No Kids Rule, RIP James Avery, Woe to Predictions

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Monday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2013 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

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.

RIP James Avery                                                                                               

There are two ways to a successful career in Hollywood.  Mind you, not just get a little work but to have a career.  The first way is to become a big star.  Every young actor thinks this is the way to go.  It looks easy and it certainly looks like fun.  The problem is that while it may or may not be fun (opinions diverge on that subject) there is no way that it’s easy.  First you have to be the right person in the right place at the right time who makes the right connections.  You have to make sure you select the right scripts time after time (1930’s film star George Raft couldn’t do that and paid the price.  He turned down Humphrey Bogart’s role in “The Maltese Falcon” and may have turned down Bogie’s role in “Casablanca” as well).  Plus you have to rely on the changing tastes of the audience.  When American G.I.’s marched off to World War II five million copies of Betty Grable and her “million dollar legs” went with them.  Just a decade later Grable had trouble getting work in Hollywood.

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

Trouble After Harry, Televised Politics and James Bond

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Tuesday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2012 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of October 8, 2012



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. 

Trouble After Harry                                                                                             

When I first heard that J.K. Rowling had written a new book following the blockbuster success of her 7 book Harry Potter series I knew she was in trouble.  And I’m watching that prediction come true right now.

Her new book “Casual Vacancy” hit the bookshelves at the end of September.  Since then it has done very well on initial sales.  The Publishers Weekly best sellers list that was released last Thursday shows Rowling comfortably at the top of the list.  That doesn’t surprise me since I’d be willing to bet that the pre-order for the book was huge even with a $36 price tag.

Reviews for the book seem to be mixed.  The New York Times reviewer was not at all impressed but there are plenty of others who found it quite acceptable.  The general consensus seems to be that Rowling’s writing continues to be very good.  The topics are very different from Harry Potter.  It tells the story of a small English town where a well known local figure who also sits on the local governing council dies just before a very important vote on a divisive local issue.  The story includes a variety of unpleasant real life issues like rape and includes a fair dose of obscene language.

In other words this is an adult book.  

And that’s what is really bothering a lot of her fans.  The customer reviews at places like Amazon and Barnes & Noble are utterly, utterly predictable.  People who claimed that they knew perfectly well that “Casual Vacancy” wasn’t Harry Potter clearly show by their reviews that they were expecting more of the same.  It is the greatest trap that any artist can confront because it’s a trap based on the success of your previous work.  People fall in love with the characters and the created universe and have a terrible time separating that world from the author.  These people are the ones who are given a chance to read a sample chapter (which in this case would have shown just how different this book is from the seven that preceded it) but don’t and then complain because the book isn’t what they expected.  In the end there’s no way to satisfy these folk.

The reality is that only time will reveal whether or not Rowling has really been able to make the jump from the young adult.  For the time being people are reading her book and talking about it.  And that’s what you need to happen.

Televised Politics                                                                                               

The Presidential election always comes with two big media “events”.  I hope you could hear the air quotes when I said “events” because I think it’s time to dump both political conventions and the Presidential debates from the media.  They are enormous non-events in any real sense as far as I can tell.

As always let me be clear right up front.  I am deeply interested in politics.  I believe we need to be informed, that we need to know what our candidates stand for and what the parties are advocating.  I just think that the current media oriented versions of the debates and conventions are largely a waste of time.  As such I believe they are actively turning off a new generation of voters who find the whole thing an utter wast of time.

Political conventions were created in the 1830s when the Anti-Mason Party, the Democratic Party and the National Republican Party (not the GOP) all had them.  They’ve been televised since 1940.  The problem is that the very nature of conventions are committee meetings and long speeches.  In the age of 140 CHARACTER tweets I’m not sure how you make that work.  But week long talk fests are just not on in the digital age.

In large part the same problem arises when it comes to the debates.  Their history is even shorter.  You may remember being taught about the Lincoln-Douglas debates.  You were probably never taught the format.  Hour long speech, hour and a half long rebuttal and closed with a half hour response to the rebuttal.  That would be GREAT TV don’t you think?  Debates as we think of them are really creations of television and the first one was the Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960.  The problem is that the current format requires short answers to complex questions.  I heard an interview with one of the prep teams for President Obama talking about working hard to get the President to stop making long substantive answers.  And you can bet that Governor Romney’s team was doing the same thing.

