Joe Heuer's commercial is part of a campaign by Mutual of Omaha called "My aha moment." But its national debut Wednesday night in the middle of ABC's "Modern Family" will likely provide the Milwaukeean with a whole new aha moment.
Last night's episode of the high-rated sitcom averaged 10.5 million viewers, according to preliminary overnights from Nielsen Media Research.
"I'm in a manic mode, but in a good way," Heuer told me Thursday afternoon as the adrenalin kept pumping the day after the debut of a commercial that is set to keep running in network TVs with more audiences measured in the millions. It's part of an ongoing ad campaign by the insurance company.
Heuer is a motivational speaker who doesn't like that label. He calls himself the rock and roll guru.
"Motivational speakers are the professional wrestlers of the corporate world," he joked. "I am positioning myself as more of a one-man show than a speaking gig. I don't use 'presentation,' I use the word 'show.'"
In the first day after the spot's initial airing, it's yielded a couple potential speaking gigs, or, as he calls them, "shows."
More than that, "it's tons of emails, tons of tweets. It's really encouraging the people want something authentic, encouraging, uplifting and filled with love," said Heuer, who's on the cusp of turning 50 this spring.
And his "aha moment" spot is the gift that keeps on giving. It airs March 6 during ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" at 7 p.m. on Channel 12, and the following Sunday, March 13, on NBC's "The Apprentice" at 8 p.m. on Channel 4.
Heuer lists other scheduled airings on his "Rock and Roll Guru" blog.
And here it is if you'd like to see it right now:
On TV: A new "Wonder Woman" has been picked for ABC's planned resurrection of the old comic book here. It's Adrianne Palicki, best known from "Friday Night Lights" who'll don the costume -- if the series sees the light of day.
- TVLine's Michael Slezak has already picked Random Lake's Andrea Boehlke as one of his "final three" on the current run of "Survivor," even though the season only started Wednesday night. He writes: "Her background growing up on a farm and knowledge of how to use an axe might come in handy in challenges and camp life.
- CBS' "Two and a Half Men" resumes production Feb. 28 for four more episodes featuring Charlie Sheen, four fewer than originally scheduled before Sheen had to take a break for rehab.
- TVGuide.com reports that the CW will dust off the 2001 pilot of its "Smallville" on April 8, as the show nears the end of its run this spring.
- The Disney Channel has begun work on a "High School Musical" spinoff called "Madison High." And, no, it's not about a high school that's closed because all the teachers are demonstrating at the State Capitol.
The final episode of "Episodes": Former "Friends" star Matt LeBlanc has had a great role as a version of himself on Showtime's consistently funny "Episodes," which wraps up its seven-episode first season at 8:30 Sunday. There's no word yet on whether there will be a second season.
LeBlanc's version of LeBlanc is hired to star in the American version of a successful (and classy) British sitcom against the wishes of the British creators. The series looks at how network TV can dumb down a smart idea, mocking Hollywood.
Here's a clip from last week's episode, about the conclusion of the pilot for the show's fictitious sitcom:
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
