Heard or seen something on the pop culture landscape that appalled/delighted/enlightened you? Of course you have. That's what Station Break with Paul Farhi is here for. Local stations, cable, radio shows, commercials, pop culture -- they're all fair game.

Farhi was online Tuesday, Nov. 6, at 1 p.m. ET.

Farhi is a reporter in the Post's Style section, writing about media and popular culture. He's been watching TV and listening to the radio since "The Monkees" were in first run and Adam West was a star. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Los Angeles, Farhi had brief stints in the movie business (as an usher at the Picwood Theater), and in the auto industry (rental-car lot guy) before devoting himself fulltime to word processing. His car has 15 radio pre-sets and his cable system has 500 channels. He vows to use all of them for good instead of evil.

A transcript follows.

____________________

Paul Farhi: Greetings, all, and welcome back. Herewith, some random notes from watching way too much pro football on TV:

--Yes, I am grateful to live in a country that is so abundantly rich in NFL "color" commentators, but I would support passage of a federal law banning the phrases "good job" and "nice job" from all "analysis." Troy Aikman cannot get through a replay without saying it ("Campbell does a good job of moving his feet/seeing the secondary/throwing the swing pass" etc...."). Ditto Phil Simms, Darryl Johnston, Ron Jaworski, et al. Boys, you're describing NFL games here, not coaching Little League.

--While we're at it, please ban the word "football" from all football broadcasts. We know it's football. So why the constant reminders ("They've got a long way to go to get back into this football game")?

--Is there an advertising rule that says anytime "the guys" are gathered 'round to watch the big game (and to eat salty snack products and/or carbohydrate-oriented foodstuffs), the correct racial balance is three white guys to one African American? Must be. But why not 2:2 or 1:3 or 0:4?

--Sideline reporters don't even get to interview anyone any more. Let's end the madness.

--Commercials worth hating: the Verizon Wireless ad in which the dad tells each member of his immediate family that they're his "number one" while giving them a cellphone, and then tells himself HE'S "numero uno." I know TV shows, movies and commercials have always hated on dads, but lying to your wife and kids is not a cherished family value (and, dude, what's with the argyle sweater and shirttails? Looks hideous)...

But enough of my spleen. Give me some of yours... Let's go to the phones....

_______________________

Glen Burnie, Md.: From what I've read I seem to be in the minority. I thought Saturday Night Live was almost a complete waste of Brian Williams's potential. This might sound like I'm trying to write the show myself, but I was ready for a fake "NBC Nightly News" 'cast to open the show, not a lame three-day-late Halloween sketch with politicians -- and Williams not even there. I gave up after Weekend Update, Williams' most natural setting for a riff, and he wasn't there either. I'll stick with Brian Williams' big head on "The Daily Show," whenever that gets back on the air. So, was I wishing for too much?

Paul Farhi: I thought he was quite good. Likeable. Game for making fun of himself. Which is how he comes off whenever he appears on a talk show. It was the material that was weak on SNL this time. And, yes, I was surprised he didn't show up on Weekend Update, too.

_______________________

Rockville, Md.: Paul: this morning I tuned into AM 1160 to hear what Greaseman was up to, but alas, he was gone. Has he moved on to another station, or was he booted off 1160 and is now in search of a new home?

Paul Farhi: As of Friday, Greaseman is, as they say in Old Mexico, on indefinite hiatus. He's taking some time off from radio; unclear when/if he's coming back.

_______________________

HDland: Has high def hastened the departure of any news types? I can't believe how close some of the shots are -- a little too realistic for my sensibilities.

Paul Farhi: I notice that some programs (not so much news, but maybe news, too) manipulate the lighting a bit to tone down the harshness of the HD image. I don't know that anyone has lost his/her job because of HD, but it's very likely a concern. Reason: TV people lost jobs all the time BEFORE the advent of HD.

_______________________

Arlington, Va.: Will there be a Washington radio outlet for Don Imus when he resumes his show on Dec 3? Any possibilities being mentioned? Presumably WMAL is the logical choice.

Paul Farhi: Presumably, yes, since WMAL is owned by the company (Citadel) that has hired Imus on its New York station. But WMAL says it's content with its current lineup and has no plans to add Imus. And, I'd note, Citadel hasn't announced plans to syndicate Imus again. I presume they will, but they haven't said so yet.

_______________________

Radio Diversity: While the denizens of D.C. understandably bemoan the sameness of our radio choices, I was surprised to listen to Armed Forces radio while vacationing to see my brother stationed in Okinawa.

