Robert Thompson Quotations

Only in the new millennium, in the waning days of ironic cultural breakdown could something like this have happened. He is now a brilliant actor.

New Year's Day was the perfect time for football because you could roll out of bed and you could start watching football, even before you manage to mix your aspirin and water. The second (of January) is just not the same. Some people are going to have to get up. The dynamic gets broken. The whole calculus changes.

One reason we watch these shows is the cheese factor. This ups the cheese equity of American Idol , as opposed to the (1950s) quiz shows scandals, which undermined the very value of what those shows were.

One thing that made this comic territory was that there was very quickly somebody they could go after, and somebody they could go after in a separate, safe kind of way.

One can argue the history of America has been one big makeover show,

No one would ever likely confuse reality TV with Masterpiece Theatre.

Nobody had that expectation before. Television was something you had absolutely no control over.

Now when you see the promos for 'Category 7,' everybody knows what that title means, everyone knows what FEMA is.

Obviously, we are disappointed. We never want to see fatalities go up. Even one fatality is too many.

retro, nostalgia, second-time-around industry, which is huge in this country.

Since these competitions can also lend themselves to television broadcasts, there is no reason to believe that we may not see more organized competitions in the future, ... If television can figure out how to make playing cards interesting, it should certainly be able to do so with video games.

So many of these reality shows sound so egregious on paper. The automatic response when you hear this is to think, 'Oh man, how low can we sink?' But it's all going to depend on how it's executed.

For most of the '60s, television was trying to hold the dyke. All of these changes and pressures built up throughout the 1960s and finally burst in January of 1971.

From the outside you look at these contestants and think 'get a life,' but within certain subcultures ù and we're all in one that looks strange to the outside ù if you're a part of that rabid fan community, this is one of the ways you express it and rise to the top of that subculture.

What I see of change -- to the extent that there is change -- is a shift from trade-distorting payments to non-distorting trade.

(His videos were) adding a new dimension, ... I mean, Michael Jackson was a good musician, but I don't think the music would have been what it was without the moonwalk, without that extraordinary choreography that he splashed onto the screen.

(His videos were) adding a new dimension. I mean, Michael Jackson was a good musician, but I don't think the music would have been what it was without the moonwalk, without that extraordinary choreography that he splashed onto the screen.

He's been doing this for years. This guy is a completely different category.

He is like a pig in slop in this thing -- this is clearly what he was born to do. When I first heard about 'The Apprentice' I thought it was a great idea for a show -- and I thought Donald Trump was going to stink the whole thing up. I was 100 percent wrong.

That definition of perky is really kind of a sexist statement. We could apply that to a lot of guys as well.

Real World' took MTV from being a venue where people have video wallpaper and background noise to what arguably is one of the great dramas that became the voice of a generation,

I think that dramatically, he had kind of been used up, ... If they can put some other compelling new characters in there that can hook people with a bunch of new storylines, you in essence have got a new show.

People are ceasing to believe those things for which we have empirical evidence. That creates a vacuum into which psychics can flow.

I think the '70s was the last pure decade. Once you're in the '80s, you're in the post-modern era,

I think the American culture right now is in a state where we have an unlimited appetite for irony. The great thing about a weird pageant is, if you don't win, is that really a bad thing?

Parents are now talking about kids staying home playing poker instead of going out to movies. It opened up this whole other area.

It is one of the few shows on American television, especially after you get past those first couple of weeks, where really little kids love it, grandma loves it. It's got the kind of wide appeal we used to see all the time on network TV that we very seldom see anymore.

I think to some extent the opportunity to go and take the place of an iconic figure of rock and roll, well, what's the psychology of not wanting to do that? You'll see a kid play air guitar in a garage. It's the same thing. It's easy for these people to get teased, and some behave in ways that they invite it. But I don't think it's intrinsically sick or strange. What is colonial Williamsburg but people in historical drag?

I think we all learned not only from 9/11, but even from the snowstorms last fall, that being prepared - yourself and your family - with the basic necessities can only help.

I think it's now beyond a trend. It's now a form, just like soap operas, doctor shows, or legal shows. I doubt you, me, our children or our grandchildren will know a time without it.

I think we have yet to realize how much we are going to miss that. I don't think it's a total coincidence that it's happening at the same time there's an increasingly divisive nature in the country. What the consensus medium of television used to do, and radio before that, was to provide this enormous center that everybody had to go to now and then. ... Now, there is a lack of cultural consensus that even extends to what we consider the body of facts we used to debate.

It becomes just another media in which these celebrities work.

