[UPDATE: Melody Kramer, our associate producer and online guru at Fresh Air, just posted her coverage of my appearance today -- which, in her hands, includes all sorts of info, and links to previous radio reports and web articles, that aren't even on this site or on the radio. So, thanks, Mel! Here's the link -- but (Spoiler Alert) read the column first! - DB]
Today (Tuesday, Dec. 20) on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, I once again get to enjoy one of my favorite annual holiday rituals: talking TV with Terry.
We cover the Top 10 shows on TV, of course -- but also, in a conversation spanning everything from politics to Snooki, we cover a lot of other ground as well.
Including my favorite moment, as Terry listens in amused disbelief as I provide aural proof of what I consider the worst TV show of 2011...
-- Terry didn't even have the benefit of seeing what she was hearing, but, in this case, hearing was believing. And as a special treat for you here at TV WORTH WATCHING, here's an accompanying image: the cow's-blood vat of NBC's Fear Factor.
(I wrote about Fear Factor here just a few columns ago, linking it to the animal-wastes vat at the end of the 1969 satirical film The Magic Christian.) But on Fresh Air, I let Fear Factor host Joe Rogan make the case against his show himself, merely by reciting the rules and requirements of the bloody challenge.
Also on today's show, you'll hear other clips from the year in TV, including these:
-- From the year's Top 10, one of the top-ranked shows, Showtime's Homeland. It's the scene where Claire Danes' Carrie, still hospitalized after surviving a terrorist explosion, describes her theories to her boss, Saul (Mandy Patinkin).
In the picture at right, you can see the deep agitation, as well as the superficial wounds, in Carrie's face. But even without the picture, in the audio clip, you can hear how intense she is. And that's because she's off her meds, and bipolar, and spinning out of control. And yet, at this point in the investigation, she may be right...
-- From the discussion of other shows worthy of being called the year's best, in various subcategories, I include Comedy Central's Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report -- and play a clip from the former, from the earliest days of the alleged Penn State child sexual abuse scandal.
It's not very funny. But it does represent everything I love about Stewart and his show. It's more direct, more honest, more timely, and more on the nose than most "real news" shows on television.
-- And finally, my very favorite TV moment of 2011. As I tell Terry, I don't expect it to be anyone else's favorite moment of the year, but it's definitely mine. It's from NBC's Parks and Recreation, and is shown in the photo at the top of this column, with Dan Castellaneta playing a public radio host interviewing Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope.
Somehow, the idea of playing that clip, which makes fun of public radio, on public radio, sort of made my year. Just like sitting down, once again, with Terry Gross...
Listen to the show today on the radio -- or, after about 5 p.m. ET today, hear it on the Fresh Air website HERE.