In one short span, I heard Brooks and Dunn, the Steve Miller Band, the B-52's, and some rap song I'm not hip enough to remember.

I was so excited trying to guess what the DJ, err radio personality, might play next. Quite a change from the meticulously market-researched mess commercial radio has become.

While I realize Armed Forces radio has to be all things to all American tastes, I wish I could have radio like that without having to press the scan button.

Paul Farhi: Me, too. But you and I have been out-voted by the rest of the world. As much as we may hate market research, it does seem to reflect popular judgments about what will fly better than my idiosyncratic desires.

_______________________

Plotli,NE: Any ideas how many episodes/script that the networks have in "the can" and how long it will take them to run through new episodes. Obviously, the late night shows are "SOL" until the strike is settled, but what about most sitcoms, SciFi shows, etc.? Does the strike reach across the border to all of the series that are shot in Vancouver and Toronto?

Paul Farhi: Depends on the show, but reportedly a number of series can last through (or until) January on their backlogs. And, yes, this does effect the Torontos and Vancouvers of the world. While there aren't many TV writers working for the networks up there, the lack of scripts will eventually freeze production in those locales.

_______________________

Football Announcers: Good points you make at the start of the chat. My pet peeve -- when Green Bay is playing, do you think someone in the booth can tell me whether Favre is having any fun or not? I've been wondering about this for 17 years, and I think I'm due an answer...

Paul Farhi: Hahaha! Here are your go-to descriptions for that:

--"Favre is playing like a kid out there!"

--"If you didn't know he was a 17-year veteran, you'd think he was a rookie!"

_______________________

Arlington, Va.: While Leno and his competitors are on strike, I would like them to run the old Tonight shows with Carson, Paar, Steve Allen and even Morey Amsterdam to give us a sense of whether the good old days were as good as we thought they were. Most of the Leno stuff is run again through the after midnight hours during the week anyway.

Paul Farhi: What a great idea! I'd love to see that old stuff again. Ever see the Carson highlight DVDs/tapes? NBC could just run those. I'd be very happy.

_______________________

RE: Sideline Announcers: At what point did they stop letting them do interviews? Was it after Namath hit on Suzy Kolber -- maybe if ESPN sets up a sobriety check-point before the subjects go on the air, the interviews can resume.

Paul Farhi: Just my impression, but I don't think the coaches want to talk to the sideline reporters any more (they usually get snagged at the start of halftime, while they're in a snit). In any case, those interviews never produced one bit of wit or insight. No loss.

_______________________

Adams Morgan, Washington, D.C.:

What is happening to The Globe? Are we in for another format change at 94.7?

Radio blows...

Paul Farhi: The official word is that the station is doing well enough with adult men (25-54). I'm sure that's true. But it also seems to be the case that stations tend to talk about sub-sets of the audience when the audience itself isn't really responding. Just a guess: I think CBS Radio will stick with The Globe for some months to come, but it would like to see the needle move in the right direction.

And if radio blows, perhaps the eco-friendly Globe could harness this renewable source of energy to power its transmitter...?

_______________________

Alexandria, Va.: I think all football commentators should not refer to the game as football; rather, it should be called "pointyball."

Paul Farhi: That would be great! Maybe all announcers should adopt this. "And in tonight's big pointyball game, the Jets lost in overtime.."

_______________________

RE: Sideline reporters don't even get to interview anyone any more. Let's end the madness. : Uh huh. I've gotten into the habit of pressing mute while they're talking. Completely useless commentary. The coach says they hope to score more in the 2nd half? Great, thanks for that info.

Paul Farhi: Also, so much of it is canned, as in, "When I spoke with Coach Jones on Friday..." You spoke with him two days ago? Perhaps you should just pass your notes to the guys in the booth and let them read it to us.

_______________________

Fairfax, Va.: Another sports broadcast gripe is the excessive use of the instant replay. Look at the World Series -- every pitch that was not hit into the field of play was replayed at least once, even the mundane low and outside pitch for a ball. We don't have short attention spans where we forget about a pitch three seconds after it's thrown. What about more more ambiance/environment shots between pitches?

Paul Farhi: Yeah, that's the Fox Effect at work. Baseball apparently is too slow a game for Fox, so they've tricked up their broadcasts with all kinds of between-pitch distractions. Another thing they do is to show the players in extreme closeup most of the time. Frankly, I sort of like it. Makes the game more intense...

_______________________

Oakton, Va.: If FOX needs a fat nitwit to spout cliches from the sidelines, I'll do it for half of what Tony Siragusa gets.

