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You be the judge: I'm told this promo is supposed to air April 3rd before the return of NBC's My Name is Earl. In it, Jeff Zucker offers not just a recap of the show's fall season but also some zingers about issues left over from the writers’ strike. Worse, it shows him leering at Alyssa Milano's boobage and signing off as "JZ out...". I wish this were a hoax -- but it's real. At what point did NBC's "Must-See TV" degrade into "JZ TV"? UPDATE: NBC just confirmed to me that Zucker taped the intro "at the request of Earl's creator, Greg Garcia". And in response to my query, Garcia emails: "It was my idea. We had to do a recap of the show because we'd been off for so long, and I thought this would be a funny way to do it. The writers wrote the whole thing, I asked Jeff if he would do it, and he was cool enough to say yes. I loved the way it turned out, and I think it's fucking hilarious." Well, I bet it never airs:
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Title Studio Gross 1 Alice In Wonderland Disney $62.7 M 2 Green Zone Universal $14.3 M 3 Shes Out Of My Leag Paramount $9.8 M 4 Shutter Island Paramount $8.1 M 5 Remember Me Summit $8.1 M 6 Our Family Wedding Fox $7.6 M 7 Avatar Fox $6.5 M 8 Brooklyns Finest Overture $4.5 M 9 Cop Out Warner $4.3 M 10 The Crazies Overture $3.7 M 11 Percy Jackson Fox $3.1 M 12 Crazy Heart Fox $3.0 M 13 The Blind Side Warner $1.6 M 14 Valentines Day Warner $1.4 M 15 Ghost Writer Summit $1.2 M 16 Dear John Sony $1.0 M 17 Tooth Fairy Fox $0.7 M 18 Alvin And Chipmunks Fox $0.5 M 19 Last Station SPC $0.4 M 20 The Wolfman Universal $0.4M SOURCE: RENTRAKBox Office Poll
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Good God. Is there some sort of “Biggest Asshole in Hollywood” contest that Zucker’s trying to win?
Mother…….Fucker. Oh Wait I’m a screenwriter…Mother (Beat) Fucker.
when are they going to get rid of this guy — does he have some awful dirt on the powers that be?
nbc is the garbage can of tv — can’t recall the last time we watched nbc — it’s really a shame
OMG, this is really embarrassing
Also, Earl is such an annoying awful show
Zucker indeed looks like a dick. But to me it comes off like that was written by Earl writers, and they’re the ones feeding Zucker the strike jokes.
If not, well, fuck JZ.
Either way it’s a bit of a misfire.
Way to rub it in, pal.
Joe Gillis,
How much money woud you pay to see a steel-cage match between Zucker and Toby Emmerich?
Hey, What is wrong with Jeff Zucker, First he tries to be all cool with the audience, then he makes like 2-5 jabs at the writers who are back from their strike, I’m thinking the Reality Show “Biggest A-hole in Hollywood” has found its winner.
Hell hath no fury like a short bald guy.
“JZ out” – If only that were true, Jeff; if only that were true…
Zucker’s got one hot assistant.
I think the real coup is the writers getting JZ to actually say those things. The e insurance ad revenue reminder was pure genius. “Wait, we do make money here?”
The general public doesn’t understand those jabs… but we do. I hope the SAG Negotiating Committee sees this and remembers that the studios are not our friends. They categorize the people who work their butts off to create their shows as “unavoidable inconveniences” – definitely not creative partners. Govern yourselves accordingly, SAG. What a schmuck!
Everyone in town knows this guy’s a putz and with NBC in fourth he probably figures he can’t do much more damage than he already has. I maintain that he has seriously embarrassing pictures of Jeff Immelt stashed away somewhere, how else would he fail upward?
anyone thinking any kind of audience will not zap away within .0002 seconds of this wankfest starting is kidding themselves. jz has the appeal of a snoring monkey.
At least he can’t get residuals for it!
Peggy Lane O’Rourke
You know…I started watching thinking it’d be horrible. But honestly, that was pretty funny. Kudos to the writers that actually got Zuck to say some of that stuff.
