Jimmy Kimmel never thought he’d be here. But Kimmel has the skill to rise to this moment, at a jarring time in this country’s history as freedoms are under attack and democracy hangs on just by a thread.
On Tuesday’s return of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” we were reminded of that. Kimmel struck the perfect tone, acknowledging the gravity of what had just happened, telling his audience that both sides of the aisle should cherish and celebrate free speech — and then not pulling any punches in joking about what Donald Trump has been up to over the last few days. Political satire has been a late night staple since the dawn of the entire genre, and Kimmel was going to make sure it isn’t going anywhere.
“You had the feeling that this was an important moment,” said one audience member who attended the Tuesday taping. “It felt very cathartic, like, not everything is lost.” It was a good reminder that part of the promise of America has being able to speak without fear of government intimidation.
We all love Jimmy, but he never asked to be drafted to be the protector of the First Amendment and free speech in this nation. He’s a late night talk show host, not an activist. A comedian whose job is to simply poke fun at our nation’s elected leaders.
“This show is not important, what is important is we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this,” Kimmel said.
But these days, just pointing out our government’s foibles makes you an enemy of the state. Kimmel found that out last week, but he’s not the only one. President Trump is still celebrating the impending disappearance of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” And he promises that Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers are next. Trump has the power of the FCC, the DOJ and other agencies ready to do his bidding — and last week, the administration came very close to getting what it wanted: The silence of one of the few prominent voices still poking fun at the madness coming out of Washington.
Let that sink in for a second: Talk show hosts — comedians whose main job is to crack audiences up and help a rotating cast of guests promote their latest projects — are so embedded in the craw of Trump that he’s demanding his agencies find a way to shut them up.
“I just want to say how alarming it is to feel like late night is important,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” writer Louis Virtel said this week on his podcast. “Nobody takes this job thinking, ‘and you know why I decided to make jokes about, whatever, Melania Trump today? To make a difference.” On the one hand, Trump loves to bash the hosts as being low-rated no-talents — yet “he’s the one who is constantly bringing up every day how important these people’s speech is.”
Like many Angelenos, I’m old enough to remember when Kimmel was “Jimmy the Sports Guy” on KROQ’s “Kevin & Bean,” and waiting in line for the annual Christmas cassette that he helped produce. Trust me, “Jimmy the Sports Guy” wasn’t planning on becoming the national lightning rod for free speech — he started off his career by just wanting to be entertaining on the radio.
But Kimmel’s tenacity and talent was always there, even when he was loitering at stations in Phoenix and Los Angeles, waiting for his big break. After he made his way onto “Kevin & Bean” — famously, the morning show hosts had no idea their program director had even hired him — he quickly found success as the sidekick on “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” as comic relief on “Fox Sports Sunday” and then as one-half of “The Man Show” with Adam Corolla.
James Corden sums it up pretty well above, and it even rhymes. This nation is worse than it ever has been in our lifetime, thanks to a Trump administration that championed white supremacy, hate, divisiveness, cruelty, selfishness and anger. Electing Biden won't heal the wound that this president inflicted on the nation, and that scar will never go away. But it's a start. A vote for Trump is a vote for all of those things I mentioned above. If you think it's OK to vote Trump after all you've seen him do and say, then I guess I'm just really saddened. Sad that perhaps you don't possess empathy, or care for your fellow human being. Because this president doesn't.
It's been a while since we checked in with one of our favorite Los Feliz shops, Y Que, and its infamous t-shirts. But over the holidays we were in the neighborhood and stopped by, and were pleased to see the Y Que t-shirt game still going strong.
Of course, the hot topic of the resistance is front and center, via this "Trumpacabra" shirt and others addressing the current inhabitant of the White House. There's also a "Lock Him Up" shirt and, in the vein of Y Que's classic "Free Winona" shirt, a new one for Melania Trump. (Although, as we've learned in recent months, she is complacent in all of this.)
