Pee Wee's Playhouse is Back!

We haven't seen much of Paul Reubens a.k.a. Pee Wee Herman since his incident in an adult movie theatre in the early 1990s. 20 years ago in 1986 his innovative children's program Pee Wee's Playhouse premiered on CBS Saturday mornings. The show is now airing on Cartoon Network during their Adult Swim lineup. I always got a kick out of the show and I think Pee Wee is a unique, comical alter ego for Reubens. The show had a 5 year run and won 22 Emmy awards. The wacky theme song was performed by Cyndi Lauper and it was written by Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. Laurence Fishburne played a character named Cowboy Curtis and Phil Hartman played Captain Carl. Reubens and Hartman had worked together at the L.A. improv group The Groundlings, the equivalent of Chicago's Second City. Pee Wee shared his playhouse with many odd characters, like Jambi the genie, Globey the globe and Conky the robot. Conky would give Pee Wee the day's secret word. Whenever anyone uttered the word, everyone would scream. Reubens made 2 films featuring Pee Wee, including Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Big Top Pee Wee. His 3rd film is now in the works.

Soup is Good Food

One of my favorite TV shows is "The Soup" on E! Entertainment television. It airs at 10 pm eastern time Fridays and replays several times during the week. It is similar to VH1's "Best Week Ever" but "The Soup" has been around longer. The current host is Joel McHale, but over the years it has also been hosted by Greg Kinnear, John Henson and Hal Sparks. Roger Lodge from "Blind Date" has filled in a few times too. Kinnear went on to do NBC's "Later" program, once hosted by Bob Costas, and a successful film career. 2 of his best performances were in "As Good as it Gets" and this summer's excellent indie film "Little Miss Sunshine". John Henson currently hosts programs for the TV Guide channel. Anyway, "The Soup" started as "Talk Soup" since when it originated there was a plethora of talk shows such as Ricki Lake, Sally Jessy Raphael, Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Oprah and more. The show would feature clips from the week's programs punctuated by a smarmy comment by the host. Now the show talks about all types of shows, not just talk shows, so the name has been changed to simply "The Soup". The program shows clips from programs like Rock Star, Big Brother, Dancing with the Stars, Ellen, The Today Show, The View, Flavor of Love and others. Certain segments are featured each week, like chat stew, reality show clip time, clip of the week, chicks man, and let's take some E!, which has a clip from an E! network show. "Talk Soup" is funny since it takes all of the weird, crazy, amusing, or even disturbing clips from the strange world of television and wraps them up into 30 minutes. If a celebrity does or says something stupid during the week, you can be assured that it will show up on this show.

Dave, Tom and Bart

59-year-old David Letterman has signed a 4 year contract extension with CBS. He will continue hosting the Late Show from New York's Ed Sullivan Theatre until 2010. Letterman hosted NBC's Late Night with David Letterman from Rockefeller Plaza from 1982-1993. After losing out on hosting The Tonight Show, he moved to CBS in 1993 and has been there ever since. 1993 was also the year that Conan O'Brien took over Letterman's old NBC time slot. In 2009, Conan and Letterman will go head-to-head, when O'Brien takes over for Jay Leno. In the past year, Leno has averaged 5.71 million viewers while Letterman trails with 4.16 million. If Letterman stays in late night until 2012, he will have tied his hero Johnny Carson, with 30 years in the business.

Oprah couch-jumper and parent of the seldom seen Suri, Tom Cruise no longer has a deal with film giant Paramount Pictures. His obsession with scientology and run-ins with Brooke Shields and a "glib" Matt Lauer were most likely the cause of his contract not being renewed. Paramount chief Sumner Redstone said "As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal." It's a public relations crisis, and it just goes to show that what a star does off camera can hurt a career as well as what is done in front of the camera. Are you listening Mel Gibson? Star Jones? Maybe Cruise could start an all scientologists movie studio with films starring himself, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Jenna Elfman, Leah Remini, etc.

This fall marks the 18th season for The Simpsons! This year will include the 400th episode. Creator Matt Groening has come a long way from drawing an obscure comic called Life in Hell to making one of the most successful, funniest shows in the history of television. The Simpsons started out as animated shorts featured on The Tracey Ullman Show in the early days of the Fox network. This year will have many guest stars as always, ranging from Dr. Phil to Richard Lewis. Anyone interested in the show should check out the biography by Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson). It's called My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy. It tells of her early years working as a voice over artist as well as her big break working on the Simpsons. Her mentor was Daws Butler, who was the voice of Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound.

