Good on Major Dad!

Gerald McRaney, the actor who played Major Dad in the early 90s, as well as the father on Touched by an Angel and the last villain to meet Marshal Dillon in Gunsmoke is now playing a bad-ass on one of my favorite shows, Deadwood. He plays George Hearst, a villain amongst villains, the type of guy that has the blood of many on his soul, but never on his hands. While the main villain, Al Swearengen, has had his fair share killed and fed to Wu's pigs, Al has just as much blood on his hands. I haven't gotten to the end of season 2 yet, so I haven't seen McRaney's character, just heard his name dropped a few times by his "associates" in the town.

Anyway, McRaney was interviewed by CNN about the departure from his "goody-two-shoes" roles in Major Dad and Touched, to the new role of Hearst. He said that he's happy taking the new role on because the show is so good. I mean, if you haven't watched Deadwood, I would suggest you go out immediately, buy yourself a tack hammer and the DVDs of seasons 1 and 2, go home, watch all the episodes, and apply the tack hammer liberally to your skull. That's for being so stupid and not watching a great show. Sure, it's caustic, there are tits, ass, and profanity, there are killings, fights, drinking, drugs, etc, but it's a great tale about one of the last true frontier towns. Whether its all true or not remains to be seen, but as a drama, it has no peers, as far as I'm concerned.

Back to McRaney...towards the end of the article, he says the following, in regards to government regulation of television and the censorship of media:

While early prime time on the networks should be a family-friendly zone, McRaney is eager to make the point that it's ultimately up to the individual to decide what entertainment to allow into their home.

"It's a very dangerous thing to do," he said of further federal regulation of TV content, including proposals that were floated in Washington to extend control from broadcast to cable channels.

"I'm a little tired of government treating us all like children. I'm a conservative and I'm for limited government. This idea of telling me what I can see, what I can read -- don't go there," McRaney said.

Keep the kids away from "Deadwood" and change channels if you don't like it, he advised.

Man, that was great! I'm so glad that someone is coming out and saying that! It is high time that the conservative members of the media come out and speak against censorship and say that they're conservative. I really want to hear Tobey Keith and Ted Nugent get together and do a song called Card Carrying Members of the NRI (No Rights for Illegals). I love it when conservative celebs get their time to speak. Unfortunately, once Deadwood is done at the end of this season, McRaney will probably never work again.

The one thing that really pissed me off was the author's closing comments in the article...

But be mindful of what you might miss, such as an upcoming scene that McRaney cited as a favorite in which Hearst argues "the case for greed and rampant capitalism and exploitation and why it will save the world."

Clearly, one man's music can be another's profanity.

Why the editorializing? Just report the fucking news! Read the article here.