Please, Nikki, tell me that by having me watch that you have just punk’d me….
Yikes, that was just embarrassing. That might’ve been worse than the Bee Movie spots. If this makes it on air, I’d be very surprised, and frankly, a little saddened. I remember when Must See TV was actually that. Oh how the mighty have fallen. This guy’s stiffer on camera than Ron Jeremy.
This guy is the Reverend Wright of television. Just when the AMPTP (those fuckers, oh that felt goooood to remember how shitty they really are. Remember how much of a dick Nick Counter is?) and the networks felt they may, just may be turning the corner on labor strife, a little shit like this opens his mouth and embarrasses them all.
That “especially in the first 17 days” line is such a MASSIVE pissing in the mouths of the WGA members that will not be forgotten in, say three years time…..
… and now that I think about it, if WGA actually members wrote this shit, what in the name of god were they thinking? Did they think this would be met with smiles by other members and the below-the-liners who lost their jobs and houses?
After all we’ve endure, for our own members to write somthing like his..
I am appalled.
He reminds me of the unfunny arrogant bore that Conan O’Brien has become. That clip is almost as bad as this comment which is almost as bad as My Name is Earl.
Being a member of SAG does not mean much in Chicago, so I was wondering if I shrunk a few inches if I could be the short bald CEO of a network.
PS, Earl is a good show.
…and he called the old girlfriend with pink hair craaazzy?! hope SAG people saw this; shows how “crazy” some of the “management” is….not to mention arrogant!
I thought it was funny. If the writers don’t like him it’s pretty easy to create a few characters named “jz” who are short, bald and hormonal that get squashed in a few episodes of NBC shows. I’d give some examples but I don’t watch NBC so I’m not familiar with their shows. I sorta watch “Earl”. Thanks for the catch up. I was watching “30 Rock” but Tina Fey’s suck up to Hillary killed that show for me especially after I was Hearting her for her support of the Strike in NYC.
Obviously JZ didn’t write that himself. Gee. Who could have written that copy for him. Wait a minute. I know! MY NAME IS EARL WRITERS. Huh. Kind of funny when you think about it.
Somehow this reminds me of the convoluted nonsensical plot twist in MAJOR LEAGUE where the team owner wanted the team to do poorly so she could get rid of everyone and bring in marquee replacements.
Maybe Zucker has a Dr. Evil style scheme to bring in the entire FOX network as next year’s NBC, but to do so first he must pilot NBC into the ground like Steve Austin in the opening credits to SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN.
On the other hand, maybe a brilliant writer/producer concocted this nefarious plan to give “JZ” just the platform he needed to reveal to the viewing public (as opposed to the industry public) just what a putz he is. Mission accomplished!
ISN’T APRIL FOOLS DAY COMING UP?
I’m going to guess this is an April Fools Day joke that got out a little early.
Wow! Writers getting paid twice? JZ out?? This is the most amazing PR blunder I’ve seen in a looong time! Oh, Zucker spent the whole strike thinking “why don’t people like me?” But he didn’t ask that question out loud – or if he did, no one in his board room had the balls to explain it to him. Well, someone’s gotta do it.
JZ, no one wants to see their favorite show recapped by their boss, or their friend’s boss, or someone who reminds them of a bad boss they had a long time ago. Sure, that little jab about writers getting paid twice is funny, but only because it left me with a sick taste in my mouth, like I’d just eaten something made with rotten mayonnaise. Have you ever sat an employee down and told him or her that you expected more professional behavior from them? Well, your shareholders need to sit you down and explain to you what they expect from a CEO. And seriously, it’s not just the jab at the writers – it’s the whole presentation. Please, please don’t recap any more shows; I’m afraid you’ll ruin one I actually like.
jeff schmucker
I thought it was funny…you people need to lighten up.
“Within the first 17 days,” kiddies.
That’s the key line.
You gotta know the contracts to get it.
otherwise: JZ…too bad he’s not out.
