With a fresh year upon us, I thought I’d clear out the ol’ Remote Island mailbag, a satchel full of inquisitive questions. Most come via some ancient contraption called the telephone (612-673-7431) or to my personal e-mail (njustin@startribune.com). I try to get back to everyone personally - but some inquiries are worth sharing with the masses. Here’s a few that came my way this past month.:

Q: You listed Sarah Palin’s performance in her Katie Couric interviews as one of the 10 greatest moments in TV. What about Joe Biden’s gaffe about Franklin Roosevelt appearing on TV? You and the Star Tribune are showing your liberal side again.

A: I’m not sure if this is so much a question as it is an accusation, but it’s worth addressing. First of all, my “10 moments,” which I do every year in late June and late December, is not a list of the “greatest” or my “favorite” moments. They are ones that stick out, that resonated, that had some sort of an impact, either positively or negatively. Clearly, Sarah Palin’s personality was more buzzed about than Joe Biden’s. How much you can blame - or credit - the mainstream media for that depends on how you look at. I looked back at the Star Tribune files and was surprised to see what little coverage news side gave to those interviews. There is no mention in any news story about Palin saying she reads all newspapers and magazines. There is mention of her overall performance and almost as many addressing Biden’s mistake. At no time did either of these issues reach 1A. I think it was late-night comedians, youtubers and conversation at coffeeshops and bars that drove the impact of the Palin/Couric interview. It’s easy, and quite frankly, lazy to blame the mainstream media for determining what gets buzzed about. You know both about the Biden gaffe and the Palin gaffe because the mainstream media reported it. You heard more about the Palin performance because of other forces. That’s what made it such a memorable moment.

Q: My wife and I study the TV listings to figure out our evening viewing and we’re confused by the listings for Sundance Channel. We see things listed in the paper at one time and then the shows show up much later at night? Why the difference?

A: This one puzzled me, too. It turns out that Sundance Channel on Comcast is picking up the West Coast feed, rather than the East Coast feed, which is what everybody else does. That means that us midwesterners, who are used to having prime-time start at 7 p.m., have to wait until 10 or 11 for some of our favorite Sundance shows. I made some calls and discovered that Dallas had gone through the same problems. I’ve been told that Comcast now realizes that’s a mistake and will start picking up the East Coast feed. If so, consider it a belated Christmas gift from your friend at Remote Island.

Q: Why do some network shows regularly run until 8:01 or 9:01? I can’t be the only person with a DVR that sometimes wants to record a show on one station and then on another the next hour, but can’t easily do it because the first one ran into the next hour. I can’t see what they are trying to accomplish.

A: Ah, my friend, if you can’t see it, than you have the heart and innocence of Tiny Tim. The impossibility of taping another show on a rival network is EXACTLY what the execs want. By extending a show by a minute, they make sure you can’t “change the channel” on your DVR. They’re hope is that you give up on your other favorite show and stick to their schedule. Devious, huh? The only counter strategy I can hope for in this new year is if DVRs are created that allow you to start watching a program a minute or two minutes after it’s started (DVRs already allow you to tape an extra minute or two at the end).

Q: I was really enjoying the new show ‘Life on Mars.’ When is it coming back?

A: Wednesday, Jan. 28.

Q: What happened to ‘The Riches’? I was glued - and then it was over. When is it coming back?

A: Sadly, never. I was a big fan as well, but not enough people agreed with us. On the positive side, we got about 21 hours from the show and most were dandy. Let’s be thankful we got that much from Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.