...REALLY WE WILL!

Conan has left the building and some people have expressed a "hurrah" for this fact. Some people just didn't get Conan's humor. We'll call these people..."old." Conan's humor wasn't crass, it wasn't toilet, it wasn't most crap on Comedy Central. (Okay, once in a very great while it is.)

It was goofy. It was "cartoonish." It was geeky. It was dead-on at times. I heard one conservative "humorist" say what's the new thing that Conan will do next? Hopefully be funny, he said. Another columnist said Conan's fans (I'm with Coco) won't stick around for him when he comes back "somewhere" in September.

THEY WILL. I would be more worried for the "Leno Fans." Those folks are more likely to stroke out on their TV dinner trays before he comes back to the Tonight Show after the Winter Olympics. Leno will come back and DO THE EXACT SAME STUPID SHOW he did at 11:35 before and at 10pm for the past 4 months. His audience has moved on (or died). Letterman should be so happy. He does a consistently great show on a consistently consistent network that lets him continue consistently. Craig Ferguson is a genius on after him. Fallon is a joke. The Roots are an amazing band. I grew up with Kimmel's kind in the San Fernando Valley so I am sick of him...though he sometimes makes me laugh.

So in conclusion I am a sucky blog writer but I had something to say this Saturday afternoon, post Conan finale. I will miss the man that made me laugh, that made me cry (this week--thanks Adam), and who will someday bring back a sunny day to my TV later this year.

By the way, I don't watch TV. It's a fact. I watch it all on the internet. Hulu, if you must know. And the only two shows I watch are Conan and "The Dog Whisperer." I'd watch "How I Met Your Mother" but I'm so behind that at this point I'm just going to buy the entire DVD set when it finally comes out.

That show's on CBS, interestingly enough.

I Love "Saturday Night Live"...On Hulu!

"Saturday Night Live" has been busting me up lately. I will never watch it on TV, though. I love watching it on Hulu, where they strip it down to just the main skits.

Kristin Wiig is the reason for the resurgence. She is the most talented comedy actor I have seen in a long while, and she is brilliant with her observations of how certain types of people act. Her impression of a crazy, older Target cashier is amazing! She does a fantastic Nancy Pelosi. If a skit is lagging, she immediately jump starts it with her presence.

The rest of the cast is fantastic and the return of Jimmy Fallon once in a while for the "Barry Gibb Talk Show" with Justin Timberlake is strange and hilarious. Of course, Andy Samberg is doing a tremendous job, too.

Today's WHAT THE HECK has to do with why I won't watch the show on TV...too many commercials! On Hulu or if you go directly to NBC's website you can watch the main skits of the show with maybe a one minute commercial at the most. Why do people even watch TV anymore? I heard Brian Williams talking in his whiny voice during Jay Leno's last week (also online) that "guys like us" are into the way things used to be. We don't want change. Let's look at the benefits of watching shows online: very few commercials (something that Brian's show is full of, he admitted as much on Jay's show) and I HAVE CONTROL (except for when the TV network decides to pull a show). I have not had my TV on in over a year and you know what? I don't have to. All you need is a nice big computer screen and you're set (what once was a "monitor" is now a canvas).

Oh, 2 more WHAT THE HECK's. As you've read right here on this blog, it is this blogger's opinion that at some point in the not s0 distant future that there will come to fruition the GREAT RADIO UNIFICATION THEORY. This is where all radio stations will just rebroadcast feed from one of what I see is 5 main sources. I'm not sure what these sources are, but there will be NO local radio dj's to broadcast their shows. It will all come from these "networks" similar to the way TV works now with the 4 major networks. I see this happening due to the shrinking advertising income radio stations are getting today and how people have so many better choices for media at their disposal.

This theory took a step closer to coming true this week when one of the mainstays of the radio business, the newspaper where all dj's looked for the latest news and jobs, Radio & Records, folded (or will fold tomorrow). All those die-hard conservative old fogies who populate the dial today are shaking in their record-company-bought boots for what this means. All these guys had this paper on their desk, whether they read it or not. Now it's gone. I'm serious, this is like we as Americans waking up one day and finding the Lincoln Memorial gone. An integral part of what it means to be an American would be lost. Radio is going through something like this now.

However, radio NEEDS TO CHANGE. Earlier this week, from out of nowhere, a weather microburst hit my house. Rain, hail, lightning, the wind swirling like a tornado taking shape, and the local media SAID NOTHING. We tuned to all the local radio stations...nothing. We checked out the local TV stations...nothing. We looked at all the websites that belong to the local media...nothing. The only way I had to find out about this disastrous weather was by accessing a local doplar radar. As I have said in past blogs, the Internet is the fastest, easiest way to get information in time of need. You don't have to wait to hear what's going on, you get it instantly. Of course, that assumes your power and your Internet connection stay on. A perfect situation would be radio giving us information, but since it's busy running a computer program with no dj's in the studio, we must rely on the Internet. Radio and TV have taken away the last important reason (and, in reality, the foremost reason) for their existence.

Wow, from Kristin Wiig to the death of all known media. This blog covered a gamut.

Don't forget that you live in the digital age! You can get information and entertainment whenever YOU want! Get familiar with your computer and your search engine, and speaking of which, a new search engine just launched so now you have even MORE ways to find what you want. If you don't know how, your next search should be this topic..."HOW TO SEARCH ON THE INTERNET!"