Letters

The prophet; Seeing colors; English only; The yellow ribbon; A fine whine

A A A Comments Thursday, Jun 8 2000

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Kimberly Wood
Via e-mail

Public money, public info

Would someone please explain to me one more time why we should spend public funds to build a luxury sports arena for fat cats to be seen in, instead of keeping neighborhood swimming pools open? Once I've got that figured out, maybe I'll try to understand why Dwaine Caraway and Joann Baggett ("The shallow end," April 27) think it's wrong for the press to cover their ostensibly public deliberations about how the Park and Recreation Board spends public money.

Gary Cooper
Dallas

No Action

Have to go along with Robert Wilonsky here. I was really upset to see the Chris Thompson-produced show Action get canceled; it was hilarious and one of the best 30-minute comedies I've seen on television ("Geek love," April 27). I was afraid that it might have a difficult time achieving the numbers, especially when Fox jumped immediately on the Regis phenomenon of big-prize game shows with its own millionaire show Greed. I also hated to see the demise of Wonderland, although I wasn't so disappointed to see Freaks and Geeks and Harsh Realm go.

However, it's pretty sad when game shows and wrestling shows can have such a large audience share that it reduces the possibility of much better shows having a chance to succeed.

I've been pretty respectful in tone, but my feelings run more toward the biting sarcasm of Wilonsky when he said, "...and nothing goes together like the words 'Regis' and 'oversimplifying.'" Also a nice touch were the words of Action producer Chris Thompson when he stated, "...development departments are telling their bosses, 'Don't worry about it, because I made this developmental deal with some Wayans fetus.'" I have to go along with Wilonsky, because I think Regis comes close to being beneath contempt for being such a well-rewarded simpleton; and it seems that Fox feels that all they need to do to maintain their network is sign some Wayans or a clone.

Nice article and so true.
Anonymous Via e-mail

Correction

In last week's Night & Day story "Momma's Boy," This American Lifewas referred to as a National Public Radio program. It is, in fact, distributed by Public Radio International. We apologize for the error.