Program scripts from week of January 6, 2014
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Woe to Predictions
It’s the beginning of the year which means that it’s prediction time. I’m not just talking about who will make it to and then win the Super Bowl or this year’s World Series/Stanley Cup/NBA championship etc. This time of year everybody and their brother is cranking out some kind of prediction on what’s going to happen next in technology, politics, religion, economics, you name it.
There’s one thing that all the predictions have in common. They’re guesses and many,many, many of them will turn out to be wrong. It’s like weather forecasts. If everything keeps doing just what it’s doing now with no more than minimal adjustments then this will happen. Probably. There’s a good chance. It could happen.
But that’s just the point. Things don’t stay the same. There are factors that the prophets and prognosticators will overlook, undervalue or just not know about. Things that look like sure bets will suddenly develop fatal flaws and everything that we expected to grow out of that simply stops.
Here’s what got me thinking about this. You may have heard over the last couple days that the economy of China may be poised to overtake the U.S. economy as the biggest in the world in the next couple years. The folks in the world of big economics starting touting that spring. And I saw someone going on about it on CNN last week. On the other hand just in the last month a new study from another economics big brain says well, the U.S. is doing pretty well and China is struggling so maybe it won’t happen for a while yet.
I have no idea which one of these super brains is right. I just know that, as always, the prediction business proves to be harder than it looks.
So in the end why do we spend so much time listening? I think it’s because we want to believe that someone out there knows what’s going to happen next. Despite the repeated failure to actually pull it off.
The other advantage is that predictions in January about what’s coming in 2014 will be completely forgotten by December.
At which point it will all begin again.
At least that’s my prediction.
The other way is to be a character actor. That’s the actor who specializes in smaller, supporting characters. It’s not as flashy and you’ll probably never become fabulously wealthy but a quality character actor can work for years beyond the span of a star.
Last week we lost one of this generations quality character actors with the passing of James Avery. For most people Avery will always be associated with the character of Uncle Phil from the television series “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. He was the perfect foil to Will Smith’s streetwise character. That’s the classic function for a character actor.
Avery was more than just that one role. If you’re a child of the ‘90s then you know him as the voice of Shredder from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. His full list of credits would run for pages covering both film and television.
But even that is only scratching the surface. Avery was a veteran of the U.S. Navy and Viet Nam. In addition to his acting work he wrote screenplays and poetry. Curiously his real life mirrored his most famous role where he was stepfather to his wife’s son. TV Guide listed his character as one of the top 50 TV Dads of all time.
“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” launched the rapper Will Smith into TV and movie stardom. But it might not have ever happened without the support of an outstanding character actor.
James Avery was 68 years old.
No Kids Rule
I’d have to go back and look but it strikes me that it was a couple years ago that I got properly hot and bothered here when someone decided to make the Obama daughters Sasha and Malia into political footballs. I believed then as I believe now that there is and should be a “No Kids Rule” when it comes to political commentary. We need to remember that we elected just one member of the family. That member is open to scrutiny, question and comment. The line on adult members of the family can be a little more blurred. If they choose to be actively involved in the political life of their elected member (think Hilary Clinton while she was First Lady) then they become fair game as well.
But not the kids. And by kids I mean young people below the legal age of majority, call it 18 and under. They are off limits, out of bounds and to be left alone. Short of treason or murder in the first degree there is simply no reason to go there. It’s hard enough growing up most days, I can’t even imagine what it must be like growing up under the microscope that comes with your parent being a high profile politician.
Having said that I have to take note of the stupidity shown on MSNBC’s “Melissa Harris Perry Show” a couple of weekends ago. The panelists took great delight in sticking it to Mitt Romney’s family and the Republican party in general because in the family Christmas photo was the latest Romney grandchild. Keiran James Romney was adopted this past year by Ben and Andelynne Romney, Mitt’s son and daughter-in-law in the fall. The subject of all this “commentary” is that fact that Keiran is African-American child. In fact Keiran is an baby and a pretty cute one too.
Yet somehow through the planning stage for the show, review by the producer and by the host somehow it was decided that making this kid the pivot for some snarky commentary was a good idea.
It wasn’t and kudos to Harris Perry for offering a real apology for the stupidity of it all.
Which brings us back to where we started. It’s simple really. We just don’t go there. Ever.
It’s the “No Kids Rule”. Period.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
