[Spectacle: Elvis Costello With…, Dec 31, 9pm, Sundance Channel]

Among the lists of New Year’s Eve highlights I’ve seen, critics seem to be forgetting Sundance’s new talk series about music, Spectacle, hosted nimbly by Elvis Costello. Pity.

Where else but on cable do we get a semi-serious interview with tonight’s guest, Tony Bennett, who is an historical link to decades worth of music? History, which is trying to find new routes to take, might be wise to interview show biz legends like Bennett.

For now, though, it’s not hard to settle for Costello’s relaxed chat with Bennett on a relatively bare stage, with only a piano and a studio audience as props. But with these few elements the resulting mix of conversation and music is so good you want the show to run for an additional hour.

While he seems a bit in awe of Bennett at first (can’t blame him for that, especially when we see footage of an awkward Costello attempting to sing with Bennett some 30 years ago). Yet Costello quickly finds his footing, launching his minimalist interviewing style, which fits perfectly with Bennett’s staccato responses. Unlike other hosts, Costello knows his guest is the star and  adroitly steps aside, allowing the 82-year-old performer to:

– wax nostalgic (he and Rosemary Clooney were the first winners of a form of American Idol, Bennett jokes),

– crack wise (he tells of Ira Gershwin’s reaction to hearing Ella Fitzgerald sing one of his lyrics, “I didn’t know I wrote so well,” he said, according to Mr Bennett),

– play critic (Bennett’s effusive praise for his accompanist, the veteran jazz pianist Bill Charlap, is spot on, as is his assessment that Count Basie was the most “sympathetic” accompanist a singer could wish for)

– and, yes, provide history, and not only musical history (he notes that he passed on What A Wonderful World, but had success with Cold, Cold Heart, penned by country’s Hank Williams, and he also mentions his participation in Dr Martin Luther King Junior’s first march for civil rights).

There’s even more to savor this night. Although his vocal performance demonstrates Bennett’s voice is well beyond its prime, he, like Sinatra at the end of his career, still can make a song swing. In addition, when not straining for notes, Bennett finds a groove, and the voice recalls its earlier form. Those are the moments you remember.

Oh, forget the technical aspects of singing, Bennett’s still enjoying himself.  Thanks to his son, life is simple. Bennett sings and paints, “that’s it,” he tells Costello. To his credit, Costello attempts to go deeper, asking the master about tricks of the trade, but Bennett’s not biting. It’s joyful simplicity that counts, which is apparent as Bennett coaxes a hesitant Ms Costello, the singer-pianist Diana Krall, to join him for a number. While Krall’s gained a bit of weight—she’d had twins six months before this show was taped—her singing and piano playing haven’t lost much during her hiatus from the stage.

Providing a setting where a pair of talented pros can improvise around a piano is something TV viewers haven’t seen since Merv Griffin’s salad days. The live audience’s huge response to Krall and Bennett’s number is evidence that such a situation shouldn’t be a rarity on television. Fortunately for Sundance viewers, Costello’s series runs through the end of February, promising a diverse roster of guest including Smokey Robinson, Herbie Hancock, Norah Jones, opera star Renee Fleming and Ms Krall. So at least for eight weeks, 2009 won’t be too bad.

[The Spectacle episode with Tony Bennett will be repeated Fri, Jan 2 and Tues, Jan 6, at midnight; and Sun, Jan 4, at 2am and 2pm.]

[Manny Being Manny: The Final Days in Boston, Dec 25, 8pm ET, Comcast SportsNet.]

There are several things to marvel at when Manny Ramirez stands in the right side of a batter’s box, slowly waving a war club. The man’s timing with a stick in his mitts is among the best in the game. It’s this timing that allows him to control his aggressiveness, and uncoil a trademark compact swat, a smooth whack that results often in a rocket-like launch, sending a small white sphere speeding for places where fans reside.

This short special tells us it’s more than timing that’s involved in Ramirez’s ability to hit. It’s the off-season conditioning program. An ability to concentrate and, perhaps, special exercises that allow him to see the ball with great clarity.

