Television

Wait, Is that guy famous?

How Friends Illustrates the Depressing Insularity of Our Lives

“I’ll be there for you ... and others in our census bracket”

In Defense of New Girl (Hear Us Out...)

A Routine That's Anything But

So Many Questions About The American Bible Challenge, Which Casts in Dallas Saturday

So. This happened yesterday: Hi, I hope all is well with you! I wanted to let you know that GSN (Game Show Network) is coming to Vista Ridge Mall in Dallas next Saturday, June 2nd looking for Dallas' best and brightest contestants to cast in our upcoming series, "THE AMERICAN BIBLE CHALLENGE," a ... More >>

Don McLeroy, Noted Texas Creationist, Braved the Colbert Report Last Night

The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive It's one of those interviews that probably would've worked better a half hour earlier on the Daily Show, since Colbert can't quite accomplish what he wants to question-wise and still let his charac ... More >>

Cable TV Programmers Make Bait-and-Switch a High Art

Drunken yoga does not equal female empowerment. Show of hands: Who remembers when cable TV's A&E channel featured real art for entertainment? Been a long time, right? Back in the 1990s, the Arts & Entertainment channel, as it was known then, specialized in high-culture programming. Ballet. Opera. ... More >>

Big Hair. Big Boots. Big D. This is Reality?

Dallas is hot, hot, hot on reality television. Or at least someplace sort of like Dallas.

This Morning's Video Wake-Up with Leppert, Jeffress, Perry, Olbermann and Jon Stewart

​Last night, in the comments below, a Friend of Unfair Park mentioned that Tom Leppert made Keith Olbermann's "Worst Persons in the World" round-up for his End Occupy website. Sure enough -- finally, some national pub for the former Dallas mayor and candidate for U.S. Senate, for whom a crazy-left ... More >>

A Piping Hot Cup of Tig

Ten Local Music Entities Ready for Reality TV

​Dallas has always been a wellspring of source material for reality show producers looking to put some squick-worthy drama on television. Along with the new Most Eligible: Dallas and Big Rich Texas shows that make up the crust on the bottom of the basic cable reality barrel, we've seen some me ... More >>

Dave Barnett to Replace John Rhadigan As Texas Rangers' TV Play-by-Play Man

Dave Barnett​About half an hour ago, Richie posted an item on the Sportatorium: John Rhadigan, hired in January to replace Josh Lewin as the Texas Rangers' TV, play-by-play announcer, is already out. Moments ago, the team confirmed with an Official Statement that follows in full. But long story sh ... More >>

Five Food Shows Ready to Have a Fork Stuck in Them

Food Network Humor​After 12 years of growing grouchier and more haggard, Alton Brown announced a few weeks ago that he's putting Good Eats out to pasture. Presumably, he's ditching science class for something more lucrative, like Welch's grape juice and the warmed-over Iron Chef: America, leav ... More >>

Too Much Drawlin', Paula

Food NetworkPaula Deen​It may risk a certain level of blasphemy, or more likely be a "duh" revelation, to say Paula Deen is one of food television's most grating on-screen presences. This is, perhaps, a politically incorrect conclusion to draw, given the travails she's faced throughout her s ... More >>

The Bestest of The Best Thing I Ever Ate

​One of my pet peeves about most cooking shows is how often a program's uber-foodies -- from the four-star guys in the starchy aprons to the home cooks who've lucked into a spot on television -- are reluctant to express any real emotion about how much they love the actual taste of good food. ... More >>

Chopped All-Stars: A Cut Above the Rest

Food NetworkRobert Irvine wields a blade.​I've watched enough of the regular episodes of Food Network's Chopped to see through its paint-by-numbers plotting. Within the first couple of minutes of an average episode, I can all but predict which aspiring chef, caterer or cooking instructor, wres ... More >>

Tonight: Party with Former Reality TV Stars and Pro Mixologists

​For those of you waiting for the final rose ceremony with the giddy anticipation of a preteen who just got her first copy of Tiger Beat, your dreams are about to come true. Tonight, Brad Womack will choose his dream woman -- or at least a woman who will join him for the morning talk shows ro ... More >>

It's Game Day at Big Daddy's House

Aaron McCargo Jr.​Everything about Aaron McCargo Jr. -- a.k.a. Big Daddy of Big Daddy's House -- is larger-than-life, from those dueling, glimmering earrings to the ingratiating grin as wide as the Rio Grande to that infectious laugh that serves as constant exclamation point to every brashly f ... More >>

Couch Potato: What Is It With This Guy?