But as we first wrote about 10 years ago (!), we still really gravitate toward Y Que's wide selection of Los Angeles neighborhood shirts, featuring designs — sometimes humorous, sometimes spot-on — relevant to the area. Just a few examples:
The "Happy Foot/Sad Foot" Silver Lake shirt may be my favorite. Check out their website here for more shirts, and our past Franklin Avenue coverage of Y Que here. Y Que is located at 1770 N Vermont Ave. in Los Feliz.
When Elon Musk's SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at sunset last week, half of Los Angeles wondered whether a UFO had finally made contact. After the events of 2017, I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords.
Turns out the creatures from outer space haven't arrived to save us from ourselves just yet. That leaves us to have to try and once again do better in 2018.
Looking back at this year, there was some reason to be hopeful — particularly as voices were heard and amplified as countless instances of serial sexual harassers and cases of assault were finally exposed.
But we also lost a lot in 2017, including superstars like Tom Petty, Mary Tyler Moore, Chris Cornell and even Judge Wapner.
Some of what we lost we won't miss (remember that tone-deaf Kylie Jenner Pepsi commercial?) and some of what we lost we really won't miss (ahem, "The O'Reilly Factor," ahem). But here are a few more things we said goodbye to in 2017:
10. Cellino and Barnes
Yeah, Selena Gomez and The Weeknd was big, Fergie and Josh Duhamel was sad, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor was unexpected, and Chris Pratt and Anna Faris was heartbreaking. (Let's not discuss Kylie Jenner and Tyga or Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian.) But the most stunning breakup of the year had to be the ugly split between ambulance chasing attorneys Cellino and Barnes. You know their mad catchy jingle, the staple of daytime TV across the country. Ross Cellino and Stephen Barnes hate each other so much now, they're tossing grenades at each other while launching separate, rival firms. Who gets the jingle? Apparently Barnes spent nearly $1 million to recraft the song with his new phone number.
9. Wet Seal
The "retail apocalypse" continues. As someone who spent a great deal of time at shopping malls as a teenager in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it's quite sad -- and yet fascinating -- to see the collapse of something that once defined the retail experience. (I still remember Wet Seal as the store with the big video screens blaring freestyle music videos by Seduction and Stevie B as teens shopped.) Also in 2017, The Limited closed its doors, American Apparel shut all of its retail locations, Radio Shack is mostly out of business, Teavana announced it was closing all of its stores, and even retail giants Sears, JCPenney and Macy's shut down hundreds of stores. Also in 2017, Toys 'R' Us, Gymboree and Payless ShoeSource were among the companies filing for bankruptcy — which means the retail apocalypse will likely consume many more major companies in 2018.
8. Cloo, Esquire, Chiller, Seeso
NBC Universal continued streamlining its entertainment offerings in 2017, eliminating some of its smaller cable networks, including crime drama channel Cloo, the young male-oriented Esquire, and horror channel Chiller. Cloo was the successor to Trio, a channel still fondly remembered for its scrappy pop culture programming (including franchises like “Brilliant But Canceled”), while Esquire replaced Style Network's channel slot (and G4's programming mandate) as an attempt to reach upscale male audiences, and Chiller began life in 2007 but was never a major cable player. Several channels have shut down over the past year as the cable industry prepares for an uncertain future in the wake of so-called “skinny bundles” (cable packages with fewer channels) and the growth of cord-cutting. But the rise of over-the-top platforms has already gone through a shakeup of its own, as witnessed by the decision to shut down comedy service Seeso so soon after launch. The comedy streaming platform pitched itself as a home for “Saturday Night Live” episodes as well as originals like “Take My Wife,” “Bajillion Dollar Propertie$” and “HarmonQuest,” but after it failed to find much traction, NBCUniversal pumped the brakes on original content.
7. 140 characters
We didn't ask for 280 characters. We didn't need it. Twitter, fix youself.
6. San Diego Chargers
Speaking of what we didn't need, Los Angeles went 21 years without an NFL team, and suddenly it has two. The return of the Los Angeles Rams in 2016 made a lot of sense, as that team still had fans in Los Angeles and an emotional attachment to the market, having been here from 1946 to 1994. Still, the Rams had a bumpy first season back in L.A. (it's been a different story this year), making the arrival of the Chargers all the more perplexing. In a city with many more Oakland Raiders fans, and transplants rooting for their old hometown teams, the Chargers are now more like the fourth NFL team in Los Angeles.