* Some source material is from Entertainment Weekly magazine.

The Bible Belt's Country Outlaw

Anyone who has an appreciation for country music owes it to themselves to check out the work of Travis Tritt. He incorporates his many influences from three genres to craft a unique sound. He has admired the work of folk type artists like James Taylor and John Denver, classic country greats like George Jones and Merle Haggard, and southern rock groups like The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Travis always begins his concerts with one of his early hits "Put Some Drive in Your Country." A line in this song says "I made myself a promise, when I was just a kid, I'd mix southern rock and country, and that's just what I did." Another lyric of his says "Man I miss Duane Allman, I wish he was still around". He has replaced this name in the song with Stevie Ray Vaughn and Waylon Jennings over the years, to pay tribute to other heroes of his who are gone. Tritt grew up in Marietta Georgia and started playing guitar at age 8. He wrote his first song at age 14. In 1988 he signed a deal with Warner Brothers records and released his first album, "Country Club" a year later. The release was a huge hit, showcasing Travis' songwriting skills and he was declared top new male artist in 1990 by Billboard magazine. In 1992 he was humbled with the great honor of becoming a member of the Grand Ole Opry. The early 1990s was a time of growth for country music and other artists from Tritt's era included Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Joe Diffie and Vince Gill. All of these performers were also inducted into the Opry. Curiously, some great artists who are not Opry members are George Strait, Brooks and Dunn and Alabama, as well as many others. Opry members must perform 20 times per year at the venue, so maybe those like Strait were offered the chance to join, but turned it down due to time commitments. Travis Tritt was instrumental in reuniting The Eagles, and he recorded his own rendition of "Take it Easy". I have seen Travis in concert 4 times, and would see him again in a heartbeat. He is someone who gives 110% at every performance, and he is a magnetic entertainer who seems to love playing for his audiences. He will even perform cover tunes of some of his favorite songs. The last time I saw him he played songs by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Waylon Jennings and even "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi.

Here is a discography of Tritt's albums from oldest to newest. My favorites are his early recordings, from Country Club through Ten Feet Tall and Bulletproof.

Country Club
It's all about to Change
A Travis Tritt Christmas/Loving Time of Year
T-R-O-U-B-L-E
Ten Feet Tall and Bulletproof
Greatest Hits-from the Beginning
The Restless Kind
No More Looking Over my Shoulder
Down the Road I Go
Strong Enough
My Honky Tonk History

Goodbye Diamond Dave, hello O&A!

After disastrous ratings, CBS radio has dismissed Howard Stern's replacement, former Van Halen frontman, David Lee Roth. When Stern left for Sirius satellite radio earlier this year, Roth went on the air in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Dallas and other cities as his replacement. Other Stern affiliates were turned over to TV and radio veteran Adam Carolla, formerly of The Man Show and Loveline. It seemed odd that CBS radio would hire Roth, a man with no radio experience, to host a show which would air in the biggest markets in the nation. Their move has backfired, and it looks like he will be replaced by XM's Opie and Anthony. O&A were fired by CBS radio 4 years ago and currently air on XM's High Voltage channel 202 along with fellow New York radio hosts Ron and Fez. Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia will be on XM 5 hours per day, and 3 hours of that will be on broadcast stations. Upon hearing the news, Howard Stern appeared bitter, stating that this shows that O&A have failed on satellite radio. I think that this move will only help O&A and XM, convincing people to pay for the service to hear the whole program. Only 10% of Stern's audience has followed him to satellite radio. XM shares are around $25 per share, while Sirius is around $5. Some thought that Sirius stock would soar after Stern's arrival in January, but just the opposite has happened. Sirius has put all their eggs in one basket with Stern, which was a mistake. XM concentrates on improving many aspects of their programming, from sports, talk, comedy, and music. XM is a multi faceted service, which will come out the winner in the long run. On a personal note, I like a lot of O&A's material, but some of it crosses the line, and is too mean spirited. Their sidekick Jim Norton, is an aquired taste, whom not all listeners will appreciate. About 70% of the time I like O&A, but the other 30% I just turn off. I prefer Ron and Fez, since they are funny and edgy, but yet they do not feature the cringe humor which is rampant on O&A. I'd like to see more shows added to XM 202, perhaps the Indianapolis team of Bob and Tom.