Pundit Country

In addition to the David Tennant marathon going on as I write this, the BBC released 2 teaser trailers for the upcoming season of Dr. Who starring Matt Smith. The second one is the one that should truly thrill Who fans everywhere.

The season begins this spring. Let the geekgasms begin!

Related articles

• Doctor Who’s upcoming regeneration (tvsquad.com)
• 1 reviews of Matt Smith (rateitall.com)
• New Doctor Who Logo Unveiled (pastemagazine.com)
• How will Doctor Who die? (hubdub.com)
• David Tennant to make US TV debut (news.bbc.co.uk)
• New Doctor Who Matt Smith is the best says chief writer of BBC show (telegraph.co.uk)

Reuters is reporting that ABC has hired Barry Sonnenfeld, the director behind Men In Black, Wild, Wild West and Adams Family Values to develop projects and a pilot for the upcoming season. What caught me was this guy has created some of the most biting, witty work that TV has seen in years. Just look at his work on such shows as The Tick, Karen Sisko, Fantasy Island, Secret Agent Man, Notes from the Underbelly, and Pushing Daisies. So what is the next project?

Sonnenfeld already has teamed with former ABC executive-turned-producer Stu Bloomberg for a high-concept multicamera project under the deal. The untitled comedy, from writer Laura House, has received a script commitment. It centers on a harried mom who finds a suit that turns her into a “supermom” when she puts it on.

Hmmm…where have a I heard that idea before. Oh wait, let me see… could it be

I’ve been a sucker for the BBC’s Dr. Who since I saw my first Tom Baker episode.  It was a total escape for me as a kid watching old episodes of Star Trek on cable and this strange little British show that played on my local PBS station. I can’t say I really understood everything, but I was always glued to my screen to see what strange adventures were going to come up next.

Ever since the BBC decided to bring back the show in 2005, I’ve been riveted to every single episode. Now that the current actor to play the role, David Tennet (my favorite thus far) is leaving, along with most of the creative staff, it was time to start naming the rest of the actors.

Matt Smith (strangely also the name of my very non-English brother) is taking over for Tennet while new actress Gillan (seen below) takes over as the new companion. I can’t wait for the new epsidoes to start.

The full story is here.

Related articles

• Who’s she? Little-known actress to be Doctor’s assistant (news.bbc.co.uk)
• The 11th Doctor Has Been Named… (dizzy-girl.net)
• BBC Hints At a Possible Doctor Who Movie (screenrant.com)

Why in the hell would anyone in their right mind relay secret or confidential information via an unsecure cell phone that could be easily tracked? Seems like a rather obvious oversight on the part of the producers.

The attached interview with Jim Cramer proves once again that he really should have prepped for that interview with John Stewart of The Daily Show. I suspect now after reading his initial comments about it along with this piece that his own hubris is to blame for properly preparing for it.

This quote is the most telling:

“It was a complete and utter ambush,” Cramer said in an interview with The Lantern. “He told my staff that it was going to be fun, convivial, no clips, but [it] doesn’t matter, he’s a comedian, he can do whatever he wants.”

[snip]

“Was it a fair fight? No, it wasn’t even a fight. I came on with the idea of taking a high road approach and discussing the issues, obviously [Stewart] came on strictly to try to humiliate me,” Cramer said. “It was brutal. Was he stand-up? Absolutely not. Did he comport himself as a gentleman? Hardly. It was a deposition; he wants to be a prosecutor.”

“He had an animus toward me. At the conclusion of the interview, not on the mic, he said, ‘I picked the wrong guy, I’m sorry,’ but that’s not gonna get out there,” Cramer said. “He just said it to me as just a throwaway. His goal was just to humiliate and destroy me and probably get me fired, and last I looked, I still have a show.” [emphasis mine]

If Cramer’s comments are to be believed and he wasn’t misquoted, then he missed the entire point of the exchange between himself and Stewart. Stewart’s point was certainly to point out Cramer’s role in propping up a decaying and collapsing market system, but it was CNBC and other financial media stalwarts that played a key role in not informing the public of what was occuring. In other words, it wasn’t a personal attack, as Cramer would lead the reader to believe, but rather a sharp rebuke to what Stewart was seeing everyday on his TV.

One need only have watched The Daily Show a week prior to see clip after clip of CNBC hosts prattling on on how strong the market was as everything was coming down around them. It was an embarrassing montage of incompetance that should have forced the network to sharply redefine what role they played in the whole debacle and make an accounting to the viewers. However, call me cynical, but I don’t see that as a possiblilty or even a probablilty.

Sadly, it has fallen to the jesters in our society to point these things out as the bulk of the mainstream media outlets have failed to do so.

Gawker – Fatuous Money Clown Won’t Shut Up About Jon Stewart – Jon Stewart.