TV on the Honor System

Could there be another way to deliver TV content to the products (us)?
Instead of chopping up shows with commercials that people have been increasingly able to defeat and, online, can crash ones browser - how about giving the viewer a list of sponsors and maybe specific products - let the viewer purchase one or two - then, the sponsor would give the viewer a voucher he could use to download an uninterrupted show or even season of the shows.
I guess you'd have to figure out how much the sponsor usually receives from $ and unit sales. This method, however, would have the added effect of a confirmed sale and, issuing coupons, could confirm repeat sales.
The viewer would get a better experience and the sponsor would get better data.
I guess the only real drawback would be the viewer having to sit down and look thru the sponsors & their ads & buying shit online in advance.

John McLaughlin

Blogging isn't Cool mourns the loss of John McLaughlin, host of the McLaughlin Group TV show for 34 years. He was 89.
The roundtable political discussion show was insightful, fun, and at times, aggravating as hell.
It was the basis for Bill Maher's show, Politically incorrect and the local cable show in Cincinnati, The McRotherberg Group.
Over the years the panelists included:
Fred Barnes
Michael Barone
Tony Blankley
Pat Buchanan
Tim Carney
Eleanor Clift
Monica Crowley
Susan Ferrechio
Jack Germond
Paul Glastris
Al Hunt
Katty Kay
Michael Kinsley
Rich Lowry
Morton Kondracke
Chris Matthews
Robert Novak
Lawrence O'Donnell
Clarence Page
David Rennie
Tom Rogan
Mark Shields
Mort Zuckerman

Dr McLaughlin's online memorial & guestbook here

More from the New York Daily News

Nick

We're all winners!

Remake Advice

OK, Hollywood TV scum, here's my million dollar idea that I give to you free.
You love your rehashing old characters, well, here - remake Have Gun Will Travel but set it in a zombie apocalypse. It can't lose.
Paladin could deal with tyrant warmies abusing both fellow warmies AND the zed all the time spouting moralistic crap & touting classic philosophy.

Battling Taylor

OK, Hollywood, I have another blockbuster idea for you.
An Andy Taylor prequel where we visit his military career in WWII. Wikipedia states that some of the years listed by the writers don't exactly line up with the actual war but that there are references to him being stationed in France and in N Africa as a first sergeant.
What I'm thinking is N Africa where Andy finds himself battling zombie mummies in caves.
Maybe he could meet his wife, a rough & tumble archaeologist who belly dances. That would explain her having no family in Mayberry.
This will work, Hollywood. I will wait.

Is Daredevil In The Golden Dawn ?

nonononono not that Golden Dawn, this Golden Dawn.
Sure, he had a hot Greek girlfriend in college, but Matt Murdock is Roman Catholic not Greek Orthodox. You people slay me.
Anyway the shot, above, in the opening credits of the new Daredevil series shows a symbol very similar to the occult group's symbol
DD was no stranger to esoteric mystic poop but he never went the GD route when I read the comic. Maybe he did in later years. Maybe it's a new path for the little screen series.
Maybe it's a coincidence.
MAYBE they could introduce a right wing militant Elektra!

iZombie

This adaptation of a comic book smooshes up a number of zombie elements, probably the most interesting of which is the intelligent zombie trying to fit into the world of warmies & balancing her divergent interests. It's on the CW so you know it will be good. No, seriously, since it doesn't have love lorn vampires, it might actually be fun. It does appear to have about every other damn cliche going on.
Debuts March 17

Location Location Location

This article at Urbanfuk talks about cities that are luring movie makers away from Hollywood. Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh make the list. While largely due to tax incentives, there's a degree of talent in the cities & digital film making has made it a lot easier to pick up & go.
One of the bestest TV shows in the past 1,000 years was Route 66. That show was filmed entirely on location as two young men drove around the United States in a sports car. OK, a couple sports cars and sometimes the locations weren't the stated locations but, still....
The thing is, the series served to document these various locations in the early 60s. You can skip the show & just watch the backgrounds. Wouldn't it be great to do another series that actually went around & shot on location? It could document the country as Route 66 did but in the 21st century.
Dunno if a producer could get tax credits from multiple cities for single episodes, but, hey, a guy can dream.

Don't Give Fox Another Chance

It appears Fox TV wants the rights to The X-Men.
Comic book super heroes are science fiction. Science fiction requires $$$ to produce. It takes time to develop the characters & universe. It would take less if you just used what was already developed but Hollywood knows better. But Fox wants instant results and has killed science fiction shows too many times.
Let somebody else develop comic book TV. Fox isn't mature enough & will just ruin franchises for other companies to produce. The X-Files came along when Fox had nothing. It would never have lasted a season nowadays.
Fox, step away from the art boards...

Marvel v. DC but no Gold Key?

This'd be fun, but, of course, the dark forces of American lawyers would be sure to fuck it up like they fucked up Dan Turpin's funeral.
Anyway, why not bring in Doctor Solar & Magnus Robot Fighter just to really jazz things up?

Ad Placement Fail

An oldie but goodie - the chills that go down your spine when the ad starts are just awesome.

Horror Lounge Music

Not a fan of this show Jessica Lange?
Still this is nice & creepy.

