I made the mistake of watching a few minutes of Entertainment Tonight tonight. Global Television, here in Canada, plays some version of the long running show late on Sunday night -- actually Monday morning. (This episode focused on the suds of actors Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson, and was about as exciting and interesting as you can imagine.)I remember when Entertainment Tonight premiered way back in September of 1981. For this movie fan such a concept appeared to fall from the sky: A show dedicated to movies, television, and music every week night and done in the style of a regular or traditional newscast. Two people (Ron Hendren being one of them) sitting at a news desk delivering the stories in a straightforward manner. Of course, this is a format long gone. Years ago I watched an installment and was taken aback at the amount of needless junk in the half hour... lots of junk. Oh well, I thought, it lasted for a while; how long, I was not sure.
For some reason a few years ago I watched three consecutive shows (Tuesday to Thursday?) of ET while I was working at the desk or drafting table on a project. By the third day I stopped what I was doing, looked to the television and said, "what the hell does Monica Lewinsky (and Bill Clinton) have to do with Entertainment Tonight?!" (In case you haven't figured it out, this was during those heady days of Monica and Mr. President. Those "stories" were actually the top of all three ET newscasts! That was probably what alerted me to the incongruity.)
We sure do live in interesting times.
(The picture I found and affixed above from Entertainment Tonight just about sums up the intelligence level of the show today.)
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