Lone Gunmen Get the Axe From Fox 323
squee23 noted that Fox is axing the lone gunman. Almost everyone I know watched the seriers premiere and bolted, which was unfortunate: the premiere sucked but almost every episode there after was pretty damn good: the first episode simply wasn't funny, and airing it was suicide. The X-Files is returning, sans Mulder. Fortunately, The Family Guy will come back, as well as the premiere of the live action version of The Tick.
Re:I really like TLG (Score:2)
It was a decent enough show to come home to on a friday night anyway. Now what is there? Will I have to go out and discover a "real life" or something?
Re:Yeah, The Tick! (Score:2)
Nobody is prepared for the return of the Ottoman Empire!
Down that path lies madness. On the other hand, the road to hell is paved with melting snowballs.
Re:It's all about the Family Guy (Score:2)
Agreed. Even though I can't stand Family Guy, it's still better than the 76th rerun of Police Videos Episode 41. But neither of them holds a candle to Lone Gunmen. There are only three things I even watch on Fox any more: Futurama, Lone Gunmen, and Malcolm. Nothing else looks even vaguely worthwhile. I'll miss Lone Gunmen; Friday night between Police Videos and the news is about the worst slot I can imagine, so it sounds like they never really gave it a chance. Now the question is what to do during the hour after Futurama and before Malcolm. The Simpsons has decayed badly, and there's no way Family Guy will keep me watching...
Re:who watches TV anymore? (Score:2)
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:2)
Re:The Tick? (Score:2)
Re:Live action Tick? (Score:2)
Re:Why would anyone like X-Files? (Score:2)
Re:Geek TV (Score:3)
To say NOTHING of how they abound on Slashdot:
Stereotypes of what Geeks are like (not good writers), and what they like (boring details about the evolution of life on planets 1.4 times the gravity of Earth with a Methane atmosphere).
Sterotypes of what Hollywood Screenwriters are like (cocaine-snorting yes-men cranking out mindless drivel).
I know we have to explain these phenomena as best we can, but let's avoid calling Mr. Kettle black now, shall we?
Re:Mindless Ramblings (Score:3)
I agree about doing XFiles without Duchovny.
It also won't be the same with Scully tied down with a screaming brat - unless "they" kidnap the brat too (we'll see Sunday night).
The Satan Worshipper specialist partner could work out, especially since there was past involvement. That implies more soap opera side plots (which wasn't at all a bad thing about the original xfiles, you knew Mulder was a perv, and you knew Scully wanted him, and you knew they would eventually do it. - that was fun to watch - until it became tiresome after 5 years).
They really *could* pull off a decent transition of the XFiles, but I doubt they are capable. Someone else made the conclusion that the XFiles has been about formula, and rehashed to death plotlines, and a big soap opera for the past two years.
I think that the story line IS salvagable with the T1000 guy (I just can't call him anything else!) - but the writers are going to have to work damn hard, and churn out some damn good stuff, and CONNECT with the old material, without recycling it.
A lot of the fun of the old XFiles was the portrayal of little-known urban myths, (chubacabra, etc), monster-of-the-week, and frankly, they've run through them all. That angle is getting pretty weak - the only thing they have left is covering the fallout from past things (like the shape-changer guy whose in prison,etc). Then the Government conspiracy arc thing was great, but you can only drag that out so far, the bad guys need to get their comeuppance in the end, with drama, so once you destroy a 50 year old conspiracy, where do you go from there? You can't create a new one out of thin air. There's only one Government. Once cancer man was gone, that was it.
They've got some heavy challenges ahead. I think that the challenges are not insurmountable, but I also do not believe (based on past performance) that they will rise to the occasion. Sadly.
