Bill Cosby goes to jail…
2 minute read
September 29, 2018, 1:34 PM
Like everyone else did, I read about Bill Cosby’s being sentenced to 3-10 years in state prison for sexual assault, and his eating a pudding cup as part of his first meal as an inmate. I also finally figured out the word to describe my own feelings about the whole Bill Cosby situation: disappointment. I am not angry over Cosby’s conduct. I am not sad about Cosby’s conduct. But I am very disappointed over Cosby’s conduct.
After all, I was part of a generation of kids that practically grew up with Bill Cosby, and his very wholesome brand of education and entertainment. His stand-up comedy was mostly about his family and his children. We watched Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, where, in the opening, Cosby indicated that, “If you’re not careful, you may learn something before it’s done.” We watched Picture Pages, where Cosby taught us about math and other subjects with friend Mortimer Ichabod Marker. Cosby also had a long relationship with the folks on Sesame Street, making many appearances there. We then watched The Cosby Show, which was a wholesome comedy about a successful family, and ensuring that the children were positioned for their own success. The final episode was about a college graduation, after all, driving home that heavy emphasis on education. He also released a book, Fatherhood, during this period. And then Cosby was all over the commercials during this period as well, pitching Jell-O gelatin, Jell-O pudding, Kodak film (“No seal? Who knows!”), and EF Hutton, among others. All of those wholesome and family-oriented roles caused him to develop a public reputation as a father figure. We all looked up to Bill Cosby, because he had made himself as someone worthy of looking up to, as a successful father of five, a strong proponent of education, and from all appearances, an all-around nice guy.
That Cosby, in the end, turned out to be a grade-A scumbag, is just disappointing, and felt like a punch to the gut. “America’s Dad” turned out to be a dangerous sexual predator. There’s a certain feeling of disappointment and betrayal that comes with it, discovering that a role model is anything but. We all looked up to him, and then soon discovered that he was not worthy of our respect. Watching his fall from grace is a sad reminder that people are not always who we think that they are, and that Cosby’s wholesome public image was merely a facade over an absolutely despicable person. Cosby will likely be remembered not for the work that made him famous, but as the scumbag who drugged and sexually assaulted many women over several decades. And that’s how he should be remembered, because that sort of conduct is inexcusable. No more love for Cosby, as the real Cosby is a person that is not worthy of admiration and who lost everyone’s respect. Sigh…
Categories: News, Television
I have reached a milestone…
4 minute read
September 11, 2018, 4:08 PM
I recently reached a milestone when it comes to my overhaul of my Today’s Special site. I last wrote about this project in 2013, at which time I had settled on a platform for the site (WordPress) and had written a few articles, mainly as proof of concept. The build plan has always been to start with “Hats” and work my way through to “Memories“, adding content in the order that it appears in the show. After I get through all 121 episodes and the content related to those, I will then write the articles for the content that doesn’t necessarily tie neatly into an episode or episodes, like the articles for the main characters, the various sets, and so on. Then once all of the articles are written, I just need to write the “business” pages like the main page, privacy statement, etc., give everything a final check, and then launch.
Since I announced the project in 2013, the project has made good progress, though that progress has happened in fits and starts over the intervening years. I completed the articles for “Hats“, “Snow“, “Noses“, and “Family” in late 2013, and then set the project aside for about two years. I suppose that other matters took precedence during that time. Then when I picked it up again in late 2015, I got a lot of prep work done for the episode pages, such as all of the writer, director, and sequence information, and then by March 2016, I had completed things through “Games“, i.e. the twelfth episode. I then picked it up again in December 2016, and finished up the first season in February 2017. I picked up on the second season in September 2017, starting with “Dance“, and finished it up exactly one year later, taking approximately six months off from it from December 2017 to June 2018. That work on the second season also included writing seven brand new episode synopses, to replace some temporary short synopses written in the nineties. You know what they say: there is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution. That said, the new synopses are the same length as the standard ones.
In finishing the 1982 episodes, and a number of other articles related to that, I believe that I have reached a significant milestone as far as Today’s Special goes. Going into the project, I was concerned that I would get bogged down in those early episodes and the project would stall indefinitely. But now I’m done with them. I have completed the early material, and am now moving into the middle of the series. Starting in 1983, the series really “grew out its beard“, as the show definitely hit its stride during that period. The 1981 episodes were fairly light on story, focusing mostly on teaching about the various concepts that the show covered, such as hats, snow, camping, fruit, and so on. The 1982 episodes were built around an actual plot, but still had a lot of teaching and explaining in them. Starting in 1983, the concepts are taught through the storyline, with less direct explanation of concepts. There’s also more conflict, as 1983 has five episodes where characters get very upset with each other for very valid reasons. In addition, the characters are far more developed in 1983, as all of their origin stories are shown. The show also changes its appearance slightly, as this is when Jodie begins wearing her third uniform, which is the version with the long sleeved button-down shirt and pocket on the right side, rather than the short sleeved jumpsuit that she wore previously.
Continue reading…Categories: Schumin Web meta, Today's Special
“Roseanne” becomes “The Conners”…
9 minute read
September 1, 2018, 10:51 AM
Funny how real life sometimes writes the plot. I was planning to do a review of the tenth season of Roseanne in this space back in May, but while I was writing it, the show was cancelled by ABC after Roseanne Barr posted some pretty vile stuff on the Twitter. That put the partially-written Journal entry on hold, because those events affected a lot of what I was working on. However, the network’s reaction to the Twitter rant was completely understandable. I can’t imagine that any company would want to be associated with such vile rhetoric coming from one of their key players.
Based on the fallout, where Barr blamed Ambien for her racist rant, I can tell you one thing: she’s not sorry. Sure, she’s sorry that she ran her mouth and lost her job, but she’s not sorry for what she said. If anything, her using the medication as a scapegoat cements that those were her true feelings. The idea is that the medication “removed the filter”, and, with nothing to prevent vile things from being said, she let out what she had really been thinking all along. And then she doubled down on it on a Fox News appearance later on. I’m disappointed, because I expected better from Barr. But I suppose that it doesn’t matter anymore, because Barr’s career is most definitely over, destroyed by an ill-considered Twitter post.
I suppose that this is also a lesson about how to handle your relationship between your personal social media and your employer, especially when you’re in a very public position. People hear about stuff like this and complain about free speech, but the whole concept of “free speech” as laid out by the First Amendment only applies to the government. A private entity is completely free to fire you for saying something vile on the Internet, and that’s what happened with Barr. The government played no role in her firing. She ran her mouth, and boom – she lost her job.
Categories: Television