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Leave Michael alone!

Leave Michael alone!

For a week now there has been non-stop coverage of Michael Jackson’s life.
All this media circus culminated in today’s memorial service.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Michael Jackson is probably (one of) the greatest entertainers in History.
But we’re talking about, hands down, the biggest broadcast event in History.
Bigger than Obama’s Inauguration.
Bigger than any other event in recent times.

Would you say that Michael Jackson dying is a Historical event?
Or is everyone treating it as a Historical event the event itself?

I think that a plane crash, an exodus in Somalia, massive protests and deaths in China, or even Palin resigning, are bigger news stories than this week’s 24:7 coverage of Michael Jackson’s greatest hits.

No offense to whomever might get offended, but this is ridiculous.

During this hommage, the poor man’s coffin was publicly displayed right in front of the stage like some kind of weird trophy.
I have never seen anything like this and probably will never again.

Just the entrance of the coffin under applause is enough to get chills down your back (not in a good way).

This isn’t just the biggest broadcast in History, it’s also one of the creepiest.

The final choir with the kids holding hands intersected with shots from London and people dancing to “We Are the World” mixed gaudy with crass.
Are people going to dance on his grave soon?

James Hibberd even declared (about the event itself, before it began):

Is it possible to have a pop star’s memorial service on this scale and not have it be, to a large extent, tacky? […] No matter how much it means to you, the setting turns it into camp. Who can regard an event soberly when you know there’s going to be folks selling T-shirts outside?

Honestly, is this supposed to be a concert with a coffin or a memorial service?

What was even more heart-breaking was seeing the family, especially the daughter, talking about their dead brother/father.

Though fans can grieve, this is a memorial service that in my opinion should have been held privately.
The mourning of a family towards a human being shouldn’t be shared with over a billion people worldwide!

Elizabeth Taylor earlier stated:

I’ve been asked to speak at the Staples Center. I cannot be part of the public whoopla. And I cannot guarantee that I would be coherent to say a word. I just don’t believe that Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others.
How I feel is between us. Not a public event. I said I wouldn’t go to the Staples Center and I certainly don’t want to become a part of it. I love him too much.

The fans are grieving a celebrity.
Michael’s family is mourning a man.
This isn’t the same thing, and the media circus is only blurring the line.

I’ll end this post with a quote from the King of Pop himself:

It feels so good to be thought of as a person, not as a personality.

Let’s respect his wishes.
Please let Michael Jackson rest in peace now.

Follow-ups to the One Year

Follow-ups to the One Year

Time for follow-ups to some of the post from the last year.

Hopefully this won’t turn into another Jaws, trying to follow on follow-ups with other follow-ups and pointless sequels.



Let’s begin with, guess what, follow-ups to a couple of posts from way back.

In late September, Russian channel 2×2 was facing a criminal investigation following the broadcast of a South Park episode, Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics.
And now an update from ten days ago: the court has dropped the case against the adult cartoon channel.
Problem solved.

Now onto a much bigger problem, the FOX v. FCC Supreme Court case dating back to last November:

The case deals with swearing on live TV:
In March of 06, the FCC fined FOX for Cher and Nicole Richie saying “shit” and “fucking” during the 02 & 03 Billboard Music Awards, all due to a “new” FCC policy that allowed penalization even if the expletive is made only once, and live.

The case worked its way up to the Supreme Court and on Tuesday were heard the oral arguments for the case.

I forgot to talk about but finally a decision was reached at the end of last April:

The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision on April 28, 2009 that the Federal Communications Commission had not acted arbitrarily when it changed a long-standing policy and implemented a new ban on even “fleeting expletives” from the airwaves. Justice Antonin Scalia, in the majority opinion, wrote: “The FCC’s new policy and its order finding the broadcasts at issue actionably indecent were neither arbitrary nor capricious.” In the dissenting opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens claimed that this decision was hypocritical given the presence of television commercials for products treating impotence or constipation.

You can read all about the decision over here.

Incidentally, “the Court explicitly declined to decide whether the new rule is constitutional, and sent that issue back to the lower courts for their review.”
So long story short, First Amendment rights are still up in the air.

Richard Kelly’s The Box (reviewed here) also has a few new updates.
The first trailer is now out:

And there is an interesting interview with Kelly on SciFi Wire.

Speaking of SciFi, given the backlash after the Syfy rebranding announcement earlier this year, there has been in the last month or so a few responses from channel president Dave Howe.
In a very recent TVGuide interview he said:

This wasn’t an option, it was a mandate. We made a commitment to grow into a global lifestyle brand. Sci Fi is a genre; it is like calling a TV network Drama or Sport. The default perception of sci-fi is that it’s space, aliens, the future. It’s Star Trek. The new name positions us as having our own attitude and personality, which gives us permission to do a broader range of sci-fi/fantasy shows and take us into the supernatural, the paranormal, action-adventure and mystery space.

I think it’s been pretty much established, if only by Star Trek‘s very recent success, that the clichéd opinions regarding science-fiction are gone.
We’ve seen pretty weak arguments regarding the brand change…
Broadcasting & Cable also has a piece up detailing Syfy’s upcoming branding strategy, including “Wyfy from Syfy”.

You can as well check out the future Syfy TV spots right here.

Continuing on the SciFi side of things, we have another article on the genre by STLtoday‘s Gail Pennington. Included in it is an interview with Battlestar Galactica‘s Ronald D. Moore.