Very few people know that the streaming video of JZ is actually life size. I actually saved his entire world when his bald head caught a ray of sunlight and almost blinded me.
For the record, I would like to apologize.
Apparently, there are people who don’t deserve to live.
With regrets,
Horton
Zuckers been doing stuff like this for awhile. At the NBC upfronts once he cast himself as ‘the ugly naked guy’ from those friends episodes. Thankfully no nudity.
Jeff Zucker versus Ben Silverman. It’s all about attention my friends.
Oh c’mon, it’s pretty mild and benign.
It misses the mark, but so what. Anyone ever enjoy watching Michael Eisner talk?
This piece was clearly written by the WRITERS, so they are taking the jabs at themselves (they see the comedy in it). Zucker is just reading what was handed to hand to him. And the piece is funny, anybody on these comments saying it wasn’t entertaining is lying. It was obviously entertaining enough for you to watch it all the way the through. You may not like Zucker, but everything else aside I think he deserves kudos for participating in the piece.
Some sad, bitter people still have no sense of humor.
It was funny. End of story.
“The general public doesn’t understand those jabs…”
Yeah we do. The news media flooded our brains with every bit of minutiae they cram in there.
To those complaining, it’s obvious that you’re still bitter. Get over it- and if you think you can do better, please do.
This video is pretty darn funny. Not delivered as well as it could have been but, Zucker isn’t a comedian.
“Earl” sucks – stupid, stupid show. Unwatchable.
“30 Rock” is awesome – Tina Fey rocks! The only good thing at NBC.
Zucker’s Seinfeld reference is pathetic – he doesn’t have the guts/know-how to put sitcoms on the air.
NBC is a crapfest of reality and Law&Order with sole recycled storyline of female abducted/sexually tortured (greenlit by twisted creepy ugly network execs who couldn’t get a date in high school?)
Oh come on people! This was actually funny!
Plain and simple: not funny, irrespective of labor politics.
This bit is lousy, just like that Earl program.
I’m glad Greg Garcia thinks it’s “fucking hilarious,” as somebody has to. I wonder if the Coen brothers think it’s funny, since he cobbled “Earl” from outtakes from “Raising Arizona.” And they wonder why TV comedy is in trouble? And I agree, “My Name Is Earl” is the bottom of the barrel.
I am hereby officially launching the Campaign to wait to Day 18 to watch *anything* appearing online at an NBC Uni site. That and providing the contact info to call esurance.com and get them to drop this spot like a hot coal before their customers all bail on them for supporting this jerk.
That and I still want Zucker fired. I’d be only too glad to make sure ‘JZ Out’ becomes reality ASAP PDQ
Whatta putz.
http://community.livejournal.com/wga_supporters/264240.html
A glimpse of things to come if SAG goes on strike.
This was not funny to anyone who lost their job due to the WGA strike, or their house or their savings.
It’s not funny to the craft services and other supply companies which went bankrupt (and then again, more job losses).
It’s not funny to hundreds or thousands of low-paid or unemployed writers who bore the brunt of the strike on their shoulders and the soles of their feet.
We bit our lips when the AMPTP tried to turn the have-nots against the haves in our union by describing the employed writers as “rich snobs who don’t care about the lesser WGA members.” We told ourselves that the showrunners had out interests at heart.
Then one of them approved this…
Now for some of the haves to use this type of humor without regard for what the have-nots would feel…
Well, I guess that’s Hollywood, isn’t it?
It was funny enough. That said, it wasn’t funny enough to compensate for the degrading of the CEO. They should have had a fake executive deliver it.
The writers wrote it to be cheesy and poke fun at themselves, and poke fun at JZ and have him poke fun at himself by poking fun of his dickheadedness as CEO… to what end? Too inside, too subtle.
I thougt it was funny. People should lighten up a little bit. The strike’s over, it’s okay to make fun of it.
It wasn’t Shakespeare, but it was better than the usual network promo.
