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Posts tagged as “WGA”

Oh, boy.

Well well well…
You’re gone one week during Comic-Con and suddenly there’s tons of stuff to see.

I’m not gonna go into lengthy details about the various panels. There’s just too many of them.
Speaking of, can someone explain to me why Glee and The Middle had one?
I’ve only seen a few for now and listing the various announcements would be pointless (besides, you probably know the ones regarding your favorites).

The Lost panel was fun I thought but utterly pointless. Given that this was the last Comic-Con panel for the show, I feel a little disappointed.
Dollhouse was one of the best for sure (and Epitaph One is great). Season 2 looks interesting to say the least.

Moving on to other news, the new Coen movie (A Serious Man) looks great:

Same goes for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox:

And don’t forget Avatar Day on the 21st (incidentally the same day Inglourious Basterds opens).

On a more serious (and TV) note, you probably have heard about the Emmy changes this year, including the pre-taping of 8 of the 28 categories of the “live” telecast (to cut a few minutes from the three-hour long program).
Even though the categories were split between directing, acting, producing and writing, only four writing categories were on the Emmy cast to begin with.
A few days ago, the WGA sent out this statement:

This action of the board of governors is a clear violation of a longstanding agreement the Writers Guilds have with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences regarding their awards telecast. It is also a serious demotion for writing and a fundamental misunderstanding of the importance of writers in the creation of television programs. Last year’s Emmys suffered a tremendous decline in quality and ratings because of a lack of scripted material. That the Academy would then decide to devalue the primary and seminal role that writing plays in television is ridiculous and self-defeating.

Over 100 TV writers are protesting these changes to the format, including Ronald D. Moore, Doug Ellin, Seth MacFarlane, Jason Katims, Shonda Rhimes, David Shore and Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof.
I’m not sure the Academy will back out on this one despite the movement, but we’ll have to see.

To conclude this catching-up post, some great info regarding the Late Late Show side. On August 31, the most underrated late-night show on TV is (finally) getting an HD upgrade!
There’s also going to be a new show opener with Ferguson going around famous L.A. locations, coupled with an updated version of the current theme song.
Like Craig said at the TCA Press Tour:

I think my show’s probably closer to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse than anything else I’ve seen, and that’s an aspiration.

 You go man.

One Year of Crazy Stuff

One Year of Crazy Stuff

Today, we shall deal with the craziest, most pointless and/or shocking stuff from the past year.
And all that illustrated by magnificent videos.

If this was in a Colbert segment, it would probably be in:

Incidentally, Stephen Colbert became the President in the Marvel universe.
I’m pretty sure he won thanks to this campaign video:

Going back to the various vids on here, the first one posted here was from the now-deceased show Middleman:

Let’s not forget another epic video, one of my favorite Psych moment from the episode American Duos:

Regarding movies, we’ve also seen some hilarious parodies, like this “Saturday Morning” cartoon version of Watchmen:

There was as well this “West Side Story meets the WGA strike” parody:


And studio mockery:

We uncovered the truth about the Disney movies (lazy people!):

Some other strange stuff was as well “uncovered”:

On the more serious side of things, there was one the scariest polls ever last November:

Almost 60% of the polled agreed that “the people who run the TV networks and the major movie studios do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans.”
48% think there is an “organized campaign by Hollywood and the national media to weaken the influence of religious values in this country.”
49% agree with the statement that “the U.S. is becoming too tolerant in its acceptance of different ideas and lifestyles.”
38% of the people who answered the poll agreed that books containing “dangerous ideas” should be banned from libraries.
The same number of people disagree that “censoring books is an old-fashioned idea.”

There was also a pretty hilarious quote from NBC’s Ben Silverman in this year’s Upfronts:

We are thrilled to be announcing such an awesome slate of new series that build on our existing quality brand and deliver emotional, human stories.

Classic.

And finally, some musical component to all that, with this sublime John Williams acapella tribute:

Hopefully we’ll get more fun stuff in the coming months.
The playback continues tomorrow with the greatest posts.

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.