Moving back to more serious issues, there has been some talk regarding the future of entertainment, and especially the future of broadcast.
TV Week‘s Brian Steinberg had an In Depth article on the conflicting visions of NBC and CBS:

NBC and CBS are at odds about how best to proceed at a time when the future of the business is under serious assault. Is the future of broadcast TV generating big audiences from early morning to late at night? Or is it picking the right spots, focusing instead on syndicating big-ticket programming — the Olympics or a favorite crime procedural — across a multitude of screens in exchange for advertising and other revenue?

It’s a very intriguing and interesting look at two network giants that are actually betting on opposite sides of what the future might be.

Well, that’s all the time we have folks.
Tomorrow is writing day so be sure to tune in.

One Year of Featured Posts

One Year of Featured Posts

Wednesday, Featured Post day.
The best of the best, or rather the longest of the longest.
I would say it’s the pièce de resistance.

But Tarantino would put it as:

A bunch of those Featured Posts have mainly been personal opinions on various subjects. For instance my first real one was about French TV, which I have said pretty much early on I hate.

When I disagree with someone/something though, I might go overboard and write a long post.
Case in point with Heroes.
I don’t particularly care anymore about the show, but I still strongly disagreed with an article from the THR Feed saying setting an end date for the show would save it.
I wrote one of my longest post ever replying to James Hibberd on why I thought Heroes should not set an end date.
I also used this post to talk a bit about what I thought of Lost and Battlestar Galactica and their end dates for those interested.

Moving on to another show, Dollhouse, which was very recently renewed for a surprising second season.
Incidentally, my most popular Featured Post is actually one I wrote back in February where I listed Four Reasons why Dollhouse might be Renewed. (I then wrote Four Reasons why Dollhouse will get Canceled, but don’t tell anyone)

Continuing on that, I gave a few ideas regarding television and how to save it.
One of my most talked-about post was one I wrote back in September.
Yes, I still think it’s relevant (now more than ever).
I was back then giving nine ideas to kind of “help” the main networks in a way, or nine.

Part One is here (Ideas 1 through 4) and Part Two is here (5 through 9), though it can be summed up as:

1. Shows all year long
2. VOD
3. Fewer ads
4. Shorter seasons
5. Cost efficiency
6. Webisodes
7. Re-develop ideas and pilots
8. Big names for big shows
9. Take chances

Like we saw again on Monday, we’ve had a lot of NBC talk this year, thanks in part to some stunning moves from Dumb and Dumber as I like to call them, with mainly Jay Leno being moved to 10PM.
TV drama, who doesn’t love it?
I wrote back in December two posts where I dabbled around two ideas:

Is NBC killing television?

Or rather: Are Dumb and Dumber slowly destroying original content?

The merge-move and Leno in primetime makes perfect sense business-wise.
After all, it cuts cost, and the show will most likely do better than what is currently on at 10PM.
But is it a good entertainment-move?
Me think not.

or
Is NBC saving Television?

Or rather: Are Dumb and Dumber indirectly boosting creative content?

As I pointed out yesterday, the 10PM slot is begging to be changed.
Well, not really “begging”.
CBS’ Les Moonves himself declared the other day that “Taking a third [broadcast] competitor out of the marketplace will make us even stronger”, though he said that for different reasons (“‘CSI: Miami’ on Monday at 10 o’clock will beat Jay by a lot. Remember that. By a lot.”).
The Leno-move should not be without consequences for the 10PM slot on the other nets.
I am not talking about drastic schedule changes here (even if I’m guessing it’ll unfortunately come to that — affiliates anyone?).
I am talking here more about quality changes.
We have in one corner C.S.I., and in the other Jay Leno.
Bring on the alternative!

Extremely interesting stuff.
And by that I just mean me babbling about the Industry and what-not.
There’s no answer at the end of the day to neither question.
I still think the NBC execs are bringing upon themselves the future of TV, whether they want it or not.

Movie-wise we’ve seen some nice posts I’d like to think.
There were a whopping total of 5 movie reviews in the last year.
In chronological order, they are
The Box (October 2008) – Released on October 30, 2009
Watchmen (March 2009) – Released on March 6, 2009
The Cabin in the Woods (March 2009) – Released on February 5, 2010
Star Trek (April 2009) – Released on May 8, 2009
Inglourious Basterds (June 2009) – Released on August 21, 2009

For those interest, I wrote down above the U.S. release dates for the aforementioned movies.
Interesting to note that two of the reviews are only based on the scripts of the movies (The Box and The Cabin in the Woods) and none of the two have yet come out in theatres.
This is especially surprising regarding The Box, given that the review dates back to last October, and the picture used is from February…2008.

Going back to Star Trek for a second, I posted before the movie officially came out an article on ways to prepare for the new movie.
Even though it’s highly likely you’ve already seen it, I would still advise re-watching some old Trek episodes that are not as obsolete as one might think.
Also, you should definitely try to get your hands on the Star Trek prequel comic before seeing it (again).

Very briefly, I’ll also just point out for the sake of it that there were also a bunch of Breakdowns about the ’08 Fall and ’09 Mid–Season arrivals as well as an Upfront Guessing Game
They are kind of obsolete now that the Upfronts are done and ’09 Fall season is upon us though.

I think we’ve seen the most important posts, save for a few.
But we’ll talk about them in the next post.