5. Popular Photography, Surfing, Self, Teen Vogue, Nylon
Of course, even bigger than the retail apocalypse is the continuing slow death of the media. In 2018, we'll be discussing the disappearance of the Time Inc. and Tribune Media labels, as both disappear for good (unless Tronc comes to its senses and grabs back its rightful claim to the Tribune name). In 2017, we said farewell to several major titles — perhaps, most notably Teen Vogue, a more recent title that has made a name for itself in covering politics and social issues.
4. "The Carmichael Show"
Plenty of shows ended their runs in 2017, including faves "The Leftovers" and "Orphan Black." But at least those shows got to tell the endings they wanted to tell. There was no bigger TV tragedy than the end of NBC's "The Carmichael Show," a comedy that received plenty of critical acclaim but never turned into the hit it should have been. Despite being on the air for three seasons, "Carmichael" only produced 32 episodes. And the show never even aired in the fall, having been relegated to the summer in 2015 and 2017, and late spring in 2016. Could it have thrived with more care? Unfortunately, we'll never know, but at least Jerrod Carmichael had the chance to craft the right comedy at the right time, and provide a platform for performers who have already gone on to big things — including Tiffany Haddish and Lil Rel Howery.
3. Trader Joe's Veggie Corn Dogs
How dare you, Trader Joe's. I'm not vegetarian, but these were better than any regular corn dogs (including the disappointing Trader Joe's turkey corn dogs, which are rubbery in comparison). On the go, the TJ veggie corn dog was the perfect lunch meal. Then, like so many great TJ products, they just disappeared one day without any explanation. This one hurt.
2. Gothamist/DNAinfo/LAist
In a depressing, shrinking media world where local news has been hit hardest, sites like DNAinfo and the Gothamist chain (including LAist in Los Angeles) were more important than ever. As the alternative press shrinks, these sites picked up the slack and covered stories that other outlets were also struggling to handle, given smaller staffs and budgets at even major newspapers across the country. That all came crashing down when billionaire owner Joe Ricketts shut the sites down in November, without warning. Ricketts closed them down after the staffs of DNAinfo and Gothamist had unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East. A right-wing owner who had donated to anti-labor causes, the swiftness of Ricketts' decision to shut the sites was stunning, and left a tremendous void in local coverage.
1. Shame
The Republicans pass a tax bill that funnels money into the pockets of millionaires and corporations, yet drags its feet to fund the Children's Health Insurance Program. Hundreds continue to die in Puerto Rico, where power won't be restored for several more months, and the administration says nothing about it. Donald Trump lies with impunity, and has golfed at least 80 times (at a cost to taxpayers at over $40 million) after having criticized President Obama for spending a fraction of that time on the course. Louis C.K. apologizes for sexual harassment but makes it all about himself. Many Republicans flocked to Roy Moore, despite the fact that he's a pedophile, choosing party over country. Moore lost, but still won't concede. Kellyanne Conway made up the fake "Bowling Green Massacre." Trump said there were "some very fine people" among the white supremacists causing violence (and an eventual death) in Charlottesville. There is no shame anymore, and hypocrisy now rules the land.
It's been a rough year, setting the stage for what should be a history-making 2018. "Looking back and looking ahead: 2017 was the Year of the Con," tweeted U.S. "House of Cards" creator Beau Willimon. "2018 will be the Year of the Turn." Happy New Year!
Variety's first-ever Inclusion Summit brought together some heavy industry hitters to talk diversity and more in entertainment. I moderated the final panel of the day, a chat with Pharrell Williams. And although Pharrell is fairly soft spoken, he's got a lot to say. Most of the chat was about "Hidden Figures," the movie he produced about three African-American women who were instrumental in working on the early U.S. space program. (Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae star).
“If all the women in this nation decided to vote and support the first female candidate, there’d be nothing to worry about,” Williams said in a conversation with Indiewire executive editor and Variety editor-at-large Michael Schneider. “It’s that easy.”
