Dear Diary,
NBC is ordering 3 more episodes of ‘Trauma.’ Um, like, that show they already canceled. According to THR’s Live Feed blog, is plugging some holes in the HMS Peacock with a few more episodes of a show they have no faith in. So let me get this straight – you drop five hours of programming from your weekly schedule and you still don’t have enough shows to air? No wonder GE is selling your a**.
Dear Diary,
I’ve learned a lot of things from watching television. Really, I have. But few lessons have stayed with me like this one: Don’t date your co-workers. Why not? Because…
…you could get caught doin’ it at the office.
(Angela Montenegro and Jack Hodgins, ‘Bones’)
Make that get caught on camera. Neither Angela nor Hodgins knew their coupling had been captured by surveillance cameras until the tape was hand delivered to Angela – by her new boss Cam Saroyan. Luckily for Angela, Cam played it cool, even when she later found Angela watching the tape at work. For her part, Angela was quite pleased with her performance.
Dear Diary,
I’m keeping an eye out for these shows, which will hopefully be coming to a TV near me very soon.
‘Nowhere’ is from the creators of FX’s ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,’ a show I’ve recently fallen in love with. Apparently the series, a workplace comedy set on a spaceship, has been kicking around Fox for a while and writers Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, and Charlie are working on a new pilot script with help from Seinfeld writer/producer Larry Charles.
Why eye? Comedy and science fiction go together like chocolate and peanut butter. In other words, much better than you’d think they would. ‘Sunny’ is a gem and its creators have a unique brand of humor that expertly navigates the fine line between off-color and off-putting. What’ll be really interesting is seeing how these guys adapt their humor to make it safe for broadcast television.
J. J. Abrams took on quite a task when he created ‘Fringe,’ a show about people investigating unexplained phenomena. A lot of this ground has been covered by shows like: ‘Kolchak: The Night Stalker’ (1974), ‘Eerie, Indiana” (1991), ‘X-Files’ (1993), ‘Strange World’ (1999) and ‘Supernatural’ (2005), just to name a few. This show really needed to come up with some original mysteries, or at least original takes on old mysteries, to stand out from the pack. Clones, telepathy, progeria, pyrokenesis, teleportation – been there, done that. Not quite two seasons in and we’ve already had three episodes about exploding people. That appalling dirth of originality is only one of many reasons that ‘Fringe’ doesn’t work.
We’re supposed to believe that the overarching story is about two worlds, each populated with billions of unsuspecting people, on a collision course that will ultimately destroy one world. Sounds pretty epic, no? But rather than tell us that story, we get watered-down tales of angst ridden psychic teenagers and killer parasites. You know, I remember reading somewhere that the truth about Peter’s other worldly origins was going to be revealed at the end of season two. But the producers asked themselves, Why are we holding back this piece of information?’ Unable to come up with an answer they chose to make the info a season one reveal. I submit that the producers/writers should ask themselves that question a heck of a lot more often.
Dear Diary,
TV networks have had a good thing going for a really long time. They produce, advertisers pay, viewers watch, everybody’s happy. Only these days broadcast nets are making less shows, advertisers want to pay less, and viewership is down. Now TV execs are all in a tizzy over how to make money off the internet. So they’re throwing everything against the wall, hope they will convince us to cough up some money for what we watch online. So what do we get for how money? Depends on who’s doing the peddling…
“TV Everywhere”
Dear Diary,
I had no plans to watch Stargate: Universe. That is, until I read about the internet crapstorm the show has sparked. Producers are arguing with newspaper columnists. Stars are quitting their twitter accounts. I admit it. My curiosity was piqued. I found that, while the show is not all bad, it’s still a lot not good. And I came up with some ideas that I think could really help.
Dear Diary, these bits of news caught my eye recently. I thought I’d put them here for safe keeping…
Real Housewives of Orange County Vicki Gunvalson Interview (TV.com)
She sounds so normal in this interview. Trippy…
Dear Diary,
ABC’s freshman drama ‘Flash Forward’ is based on the 1999 book of the same name by author Robert J. Sawyer. The story is about an event that causes all of humanity to blackout simultaneously. While unconscious, each person sees a vision of his or her future. The concept was so interesting I decided to pick up a copy of the book to see how the story played out as conceived by the original author. Turns out, the novel and the television series are two entirely different beast, sharing little more than a premise in common. For instance…
Dear Diary, these are some news items that recently caught my eye. I thought I’d put them here for safe keeping…
‘Law & Order’ takes on Letterman scandal (Entertainment Weekly)
I’m surprised it’s taken them this long.