Paul Farhi: I'm not exactly sure what Siragusa is supposed to be doing out there. He started as a kind of comic-relief, regular-joe sort of character with lots of snide/tough comments. Now he's basically just another play analyst, only he's on the sidelines instead of in the booth. And his color commentary isn't much more insightful than the guy who's already there. I swear, after the Jets scored that opening kickoff touchdown, he said the following: "The Jets special team want to prevent the Redskins from scoring here." Hey, greaaaaat....

_______________________

Metro Center, Washington, D.C.: Oh, wouldn't it be lovely to have a Letterman or Leno repeat that was more than three weeks old? Do they think we won't notice when they do that?

And I would switch back to NBC if they ran Carson.

Paul Farhi: Yes, that would be cool, too. Show me some OLD Letterman, like his first show for CBS (brilliant moment: Paul Newman, standing up in the audience in the middle of the show, and saying, "Hey, what happened to the damn singing cats?" and then running out the door). Way better than seeing some starlet plugging her no-account, soon-to-be-cancelled TV series from three, four weeks ago...

_______________________

Re: Brian Williams on SNL: Brian did fine on SNL, but what is more pathetic is how low the bar has gone with SNL. One or two funny sketches is now the norm, with an hour of un-funny. I know, I know, every year people say that "SNL isn't as good as it used to be," but this cast is making me long for the so-so years.

And seriously, can't Lorne Michaels find any funny comedians of color?! Poor Keenan is relegated each week to dressing up like a woman and Maya Rudolph to her skits of sassy singers. Ugh.

Paul Farhi: I think you're right about Kenan. He has to carry every bit calling for a black character, plus do all the other stuff he does. He's certainly talented, but it's way too much for him...The thing about SNL is, you keep waiting for one show, or just one skit, that's going to knock your socks off. And sometimes--maybe not as consistently or as often as they used to--they succeed. Makes watching the show a great adventure.

_______________________

Reston, Va.: You wrote: "Citadel hasn't announced plans to syndicate Imus again. I presume they will, but they haven't said so yet."

However, several trade pubs report that Imus will indeed be syndicated nationwide by ABC Radio Networks. My best guess is that he'll end up again on WTNT...

Hugs, DCRTV Dave at dcrtv.com

Paul Farhi: Ah, this just in (to me at least)! Thanks, Dave.

_______________________

Rockville, Md.: Sports announcers, especially on ESPN, are too slangy nowadays, I'm waiting for the first one to refer to the "footy" (football) like they do on Aussie Rules football. I'd put my money on Chris Berman.

Paul Farhi: Berman always worth betting on. I heard him doing the 3-minute highlights last night during Monday Night Football, and twice he used some kind of noise--I can't quite describe it--to underscore some cool play. Clearly, he is stretching....

_______________________

The Goose: But he does so well in comparing all teams to the Baltimore Ravens. And how well they'd stack up against the Ravens defense.

I can use less of former players who can't think of anything to say that doesn't involve their old team, or how they would have done it when they were playing. Comparisons have their place, but it gets annoying when you can predict that every comment will involve their old team somehow.

Paul Farhi: The variation on this is to talk about how the game used to be played at some mystical point in the past. Apparently, back when, players were tougher, cleaner, more honest, better. During the halftime show last night, featuring the 1970s Steelers, you could all but hear Mike Tirico sighing for the good old days.

_______________________

Silver Spring, Md.: Have you heard the Iceland Air radio ads? I'm wondering how the Mrs. would feel if you told her you were going on a "guys' trip" to Amsterdam?

Paul Farhi: Amsterdam: The new Vegas? Or maybe, Iceland Air: The new Southwest Airlines?

_______________________

Show me some OLD Letterman: Like the one where Crispin Glover tried to high kick him!

Paul Farhi: I'll take that one!

_______________________

Edgewater, Md.: Paul. Do local TV news programs have something akin to proof readers? Lately I have been noticing more and more mistakes by reporters on street names, even when they are standing by a street sign, locations and pronunciation. Also, the scrolls along the bottom of the screen have misspellings, intersections of streets that don't intersect. Makes you wonder how much of the information you are receiving is accurate.

Paul Farhi: I'll make a general observation here: TV news staffs are spread increasingly thin. They're producing more hours, with the same number of bodies, than they ever did before. So, that might explain what you're seeing, if in fact what you're seeing IS an increase in such mistakes. Another factor: TV reporters often come from other cities and don't always stay long. So maybe they don't learn/know the local scene quite as well as the vets.

_______________________

Takoma, D.C.: Where SNL has been hitting lately, I think, is the digital shorts. That president of Iran one was one of the funniest things I'd seen in a while. Of course, these aren't live, but I wish there was a way they could get that energy into the live skits.