Re:Fox has exactly two good shows: (Score:5)
What do The Simpsons have this season? I lot of completely inane, very loosely organized episodes without any constant thread that made the earlier episodes such a joy to watch. Now, it's like watch 4 five-minute skits. I'm glad the writers are living on in Futurama with fresh faces and fresh adventures (that's much easier to do in a completely fresh setting, of course), but it kind of hurts to see The Simpsons sort of degrade like an old NFL pro who won't retire.
Bite My Shiny Metal
Re:Yeah, The Tick! (Score:3)
Actually, if you'd read the article, you would have seen that The Tick will be on on Thursday following The Family Guy. It isn't a fan-boy article, it's from a Fox press release. The reason it was bumped to next Fall instead of already being on is due to the writers and actors strike. They didn't want to show what they had and then be unable to produce for for an indefinite amount of time.
I actually saw the entire pilot in an early form late last year. It was missing most sound effects, no music, a few other rough edges, but it was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I am really looking forward to that show. The version I saw had no laugh track - I am really hoping it's going to stay that way, adding stupid canned laughter would just kill it. Luckily I think Fox actually understands that some of the time (Simpsons, Malcom in the Middle, all their other animated shows - none of them have laugh tracks).
Re:Geek TV (Score:3)
So basically you're saying that the inclusion of any female in any action show is sensationalist and that all female action stars are there merely as sex objects?
What a load of chauvanist bollocks!
Breasts do jiggle, even small ones. Get over it. Having breasts doesn't make a woman a bimbo, it makes her a woman.
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Re:INCITEFUL IS NOT A WORD, DUMBASS (Score:2)
Re:MAXIMUM BOB (Score:2)
Another instance of leave it on the air just long enough to get you interested in it and then, abracadabra, it disappears without a trace.
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:2)
I was working in radio broadcasting when WKRP came out and it was the hilarious exception to that rule. Both I and a lot of other announcers I've talked to over the years were sure that the writers and producers must have worked at some of the same stations that we had. The only thing they missed was a dramatization of a "dead air" dream.
Okay, nothing like the Thanksgiving promotion episode ever really happened, but it could have.
Re:I really like TLG (Score:2)
After the way CBS jerked us around with Big Apple, feel free to kill CSI (which the eyeball network seems to want to keep).
You and the missus aren't by any means the only ones to suffer from "*don't* ignore it and it'll go away" syndrome. I'm surprised that one of the networks hasn't hired me to sabatoge their competition by watching it.
Re:Lone Gunmen is Fantastic! (Score:2)
Re:The sleeping months (Score:2)
Unless they have him take several naps/meditation sessions where he battles the bad guys in some psychic realm or something. That could be be really wretched TV.
Re:Oh Gawd no! (Score:3)
Lone Gunmen Rocks!!! (Score:2)
The Lone Gunmen were all that gave X-Files levity in an otherwise lockjawed-acting-style show.
Some other network HAS to pick up this show, it's so funny to watch them bungle something so badly, then see them turn it around for the good in the end. It's only getting better!
I have nearly every ep on my replay, it's the only show I watch on Fridays, it's gotta go somewhere!
Re:Picking apart "Lone Gunmen" (Score:2)
However, none of them had characters that were well-thought out or more than one-dimensional. (What was the real difference between Frohickey & Langley -- besides the fact one was older than the other? And we saw little of Byer's geek quotent in the series -- he was just the guy who wore a suit & stood around.)
Oh well, another source for geek trivia, & we know some script kiddies will be mining the show for K-rad k3wl handles.
Geoff
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:2)
My biggest gripe is that there was nothing supernatural, spooky, or government-conspiratorial about the new series. For inhabiting the same world as Mulder & Scully, the Gunmen spend an awful lot of time chasing the world's lamest criminals. Jimmy Bond is just annoying and stupid, but at least Yves is hot.
The CONSTANT technical inaccuracies drove me nuts. I understand that you have to sacrifice some reality to make the plots work, but some of the errors in the show could be corrected with very little work at all.
