If movies and television are rated to warn potential viewers they contain foul language, drug use and/or boobs, why can't they be rated to warn potential viewers they contain not so subtle ads for crap like Old Spice, also? This is the central question of a new piece in today's Slate. A piece in which Alissa Quart slowly unravels an argument, asks a lot of questions and then never really approaches a conclusion, as writers at Slate are wont to do.
Here's the story in a nutshell: The FCC has said that it would like a way to make sure the public is "informed of the sources of program while concurrently balancing the First Amendment and artistic rights of programmers." Quart proposes a rating of B for "branding." The problem is that the FCC currently has no control over cable and film and to get control would take an act of Congress. The end (surprisingly without any discussion of the concerns a rational person would have about the FCC having control over film and cable). Time for Quart to ponder:
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If you think the i-bankers on Wall Street cry into their i-pillows every night, try looking into what the current climate is like in the TV writers' rooms. With the death of the traditional sitcom in favor of single-camera comedies like The Office or Always Sunny in Philidelphia, and the number of these shows cut dramatically from the prime time lineup, the job title that used to be held by up to 15 people on one show is currently in the single digits and is fast approaching a nadir. To wit: The number of NBC comedies dropped from 16 to 4 in the last decade; not a good sign for the aspiring Conans or Sedaris.
And of course, leave it to the professional joke guys to spin the lack of scribe positions in the geekiest way possible, as one ex-Seinfeld writer managed: “We’re devolving into a species of Morlocks. As the work continues to vanish, we’ll vanish as well.”
So what are the former Ivy League graduates doing now that The Simpsons isn't hiring?
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Here's something you, like us, may not have known: "the gay community has been extremely loyal to Levi's." Huh. Well now, to show its appreciation for years and years of the gay community's loyalty, Levi's is going to exploit them in order to sell more jeans. Hooray civil rights. CONTINUED »
That ad there, above? For The CW's Gossip Girl, the low-ratings show that everybody can't stop talking about? The show's creator, Josh Schwartz, actually hates the way the network has gone about pushing the show on viewers, taking advantage of the Parents Television Council's general frustration with its means of teaching young people about the birds and the bees. "The network came up with that, and I just stand back. I don’t want anything to do with it. … When you drive by a poster for your show and it says, ‘Every parent’s nightmare,’ you have mixed feelings." Ya know, that's sort of a mind-blowingly inappropriate thing to say.
The dearth of diversity in television and movies is a constant topic of discussion, but one genre might not be getting the props it deserves for its casting practices. Perhaps prime-time network television should take its cues from youth programming on Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel, both of which have a history of casting kids of all hues and ethnicities. Take the red carpet for the premiere of the latest Cheetah Girls movie, for instance:
The premiere of Elle's reality show Stylista has been moved up a week. It now hits the CW on Oct. 22 at 9pm. We updated our BlackBerry calendar before even typing this. [TVW]
For all the hype, influence on the fashion industry, and magazine spreads, Mad Men is not the ratings draw you might've been led to believe.
In fact, it "continues to shed its audience at an alarming rate," intones Michael Starr. While the second season premiered on July 27 with 2.1 million viewers, last Sunday's episode averaged just 1.1 million (and a season low of 514k in the 18-49 demo).
None of this should be terribly surprising if you've been paying attention to the hype-vs-ratings measurements of late. CONTINUED »
'France's broadcast authority has banned French channels from airing TV shows aimed at children under 3 years old, to shield them from developmental risks it says television viewing poses at that age. The High Audiovisual Council, in a ruling published Wednesday, said it wanted to "protect children under 3 from the effects of television."' [AP]
The Federal Communications Commission doesn't have much to do now that the whole Janet Jackson Nipplegate fiasco has finally, mercifully been settled. And not in their favor.
Sure, Kevin Martin & Co. can watch the morning shows and hope Jane Fonda says the C-word again, but in the meantime the FCC plans to 'round up a posse and mosey from town to town to spread the word about televisions making the switch to entirely digital broadcasting.
Which seems, um, totally archaic as a method for getting people to switch out of their analog technology. Though perhaps the Internet isn't the most effective means of reaching people who still have bunny ears sprouting from their TV sets? CONTINUED »
The legend of Spaghetti Cat is inexplicably sweeping the nation, mainly because there is an air of mystery surrounding the feline. What was he doing popping up on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet? Why did nobody speak of him during the program? Why is he eating spaghetti? Why does the spaghetti have no sauce?
After a brief tryout, Wendy Williams' daytime talk show on Fox is getting picked up for a full season to debut in the middle of next year. It's one small step for sass, one giant leap for our theory that blacks and gays own daytime TV.
There was a time, not so long ago, when crazy people had to go on public access shows at 3am to get their voices (and all the ones in their head) heard. Then came YouTube, and it obliterated the competition. It was cheaper (FREE!) and allowed your message to reach a wider audience than a television spot on a local station. But now media technology has come full circle with the advent of SaysMe.TV, a user-generated site that let's you pay as low as six bucks to have your message broadcast on the tele. For some zany reason, the site is currently being marketed as a political commentator soapbox instead of what its obvious purpose: an advertising boon for local businesses without the budgets to create actual infomercials. Right now, "politics" is selling a smidge better than news of half-priced avocados at the farmers market.
Shut up, television. Don't use our high gas prices and recent economic woes to sell us your September line-up under the guise of your made-up holiday, National Stay at Home Week. That is really some b.s. right there, especially since ABC, the network that is spear-heading the campaign, starting on Sept. 21, to convince us that everything our parents taught us was wrong, only has two new shows coming out this season. Well, joke's on you, ABC; you might get more publicity with your week-long fakery than your nemesis in April, TV Turnoff Week, but you know that while we're home we are going to be glued to our computers, watching re-runs of 30 Rock on Hulu. And that's how you get hoisted by your own petard.
Episodes of some 10 shows from this fall's television season are already available for illicit downloading online. Some point to this as the inevitable outcome of the Internet age, where anything can be pirated, posted, and downloaded by all. Others — us — point to it was the inevitable outcome of the Internet age, where television networks are sly enough to realize how much buzz they can build by "leaking" their shows to BitTorrent and then pretending to get upset and know nothing about how it happened.
When Chris Noth exits Law & Order: Criminal Intent, it will be his second L&O series that he's walked away from. Beginning in 1990 and for 111 episodes, Noth fought crime as Det. Mike Logan before taking off in 1995. A film career, perhaps, he was after, but instead he landed a regular gig opposite Sarah Jessica Parker on HBO's Sex and the City. When that wrapped, it was back to L&O, though his 2005 return was to spin-off show Criminal Intent, where he remains. Until he doesn't. Because he's leaving, to be replaced by Jeff Goldblum. In between filming the show, he shot the Sex movie, and it appears he's once again angling for something new. It doesn't hurt his decision to lave that NBC won't pony up a higher salary for the guy; show creator Dick Wolf explains it, "It's just part of his persona. … A lot of actors get frustrated." So how will Noth go out? Nothing too dramatic, like his murder. That's because there might come a time when Noth wants to return to L&O. Which very may well happen, once that umpteenth go at a film career stalls.
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