Yet timing is critical to this special, which gives viewers more than a few glimpses of Ramirez’s sweet stroke and samples of what many consider his less-than-sweet personality. His sudden bout of bad knees in July, when it was apparent he’d be leaving Beantown over the lack of a contract extension. His dugout swipe at teammate Kevin Youkilis, which, this special points out, might have been precipitated when the first baseman threw his bat in the dugout after making an out. A less excusable swipe was one Ramirez took at Tom Foster, a Red Sox clubhouse attendant, who is described by one of the talking-head beat writers in this special as a “very nice guy.”

In 20+ minutes we don’t dive too deeply into the enigma known as Manny Ramirez. It might take 20 specials to do that. We do get a good overview of much of his recent season, although just a few seconds of the man donning Dodger blue. Quite a shame, since he nearly single-handedly carried that club into the post-season on his broad back, making Joe Torre seem a genius again. But this special is aimed at Boston Red Sox fans, who can’t be expected to stomach Ramirez winning as a Dodger along with their Christmas pudding.

But back to timing. In addition to premiering this entertaining special late on Christmas—just as most people are looking for an excuse to escape making nice with the relatives—it also follows post-game coverage of that “other” game. You know, the rematch between last season’s NBA finalists, and a pair of teams that have already won some 50 games total in this young season. Nice bit of timing from both clubs, with the Celtics having last lost a basketball game some 6 weeks ago and the Lakers coming in nearly as torrid.

Want more good timing? A major player in this review of Ramirez’s 2008 season in Boston is the agent he hired in the spring, Scott Boras. Yes, the same money sniffing super hound who Tuesday affixed Mark Teixeira well-timed swing to the Yankees’ juggernaut for 8 years, in exchange for some $180 million.

Even more timing.  Teixeira’s Bronx marriage makes this special’s protagonist, Manny Ramirez, the free agent pool’s top hitter still unsigned. And guess what? Among the clubs supposedly interested in signing the unpredictable one and his 500+ home runs is, yes, the Boston Red Sox. The final days in Boston? Talk about timing.

[Manny Being Manny will also be shown Dec 26, 9pm; Dec 31, 7pm; Jan 1, 8pm & 10:30pm; Jan 2, 5:30pm; and Jan 4, 9pm.]

[This blog entry consists of a few questions to complement a 5 Questions we did with CBS College Sports’ EVP Bob Rose. That piece was scheduled to appear in CableFAX Daily, Dec 22.]

Q: Bob, what’s your take on sports tiers?

Rose: “I’d say they are not serving anyone particularly well. That includes the networks, including a lot of great products, like The Tennis Channel, Outdoor Channel, The Sportsman Channel, and on and on and on. It’s not serving the operators, in my opinion, and most importantly, it’s not serving consumers.

I think there are people who are out there who are reasonably good sports fans who don’t know sports tiers exist on their lineups. That having been said, where the playing fields level, where there is no digital buy through, like Cox systems or Suddenlink systems, sports tiers do quite well. In other words, if you want digital cable from Cox, you have a choice of a variety tier, movie tier or sports/information tier. Or you can buy them all. You don’t get 20-50 or 100 channels and then have an opportunity to buy those tiers. So the playing field is leveled out, and sports tier do great and it’s a wonderful business model.

But that’s not the way it evolved. It was created, in my opinion, as a platform to create negotiating leverage. In those cases they haven’t been marketed well. Any business that has less than 5% or 10%  penetration, as many of these sports tiers do, is not a good business model.”

***

Obviously, to Rose, whose company invests heavily in original programming, carrying some 350 live events yearly, low-penetration sports tiers are a major obstacle. For the 900 or so hours of live programming CBS College Sports delivers, he wants the channel on a broader digital platform.

“The tiers structure almost gives you a road map of how a la carte would not work,” he says. “It makes it so difficult for consumers to even find the product.” Rose says the channel is available to roughly 84 million video homes, but about 29 million take it. “So we’re widely distributed, and we’re proud of that. But we have to close the gap between the 29 and 84. That’s the biggest challenge.”

