The Show is UP: Top 10 Moments of 2008...

...AND a new theme song. Which I'll blog about a little more later today or tomorrow. But anyhow, here's our annual look-back, delayed a week because of last week's Mamma Mia! exit interviews. There is some new stuff in here -- particularly Wynn talking about the Charles Barkley gambling debt and his plans for what to do first in using all his golf course land. Click on the date below to listen or right-click and save to your computer. Or subscribe via iTunes here or via Zune here.

Jan. 15: Top 10 Moments of 2008!

Steve, Steve, Steve. Wynn, that is. We’ve tallied up the Top 10 moments of 2008 as voted on by you and, surprise surprise, Mr. Wynn is involved in some way in six of them. But, still, a few others made outrageously memorable remarks on this program during the year that was, and we take our annual look back at all of it tonight. For good measure, though, we’ve got some never-before-heard bits to keep it fresh. Plus, news from Vegas, a new trivia question and a poll. You’re on the Strip, brought to you by Priceline.Com and Hotels.Com, and we’re kicking off a new year with a new theme song!

In Banter: The mob museum, Octavius tower blues, our staycation at Trump and Encore and a very weird phone call.

Links:

Norm’s piece on Cheap Trick is here
Steve’s NYT piece and blog post on the mob museum is here
Steve’s coverage of the porn confab for Newsweek in 2003 is here
The AP story on the halt of the newest Caesars tower is here

Caan: NBC Sacrificed "Las Vegas" for the NFL

On this week's episode of "The Strip," actor James Caan confirmed a long-held suspicion of mine that the doom of the successful TV soap "Las Vegas" was the move to Friday nights to sate the NFL. NBC had just paid big bucks for Sunday Night Football, but the NFL nonetheless managed to bar the not-so-mighty network from promoting the show during Sunday's games.

"Their thoughts were that we’re not allowed to even mention Las Vegas according to the NFL," Caan told me. "Like God forbid somebody should gamble. I mean, I didn’t know that people gamble on football! So they put a show there they could promote, Sunday night for Monday and moved us to Friday, which is like a death sentence."

There's much more in that interview, including Caan's complaints about the creative problems with the show and his explanation for why he appeared on it in the first place. Plus, he disses his own new film, "Get Smart," and he offers his thoughts on "Honeymoon in Vegas" co-star Sarah Jessica Parker's status as a star.

Click here to hear it or right-click here to download the show and listen whenever you want. Or subscribe via iTunes here or via Zune here:

Here are this week's show-notes links:

Download the Deutsche Bank look at Vegas building progress here
James Caan's Wikipedia page is here
Watch him make Kathy Bates "eat it!" on YouTube here
Find out all you want to know about CineVegas here
See the site for Xanadu The Musical here
Find our chat with Mel Brooks here
Read the R-J piece on their room tax poll here
Hear the disastrous George Wallace show here
Read about whores giving people gas here
The LV Weekly's take on the Hank Greenspun flick is here
See our coverage of the I-Bar's Microsoft Surface tech here
Read Steve's USA Today piece about Fontainebleau's Apple plans here

The Strip is LIVE tonight w/ JAMES CAAN

Join us at 7 pm for the live version of "The Strip" featuring a fantastic and newsworthy chat with James Caan tonight! Plus, news from Vegas, the trivia question, a new poll and, as always, the Top Secret Tourist Tip of the Week.

Come to LVRocks.Com and chat with fellow listeners! As always, if you can't make it, hooray! Be that way. Grab the podcast on Thursday.

Caan Disses "Get Smart" in LAT

James Caan, honored this year with the Vegas Icon award at CineVegas, was in rare form when I interviewed him last week. With only 500 words available to me for my weekly Los Angeles Times piece, there wasn't room for all of the bombshells. Look forward to more news to break from that chat when it airs on "The Strip" next week. Topics? The now-dead "Las Vegas" TV show for one, Sarah Jessica Parker for another.

But for now, Caan is in the L.A. Times dissing the upcoming "Get Smart" film he's in that opens this weekend. I asked what he thought about Hollywood going back to the classic-TV well and he said:

"I think that people must be taking drugs, because they can't come up with anything new or maybe every story's already been told. That's why I'm looking for writers and waiting for something good to come along."

Ouch.