Love the remarks planted by NBC defending this guy
Greg Garcia always sucks the dicks of his corporate bosses. Moonves appeared on “Yes Dear.”
Obviously it was written by the Earl guys, but Zucker’s still a putz for doing it. Not becoming for a guy who wants to run GE.
NBCU is in bad shape. The just had to split the TV studio in two because of personality differences. I hope GE sells it.
Actually, I think he DOES get residuals for it. Maybe he’s working on his union pension…
That is hilarious. Not cause Jeff Zucker is funny, but because it makes him look like biggest ass in the world. It’s kind of like when you run into someone you secretly despise, yell “hey asshole” and he laughs because he thinks you couldn’t possibly mean it. Kudos Greg!
What’s the problem with this again? Oh yea, “irrespective of labor politics?” Now that’s funny.
I guess the whole town (or at least the whole population of DHD readers) has PTSD. Let’s all take a deep breath. It wasn’t THAT funny, but it’s no reason to take up arms. JZ just like GWB will go away soon… Then you’ll all have someone new to get angry about.
Robert, what precisely do you find funny about the phrase “irrespective of labor politics”
Your comment is nonsensical: just as your grasp of comedy, and of business dynamics is pretty clueless.
Eh, My Name is Earl has Paris Hilton guesting on this very same episode. That’s reason itself not to watch this episode. Plus this is the show which turned Jamie Pressly into an Emmy winner. Yeah, I’m not a fan of this show.
Also, one of the other NBC comedies on Must See Thursday 30 Rock might soon feel some wrath as Tina Fey has been calling for Britney Spears, Oprah, and the girl who made Spitzer swallow to appear on the show. Its this sort of stuntcasting which makes me upset at comedies nowadays. This isn’t the way to improve the low ratings of one of the more critically acclaimed shows this season. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail. And for someone who’s happily married, Tina sure likes to show her cleavage.
Meanwhile, the Office hasn’t stooped to these shenigans. its writing has never been better. It has relied on its great actors and brilliant writing to carry the show, and it continues to be fun to watch. Plus I don’t think the creative team of this show will “dumb down” its award-winning formula, by having executives, and trainwreck singers appear on its show. They respect the fans a lot not to do that.
@Robert 10:51 am –
Why don’t YOU go away? If you’re so contemptuous of DHD, don’t read it.
Greg Garcia did “Yes, Dear,” too??
That also was a really, really terrible show.
There’s only one “JZ” and he is out….on tour that is, and the correct way to spell it is “Jay-Z”.
What exactly did Zucker do to be deemed an “A-hole”. I remember when I was interning at NBC and I ran into him. Not thinking I just blurted out you’re Jeff Zucker..he actually spoke with me. But thats the problem with being an intern, everyone’s super nice to you. Wonder what happens when you’re an employee.
Is he a hard guy to work for?
That’s f-ing hilarious! Anyone who thinks otherwise has no business being in show business.
As someone not in the entertainment industry, this angers me not in a business way, but because NBC has the worst shows on tv. It used to be such a great network. Now it has such trash, it is insulting to viewers.
I thought he did good.
People, lighten up. I thought it was pretty funny. The guy’s not an actor (duh) but considering who he is, throw the guy a bone for being a good sport. WGA writers wrote it, it’s tongue in cheek. Have a sense of friggin humor.
Unbelievable!
Greg Garcia has actually written something which successfully exposes “JZ” to the flyover public as a complete and total ass.
It’s the first and probably last time Garcia’s writing has hit the mark.
What VDOValut said.
As someone who was very passionate about the strike and angry as hell with the studio heads, and never a big fan of Zucker’s to begin with (he’s hurt NBC and gotten rewarded with promotion after promotion)… I still thought it was funny. The 17 day window thing is clearly a joke. And a pretty good one at that.
I am not an NBC wag, but this was funny. Kudos to Greg for doing this and getting Jeff Zucker to embarrass himself in the process.
