Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Chipper
Tuesday
January 13, 2004
It's Tuesday, which means it's Line Of Fire night on ABC (10 PM Eastern). It's the best show going on TV right now, and if you haven't seen it you're really missing out. My friend Stacey Luckey at work taped last week's episode for me, which I watched this past weekend. And, wow, it was as good as ever, including having some elements that you might not expect to see on network TV. My hope is that it will be one of those word-of-mouth shows that will see its audience grow over time as more people find out just how good it is. ABC purchased 13 episodes worth of it, and we're midway through that run now. I can't think of a network TV drama that has ever captured my interest quite like Line Of Fire has. It's not a Sopranos-level good (which is the ultimate in my opinion), but it's damn close, probably as close as a show can get under the rules of American network television.
Civil libertarians like myself cringed at two announcements this week. The first is that the government will be implementing a system known as CAPPS beginning next month. CAPPS stands for Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening program, and it will allow the government to collect a passenger's name, home address, telephone number, date of birth and travel plans. Big Brother lives. The second is a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling that came down today that allows police to block traffic and ask motorists for help in solving crimes.
On the surface, both ideas sound good in the spectrum of public safety. But both cases share a common link: more government control and ability to control and know about the lives of everyday people, all under the guise of safety. The potential for abuse and misuse is huge.
Comedian (and I use that term loosely) Al Franken has signed a deal with Progress Media to do a three hour daily radio show. The concept of a liberal-slanted radio program is interesting, but will be vastly challenging to pull off in practice. Liberal issues are best told with personal stories filled with emotion, which is difficult to convey in talk radio. Consequently, that field often seems to lean conservative in general (and in many cases hosts in that business are very blatant in that political tilt).
|  | | Dick Vermeil isn't afraid to cry, win or lose. |
Will Franken and company succeed? Clearance is key (that is to say, getting the show cleared on as many stations as possible), particularly if he wants to be seen as a national alternative to Rush Limbaugh. But more importantly, they have to create a formula that will be compelling enough out of the box to keep the listeners who tune in out of curiosity to stick around. And that won't be easy.
It took slightly longer than expected, but as I predicted, Dick Vermeil cried after his Chiefs lost to the Colts on Sunday. The reason: because defensive coordinator Greg Robinson resigned. I'd want to cry and quit too if I'd had my defense torn up the way the Chiefs' D was shredded by Peyton Manning and company...
For once, a pair of college football players with promising futures have made the right move in deciding to stay in school. Georgia DE David Pollack and Michigan WR Braylon Edwards both have announced that they are returning to their respective schools for their senior year. In both players' cases, they were considered possible first round picks going into the 2003 season but ended up sliding down the draft board. But with a strong 2004, both have a chance to earn a spot in the first stanza of the 2005 NFL Draft...
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