Brilliant and touching

Awesome Movie

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Why this show was canceled so early, I do not know. The comedy herein bears Al Franken's trademark brand of satire, a wry, subtle kind of humor that I wish more people could get into. The shows were consistently funny and in some cases came scarily close to looking and sounding like real news programs. Possibly the best example comes in the episode "Error Apparent", when a new correspondent plays his tape of a local news report he did: "But for many dogs like Fluffy, the race ends where the race begins. *Bang!* *Squeal...*" (For the record, the funniest moment of the whole series is Franken's impression of Henry Kissinger.) The ensemble cast is full of terrific characters and actors. Probably the best character is Catherine Lloyd Burns's Mona, who comes so close to being an actual secretary you could pick her up from the show, drop her at any office building and she'd fit in perfectly. Second best is Ajay Naidu's Raji, who is hilarious yet manages to come off as something other than a parody of Indian people. The rest of the characters are great, too. Robert Foxworth shines as a self-centered, pompous, womanizing news anchor. (This is what I imagine them to be like behind the scenes.) Al Franken himself plays a correspondent that nobody likes and always gets really lousy jobs, like standing in the world's most toxic bog- there's a correspondent like this for every news show. Oh, and don't forget Megyn Price playing a neat associate producer.All in all, this is a great show, the kind of thing that I like to watch. Highly recommended.

Being Canadian, we appreciate satire. My spouse and I think it was one of the best satires of TV news shows since Max Headroom. We watched all the episodes over a few days on DVD and we constantly found ourselves laughing out loud at the crazy situations and lines. The show had just the right level of restraint and a stellar cast. We loved all the actors, but especially Megan Price, the Associate Producer. We were constantly amazed and delighted by the appearance of so many different special guests playing themselves. The comic timing was ideal for us and the humour really suited our "auslander" sensibilities.There is a reason Canada sends so many comedy writers and actors to the States and that is because we can see our American friends in a slightly different light than they see themselves and we can appreciate them for their attitudes and motives. We are alike but not....and we just loved Lateline.

"Lateline" was a well-written, wonderfully-acted sitcom that assumed the audience had a brain. And unlike just about every OTHER sitcom on TV, "Lateline" was about more than just sex. For those reasons, it didn't last.I guess the thing that really made the difference was the show's tone. It had funny situations and dialogue, not one-liners. That separated it from everything else on TV. The cast was fantastic: Al Franken, Robert Foxworth, Miguel Ferrer, and the gorgeous Megyn Price. They all acted and sounded like REAL PEOPLE, not sitcom characters shouting jokes. The show had a laid-back tone sorely missing on TV today.If you didn't already know, "Lateline" was a spoof of network TV journalism. I work in TV news myself, and I can tell you: In addition to being funny, it's easily the most realistic depiction of journalism I've ever seen on a TV sitcom. ("Murphy Brown" isn't even CLOSE to getting it right.)Fantastic show! NBC was crazy to cancel it. The network should have slipped it into its "Must See TV" Thursday lineup, and it would have run for years. Why does junk like "Suddenly Susan" last for years, while "Lateline" gets the shaft?Please, TV Land and/or Comedy Central: rerun "Lateline"!

Ajay Naidu is the only reason why I watched Lateline. And he is very funny. He delivers his lines perfectly. I have been a fan of Mr. Naidu since I first saw him in No Greater Gift, followed by Touch & Go, Lady Blue, and Where The River Runs Black. Thanks to IMDb.com, I can print a list of the work Ajay Naidu has done and try to find and watch all the movies he has been in. He was hilarious in Subway Stories and had a good dramatic role in SubUrbia.