Salon.com > Ken Kurson

TV’s best bouncing babes

Thu, 24 Aug 2000 19:00:00 +0000

"Son of the Beach" is the funniest show on television. Any of a dozen perfect little moments can be displayed as proof:

1) Notch Johnson, Tim Stack's character on his beach-patrol "Baywatch" sendup, posts a flyer during the morning meeting and tells his staff to "keep an eye out for this little troublemaker, Osama bin Laden."

2) Mayor Massengil (Lisa Banes) defeats the casino tycoon Steve Wind and Notch declares that "the mayor has broken wind."

3) Chip Rommel, played by Austrian bodybuilder Roland Kickinger, is concerned that a terrorist threat will disrupt the idyll of Malibu Adjacent, including the public transportation schedule. "The trains must run on time!" he shouts.

If the names of the characters alone don't make you laugh, you don't get it.

But if you do get it, if you sense that the show's not only just plain funny but really smart and sweet relief from the uptight snarky-yuppies-in-an-apartment sets that have dominated sitcoms, then "Son of the Beach" is a perfect little gem: one of those shows you're almost glad no one knows about so you can keep it like a secret. Nevertheless, with Howard Stern backing it as executive producer, a top-notch writing team and can't-look-away cast, it's not going to stay undiscovered for long.

Wall Street TV

Mon, 14 Aug 2000 19:00:00 +0000

"Look for two tall blonds." So say the TNT publicists -- frenzied over the launch of the network's first-ever dramatic series, "Bull" -- to a reporter coming to Central Park to meet show creator Michael Chernuchin.

Stanley Tucci, blue power-suited to play Wall Street powerbroker Hunter Lasky, is discussing the scene to be shot, as tall-drink-of-water costar Elisabeth Rohm agrees and absorbs. It's a gorgeous summer day, the TNT people (who are indeed tall and blond) are in their element, the cast seems genuinely excited about the show, and even executive producer Ken Horton, who must be agitated about the cost of shooting a scene in the park, looks pleased as punch. For Chernuchin, who wrote many -- if not most -- of the best episodes on the best-written show on television, "Law & Order," this is a moment he's waited more than a decade to bring to life. Green talked to him about money, work and leaving a comfortable situation for a chance at a dream.

We're 15 years into the strongest bull market this country's ever known. What took so long for a show to materialize?

Inside Judge Wapner’s wallet

Fri, 04 Aug 2000 19:30:00 +0000

Amid a sea of imitators -- some able, some ridiculous -- the courtly, gray-haired Judge Joseph A. Wapner invented and maintains the standard by which all television arbiters are rated. Before CourtTV and the current crop of yellers, the retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge held sway over a courtroom that was as dignified as it was entertaining. I watched at least half of the 7,000 or so cases he tried on "The People's Court," and Wapner was unfailingly fair, courteous and in control.

These days, the good judge is going to bat for -- what else -- a dot com. im-ur.com wants to be the reader-written daily newspaper of the Web. In a kind of journalism popularity contest, well-read essays on tons of subjects automatically migrate to better positioning on the site. Wapner's involvement is no stranger a fit than, say, Priceline and William Shatner, and the judge's son is pals with the founder of im-ur, so it makes some sense. Wapner also referees on "Judge Wapner's Animal Court" on the Animal Planet channel. We recently spoke to the judge about money and his excellent career.

Prime time pays

Thu, 27 Jul 2000 19:00:00 +0000

The three best things about Chris Titus are 1) he soups up hot rods, 2) he calls everyone by his last name and 3) he tells the truth.

As if the first two wouldn't be enough to make the tall, blond star of his own show stand out in Hollywood, that last one tips the scales. Titus realized after a decade of "How's everyone doing out there?" stand-up that he had something to say and that he'd have to say it honestly. The resulting one-man show lit a fire under Los Angeles' sleepy theater scene, and soon Titus had his own eponymous sitcom. A comedian getting a TV show based on persona is not a new idea. But the surprise came when "Titus," which is grating and raw, turned into a hit for Fox TV.

The show's got an intrusive laugh track, and the jumping back to stylized clips from Titus' one-man show can be distracting. But there's plenty to like here: fun writing ("bag of ass cracks" is one brotherly insult), a brilliant Stacy Keach (as the drunken father figure he perfected in "Fat City" and a dozen times since) and the unrelenting, decidedly nonheartwarming picture of dysfunctional family life.

We reached Titus in New Orleans, where he was drumming up support for the show by entertaining Fox affiliates.

The Top 4 hot personal finance magazines that are increasingly irrelevant now!

Fri, 20 Sep 1996 19:55:00 +0000

A 50-year-old with a hairpiece and a Miata. A beloved former ingenue wearing too much makeup. Ross Perot. To the ranks of these pathetic has-beens, add money magazines.

There are four major personal finance magazines, listed here from largest circulation to smallest -- Money, Kiplinger's, SmartMoney and Worth. That's twice as many as there were five years ago. And it's about five years away from being four too many unless some big changes are made. (Disclosures: I work for Worth, happily, and also put out my own personal finance magazine, Green, aimed at younger or novice investors.)

Today's personal finance magazines rely on a concept that's become outdated in recent years, due mostly to the medium through which you're reading this now. The bread and butter of these magazines is their ability to provide timely advice to do-it-yourself investors. But these same do-it-yourselfers have discovered the stock market's dirty little secret: he who knows first makes money. Mostly by selling stocks to he who knows second. That's the guy who gets his personal finance magazine in the mail 4 weeks -- a lifetime by investing standards -- after the insights within were first revealed.