George Carlin was awarded the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for Humor, but died before the ceremony to give it. Many of the country's best comedians came together in his honor for the ceremony, which was broadcast on PBS in high definition.

OETA pre-empted the PBS broadcast for a pledge drive special, Singers that your parents heard of once, if you are at least 90 years old.

OETA broadcast the show at 2AM the next morning instead. It was supposed to be in high-definition, but it was not: it was boxed on all four sides and with a sub-standard picture. The program guide said it would be on again in high-definition today at 2AM, so I decided to record it then. If it wasn't in high-def, at least I wouldn't be any worse off than had I watched the original broadcast.

The 2AM broadcast today was, indeed, in high-definition. And maybe surround sound. It's hard to tell, because the only audio channel OETA is broadcasting is the surround microphone from the very back of the auditorium. You can't hear anyone speaking. The entire broadcast, from top to bottom, sounds as if your TV's maximum volume is 4% of normal.

The show is not scheduled to be broadcast again.

I hate OETA.