In the pilot, they talk about the new fancy CPU having a built in modem to it that causes some security concerns. Never mind that you'd have to open up your PC and plug a cable into the CPU for this "modem" to work. All of their technology references fell short. I can forgive one or two, but after you're bombarded with 15 in a row, it just becomes apparent that the show is insulting your intelligence and attempting to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I know that a show needs a large audience to be successful, but TLG was too geeky for the non-geeks and too inaccurate for the true geeks.
Check out Freaks & Geeks on Fox Family if you want a really enjoyable show. There were only something like 18 episodes made before NBC axed it, but they're absolutely hilarious. I never saw the show when it was on NBC, but after discovering it on Fox Family, every single person I've introduced it to has loved it and watched every episode. It all plays out very true-to-life, and you can actually believe that most of these situations could or would happen to these kids...
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The Tick? (Score:2)
--Jim
Re:You need TiVo (Score:2)
That said, almost all my favorite shows have been cancelled in the last couple of years:
Total Recall 2070
La Femme Nikita
The Lone Gunman
Star Trek: Voyager
Cleopatra 2525
Stargate SG-1
Xena
As my husband says: <cue feminist rant> - most were series with strong female characters. Afaik, Cleo was the first hourly drama with a black female lead -- for example.
At least there's still Buffy, Angel and Andromeda. And Farscape.
_Deirdre
Re:The sleeping months (Score:2)
Picking apart "Lone Gunmen" (Score:5)
Eve is an all around loss. They really didn't need a guardian angel to come in and save the day every single episode. She's just too competent to believe. Plus, the woman who plays that character is a terrible actress.
All in all I think the "bit" characters dragged the show down. I think it's too bad that Chris Carter didn't feel that the Lone Gunmen could carry the show by themselves and had to come up with these two sorry anchors.
Re:Dawgone it! (Score:2)
I'd prefer reruns of `The Muppet Show'.
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Re:Dawgone it! (Score:2)
Only if they're not married or don't have kids. Our kids are normally in bed by 8:00 so TLG was nice to unwind to. BTW, glad the high end of your definition of `young' includes guys my age -- though not by much. :-)
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Dawgone it! (Score:3)
The only thing worth watching on Friday night and now it's cancelled? Looks like I'll get more reading done now so I guess there's an upside after all.
(Sorry but `The Family Guy' was/is not funny.)
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Re:Just goes to show... (Score:2)
Hack the flight control system of a commercial airliner and land it. =) Not over the phone ...
Agreed. Yet everyone seems to like the X-Files and they make the same type of drive you nuts errors.
How many times does Mulder or Scully go into a dark room/cave/alley/... alone without calling for back up? Pull out the damm cellphone and let somebody know where you're going for christsakes!
Aliens, immortals, poltergists, are all fine but it was the details that made the show unwatchable for me. Just like TLG.
Steve M
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:2)
The inside jokes (ok Yves too) were the only reasons to watch. It was a trade off between the inaccuracies and the jokes.
Did you catch that Langley was wearing a Dead Kennedys T-shirt in the finale? (I caught the Boulle reference but not the Clinton one.)
But the inaccuracies just drove me nuts.
Steve M
Oh Gawd no! (Score:2)
I used to love X files, now it's just some stupid soap.
It's not the network's decision! (Score:2)
And it'll all lead to a race of oil-slick aliens that can only be killed with a needle in the back of the neck before they seal their eyes and mouths with skin and...
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Oh dear (Score:2)
It looked like that was going to change toward the end. Maybe it'd have got better.
The thing that really bothers me is it ended with a cliffhanger. I hate not knowing what happened next!
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Lone Gunmen isn't X-Files (Score:2)
In the X Files, the Lone Gunmen were cool geeks. Sure, they were exaggerated, but if you can believe the government/alien conspiracies, you can easily accept that.
I the Lone Gunmen show, the Lone Gunment were a geeky three stooges. Instead of being serious characters, they became funny. Humor is fine, but they went for forced sitcom humor. I don't want to watch a geek sitcom.