The Freaks & Geeks of Halloween

I liked this show, Freaks & Geeks. Kinda sappy but, what the heck. Anyway this episode brings up an aspect of Halloween celebration that is really interesting.
People spend the most money on Christmas but Halloween is #2. Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Memorial day - while people vary their celebrations a bit, they all tend to do the same thing. There is a single underlying theme in all those holidays. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus (on the wrong day), 4th of July - American independence, Thanksgiving - start of the Christmas shopping season...
Halloween is all over the map.
For some it's dress up, whorish dress up, slasher movies, horror movies, food ffod & more food, pranks, whatever. A small minority of people celebrate it as Samhain or as a time when the departed ancestors are closest to the dimension of the living.
In the TV episode the family is split between the parents & their 2 kids and the evolution of their attitude and approaches to the holiday.
The cookies in the front yard with ants all over them is one of my favorite parts.

Back When the GOP Was Funny

Branding Gone Wild

OK, so, when Madeira public schools started up girl's sports the jock boys teased the jock girls by calling them Amazons. The girls in turn claimed the name & since 1970, the girls have been the Amazons & the boys have been The Mustangs.
NOW they are talking about their branding & are talking about tossing out 44 years of tradition in an attempt to solidify their branding under one name.
kinda late for that one fellas….
Some people want to keep things consistent. Some people find the name offensive. To the former, changing something after 44 years is not consistent. To the latter, did you ever watch Xena? seriously…
My advice to the Madeira PS is, "Oh, come away from it, Fritz, leave it alone!".

Fishwarp story with goofy opinion meter thingamabob here

In Defense of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. wishing they had had a V8A lot of people are ragging on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as an abysmal failure. While I don't think it's fantastic I do like it. Folks want it to be in the middle of the Marvel Universe, but
S.H.I.E.L.D. was always a huge global intelligence agency with many facets. Originally the comic book only focussed on the top dogs, kinda like Star Trek TOS. The enemies were usually cold war types like The Yellow Claw who could work today very nicely. This series focusses on a particular group within the organisation.
People dissatisfied with the series seem to want everything NOW. Go watch a Resident Evil movie for that. For a long running series to make it, it has to pace itself. Dark Angel was a good example of pacing going too fast (as well as boxing in the plot). OTOH, Firefly was a good example of the public's (and the bean counters) microscopic attention spans.
The thing is there's a lot to explore in the Marvel / S.H.I.E.L.D. universe.
Marvel will likely use this vehicle to promote their movies & other products in the future. Recent plots have referenced Asgard in conjunction with the recent release of the latest Thor movie. Fair Sif is slated for an appearance soon.
With new Avengers, X-Men, Spiderman, Ant Man, Captain America, and maybe a Doctor Strange with Johnny Depp heading for the big screen, there's lots of opportunity for the show to have crossovers. There's also a Daredevil series for TV in the works.
Daredevil will probably suck, however having MaTT Murdock provide counsel for or to sue the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could be fun.
FWIW, the series was only slated for half a season but the network has picked up the second half.

More of Cranley's Empty Promises

Another community asset dashed by Mad King Cranley is local access television. While he pledged to keep it alive during his campaign he has now opted out. Media Bridges thought they could count on the long on rhetoric/short on facts guy but are now definitely closing down. They will be having an auction for non-members 12/17 from 10AM to 4PM.
You can see some of the inventory here

Sometimes Horror Doesn't Sell

Sammy Davis Jr, Christophr Lee, Adam West, Jack Klugman in a TV show about a bungling demon's crazy antics. How could it go wrong?
Unfortunately Poor Devil never made it past a pilot in 1973.

Tally Ho !

Should The Cincinnati Enquirer change it's name to Tally Ho? Or maybe just The Village Enquirer? Tally Ho was, of course, the name of the paper in the TV show, The Prisoner where Patrick MacGoohan found himself trapped in The Village, a mysterious place where nothing was what it seemed and information was not particularly forthcoming & what was, was never too reliable.
They might as well use the Tally Ho trademark - the trademark on pretty much everything in the Village. it's not like they print anything, anymore, anyway…heck, The Village even kinda looks like Cincinnati…

A Star Trek Maverick

Started watching Star Trek Deep Space Nine recently. It was my favorite Star Trek series. While the first series was described as a TV western, about the only western adventure it compared to was the Lewis & Clark expedition which hasn't been a smash hit on prime time TV. Most of the old westerns that were popular were of people dealing with their turf - The Big Valley, Bonanza, Gunsmoke…
And that's what STDS9 was about - people staking their claim in the frontier, putting down roots & making a home. Since the cast wasn't off galavanting all over the cosmos, it also shared more insight into how the civilized galaxy was being run. By exploring the foundation of the Star Trek universe, it expanded that universe like Tolkien did with the Hobbit series & Lee did in the 60s Marvel universe.
There was another popular wester called Maverick, about a hustler with a heart of gold who wandered the west looking to score whatever he could. 2 other 60s era shows had a similar premise of wandering young mer, Route 66 and Then Came Bronson, although those guys weren't swindlers & the shows, in general were not comedies. About the closest TV science fiction has come to Maverick was the ill fated Firefly but even that used an ensemble cast while Maverick, Bronson & Route 66 relied on only 1 or 2 strong recurring characters but featured at least 1 strong guest character per show.
I think this would be an excellent model for a new Star Trek TV series. The airwaves have been Trekless too long. Maybe Will Wheaton dropping out of Star Fleet Academy to bum around on a Harley space bike? Unfortunately, it would take a lot stronger actor to pull it off & we seem to be stuck with soap opera type ensemble shows for awhile.