Paul Farhi: The digital shorts are exactly what I'm talking about when it comes to hit or miss on SNL. Several of them--"[bleep] in a Box," "Lazy Sunday," the Iran one--have been absolutely brilliant, practically cultural phenomena. But many, many of them have been awful misbegotten messes. Still very much worth having them, even with the low batting average.

_______________________

Once the writers' strike is over...:...do you think SNL might bring back Horatio Sanz more often to do his Bill Richardson impression? Which one of them do you think could be more help to the other's career?

Paul Farhi: No. By the time the writer's strike is over--and it could be a very long strike--Bill Richardson will very likely be out of the presidential race. For the sake of his career, Horatio had better hope he gets nominated to be vice president.

_______________________

Chris Berman's Noise:"...and Devon Hester spins outside...WHOOP!...and then cuts back to the center of the field...WHOOP!...before getting run out of bounds..."

He has been doing this, without let-up, for almost...20..freaking...years. I would pay Comcast extra if they could block this during ESPN telecasts.

Paul Farhi: That's it, sort of. Not quite "whoop" but a slight variation that I can't replicate.

_______________________

Arlington, Va.: Why can't Letterman or Leno write their own stuff? They too good to do that now?

Paul Farhi: Both of them do write their own stuff. But not all of it. And night after night, it would be very hard to sustain, singlehandedly. The late-night comedy shows are very writer-intensive. Check the credits sometime.

_______________________

Old Letterman Show: Remember when Dave would puncture the inflated egos of starlets like Jane Seymour, instead of patting their leg? Ahh, those were good days.

Paul Farhi: Yes! In fact, after a generation of Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, and even Carson (who was very kind to his guests), Letterman's snark was kind of revolutionary. He basically blew the cover off of TV's phony cult of celebrity smarm. I guess he's mellowed...

_______________________

Letterman on NBC: Remember the time Dave interrupted the "Today Show" with his bullhorn? Bryant Gumbel looked like he wanted to take out Dave's spleen with his teeth.

Paul Farhi: Not just a great Letterman highlight--a great moment in TV. One TV guy hijacking another TV guy's cool. That has happened very, very rarely...

_______________________

News and mistakes: Another thing to consider is that many news organizations are getting rid of, or downsizing their library/research staff.

Paul Farhi: I'm not sure. Possibly true, but I'm just not sure.

_______________________

Berman's Grating Schtick: It's more like "WHAT!?!" but not quite. Maybe he's speaking Esperanto, I'm not sure.

Paul Farhi: Perhaps it's a sound that cannot be properly rendered into print. It's like the old comic books that would represent a character's blood-curdling scream as "Aaaaaaaiiiiiieeee." Well, c'mon, no one screams like that. Scream have far fewer vowels, for one thing.

_______________________

Metro Center: Paul -- please help?

"The Tube," the music video channel that was running on 50.2 is gone. I am in deep mourning -- it was fun.

So, what is 50.2 going to become, and is there any hope for another music video channel (especially on broadcast)?

Paul Farhi: I don't know from "The Tube" (although I fondly remember "The Tubes"--"White Punks on Dope," etc.) and I can't say for certain what "50.2" is. But I invite the vast viewing public to weigh in on this question.

_______________________

Pittsburgh, Pa.: Late night talk show idea for during the writers' strike: Why not have guests come on and have actual conversations with the host and one another? While I realize he probably had a writing staff, I recall Jack Paar conducting his evening talk show in the early '60s as if it were a salon, with important thinkers and political figures.

Paul Farhi: You want talk shows in which people...talk. How very old school!...To me, it all depends on who's doing the talking. Letterman is VERY capable of winging it in fascinating ways, with anyone. Remember his shows right after 9-11? Really wonderful. But Leno? Not sure that would be a great show.

_______________________

Dave Letterman and Starlets: His dissection of Shirley MacLaine was a classic, as was his Top 10 List of the titles in Shirley's autobiography ("Chapter 3. Leif Erickson -- Lousy in the Sack...")

Paul Farhi: Hahahaha! He's done it a few times recently. Seemed like he ran circles around Bill O'Reilly. And didn't he just leave Madonna for dead some years ago?

_______________________

Leno: mostly does the same jokes each day anyway. Just a slight variation. Let's see. Hillary and Bill Clinton don't sleep together. Bill Clinton likes fat chicks. Oil is expensive. Cheney shot some dude. Michael Jackson likes kids. America is getting fatter. Teachers are sleeping with students.

Will we even notice it's reruns during the opening monologue?

