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Posts tagged as “FOX”

Cash troubles

All FOX-produced shows have been asked to cut 2% off their budget. The shows include 24, Family Guy, Life on Mars and Dollhouse.
Speaking of Dollhouse: there won’t be any webisodes contrary to what was originally planned.
Dollhouse is probably the most doomed show on TV. Ever.

THR has meanwhile announced that three TV writers (Bill Oakley, Mike Rowe, and Patric Verrone) have inked a deal with the Machinima website (based on machinima itself: digital movies made with already existing or new VG animation) to create an online series.
They will be paid upfront fees for pilot-writing and then if the pilots are successful, they will move on to become online series in themselves.
As far as I’m aware this is a first and is not at all guild-covered.
So what gives, Patric Verrone?

I saw this afternoon Seven Pounds. A pretty good movie, although I don’t see why everyone wants to compare it to The Sixth Sense and all the promo is axed around a “twist” at the end.
In my opinion there isn’t any twist in the movie, and if they call what happens at the end a twist, then I sure as hell found that one out less than 30 minutes into the movie. Therefore: crappy twist.
I highly doubt that thought of Smith’s character’s motivation as a “twist” and I am sad to see ads taunting a so-called “secret”. It just downplays the whole emotional drama that emanate from the characters. It’s not a thriller!
As for the actual movie, as I said, it was really good. Will Smith has a wonderful performance in it (he has come a long way from Prince of Bel-Air!).
Oscar nom (win?) anyone?

Also, HBO has picked up to series Hung by The Riches‘ creator Dmitry Lipkin and Colette Burson about a high-school basketball coach in financial trouble finding a way to use his best asset: his giant penis.
I think you can now guess what the title means.

Live and learn

The City University of New York in Brooklyn is now offering a dedicated class around South Park.
The name of the course?
South Park and Political Correctness
Sounds awesome.

The teacher behind the whole idea (Brian Dunphy) said:

“It has the pulse of America more than anything else. It’s proof that you can learn from the most unlikely places.”

Some FOX news today with the announcement of a 13-episode order for Ryan Murphy’s Glee.
It will be an hour-long comedy musical based on a teacher in Ohio taking over his school’s glee club.
Let’s hope this TV musical doesn’t fail miserably like the last one did.

Still no info though on if/when Virtuality will be picked up/shown (if at all), although I’m hearing it is currently being re-worked as a more “mainstream” drama.

Oh FOX, you just love destroying good concepts, don’t you?

Is NBC killing television?

Is NBC killing television?

Yesterday’s Leno-primetime announcement shakeup led to various online articles on the subject.
Such as an article by the co-writer of Leno’s autobiography (yes, I know that doesn’t make much sense) on “how Leno won again.”
EW is also explaining the 101 on why NBC is doing the move.

Still, the move is clearly a gut-punch to fellow TV writers as Shawna points out.
Temp X has also a post up explaining how NBC is actually run by aliens.
Don’t be fooled by their moronic attitude!

Meanwhile, ABC is also considering merging TV divisions.

This leads me to this shocking question:
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.
Is NBC really going to destroy the 10PM slot because of their failed shows from this fall?
Sure, “E.R.” will be gone soon, and so will be “L&O:SVU”. “Enemy” is out and the rest of the shows are sadly pointless.

But stop blaming all your problems on crappy shows.
And stop replacing said crappy shows by even worse shows!

Making new with old is good for some stuff, but faking new with old is far from creating “new” content.

Be original for frak’s sake!

If everyone would pull a Zucker, and every network would simply remove dramas from the 10PM slot, original primetime content would be swallowed by clones of clones of clones of shit.

How did CBS become number one?
By making “The Golden Girls 2: Touched by a David Letterman”?

No, by banking on some island-reality-show and a revolutionary procedural.
I’m not saying find the next great cash cow or cool reality hit.
This craze is gone.

Don’t hang on to the past, look towards the future.
For instance, find original stuff that can successfully make the bridge between TV and the Internet.
Don’t just dump money on “Nude Dance Competition with Your Pets XI”.

To be honest, The Leno Show will probably do well, but don’t think that means we want more talk-shows in primetime instead of solid drama.

Think with your brains, not with your wallet.

I have faith that CBS will pull out “CSI: My Ass”.
I’m hoping though that FOX/ABC will wake the fuck up and seize this great opportunity to be the underdog; bringing alternative, groundbreaking content to this 10PM slot.

Don’t ruin this for us, guys.
Please.