Matthew McConaughey (left) and Guy Fieri​Everything about Guy Fieri is big and boisterous, and has been that way ever since he walked off a winner in the Food Network's second season of the Next Food Network Star. His voice's volume and rasp call to mind an overworked cattle-auctioneer. His sh ... More >>

It's Official: John Rhadigan Is The New Play-by-Play Voice of Your Texas Rangers

Flickr user: HooverStreetStudios​The rumor's been circulating for days that John Rhadigan would replace ousted-in-October Josh Lewin as the teevee play-by-play man for the Texas Rangers, pairing him with analyst Tom Grieve. The team just made it official in a release that follows in full. But long ... More >>

Lance Rock Your Socks Off

Upon Conan's Return, a Chance to Revisit Bobbie Wygant's Chats With Leno, Letterman

Bobbie Wygant Interviews David Letterman from Atombomb.tv on Vimeo.Late yesterday, Erik Clapp, the fellow slowly but surely archiving all of Bobbie Wygant's chits and chats for KXAS-Channel 5, sent word that he'd just posted to his website golden-oldies featuring a cigar-smoking David Letterman and ... More >>

Finally, Springer On Tour

Dancing Industrial Complex at AAC?

Chefs Under Fire D/FW: Viva La Raza,
Iron Chef-style

Northwood Club's Joey Guzman at work at Chefs Under Fire D/FW​"That's what it's about. That's what we do. We represent," said chef Joey Guzman of Northwood Club, when asked about the significance of three Latino finalists in the Chefs Under Fire D/FW semifinal at Milestone Culinary Center, an ... More >>

Lopez Tonight?

Set Your Tivo: Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights To Make National TV Debut Tonight With Jimmy Kimmel Live! Performance...

Just a little over a week after fellow Dallasite Erykah Badu went on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and wowed the crowds with a beautiful rendition of "Window Seat," another act from town will appear on show's same stage. Only, this time, it will be the act's first-ever national TV gig. Yep, folks, this is your ... More >>

America's Got Taping

The Daily Show Sends Jason Jones to Get to the Bottom of Dallas Gay Divorce Case

Peter Schulte and the petitioner still known as J.B. on The Daily Show last night ... but what is it about that vase ...?​No doubt you recall the October ruling from Judge Tena Callahan of Dallas County's 302nd Family District Court, who said there was no good reason for the courts not to consider ... More >>

Because You're Gonna Be Watching Late Night TV This Week, Anyway...

The Orbans​...y'know, what with all the drama and all, then you might as well turn in to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tonight. Why? Well, 'cause you might spot a familiar face or two: Justin Pate, keyboardist for Fort Worth's The Orbans, will be among the the backing players performing in musical ... More >>

The First Funny Lady

(Soap) Opera, Via Verdi

Muppets on Acid

Cable Access's iMedia Goes Dark

​It's not the most surprising press release to ever arrive in the Unfair Park in-box -- especially given the fact that City Manager Mary Suhm's FY2009-2010 budget cut its funding ($246,000 for last fiscal year, about a third of its annual operating budget). But there it is: Dallas iMedia Network, ... More >>

Wild Sheen

Keeping Score

Zorilla, via FlickrSix months (plus a couple) into City of Ate and I'm still trying to figure out blogging. In the past couple of months, we've also added twitter--fortunately handed to someone else, since my response to the first mention of it was along the lines of 'I've read about it in the paper ... More >>

Su Nombre Es Dora!

10 Questions: Melissa D'Arabian, Food Network Contestant

When contestants for the upcoming series of The Next Food Network Star were announced, she was labeled the 'stay at home mom.' Indeed, the Keller resident tends to four young children--which, of course, means cooking three meals a day, just about every day of the week. Producers for the show ap ... More >>

10 Questions: Ted Allen

The first time many of us met him was in his role as one of the 'fab five'--the food and wine expert on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. But Allen had already spent years reviewing restaurants for Chicago magazine. In other words, the Purdue psychology grad knew his stuff--something he ... More >>

10 Questions: Tyler Florence

After 14 years on the Food Network and a small shelf full of cookbooks bearing his name, Florence is a true celebrity chef. But now he makes baby food. Yes, the man People called the "sexiest chef alive," host of Food 911, How to Boil Water and now Tyler's Ultimate recently started a line of organic ... More >>

Character Actor

Tracy Morgan plays a different role

Lucky Day

Food For Thought? Nah.

Alphabet Tunes

Brought to you by the letter Q

Fox News Akin To Southern Rap

Anti-intellectual appeal and red-state focus are just the tip of what these two have in common.

Doug Dunbar Is Now Channel 11's Hardest-Working Anchorman

Channel 11's new weatherman, Larry Mowry, likes turkey sandwiches, Poison, Oprah Winfrey and working out. KTVT-Channel 11 just shipped out a mediawide missive in which it announces a few changes to its nightly-news line-up. Chief among the alterations: Doug Dunbar, already anchoring the station's 4 ... More >>

Tune In: HDNet is Suing DirecTV

There's been no mention of this in The Dallas Morning News, far as I can tell. And till it turned up during an unrelated Google search, I had no idea Mark Cuban's HDNet was suing DirecTV in U.S. District Court in Dallas -- and I used to have a show on HDNet. But, yeah, turns out HDNet isn't thrilled ... More >>

The NFL Wants Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones to Fix Its Cable Problem

Casey Thompson's Pork Belly Just Wasn't Crispy Enough

Soul Kitchen