[This blog entry complements the lead story in CableFAX Daily, Dec 16 ’08, that discussed the existence of an interactive microsite containing video and other materials to enhance the viewing experience of History’s Cities of the Underworld series. The six-week deployment began Oct 14 and was available only to Charter’s L.A. 300K digital subs. Subs accessed the site by clicking a button on the TV remote during a cross-channel spot for Cities or directly by tuning to channel 956.]

While History and Charter’s collaboration on a one-screen interactive experience for Charter’s L.A. subs won’t provide all the data that the partners would like, it will “be a good indicator of the attractiveness of this interactivity,” Craig Berkley, Charter’s director, advanced media sales, says.

What would the partners like to see if they were operating in a perfect world and there were no limits on data? “We understand we are in the infancy of interactivity as it relates to set-top box technology,” AETN’s vp for distribution, marketing and business development Mark Garner says. “As granular a level of data as we could get to is where eventually we’d  like to get.”

“Eventually what we’d love to get at, in a perfect world, is to understand how an individual who interacts with either the linear show or the microsite acts. So, for example, if somebody goes into the microsite do they spend more time watching the linear show? Do they watch more episodes? If they’re in the microsite are they more likely to purchase goods?” Not only goods associated with Cities of the Underworld but other products on History’s site? “This will help us to target different viewers in different ways in terms of how they would consume our product. Our goal overall is to increase the number of eyeballs and the amount of engagement across platforms that we can get with consumers.”

“Eventually we’d like to know what Seth or people like Seth do. What path they follow once they hit that interactivity? What does it drive them to do? Not only for Cities of the Underworld but how they watch other shows on our network. There’s a tremendous amount for us to learn and a great opportunity for us to monetize that intelligence.”

How? “This will be the basis for Canoe. There will be advertising opportunities. Perhaps we work with Charter and we identify an advertiser and find some sort of business model to work with on this platform on an individual basis or through Canoe. Eventually I suspect there will be opportunities on a national footprint basis where Charter is one of the participants. Where we use these interactive components and pay a fee to Canoe for using these technologies or there’s some other business model.”

And the coolest part of the microsite? “It’s the ability to have interactivity with a series,” Garner says. “The different information on the different pages of the microsite give you a different perspective on the show…it’s all about giving the consumer that 360-degree experience, being a part of it, instead of just being a voyeur.”

Berkley agrees. “We all know shows that we just can’t  seem to get enough of them. Up until now, though, you couldn’t satisfy that curiousity with the TV alone. You had to wait until you were sitting in front of the computer and then you could look up the actor and look around for trailers. Now you do have that opportunity. You hit one button and you can be sated…that could have a tremendous impact on the loyalty of viewers of these programs.”

As someone who was last promoted when the elder Bush was in the White House, I can appreciate when deserving folks are promoted.

In that light, I’m thinking recently of Kim Martin at We tv  and Charlie Collier at AMC, two veteran cable sales people who’ve flourished heading networks of their own. Martin has tapped into the fascination with weddings to put WE tv on the map. All Collier did this year was oversee a network that picked up 2 Emmys, including cable’s only Best Drama Emmy.

I should also mention Jen Caserta, a marketing whiz now running IFC with aplomb, and Evan Shapiro, a man who personifies out-of-the-box thinking. Due to some good thinking on behalf of management, Evan is overseeing Sundance and IFC,  plus a host of related properties.

These are all relatively big names, people who’ve been honored this year in our CableFAX 100 and or Top Women  in Cable issues of CableFAX: The Magazine.

My smile today, though, is for people without big names, but with very loyal fan clubs. I’m grinning for 3 NCTA staff who’ve recently been promoted, or upped, as CableFAX Daily likes to say. This trio works relatively quietly, mostly behind the scenes. Still, these outstanding ladies make cable a much nicer place for us trade hacks, and, I’m guessing, for NCTA members.