What we are left with are beauty pageants.  It’s all about surface and appearance.  Things like actual discussion of the issues with carefully thought out answers to the complex issues that face us today have no place in either pseudo event.  It’s actually the media at it’s most shallow.

So let’s do the right thing and just dump them both.

James Bond

So this past weekend marked the 50th anniversary of the James Bond movie franchise.  Like most media icons Bond inspires many opinions.  So I figured why not weigh in as well.

I became a Bond fan first from the books.  So it never hurts to remember that the original stories were written between 1953 and 1966.  A lot of the mindset of that time remains in even the latest versions of 007.

But for the movie versions there are four important pieces to being a great Bond movie.  You need great devices (courtesty of Q), you need beautiful women, you need a great theme song, and of course you need the right actor playing Bond.

Best gadget?  Easy.  We all want our own jet pack.  007 got his in “Thunderball” in 1965.  The only other contender would be any of the Bond cars.  But they’re beyond mere gadgets.

Best Bond girl?  Yes, the whole concept is pretty sexist.  But it’s part of the Bond legend.  Sadly far too many of the Bond Girls haven’t been worth remembering.  And there’s the whole personal taste thing.  So how about a top 3?  Michelle Yeoh in 1997’s “Tomorrow Never Dies” simply because she is the rare female who can kick butt right along with 007.  Hard for me to put Halle Berry in 2002’s “Die Another Day” in second place because, well, she’s Halle Berry.  But first place for me has to be Ursula Andress as Honeychile Rider and the original Bond Girl in 1962’s “Dr. No”.

For theme song (not the classic Bond theme but the song for each movie) I was astounded to see a survey that put Paul McCartney and Wings “Live and Let Die” at the top.  That’s silly.  It’s a fine little pop tune but it’s not BOND.  You want Bond theme song you want Shirley Bassey’s “Goldfinger”.  No contest.  I think Adele has a shot at creating that kind of sound for the new movie.

And as for who plays Bond, why is this still discussed?  It’s Sean Connery first and last.  Daniel Craig is second, Timothy Dalton third.  If you think that Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan should be on the list don’t ever speak to me again.

The 22nd movie in the Bond franchise, “Skyfall”, opens November 9 in the United States.

Call that the View From the Phlipsid

View From the Phlipside Radio - Media Failures

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.

When I got started in the media about 30 years ago if you were a public figure you only had to deal with three media, print, radio and TV.  And in form they were actually all pretty similar.  Radio reporting had been formed by print reporters and TV reporting had been based on the radio standards.  So it was pretty simple really.  Plans for dealing with the media were pretty straight forward.

That stopped being the case back in the Watergate days.  Since then public figures and politicians have had to rely ever more on media specialists.  With the explosion of new media in the last decade it’s become even more important.  Which why two recent media meltdowns just leave me shaking my head.

Start with Kansas governor Sam Brownback.  He made an appearance in front of a high school group and one 18 year old girl wasn’t impressed.  She tweeted her thoughts, uncomplimentary thoughts, about the Govenor.  To her 65 followers.  At which point Brownback’s media team turned an insignificant issue into a medium sized disaster.  In the end the Governor ended up apologizing to the young lady.  All because the “media experts” lost any sense of proportion.

At the other end you have former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.  Cain’s suspension of his campaign has much less to do with whether or not his ideas were good than they do with the fact that the Cain campaign handled the media about as badly as it’s possible to do.  Bizarre campaign videos and videos of a chronically under prepared candidate left the campaign with a huge added hurdle to overcome.  Even in the speech announcing leaving the race Cain chose to rather bizarrely quote music from a Pokemon movie.  If you’re 66 years old and trying to be taken seriously  for the most powerful job in the world you need to avoid quoting children’s cartoons.

