Burying The Lead. (Or, A Broadcast News Primer.)

Was just over at Delmar Video last night (in the front half of the room, not the back) and stumbled on one of my all-time favorites. The movie Broadcast News is a brilliant love story/social commentary/quasidocumentary on the broadcast industry and the people in it. Written and directed by James L. Brooks (who brought us Cheers and Taxi, among others) about working in television news, not radio, it is still full of people I've met in real life in my line of work. The characters are so richly drawn, they seem like caricatures--unless you've worked in or around the business...then they just feel like people you know.

The movie's also full of funny and/or poignant quotes: again, most of which remind me of people and events in my own life. Here are some of them, for those who are caught up in the madness...or those that would like a peek into the mirror....

[Playback on monitor]
Reluctant Interviewee: Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Can you use that?
Aaron Altman (the wry and engaging Albert Brooks): Depends on how slow a news day it is.
[Reacting to the playback]
Jane Craig (the very Southern and delightful Holly Hunter): I can't believe you said that!
Aaron: I'm very proud of that.


Blair Litton (the oddly beautiful and very talented Joan Cusack): Oh, you think anyone who's proud of the work we do is an ass-kisser.
Aaron: No, I think anyone who puckers up their lips and presses it against their bosses buttocks and then *smooches* is an ass-kisser.
Blair: My gosh... and for a while there I was attracted to you.
Aaron: Well, wait a minute, that changes everything!


Aaron: And in the middle of all this, I started to think about the one thing that makes me feel really good and makes immediate sense... and it's you.
Jane: Oh, Bubba.
Aaron: I'm going to stop right now. Except that I would give anything if you were two people, so that I could call up the one who's my friend and tell her about the one that I like *so much*!


Aaron: And if things had gone differently for me tonight then I probably wouldn't be saying any of this. I grant you everything. But give me this: he personifies everything that you've been fighting against. And I'm in love with you. How do you like that? I buried the lead.


Jane: Bastard! Sneak! Quitter!
Aaron: [cheerfully] Speaking!

And my personal favorite....

Aaron: If anything happens to me, you tell every woman I've ever gone out with I was talking about her at the end. That way they'll have to reevaluate me.


Ok, time to quit for now. Maybe, as Aaron also said in the movie,
"I'll meet you at the place near the thing where we went that time."
Till then.....