Dan Rather in Real Life Form Over Substance Comedy Skit
By P.J. Gladnick | October 03, 2007 | 19:11
It looks like a comedy skit about a shallow network anchorman who emphasizes form to the total exclusion of substance. However, if you look closely at the featured player in this video, you will see that he is not portrayed by a comedy actor. Instead it is the real life Dan Rather playing himself as a CBS News anchorman completely obsessed by his on-camera appearance. This piece, introduced by Harry Shearer with exactly the proper amount of suppressed jocularity, presents an episode from Rather's past when he was about to anchor the news from a Seattle rooftop on a cold, windy day. Rather is presented with a crucial choice: should he wear a trenchcoat or not? And if he does wear a trenchcoat, should the collar be turned up?
It was getting ever closer to broadcast time, and after 20 minutes of pondering his choices, Rather expounds on one the crucial issues of our time:
We need to make a decision---Coat or no coat?
I won't ruin the suspense by revealing the ultimate decision. For that you need to pull out a bag of popcorn and enjoy the unintentional comedy video of Dannie's Choice.
(h/t: MindBender26 of the Free Republic.)
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Comments
Decisions, decisions
Submitted by Ted Nicols on Sat, 03/05/2011 - 9:10am.
Form and substance - this reminds me of Maiorescu's critique of literature, as he posed great accent on the lack of balance between the two that appears in some's works. However, substance alone keeps making me think of best drug rehab, probably because of the serious talk done on the issue lately. "Coat of no coat":)) That is the question?:))