“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-16 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from week of September 19, 2016
This Week’s Podcast:
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Miss America, Really?
Like most people, I have those moments when I stop and think, “Wait, that still happens?” or more commonly, “Wait, they’re still alive?”. I had the same feeling last week when someone mentioned the “Miss America” pageant to me. I had completely forgotten that that venerable bit of Americana still existed.
A quick history. The Miss America contest grew out of a bathing beauty contest in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the early 1920s. It grew to be a national phenomenon. By the time of its first TV broadcast in 1954, the pageant drew twenty-seven million viewers. The competition has changed over the years. The talent portion of the competition was added, and the prizes changed from furs and movie contracts (although the first winner, 16-year-old Margaret Gorman got one hundred bucks) to scholarship money. The pageant hasn’t been without controversy. The only Jewish winner, 1945’s Miss New York, Bess Myerson, had her official duties cut back due to anti-Semitism. While the rule requiring contestants to be white was eliminated in 1950, the first African American contestant didn’t happen till 1970 and the first black winner was Vanessa Williams in 1983. She faced negative reaction based on her race, at this year’s pageant the director of the organization issued an apology to her. That kind of racial attacks hasn’t gone away. 2014’s winner, Miss New York, Nina Davuluri, an Indian-American was attacked extensively in social media.
Through all of that, the pageant has continued to toddle along. It long ago lost its touchstone status in American culture. The idea that women should be judged based on their appearance in evening wear and swimsuit competitions has long past its sell by date. Additionally, the talent competition has been fodder for decades of satire. There are plenty of places where young women (you still have to be between seventeen and twenty-four to compete) can show their many talents in competition.
Over the years, the television ratings for the competition have declined. Once a staple of network tv, it slipped onto cable channels for a while. This year saw it on ABC. The network finished third for the evening. Over the last several years had seen the ratings on the decline, although they seemed to have stabilized from last year to this. What shouldn’t surprise anyone is that viewership in the younger demographics have declined precipitously. The one place that does show a big turn out for the pageant among younger demos is on Twitter. And it’s about what you would expect.
There’s little doubt that the days of the Miss America pageant, at least as we know it today, are numbered. What was once appointment TV for the nation has become something that many viewers would probably be embarrassed to admit they watched.
A quick history. The Miss America contest grew out of a bathing beauty contest in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the early 1920s. It grew to be a national phenomenon. By the time of its first TV broadcast in 1954, the pageant drew twenty-seven million viewers. The competition has changed over the years. The talent portion of the competition was added, and the prizes changed from furs and movie contracts (although the first winner, 16-year-old Margaret Gorman got one hundred bucks) to scholarship money. The pageant hasn’t been without controversy. The only Jewish winner, 1945’s Miss New York, Bess Myerson, had her official duties cut back due to anti-Semitism. While the rule requiring contestants to be white was eliminated in 1950, the first African American contestant didn’t happen till 1970 and the first black winner was Vanessa Williams in 1983. She faced negative reaction based on her race, at this year’s pageant the director of the organization issued an apology to her. That kind of racial attacks hasn’t gone away. 2014’s winner, Miss New York, Nina Davuluri, an Indian-American was attacked extensively in social media.
Through all of that, the pageant has continued to toddle along. It long ago lost its touchstone status in American culture. The idea that women should be judged based on their appearance in evening wear and swimsuit competitions has long past its sell by date. Additionally, the talent competition has been fodder for decades of satire. There are plenty of places where young women (you still have to be between seventeen and twenty-four to compete) can show their many talents in competition.
Over the years, the television ratings for the competition have declined. Once a staple of network tv, it slipped onto cable channels for a while. This year saw it on ABC. The network finished third for the evening. Over the last several years had seen the ratings on the decline, although they seemed to have stabilized from last year to this. What shouldn’t surprise anyone is that viewership in the younger demographics have declined precipitously. The one place that does show a big turn out for the pageant among younger demos is on Twitter. And it’s about what you would expect.
There’s little doubt that the days of the Miss America pageant, at least as we know it today, are numbered. What was once appointment TV for the nation has become something that many viewers would probably be embarrassed to admit they watched.
R.I.P. Crazy Eddie
One of the fascinating things about the advent of cable TV was that suddenly you began to see advertising from places other than your hometown. Television advertising has always had its share of, shall we say, unique personalities. But they were always local celebrities prior to cable bringing us television stations from all over the nation. So while I was very aware of the Pittsburgh advertising icon Aunt Penny from the Kenny Ross auto dealerships, I had never heard of Wisconsin’s Madman Muntz. Then cable arrived, and with it came “Crazy Eddie”.
Now if you grew up around New York City, then the Crazy Eddie stores and commercials were familiar to you. A crazed guy would come on and talk at an incredible speed about all the amazing prices on electronics at the store. He ended every commercial with the tagline “His prices are IN-SAAAAAAAAAAANE!”. Most of us associate the actor, former radio DJ Jerry Carroll, with the character of Crazy Eddie. The truth is that there was a real Crazy Eddie and he passed away last week.