First up is Michelle Ray, an NCTA veteran, although her youthful appearance, energy and enthusiasm for cable and life make it hard to believe she’s served this industry, with much gusto, for nearly 2 decades. Last Friday Michelle became Senior Director, Programs and Strategic Initiatives, The Walter Kaitz Foundation.

Kyle McSlarrow a few years ago, and later Kaitz chief Dr David Porter started a tradition that I hope keeps going. At the conclusion of the Kaitz Dinner, after the CEOs and high-level honorees are touted, Porter and McSlarrow have thanked Michelle Ray for basically putting the entire thing together. That they do this is just one more reason to like McSlarrow and Porter. Not incidentally, a few years back, when Kaitz was searching for a director Michelle essentially ran the Foundation and the dinner solo. That’s when the tradition of McSlarrow thanking her from the stage began.

Next is Helen Dimsdale. Although she’s carried them since shortly after birth, her initials recently became far more meaningful. She’s now HD to her friends. Perfect, since Helen’s domain at NCTA is programming and one of her prized projects is the magnificent HD theater she helped create, which is housed in NCTA’s headquarters. She, too, now is a Senior Director.

Yet anyone who’s had the pleasure of working with Helen during her many years at NCTA knows that’s her title only. If something needs doing within NCTA’s communications department, Helen will do it, regardless of whether it’s in her bailiwick. One story will suffice.

It was a snowy day in DC a few winters ago and officially Washington was closed, so said the Federal Government. Yet there was HD, somehow making it to NCTA headquarters to open the building so a photo shoot, that had taken weeks to arrange, could take place as scheduled. Perhaps spurred by HD’s example, all 15 of the people needed at the photo shoot arrived at NCTA that morning.(Yes, it takes a village to create a photo.)

Truth be told, Dimsdale arrived at the building more than 2 hours early, around 7’o’clock, if memory serves, on a day when, as we said, official Washington was taking it easy, turning over in the warm sack with a smile, as the radio announcer said it was a snow day. Why was she there so early? One of the participants in the shoot needed extra time to prepare. Now, really, would you have come to work on a snow day, much less arrived 2 hours early? Not if you’re SD, but you’re there when you’re HD.

And if you’ve found NCTA’s Web site to be incredibly useful and user friendly, especially as you prepare for The Cable Show, you can thank Christina Anderson, promoted Friday to Senior Director, Web Strategy.

That’s just part of the story, though. The newest member of the NCTA trio that we are profiling here had the confidence to suggest, in her rookie year, that The Cable Show should do something for the industry’s Chief Intelligence Officers, the people who build the technological backbone of cable operators and programmers and whose work has become increasingly important with the growth of broadband video and on demand programming.

Anderson’s “little idea” resulted in one session for CIOs, at The Cable Show three years ago. This past year that idea had grown into a full-blown track with multiple sessions and several sponsored events designed to allow CIOs to exchange ideas, something that until she created it, did not exist.

One more thing. On the eve of their promotions, Anderson and Ray, along with a slew of other NCTA staff, were part of a team that helped raise nearly $2,500 for Metro Teen AIDS at a holiday party in D.C. for Cable Positive, WICT Washington/Baltimore and NAMIC Mid-Atlantic. And in this economy, ladies and gentlemen.

Now can you understand why I’m smiling and why plenty of other people who know the work of Ray, Dimsdale and Anderson are too?

Shatner’s Raw Nerve, Dec 2, 10pm, Bio.

It’s been 75 years since Carl Denham brought a huge ape named Kong to New York City and claimed he was the 8th wonder of the world, so it’s not a secret that we should be skeptical of big promises. That’s why we came to Shatner’s Raw Nerve with some trepidation. The series’ title and tagline, “heated conversation with the hottest names in Hollywood,” seemed to promise disappointment.

