MetaFilter posts tagged with ratings

"All of your favorite shows are ratings dogs."

mediareport — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 21:23:46 -0800

The Nielsen Family Is Dead. Nielsen Now Tracks (Almost) Everything You Buy: Credit, Debit and Bank Data Now Combined With TV, Online Viewing. Nielsen Offers Focus on ‘Zero-TV’ Homes. Nielsen Agrees to Expand Definition of TV Viewing. The 23,000 U.S. homes Nielsen currently samples are going to see some changes this year. Previously: Why Nielsen Ratings Are Inaccurate, and Why They'll Stay That Way

Who spilled Hot Coffee?

Artw — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 19:31:01 -0800

Both characters remained fully clothed and there were no genital shots. But this was still the most explicit sexual content Wildenborg had seen in a video game. “It was at this point I decided to release the patch to the public,” he says. “I tossed the name 'Hot Coffee' on the file, based on the fact that the girlfriends would ask CJ in for some 'coffee' as a euphemism for sex. Hot Coffee was the first modification for San Andreas.” - The history of Grand Theft Auto's infamous "Hot Coffee" mod.

Menace(s) to Society

zarq — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:27:26 -0800

During the Golden Age of Hollywood and until 1967, mainstream movie studios were banned by the Production Code from depicting taboo topics like drug addiction, explicit murder and venereal disease, or even showing explicit nudity. But in the 1930's and 1940's, films marketed as "educational" could and did fly under the radar, and three of the best known 'educational' propaganda exploitation films are: Sex Madness (1935), Reefer Madness (1936) and The Cocaine Fiends (1938). Each is a morality tale: Sex Madness warns teens of the dangers of syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases. Among the forms of "madness" it warns against: wild parties, lesbianism, and premarital sex. Directed by Dwain Esper, whose other exploitation movies include: Narcotic (1933), Maniac (1934), Marihuana: The Devil's Weed! (alt link) (1936) and How to Undress in Front of your Husband (1938). (Some of these may be NSFW.) Reefer Madness dramatizes the dangers of marijuana use, depicting it leading to car accidents, manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, etc. (Wikipedia) Directed by Louis J. Gasnier, who also directed non-exploitation films such as The Perils of Pauline (1914), The Gold Racket (1937), The Sunset Murder Case (1938) and Stolen Paradise (1940). The Cocaine Fiends has the grandest headache medicine in the world, which will also destroy your life and soul. Like most of the exploitation movies of that era The Cocaine Fiends sheds interesting light on the anxieties engendered by the modern world. Modern life is seen as threatening and dangerous. And like most such films it faces the fascinating contradiction of condemning the very things on which it relies for its chance of commercial success, which for such movies depended entirely on the thrill of the forbidden and the illicit.
* Reviews of all three movies, Joe Bob Briggs-style. * NPR: Remembering Hollywood's Hays Code, 40 years on: A year after Some Like It Hot was released, the head of the MPA began suggesting that some sort of classification system might work better than a censorship system that no one was paying attention to. In 1968, his organization finally shifted from restricting filmmakers to alerting audiences, using the film-ratings system we know today.

The Monday Night Wars

Trurl — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:47:16 -0800

Historians of the war consider it to have been lost in what became known as the Fingerpoke of Doom. WIKIPEDIA:

In WrestleCrap: The Very Worst of Pro Wrestling, RD Reynolds says of the match, "That was that. Fans had been burned one time too many by WCW and the nWo. From that point on in 1999, ratings steadily dropped for the company." ... According to wrestling writers Brian Fritz and Christopher Murray, the event insulted fans, upset viewers, and alerted other wrestlers in the company to problems in the company. They draw a direct link between the title change and the drop in ratings that took place in its aftermath. R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez, authors of the book The Death of WCW, also draw this link, stating that the January 4 incident "more than any other, started the ball rolling towards the company's inevitable doom". They believe that the "now-legendary" event made the episode "the single most destructive Nitro in the history of the company" and call it a "disaster of epic proportions". The New York Daily News stated that the match "is widely considered the beginning of the end for WCW".

"Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders" (1979)

Trurl — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:43:29 -0800

Your NFL team probably has cheerleaders. But this team's cheerleaders had a movie made about them. And because they're from a place where they like to do things big, when that movie was broadcast, it was viewed on 60% of the televisions in use at the time. The second* most watched made-for-TV movie in history was a production of the American Broadcasting Company. At the time, it was the most successful television network in the country - thanks to "jiggle" programming like Three's Company, Charlie's Angels, and Battle of the Network Stars.

The Crying Game

Artw — Wed, 18 May 2011 11:52:05 -0800

After 14 years, a movie and 17 seasons Stargate has left our screens forever- falling ratings dooming it's latest incarnation, Stargate: Universe, just as the series was finding it's feet. But what would have happned had the series continued? (contains spoilers for show you probably didn't watch)

The cause of your favourite show's impending cancellation

Artw — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:56:58 -0800

Why Nielsen Ratings Are Inaccurate, and Why They'll Stay That Way

We see a man and woman kiss

(bb|[^b]{2}) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:02:06 -0800

Kids-in-mind "provides parents and other adults with objective and complete information about a film's content so that they can decide, based on their own value system, whether they should watch a movie with or without their kids." Informative AND unintentionally hilarious! From the somewhat kid-friendly Ratatouille (A rat smokes a mushroom over a chimney, and with another rat they are struck by lightning, thrown from the roof and to the ground (they have electrified fur but are otherwise OK).) to more decidedly non-kid-friendly fare, and everything in between. What's the verdict on your favorite movie?

Taking aim at ESPN

mediareport — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:46:36 -0800

Sports Business Journal has a detailed look behind the buzz over "The Emperor’s New Clothes: How ESPN’s Multi-Platform Strategy Hasn’t Improved Ratings," a sharply critical PowerPoint presentation making the rounds of sports league offices and advertising buyers in recent months. A good read for folks interested in the business of sports, decreasing TV ratings for many leagues, the blurriness of the ad/news line and the difficulty of measuring eyeballs across media. [via Romenesko]

The Color of Top Grossing Movies.

brain_drain — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:44:51 -0800

The Color of Top Grossing Movies. A movie’s theatrical poster is only a very small part of the larger marketing and hype machine that turns movies into spectacular blockbusters, but as part of a whole, they are fairly representative of the “image” of any given movie. So, as an exercise in color trends, and to see if any significant pattern emerged, I decided to break down the colors of 25 posters — the top 5 of each MPAA category.

Mmmm, beeeer: ratebeer.com

spock — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:29:41 -0800

Mmmm, beeeer: ratebeer.com The World's Worst Beers, Best Beers - 2007, find the top beers by category or region. Emphasis on craft brews. (See also the previously mentioned BeerAdvocate.com) Happy Friday, everyone!

"Donny Osmond, watch your back! This is Mitt Romney,"

amberglow — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:56:58 -0800

Sizzlingly Inappropriate Republican Debate Hottie Rundown! --in what's becoming a recurring series (see her UK Hostages and Dem candidates here), Werthmann rates (in a supergroovy Tiger Beat/fan mag way) the 10 GOP hopefuls appearing tonight in the Debate. On Rudy: ... The way he burns through spouses, we think he's fair game. Hey, Rudy, we need some "consulting"! ... : >

Jack Valenti, adieau

Astro Zombie — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 17:07:40 -0800

Jack Valenti, RIP.

Metafilter: 8.7 Wendell: 8.9 HA!

wendell — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:28:21 -0800

Does it suck? Or does it rock? No, this is NOT like Will It Float? or Will It Blend? It's a cute use of the Google API to search for how often your inquiry comes up as "x sucks" or "x rocks" or a small number of other similar phrases. MetaFilter rates 8.7 out of 10 (87% rocks, 13% sucks). A delightfully evil way to rate - and compare - various things.

