{"id":3835,"date":"2010-01-14T23:49:05","date_gmt":"2010-01-15T04:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=3835"},"modified":"2010-10-08T17:07:13","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T21:07:13","slug":"characters-welcome-fortunately-for-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/characters-welcome-fortunately-for-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Characters Welcome, Fortunately for Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My gorgeous friend <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Elizabeth_Wurtzel\" target=\"_blank\">Elizabeth Wurtzel <\/a>and I\u00a0 went to a screening of a documentary called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usanetwork.com\/highway50\/\" target=\"_blank\">American Character Along Highway 50<\/a>, which will be airing on USA Network (motto: &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/characters.usanetwork.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Characters Welcome<\/a>&#8220;) on Monday, January 18.<\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"560\" height=\"340\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/y3HnZI02TM0&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"560\" height=\"340\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/y3HnZI02TM0&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/U.S._Route_50\" target=\"_blank\">Route 50<\/a>, part of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/U.S._Highway_system\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. highway system<\/a>, stretches from Ocean City, Md., to West Sacramento, Calif., passing through 12 states for 3,000 miles. Legendary television journalist<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tom_Brokaw\" target=\"_blank\"> Tom Brokaw<\/a> made nine stops along Route 50 to interview people about what USA Network calls &#8220;the profound economic, political and cultural changes Americans are experiencing during these uncertain, and particularly historic, times.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After the screening, there was a Q&amp;A session with Tom. Elizabeth piped up with the first and best question: &#8220;Is the farmer single?&#8221; The farmer in the documentary is Jeff Downs of Colorado.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3838\" style=\"width: 311px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usanetwork.com\/highway50\/profiles\/jeff.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3838\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3838\" title=\"jeff\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/jeff.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"301\" height=\"258\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/jeff.jpg 301w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/jeff-300x257.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 301px) 100vw, 301px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3838\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is Jeff. See why she asked?<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Tom told us that Jeff&#8217;s wife is not only lovely but cooks the best lamb patties ever. Big disappointment for the single ladies in the audience.<\/p>\n<p>I saved my question for the reception following the Q&amp;A because it had to do with Tom personally, rather than the documentary. As I&#8217;ve mentioned, MrB and I <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/giggity-giggity-gigapan\/\" target=\"_blank\">watch a lot of Family Guy<\/a>. Whenever the show caricatures a celebrity, I ask MrB: &#8220;Do you think s\/he knows that s\/he is on Family Guy?&#8221; MrB has long insisted that, yes, all the celebrities know they have been featured on Family Guy. I have been especially concerned with the &#8220;roving gang of Tom Brokaws&#8221; in the episode &#8220;Hell Comes to Quahog&#8221; (appropriately, considering the topic of the documentary, the episode is about the impact of a superstore on a small town). Because MrB knows Tom, I&#8217;ve begged him to ask Tom about this. When he repeatedly failed to do this, I threatened that I would someday ask Tom myself. My day finally arrived! Much to my surprise, the answer was no. Tom Brokaw did NOT know that there is a gang of animated Tom Brokaws saying, &#8220;I&#8217;d love to lick a lemon lollipop in Lillehammer&#8221; on Family Guy!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3839\" style=\"width: 487px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3839\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3839\" title=\"tombrokaw\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/tombrokaw.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"477\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/tombrokaw.jpg 477w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/tombrokaw-300x209.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 477px) 100vw, 477px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3839\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The roving gang of Tom Brokaws has Peter Griffin&#39;s back.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>See? You learn something new every day. To see the episode, click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tbs.com\/video\/index.jsp?oid=120930&amp;eref=sharethisUrl\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. Tom appears in Part 2 at 3:00 and 7:22. Now that I&#8217;ve gotten that out of the way, I need to stalk the woman whom Family Guy calls &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.entertonement.com\/clips\/lzmvfxqjdx--You%27re-Carol-AltStewie-Griffin-Family-Guy-7x5-The-Man-With-Two-Brians-The-Man-With-Two-Brians-\" target=\"_blank\">aging supermodel Carol Alt<\/a>&#8221; and find out what she thinks of her <a href=\"http:\/\/www.entertonement.com\/clips\/kbfkxrrbgx--Family-ManFamily-Guy-7x5-The-Man-With-Two-Brians-The-Man-With-Two-Brians-Carol-Alt-\" target=\"_blank\">mentions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>UPDATED TO ADD: A lot of celebrities, including <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_Woods\" target=\"_blank\">James Woods<\/a> and the guys from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mTntjt0pSME\" target=\"_blank\">Kiss<\/a>, play themselves on Family Guy so I always check the credits before stalking people. <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My gorgeous friend Elizabeth Wurtzel and I\u00a0 went to a screening of a documentary called American Character Along Highway 50, which will be airing on USA Network (motto: &#8220;Characters Welcome&#8220;) on Monday, January 18. Route 50, part of the U.S. highway system, stretches from Ocean City, Md., to West Sacramento, Calif., passing through 12 states&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/characters-welcome-fortunately-for-us\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,519,83,39],"tags":[371,370],"class_list":{"0":"post-3835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"category-family-guy","9":"category-gorgeous-friends","10":"category-tv","11":"tag-american-character-along-highway-50","12":"tag-tom-brokaw","13":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3835"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7518,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3835\/revisions\/7518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}