A hamfisted trainwreck for start to finish. Just like Zucker’s tenure @ NBC. Only in Hollywood can you drive your business from first to last place, lose billions of dollars in ad revenue and be rewarded for it. And then put yourself on television so the world can see what an utter, narcissistic, melon-headed fucktool you really are. Bravo, JZ! You’ve officially revealed yourself to be the knock knock joke you are. And the only thing fucking hilarious about this is that the person who wrote it thinks it’s “fucking hilarious”. Now THAT’S funny.
What’s funny is all the reaction here. Maybe it’s because it’s an election year as well, and we’re all overloaded. but you all need to lighten up!!
It was funny! And well-delivered. I was also surprised to hear Zucker has a good voice. For some reason, I expected something high and squeaky and girlish.
…and when it doesn’t air, can’t wait for you to crow about it. TOLDJA!
It puzzles me that Mr. Zucker is still gainfully employed by General Electric. His untenable position during the recent Writers’ strike cost his network far more dearly than his buddy Peter Chernin over at Fox. While NBC fumbled away the cash-cow Golden Globes, in the closing weeks of the strike Fox bitch-slapped the crippled competition with fresh American Idol.
NBC Universal’s 2008 network profits, not to mention their billion-dollar online revenue projection is under serious threat from those pesky Tibetans, who, even without the able assistance of Richard Gere, are putting an ugly fly in China’s Olympic soup. And who knows what the Falon Gong has planned…. NBC paid retail+ for those rights.
And now this. Granted, some of the jokes are clearly inside baseball. Lotsa folks in flyover country won’t get it and won’t care. However, this clip proves one thing. JZ ain’t no Walt Disney.
This is the level of notes you get on anetwork show and when the show fails guys like this keep their job and the artists get fired. Just because you know money doesn’t qualify you to make creative decisions or ads
It’s NOT funny. People were seriously hurt in the strike. The 17 day window is an insult. It’s something WGA members have had to agree to in order to move forward but everyone knows it’s the turd we had to swallow to get aything from the AMPTP. Thousands of people lost their incomes. Some lost their careers. Many lost their jobs.
And for some well-paid writer to pen that and an obscenely-well-paid showrunner to okay it and a horrifically overpaid network executive to have performed it is an insult to everyone else in the industry.
Not funny. Not funny at all.
Mark Allen’s comment says it all.
And don’t forget: Irony is lost on the self-righteous.
This ad is supposed to play to a mass audience, right? And it’s geared toward insiders, right?
Doesn’t anyone in this town live in the real world?
Eh, I thought it was fine. The jokes about the strike were the funniest lines. That being said, it’s insider humor which a) is bound to tick off some insider humor and b) will go over the heads of 95% of the audience.
I really don’t see the problem.
Cheer up, this will not air on NBC unless the network has about 1 minute to blow. Besides Jeff Zucker made an ass of himself filming this.
Mheister, you might be right about the Olympics, but people will tune in just to see the trainwreck that is the Beijing games. That is what NBC is counting on to happen, and it will happen unless the USOC votes to boycott the games which will never happen as long as Peter Ueberroth is around.
OK, I’m the guy who wrote the note above about the shareholders sitting him down and explaining what they expect from a CEO. But in light of the fact that this was suggested by the show’s creator and written by staff writers, I’d like to retract my whole statement. Actually, this is nice to see: if the writers are writing jokes about themselves, while Zucker is game enough to go along, that’s a good sign. Maybe things are really cooling down.
as a writer i have no problem with it. as a GE stockholder i’m a little more than miffed so i called jeff immelt and left a message to let him know. i can’t believe that a beleaguered CEO doesn’t think his time could be better well spent trying to improve his bottom line rather than promote a show that does marginally well in a spot where the only funny moments (that includes the clips from Earl) are going to be missed by the bulk of the audience who wouldn’t have known the difference had they hired an actor at scale pay to play the role of Jeff Zucker rather than waste whatever his overinflated salary breaks down to per hour to shoot that. but then again i suppose waste of time is zucker’s legacy at GE.
Could you imagine working for this tool and having to endure his ‘jokes’?