In fact, guest number one, Valerie Bertinelli, is still amazingly cute at age 48, but, let’s face it, she’s not a hot name in Hollywood. Yet there’s considerable heat generated by Raw Nerve’s pilot. Much of the credit goes to Shatner. At least on this first outting, he’s a darned good interviewer. He jumps on Bertinelli with the aggressiveness of a seasoned pro, pushing her into difficult places with impressive results.

But this is not attack journalism for its own sake, and it’s not all attack journalism. There’s a depth to Shatner’s questions that, frankly, will surprise many viewers. Despite his puffy eyes, he’s listening, challenging Bertinelli’s responses several times during the course of this 30-minute show as he sits facing her at 90 degrees, a somewhat confrontational angle.

Some of the best parts, though, occur when Shatner departs from his line of questioning and engages in an exchange where Bertinelli is not being pressed for answers. The two discuss divorce, prompting Shatner to reveal his personal life, if briefly. His story includes a pair of divorces and plenty of bitterness toward his erstwhile partner. Here’s where things get even more interesting. “What’s that [anger] getting you?” Bertinelli goes on the offensive, asking the questioner a question. “Not much,” is Shatner’s weak response. He nervously moves the inquiry back to Bertinelli.

Of course, the 800-lb gorilla (sorry, Kong) in the room is this: Is Shatner that good an interviewer or he is merely a very good actor, with a very familiar voice, reading pre-written questions? It’s very difficult to say.

Another conundrum: Can Raw Nerve find more guests willing to open themselves up to Dr Shatner’s scalpel as much as Bertinelli did? While she clearly didn’t want to talk too much about her past sins—she admits to adultery, drug use and food addiction—it can’t be denied that she’s on the circuit, promoting a book that delves into her life story. It’s a story replete with, yes, you guessed it, adultery, drug use and food addiction.

The Battle of the Nutcrackers—Grudge Match! begins Nov 30, 8pm, Ovation

Can you think of a sizzle reel less exciting than a 15-minute disc featuring six dance hopefuls performing with the same music in the background?

Wrong. Ovation, to tout its second annual (we can hope) Battle of The Nutcrackers, sent reviewers a screener containing excerpts from the half-dozen contestants who will wage artistic war in this year’s contest in an attempt to decide which production of The Nutcracker is supreme. The variety of dancing on the screener was clear, from Mark Morris’s bucolic modern duet and Matthew Bourne’s version that owes much to old Hollywood musicals to traditional interpretations by Balanchine, Pacific NW Ballet and the Bolshoi.

Surprisingly, the music was varied, too. Not the notes. The identical piece was played—the familiar celesta-featured tune by Tchaikovsky (who’s not even mentioned in Ovation’s 2-page press release). It’s the rare piece of music that can be heard six times in a row and still be interesting. But then, is there a tune in Tchaikovsky’s score for this two-act ballet that’s not a hit? Thus it was a pleasure to be “forced” to listen to the piece six times in a row. The most notable difference in the six readings of the piece was the decidedly slower tempo accompanying the Bolshoi Ballet’s excerpt. Yet it was a perfect fit for the Russian ballerina who performed a remarkable series of turns in the piece.

Some will scoff at Ovation for turning art into a competition, even if it’s all in jest. Still, dance and music lovers—and anyone interested in artistic interpretation—will revel in this event that shows a different Nutcracker each night for six evenings, beginning Nov 30, at 8pm and asks viewers to vote online for their favorite at ovationtv.com. Thoughtfully, Ovation will provide video excerpts of the six contestants to help voters decide. The viewers’ choice (notice we didn’t say “the winner”) will be shown again Christmas Eve, at 8pm, followed by a Christmas Day marathon featuring the six Nutcrackers, at 8am.

As you can tell from my surname, I have very little personal experience with or expertise on the subject of Christmas. But even I did a double take when I received information about a new item that can be purchased from the online HBO Shop.

The item in question is a Christmas Tree ornament, two to a set, colored black, and adorned with the logo of The Sopranos, in red, on one side of the sphere. As fans know, the letter R in the logo is in the shape of a pistol, hardly a symbol of Christmas. And since the ornament is authentic to the  HBO series, there’s a gun on our Christmas tree. Debate the ramifications of that sitting by a roaring fire, chestnuts roasting, eggnog firmly in hand.

