Entertainment

Here are a couple reviews of The Nativity Story (in theaters this week): ChristianityToday.com Slate.com Neither seems to have too much praise or criticism for the film.

From the November 17, 2006, installment of The Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1968 that NBC executives made one of the worst broadcasting decisions in the history of network television, interrupting their coverage of a football game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets in order to show the scheduled movie, Heidi, about an orphaned girl who goes to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. There was one minute left in the game and the Jets were leading by 32 to 29, when NBC went to a commercial. No televised football game had ever gone longer than three hours before, and executives weren't sure what to do. Timex had paid a lot of money to advertise during Heidi, and network executives figured the Jets would win the game anyway, so after the commercial break, the movie began. Football fans were enraged. So many people called to complain that the NBC telephone switchboard in New York City blew 26 fuses. People were right to complain. What they missed was the Raiders coming back to score two touchdowns in the final minute, winning the game 43 to 32. It was that game, and the storm of protest by fans, that forced TV executives to realize how passionate the audience for football really was. Two years later, networks began showing football on Monday nights as well. And because of that game, the NFL now has a contract with the networks that all football games will be shown until their completion.

Ripping off Scott Freeman... My favorite TV shows of 2006 in no particular order: 30 Days (FX) Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip The Thick of It (BBC America) Little Britain (BBC America) God or the Girl (A&E) The Office My Name is Earl The Daily Show The Colbert Report Black. White (FX) Waterloo Road (BBC America) Hustle (AMC) The Street (BBC America) Saved (TNT) Lovespring International (Lifetime) City of Men (Sundance) The Hill (Sundance) Entourage (HBO) Deadwood (HBO) Dog Bites Man (Comedy Central)

Here are some of the TV recommendations for this week from The Week magazine:

• American Experience: RFK (Mon, 9 PM, PBS)
• 10 Items or Less (Mon, 11 PM, TBS)
• Independent Lens: Two Square Miles (Tue, 10 PM, PBS)
• Stage Door (Wed, 10 PM, Turner Classic Movies)
• Afterlife (Thu, 9 PM, BBC America)
• Worst Week of My Life (Fri, 9:40 PM, BBC America)
• Ithuteng (Never Stop Learning) (Sun, 6:30 PM, HBO)
• The Sun (Sun, 9 PM, Science Channel)

Last month there was a bit of controversy about the excision of religious content from episodes of Veggie Tales airing on NBC. From an article of the same title on beliefnet by Chansin Bird of the Religion News Service:

Fans of VeggieTales, those lovable animated singing and talking vegetables, may notice a change in the episodes aired on NBC's Saturday morning cartoon lineup: There's less editing than originally feared. "The last batch of episodes are airing with very little editing," VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer wrote in an e-mail to Religion News Service. "Not none whatsoever, but very nearly none whatsoever. Much less than earlier episodes." Originally, NBC had asked for changes in four of 13 episodes -- mostly editing out references to God and the Bible. Vischer said he was not thrilled with the edits, but was happy to have the cartoons on network television.