Results tagged “alroker”

Yesterday Al Roker was called out for Twittering too much during his jury duty duties, even posting photos of potential jurors for the case, which common sense will tell you isn't a good idea. Today the NY Post reports that Roker acknowledged making "a mistake" but said it was "inadvertent." Fellow weatherman Sam Champion showed his support on Twitter, and he wasn't the only one. David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration, seems to be happy that Al became a poster boy for civic duty, albeit only for one day (Roker wasn't picked for the panel). Bookstaver told the paper, "What's more important is this shows Al came to do his civic duty, and we're happy about that. It's a good example that nobody's exempt." The Daily News points out that he also claimed that Roker's actions weren't illegal, "despite a sign which says in no uncertain terms that taking photographs 'anywhere in the courthouse is strictly prohibited.'" Looks like some people are exempt from that one, eh Bookstaver?

If you watched The Today Show this morning, you heard that weatherman and punmaster Al Roker had to take off early to serve jury duty today. Roker obviously detected the immediate sense of loss from his adoring fans and made sure to keep them up to date with his moment-to-moment whereabouts on Twitter...from inside the courthouse.

Matt Lauer proved himself once again to have one of the best senses of humor of any TV journalist during his friar's club roast yesterday to benefit arts education and a new journalism scholarship in memory of Tim Russert. But all of the headlines today were swept up by the visit Lauer got from the man on the other end of one of his tensest on-air moments, Tom Cruise.

           

The aroma of cooking meat wafted as far as the BQE from the NYC Wine and Food Festival's Rachael Ray Burger Bash last night. Throngs of meat-lovers descended upon the Tobacco Warehouse to sample 18 burgers and vote (by text message) for their favorite.

While poking around on YouTube recently we stumbled onto this awesome clip from 1989 of David Letterman appearing on Live at Five and Live at Five simultaneously appearing on Late Night With David Letterman. In it, we see Letterman, whose studio 6A is just across the hall from WNBC's Live at Five's studio 6B, being interviewed by Jack Cafferty (and vice versa) on the occasion of a prime time anniversary show. Late Night taped its show every afternoon as Live at Five broadcast live, and Letterman on occasion popped in on Live at Five and was noted for complaining that WNBC's newscast got better guests then he did.

COMEDY: Check out The 7:00 Workout tonight at UCB, where God's Pottery test out some new material on you. The show is listed as being at 6:30pm, which is just confusing - so, get there early? We interviewed the Christian duo last month, where they told us they'd only leave this fine city "if the Al Gore flooding movie is correct." So catch 'em while you can!

(No matter what your mode of conveyance, we hope your Memorial Day Weekend is an excellent one and that you ride or drive safely. We will be here, offering fresh content throughout the weekend.)

Hours after CBS decided to fire Don Imus yesterday afternoon for his comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team, Imus, joined by his wife, and the basketball team and coach, joined by university officials and others, met at the NJ Governor's mansion . This afternoon, Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said :

We, the Rutgers University Scarlet Knight basketball team, accept -- accept -- Mr. Imus' apology, and we are in the process of forgiving. We still find his statements to be unacceptable, and this is an experience that we will never forget.

This morning, NBC News President Steve Capus appeared on the Today show to discuss the immediate ending of radio shock jock Don Imus's MSNBC simulcast. Per TVNewser, Capus said:

There's no question that his program has had provocative conversation and interesting conversation, deep conversation with thought leaders and political leaders through the years. But it's also had the other element. At some point you have to say 'enough is enough.' This went so far over the line that it was time.

• Today on Gothamist Newsmap: A brush fire at 147th and Harlem River Drive, a truck stuck under the bridge at the West 231st and Broadway subway tracks in the Bronx, and a barricaded EDP on Staten Island
• College news: NYU protesters didn't storm the stage when the president of the Minutemen visited and Barnard's president is stepping down after 14 years (!)
• According to the Post, Peter Braunstein "has sat through the hearings in a wheelchair, typically slumped over, droopy-eyed and with his mouth hanging agape"

Earlier this week Gothamist had the chance to attend the taping of Len Berman's 20th Anniversary of Spanning the World special at NBC’s 30 Rock studios.. The show was filled with some of the best clips of the past twenty years and a visit by the always fun Al Roker. During the breaks in the taping Len answered questions from the audience, including several interesting hockey related questions from a young Rangers fan which he handled with aplomb. Hopefully everything else will make the final cut when the special airs on Saturday at 7:00 p. m. on WNBC. And nobody got hurt.

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:

Sam Champion Leaves WABC

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:

Hilarious: The NY Times' election blog, The Empire Zone, reports that Chelsea Clinton's name wasn't found in the book of registered voters at the West 20th Street polling place: "The book containing her name was apparently forwarded to the wrong district, denying her the ability to enter a polling booth." D'oh! So she - and probably the other people in that book - had to fill out an "affidavit vote," ensuring that she would be able to participate in the democratic process. The Daily Politics found out that some Manhattan voters got old 2005 affidavit ballots - one for last year's Mayoral race. There's nothing like voting day in NYC! But at least potential voters aren't being threatened with arrest.

