The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 18, 1998 - 13 Olbermann's wisecracks k( eye on target The Washington Post Crisis.' W Keith Olbermann, anchor of Crisis' so MSNBC's "White House in Crisis," NBC tele isn't above poking fun at himself. He named 'W once described his program as "The Sorenson White House Isn't in Crisis but We'll in 1985 as ,Keep Calling It That Because There's in Los Ang a Graphic." seconds w Another time, after turning the blown aw ;'wrong way, he muttered: "Doing this Sorenson sz 15 years, can't tell which camera is best at ha' on." and jocks. With one heck of a boost from thoughtful Monica Lewinsky, the 39-year-old Viewers former sportscaster has quickly the year- established himself as perhaps the jumped 87 most thoughtful of the cable guys 196,000 hi chewing over the sex scandal night numbers by after night (and he's a twice-nightly a comfortat man, beginning with "The Big universe. Show"). Those w Major stories have a way of mak- say the nigh ing media careers. Watergate gave us "For somec Woodward and Bernstein. The Iran mind, it's n hostage crisis boosted Ted Koppel. thing over The Persian Gulf War was Peter Fenn. "I thi Arnett's moment in the sun. The O.J. frustration. case unleashed a legion of made-for- Whateve TV lawyers. Plenty of loudmouths ESPN anch are vying for the mantle ofAmerica's ing himself Monica Maven, but Olbermann (who local Emm labels each show "Day 196" or "Day Skyhook/K, 233," as if we're being held hostage) now has a avoids the shrill partisanship of many possible imf of his compatnots. Olbermar Yet his wisecracking ways also - he doesn contain the seeds of contradiction. becoming Olbermann sometimes insults people does a dai and then apologizes. He has journal- SportsFan R ists on every night but, lately, refuses ing Clintor to be interviewed by journalists. He "Ask, Mr. P gave an eloquent speech at Cornell writes a we University on how his conscience Illustrated's would no longer permit him to end- often-contra lessly exploit the Monica melodrama range of hun - then kept on exploiting. ly complain "Somewhere along the way he that Mark M began to self-flagellate, says one wasn't that MSNBC staffer. "He's done so well homers wer with this vehicle, yet he kind of Ruth's day. wants to crash the vehicle." The anch Still, for a scandal that has become controversy a tawdry soap opera, Olbermann's pitchman in irreverence often strikes the right mercial -a note. When Newsweek's Howard corporate b Fineman talked about the Clinton was at ESPN investigation turning into "pure, new book o naked politics," Olbermann shot other publi back: "Pure, naked politics is what first, and wa got us into this mess in the first ESPN's pop place." year for app When President Clinton was busy sion on a apologizing to one audience after Olbermann I another, Olbermann intoned: "If you afterward, want one, send a self-addressed, expired. stamped envelope to the White Sometime House." outraces his And when Olbermann was about cyber-gossip to ask historian Doris Kearns Fox News sh Goodwin whether Clinton was hang- gone from ing on until Jan. 20 so Al Gore could modem to an run for two full terms, he said: a television "Forgive me for lapsing into cyni- sponsible ne cism that" been created by 225 days Worse than at this desk." than Chris Olbermann's ironic asides are Geraldo Riv delivered from an ironic distance; he Show."' Olb sits peering owlishly into a camera in apology to Secaucus, N.J., while nearly all his Roger Ailes. uests are in Washington. But 01be Says Democratic strategist Peter eruption cam Fenn, a frequent guest: "I love his Cornell, his a historical references, I love his MSNBC w irreverence, I love his sports analo- Lewinsky sto gies. He's kind of like a Cajun cook heaves in th - he puts all kinds of spices in his moral sensor show." even hear it, "He's always holding the media's ratings that feet to the fire instead of talking when they s about those evil politicians," says hour a nigh conservative pundit Laura Ingraham. from my stu "Keith is terrific at using wit and told my empl humor to ensure that we guests don't not continue take ourselves too seriously." the endless Erik Sorenson, MSNBC's vice choose what president, raves about his star: "I right over wh love Keith. I love 'White House in smart. I await sly yep his Suburban sitcoms offer a black and white rerun e love 'White House in much that the entire vision network is now 'hite House in Crisis."' n hired Olbermann back a KCBS-TV sportscaster eles. "You can't spend 30 ith him without being ay by his intellect," ays. "Of all his skills, he's