Peter Funt

Our obsession with true crime
In television, now more than ever, crime pays. Nearly half of Apple’s top 20 podcasts in the U. are devoted to true crime, and the internet is chockablock with recommendations for the best new true crime books...
Big pharma’s song and dance
The earworm “1-8-7-7 Kars 4 Kids” always struck me as a stellar example of how insufferable advertising can be when its creators really put their minds to it...
Larry David can’t curb his instincts
Larry David, Hollywood’s most acclaimed curmudgeon, has apparently devised a scheme to get the last laugh with viewers and critics...
Billy Joel’s AI State of Mind
A friend who reviews music and interviews top performers for a newspaper in New England, was up early Feb. �� The music and accompanying video link he sent me evoked memories of Mr...
Did you really think TV would ditch ads?
So, you thought by cutting the cable-TV cord you'd avoid exorbitant monthly fees and those dreaded commercial interruptions. Lately you’ve noticed ads pouring into streaming. You can upgrade to be ad free for $2...
Pebble Beach benches celebrities
At a time when the presence of celebrities seems to overwhelm professional sports (Taylor Swift, I’m looking at you in your sparkly Travis Kelce jersey), it’s noteworthy that this year’s AT&T Pro-Am golf tournament will be, for the first t..
Tom Smothers was serious about politics
Tom Smothers wasn’t the first performer to weaponize comedy for political purposes, but he was perfectly suited for it. When news came that Tommy died of cancer on Dec...
TV news puts its trust in women
Apple TV’s “The Morning Show,” which recently ended its third season, offers a melodramatic mishmash of media and current events, yet manages to get one thing right: It depicts women as the new faces of television news...
Fed Up? Yes. Nasty? No.
If you listen to pollsters and politicians, or consume heavy doses of social media and cable-TV news, you might come away thinking the nation is in a collective bad mood...
Are you ready for some fantasy football?
My nephews and I were holed up at the TWA Hotel in New York on a rainy Sunday a few weeks ago, waiting to attend an evening wedding. (To be honest, every Sunday during the NFL season is big. So I told them the backstory...
Suzanne Somers was pure showbiz
Friday nights on CBS, Suzanne Somers always held my hand when we walked on stage. Suzanne, who died Sunday at her home in Palm Springs after recurring bouts with breast cancer, was 100 percent showbiz in the best old-fashioned sense...
Strikes make a humorless campaign even more so
NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” hasn’t cracked a Joe Biden joke since April 15, when cast member Michael Che quipped, “President Biden has tried to downplay the recent leak of classified U...

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