It becomes very clear that the oil industry wants to develop 100 percent of the North Slope - the land and the ocean.

To have a public intellectual host the Oscars, that doesn't happen too much. My biggest worry would be that he'd upstage the entire night.

Those days are over. Forget leaving your radio off in the car or not watching CNN. Whatever your Internet service is, it's likely to announce all the results.

The '50s and '60s were an enormous golden age.

You always have a certain affinity to the programming you watch from the age of six, ... where your consciousness is formed, until high school, and anything that comes after that will be positioned in your psyche in a different way.

Will & Grace' alone should make the argument that gay characters are by no means the kiss of death for a show. There's no sign that these kinds of characters are bad for ratings.

The coverage we saw on September 11, and in that first week of Katrina, not only won't make this stuff go away, it ups the ante. You don't want to just see the Hollywood sign fall, you want the Statue of Liberty along with it.

There are some people for whom it will always be too soon, but that doesn't mean we have to reduce ourselves to silence.

There are two revolutions taking place. One revolution is taking place in the living room with high definition, bigger and wider screens. The second revolution is portable television.

There is certainly some award-show fatigue. I lost count a few years ago of all of them.

This story is way more interesting than the 70 up-close-and-personal feature stories that ran during the Olympics.

Where else would you do this? If you do this in a serious venue, it would sound smarmy, produced and self-conscious. The best way to get out of (trouble) and get a few laughs is to have a late-night comic helping you through.

The peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich is part of the whole Elvis mystique. He wasn't only the king, he was one of us.

There are a lot of people not doing well in their alternative rock acts, who are turning around and looking at their friends in Grateful Dead bands, Elvis tributes, who are getting gigs. There was a demand for the original groups.

We don't care if we're playing Michael Jordan, we want to win. They wore us down. We've got to get tougher.

When Ellen came back with the Emmys (in November 2001), she was coming back to a culture that had been put on total and complete hold, ... a felicitous coincidence.

We're so awash in tongue-in-cheek-attitude, ... it may get to a point when it burns itself out.

When you've won an Oscar, everyone is really scrutinizing what you do, including every movie you do. So if it's bad, they're noticing it more.

Cool is certainly a charter member for the slang hall of fame. Cool just sits back and keeps getting used generation after generation and lets the whole history of the language roll off its back.

What is so great about the variety show is that in many cases, it is completely uncorrupted. It hasn't been worn out through syndication,

Twenty years ago when Live AID or Farm Aid played, that was a big deal. That was something very different. Now these things seem to be the response to big very bad disastrous events.

Every element of this story added up to what I call the perfect storm. When I first heard about it, I was almost sure it was embellished.

Everyone was saying that ... network news was a dinosaur. Given the amount of attention to this story, I think it demonstrates that people still care about network news. It's not dead yet.

The tape was the key. Without it, no one would believe you. The video is not perfect, a little grainy, but that's what makes it so quaint, so appealing.

The star approval in OK! makes it less sleazy on one level and therefore less interesting.

There are religious activities; there are wedding receptions; there are a lot of family reunions there.

The only difference is that television is such a predominant medium. ... Radio used to have sitcoms and doctor shows and cop shows and game shows and all the different genres, and television wrestled that primary entertainment away from it. But I think in terms of its impact on the medium of radio, yes, this is going to be a very big deal.

These are the things that make the Oscars fun.

VOD is perfect for established hits, and for reruns of shows that didn't have enough viewers to keep them on the air. 'Freaks and Geeks' had a lot of people watching, but not enough to keep it on the air. With VOD, you don't have to worry about getting a 15 share. If a show already had its network run and the production expenses are paid, anything after that is gravy.

The opportunities exceed the ability of most people, even rabid fans, to consume. Because of that, are people going to quit watching? I don't think so. They can't watch all of them, but they'll watch the ones they're most interested in.

To some extent, the Oscars and Emmys are the mother of all awards shows and are immune to that. But then, who would have guessed that Miss America would be leaving Atlantic City and playing on a cable channel that didn't exist several decades ago?

There doesn't seem to be any end in sight.

Reality has taken a major hit. But it's far from dead, and some form of this stuff is going to be on television for at least the next century, if not longer.

People expected to go in to see a movie, and it was like a guerrilla attack. No one was expecting it, especially in Manhattan.

Thank God that somebody did find it. I grew up with her father -- we all kind of grew up together -- so I've known them forever.

Reality TV comes along and it proceeds to marry with every other type of program and have offspring. We've got reality TV married to a talent show ? 'Nashville Star' and 'American Idol.' And now I think the same is happening with home improvement shows.

