| Show hSS - s’ ' 1 - ili'iT i v - t i '9 ' Page 18— The Herald Journal Logan Utah Wednesday May 5 1899 SHERMANS LAGOON rvm wutt tKMNT cm fir wtnm MR Just because they pause for a commercial why should you? NEW YORK (AP) — Leave it to the netwoiki to adopt this pricing policy: The leu you like their wares the more you get to pay Their audience continue! to CATHY HOU SKA SO DONFIOCNT CflTKH! fim rw TURNED A BID CORNER M UN UR ID K SO I USEDSHUT DOUM HtKW OF OPEN ANO FREE! v SU46UE! IN ?? IM COAPimiH MRILMUE! Kn Ml TURNED ANO NON TWAIN EREEJ STILL SORT Of ANO WIN NOT ! recently COURSE ra not BUT ANO Ml) 3M r N OUT Of A SOWS AO MTS ONE-W- STREET AN HOUR BNMHD UMWT6 someone new!! BACKNMr N Ml£$ SNOUEO REACH TO TORE A CHANCE ON A CORNER ACTUAUN! Wirt! r WOWED erode They failed this season — their fourth in a row — to launch a single breakout hit Even their most popular shows are hitting new heights for rating slumps (Item: Last Thursday’s “Must-See- " NBC lineup landed the first-ru- n among Bniest viewers insemes five years) What have the networks done in response? They upped the “ticket price": the hourly ad count An average hour of prime-tun- e TV last November contained IS minutes 44 seconds of advertising according to a recent study That was a leap of 25 seconds over the year before and the highest level since trade groups began gauging it a decade ago For every 44 minutes of what you presumably turn on your TV to see — say Ranger Walker taking someone apart or Dr Mark BEETLE BAILEY Greene putting someone back together — you are afflicted with roughly 16 minutes of messages about products that glide on with- out clumping that leave you behind it if you're not in it or that won't fill you up and never let you down often lets you down and expects you to pay for the privilege With April 15th fresh on your mind you might think of TV ads as another form of tax one you pay with your time and attention It’s a steadily increasing tax on programs that you may not even like and certainly have no vote on (Has your family ever been among those 5000 Nielsen families? Have you ever known one that was?) This is taxation without representation! Of course there’s a loophole for the viewer who applies it: Tape your favorite shows and through the fast-forwa- rd com- mercials Even so more than 95 percent PEANUTS of all prime-tim- w ge e viewing is with comdirectly off the air mercials and other nonprogram clutter intact But here’s another more cut-- ’ storyline plugs for other Disney enterprises such as when a “Sports Night” character reluctantly attended Disney’s Broadway musical “The Lion King” and then raved about it to her later viewing Unlike VCRs During sport scuts “virtual average hour of An TV prime-tim- e last November contained 15 minutes 44 seconds of advertising according to a recent study That was a leap of 25 seconds over the year before and the highest level since trade groups began gauging it a decade ago billboards” are insetted that only the TV audience can see And not long ago an episode of UPN's tested video “Seven Days voodoo that allows advertisers to have their products digitally added to a scene in Don’t forget your basic on-a- ir peddling Tonight at 10 pm MT “Law ft Order” star Jerry Orbach will appear on Home Shopping Network hawking merchandise that commemorates the NBC suin' 200th episode (airing the hour before) You want a set of handcuffs used on the show or a “Law ft Order" director's chair? will be standing by Can it be very king before the Order-take- rs fraction fully shop-at-ho- these gadgets let you pause then resume an program — or leapfrog through each of its commercial breaks Just think A life without commercial clutter would mean a 25 percent saving of your time Which gives you the time to watch that much more TV! Maybe you don't like fudging on your 1040 form but TV is a system you can beat at no risk Unless you happen to be in a Nielsen family the eyeballs you withhold from a commercial will never be missed! Granted this is not a total solution to the commercial glut Nor is it a permanent one Already networks are exploring ways to permeate their programs with ads you can’t avoid In February ABC promoted an upcoming show with a “crawl’’ along the bottom of the screen simulating a news bulletin: “ABC STORM ALERT Stephen King’s 'Storm of the Century’ is craning this Sunday ” And the Disney-owne- d “Sports off-the-- ng Meanwhile TV fills you up HAGAR THE HORRIBLE answer: the brand-neRepIayTV (produced by Replay Networks Inc) and HVo (made by a company of the same name) boxes that store proare set-to- p internal hard disk for on an grams ting-ed- Night” which airs on Disney-owne- d ABC lias woven into its rftet a merges with each program? You like that lipstick Monica Lewinsky is wearing on her Barbara Walters interview? Why wait until tomorrow when the stores might be sold out? What if you could on ABC’s Web site to order “Glaze” from Club Monaco before Barbara point-and-cli- ck says good night! No doubt that's the future But right now while you can still distinguish TV shows from advertising clutter shouldn’t you try to dodge it? You won't always have the chance In the long run you know there are only three sure things: death taxes and TV Elsewhere in television COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS: Triple nominee Sha-ni- a Twain country star Patti Page and Hollywood stars Jane