Wait, Wait...

On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest contestant is actor James Tyler Williams.  His amusing conversation with host Peter Sagal is a lot of fun as he tells interesting stories about his first job at the age of four on Sesame Street, being picked by Chris Rock to star in the series Everybody Hates Chris, and crossing paths with real-life teachers as a result of being in Abbott Elementary.

This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts right before the 21:15 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E17iWlsmx0

Writers Talk

On this week’s episode of 3rd & Fairfax, the official podcast of the Writers Guild of America, the guests are screenwriters-directors John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein, whose films include “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”  They talk about making the action comedy “Mayday,” as well as discuss their filmmaking collaboration, writing process, and much more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5gvDcAcZJI

Show and Talarico

You may have seen the story about how ABC and Jimmy Kimmel Live! were pressured (again) by Trump's FCC to not air an interview with James Talarico. This is the second time Talarico has been blocked from being interviewed on a late-night talk show -- the previous being on Stephen Colbert's show. And it backfired there -- because when the Colbert show put the interview on YouTube (over which the FCC has no authority), it got a bigger audience than it would have otherwise.

And the same thing happened here. Kimmel's show generally gets around 1.8 million viewers. Less than 24 hours after Kimmel's team put the video of the interview online...it's already gotten over four million views! And rising. Moreover, the full interview was posted, all 20 minutes, so it didn't get edited down for television.

This is still reprehensible pressure from Trump and the FCC. These kinds of interviews on late night TV have been done regularly for decades. And they tend to invite both major candidates. (Kimmel said he would love to have Ken Paxton on. "I have so many questions I'd like to ask him.) But at least, if the FCC is going to be reprehensible and authoritarian, it's good to know that their efforts had a backfire effect.

If you didn't see it, here's the interview. Talarico comes across smart, low-key, charming and funny. No wonder the MAGOP hate him...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLDE9LrGpNk