Yeah, time to lighten up everyone. The strike is now part of our shared history, and this is one of the first public jokes about it. And it was funny. I like the show and I liked this.
OMG!!!!!
If you thought Jack Donaghey’s outtakes were bad, you should see Zucker’s. Here’s a transcript
Take 1: Zucker knocks monitor off desk.
Take 2: Zucker points to monitor walking us through the recap of Earl, only one problem. Monitor was facing Zucker
Take 3: Zucker mistakenly says “The NBC Runaway comedy, His name is Jason Lee”
Take 4: Zucker turns the monitor on que but forgot to minimize his myspace page.
Take 5: Zucker turns the monitor towards cameras. walks us through the recap of Earl but tries to Improv a few lines about Allisa Milano “Damn, Milano is friggin hot, man she’s….whew, man I’d….I’d tottally do her man I wish I was that car fender, that car fender’s lucky”
Take 6: Zucker makes it through the entire sketch successfully with one continuity problem:
:30 Seconds in Zucker laughs and leans to the left, At :32 seconds in He has a full head of hair. No one noticed it until post so they had to reshoot starting at take 7.
Take 7: Zucker attempts to convince Jason Alexander to dye his hair and play the embattled NBC Prexy but Alexander had to decline reeling from the dismal failure of “Thank God You’re Here.”
FAST FORWARD TWO WEEKS
Take 8: Convinced that the original sketch was sub-par material, Zucker fires original production crew and flies in the Winner of Fox’s “On The Lot” to re-shoot what we see today!
It’s actually pretty funny.
You guys are a bunch of humorless schmucks. Lighten up a little.
Because there was NOTHING to watch on TV last night and because we didn’t have a new DVD from Netflix and because we didn’t have a good book at hand, we actually watched that horrible live two-hour end-of-season Trump thing call “Celebrity Apprentice” — And, low and behold there was J.Z.Mini-Me right there in the audience clapping his pudgy little hands together! Maybe he was auditioning for next season or, maybe, he was contemplating that unbelievable comb-over!
I don’t watch my name is Earl. And I don’t like Mr. Zucker. And I was for the writers 100% during the strike. But come on people, it was funny. Try untangling your panties and laugh at something once in a while. You know, when people are angry all the time, that doesn’t help their cause.
I’m neither a WGA member nor an NBC person, but what’s wrong with a little self-deprecation? It seems clear to this disinterested party that the strike has yet to scab, let alone scar. That said, I love the hypocrisy of the Zucker zing about writers getting paid twice for the same thing when he thought nothing of putting a half-dozen incarnations of “Law & Order” or “Biggest Loser: Fill in the Blank.”
Earl is a one-joke show. It was a funny joke, but enough already. Zucker is a putz. He’s killed NBC. How he keeps his job is a total mystery. His singular accomplishment has been trashing writers and the WGA, and for this Garcia rewards him with this kiss-ass, cringeworthy promo. They deserve each other.
Are you kidding me? That was very funny and ironic with well placed references to some timely items. From a simple TV fan, that was funny. I don’t have an agenda or hurt feelings about a strike and without those clouding my judgement, I can see the humor in this ad. Well done NBC, keep up the good work. How long do we have to wait before we can make jokes? Get over it.
Man, some of you really need to get laid.
ok… that was funny
so what’s the big deal?
Knowing this is a joke makes this. . .well, it won’t win any prizes, but it’s somewhat funny. I’ll still be watching Ugly Betty for my comedy fix, though.
OMG, very funny.
My God, why are some people here so bitter?
I just watched this and was appalled. It was painful to watch. I do not care about this man and his “problems”. I just want to watch my show! Also the stabs at the writers are simply not funny!
Finally watched my TiVoed ep. of “Earl” and got to see this Zuckertrocity. My first reaction was, “How did I miss this on Nikki Finke’s site????” Sure enough, it’s here and I did miss it and OMG are you KIDDING me that this aired??? Wow. I wish it had been an April Fool’s joke. What assholes! Wow.