LAWRENCE, Kan. — Back for its 33rd year, Saturday Night Live kicked off the new season with host Lebron James and musical guest Kanye West, marking the second time the season premiere featured both an African American host and musical guest. Oddly enough, the previous time featured Michael Jordan as host and Public Enemy as musical guest in 1991.

Many would argue that ’91 was during SNL’s glory days, with one of its most popular and successful casts and a top-notch writing staff. However, on the heels of some unfortunate off-beat summer films starring current cast members – Hot Rod with Andy Samberg and Bill Hader and The Brothers Solomon written and starring Will Forte with Kristen Wiig and a Hader cameo, the current cast still has a lot to prove.

Filed under:
Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – After three years of coming close, MTV has finally taken one last plunge toward ruining the last shred of its original self. The cable network’s long-running Video Music Awards took a nose dive Sunday night with drastic changes to format and location, not to mention a level of payoff-less manufactured hype that would make Fox chief Rupert Murdoch blush.

After introducing the VMAs in 1984, only three years after the network’s inception, the awards grew to become a legitimate event with actual awards, known for memorable performances and surprise appearances. More recently, the show became a rare break in MTV’s schedule of non-music-related programming to pay homage to the very form that put it on the map. From time to time, there might have even been some actual anticipation of who would win the unique Moonman statues. But all that has changed.

Filed under:
Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – In a rare moment, reporter Mary Joe Fernandez landed a live interview from James Blake’s box in Arthur Ashe Stadium with older brother Thomas, who spoke candidly during the fifth set. As the younger Blake mounted a comeback, he failed to capitalize on three match points, and Tommy Haas answered by forcing a tiebreak.

Meanwhile, the trio of Dick Enberg, John McEnroe and Mary Carillo, who spent much of the afternoon in jocular exchange, flipped on the serious switch when the occasion called for it and provided excellent, meaningful commentary that viewers have come to expect; and coordinating producer Bob Mansbach, working his 27th U.S. Open, expertly selected relevant replays that director Bob Fishman interwove with dramatic live shots of the players, their families, coaches and fans in what Enberg declared the highlight of the two-week tournament.

Filed under:
Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – I usually reserve my shots for topics related to television, sports or both. I’m not an especially political person and would rarely comment on anything in political realm, but when I heard the remarkably bizarre story of Senator Larry Craig’s “encounter” with an undercover police officer in a Minneapolis airport, I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

At a time when technology has made information available like never before, it took little effort on my part to track down the police report of this supposed “incident,” and I still fail to understand why Craig honestly believed that no one would find out about his arrest. Did he really think it would just go away?

I’m hardly sympathetic to politicians, celebrities, athletes or any others for whom intense scrutiny is simply part of their jobs. It goes with the territory. So, when those individuals use judgment that would be deemed poor by any standard, it’s hard to have much sympathy for them. Yet they do it anyway, knowing full well that sooner or later it’ll hit the fan.

Filed under:
Opinion/Editorial by Scott A. Winer