Update: ‘Saturday Night Live’ says bailout skit ‘didn’t meet our standards’

Update: A “Saturday Night Live” skit that skewered President Bush, Democrats, homebuyers and subprime lenders for their roles in the mortgage meltdown was removed from the program’s website because it “didn’t meet out standards,” a spokesman for the show said Tuesday. An edited version of the skit will be re-posted online soon, the spokesman said.

The skit, a parody of a C-SPAN news conference, ridiculed subprime borrowers, housing speculators and Herb and Marion Sandler, the real-life couple who built Golden West Financial into a subprime lending powerhouse and sold it to Wachovia before the subprime collapse. At one point in the skit, the Herb Sandler character says he made $24 billion off the subprime boom. Graphics then appear labeling the Sandlers as “People who should be shot.”

“Upon review, we caught certain elements in the sketch that didn’t meet our standards,” a spokesman for the program said in an e-mail message today. “We took it down and made some minor changes, and it will be back online soon.”

Conservative blogger Michele Malkin, who called the skit “hilarious, dead-on, and surprisingly honest,” reports that the Sandlers, prominent donors to liberal causes, were “seething over the skit” before it was removed from the “SNL” website.

The blog Hot Air is also chasing the disappearing video, and readers on that blog found the video last night on You Tube — although by Tuesday morning the You Tube video had been removed “due to a copywright claim by NBC Universal.” The video was still available, however, on the site snlbailout.com, which also links to media coverage of the skit and its disappearance.

The new version is up and according to “Deadline Hollywood Daily” it was edited due to possible legal action from a couple lampooned in the skit.

But anyone who actually saw that video could see this might be a lawsuit waiting to happen. Because SNL labeled Herb Sandler and his wife Marion, the real-life former owners of Oakland’s Golden West Financial (aka World Savings), as “people who should be shot” and accused them of predatory lending that brought down Wachovia Bank even though no charges have been filed. NBC told me just now they never received any legal threat from the Sandlers. [Though the couple did give an angry interview to The Associated Press about the SNL sketch.]

Instead, the network claimed: ”Upon review, we caught certain elements in the sketch that didn’t meet our standards. We took it down and made some minor changes and it will be back online soon.” Specifically, NBC said it has edited out the chyron on-screen text, “People who should be shot” that appeared beneath the Sandler’ lookalikes, as well as the “allegations of corruption” made against the couple.

Still, a funny skit. I was particularly amused by Soros being identified as “Owner” of the Democratic party.

 

The Wii has brought many people to gaming for the first time

The BBC’s iPlayer video service will soon be available via the Nintendo Wii.

The video download and streaming service that lets people catch up with BBC programmes will soon be a channel on the hugely popular game console.

Early versions of the service will be available from 9 April but more polished software will be released as the service is developed.

 

1. Even Koko the Gorilla loved him
Most people have heard of Koko, the Stanford-educated gorilla who could speak about 1000 words in American Sign Language, and understand about 2000 in English. What most people don’t know, however, is that Koko was an avid Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fan. As Esquire reported, when Fred Rogers took a trip out to meet Koko for his show, not only did she immediately wrap her arms around him and embrace him, she did what she%u2019d always seen him do onscreen: she proceeded to take his shoes off!

Or maybe this one:

6. He Was Genuinely Curious about Others
Mister Rogers was known as one of the toughest interviews because he’d often befriend reporters, asking them tons of questions, taking pictures of them, compiling an album for them at the end of their time together, and calling them after to check in on them and hear about their families. He wasn’t concerned with himself, and genuinely loved hearing the life stories of others. Amazingly, it wasn’t just with reporters. Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec’s house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host). On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver’s home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life—the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life.

So now I have just finished reading other articles about him, his life, and the memorial service after he died. (The reason for all this attention, by the way, is that it is the 40th anniversary of the start of his show.) I am not ashamed to say that I am crying. I can’t say exactly why, but I am. And I am not the only one, the comments on the Mental Floss site include several people saying they are moved in the same way.

I remember watching Mr. Rogers when I was a child, on the couch in the afternoon. It wasn’t my favorite show, but I always watched it. There was something truly engaging about it that took me in. Now, as an adult, I can see the way he spoke directly to us and didn’t speak to us like kids (how is it that Teletubbies ever existed? Let alone all of their disturbed alien offspring), he spoke about tough issues, took us to neat places (like where they made pianos), and liked us just the way we were.

Right now though I am thinking about how so many of us don’t just remember him so fondly but are truly better people for his existence and career. A career that has been lampooned, mocked, and no doubt is nothing to which most of us have aspired. We all seek to make more profound impacts on the world. His little show seemed just that, a silly little show. Yet we remember it and are better for it. Even those who did not see it first hand know of his character, not “Mr. Rogers” but the depth and breadth of a man who loved God first and everyone else next.

Here is the example of someone merely and yet monumentally setting about the task set before him, determined to do it to the best of his ability, with all humility and with modest goals. Yet God transformed these simple tasks and goals, the gentle songs, the simple affirmation of a child’s worth, and created within millions of people the core character and spirit that is the foundation of “a royal priesthood and a holy nation.”

I spend far too much time in my life worrying about what kind of scholar I am, whether I am a decent administrator, and if I will be able to live up to others’ expectations of me. I am sure that Fred Rogers had his own doubts, struggles, and insecurities. But he never let that affect his manner or message, whether on screen or off, he was the same caring and loving individual. That was “all” he was. Can we be anything more than that? Can there be a higher aspiration or a greater goal?

I still miss Mr. Rogers, but I continue to thank God for him. And I think I will wear a cardigan tomorrow.

 

Worst, without a doubt:

 

[BTW it appears that "Rose" will be back!]

 

Yesterday I was on a panel with Dr. Tuana for Pennsylvania Inside Out on WPSU TV. The show will air on Monday and is part of the series on Climate Change/Climate Justice. Be sure to tune in or make it part of your regular podcast downloads!

Monday – April 23Very little has been done to address the ethical issues that would accompany climate change, which is largely fueled by pollution from the world’s wealthiest countries. Joining us to consider the ethical, religious and “social justice” implications of climate change are…Nancy Tuana, the director of Penn State’s Rock Ethics Institute, and Christian Brady, dean of Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College.

 

UPDATE: Here is is:

 

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Alley to star in US Dibley remake

Alley to star in US Dibley remake

Kirstie Alley won an Emmy for her role in Cheers
Former Cheers actress Kirstie Alley is to play the lead role in a US version of hit BBC comedy The Vicar of Dibley.

Alley, 56, will star as a preacher who returns to the small town where she grew up as a teenage rebel.

The Fox TV network will make a pilot of The Minister of Divine – co-produced by Vicar of Dibley creator Richard Curtis – before deciding on a full series.

Dawn French took the lead role in the UK version, which will end on Comic Relief night on BBC One on 16 March.

The final two full episodes of The Vicar of Dibley came top of the British ratings for the Christmas period.

The Minister of Divine is one of a number of new comedy pilots that will be made later this year. But only the best will be made into a full series.

Since Cheers ended in 1993, Alley has had roles in comedies Veronica’s Closet and Fat Actress, which chronicled her battle to lose weight.