Kutner's Suicide - UPDATED

My wife and I are fans of Fox's House. If you're a fan of the show, you know that the formula of finding out the causes of mysterious illnesses aren't the reason to watch. It's the dysfunctional relationships the title character has with his staff, boss and best friend that keep you riveted.

We've dealt with the original cast's transitions to minor roles, deaths of loved ones in bus accidents and even a deranged patient (or was it a patient's relative) shooting House in the neck. But I never saw what happened in the last episode coming at all. And how could anyone?

There was news that actor Kal Penn (of Harold and Kumar fame - he's Kumar) was leaving the show to work in the Obama administration. I thought it was a very admirable thing, putting your career on hold to serve your country. So how did the writers on House deal with Penn's exit? They had his character, Lawrence Kutner commit suicide.

Wasn't expecting that! Shocking to say the least. The end of the previous episode, Kutner's fine, let's another doctor take credit for his work to save his job, and then the beginning of the next episode he's finds Kutner dead in his bedroom with a bullet in his head, an apparent suicide.

I don't know if it was done for ratings because I hadn't heard anything about Penn's exit or the details of his demise before the actual broadcast - a secret well kept. But here's the weirdest part of this whole thing.

So long, Kutner. You were my second favorite character.

[*Note - Sorry if this was a spoiler of any kind, but it's almost 48 hours after the airing, so... tough.]

UPDATE (4/9/09 10:55am): Montel Williams interviews Kal Penn.

Montel Williams Cancelled After Fox & Friends Interview

I'm a couple of days late on this but just did some research after hearing about it on the Mike Malloy Show.

Montel Williams was being interviewed by the schlubs over at Fox & Friends to discuss the tragic death of Heath Ledger. What they got instead was unexpected. Here's the video.

What really pisses me off about this interview is the Fox idiot (I don't even know their names) trying to turn the tables on Montel by asking him to tell them about the soldier who died yesterday. In my opinion, the moron was trying to play the "gotcha" game with Williams and say, "See? You don't know either. Why are you putting us on the spot?"

And let's not forget that Montel Williams is a 22 year veteran of the Marines.

After the break, Montel Williams was not on the set. Four days later, after a number of Fox stations decided not to renew his television show for the next season, CBS announced that it would cancel The Montel Williams Show after 17 years. Not only that, it's not going to produce any new shows. CBS will air the "best of" Montel for the next full year. After all, they wouldn't want to give him a platform to shed light on what's been happening in the Middle East that 98% of the American population doesn't know about because we're being inundated with Ledger or Anna Nicole or Britney or Lindsey or Paris or O.J. or Mary Kate & Ashley or Jessica and Tony Romo... and the list goes on and on.

I don't know if the cancellation was in the works and Montel knew about it before his Fox interview, and therefore felt like he could put it out there without repercussion, or if he thought that enough is enough and really wanted to open a discourse of why the media isn't covering the loss of our military and the occupation and escalation in Iraq as diligently as it should. Either way, Montel said was has been desparately needed to be voiced for far too long.

(H/T to Manila Ryce at The Largest Minority)