Re:Neil Stephenson (Score:2)
1) All == All
2) the poster said all geeks who can write are boring. (He/she said most geeks can't write)
3) Are you sure Stephenson doesn't translate? I reread Snow Crash recently, and it seemed very visual to me. (Not surprising, since it started as a graphic novel.)
Neil Stephenson (Score:3)
Re:I really like TLG (Score:2)
Sure, there was technical nonsense, but I have this sneaking suspicion that this was on purpose. With all the humour on the show -- others have posted about William Jefferson and TPOT Apes -- it's certainly plausible that a fun-poking target includes geekdom and its sometimes all-too-self-important inhabitants. I mean, seriously, is it even possible to have heard about Linux and *not* know that it's an operating system?
Moreover, it seemed to me that the characters have been filling out in very interesting and amusing ways. (Who'd have guessed that the old guy was a champion Flamenco dancer, or that the blond guy has more than two brain cells?)
It seems to be a phenomenon with my wife and me: the more we both enjoy a show, the more likely it is to get cancelled. (Fair Warning: CSI is looking interesting.)
Re:It's all about the Family Guy (Score:2)
here's one of them. And I know at least a few others use Bearshare, if you know what I mean. Don't let stupid network execs keep you from watching raunchy comedy. I hope they decide to order some more episodes, it was good stuff.
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Re:It's all about the Family Guy (Score:2)
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Re:Live action Tick? (Score:2)
Re:Why Lone Gunman Failed (Score:2)
Counter-Strike, compile kernel, router down, All Your Base
Action, suspense, drama, comedy
Re:Live action Tick? (Score:3)
Because of some licensing issues, characters created for the cartoon series (American Maid, Die Fleidermaus, Sewer Urchin) will NOT be in the live action Tick. However, characters from the comic books can appear (even if they appeared in the cartoons also). And the pilot episode has the replacement characters, Lady Liberty and BatManuel
I haven't seen the pilot, only the brief previews and pictures. I think this show will be awesome. It looks like we'll finally see a great comic to live action show. At least, until Spiderman comes out.
All I want is a live action Chairface Chippendale! And Paul the Samurai! And Man Eating Cow! And The Chainsaw Vigilante! And Clark Oppenheimer!
Fuck!!! Argh! (Score:2)
Five weeks (and episodes) later, my SO brought home a tape she borrowed from a coworker - it had those five episodes on it - and I decided, "well, I will take a look"...
The following week I began archiving the episodes, figuring I would dump them to MPEG at some point - and get the tape from that guy again to dump and make an mpeg of that...
I love the show! It is campy - lot's of "in" jokes (esp in the pilot episode) that ONLY geeks would get. I hated when they brought in that "dumb guy" (Steve? Jeff?), but even he has his purpose, and I am beginning to see it. One of the recent episodes showed that their "base" of operations is a lot larger than x-files ever let on - it is warehouse size, with what seem to be apartments, or at least "sleepover" type rooms for those late nights.
Now it is all going away...figures.
Now I definitely have to get a copy of that tape, just so I can have all the episodes (I was hoping that after the season finali, provided they show it, that there was going to be re-runs, and I could catch the others that way - not a chance, now - and no chance for store tapes or anything).
Damn!
Worldcom [worldcom.com] - Generation Duh!
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:4)
SuperID
Free Database Hosting [freesql.org]
This is why Red Dwarf kicks ass. (Score:2)
I caught the premier of the Lone Gunmen, whenever that was- it was the last time I watched TV outside of a bar. I laughed my ass off. The plot was so incredibly WEAK that it made an episode of the Golden Girls look like intense, nail-biting drama. I lost count of technical inaccuracies, fallacies and blatant lack of cluefulness before the second commercial break kicked in. The characters are supposedly the creme de la creme of geeks.... do you really think you could hit that audience with gross misuse of buzzwords and terminology? No.
