A friend of mine who works at a PBS production house scribed the following
"memo."  The author is Brent Davis--one of the great undiscovered (!) comic
talents of the 20th century.
 
(Hey!  It's about the representation of television in print media, so it
meets SCREEN-L's stringent guidelines.)
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
MEMO
 
TO:  Entire Staff
 
FROM:  Dale Furbish, Station Manager
 
RE:  MS. ALMON'S UNEXPECTED ABSENCE
 
We all appreciate the great strides Ms. Almon's made trying to
change from the typewriter to computer.  Soon the program
listings for our station will be just as current and thorough as
those compiled by other PBS stations.
 
It has become clear to me that it might be wise to send Ms. Almon
back to repeat her week of instruction with the computer people.
She missed some of the first week's session on merging files
because of nagging bunion.  As you will recall, this ailment was
aggravated when a staff member inadvertently ran the loaded tape
cart over Ms. Almon's foot.
 
I understand the merge command allows one to combine at the
stroke of a key many different files.
 
So, we will wish Ms. Almon well as she returns to computer camp.
 
In the meantime, if any of you have any guesses about how the
following programs should be listed, please see me.  Soon.
 
NEW YANKEE WORKSHOP:  Norm demonstrates the ripsaw and makes a
early American chest of drawers out of William F. Buckley, Jr.
 
FIRING LINE:  Resolved:  Can you tell me how to get to Sesame
Street?
 
THE CIVIL WAR:  Lincoln frees the slaves;  the Union forces score
a great victory at Gettysburg;  Barney the Dinosaur and thousands
of troops starve at Andersonville prison.
 
GREAT PERFORMANCES:  The Pops do the William Tell overture;  John
Williams does Julia Child.
 
DR.  WHO:  The Doctor, piloting a damaged ship and on a collision
course with a strange, horrible planet, seeks advice on the stock
market from Louis Rukeyser.
 
WASHINGTON WEEK IN REVIEW:  Panelists put the complex events of
politics and government into easy-to-understand, every day
language.  Host:  Justin Wilson.
 
TALES FROM THE CITY:  A newcomer to San Francisco is shocked by
the drugs and Robin McNeil and Jim Leher.
 
AM WEATHER:  Tune in to this thorough report and see if the daw
will bring morning fog, intermittent rain, or David Frost.
 
THIS OLD HOUSE:  Steve gets his first look at the Cape Cod to be
remodeled and decides Bill Moyers needs a lot of help upstairs.
 
AUSTIN CITY LIMITS BLUES SPECIAL:  No one's given us the blues
like these guys:  B.B. King, Al Green, and Jesse Helms.
 
 
 =====================================================================
  Jeremy Butler                                [log in to unmask]
  SCREEN-L Coordinator                           [log in to unmask]
  Telecommunication & Film Dept. * University of Alabama * Tuscaloosa
 =====================================================================