Of Clinton, he added, “Has she been dishonest about things? Sure. Have you?” Accusing Clinton’s opponents and Trump of “gender bias,” he said, “She don’t lie no more than any other politician does.”
At the end of a conversation that focused on Williams’ wide-ranging career in film, television, and music — including as a producer of the upcoming feature “Hidden Figures,” Schneider asked Williams how the social and political polarization of the day has impacted him and his work. Williams responded with a long period of quiet.
“That silence in this room right now is often what I feel when you see some of the things that are being said, not just about my culture, but about women,” Williams said. He spoke of the need for women to wrest control of society from men. “I’m praying that women come together and save this nation,” he said. “You think about the destructive things that have come from mankind, it’s mostly men.”
Meanwhile, Entertainment Tonight was also there, and filed this report:
When taking the stage with Variety's Editor-at-Large, Michael Schneider, Pharrell admitted he's "praying for the human condition."
"I'm praying for women, I'm praying that we make better decisions," said the GRAMMY winner. "We're at a place and time where people say things -- and you'll see woman supporting that," adding "It ain't just men on that trail following that guy."
Pharrell is of course referring to Trump and the leaked Access Hollywood video from 2005 where he can be heard making lewd comments about women, as well as the sexual assault allegations against the presidential candidate, which he has denied.
"If all the woman in this nation decided to vote and support the first female candidate, there would be nothing to worry about," added the "Happy" singer. "It's that easy."
The Blogger Kid 2.0's summer art camp asked the kids to design a "scary monster" with clay. Unprompted, several chose to depict Donald Trump. (Our guy made a ghost. But still, Trump fear is real.)
It’s producing an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom. Many students worry about being deported.
Other students have been emboldened by the divisive, often juvenile rhetoric in the campaign. Teachers have noted an increase in bullying, harassment and intimidation of students whose races, religions or nationalities have been the verbal targets of candidates on the campaign trail.
Educators are perplexed and conflicted about what to do. They report being stymied by the need to remain nonpartisan but disturbed by the anxiety in their classrooms and the lessons that children may be absorbing from this campaign.
Anecdotally, I know the 11 year olds that Blogger Kid 1.0 hangs around with now bring up Trump when they want to invoke something scary. But they're honestly nervous about this. This presidential campaign is causing real distress among kids.
On the latest edition of KCRW's The Spin-Off, Mashable's Sandra Gonzalez joins Joe and me for a lively conversation about what's new in the TV biz:
We take a look at some of the numbers from this television season -- it's no surprise that that ratings are down, but it's interesting to see which shows are losing viewers the fastest. Newer shows, even big ones, are having a tougher time holding on to an audience, while older shows seem to have stabilized.
Then we talk about a place where ratings are way, way up -- that would be any network broadcasting a GOP debate. In their combined years of covering television, no one on The Spin-off has ever seen anything quite like the media's reaction to Donald Trump. We discuss why that is, and when and if the networks ever have a responsibility to pull the cord on a public figure, even when they're doing wonders for the ratings.
Mike and Marisa Roffman are just back from this year's Comic-Con, while Joe opted to once again take it all in from a distance. The gathering has evolved over the years, and while it can still be a great place for genre shows to connect with fans, the convention does have its downsides. For shows, it's expensive to stop production and fly their cast out to San Diego. But if they don't go, they run the risk of media-savvy fans throwing a digital fit. And from the perspective of someone covering the event, it's tough to get any actual news from Comic-Con. The focus seems to have shifted to primarily debuting trailers and sharing some casting news, although even those announcements are increasingly made before the panel discussions and presentations themselves.
Also, It's been a news-filled summer, and a lot of that news has meant networks have had to decide what to do about shows connected to problematic people like Bill Cosby or Donald Trump. Dukes of Hazzard also disappeared from TV Land because of the Confederate flag painted on top of the famous car, the General Lee. Was it necessarily to pull the whole show, or could there have been a way to digitally remove the flag from the car?
Finally, gone are the days when summer was the time to catch up on TV shows you missed last fall. A batch of new, critically acclaimed shows like UnReal, Humans and Mr. Robot are filling the void instead.