The man behind it all was Eddie Antar. Along with his cousin, and father, Antar started an electronics store in Brooklyn. In short order, the store went through several names before landing on “Crazy Eddies” and it expanded into Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The series of TV spots featuring Carroll made the stores something of a touchstone in the tri-state area.
Antar was the son of Syrian immigrants from the city of Aleppo, who dropped out of school because it bored him. Shortly thereafter he started the store and the rest was history. With the distinctive advertising and profit margins on each item sold kept very, very low, the stores took off. Eddie latched on to the VCR craze and rode it to success. By the early ’80s, he took his company public. That was when the trouble began. Antar was accused of manipulating the stock for his own gain, his first wife accused him of cheating her in the divorce and the feds began to investigate charges that Antar was flying to Israel with money strapped to his body. It turned out that the company was losing massive amounts of money. There were a number of members of Antar’s family running the business and some of them were involved in the business frauds being investigated. The stores closed, Eddie Antar was taken to court where he eventually took a deal and spent seven years in jail.
But once upon a time, Eddie Antar was the real life person behind a television advertising icon. They were ads you stopped and watched so you could see the latest craziness. It was all in-saaaaaaaaane.
Eddie Antar was sixty-eight years old.
Fallon and Trump
A recurring topic on this program has to do with the news and journalism in general. As a rule, I am usually taking someone to task for not living up to journalistic standards or discussing those standards. So today, let’s do something different. In fact, let’s talk about why the criticism of a major television host for NOT playing the journalist is wrong.
In this case, we are talking about one James Thomas Fallon, the host of NBC’s late-night standard bearer, The Tonight Show. Recently, Fallon, who has been the host of the show since 2014, had Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump on the show. Fallon had fun with the controversial political candidate. They joked about Trump’s hair, which is an object of some interest to some people, and Jimmy went so far as to ruffle the Donald’s do.
When candidates show up on these shows there is usually some backlash about whether or not they are properly dignified for people running for high office. In this case, the criticism hasn’t been towards the candidate but to the host. Fallon is getting clobbered in many corners for not asking the hard political questions to the candidate. I think Jimmy gave the perfect answer when asked about it after the Emmy’s broadcast. His response?
“Have you seen my show?”
Politicians running for President have been on television shows like the Tonight Show for decades. The first was John F. Kennedy, on Jack Paar’s Tonight Show in 1960. Don’t forget Richard Nixon dropping by Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In to ask “Sock It To Me?”. Bill Clinton played the sax on Arsenio Hall’s show in ’92, Sarah Palin rapped on Saturday Night Live in 2008. There’s nothing new here, and none of them went on these shows to have serious policy discussions. They went on to show their human side. To expect Jimmy Fallon to suddenly transform into legendary Buffalo news icon Tim Russert is just, well, stupid.
Fallon saw his hate mail rise by 2000% on Twitter following the show, and many other talking heads have chosen to criticize him as well. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Jimmy Fallon isn’t a journalist. He doesn’t even pretend to be one. The Tonight Show isn’t a news show. It never has been. Show me a serious news program with a history of things like the “Amazing Karnak” and we’ll talk. Truth be told, this has nothing to do with journalism or Fallon. The criticism is coming from people who don’t like Trump and believe he should be attacked at all possible opportunities.
That’s bad entertainment programming and even worse journalism. Jimmy Fallon did exactly what he should do. Leave him alone.
In this case, we are talking about one James Thomas Fallon, the host of NBC’s late-night standard bearer, The Tonight Show. Recently, Fallon, who has been the host of the show since 2014, had Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump on the show. Fallon had fun with the controversial political candidate. They joked about Trump’s hair, which is an object of some interest to some people, and Jimmy went so far as to ruffle the Donald’s do.
When candidates show up on these shows there is usually some backlash about whether or not they are properly dignified for people running for high office. In this case, the criticism hasn’t been towards the candidate but to the host. Fallon is getting clobbered in many corners for not asking the hard political questions to the candidate. I think Jimmy gave the perfect answer when asked about it after the Emmy’s broadcast. His response?
“Have you seen my show?”
Politicians running for President have been on television shows like the Tonight Show for decades. The first was John F. Kennedy, on Jack Paar’s Tonight Show in 1960. Don’t forget Richard Nixon dropping by Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In to ask “Sock It To Me?”. Bill Clinton played the sax on Arsenio Hall’s show in ’92, Sarah Palin rapped on Saturday Night Live in 2008. There’s nothing new here, and none of them went on these shows to have serious policy discussions. They went on to show their human side. To expect Jimmy Fallon to suddenly transform into legendary Buffalo news icon Tim Russert is just, well, stupid.
Fallon saw his hate mail rise by 2000% on Twitter following the show, and many other talking heads have chosen to criticize him as well. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Jimmy Fallon isn’t a journalist. He doesn’t even pretend to be one. The Tonight Show isn’t a news show. It never has been. Show me a serious news program with a history of things like the “Amazing Karnak” and we’ll talk. Truth be told, this has nothing to do with journalism or Fallon. The criticism is coming from people who don’t like Trump and believe he should be attacked at all possible opportunities.
That’s bad entertainment programming and even worse journalism. Jimmy Fallon did exactly what he should do. Leave him alone.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2016
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
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