trow125

The date for this year's Emmy Awards is Aug. 25 (a Monday night, oddly enough...) and presumably Stephen and a large part of the staff will be out in L.A. for that, hurrying back for Tuesday's new show. Will Stephen be bringing home another statuette for his collection? 8/25/14 DARK 8/26/14 Jeff Bridges & Lois Lowry - "The Giver" 8/27/14 Michael Sheen - "Masters of Sex" 8/28/14 JR - Photographer & Street Artist (rescheduled from earlier in the summer)

I think one of the biggest benefits for comedians who do well on this show is that they can instantly headline clubs anywhere in the country, and get the sort of jobs they would never have gotten before LCS -- Comedy Central specials, gigs at festivals and cruises, big corporate shows, etc. For comics who aspire to a career in stand-up, as opposed to people who see it as a stepping stone to sitcom-ville, that can be a huge boost. Whether or not he wins, I hope Ellen has Rod Man on as a guest for real when her show returns this fall!

My local paper's Sunday entertainment section is always stuffed with interviews with actors who have movies coming out (most of them quite dull since they were probably done at press junkets where they have PR people standing by to make sure nothing spontaneous or interesting gets said), or articles tied to a big movie (like a story on all the times San Francisco has gotten destroyed on film that runs the weekend before the new 'Planet of the Apes' movie is released). In that case, though, I think it's more of a quid pro quo than the "native advertising" discussed in the LWT piece -- the paper will write a lot about movies and in return, there are loads of ads from the big studios. I was glad John mentioned the Scientology ad on the Atlantic's web site, because that was done so ham-handedly that it set off a HUGE firestorm online. For a short time, there was actually a comments section attached to the story (as there are on other Atlantic stories) and I'm sure you can guess how quickly that was taken down. There's some great coverage of the event on Scientology watchdog Tony Ortega's blog, in case anybody wants to see how it was covered at the time (along with statements from The Atlantic admitting that they'd made a mistake).

Oh, my favorite thing about last night's show was Jon's comment at the very top: "You can call me Starlord." (obviously expecting huge response that does not come) "I'm the only guy who saw 'Guardians of the Galaxy' this weekend? [bleep]ing high brow audience. 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me,' did you see that?" I did a spit take when he said that, because I actually attended the live taping of this weekend's WWDTM. Too bad Jon couldn't have had one of the stars of GotG on last night instead of Elisabeth Moss -- they probably would have had a lot more to discuss!

Hoo boy, Jon was working hard to keep that Elisabeth Moss interview going. I personally hate it when I am told that a movie has "a huge twist," since I consider that a spoiler -- if I know there's a twist, I just keep waiting for it and trying to predict what it will be -- so I wish they hadn't focused on that so much. I did enjoy Jon's anecdote near the end of the interview about Donald Rumsfeld, so it wasn't a complete loss.

Here's an interview with Ryan Cooper (conducted well before his LWT appearance). He has apparently done some acting on "One Life to Live," which I'm sure helped prepare him for his role on LWT. And here's his web site, which has about a zillion photos of Ryan.

I suspect "development deal" just means they'll have the opportunity to pitch a show. I'm guessing the chances of a sitcom making it to the air are very, very slim, unless it's some kind of cheapo production that they could air during the summer (perhaps the 9:30, pre-LCS time slot, paired with the just-renewed "Welcome to Sweden"). Much as I have come to enjoy the comedic talents of Rod Man, Joe and Lachlan -- and to a lesser extent, Nikki -- I just can't see any of them anchoring a sitcom. I would be willing to bet that the winner will be added as a mentor next season, though.

I'm actually happy about it, despite Season 1's flaws, because I read in the Swedish press that they have some new writers coming in. Speaking of the Swedish media: one story that got some coverage over there involved Greg's feud with a Swedish TV critic who wrote a negative review of WtS. Greg posted several nasty comments about the critic under a pseudonym, and the IP address used to post the comments (which were described as "personal attacks") were traced back to him. There's a story about it here in case anyone is curious enough to run it through Google Translate. When confronted, Greg said he had made a very bad decision and called the situation "a nightmare."

Their dark weeks last year were 8/19 and 8/26, so it's not too far off. In 2012 they only took off the week of 8/20, because of the political conventions, but then they took off a week in September, which presumably they won't do this year. (I'm hoping Jon's film will screen in Toronto on the weekend so he won't need to miss any days hosting TDS!)

I thought it was interesting when Rocky mentioned something about having seen Jay Leno "coming up" in the clubs. I hadn't realized how old he was, but he's 55 according to this article. I wonder if Joe Machi was trying something different with this performance -- the whole routine was a series of unrelated jokes, which I don't think we've seen him do before. Maybe since the judges have had so much exposure to him over the past few weeks thanks to the head-to-heads he felt he should shake things up a little. Anyway, I hope that was his aim, rather than he's running out of material. We'll find out on Thursday, I guess.

There are probably places where you can get them year-round, but I have visited Sweden during the summer several times during the past few years and I have yet to see one. The last time I was there in early spring, on the other hand, they were ubiquitous. Looks like ratings are down (though I would rather watch 100 episodes of "WtS" than one ep of "Big Brother") -- I haven't heard whether or not NBC has decided whether to pick the show up or not (as previously mentioned, it's already been renewed in Sweden). Apparently they will be adding some new (better?) writers, in any case, according to a report in the Swedish media.

