Don't forget Emma Caulfield who appeared on the show to promote "Darkness Falls".

eddy | March 24, 23:41 CET

Yikes, eddy, I was trying to forget that!

Chris inVirginia | March 25, 00:04 CET

Oh. Howard's still on the air somewhere? That's nice...

ZachsMind | March 25, 11:41 CET

On a similar note, I just saw at the end of tonight's Real Time with Bill Maher (on HBO) that Seth will be a guest on that show next week (premieres on Friday night, so that will be 3/31). That should *rock* -- there's about 30-45 minutes of political discussion with panel members, interrupted by interviews and comedy bits. Plus, each ep is repeated all week long on all the HBO channels, so if you have HBO at all, it's easy to catch up with. :-)

billz | March 25, 12:21 CET

Bill Maher's still on the air somewhere? That's nice...

ZachsMind | March 25, 21:30 CET

Does cable TV and satellite radio still qualify as "on the air"? Guess that's mainly a scientific question.

[ edited by bobster on 2006-03-25 22:49 ]

bobster | March 26, 00:48 CET

I think there's two questions here, one scientific and one that is, I'm not sure, economic? Political? ZachsMind might be pointing out what Howard Stern and Bill Maher both have in common: they were driven off broadcast channels because they said things that were not politically acceptable to the reigning conservative PTB in the mass media. They both found homes with equally big corporations, just corporations that are less afraid of the complaints of activist conservative individuals or public opinion (and are less subject to the regulating bodies). By being on services you have to subscribe to, Mr. Stern and Mr. Maher both stand a better chance of being found by audiences who want to hear what they have to say and much less chance of being found by people who are offended by their opinions, humor, or lesbian spanking. ;-)

Of course, the problem is that not all their fans can afford to subscribe to satellite radio or HBO.

One irony here is that I would say neither Mr. Stern nor Mr. Maher is "liberal." Mr. Maher always says he is a libertarian, and advocates more personal freedoms (typically a liberal view) and a smaller, less-interfering government (typically a conservative view). Mr. Stern is...pro-stripper? OK, I don't know much about his political views, but I would guess he's mostly an advocate of freedom of speech, which should be something all Americans should be in favor of; I don't know where Constitutional scholars stand on stripping and spanking (so long as it's not mandatory). ;-)

BTW, to add Whedonverse relevance, I would definitely say that Mal is the very picture of a libertarian! ;-)

The scientific question is easier. I think that cable TV is not "on the air" but satellite radio is, and a little bit "on the vacuum of space," too.

[ edited by billz on 2006-03-26 01:21 ]

billz | March 26, 03:19 CET

Haven't subscribed to Sirius yet, as I'm trying to pare down my 'memberships,' but would add that regular listeners to Howard Stern find that he's actually quite political and fairly well-informed. He generally reigns himself in to suit the audience -- which always left me wishing he wouldn't but understanding why he did. Tune-in near an election, or when there's something particularly contentious in the news, and you might be surprised at how well thought out he is. (Though he'll be sure to caveat his political views by saying he's just a dumb guy who doesn't know shit about shit.) He's called himself a "free-thinking libertarian" and expresses ideas that you could categorize as both typically conservative and typically liberal. Once upon a time, when he was professionally friendly with Bill Maher, their conversations revealed very similar idealogical leanings.

That said, it looks like he did have Seth Green in to evaluate women who wanted to know if they were hott enough to appear in Playboy. Apparently, Seth frequents Hef's mansion, so could be considered an expert. :)

(And BTW, what's up, ZachsMind? First time I've ever seen you drop two less-than-three-paragraph posts in a row and they're in service of the snark. *meow* Did your pizza place stop carrying anchovy topping? ;))

barest_smidgen | March 26, 19:15 CET