Yet if The Sopranos taught us anything, it was that Tony Soprano put a heavy emphasis on family, which is certainly a part of Christmas in our present day.

Now I understand when Tony touted the family’s importance he had at least a dual purpose in mind. Certainly the use of the blood line to perpetrate crimes is not in keeping with any Judeo-Christian values associated with the holiday season. Still, you have to admit Tony’s devotion to his children, and  occasionally his wife, was traditional and admirable by most standards.

Indeed there are related products at HBO Shop that push the series’ emphasis on family. For $14.99 (shipping additional) you can have a pair of ornaments, in brown, that read The Sopranos: Family. History. Another ornament, selling for the same price, is white with blue sparkled paint that reads Famiglia (Italian for family).

But back to our first set of ornaments; the black ones with The Sopranos inscribed in red on one side. The problem arises when you take the ornament and flip it over. On it, in bold red, are the words Bada Bing!, along with the shapely female form, in silver, that adorns the sign outside the fictional gentlemen’s club in the series. And as fans know, the lady on that sign isn’t striking a pose associated with vestal virgins. She’s stretched out on  her rear, seemingly naked, and writhing.

So now we have a gun and the image of a non-virginal naked lady on our tree.

I don’t consider myself old fashioned and I believe I can take a joke as well as the next person. I get the joke. I find this ornament amusing, a conversation starter. I understand, though, that it might not be appropriate for everyone’s den. Still, if I celebrated Christmas and had a tree, I’d consider adorning it with such an ornament (note to HBO Shop, your writer welcomes expensive examples of bribery). Yet I’d hang these ornaments very high, well out of the sight range of youngsters.

First, the good news: Char Beales’ luck with weather continues. It’s nearly mid November in Boston and coats were optional today, as the Sun drenched Beantown for CTAM’s opening, with the mercury topping 60 degrees. You might recall last summer’s climate in D.C. for CTAM’s first day was humidity free and a balmy 75 degrees, prompting most CTAMers to think their D.C.-based colleagues were exaggerating the travails of summer in the Capitol City.

More good news: There were some gems in the breakout sessions on Day One. Particularly interesting was a 2-part session about social networking led by journalist and blogger Paul Gillin.

The not-so-good news: After years of advocating that trade reporters get a shot at moderating panels during cable’s trade shows, we were disappointed in today’s opening lunch panel, whose moderator allowed it to veer away from what sounded like an interesting topic.

The panel was advertised as “Will the Financial Crisis Slow HD?” After an opening salvo on that question, a discussion of the country’s economic miasma and how it might harm sales of HD sets and, as important, how marketers should anticipate or react to that possibility was addressed only cursorily. The marketing for the panel quoted a CEA report saying sales of HDTV sets would jump 5% this holiday season. Yet with a sluggish economy, would that prediction stand? In addition, would consumers cut back on purchases of HD programming tiers?

Instead of a discussion of those questions what followed was an hour-long mix of well-tread territory, focusing mostly on the fact that nearly half the owners of HD TV sets don’t yet receive HD service from cable or DBS operators. There were also a slew of softball questions that allowed panelists to recite mini commercials for their brand.

Incidentally, the few thoughts offered about the economic question were impressive and not gloomy. Starz’ Tom Southwick, who was the most effective speaker this afternoon, noted many expect retail prices of HD sets could “drop and drop pretty dramatically” this season, which would be a plus for cable. “We’re cautiously optimistic,” Southwick said.

Another plus, Southwick added, was the rise in the number of HD channels launching. That number could double to more than 100 channels by January, from 57 in Jan’07, he said.

Southwick, and several others on the panel, voiced the standard line that cable is a good value in a downturn. People tend to “nest more,” he said, and so they watch more cable, saving money on going out for dinner followed by a movie.

