TV Archive

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Mitch Hurwitz’s Guide To Getting A Sitcom Cancelled

So it looks like the UK is only just now having Arrested Development aired for them on television. Lucky them.

Anyway, as part of the promotional tour, creator Mitch Hurwitz did a little guide for The Guardian on “How To Get A Sitcom Cancelled.” Apparently he envisioned Arrested Development as “for British sensibilities,” which I actually believe. The humor always seemed too layered for the average American.

A couple of good ones:

Make easy jokes about minority groups

Whether they be Mexicans, Jews or homosexuals, any group can be dismissed with a few stereotypical cracks. At least, that’s what we tried to do. And given their “lack of coming to the party”, it seems we succeeded!

Squander iconic guest stars

As an example, Liza Minnelli has famously appealed to the homosexual audience. Note: it’s very important to alienate the homosexual audience first, or they might “come to the party”.

via Mitch Hurwitz’s Guide To Getting A Sitcom Cancelled – Deadline.com.

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Patton Oswalt On Geek Culture

Patton Oswalt writing for Wired magazine:

Everyone considers themselves otaku about something—whether it’s the mythology of Lost or the minor intrigues of Top ChefAmerican Idol inspires—if not in depth, at least in length and passion—the same number of conversations as does The Wire. There are no more hidden thought-palaces—they’re easily accessed websites, or Facebook pages with thousands of fans.

I can’t argue with his observations on how pretty much anything is grounds for any number of people to “geek out” on these days. Talk to the millions of “twihards” or “gleeks” and you have enough proof you need.

The last half of the piece gets a little loopy ridiculous, though his point is made. I remember designing Zelda dungeons on notebook paper as a kid after school. If I had access to all the content I do now as a kid, I would have probably spent that time consuming content rather than doing that. After all, nothing’s more discouraging than seeing other people do things way better than you.

Read: Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die | Magazine.

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AMC’s The Walking Dead Trailer and Premiere Date

AMC’s on top of the television world right now with Mad Men and Breaking Bad as arguably the best shows on TV. So why wouldn’t they one-up HBO’s True Blood with an undead series of their own?

The Walking Dead is based off of Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel series of the same name. It just won the 2010 Eisner Award for Best Ongoing Series. I admit, I never got into the comic, but it’s definitely on my list to start before the show premieres at least.

Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) writes and directs the 90 minute series premiere about surviving the zombie apocalypse in small town middle America.

Check out the awesome trailer above and set your DVR’s for 10pm on Oct 31. (Yeah, I know. I couldn’t have passed up slotting the premiere on Halloween if I was a network executive too.)

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Hulu Plus A Timed Playstation 3 Exclusive?

This morning, Hulu announced plans for a paid version of their popular video streaming service entitled, “Hulu Plus.” Among the added features is the ability to access Hulu through different mobile and home theater devices.

Now, the first thing I noticed on the devices page was this large discrepancy in time between the service’s availability on the Xbox 360 and other set-top devices:

If I were a betting man, I’d certainly put some money down that Sony ponied up something fierce to have Hulu available on their game console first. It’s a big deal. Consumers have been pining for Hulu on consoles for a long time now. Sony should be coming out the huge winner in this. If I was in a monogamous relationship with the Xbox 360, I’d be pissed and wanting a PS3.

Not so if I had only read this statement from Microsoft community evangelist Major Nelson:

We are happy to announce that Hulu will be coming to Xbox LIVE as part of their Hulu Plus experience. In the announcement today, Hulu announced a preview of their Plus service, along with a series of partners of which Xbox LIVE is one of them. We’re working hard on creating customized experience for Xbox LIVE members, which means that Hulu Plus will be coming to Xbox 360 in early 2011. We are taking the time to ensure that the Hulu Plus experience for Xbox 360 is the best on TV and like our other entertainment experiences it will not be a port, but rather a custom experience that leverages the Xbox LIVE community features.

I’d be thinking, “HOLY SHIT!! Hulu coming on my Xbox 360?! And they’re making it special just for me!”

This isn’t an AAA exclusive game, folks. Since when have 3rd party services on a game console been anything but a port? It certainly won’t take over a year of additional development time to get Hulu streaming on an Xbox 360. All signs point to a timed exclusivity deal between Sony and Hulu here.

It’s amazing how effective marketing spin can be in coloring how we react to news.

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Olivia Munn Is Potty

I’ve never watched G4 TV before, but this clip of Olivia Munn kinda makes me want to start watching “Attack of the Show.”

