Chatterbox - Live-Action TV

Because I totally thought we had one already, but for some inexplicable reason, we don't. Time will tell whether enough people give a crap for this thread to last.

I decided that being a Troper, I ought to give Buffy The Vampire Slayer a try, since after all it's the reason that TV Tropes exists. Gonna be watching the first episode with Buttercup tonight. I have a few things spoiled, sadly, but whatever. There's seven seasons of material to cover, so I'm sure there's lots of stuff I'm going to be totally unprepared for. Fun times!

I still believe the series should have been a comedy. The concept to me is too ridiculous to take seriously (and Whedon simply isn't a very good writer).

I just watched the first three episodes. He seems like a pretty good writer to me. Besides, comedy requires better writing than drama, not the other way around.

edited 1st Dec '11 10:35:38 PM by Sporkaganza

But just read the premise: a teenage vampire slayer. This is clearly the concept for a comedy.

As for Whedon, he was just doing the same thing that every other horror writer was doing in the late 1990's: be incredibly hip, inject some meta concepts and look pretty for the camera. Can you find any differences between say, this and Kevin Williamson's Scream?

Never saw Scream.

Also, why is an unusual premise instantly comedy? I think you need to reconsider your criteria for what you wtch.

Suspension of disbelief is hard for some. The Night Stalker (basically Buffy, but in the 1970's and with a news reporter instead of a high school student) managed to pull it off by combining elements of horror, detective story and the buddy comedy. But a show like this one is taken deadly serious. It's a teen show with a B-movie premise, you need to play up the camp.

I don't agree that camp is necessary. I think self-awareness serves the same purpose perfectly well, and so far it certainly seems to excel in that. I don't understand why you dislike Whedon so much. I think his talent as a writer is often overstated, but I hardly think he doesn't have any.

edited 1st Dec '11 11:41:46 PM by Sporkaganza

I don't like Whedon because of the extreme praise he gets for mediocre material. He's simply not very good.

To me, he's the Tim Tebow of genre work.

edited 1st Dec '11 11:54:21 PM by Buscemi

Don't know who Tim Tebow is either, but I'd hardly call Joss Whedon mediocre. I'd say he's pretty good. I'm beginning to suspect you just enjoy finding things mediocre or bad that other people love.

The thing about Buffy is that it actually is a comedy some times. It's just also sometimes dramatic. It spends a lot of time being pretty tongue in cheek, and some of the best episodes are the comedy ones.

Say, are the transformations of Knight Rider 2008's KITT fully functional — as in, the van mode comes with extra seats?

PS: How come Characters.Knight Rider does not have entries for the 2008 series' characters?

edited 20th Sep '12 7:06:59 AM by MarqFJA

As usual the Emmys were 99% pure concentrated bullshit.

99%? Really? I mean, yeah, comedy is still mostly ruled by Modern Family (and Jon Cryer, for some reason), but the drama side of things was pretty good. And Louis C.K. snatched two more Emmys. Could have been much worse.

Also, I'm all in favor of Amy Poehler continuing to make fun of the fact that she hasn't won an Emmy until she finally does.

Bah! The only one I agreed with was Jessica Lange winning. The rest of them can go rot, especially Homeland and the entire comedy section.

Though I suppose Louie winning a couple probably made my friend happy.

I thought it was unusual that this sub-forum didn't have its own version of a Chatterbox, but a lucky off-site Google search proved otherwise.

Much like its other counterparts, I generally believe that a general thread on the overall state of the linear television (and the rising streaming) industry is needed when a single topic thread isn't sufficient enough to hold its own. Stuff like television viewership ratings, writers' strikes, relatively small cable channels, antenna TV talk, cord-cutting, etc. Hence why I want to revive this thread for new use.

international rollout

Wendover Productions recently covered the production pipeline of live TV worldwide (for news and sporting events). They primarily using Formula One racing's adaptability during COVID-19 as a major example.

