This was posted on Rodney Ho's AJC Radio & TV Talk blog on Thursday, October 26, 2016
If you're a big fan of Bill Murray and want to see him feted with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor this Friday evening, you'll have to wait three days in Atlanta.
The special, taped on October 23 but made available nationwide on Friday at 9 p.m., cannot air on Georgia Public Broadcasting because the network is obligated to air high school football.
Among those who will honor the legendary comic actor at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in D.C.: Dan Aykroyd, Aziz Ansari, Roy Blount Jr., Bill Hader, Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, Brian Doyle Murray, Paul Shaffer and Sigourney Weaver.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote up a nice summary of what happened.
"It's really hard to listen to all those people be nice to you for two days," Murray said. "You just get real suspicious."
GPB last Friday had the same problem with "Hamilton's America," a special about the huge Broadway hit "Hamilton." It did live stream that special and aired it twice on Monday night.
GPB won't be live streaming this one but will post the special on this site as soon as PBS makes it available.
Here is a clip from Murray's acceptance speech:
I've had the honor to meet Murray once while he was promoting the Atlanta-shot movie "Get Low" in 2009. I was super intimidated but he was cordial and friendly, as expected.