ving fun with highlights But he's always been and resourceful." have noticed. Ratings for ld "Big Show" have percent, from 105,000 to ouseholds - minuscule y broadcast standards but ble franchise in the cable ho work with Olbermann itly grind is taking its toll. one with a quick, facile ot easy to cover the same and over again," says nk there's a good deal of r his foibles, the former or is a master at reinvent- f. Once nominated for a iy for "Kareem - the areem - the Joker," he center-court seat for the peachment of a president. nn may be a tad eccentric n't drive a car - but he's a cottage industry. He ly commentary for the Radio Network. (On urg- n to seek forgiveness: 'resident, or resign.") He ekly column for Sports Inside Baseball. His nan opinions span the man endeavor. He recent- ed on "The Big Show" cGwire's 62nd home run t big a deal because e so infrequent in Babe or has a penchant for - he once served as a a Boston Market com- nd he has ticked off his osses before. When he N, he waved a copy of his in the air. He wrote for cations without asking s briefly suspended from ular "SportsCenter" last pearing without permis- Comedy Central show. left "SportsCenter" soon before his contract s Olbermann's mouth s brain. He lambasted Matt Drudge and his ow, saying Drudge "has being an idiot with a iidiot with a modem and show on the most irre- etwork in America. ... Magic Johnson, worse Matthews, worse than era, worse than 'The Big ermann wrote a letter of Fox News President rmann's greatest moral :e during the address at lma mater, when he said as overcovering the ry: "I'm having the dry e bathroom because my is going off, but I can't I'm so seduced by these I go along with them ay do this not just one t but two. I awakened por on this subject and oyers that I simply could doing this show about investigation. I had to I felt in my heart was at I felt in my wallet was t their answer." Los Angeles 'Times HOLLYWOOD -George and Louise "Weezy" Jefferson, the affluent black couple at the core of "The Jeffersons," moved into the neighborhood of racially tinged TV comedy more than 20 years ago when they "finally got a piece of the pie," liv- ing in a luxury high-rise apartment where they had to contend with their white neighbors. "The Jeffersons" reflected the upward mobility of minorities, and that trend has continued dra- matically - both on television and in reality - in the 13 years since "The Jeffersons" went off the air. But instead of "movin' on up," as the theme song of the "All in the Family" spinoff rejoices, two shows premiering this fall seem to be "movin' on back" to a premise that treats black people moving into white suburbs as a fresh phe- nomena, as well as a launching pad for comedy laced with stereotypes of blacks and whites. The new shows, Fox's "Living in Captivity," which premiered last Friday to lackluster ratings, and ABC's "The Hughleys," which debuts Tuesday, will be the second and third series in less than a year revolving around blacks who leave their urban environments for the suburbs. The first, "For Your Love," which starts airing on the WB network Thursday after an initial run on NBC, has at its center a black newlywed cou- ple who move next door to their married white friends. Yvette Lee Bowser, creator and executive producer of "For Your Love," which she said is more about three couples - two black and one white - at different stages of relationships than about racial conflict, said she is somewhat mysti- fied by the debut of two shows with such similar premises. "People of color have been living in the sub- urbs for decades," Bowser said. "It's really not as earth-shattering as these shows make it seem." Controversy already has started to cloud the new entries. Some television writers and critics have blasted them as being filled with outdated, offensive images of both blacks and whites. In addition, D.L. Hughley, the star, producer and co-creator of "The Hughleys," has accused Fox of ripping off his idea, saying "Living in Captivity" contains many of the aspects of the pitch he made to Fox when the series was still in development. "Our show is about real life, while Fox just thought this was a catchy genre to get into," Hughley said. Fox executives and "Living in Captivity" pro- ducers denied Hughley's accusations. Some insiders have questioned whether viewers will be confused by three comedies featuring blacks in suburbia. For instance, "Living in Captivity" uses a device that appears in "For Your Love" in which the three main couples are shown in their respective bedrooms talking about a shared dilemma. But Bowser