Next week's guests include Moshe Kasher, Donnell Rawlings and Jesse Joyce (Monday, August 4); Rob Riggle, Rob Huebel and Owen Burke (Tuesday, August 5); Kurt Braunohler, Jessimae Peluso and Jason Biggs (Wednesday, August 6); and Doug Benson, Steve Agee and Megan Neuringer (Thursday, August 7). ...followed by two weeks off, so no more new shows 'til the 25th.

Yeah, this was my least favorite Bruce moment of all the episodes I've seen so far. Plus, there's the added irritation that the show is supposed to be taking place in the summer, and semlor are only sold during Lent -- well, due to the pastries' popularity, bakeries will often start selling them a bit before the beginning of Lent, but nobody would be selling them in the summer.

It's Watergate nostalgia time, everyone!! 8/4/14 PAT BUCHANAN Author, “The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority” JOHN W. DEAN Author, "The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It" 8/5/14 JAMES CAMERON Executive Producer, “Deepsea Challenge 3D” 8/6/14 MICHAEL FASSBENDER Film, “Frank” 8/7/14 BRIAN CHESKY Co-founder, Airbnb

8/4: Elisabeth Moss (actress – promoting movie “The One I Love”) 8/5: Helen Thorpe (author – promoting book “Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War”) 8/6: Wu-Tang Clan (band – promoting "A Better Tomorrow" 20th Anniversary Album) 8/7: Tracy Droz Tragos (director – promoting documentary “Rich Hill”) Weeks of 8/11 & 8/18: DARK!

There was actually a Sarah Palin porn video a few years ago (starring an actress who looked alarmingly like Sarah) called "Who's Nailin' Palin?" So yeah, it could have been a WHOLE lot worse -- a "Sarah Palin channel" with nothing but Palin porn! (shudder)

I have no idea if TCR plans to do anything with thesarahpalinchannel.com, but right now it's a tumblr with a link to an old Colbert video making fun of Sarah. It also says it's "The only Sarah Palin Channel on the internet with a definite article in the address!" My husband wondered if anybody had registered asarahpalinchannel.com. Heh -- click on that link and see what's there. I don't want to spoil the surprise. (No worries, @victorthecrab, it won't give your computer a virus!)

According to Google Chris is 5'10" (which might be overstating it a tad), while Henry Cavill (standing directly behind him) is 6'1". The fact that Cavill appears to be more than a full head taller than Hardwick leads me to believe that the three actors are standing on a stage or platform of some kind. Chris does look very goofy in that photo, though!

"Moving porridge," or "flyttgröt," is indeed a thing in Sweden. It's traditional to bring a gift of food when you visit somebody in their new home for the first time. However, it doesn't literally have to be porridge. It can be a loaf of bread or a cake or something like that.

I read somewhere that KISS happened to be touring Sweden at the time and Gene was roped into doing a cameo. It's a very brief appearance, but I guess using all of the celebrities gives NBC something to promote in their ads aimed at American viewers.

I don't know how much it affects the humor but to those of us who speak Swedish, it is pretty amusing to hear all of the uncensored cursing, and to see NBC's totally innocuous subtitles. The neighbor yelled, as I recall, "Lugna ner dig för fan," which I'd say is more equivalent to "Shut the hell up." ("Lugna ner dig" means "calm down" and "för fan" literally means "for Satan's sake" -- "fan" is a common Swedish curse word.) Not quite as explicit as last week's use of the word "knulla," which means "to fuck." See, it's such an educational show! As for the bedroom not facing the street... I have never heard that before. Every apartment I've ever stayed in in Stockholm has had the bedroom facing the street. That may have more to do with the fact that prices there are stratospheric and you'd have to have major bucks to afford to rent or buy a multi-room apartment.

Does anyone know if the judges will be choosing the Last Comic Standing, or will there be an audience voting component? I haven't been able to find any info on this, but I did discover the tour schedule while poking around the NBC web site. Surprised there was no date in my area, since San Francisco is a pretty good town for comedy. Maybe there will be more dates to come?

@Vandy10, I went into last night's show convinced that at least this week, I wouldn't have to worry about Joe (my favorite) being challenged to a head-to-head. I was shocked when he was chosen, and the only explanation I can think of is that the guy must be exhausted and the remaining comics thought perhaps they could pick him off and not have to face him in the finals. Fortunately for me, Karlous sucked. I hope Joe gets a chance to rest up and craft some strong new material for the finals. Maybe they did and their comments just weren't that funny, so they were cut for time? Rod Man seems like such a genuinely nice guy, it's hard to get a hook on how you'd go after him. I haven't been a big Nikki fan but it was obvious to me that she won the challenge last night. She did a great job. Not every challenge is going to work for every comic but she just seemed like she was born to roast. Though I did enjoy Joe's unique approach to roasting. It's always fun to see someone mess with the well-worn format a little bit.

Would it have gotten picked up by NBC? Probably not. But I don't think the Poehler connection is terribly relevant in Sweden, and the show has been a huge, huge hit there. I read that they are waiting to begin working on season 2 until they find out whether or not NBC is going to be interested in airing it again next summer. If they are not, they don't have to worry so much about pleasing an American audience. But it's already been renewed by TV4.

Next week's guests include Nikki Glaser, Phil Hanley and Joe DeRosa (Monday, July 28); Chad Daniels, Rory Scovel and Jay Larson (Tuesday, July 29); Megan Neuringer, Matt Braunger and Emily Heller (Wednesday, July 30); and Jen Kirkman, Jermaine Fowler and Mike Lawrence (Thursday, July 31).