Posted 12:15 PM by Gene

It's amazing that people can now speak of The Mess (MSNBC) being shut down. It began life as America's Talking, an attempt to merge talk radio with TV, as if to disprove some sort of notion that talk-radio callers should be heard and not seen (and most times they shouldn't be heard). The channel was just getting a little traction -- it staged a largely ceremonial (and false) contest to find a show host from the public (the winner turned out to be a professional) -- when LEGENDARY WELCH decided to create a joint venture with Bill the Entomologist, and voila! The Mess was born. I remember well the joint press conference from 30 Rock that aired on the then Big C (and no doubt cost a million bucks) in which Legendary spun all sorts of gobbish webs about interactivity, and promised the GE Network News staff would be there, and trotted out Tom Brokaw in a demonstration of an elaborate video archive that would never materialize (backed by BILL's technology! HA HA!), and made grand promises about merging TV with the computer. The promises quickly vanished; after some short lived techie programs the audience got Brian Williams and overexposed has-beens screaming. How fitting that the network may not survive one more overexposed screaming has-been. The mess of the Mess is a cautionary tale hand-in-hand with AOL's that most of show business's alleged riches are built on very thin, very hot air. I shall not miss The Mess.