I think I’m in love.

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Individual 2007 Top Ten Lists

Indulge me as I’m in a list making mood. After the jump I’ll list my lists. They’ll include top tens for music, comics, video games, movies, and television shows. Since I’m too burnt out now to write something for each entry, I won’t. I’ll be happy to conduct a civilized conversation in the comments or email though. Oh, and the lists will contain only things I have experienced in ’07. Stuff I didn’t get to until after the new year, but released near the end of last year (e.g. There Will Be Blood) will go on next year’s lists.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Top Ten Entertainment Experiences Of 2007

2007 was pretty lopsided for me in terms of where my quality entertainment experiences came from. It was a phenomenal year for video games. Perhaps the best single year of new releases for the medium since 1997, if not better. Conversely, there just wasn’t much there in terms of great music. Some solid releases, sure, but nothing that remain etched in my mind as transcendent. Live shows definitely resonated better for me than the album experience did. For sports, I’ll preface my conclusion by saying that I only regularly follow the MLB, the NFL, and the NBA. Besides the lone entry on the list, there were no other truly memorable moments for me this year. Television was fairly solid, despite the writers strike putting a damper on my mood late in the year. Comics had some pretty high moments, and also some pretty “meh” ones as well. Finally, 2007 was just not my year for movies as I wasn’t motivated to seek out much other than the obvious films. While some were fairly entertaining, I just couldn’t argue for their inclusion on this list over the items picked.

Without any more ado, here’s my top ten entertainment experiences of 2007:
Read the rest of this entry »

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Pinpointing What Makes Comics And TV So Fun

You know that “whoa” feeling you get when you’re watching the second season of a television series and a character or event happens that ties seamlessly back with the first season? This sort of payoff is a big part of what makes serialized content so appealing. Shows like Lost and The X-Files were always maligned for being impossible to jump in the middle of. It’s hard to cannonball into these shows because the creators have spent so much time building the mythos, that not knowing this history severely impacts the enjoyment one can derive from a given episode. Fans of these shows, though, will tell you that the payoff from these shows is infinitely more satisfying than from episodic shows (Law and Order), or even season-contained series like Heroes or 24.The reason I bring this up is because I just got caught up with Geoff Johns and Dave Gibbons’ summer blockbuster comic storyline, The Sinestro Corps War. It’s one of the most entertaining experiences I’ve had all year in any medium. The Sinestro Corps War is the comics equivalent of a well-done summer action flick. I found myself in an interesting position with this story because I’ve never been much of a Green Lantern reader. I’ve read one or two GL storylines in my life, but by no means am I a regular reader. However, the writers have woven in characters from previous DC mega-stories which I have read. If DC’s goal was to get non-Green Lantern readers to start reading the books, they would have achieved it unquestionably.

Now, barely anyone I know reads comics, but almost everyone follows some sort of TV series. I sorely want to tell everyone I know about this story because I want them to experience the same sense of “fuck yeah!” I had, but I question what its impact will be on a person who knows nothing of the characters. In a sense, comics to the non-reader are like Lost to a non-watcher. It’s too daunting or too disorienting to start in the middle, but comics have an added problem of always being “in the middle.” Comics are essentially television series that have been going on for over 40 years. I imagine publishers are constantly trying to figure out a balance between appeasing long-time readers and getting new blood in, but I really don’t think you can truly duplicate a long-term payoff without diluting the experience.

It’ll probably have to wait until we can download experiences directly into our minds before I can fully share with others what makes comics so awesome.

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Joss Whedon Has A New Show

joss whedon

E! Online has details on Joss Whedon’s new television series, Dollhouse, starring Eliza Dushku:

“Echo (Eliza Dushku), a young woman who is literally everybody’s fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.”

I never really got into Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but Firefly is one of the best television series I have ever seen. Everything from the pacing, to the characterization, to the plot was top notch. I’m also thoroughly enjoying Joss Whedon’s current runs on the Marvel comics Astonishing X-Men and Runaways. The man has an impeccable talent for writing dialogue in an episodic medium.

Given that, I’ll definitely be giving Dollhouse a chance, no matter how ridiculous the premise of the show is. (Even if the main character’s name gives me flashbacks to a crappy Daredevil story arc)

Let’s also hope that Fox doesn’t kill it off after 12 episodes, especially if it’s even remotely good.

Read the interview with Joss [E! Online]