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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2019)
real talk Making fun of misery ‘The Misery Index’ premieres on TBS By Kyla Brewer TV Media A miserable game show: Life can be tough, and no matter how lucky you are, you’ll likely be miserable at some point. Leave it to television producers to make money off of misery — a new game show does just that. British actress Jameela Jamil (“The Good Place”) hosts as con- testants and comedy players rank miserable real-life events in the premiere of “The Misery Index,” airing Tuesday, Oct. 22, on TBS. Based on the popular card game Sh*t Happens, the show features four members of the comedy troupe The Tenderloins (“Imprac- tical Jokers”) as recurring panel- ists who try to help contestants win money by guessing how the events rank on the show’s Misery Index. Andy Breckman (“Monk”), who also created the aforemen- tioned card game, worked with Ben Newmark (“Iron Man,” 2008) and Dan Newmark (“Let’s Get Physical”) to develop “The Misery Index” for television. TBS executive Michael Bloom expressed appreciation for the creators in an official news release when the series order was announced last October. “Andy Breckman and the Newmarks have hi- lariously gamified embar- rassment, humiliation and total misery,” Bloom said. “Adding The Tenderloins brings unpredictable fun to this game.” Best known for their work on truTV’s “Im- practical Jokers,” The Tenderloins consist of Joseph Gatto, James Murray, Brian Quinn and Salvatore Vulcano. In each episode of “The Misery Index,” two Ten- derloins team up with one contestant to deter- mine how the terrible tales featured on the show stack up. They 20 | Screentime hear hilarious real-life horror stories, from accidentally sexting grandparents to getting fired, before they’re asked to rank each incident on a scale of 1 to 100. The scale was created by a team of therapists who were tasked with determining how embarrassing certain events might be and how they stack up against each other. For example, they pondered how embarrass- ing it is to see your father naked versus drop your phone in the toilet. Host Jamil delivers the cringe- worthy questions as the show’s ringleader. “As someone whose life is just a series of mortifying incidents strung together, it’s going to be brilliant to take a break from my own mishaps and feast in the disasters of others,” Jamil said. October 16, 2019 | East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald Viewers might just feel the same way. If you think you have it bad, you may want to check out this new game show to gain some perspective. “The Misery Index” premieres Tuesday, Oct. 22, on TBS. Looking for Amelia: On July 2, 1937, pilot Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared somewhere in the Pacific Ocean while attempting a circumnavigational flight around the globe in a Lockheed Model 10 Electra. The disappearance of the pioneering female aviator and her colleague has intrigued and baffled people for decades, but a modern-day expedition hopes to shed some light on the mystery. Famed deep-sea explorer Bob Ballard leads a team determined to discover what happened to Earhart in the two-hour docu- mentary “Expedition Amelia,” premiering Sunday, Oct. 20, on National Geographic. In addition to footage gathered from the month-long expedition, which began in August, the program features a look at how Earhart has become an inspirational figure. Best known for his 1985 discovery of the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean, Ballard is well suited to take the helm, and he enlisted the help of Earhart experts, scientists and technicians for his latest expedition aboard the EV Nautilus, owned by the Ocean Exploration Trust. “I have always been intrigued by the story of Amelia Earhart because she shocked the world doing what everyone thought was impossible, much like I’ve at- tempted to do my entire career,” Ballard said in a July article on deadline.com. “We have an in- credible team in place of experts, scientists and explorers who are working diligently to map out this ambitious expedition.” Salvatore Vulcano, Joseph Gatto, Brian Quinn and James Murray star in “The Misery Index” Late laughs Conan The Emmys last night was watched by a record low number of 7 million people. And one million of those were Game of Thrones cast members. President Trump is in hot water for asking the leader of Ukraine to look up dirt on Joe Biden. Now, for you history buffs out there, get this — no one’s asked a foreign government to interfere in a U.S.. election since way back in 2016. A whistleblower lodged a complaint over Trump’s phone call with the leader of Ukraine. We don’t know who the whistleblower is yet, but we do know they’ll end up on “Dancing with the Stars.” The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon The whole thing is pretty shocking. We spent years talking about Russia and it might be Ukraine that takes down Trump. Who saw that coming? That’s like looking both ways before crossing the street and getting hit by a drone! Over the weekend, several 2020 candidates were in Iowa and Joe Biden set up a tent with a bouncy castle, a fire truck and an ice cream truck. It’s all part of his plan to win that coveted 3-8-year-old demographic. A woman in the U.K.. fell in love with her wedding DJ and now they’re dating. Even worse, the woman told her ex-husband: “shoulda sprung for a band.” The Late Late Show with James Corden Today was the first day of autumn. I’m telling you this because here in Los Angeles there really is no other way of knowing. Trump called his conversation with the Ukrainian president a, quote, “perfect phone call,” which is obviously a lie. A perfect phone call is a text message! The country’s first cannabis restaurant is set to open here in Los Angeles. The restaurant says they’re going to have a menu filled with farm-to-table items: the beef will be grass fed, also the customers will be grass fed. White House lawyers were so concerned about Trump’s phone call with Ukraine that they hid the transcript in a top secret computer system. They hid Trump’s embarrassing communications, which is weird because they know that we can all see his tweets, right? The Late Show With Stephen Colbert It’s been a very big week here in New York; the UN General assembly is in town. Leaders from Asia, Africa and Europe have come to New York City to see all the people who used to live in their countries. For two and a half years, Trump has had scandal after scandal — every time people have asked: “Is this the thing? Surely this must be the thing?” And every time, it wasn’t the thing. But here’s the thing: There’s a new thing ... it might be the thing. Innocent people do not do things like this! That’s why people hide their porn on their computer in files labeled “vacation pics” instead of “porn for later.” Jimmy Kimmel Live Phoebe Waller-Bridge was the big [Emmy] winner. She created two shows, “Fleabag” and “Killing Eve,” and she’s writing the next James Bond movie — she must really type fast, is all I can figure. I didn’t know there were types of impeachment. Like, is there Diet Impeachment? Impeachment Code Red maybe?