Good media teams should be there to help out.  Then of course you also have to listen to them.  Plenty of blame to pass around these days.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside - Politcal ads

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, Radio, the movies and more.  I love 'em and I hate 'em and I always have an opinion.  Call this The View From the Phlipside

I remember shortly after President Obama was sworn in there was some discussion about how much coverage there should be of his two daughters.  At the time I took the position that the correct answer was "As close to zero as is humanly possible".  I still believe that.  It's one of the few "rules of the game" that continues to be honored.  At least most of the time.

As part of the health reform battle a group fighting the latest bill stepped over the line.  In southern Ohio forces arguing against the bill ran an ad that featured the small children of Democratic Representative Steve Driehaus.  The group, the Committee to Re-Think Reform, was quick to acknowledge that it had been a mistake, apologized publicly, in print and directly to the Representative.  The problem is that it leaves even their supporters with only two explanations.  Either they are vile, cynical ideologues or they are idiots.  But that's not all they have to explain.  More on that in a minute.

I want to take a minute to address the feeling that many people have that politics today is nastier, rougher and more unscrupulous than in ages gone by.  Let me read you a quote from earlier in our national history.  I quote " Can serious and reflecting men look about them and doubt that, if (he) is elected and (his party) get into authority, those morals which protect our lives from the knife of the assassin, which guard the chastity of our wives and daughters from seduction and violence, defend our property from plunder and devastations and shield our religion form contempt and profanation not be trampled upon?"  That's from a presidential campaign.  Elect this man and your women will be ravaged, your property confiscated, religion defiled and our very lives threatened.  The man who would bring about this horrible fate for our nation?  Thomas Jefferson.

American politics have ALWAYS been nasty.  Mary Lincoln was accused of being a spy for the Confederacy.  The first lady accused of treason.  No, our politics aren't any nastier than before.  In fact the argument might be made that they LESS nasty than before.  Frightening concept, isn't it?  However it might be argued that our politics are STUPIDER than ever before.

That's where the last note from that southern Ohio story comes in.  You see the folks who ran the ad not only stepped over the line by using the Congressman's children they overlooked one other very important point.  You see Congressman Dreihaus was firmly AGAINST his party's reform legislation already.  That's right, they ran attack ads against someone who AGREES with them.  Really makes you lean towards the idiot option, doesn't it?

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010

A comment on faith and health care

I will admit to being somewhat surprised and appalled at the furor of some of my Christian brothers and sisters over health care reform.  I'm astounded when I hear people of faith arguing against universal health care.

Because it seems to me that scripture speaks directly to this point.  And not in the all too common manner of "needing a bit of interpretation".  I'm talking about a story that addresses the issue virtually point by point.  It's the story of the Good Samaritan.

This is a story about health care.  It's a story about caring for those who are incapable of caring for themselves.  It is a story about caring for the stranger, the unknown, the member of another "tribe".  It is a story about paying for that care and committing ourselves to the cost of that care, now and in the future.

Pious, religious people, members of the same tribe, found reasons why they couldn't stop and help.  In the context of their time and place their arguments were perfectly socially acceptable.  The cost for them was too high.

And Jesus rejects them and their logic out of hand.

Health care for everyone is part of our calling to care for one another.  We ARE responsible for the stranger.  That it will cost us is not an acceptable excuse to avoid the requirements placed upon us by our faith.  Are we truly willing to place our devotion to some idealized vision of a governmental form ahead of our God's expectations?  Our nation has been in a constant state of governmental evolution that began within decades of our founding.  Jefferson changed the form of our government, Jackson changed the form of our government, the Civil War changed the form of our government.  The process has continued since.

If you insist on stating this is "A Christian Nation" (a statement with which I disagree and for which there is no particular historical basis) then you have NO CHOICE WHAT SO EVER but to support universal health care.  To refuse to fulfill this mandate is to affirm that in fact this is NOT a Christian nation.  I would argue that as Christians it doesn't matter whether or not the nation itself is Christian.  What matters is how we work in this world to fulfill the calling of God.

So who is your neighbor?  And what kind of neighbor do you choose to be?

Peace
JP