Posted on 11/22/2001 6:10:20 PM PST by sneakypete
"The Walt Disney Company announced that the Space Mountain ride at Walt Disney World would be closed for a few days to modify it to make it scarier. The ride will be the same but there will be six bolts missing."
There used to be a great Norm fan site, containing everything he said on every talk show appearance, transcripts of all his "SNL" Weekend Updates, and much more. It was called "The Fake News." I just tried to go there, and apparently, they've lost the domain name and it's been snapped up by some sleazy porn site, one of those infuriating things that just keeps popping up when you try to get out of it. I hope they set up the Norm site again; his SNL stuff is still hilarious, especially the Clinton lines.
Or something to that effect. It was all in the delivery with Norm.
However, while he is a great impressionist, he is a horrible actor, and "The Norm Show" was plain unfunny. A social worker with an attitude problem? That's a situation for a comedy? Not in the hands of Norm, whose acting skills are little more than remembering lines. IMHO, it's a miracle that it made it to its third season. Here's a tip: any show that depends on Laurie Metcalf for laughs is in trouble big time. It's not like they didn't try to fix the show, either -- they even brought in Murphy Brown's beauteous Faith Ford as an unlikely love interest.
I don't think Barbara Walters could have killed Norm's show if it was any good. The hot water he's gotten into have burned Bill Maher, but he would have been gone a long time ago if his ratings were taking a pounding -- instead, ABC extended his contract. Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a superstar in radio, but she didn't have the necessary Judge Judyesque edge for a daytime talk show (Click here for a Real Video sample), which is what I bet the suits at Paramount were counting on (I knew better -- click here).
I love DLS, but her show was as ill-conceived as it was well-intentioned. Gay-stapo or no Gay-stapo, the Dr. Laura TV show as we know it was not entertaining enough to survive. Her pretentions to take a bite out of Oprah's domain weren't realized, but she is hardly alone in that department. Look for Oprah's old pal Iyanla Vanzant and MTV host Ananda Lewis to be doing something else next fall, too.
I liked Norm's show. It was funny. His personality had a lot more to do with it than some of the plots and concepts. I assumed he was going to be back in the Fall, until I noticed that his pal/brother on the show, Artie Lang had aparently become a regular on Howard Stern's radio show. I thought maybe the show could come back at midseason, but that also looks unlikely now. Maybe his other project will come through. Norm should think about getting his own official web site, to let people know what he's up to.
Actually, what I recall from reading about it on FR he said something more like, "Okay, fine -- manslaughter."
Anyway, I was thnking about this the other day. ABC moved his show to Friday where it was indeed tanking. (They had just stopped running their kiddie block after 15 or so years -- no one knew the show was there.) The murder thing was the final nailmost likely. Followed a pattern -- he lost SNL's Weekend Update for calling OJ a murderer too many times. (NBC LAte Night VP at the time was OJ buddy Don (Dan?) Ohlmeyer.)
Here's something off the website:
Canadian Norm fans! Now, not only do you get free healthcare and ubiquitous hockey games, you also get reruns of ‘Norm’! Anyone lucky enough to live in Toronto, Ottawa, Kitchener, Central Ontario, Calgary, or Edmonton, your CTV station is running ‘Norm’ at 5:30 pm (except Edmonton where the show’s on at 4:30). Excited of Monday's announcement, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien announced, “I now invite all of you in American to come on up to Canada, we could really use the boost in population. And to all of you in Mexico, stay there.”
It also provides real news, and the old show is definitely dead. I don't know about Norm's chances with Lovitz. Jon was pretty bad on "News Radio".
Do you have any cites for this? One of the tabloid rags ran a story with a ohotspread of Norm's costar (Dad from ALF, blanking on the name) smoking crack with a male prostitute (ActuallyI think it was a homeless crack addict who wasjust exchanging services, but anyway). The guy was even on the local news out there after he was arrested for driving on crack. The Enquirer (or whatever) article alsosaid that Norm McDonald was absolutley merciless with him on the set, cracking jokes about the crack etc . . . None of which would really square with showing up drunk to his own tapings (sure,maybe Letterman or the ESPYs. . .).
Yeah,when you consider affirmative-action laws,and the fact that "x-amount" of students in law school must be black,and must pass.
What I want to know is how she went from correspondent/host on CourtTV to a sleazy, moronic "diva" of morning talk?
Simple,BaBa needed the right "diversity mix" on her show,and Tinker Bell.....Uhhh,Star was there. This is the same way that bubblehead Lisa Ling got her spot on the show.
Sadly we don't get it. Not on the Ottawa CTV station anyhow - not sure it was ever in that time slot but it is not there now. It plays "whose line is it anyway"..."Norm" would be better. These days the only sitcom i really enjoy is "Becker".
Norm and his wife Connie [separated/divorced, depending on who you ask] have a young son named Dylan. A middle child of three boys; his brothers Neil and Leslie are both newscasters for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Norm Macdonald is (~real~ news guy) Neil Macdonald's brother!?! Whoa, I need to lie down....
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