This year, the Today Show's tradition of testing its hosts' fortitude by giving them nutty Halloween costumes did not disappoint. Matt Lauer and Al Roker were Jack Sparrow and Captain Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes, that is Al as Captain Davy Jones - he is squidalicious! In years past, Matt and Al have dressed as famous pairs, like Siegfried and Roy, Batman and Robin, and J.Lo and Puffy. We're surprised that NBC was cool with Matt and Al dressing as a famous Disney movie, but the Good Morning America folks didn't dress up at all. All they had were their faces carved into pumpkins and a scary interview with Courtney Love.

Sam Champion, the WABC 7 meteorologist weathercaster (thanks for correcting, Toby) (not the band), will be the new Good Morning America weathercaster. Crain's reports that since Champion has been at WABC for 18 years, "his imminent departure could hurt the station as it competes with WNBC and WCBS." Gothamist would have to agree - Sam Champion is a cornerstone of the local NYC weather. The only current city weathercasters we know off the top of our head is Janice Huff. (Sure, we know Dr. Frank Field - and his son Storm - and Mr. G, but that's from their days on WCBS and WNBC.) We suppose Sam is eyeing the Al Roker transition (remember when he was the WNBC 4 weatherman?) but we'll miss seeing him on Columbus Avenue before and after his tapings.

There are some things from the 90's that we never want to see again, but on Gothamist Contribute someone added a link to the awesome, awesome commercial from WNBC in the 90's on Youtube and it brings back all sorts of memories. Gothamist remembers watching the ad on TV when we were younger and singing along with the commercial (sad, we know). At least there wasn't any dancing like the Rockettes or what seem like the Knick City Dancers. The commercial has appearances from Chuck and Sue, a big Al Roker and Len Berman and a nice shot of the World Trade Center.

Last night on the WNBC eleven o'clock telecast, Monica Morales was doing a standup in front of The Falls, reporting on the brutal rape and murder of Imette St. Guillen. That's when Happy Gilmore here decided to go for his 15 milliseconds of fame-- throwing up the horns and screaming. He managed to get about halfway into the frame when the quick thinking cameraman panned up to the awning of the bar. We're always willing to give props to citizens who insert themselves in the background of local news shots-- what's more New York than yelling "hey, mom, I'm on the news"? Still, this was in poor taste. Screwing with Al Roker is one thing-- but interrupting a report on something like this? Definitely uncool.

The local news channels had been working themselves into a frenzy since last Thursday (well, we were, too) and it paid off yesterday when there was a hell of a lot of snow on the ground. Even Meet the Press was pre-empted for local snow coverage! Gothamist thinks we heard Al Roker's heart breaking as he broadcast from Torino this morning, because he was missing this awesome weather event - it was the lead story on the morning news shows, after all. Gothamist didn't watch all the news stations - we toggled between NY1, The Weather Channel, and WNBC 4 - but when you're a TV critic, you tend to watch more channels: David Hinckley at the Daily News felt the coverage ultimately portrayed the snowstorm as being like a "courteous and well-behaved blast of extreme, record-breaking weather," with some reporters even helping people move cars. Did you like - or hate - any of yesterday's news coverage? Gothamist scoffed at the "2nd greatest snowfall" graphics because big deal - until they turned into "record breaking snowfall" graphics.

We were clicking around last night when we came across this entrancing animated-GIF of Al Roker on David Cho's site. It is reminiscent of these recent animations of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, where their facial expressions are strangely static-- but of course, it's a million times better because it's Al Roker. Seems like we aren't the only ones with Roker-on-the-brain today- check out this list from McSweeney's:

Tonight is the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, which is why today is a gridlock alert day. The WNBC Channel 4 Christmas Tree page and tree cam now has music, as they count down till 7PM. We're sure crowds are already at Rockefeller Center, breathlessly awaiting Al Roker, Sheryl Crow, Il Divo, Carrie Underwood, Il Divo and the Goo Goo Dolls, but the other way to watch is to tune in at 7PM and watch Channel 4 for two hours, and TiVo America's Next Top Model. And if you go, we'll be looking for your pictures on Flickr!

Just in case you had to actually go to work today (shouldn't Halloween be a national holiday?) we've taken the time to screencap the annual Today Show halloween buffonery. Award for best costume definitely goes to Ann Curry, who makes a fairly convincing Audrey Hepburn. Note to Katie Couric: you need bigger boobs to pull off Marilyn Monroe! And we think it's demeaning that Al Roker has to be Robin-- why couldn't he have dressed up as one of the famous black superheroes? Oh wait-- there aren't any! Damn racist comic book companies.

If Thanksgiving is over, then Christmas trees all around the city must be lit. Here are three events the Daily News notes:

Recent production sightings here in Gotham (reg required for full size pics) have drummed up a renewed buzz about the upcoming film, The Weather Man. Directed by Gore Verbinski, the film stars Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine. Cage plays a divorced Chicago weatherman who is offered a job on a network morning show in New York. Before leaving he attempts to make peace with his ex-wife and kids. The movie is described as being in the vein of "American Beauty" and "About Schmidt". Having recently wrapped up filming in Chicago, the production has moved to the right, into Manhattan.