Star Trek loses me hear as well- the show really should be billed as a fantasy, rather than science fiction. Warp Drive may be mathematically feasable, but the fact that you couldn't follow a tech-heavy episode without a manual- and the fact that they relied on some sort of jury-rigged fix to save them half the time (which was promptly forgotten the next episode or show- why hasn't Voyager simply found one of the damned Transwarp Conduits from mid-series TNG and rocketed back home? Or asked a big one of Q?) and explained it in terms that would enrage and offend a scientist totally turned me off. Or Neelix, which is many ways worse.
This brings me to the Saviour of watchable Sci-Fi- Red Dwarf. The show gets most of its science fact correct- the ship itself is a sound concept and one could dig up details on the math behind it if they felt like it. It doesn't over-rely on tech explanations to save the day, and the characters are pretty much idiots when it comes to tech anyway... it *is* a comedy, after all... anyone who's sick of network suck and hasn't heard of Dwarf would do themselves a favor to check it out. Or Doctor Who... or the Prisoner....
Lone Gunmen is Fantastic! (Score:2)
What are all you guys complaining about? The Lone Gunmen is a great show! The characters are fantastic, breaking stereotypes and being multi dimensional as well.
It's the best TV show since Babylon 5. And the storylines are original and interesting
As for the tech not being perfect, who cares? TV isn't about tech, it's about character and story. Haven't you ever heard of artistic license?
You geeks need to get a life. Not every story has to read like a Cisco technical manual.
-Loopy
Re:/. doesn't like X-Files? (Score:2)
Do you mean over the last few months where Mulder returned? SInce Mulder won't be back next year, I think everyone is dreading the samething I am, another season along the lines of Fall '00 episodes wher we have Scully as the believer (aka Mulder standin) and T2-guy as the skeptic (aka early Scully standin), minus all the sexual tension between Scully and Mulder.
They have run through all of the major thread of the X-files (actually probably more than once at this point) which basically leaves them with the monster of the week shows, which frankly, Special Unit 2 was doing better this season since they at least have the sexual tension between the leads.
Casting (Score:3)
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton
Why Lone Gunman Failed (Score:2)
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Oblongs, Oblongs (Score:2)
Unlike The Simpsons, it was actually funny.
my two cents (Score:2)
On the X Files the guys rocked because it was something new. With their own show we expected to see something as serious as the X Files in the form of the hackers which never happened. Comedy? The show flat out sucked, and it was surprising it lasted as long. Same happened with Level 9 which aired for about 4 weeks that I know of. For those who never even heard of it, it was supposed to be I guess what people think the NSA are, a bunch of hacker crime fighters which never materialzed.
I watched that show once or twice till I heard them say "his website WHATEVERTHENAMEWAS.com is untraceable, he keeps moving IP address." or something along that line, and quickly thought "stupid ass clueless producers don't even do research."
Family Guy is funny as hell tho' Stewie just owns.
Sad to see the Lone Gunmen go, maybe Chris Carter will script them into X-Files a bit more since they do have that role under lock down. But by themselves... they're boring.
Lone Gunman [antioffline.com]
Freaks & Geeks ruled (+DVD rumor) (Score:2)
If they make DVDs available (currently rumored to be coming through A&E), I hope ThinkGeek [thinkgeek.com] would step up and add them to a DVD section on their site. It seems like such a perfect fit. (I was glad to see a lament of the series cancellation in the Demotivators 2001 calendar Thinkgeek is selling...)
"Freaks and Geeks" [freaksandgeeks.com] should be mandatory viewing for slashdot folk, since it was so bloody dead-on about the formulative years of geekdom...
D&D episodes... Atari episodes... Model rocketry episodes... And the band STYX in constant rotation! My life flashed before my eyes, and then got cancelled by some bonehead and replaced with a who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire-knockoff...