Sey- mour John Schneider and Lee Horsley are among the presenters for “The 34th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards” to be broadcast live tonight at 7 pm MT on CBS from Los Angeles’ Universal Amphitheater ‘SLC Punk!’ is amusing but dated By Nick Carter Milwaukee Journal Sentinel MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM Movie review drugs lashing out at their parents and getting blasted at beer barrel bashes Stevo in fact is the only one with the means and imagination to possess a punkish muse telling his reformed hippie parents thanks but no thanks to their offer to send him to Harvard and could he just enroll at die local branch of the state university and get on with his boring life please? “SLC Punk!” follows the lead of other recent movies with an early-20- s edge and irreverence such aa "Clerks” and “Clay Pigeons” with its But sacrificing their rebellion to the lurking slacker suburban-pun- k nihilism relieved by endless responsibilities of adulthood Stevo and his friends parody But as with those films its problem is that do and that slow painful process makes tor tne the overall premise is stale main story line of “SLC Punk!”: an energetic often It’s not luce Merendino is reeling off a quick and feature amused autobiographical reflection (the director amusing but ultimately thin debut by director James Merendino spent the mid--’ 80s in Salt Lake City) rather he sets revelations in an intentionally Vaguely at odds with their future prospects and up Stevo's white-bo- y the smiling tyranny of their Mormon-proscribdeep and melodramatic way before heading back surroundings Stevo and his friends are rebels with- — always — to the sarcasm out a clue or a club Their mohawks and piercings Here u is 1999 and we’re being spoonfed a spoof make fra diversions among the local yahoos in bars on the hypocrisies of punk? Go bade IS years and and at frat parties But the trappings are all just a you'll find a film that much more honestly convincdistraction helping the boys get through their final ingly and humorously explores a punk’s craning-pf-agthe '84 cult classic “Repo Man” dreary high school days along with taking lots of Stevo has a problem He’s almost 18 He's almost off to college And he’s almost ready to stop bang a punk The last of dial list is proving to be a hard habit to break because forsaking the torn spiky blue mane and mail-ord- er punk albums (the only way to get die good ones in Salt Lake City in 1985) Stevo (Matthew Lillard) will have to face the fact that being a punk didn’t make him much different from the longer-haire- d rednecks that surround him rts ‘wwmECA® Kiwsmr full-leng- th ed FOX TROT NICOLE was 1ELUN6 ME TbOAT HoW HER MoM LEFTOVERS feR FouR DATS STRAIGHT SERVED X Told HER COULDN'T UNDERSTAND THAT J HERMoMVMSPRoS-ABLY BUST YbS TRY CootnNN DMNER EVERY NMT I No No- -I COULDN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT A kTEFIWETWAS Lain REAL LIFE ADVENTURES CLOSE TO HOME I ALWAYS MtSCTWafoE wTonib mmTan NEVER KNOWN LIFE WITH- OUT PETER — U— J5 wwwt’ e: Names in the news Nugent a rock musician of the Nugent mad 1970s best known for his hit "Cat Scratch Fever" said Saturday he about trees was interested in NEBRASKA CITY Neb (AP) — The Motor City Madman has been recognized for being mad about trees Rocker and avid outdoorsman Ted Nugent received a National Arbor Day Foundation award for his promotion of tree planting environalways mental issues “I’m 50 years old and I went along on my first hunt before my first birthday" he said “By the time I was 7 1 could identify every bird in die woods from its song” For the past three years on Arbor Day Nugent has opened e his ranch in Jackson County Mich to busloads of 650-acr- inner-cit- to embrace nature instead of drugs “It's the greatest thing in the world My kids get high from sticking seedlings into the earth” said Nugent Wifi at Dnage f three Anders son cashed his top By PhHHp Aider which was held in Stockholm 1 Sweden February Swedish internationals Tommy Gullberg and Lars Aadersson won this pairs event by u wide margin they pocketed about $1600 each In this deal the winners did 18-2- well against four hearts However the interesting question is this: East-We- st defeat four spades? West's three diamonds wss a weak jump overcall showing in principle about 0 high-cu- d d points and a decent 6-1- six-car- suit With a seventh card one would sometimes bid four dia- monds but that has die disadvan- tage of taking the auction put I7I diaV monds Gullberg discarding an encouraging dub on the second round There wu a natural reaction far West to continue with the diamond jack hoping his partner could overruff the dummy But Andersson trusted his partner switching to the club jack Now with the 5-- 0 ': v--- North no-tru- Today’s deal occurred during the Niklas Data Championship Can youngsters At his y youth camp ldds are encouraged trump split declarer A K Q ran out of control finishing two down It takes some defense to beat the better four spades West starts with two top diamonds but East must ruff the second to switch to a heart raffed by West Then the diamond jack forces dummy to ruff leaving declarer unable to draw trumps and get back to the (tommy to take die heart finesse 01098 by NEA Me Q 9 S I Q A 7 4 V A J 1 1 J IS I IS — 7 I Vulnerable: Neither Deaton South 1 IV Wed I North Pass Pass Pau 4V ARpaaa Opening lead: A |
