How TV Can Save Itself
- Posted on: Mar. 23, 2007
- 23 Comments
I feel bad for TV guys. They just can’t seem to figure it out. I figured I’d solve the entire industry’s problem in three minutes for them.
Posted in Acting, Business, Failure, Loren Feldman, MTV, Money, Network, Pathetic, SAG, Technology, Television, Web 2.023 comments
If Rupert doesn’t ring you up, he’s a fool.
ReplyPodtech seem to be the only guys, who don’t think I’m some sort of madman. Actually, they probably think I am as well, but so is Furrier so it seems to be working out. You’d love Furrier by the way. Balls to the walls at a 1000 miles an hour.
ReplyI think being a madman is your mission in life.
We madpersons are the shamans of the tribes, you know.
ReplyYeah, I guess so. Sometimes I do wonder what it would be like to just blend in. Nah, I’m just kidding.
As they say, don’t hate me cause I’m beautiful.
and fuck em if they can’t take a joke.
Love you bro’
ReplySave TV by forcing viewers to change their schedule for it? As the entire plugged-in world goes by-demand on-demand? Really? What time exactly should they air their most popular program to a 4 time zone (or 24?) audience?
Should TV shows really go “live”, take DOWN the quality level of the product so that viewers can watch a lower-quality show on Tivo whenever they please?
Wouldn’t it be awesome to watch Grey’s Anatomy without well-delivered lines in every scene? Without any special effects, re-takes or editing? Every show forced to take place with actors in one outfit and a limited number of scenes/sets? Really?
All so that I can watch it on Tivo later and think it sucks?
Easy to “go out on a limb” when your idea is so freakin stupid that no one will ever try it, therefore it cannot fail.
There is a difference between saying something different just to be different and being profound.
ReplyYou were banished for being too stupid to participate in discussions here. This comment demonstrates that fact. Whomever you might be.
It’s also funny that you are so desperate to be here that you go to such lengths to try and participate. Cloaking your ip address. You are so into me that it’s pathetic.
ReplyWell, took care of that.
You keep using all the lines I had my eye on, Loren.;-)
ReplyThanks for having my back kid. But the funny truth of the matter is that only 2 people were banned. So it’s either dope#1 or dope#2. These guys are pathetic lightweights filled with envy. I love it.
You two are so stupid I wish you would have the balls to associate your names with your ridiculous attempts to challenge me so that the whole site may laugh at you in unison. I’m too sharp and quick for either one of you, give it up.
ReplyNah, I don’t think it’ll work. The future of TV is HBO. Do they have that trademarked or something? It sounds familiar. But it’s true. The Sopranos is coming back on next month, and I’ll be watching every single one.
You know what else isn’t going away? Fox News.
Well-produced niche content, stuff that people will go out of their way to watch. The days of making one piece of shit sitcom after another and having people parked there for hours in front of the TV while you showed them commercials — that’s over. Don’t think it’s coming back, because it’s not.
Live shows is an interesting idea. I think in the end it’d end up being another gimmick like the reality shows though. People would be into it for awhile, they’d run through all the obvious applications of it, and then it’d fizzle out.
ReplyI think it would work, people would feel that they are missing something in a way. It worked for many years. Plus it is the antithesis of an archived and searchable society. How sick would the Sopranos be?
ReplyNothing brings people together as an audience more than a real-life drama– a baby trapped in a well shaft, for example–happening in real time.
The challenge for producers is to create content that grips people, and Fox excels at that because it has no compunction about producing shows that appeal to the worst sides of human nature–like the voyeuristic impulse to take pleasure in watching husband-wife relationships be destroyed before our eyes.
Fox-style productions will exploit this voyeurism– marketing sex as celebrity gossip or some form of emotional violence.
The News Corp model of packaged entertainment is the real Terror.
ReplyDidn’t NBC try a live episode of E.R. some years ago? From what I recall, it was pretty engaging tv.
I’m not sure it would work as a model though. To bring the live model of the past in to work today, I’d think you’d also have to somewhat bring the culture of the past back as well.
ReplyMark
I know Im dreaming, but wouldnt that be nice.
ReplyWell, honestly Loren I wouldn’t say you’re totally dreaming…it would work (and does work) in spots such as the Idol contests, religious programming, political debates, election results and even to some extent the morning news shows at times.
When I first read your post, I was under the impression you were suggesting tv go back to the live studio audience model — perhaps it was your mention of Milton Berle that set that off.
But I was thinking that worked when comedy was comedy — and not comedians torn from making a joke about real life situations to now having to deal with those same issues with sensitivity. Bring tv comedy back by letting comedians be comedians and allowing them to do their shtick in an environment that supports the routine as opposed to standing there like a chicken on a stick in front of a faux brick wall and we might get somewhere with live tv.
Drama might work, as in the before mentioned example of the one live E.R. episode. But most of the dramas on tv today have so many storylines and intertwining of characters going on, to do every episode live, I feel, would be disastrous — even with the best actors.
I think it would be interesting to see what would happen if the industry embraced the soap opera model — airing a new episode every single day.
What about the soap opera + live model? Now that would be industry changing.
ReplyYup, now we’re cooking. It would work, and it would be engaging. Yes some changes and mods would be needed but it would revitalize the entire medium, and the acting would improve. All the pseudo stars would be scared to do it and the real talent would do it and rise to the top.
It was all live for years
Reply“what would happen if the industry embraced the soap opera model…”
Wouldn’t an episode a day work the actors to death?
I like the idea of serving up Jack Paar- quality live interviewing and comedy instead of the Truman’s World reality-fare.
ReplyIf ever any of my comments seem less than lucid, please remember that I’m hallucinating most of the time, anyway.
I’ll bet Jvon thinks I’m kidding.
ReplyVince —
Take any soap and look at the longevity of an actor playing a specific character on one show —
- Deidre Hall has been playing Marlena Evans on Days of our Lives for 30 years
- Ditto for Susan Lucci
- As the World Turns actress Helen Wagner is in the Guiness Book of World Records for still playing the same role she debuted in 1956.
I would guess actor burn out is not really a big problem.
ReplyNo he doesn’t.
ReplyVince, just watch out for the space bats. They get pretty thick around here sometimes.
ReplyYou see those too?
ReplyOh yes. I was in the hospital following surgery a few years ago and a doc came in to give me 15mg of Ambien, a pretty heavy dose. As he handed it over he asked me if I’d ever taken it before. “Yeah,” I said, swallowing the pills, “it makes me hallucinate.” He looked kind of alarmed for a minute until I followed up with, “I’m used to it though, don’t worry.”
He did check on me a lot anyway.
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