If Matt Lauer doesn’t want to be seen with sharp knives, it’s because last summer his co-host Ann Curry was discovered with one in her back. Five million viewers, the majority of them women, would not soon forget how Curry, the intrepid female correspondent and emotionally vivid anchor, spent her last appearance on the Today show couch openly weeping, devastated at having to leave after only a year. The image of Matt Lauer trying to comfort her—and of Curry turning away from his attempted kiss—has become a kind of monument to the real Matt Lauer, forensic evidence of his guilt. What followed was the implosion of the most profitable franchise in network television.
posted by Horace Rumpole
on Mar 25, 2013 -
91 comments
As if a line like "their house is a museum, when people come to see 'em, they really are a scree-am" (heard, of course, in
the Addams Family theme) wasn't playfully brilliant (and brilliantly playful) enough, the same fellow happened to also have written
the Green Acres theme. If you're an American of a certain age, you'll remember these two songs from their original TV runs during your childhood, or perhaps from reruns if you're a bit younger. Anyway, the composer of these catchy, familiar ditties was one
Vic Mizzy. Hear Vic talk about the Addams Family theme and his degree in advanced finger snapping
here. Thanks Vic!
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Feb 22, 2013 -
21 comments
House of Cards is a new original "TV" series that is not destined for any TV distribution channel. Instead, it was developed by, and is only available through, Netflix. Netflix posted the entire first "season," 13 1-hour episodes, on Friday.
(Is this the new thing?) Some of us, cough, watched the whole thing.
[more inside]
posted by grobstein
on Feb 3, 2013 -
106 comments
My friends and I weren’t popular in high school, we weren’t dating all the time, and we were just trying to get through our lives. It was important to me to show that side. I wanted to leave a chronicle—to make people who had gone through it laugh, but also as a primer for kids going in, to say, “Here’s what you can expect. It’s horrifying but all you should really care about is getting through it. Get your friends, have your support group. And learn to be able to laugh at it.”
The Oral History of Freaks and Geeks [more inside]
posted by mokin
on Dec 6, 2012 -
75 comments
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman appeared in 1976... and it exists as a sort of island of experimentation, its ripples of influence not fully engaged with until several decades later... . Predictably rejected by the networks, this Norman Lear production ran in first-run syndication, five nights a week, usually after the late-night news. ... Louise Lasser (once Woody Allen’s muse) stars as a put-upon pre-feminist housewife who repeats the secular liturgy of American consumerism in an attempt to stave off a nervous breakdown.*
posted by Egg Shen
on Nov 16, 2012 -
61 comments
Flipping through public access or PBS channels one might have seen
Classic Arts Showcase with it's familiar
ARTS bug. The
24-hour non-commercial free-to-air satellite channel broadcasts a repeated
8-hour mix of about 150 video clips weekly a mix of various classic arts including animation, architectural art, ballet, chamber, choral music, dance, folk art, museum art, musical theater, opera, orchestral, recital, solo instrumental, solo vocal, and theatrical play, as well as classic film and archival documentaries. The channel has no VJs and
only silent interstitials encouraging the viewer to “...go out and feast from the buffet of arts available in your community.”
[more inside]
posted by wcfields
on Oct 16, 2012 -
7 comments
In Treatment was an HBO series that ran three seasons from 2008 through 2010. Adapated - often word-for-word - from the Israeli drama
BeTipul, it depicted the weekly sessions of a psychologist (Emmy-nominated
Gabriel Byrne) with his patients (including
Debra Winger, Emmy-nominated
Hope Davis, and, in her first American role,
Mia Wasikowska) and with his own therapist (Emmy-winning
Dianne Wiest). The filming of the series placed extraordinary demands on Byrne - which are well described in
this interview with showrunner Warren Leight.
(h/t: MCMikeNamara) You can watch its entire first episode
here.
(possible spoilers throughout)
posted by Egg Shen
on Oct 15, 2012 -
24 comments
Tonight, two new fall shows premiere: Mob Doctor, which is about a doctor who works for the mob, and Revolution, which is about a devastating global power outage and — more than that — a revolution.
Neither of these shows particularly requires your attention, but taken together, they emphasize that essentially, all you need to make a show is the right combination of title-friendly words.
In fact, if you take the correct 25 words, you can combine them (often in either order!) to create all the television we will see in the next ten years.
posted by malapropist
on Sep 19, 2012 -
108 comments
"Revolution" seems a little too much like "Powerless." Indie television proof-of-concept pilot "Powerless" is "about a trio who are in the woods when an unexplained and unexpected event causes electricity the world over to suddenly disappear." The pilot is submitted to a 2011 television festival where it is seen by studio executives. Then, "come February 2012, NBC picks up [a] mystery high concept pilot and reveals it's called 'Revolution' and the high concept is: An adventure series in a world suddenly and inexplicably without power."
[more inside]
posted by Mo Nickels
on Sep 18, 2012 -
150 comments
There are some TV shows that last for years and years, and when they finally go away, they're barely missed. And then there is the phenomenon of the TV show that dies quickly but leaves an indelible mark. Ten years ago, ABC fielded such a show: My So-Called Life, produced by the thirtysomething
team of Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, premiered on Thursday, August 25, 1994 -- and was quickly reduced to ratings rubble by another new 8 p.m. series, NBC's Friends
. But in 19 sublime episodes, Life left a lasting pop-culture legacy. Not only did it launch the careers of Claire Danes and Jared Leto, it defined the modern family drama -- and has influenced an entire generation of television writers. Says Greg Berlanti, the creator of The WB's Everwood and Jack & Bobby, ''It's the most painfully honest portrayal of adolescence ever on television.''
posted by Egg Shen
on Sep 3, 2012 -
53 comments
