Tom Shales Quotes & Sayings (Page 4)

“By a twist of fate rather than anything approaching journalistic enterprise, I did the last major interview with Johnny Carson.”

“'Dragnet' (the 1951 original, transferred nearly intact from radio) served as a veritable template for all cop shows to come.”

“If the networks can get audiences to tolerate pop-up promos by the dozens, maybe they'll start selling pop-up commercials, too.”

“Jimmy Kimmel still comes across like a guy who crashed a party and got caught at it, yet adamantly refuses to leave.”

“'Kukla, Fran and Ollie' occurred in real time and was a benign and bewitching example of pure television.”

“Technically, 'Kukla, Fran and Ollie' was a kids' show, but adults watched almost religiously - and we're talking adult adults, celebrated adults - including James Thurber, Orson Welles, John Steinbeck, Adlai E. Stevenson and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.”

“'I Love Lucy,' the first classic, really belonged more to the Wacky Woman genre than the domestic sitcom; 'My Little Margie' and 'I Married Joan' were among the shrill, coarse imitations.”

“For those who don't like Dave Letterman, there's Jay Leno; and for those who like neither, there's Craig Ferguson; and if you're still feeling undertained, there's George Lopez and Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel and - let's see, did we leave out a Jimmy?”

“I always thought I'd buy my mother a house if I ever became successful - a big, beautiful house on the nicest street in town. It didn't exactly work out that way. I was still borrowing money from her in my 40s.”

“In the 500-channel universe, which may, of course, contain many more channels than 500, the fun never stops - fun at such a fever pitch as to sometimes seem threatening, numbing, even agonizing.”