Word: raymonde
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...they had sketched out had President Gore trying to convince people that he was the real President while being usurped by a life-size robot. And before they chose the presidency as their canvas, the duo considered making a sitcom about the Baldwin brothers. "Sitcoms take a person, like Raymond, and make everybody love him," says Parker. "So we thought, 'How f_____ up would it be to take a real person and make everybody love him?'" Love, in the world of Parker and Stone, doesn't involve a lot of coddling...
Before they started preparing for the show, which involved watching old sitcoms, taking a trip to the White House and getting a tour of the Everybody Loves Raymond set, neither had watched a sitcom in 10 years. "The ones I hate the most are the ones where the laughs come from people being mean to each other," says Stone. So in the Bush show they went about spoofing the genre, down to the wacky neighbor, ditsy secretary and, of course, the stupid, bumbling husband...
...there would be no sitcoms.) But the business of TV comedy has fallen, and hard, since Jerry Seinfeld poured his last bowl of cereal. As recently as 1996-97, the year-end Nielsen ratings listed seven sitcoms in the top 10. Today there are two: Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond, which are seven and five years old, respectively. New comedy hits--Will & Grace, Malcolm in the Middle--have been rare. Last fall's one debatable success, CBS's Yes, Dear, was scheduled between established hits. Familiar names (Michael Richards, John Goodman) landed in familiar situations and met familiar ends. Says...
...show. But the networks are hardly abandoning the traditional sitcom. ABC is hedging its bets this spring with two very conventional-looking ones, starring Damon Wayans and Joan Cusack. Even Apatow says, "I like cinematic comedy, but I still think the best show on TV is Everybody Loves Raymond. When the writing and the cast are that good, you don't need to do any tricks...
...Despite what you may have heard, that check is not a refund - it's an extremely high-interest loan. And according to U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Jackson, the nation's largest income-tax preparation company has been acting "maliciously, willfully and in bad faith" by advertising its Rapid Refund service to its customers, when in fact the company was simply handing out loans in the amount of the customer's tax refund. Some of those customers paid dearly for the perceived convenience of their "rapid refund," paying annual percentage rates as high as 500 percent...