ER & Political Product Placement

Sometimes there's something beneficial to watching several episodes of a series back to back. It's way easier to spot trends when the chapters aren't separated by a full week of the mundanities of life.

Take my recent experience with ER, for example.

It's not a big thing - and quite possibly something I wouldn't have noticed had I not been cleaning out the TiVo.

But...in back to back episodes characters from ER mentioned Democratic presidential candidates in passing and in a positive light. Both Obama and Hillary got what might have passed for product placement had they been Gateway computers or hybrid cars. They weren't ringing endorsements a la "I'm voting for Obama!" but they were positive mentions nonetheless.

One wonders - once the writers' strike is over, will there be enough election process remaining for John Edwards or any of the Republican candidates to receive anything approaching equal time?

A Daisy By Any Other Name

We've become big fans of PUSHING DAISIES. It's quirky, surreal, colorful (absolutely gorgeous in HD!) and unique.

We're also big fans of Chi McBride around here. Loved him in BOSTON PUBLIC, but he looks like he's having a grand time here. I had lunch with Mr. McBride sometime during the first season of BOSTON PUBLIC. He was determined to learn everything he could about the giant TV machine.

As he put it, "I stand where they tell me and say what they tell me. What do you do?"

I had the honor of explaining the role of local TV promotion to the star of what was then FOX's most critically acclaimed drama.

Kinda cool. But I digress.

What brings me here today is the first hint that baboons may be taking over PUSHING DAISIES. (See TV Shows Written by Baboons)

Part of the charm of DAISIES is its timelessness. It doesn't seem to take place in any certain city or state. It has a retro modern flavor that includes rotary phones and hybrid cars. It's decidedly not set in our universe. It's apolitical. It is its own entity.

That's why three lines of dialog in "Smell of Success" (airdate 11/27/07) stuck out to me. There was a reference for Ronald Reagan. One character expressed fear of the C.H.U.D. And another warned "don't make me cut you, bitch."

Each of these instances popped me out of my comfortably quirky DAISIES universe. I assumed a baboon must be responsible. Research shows the episode was written by Scott Nimerfro, his first effort for the series. A-ha! An unwashed member of the common public who doesn't understand the culture of the show!

Not exactly. Turns out Scott is a Co-producer for DAISIES.

Geez, if the staff can't get it right, what chance do the rest of us have?

Still love the show. Hope Scott gets it right next time.