The upcoming cheaper, ad-supported tier for HBO Max, coming out in June, will cost $9.99 per month (regular: $14.99 per month).

Edited by XMenMutant22 on Apr 28th 2021 at 5:42:45 AM

The teaser for Netflix's Sweet Tooth series (based on the DC/Vertigo comic of the same name) dropped online.

The creators of Dark have unveiled their latest endeavor - 1899:

For their new show, Friese and Odar have gone back to the turn of the 20th century for a story set among European immigrants struggling to reach the "new world."

The eight-episode series follows the mysterious circumstances around the voyage of an immigrant ship from Europe to New York. The passengers, all of different backgrounds and nationalities, are united in their hopes and dreams for a new century and for a new future abroad. But when they discover a second ship adrift on the open sea that had gone missing for months, their journey takes an unexpected turn and their voyage to the promised land becomes a journey into a nightmare.

The Roku Channel, the free streaming service, is ready to roll out its rebranded Quibi content (now known as Roku Originals) on May 20. So far, it's a total of 30 shows:

• Reno 911!
• Punk'd
• Chrissy’s Court
• Die Hart
• #FreeRayshawn
• Most Dangerous Game (The Chris Hemsworth-led reimagining)
• The Fugitive (2020)
• Murder House Flip
• Bad Ideas with Adam Devine
• Barkitechture
• Big Rad Wolf
• Blackballed
• Centerpiece
• Cup of Joe
• About Face
• Dishmantled
• Dummy
• Fight Like a Girl
• Flipped
• Gayme Show
• Iron Sharpens Iron
• Last Looks
• Let’s Roll with Tony Greenhand
• Murder Unboxed
• Nightgowns
• Royalties
• Prodigy
• Shape of Pasta
• Thanks a Million
• You Ain’t Got These

The CW is taking over the Saturday prime time slot, giving the network a full week slate for the first time ever.

As part of the arrangement, the weekday afternoon block has been canceled and the time is going back to affiliates.

That's an interesting development for the CW. I wonder if they'll risk airing original scripted shows on Saturdays? That seems to be paying off with their Sunday programming. Alternatively, their unscripted content like the upcoming Hidden Temple reboot might work.

Unscripted content makes more sense. Sports are usually the only events people bother watching (assuming they're not out anywhere) on Saturday nights. Whenever scripted programming is on Saturday nights is usually to burn out episodes of shows that were canceled, or it's a theatrical movie of some sort (ABC likes to do this from time to time, usually during the summer; being owned by Disney helps).

Meanwhile, on the cancellation front, ABC has axed American Housewife, mixed•ish, Rebel and For Life.

No real surprises there. None of those shows were doing well (for the record, I watched the pilot episode for Rebel solely for Katey Sagal, and....lost interest in it pretty quickly). American Housewife was a bit unexpected, though.

Edited by Mario1995 on May 14th 2021 at 6:14:03 AM

That's a real shame for Mixed•ish, paired with the news that Blackish is going into Season 8 as its final one. I think the franchise is still going with the likes of Grownish, which is premiering its Season 4 in July, and the upcoming Old•ish though.

While I didn't catch an episode of Rebel (oops), I'm aware that ABC was really trying pretty hard with the show's marketing campaign.

On the renewals:

• A Million Little Things
• The Rookie
• The Goldbergs
• The Conners
• Home Economics

Home Economics and Big Sky are the only freshmen series to received that honor this season.

there's a catch

As the Deadline article points out, it seems some networks are starting to feel more comfortable sending some network series to streaming to be rebranded as platform exclusives.

Looks like ViacomCBS and Discovery Networks could end up with lighter ad inventory next season, as advertisers are resisting their demands for higher rates after their upfronts a couple weeks ago.

You know your upfronts flopped if you're not filling those slots fast enough.

Edited by Mario1995 on Jun 10th 2021 at 6:50:20 AM