The Half Hour News Hour (vanity)

FreeRepublic | 02-19-07 | Alia

[Alia]

I've checked and seen nothing posted about the premier pilot of the 1/2 Hour News Hour on this forum.

I want more of this show. I laughed throughout.

The satire was crisp, delivery was very good.

The best thing about parodies and satires which grab at one's funny bone is that they are true and factual. The jabs delivered last night were true and factual. And Real.

I and my family enjoyed the 1/2 Hour News very much, and wish it were more than 1/2 hour long -- and covering the range of "news du jour".

How about you?

[Jack Wilson]

I thought the writing was good, but the overbearing laugh track makes it seem cheap.

[jackv]

Thanks for the post. I haven't watched the whole thing yet, I taped it. But what I did watch was hilarious. Can't wait to watch the rest.
Curious what others thought about it.

[Alia]

Ping.

[Frosted Flake]

It's amazing.
When dealing with the left, factual and rediculous are the same thing.

[Alia]

I agree with you about the laugh track. Nonetheless, it is a pilot, and pilots are done on a shoe-string budget.

[Alia]

lol!

And it is the why the scriptwriting of the show should always be within budget -- the plethora of script material just about writes itself.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Well done... the production values seemed a bit lacking, but the writing was very good and mostly well delivered. Some of the talent could have been better, IMHO (the T-shirt guy wouldn't have gotten through America Idol audition 1).

[dforest]

I turned it off because of the laugh track. I don't need prompting. They must not be to sure of their material. The laugh track was really hilarious. Show needs better lines for Rush and Ann.

[scfirewall]

They can't film in front of a live audience....Libs would constantly disrupt it.

[Enosh]

The satirical commercials jabbing the ACLU were the best!

[pnh102]

The significant other and I DVRed the show and watched it. It was OK, we got a few laughs out of it... but it just seems like the writers are trying too hard. We've got the next episode DVRed, hopefully it will get better over time.

[Labyrinthos]

The show has potential, but needs work. My biggest complaint is the back and forth, line by line, tag team approach to reading the cue cards. Very annoying. The anchors should alternate by "news story" rather than every sentence. The canned laughter also sucked.

[mrmargaritaville]

I thought it was a good start. The nice thing is with the "looneyness" of the left the writers will never run out of material. As someone noted earlier this would be a nice vehicle for Dennis Miller. I want to see impersonations-of hillary, Al Frakhen and Michael Moore.

[Eclectica]

I didn't catch the name of the comedy show I watched with a "Chris Matthews". Was this it?

I watched about three "interviews" before turning to Animal Planet reruns.

[Graybeard58]

Personal opinion - not funny.

[pookie18]

I not only posted one of the several threads on it, but also promoted it with video clips in the ping for Thursday's & Friday's Today's Toons. I believe that the 2nd pilot will air on March 4.

[hgro]

the overbearing laugh track makes it seem cheap

And boring!

[alicewonders]

I think it probably needs the laugh track for the first few episodes - so people won't confuse it with a "real news show". I agree though, after that it needs to go.

[geezerwheezer]

I thought the show was quite weak, good writing but poor production, and using the laugh track was grating on my sensibilities. I'd give it 1 star on my scale of 4, and that's being generous!