Seeing the Big Picture

22… 23…24

I can’t help it: I am hopelessly in love with 24. It had me from “Hello… is that a nuclear cloud over Los Angeles?"

24 has got so many things right-right-right, but especially its unapologetic approach to character development (and denouement) and the fact that it understands how its audience wants information: fast.

I heard the other day that – in the sixties – Laugh-In had to slow down its rapid-fire joke delivery… the fast pace actually made some viewers ill! By contrast, today’s viewer is “built for speed” and can’t get their info fast enough… and 24 understands that. I now find myself actually frustrated to watch slower-paced “action” shows. Are you listening, CBS?

I’m beside myself over the fact that I will be out of the country for the next three weeks and will miss the 24 season finale (which I’ll see on Tivo-delay.) But please… please… don’t tell me the ending…

(Are YOU listening, Howard...? ;-))

It's Not Sex, So It's OK

Friends of ours told us recently that they pitched a new reality-based show to a certain vulpine network.  The show was a takeoff on Cops that centered around real-life on-the-job footage of the  everyday heroics of firemen as they battle blazes and save lives.  During the pitch, our friends noted that nearly 100 firemen die each year in the line of duty.

"Wonderful!" enthused the net exec. "Will we be able to have at least one death per episode?"

Don't Ask - Don't Tell

And don't forget...

1. The Game Show Network doesn't want anyone to pitch game shows.
2. The Travel Channel doesn't want anyone to pitch travel shows.
3. PAX is still Christian, but... shhhhh ... don't tell anyone.
4. No more battered spouses for Lifetime.  And Oxygen is all about those bigger-than-life bold women (counter-programming Lifetime).
5. Discovery will only talk to you at certain times of the year and explicitly instructs not to ask what might interest them.
6. NO network will tell you what might interest them.

Wonderland?

Like Alice stepping through the looking-glass, working on the other side of the TV screen – as television producers -- is like operating in another world: a slightly-skewed reality that is simultaneously inspiring, challenging, hilarious and truly awful. We’ve met everyone from soporific Caterpillars to manic White Queens…and “taken meetings” that make the Mad Tea Party seem uncomfortably true-to-life. (“Have some wine.” “I don’t see any wine.” “There isn’t any.”)

Funny that we are working in reality television which – as everyone now knows – is about as real as cubic zirconium. But -- even like phony diamonds -- television has several facets, some of which are truly dazzling.  It's the dream of finding that real diamond that keeps us going --  day after day after day.

The purpose of this blog is allow you, dear reader, to wander through Wonderland with us.  Like us, you'll sometimes ask "Is this stuff  really happening?"  We promise you that -- whatever stories you read -- it will be 100% swear-on-our-mother's-lives true... 

God help us all.