I thought talk show and typography were oximorons. I swear I read it in Webster's Dictionary.

I always thought the cheesy typography, often combined with over the top flying text effects was deliberate, and totally In line with the ridiculous sets and misfit bands used by Mr Letterman and co. Seems in keeping with the self-deprecating humor of the hosts – self-deprecating typography if you like.

Si

If you live in the good old US of A, looking around while standing in the checkout line of a grocery store should give you a pretty strong clue as to what inspires this particular kind of typography. Tabloid headlines like "Boy Trapped in Refrigerator Eats Own Foot" really don't lend themselves to elegant typographic treatment...

>self-deprecating

Their disregard for excellence doesn't interfere with their vanity: they always have such well-tailored suits.

>well-tailored suits

Although in Letterman's case, ruined by white socks and loafers.

> Tabloid headlines like “Boy Trapped in Refrigerator Eats Own Foot”
> really don’t lend themselves to elegant typographic treatment…

Not elegant, but it can still be appropriate = good typography. Like the Globe cover I spied the other day: a title about the "murder" of that Aruba chick, set it... Amplitude! The font's severe traps being nicely evocative of physical violence. A rare case then of the typography being much more sophisticated than the content.

hhp

Amplitude is indeed an excellent choice for a story on violence (to me, it always looked like a typeface that had been put through a meat grinder, then reassembled), but good typography in tabloids is still more the exception than the rule.

> good typography in tabloids is still more the exception than the rule.

In the US or globally?

If you live in the good old US of A, looking around while standing in the checkout line of a grocery store...

Type design in British tabloids is irrelevant because, unlike their American counterparts, they have "Page 3."

gotcha - thx, Si

Troy:

In order to enjoy the thread — and of course to learn from it — you need to be more precise, specific;

Take one show — or more — post a sample/screen shot, and tell us what is wrong, what is right.

with generalization — as you can see (pardon guys — I know you're great) we are playing ping pong without an aim.

:)

Tina,

Although many of us are given to digression (some more than others, and we know who we are), we also pretty much understand the question. If YOU go to nbc.com and click "Select a Show," you will probably be hard pressed to find any examples of GOOD typography.