Category: Television
Aug 182008
A good rule of thumb when theorizing about cable TV production is that everything is less expensive and less elaborate than you think it is.
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Feb 212008
Our competition is not so much other television shows as it is Guitar Hero.
Jan 112008
NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman recently said that the cancellation of the Golden Globes (as a by-product of the writers’ strike) felt like “the nerdiest, ugliest, meanest kids in the high school are trying to cancel the prom.” So United Hollywood is staging a prom at NBC Studios next week. Formal dress and picket signs. I love sarcastic protests.
Dec 212007
We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence.
Dec 62007
I want the WGA to set up a website and on that website we can all post stories about every no-talent, idiotic, amoral producer and executive we have ever dealt with. Just like they do to us on shows like Extra and sites like TMZ (owned by Warner Brothers.) Set up a website and tell the entire world, via the internet, your own anecdote about some of the witless boobs you have endured in Hollywood and beyond. The strike will end in a week.
Apr 52007
30 Rock gets renewed for the 2007-08 television season. I’m incredibly relieved that for once a show I love dearly is not cut down in its prime.
Oct 22006
Every episode of He-Man consisted of the two parties battling one another, with their skirmishes having little or no effect on the outside world. This was true of many of those ‘80s, action figure-centric, A vs. B cartoon shows: G.I. Joe vs. Cobra, Justice League vs. Legion of Doom, Autobots vs. Decepticons, etc. But most were at least set on Earth, so you could easily identify the bad guys — they were the ones trying to blow up Mount Rushmore.
Aug 62006
I can’t quantify how surreal this is: Ladysmith Black Mambazo is asked to record a DVD commentary track for a Saturday Night Live “TV Funhouse” short: Ladysmith Black Mambazo in Outer Space (3.5MB MP4). While they’re there, they run into Mr. T. and chill with him. There’s photographic evidence. Quoth Mambazo: “It was quite an honor to have such a famous tv show do such a cartoon featuring our group.”
Jul 202006
Dead Frog interviews Louis C.K. about HBO’s “Lucky Louie.” Todd Jackson is a great interviewer and has a perspective on comedy that makes his blog interesting.
(1)Jun 12005
New Television
The amount of television I’ve been watching over the last week or so is substantial. It’s more than a crapload; I’d describe it as a “royal” crapload, or perhaps even a “crap megaton.” Furthermore, I’ve managed to watch this crapload of programming without ever glancing at live TV: everything I’ve watched has been TiVo’d, purchased […]
