maureen
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Send Message |   Posted: Jul 25, 2007 11:13 AM 3 time Emmy Award winner Angelino Gino Armando Rulli, Jr. whose successes included “Generation Cross” and failures included a drawn out 10 year stint at Sirius Satellite Radio, has expired.
Rulli died Tuesday of cardiac arrest at the office of his therapist Dr. Pazzo. He was 45.
“He clutched his chest and said he felt like he was about to die,” Pazzo said. “I told him his feelings were not facts. I didn’t realize that he was actually feeling death pangs. I am totally distraught. This has ruined my entire practice. Not only have I discovered that feelings CAN be facts, I’ve also lost my only patient.”
Rulli got his professional start in television as a religion reporter somewhere in the backwoods of Minnesota. His career blossomed, and pretty much peaked, from 1998-2004 when he was host and executive producer of "Generation Cross", a nationally syndicated religious television show that earned Rulli two Emmys. He earned the third for producing something.
In 2006 Rulli was hired by Sirius Satellite Radio to host “The Catholic Guy” on The Catholic Channel, Sirius 159. On air, Rulli often joked that this fateful decision was “the worst mistake of my life.”
“I didn’t find that joke funny,” remarked program director Rob Astorino. “I mean, I’m here busting my hump 12 hours a day. The last thing I need is some big nosed clown talking on the air about contract negotiations and how much better television is. I can’t believe we kept him on staff for 10 years….but he’ll be missed…I guess.”
Although Lino Rulli’s efforts to evangelize through his radio program were mostly unsuccessful, they did bear one small, bittersweet fruit. After a 10 year-running segment called “Lets Convert Tom” Rulli managed to convert the show’s professional phone answerer Tom Falcone. “Lino always thought the segment was dumb, but in the end it worked,” said Falcone. “Yeah, I’m Catholic now. I just turned Catholic today, in fact. It’s a shame Lino died and didn’t get to see the final results.”
The rest of Lino Rulli’s staff shared in Tom’s mild grief.
“I get paid peanuts for my work here,” quipped technical director Lou Ruggierri. “But at least I got some pocket change for my work with “Lino at Large”. Looks like its back to the bar in Jersey. Such a bummer.”
Rulli’s producer Maureen McMurray was on vacation at the time of his death and unavailable for comment.
Lino is survived by his on-and-off girlfriend of 10 years Toni, and his parents who STILL have his big screen tv from his old condo in Minnesota.
Dave Konig, co-host of Speak Now, is slated to takeover Lino’s desk. “It has a great view of the Empire State Building,” he said with an unmistakable and inappropriate degree of glee.
Services will be held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
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Foo Fighters playing at the service? Eulogy from Gus Lloyd? Or a shorter one (Lino's doing a great job) from Cardinal Egan? A Chipotle buffet afterward? Now there could be room for an afternoon drive time show with perhaps Fr. Rob, Fr. Jim, Pesci from Staten Island, and Mad Dog Russo. Lou and Jared stay around to keep the show runnung--sounds like a deal as long as they stay away from odds on sporting events. It would be mint.
I admit, I loved Maureen as a producer but let's seriously compare then and now. How many more segments are there? How many are very entertaining? Mysteries of the world, where would you rather be?, minor confessions, just to name a few of my favorites. Plus, I've learned over the years that everyone else's job doesn't seem as complicated and time consuming until you do it.
This is a fan sight too. So there for in some ways it should be fans only. Jared posting on here might look like we are not objective.
Keep posting Elaine, love your stuff. ummmm..........writings that is !!!!!! Was impressed with your tech skills that you could take a my space entry and post it here.
In fairness to Jared, it was the Twitter account he didn't have time for. But great article. I like Jared better though :) I think even Maureen would agree he's a better producer :)
We still love you Maureen!
Great post, Elaine. I sent in one of those obituaries at that time. They all were great.
Eric in Alexis
What a sad funeral that would be! I wouldn't have anyone to get into nasty arguments with,I wouldn't have him ignoring me anymore,never calling me an ignorant woman,never wanting to be my friend and not letting me finish a sentence ever. Yes, what a sad sad day that would be,(Southern accent here) why I would be crying my eyes out I tell ya. Yeah, I miss Maureen to. She was a voice for us women but from what Lino says about Jared he is also a voice for us women.I never did get to see that obit, thats pretty good.
One thing that Maureen produced that was wonderful was a segment called "Beat the Catholic Guy." Maureen came up with a series of questions about Catholic Faith, trivia, TV, etc, and Lino contested against most of the Catholic Channel hosts, plus Joe Zwilling and good ole Ron Astorino. Adam Hamway came in and did the MC honors. It was hilarious! The tension grew each week as Lino remained unbeaten, but then Ron got awful close and Joe Zwilling finally beat Lino. I think this was much better than "Who's More Catholic" because there was more variety. Lino promised me he'd bring the segment back when Maureen came back from Africa. We're still waiting!
As for Jared and Twitter, I can't understand why the ppl at CGS and BH are so against Twitter. Even pseudo phone boy Brett sounded scornful. Oh well.
At any rate, we'll continue to see if Lino goes through producers faster than anyone on TCC ;)
As for the article Maureen wrote taken from My Space, it was sooo funny the way all of us who love Lino so much had so much fun staging his death. I had him die by falling in the toilet. Mint!