Paul Farhi: As NBC used to say, "If you didn't see it then, it's new to you." What you're saying is, "If you didn't see it then, it's still kinda stale."

_______________________

The Good Old, DAYS: You mean like when Jack Lambert played with a BROKEN leg? As opposed to today where guys don't play because of "tenderness" or "inflamation" of some part or another?

Paul Farhi: YES! Exactly. These players today are SOFT, I tell you. And they've been getting softer for years. Joe Theismann--what, he couldn't play with that broken leg? What a wuss.

_______________________

Richmond, Va.: I saw "The Tube" on Comcast here and wondered how long it could stay in business playing old Police videos and such. Hey, I love Sting, but come on. Just who was the market and why would they demand Comcast carry the channel? snooze

Paul Farhi: I was on a Jet Blue flight a couple of months ago and landed on "VH-1 Classic" on the little TV system. Amazing how much fun it is to watch old Police and Tommy Tutone videos. Everyone had so much more hair then (including me).

_______________________

Verizonland, VL: I find the commercial entertaining in that everyone in a family likes to think they're dad's #1. And in this case, he has #1 son, #1 daughter and #1 wife. Although I agree on his outfit; why not add socks and sandals?

Paul Farhi: I'm just thinking that there are others ways to express your affection for your family that to lie to them. It's that old-school thing again.

_______________________

Leno and Letterman's Jokes: Here's how Leno and Letterman can stay on the air:

A Contest: viewers send in their jokes and if they are used in the monologue, the network sends them a check for an agreed upon amount. It might even help ratings.

I think in the "1,000 monkeys typing in the basement" kind of way, you'd get as good of a set of jokes.

Paul Farhi: Hmmm. With email this could keep things very topical...Incidentally, NPR was doing something like this the other day. They played a series of famous voices--Johnny Cash, Ethel Merman, Roy Orbison--and had listeners describe, metaphorically, what they sounded like (one listener said Merman sounded like "the Queen Mary entering Walden Pond"). The People can be very entertaining!

_______________________

Reston, Va.: I like Imus and never cared for the Kunstler wannabe lawyer, Ron Kuby, that he replaced.

But Kuby had a great line. After being told by management that Imus had suffered enough for his sins, he said to a Philly Inquirer reporter: "HE suffered? The guy just got $20M from CBS, an 8 month vacation, and MY job."

P.S. - This change was internally opposed by many old ABC network brass -- including the ones who currently program WABC AND WMAL from NYC. But the new boss from Citadel (Farid) imposed this move.

Bottom line: Expect Phil Boyce the guy who invented Curtis and Kuby in the morning to shortly announce that Imus will be replacing Gopher and Parks next on Newstalk 630 in D.C.

Paul Farhi: As of yesterday, WMAL had no plans for Imus. I'm just sayin'...

_______________________

Sighing for the good old days. : In five years maybe we'll be sighing for the current SNL cast.

Paul Farhi: Well, it's never straight downhill or uphill with SNL. It goes up and down all the time. That's one of the interesting things about the show; it always comes back from the brink and lives again.

_______________________

Metro Center, Washington, D.C.: Who was the market for "The Tube"? Well, we're a pair of early 40s white folks. And we called it "MTV for Geezers." Although it seemed to run old stuff evenings and newer stuff during the day (I am now an "OK GO" and "Bowling for Soup" fan because of this.)

Demand that Comcast carry it? I dunno. I was watching it on broadcast. You remember that right? Over the air TV? Antenna on the roof?

Paul Farhi: So, this would be the kind of programming that, based on the speed of intergalatic radio waves, that is currently arriving on Alpha Centauri. I hope they're happy with it out there, because no one here wants to watch it.

_______________________

Rockville, Md.: So, any idea how TMZ TV is doing at 6:30? Can I get my Simpsons rerun back soon?

Paul Farhi: I don't know how long it will last, but TMZ is the anti-"Entertainment Tonight." Remember what we were saying about Letterman's takedowns of celebrities? That's TMZ, but without the comedy and the wit. Still, I'll take it over "ET" anytime.

As for "The Simpsons," they will be running re-runs long after our children's children's children have left the planet.

_______________________

Paul Farhi: And on that note, let us all contemplate our children's children's children (or maybe not yours; just mine) and hang it up til next time. Fortunately, there will be a next time, I am reliably informed (lord knows, though, this could change with one knock on my door). Join me for our annual pre-Thanksgiving chat and virtual potluck party on Nov. 20. Same time. Who wants to bring a Jell-o mold?

Until then, regards to all...Paul.

_______________________

Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.