The Remote Island

TV Columnist Admits TV Stars Hate TV

Posted by Ben Kallen

 

We all know people who claim they don't ever watch TV, except maybe Mad Men and Masterpiece Theatre and the occasional roundtable debate about the effects of global warming on penguin habitats. But now we have confirmation from AP television writer Frazier Moore that this group of Hills-despising, How I Met Your Mother-ignoring snobs includes TV performers themselves.

"Among the scads of TV stars I've talked to, I never made a point of grilling them on their TV consumption," Moore writes. "I don't recall how often it came up. But over time I started to realize (and marvel) that, out of everyone who did address the issue with me, fewer than a dozen of them copped to being TV fans.

"The rest: Well, they don't shun just the programs they appear in. They don't watch TV, period. Or so they claim."

Well, sure -- it's one thing to play Horny Nerd at Sci-Fi Convention on The Big Bang Theory, and another to admit you watch the thing. What would you tell your friends when you run into them at Pinkberry? In fact, Moore points out, it's obvious what Hollywood's attitude toward the medium itself is, given that the TV-watchingest TV characters tend to be fat louts such as Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin and Tony Soprano.

Luckily, not all performers feel that way about their own audience. The actors who Moore says do admit to being fans of the tube also participate in some of the smartest, most pop-culture-relevant shows: The Office and Extras writer-actor Ricky Gervais, Robot Chicken cocreator Seth Green, and Mad Men star Jon Hamm.

So if you ever catch yourself saying all you watch is Mad Men and The Office,  keep in mind that the people on the screen are home with a bowl of popcorn and Two and a Half Men or some Law & Order marathon, just like everybody else. 


Image: Fox 

Previously: 
Mad Men Recap: Sunday Worst
Even More Great Office News 
How I Met Your Mother Secrets Revealed (No, Not That One) 


Comments

No Comments

About Ben Kallen

Ben Kallen is an entertainment, health and humor writer who's been lectured to by Sidney Poitier, argued with by Lea Thompson and smiled at by Jennifer Connelly. He's the coauthor of The No S Diet and author of The Year in Weird, along with hundreds of magazine articles. He lives near the beach in Los Angeles, just like the gang from Three's Company.

in

Archives

  • May 2009 (163)
  • April 2009 (356)
  • March 2009 (396)
  • July 2008 (226)
  • June 2008 (240)
  • May 2008 (25)
  • about the blogger

    Bloggers


    Lindy Parker has worked as a ghostwriter, editor, dance instructor and a purveyor of dreams, one beer at a time. She loves Charles Dickens and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and also, straight-to-video releases with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. It's possible she reads more teen fiction than she should. She hails from Los Angeles, her hometown and soul mate, but she lives in Brooklyn, the fling she'll never forget.

    Olivia Purnell left Ohio for sunny Los Angeles; then found that she couldn’t ignore New York City’s call, and brought herself to Brooklyn where she has worked with GenArt, BlackBook, the School of American Ballet, and finished an M.A. in Creative Writing from N.Y.U. She loves one-liners with sting and hates the stench of the subway in the summer. That said, she can’t get enough of either.

    Jake Kalish is a freelance journalist and humorist whose work has appeared in Details, Maxim, Stuff, New York Press, Spin, Blender, Men's Fitness, Poets and Writers, and Playboy, among other publications. He is also the author of Santa vs. Satan: The Official Compendium of Imaginary Fights.

    Contributors


    Ben Kallen is an entertainment, health and humor writer who's been lectured to by Sidney Poitier, argued with by Lea Thompson and smiled at by Jennifer Connelly. He's the coauthor of The No S Diet and author of The Year in Weird, along with hundreds of magazine articles. He lives near the beach in Los Angeles, just like the gang from Three's Company.

    Nicole Ankowski has lived in Ohio, Oakland, and on the high plains of South Dakota, but is now proud to call Brooklyn home. She wrote for alternative weekly papers in the first two states, and tried to learn Lakota in the last. (The vowels can be tricky.) She just earned her MFA in Creative Writing and has been published in Beeswax literary journal. She is unable to resist good writing or bad TV.

    Send tips to remoteisland@nerve.com