HDNet marketing chief Bill Osborn was one of the few panelists who addressed marketing directly, saying that Americans have “an emotional connection” with television. “They won’t turn off their sets” in a bad economy, he added. “We must market to that emotional connection.”

The only other question that was directly marketing related was the final query put to the panel, at the end of the hour. What can programmers and operators do to improve HD marketing was the question. The responses were strong. Southwick said cable must roll out as many HD channels as it can. Osborn urged “get out of your sandbox” to tell the story of HD, on demand to push HD. For operators, increase bandwidth. Discovery’s Rebecca Glashow pushed her “compelling programming” theory, saying programmers must create standout HD content that consumers “have to watch.” HD shows whose word of mouth tip them into mass culture will help HD marketing, she said.

It wasn’t entirely the fault of moderator Chuck Ross that the presentation fell flat, although he seemed unprepared compared to the social networking session run by Gillin. The panel, while strong, was lacking in one important respect—it didn’t include a cable operator. You have to wonder if that was by design.

On the other hand, while the food for thought was sometimes mundane, the lunch provided by the Convention Center staff was pretty good. And free.

There are few more sensible groups than CTAM. That sensibility showed itself Sunday night as CTAM’s Mark Awards eschewed normal row seating in favor of tables and chairs. Even more important, those tables were topped with healthy vegetable platters and less healthy, but extremely good-tasting, vino.

As master of ceremonies Rainbow’s Ed Carroll told us he was nervous before hosting the festivities, which had to hand out a heavy load of awards. He needn’t have worried.

“This will be the longest 5 hours of your life,” he joked after noting that more than 170 honors would be given this evening. In fact, the ceremonies moved along quickly, thanks to the dry wine and Carroll’s drier humor. Also key was the decision not to have winners come on stage. CTAM staff brought the gold Marks to the winners at their tables.Silver Marks were distributed after the festivities.

In addition to a terrific Mad Men spoof video that Carroll starred in with Emmy nominees Jon Hamm and John Slattery, from the Emmy winning AMC series, the Rainbow entertainment chief was hugely entertaining. [The video is now available at cable360.net and cablefax.com]

Carroll mentioned that while this was the 25^th anniversary of the Marks, it was the first time the ceremony would be available on demand. “That’s right, you call Char Beales and demand a copy,” he joked. In fact, he said, Comcast VOD czar Matt Strauss had already phoned the CTAM chief. “He puts everything possible on VOD…he just doesn’t pay for it.” The crowd groaned knowingly.

The 25^th anniversary theme played a central role in the evening, with Cox’s Joe Rooney and Time Warner Cable’s Sam Howe relieving Carroll at the podium. Both marketers were working for companies that won Marks that first year. “And Joe Rooney still has the same haircut,” Carroll said of the Cox chief marketer, who, we think, has the best hair in the biz. “I’m hoping they can make that joke about my hair for the rest of my career,” Rooney told us later. Another history related laugh came at the expense of the vintage 1980s music that accompanied each award. Carroll said the problem was that CTAM hadn’t updated its music rights since that first Mark ceremony. Later, after the same few songs were played repeatedly, Carroll quipped, “where there only 5 songs written in the 1980s?”

Carroll’s best material came toward the end of the Marks, when he noted he’d asked Char if he could host the ceremonies…24 years ago. He was told his competition would be Bravo’s Lauren Zalaznick, who was the subject of a NY Times Magazine cover story recently. “The week before it’s Obama and McCain on the cover; the next week it’s Lauren,” Carroll said, “I consider it an accomplishment if I’m named to the CableFAX Power 5,000 list…if I’m within 50 slots of [Hallmark chief] Henry Schleiff, it’s been a really good year.” It was a really good night.

* * * 

Notes: CTAM received more than 900 entries for the Marks. – The big winners included HBO, Showtime, Nat Geo Channel, Time Warner Cable, Cox and MTV. – Congrats to WWE, whose HD refrigerator, featured on the cover of our CableFAXIES magazine earlier this year, took home a gold Mark.