THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 4, 1996 TAG: 9611030279
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: 65 lines
THE FAMILY CHANNEL will debate this question starting at 3 p.m. Tuesday: If they were alive today, would Curly, Moe or Larry make a better president than Bill, Bob or Ross?
``N'yuck, n'yuck, n'yuck.''
On Comedy Central, Bill (``throw the bums out of office'') Maher and his gang of cynics on ``Politically Incorrect'' long ago decided that Larry, Curly and Moe were better qualified to be president than the guys now in the running. Starting at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Maher leads the network's election night coverage with a two-hour edition of ``inDecision 96.''
The big question tomorrow night isn't who gets more electoral votes - Bill Clinton or Bob Dole. The big question is who will poke more fun at the candidates?
Will it be the Stooges' campaign managers on FAM - Phyllis Diller, Monty Hall, Adam West, David L. ``Squiggy'' Lander - or Maher, Chris Rock, Al Franken and Arianna Huffington on Comedy Central? On Maher's show, there'll be music from a group called the Presidents of the United States of America.
FAM and Comedy Central are inviting viewers to laugh their way through election night. It's just one of the ways that television in 1996 is departing from the coverage of politics B.C. - before cable.
Another way: ``MSNBC Brings Decision '96 Online.''
MSNBC, a partnership between NBC and computer giant Microsoft, will hitch up with Tom Brokaw's NBC election coverage from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m., but long before that, MSNBC is scheduled to go to the polls on the Internet at http:// www.msnbc.com.
CNN also has a web connection at http://www.allpolitics.com. For the first time, three all-news channels (CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, which is carried only by TCI in Hampton Roads) will cover a presidential election. Fox's Internet address is http://www.foxnews.com.
Add that gang to NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox (updates during the airing of ``Beethoven''), PBS and C-SPAN, and you have a heavy load of vote counting and analysis. By 11 p.m., when FAM begins the ``Stooge for President: Poke the Vote'' last push for votes, you may need a laugh.
At FAM headquarters in Virginia Beach, they announced that Gary Owens will preside over the 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. Stooges voting special with Diller campaigning for Curly, Hall for Moe, West for Larry and Lander carrying the banner for Shemp.
Shemp Howard, his brother, Moe, and Larry Fine were the original Stooges, who first played vaudeville as Howard, Fine and Howard. When Shemp left in 1932 to do movies, Jerome Howard joined the act after he clipped off his thick, wavy brown hair and moustache.
Call me Curly, he said to his partners. Who could have known that, 64 years later, the Three Stooges would still be watchable - and running for high office to boot. Moe, the last surviving Stooge, died in 1975 before holding elected office.
It's not too late to change that. You can vote on FAM by calling (888) 4-STOOGE.
Also on cable, MTV tallies up the vote at 11:30 p.m. with a ``Choose or Lose'' special, but not before bringing on some of popular music's biggest names throughout to urge young voters to head for the polls. A&E has a ``Biography'' special on Abraham Lincoln at 8 p.m.
That's how cable is reacting to Big Tuesday. ILLUSTRATION: THE FAMILY CHANNEL
Family Channel viewers will have a chance to vote for their favorite
Stooge for president. by CNB