(sigh)
Re:who watches TV anymore? (Score:2)
Unfortunately they must only train their de-installers up to OSI layer 1... snip! Internet and phone gone too.
Maybe they thought those were channels?
*sigh*
Scoove
Re:who watches TV anymore? (Score:2)
I asked him why they called it that - his response was (verbatim - how could you forget this?):
"We call it magic line cause when you put a dial tone tester on it, you hear nothing! But somehow, the sucker works anyways!"
Totally priceless Bell behavior!!!
*scoove*
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:3)
Take any show with someone playing an instrument, or god forbid, conducting an orchestra/band. I can just hear the director instructing the actor:
"OK. Now you're going to conduct the band. Just get up there and flop your arms about madly for awhile. Isn't that what they do anyways?"
Makes me want to direct movies. "OK. Get up there and act real serious now. Camera guy, make sure you turn the camera on and shoot while this happens. Just make sure they're good pictures"
Don't even get me started on journalists... I've yet to have a quote read as it was actually spoken... (advice: record your interview - it might just save your butt someday)
*scoove*
Re:Great TV returns! (Score:2)
Just goes to show... (Score:4)
Ah well... anyone else curious about the new Tick show?
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Re:How can it be plural? (Score:2)
Gunmen (plural), not Gunman! (Score:5)
Don't believe me? Try visiting the official Web site [thelonegunmen.com].
Other TV shows list... [OT] (Score:5)
Here is a list of all the TV shows that will be cancelled or ending (i.e. The Lone Gunmen is included).
HOME MOVIES (Score:2)
The Tick (Score:2)
Enjoy!
Re:It's all about the Family Guy (Score:2)
I loved the 5 minute rant on Canada at the end of one of the episodes, freakin' hillarious.
I really like TLG (Score:2)
For me, the X-Files is the only show on Fox worth watching. I hate TV shows about "dumb, average people", so I can't stand Simpsons, Family Guy, etc.
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Lord Nimon
Great TV returns! (Score:2)
The humor is a little divergent from "The Simpsons" and "Futurama," though. The Simpsons tends to be more satirical (or used to), while Futurama is a little more sight gag/pun oriented.
Family Guy's approach is different. It just throws crude and offensive material at you until you can't help laughing.
If Fox dumped "King of the Hill" (funny, but not side-splittingly so) and replaced it with Family Guy, my ass would be glued to the couch from 7 to 10 pm every Sunday. (Fox lineup until 9, then the Sopranos on HBO)
Re:Why would anyone like X-Files? (Score:2)
ÕÕ
Re:Oh Gawd no! (Score:2)
Re:Sad, But Maybe for the Best (Score:2)
Re:And you Americans still complain (Score:2)
Any show that has a rabid fan base will have somebody who puts the time and effort into capturing the episodes, encoding them, and finding sites to host the files.
Or wait a few years and buy the episodes on DVD, such as the X-files sets just now coming out.
It's all about the Family Guy (Score:3)
]$`};L(;/proc);[I(;];<C{;};1S[;`\/while=1E1L[`\p roc{>=
The Lone Gunmen were cool when they were lone (Score:2)
Re:who watches TV anymore? (Score:2)
By the way, BBC news IS hilarious!
Re:This prolly means... (Score:2)
blessings,
Fox missing X-files precident, and other errors (Score:2)
This is reminiscent of Fox's pulling of "Get A Life", which was by far and away the most creative sitcom of its time, and just replacing it with crap emulating things that were on TV elsewhere. Get A Life episodes are now out on DVD, for people to see what television can be before Fox pulls the plug on innovation.
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"And the beast shall be made legion. Its numbers shall be increased a thousand thousand fold."
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:2)
Hack the flight control system of a commercial airliner and land it. =) Not over the phone...
WELL.. (Score:2)
________
Re:You need TiVo (Score:2)
I wish they'd pull the plug on Dark Angel. I can watch nearly any sci-fi schlock but that show bites.
