BC Crawler

Friday: Chaos at CES, WGA Discontent, and more...
January 11, 2008

By Alex Weprin

[CES 2008: The Absolute Chaos] Gadget blog Gizmodo did something evil at this year’s CES. They took a remote that shuts down nearly any television you can point it at, and used it on shiny new TV screens throughout the show, sometimes interrupting presentations. Oh yeah, they recorded it. You simply MUST watch the video here, and judge for yourself. It came off as juvenile to me, and it will probably result in them not getting invited back next year. Of course that post also has more than a quarter million page views, so Nick Denton can’t be that mad. Most people like pranks, and while this was kind of funny in a gonzo sort of way, it was probably better left undone.

[The Winter of our Discontent] Some members of the WGA have been less than pleased with the guilds negotiating strategy, which they see as too hard line. Some of those guiuld members have gone financial core, allowing them to return to work withour official repercussion from the guild. However, going fi-core could result in the members being ostracized later on in their careers. Having the WGA get into a fight with proud member Jay Leno over his monologue and the attempt to get reality and cartoon writers brought into the guild have not helped soothe the pain some of the members are feeling.

[Don’t Mess With the Chin] Even without his writers, and facing direct competition from a fully loaded (and now beardless) Letterman, Jay Leno’s Tonight Show was still tops in the ratings its first week back. Not clear however is whether the viewers tuned in to watch a car crash, or to watch Jay do his usual schtick. If the strike doesn’t end soon, viewers could find themselves flocking to Dave right quick.

[New: The Perfect Way to Trick People Into Watching] The broadcast networks want you to know that they have new programming. Watching some of their interstitials I have to wonder what was said in the pitch meetings.

 Executive 1: “OMG, we totes need to make sure people know we have new stuff, like, American Gladiators, and Terminator and junk.” Executive 2: “Hmm, I know! Lets use the words ‘all new’ like 80 times, that way people won’t notice the inferior shows! Network FTW!”

The networks have been promoting their all new programming to try and soften the blow that writers strike has taken on scripted programming. By promoting some of the scripted shows they have in the bank, as well as the reality shows, they are hoping they can keep viewers around at least a little longer.

[Online Content FTW!] As the writers strike drags on, more and more American viewers are watching stuff online. As I wrote yesterday, online content has a ways to go before it can directly compete with TV, but it is growing and changing every day. As broadband gets faster, keep your eyes out for more hi-definition content, something that will seriously put a dent in TV views. Now if we can only watch the new hi-def stuff on a shiny new OLED TV…

[Web Find: Life Imitating The Simpsons] Everyone knows that The Simpsons is an excellent source for social commentary. But sometimes, something happens on the show that then affects the world around us. Neatorama found a few good examples. My favorite: a classic episode featuring the local baseball team, The Springfield Isotopes, threatening to move to Albuquerque New Mexico. Well, years after it aired, Albuquerque got a minor league baseball team and held a contest to name them. The winning name? The Albuquerque Isotopes, an homage to The Simpsons. Another episode features Marge wanting to censor violent cartoons, but draws the line at Michelangelo’s David, saying that went too far. Well, a town in Florida had a huge controversy… over a storeowner putting a replica of David in front of her store, angering parents who thought it was lewd.

Posted by BC Crawler on January 11, 2008 | Comments (0)