The good news is that, today, adults can watch programs that were way better than before. We can watch 'The Sopranos' and 'Deadwood' and 'Sex and the City' and other really interesting, emotionally complex shows that I would not in a million years suggest watching with anybody younger than 14.

rough contrivance to lift from the social conscience a burden that should not be either lifted or lightened in any way.

So when we're watching The Sopranos in reruns ten years from now, on a big-screen, it will still look good.

You're seeing law enforcement falling apart and a modern, industrialized city brought to a complete breakdown, and these stories about the looting and the sniper fire are very much playing into this.

Alcoholic beverages are to New Year's as a turkey is to Thanksgiving and a jack-o'-lantern is to Halloween. It's the central iconographic image. There's not much else.

Sometimes a performance is best experienced with other people. The real advantage of television - that theater and the movies don't have - is you're allowed to talk through it.

Technology Enterprise Park is the latest addition to the successful and ongoing efforts to foster the commercialization of research at Georgia Tech through Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures.

Farrah Fawcett was in the prime of her big-haired, buxom beauty. She was the kind of person who could completely make 'Battle of the Network Stars' work. She was kind of goofy and she was such a huge star and you really wanted to see what she was like. And what you saw was a little peculiar and that made it fun.

Elvis Presley Ate Here' is the cultural equivalent of 'George Washington Slept Here', ... Every time a place makes a claim that Elvis ate there, it becomes a memorial to his memory, to his life and to his legend.

Even Candy Land (a child's game invented in 1949) has a special anniversary edition. Old-fashioned board games are enjoying a real renaissance.

Even if it stopped now, its combination of longevity and quality has never been matched, ... is one of the great comic creations. ... He's complex in his own lack of complexity.

There's going to be plenty of market demand for all the corn and soybean meal that efficient producers in North and South America can produce. I predict that by 2050 there will be real questions raised about the morality of burning food for fuel.

There simply are not a lot of really good movies that people were interested in. Every time a new element enters the field -- movies have to be better to attract people.

This time, because there was something else a little more important in the headlines for these newsgathering operations to deal with, they virtually didn't cover this at all, ... Consequently, I would say on the order of several million people who probably would like to have watched 'Survivor' might not even have known it was on.

This time, you mention the word 'Survivor' and you can almost hear the crickets chirping in the background and the sagebrush blowing across the town.

This came out as the center of the universe for the demographic of young people and it managed to bring together people who would have been very disparate in what radio stations they listened to. But they all came together in this one television hangout.

This is pretty prevalent these days. Everyone knows of a kid like this. Then to see him go out and do this ...

This is one of Ellen DeGeneres' specialties. When you do an Emmy awards after a crisis like this, you need to fulfill the purpose of the awards show and yet not seem too self-important. She seems to be very good at it.

This is a pretty big deal. Last year, we had New Year's Eve without Dick Clark and now New Year's Day without college football games. What's become of the holiday?

I must admit, I am little giddy right now.

If you're a U.S. senator and your sex tape is leaked, it could end your career. If you're Paris Hilton, it makes your career.

As soon as distilled spirits were discovered and their effect on one's consciousness known, they became an important part of the tradition.

The big ethical question is, is this somehow unseemly to do? I'd have reservations if it were a member of my family, but she clearly wanted to be part of this.

The biggest thing driving the DVD market is not watching it, but owning it. There's a study that found an overwhelming amount of people buy full series, but have yet to open them or to take the cellophane off. The satisfaction is in owning them.

Everybody seems to know Alan Greenspan. I think we accepted him as a smart guy. ... There is something very magical, mystical, almost voodoo-like about what he does.

The Next Action Star and Starlet were bad ideas because you can't deliver that. Even on The Apprentice, you can't turn those people into captains of industry. You can, in fact, say: We're doing a show on the Food Network and whoever wins gets a show on the Food Network. How can we do that? We're the Food Network. These are networks that can do what they promise to do.

It sounds so cruel but some of these telethons - even though you're doing it completely for charity - are very important gigs for your career,

It's pathetic. It's pathetic that someone in a time especially right after Katrina, seeing people suffer, would take advantage of the system.

The fact these shows are airing while hurricane season is still going on seems insensitive, but on another level it's what gives them juice,

In print media, the only one that's a growth industry is the celebrity magazines.

Interviewed after their transformation the girl said she still liked them ? but only as much as she did before.

I have recently heard that word uttered in a second-grade class and in a Presbyterian church - by the teacher and preacher, respectively, ... 'Sucks,' 'bites' and words like that are currently being absorbed into the vernacular. Thus, their taboo origins are being dissolved.