and the producers of the new shows maintain that their respective projects are distinctive enough to overcome comparison, and that viewers will be able to appreciate them on their own merit. And those behind "Living in Captivity" and "The Hughleys" maintain that, pilot episodes notwithstanding, race will not be the primary focus of the comedies, and that future episodes will take satirical looks at life in the suburbs, such as stress, security systems, sex and com- muter woes. Courtesy of For Broadcasting Three new sitcoms featuring black casts who move to the suburbs join "Living Single" in this fall's lineup. "The fact that there are several shows doing the same thing doesn't really matter," said Matt Wickline, a co-creator and executive producer of "The Hughleys." "We're all really doing different things. The notion of blacks moving to the sub- urbs is just an idea that is out there that is hap- pening more and more." Diane English, one of the executive producers of "Living in Captivity," along with Joel Shukovsky and Tom Palmer, said in an interview: "Our show was always a broad satire of suburban life. We wanted to deal with a different subject each week, such as the proliferation of Prozac into these areas, and security systems." In the pilot for "Living in Captivity," which aired last Friday, radio disc jockey Curtis Cooke (Dondre T. Whitfield) and his pregnant wife Tamara (Kira Arne) run into problems immedi- ately with their white neighbors when they move to Woodland Heights, an immaculate, gated com- munity. The uncouth Carmine "The King of Mufflers" Santucci (Lenny Venito) has a black lawn jockey and immediately suspects his new neighbors when his backyard grill disappears. Another neighbor, writer Will Marek (Matthew Letscher), is more subtle about his misgivings, but even his prejudices come out when he and Curtis go jogging and Will accelerates as he relives an incident in the city where he was mugged. He imagines Curtis chasing after him with a ski mask and a gun. And Curtis, who apparently did not examine the racial makeup of his new community closely before moving in, reveals his own bias during his first trip to the supermarket, where he runs into Will for the first time and remarks, "I've been roaming up and down these aisles for an hour and there's something I can't seem to find: black peo- ple." He also quips that the population makeup "explains the five-gallon jars of Miracle Whip." "The Hughleys" stars D.L. Hughley as Darryl Hughley, a vending machine company owner who moves with his wife, Yvonne (Elise Neal), and their two kids to a fancy suburb. In the pilot, when an elderly female neighbor asks him to take out her garbage, Darryl complains to Yvonne, "It's starting already. We're living around white folks for five min- utes and already they're telling me to fetch their trash!" Later, when Darryl's black friend Milsap (John Henton) visits, he says Darryl's new surroundings put him in danger of "getting his ghetto pass revoked" and that he is on "the slippery slope to losing your blackness." Milsap says he fears that Darryl will start drinking cappuccino instead of Kool-Aid, will drink out of frosty mugs instead of jelly jars and will pay his bills on time. Hughley said his show was based on his real- life experience, when he and his family moved to Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley a few years ago. "Some things have been exaggerated for this sitcom," he said. "But it's about leaving where you're comfortable and having to adjust to a new environment. The racial issue is not something I will focus on every week. I'm not going to get on a soapbox. I'm just trying to tell a story honest- ly." English said she doesn't regret the controversy around "Living in Captivity" and that it might turn out to be a positive in terms of getting atten- tion. "When you have a black lawn jockey in a show, you know you're not going to get passed over. And you can't please everyone when you do something that gets away from safe TV." Infinite opportunities. Dynamic careers. T7m Atwell joined GE in 1995, and immediately began sparking ideas for GE Lighting. Today, he's a GE Quartz Information Systems Team Leader. You have a future here. at Please Join Us for Meet the Firms Friday, September 25th Office of Career Development 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Please confirm dates and times with your Career Placement Office for any last minute changes. www.gecareers.com of M Women's Basketball Walk-On Tryouts 0k October 19, 1998 7:00 pm @ Crisler Arena. w. q%% i 3 pitCongregation Seed of Abraham Zera Avraham ..