This Film is Not Yet Rated

spock — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 10:04:16 -0800

This Film is Not Yet Rated (SFW trailer) and a hilarious (audio NSFW) version. (2:05) "How does one follow-up an Oscar-nominated documentary (2004's Twist of Faith) about sexual abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic Church? If you're Kirby Dick, you deliver another exposé of institutionalized misconduct by taking direct aim at the ratings system of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)." Interviews with the director, Kirby Dick: 1,2,3. Not available on DVD until January '07, but the Amazon Reader Reviews are worth a look see.

Mystery of The Top Sellers

AJ — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 13:25:21 -0800

Amazon's "Top Selling Videos" Here's a mystery: Amazon has a page showing their top selling VHS videos. It is "updated hourly." Before you look at what the top sellers are, take a guess. I doubt that anyone would think that the 1994 Richard Simmons "Sweating to the Oldies" video would be listed as No. 1 -- particularly in view of the fact that it is described as being "unavailable." The others in the top 10 are also interesting: #3 is the 1945 black and white "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". Would you guess that #7 is "Fatso", a 1993 comedy starring Dom DeLuise? I may be wrong but I suspect that Amazon's ratings are not accurate. Now I wonder about their book ratings . . .

I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine

washburn — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:24:30 -0800

The Movie Deaths Database. 273 movie deaths, categorized and rated by greatness.

This goes for you too, Guatemala

jonson — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 23:22:28 -0800

Rule 1b: Do not write some stupid slogan on your flag. If you've ever wanted to know how all the world's flags rank in terms of aesthetic appeal, here's a handy guide with an accompanying methodology.

Movie-haulic?

HyperBlue — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 20:06:39 -0800

filmaffinity.com looks like another useful tool to get recommendations for your viewing pleasure-once more of us start rating! It's in English and Spanish now (with more languages yet to come). Movielens seems promising as well. IMDb Pro looks cool too, though I haven't gone that far. However, this guy says beware!!

Getting inside Movie Fan's heads

bonzo — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 17:37:13 -0800

"Unsatisfactory movie viewing can only be attributed to human error." The Denver Post examines the way technology can help viewers find their next favorite movie.

PILFs?

robocop is bleeding — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 06:46:07 -0800

Rate My Professor! A searchable database of student ratings of their college professors. In what must be a wonderful reflection of the current status of the American and Canadian higher education systems, the ratings include entries for how easy the professor is and, of course, how hot they are. So click around, visit your alma mater, and let that jerk who almost flunked you in freshman comp feel your wrath!

Raw data

Eloquence — Thu, 04 Dec 2003 09:58:44 -0800

Professor Pollkatz's statistics. Interestings graphics on Bush approval/disapproval. This one, for example, clearly proves that whenever Bush's approval was high, it was driven by an event (the two major events being September 11 and the Iraq war) and steadily declined afterwards. This page shows that FOX polls consistently overrate Bush, while Zogby polls consistently underrate him. [more inside]

Another musical debate

pyramid termite — Fri, 21 Nov 2003 22:54:08 -0800

Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums. Not a bad list at all, but I'm sure that some of us will find something they missed ...

I Don't If I Should Laugh or Cry

fenriq — Wed, 12 Nov 2003 15:10:41 -0800

Andy Griffith Beats Jessica Lynch Interview for Viewers
Well sure, it was for the Andy Griffith Reunion Show. What was ABC thinking putting Diane Sawyer and Jessica "Selective Amnesia" Lynch up against Andy, Opie and Aunt Bea?

StumbleUpon

theWoodpecker — Sun, 05 Jan 2003 12:05:25 -0800

StumbleUpon is a browser plugin-in that "uses member ratings to form collective human opinions on website quality." The plugin-in then uses these ratings to recommend websites, much like Amazon.com recommends books.