Noo! Fox Dumps Arrested Development
My favorite show just got canned. Man, most of my favorite shows don't last to five seasons these days. Or they do and start sucking about then.
But the good news is David Cross (Tobias) is performing at the Largo near me.
Oh! I went to a taping of a Seth Green pilot called Four Kings, created by the guys who made Will & Grace. Once past the security guards and PA's, you're greeted by an easily amused host with a microphone, who's job it is to both keep us awake with candy during the down-time, and also to nag us about laughing louder ("Giving the love"). You see the show playing on TV monitors above you, pretty much as the way you would at home -- except that the laughter is your own! Then you look down and watch a crowded play going on, only it's way over-lit, and they keep stopping and starting. Two mike booms stalk whomever's speaking. There's a quartet of cameras that look more like robots with people mounted atop them, an army of prop folks, and a throng of men in suits who aren't accountants or lawyers -- they're the writers and script coordinators, ready with back-up funny lines in case we don't laugh hard enough.
But the good news is David Cross (Tobias) is performing at the Largo near me.
Oh! I went to a taping of a Seth Green pilot called Four Kings, created by the guys who made Will & Grace. Once past the security guards and PA's, you're greeted by an easily amused host with a microphone, who's job it is to both keep us awake with candy during the down-time, and also to nag us about laughing louder ("Giving the love"). You see the show playing on TV monitors above you, pretty much as the way you would at home -- except that the laughter is your own! Then you look down and watch a crowded play going on, only it's way over-lit, and they keep stopping and starting. Two mike booms stalk whomever's speaking. There's a quartet of cameras that look more like robots with people mounted atop them, an army of prop folks, and a throng of men in suits who aren't accountants or lawyers -- they're the writers and script coordinators, ready with back-up funny lines in case we don't laugh hard enough.
Labels: humor
2 Comments:
That all sounds complicated. Why would the writers and script coordinators wear suits? I understand the lights from stage stuff like that are hot. I guess they just want to maintain a professional appearance.
Five years is a pretty good quality track record for television. Even if a show has a large ensemble cast, chances are after about five seasons (and 13-24 show per season - the older shows had even more), that it'll risk repeating itself, or try to find a new direction. I think that's partially why "The Simpsons" transformed from a character show into a gag show. At least they had good characters to screw around with - the animated "Dilbert" tried to be a gag show right away, but it hadn't built the characters to a point where they could mess around like that. I'm not sure how "Family Guy" got away with it so quickly. I guess, if you look at it from the point of view that it got cancelled and revived, maybe (in a way) it didn't.
Post a Comment
<< Home