Lone Gunmen, I'm sorry to see you go...
Re:Picking apart "Lone Gunmen" (Score:2)
Yves was awful. I could see her as an occasional opponent or ally, but a regular? Blech.
I was really dreading Jimmy Bond's role at first, but I immediately grew to like him. I thought that he made the perfect foil for the trio.
Anyway, I hope the Lone Gunmen made enough to retire on from their short stint in the spotlight. (It was sad to see the actor who played Frohicke at GenCon a few years ago. It's a rare actor who's career can get BETTER after a game industry convention appearance...)
Re:You need TiVo (Score:2)
OK, even *I* won't stoop that low.
Re:Twenty Four???? (Score:2)
It's not really about our short-attention spans, it's about telling a complete story. Few would say that books appeal to a limited attention span, but the authors do not try to write infinitely long running stories.
Drama is more powerful when people know the end, know that they have all the information and they recieve a revelation about someone's past next season which belies all they have seen so far.
I watched some new pilots... (Score:2)
Of course, my opinion mattered little, because the new dramas coming out this fall are just copies of popular dramas on TV. And they will be replacing the copies/spinoffs of popular shows that just got cancelled (the tick may be a good exception, though).
That's what sucks about publishers for media. They want copies of what sells. That is why the video game shelves are full of FPS that are the same-old. No one is willing to take a chance on something new, unless you are proven in the field (i.e.: Warren Spector aka God).
Re:Yeah, The Tick! (Score:4)
For those wondering about the new series, here is the skinny....
The pilot was made, clips of it have been leaked, and it is damned funny.
Yes, it stars the guy who was Puddy on Seinfeld.
No, it does not star anybody else you have heard of.
Yes, the show is written by Ben Elton, creator of the original comic book as well as the animated series.
Characters from the original comic book (Arthur, Chairface, etc.) can show up in the new series, but characters developped for the Fox cartoon (American Maid, El Seed, etc.) can not, because this is a Sony production and Fox holds the rights to those characters. Therefore, if you were a fan of the cartoon, several of your favorite supporting characters will either be absent or re-named.
The show was slated to be a mid-season replacement, but was then bumped to next fall. There is still no assurance from Fox that it will be in the Fall line-up, either... so you might not actually get to see it until January of next year.
Details are scattered all over drooling-fanboy sites like Ain't It Cool, so you can read more there.
Oh, FWIW. The Lone Gunmen did not get more funny as it went on. I had a friend who talked me into watching a couple more episodes, and if anything it got worse. So don't feel bad if you tuned out after seeing the pilot suck so badly. You have missed nothing. (Yea, yea "IMNSHO", "YMMV"... whatever. It sucked.)
Re:Geek TV (Score:5)
Have you ever considered the possibility that you're just using the wrong IDE?
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the real reason Family Guy is back... (Score:2)
and they did... Do people outside of New England "get" the rhode island/NE centric humor BTW?
Maybe Peter is just like the northern version of a "redneck"... *shrug*
E.
Given no chance, unlike ST:TNG (Score:2)
While watching the last episode (the one with Mitch Pileggi guest starring as Skinner), I was thinking that The Lone Gunmen was finally finding its legs. Just like how ST:TNG found its legs in the second season, and finally became thoroughly enjoyable in the third.
It's really too bad Fox isn't going to give TLG the chance that the monster franchise name of "Star Trek" gave to TNG. My feeling is that those two words were the only reason TNG lasted longer than a year.
P.S. Was anyone else rolling on the floor at Pileggi's rendition of Jimmy Bond? That man is a much better actor than I ever gave him credit for.
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Re:More stereotypes (Score:2)
I think you're making a mistake by trying to compare sitcoms to real life. (Quick show of hands: How many of you out there have a wacky neighbor who shows up once every day or so to utter a wise-crack or two and then be on his way?) In a sitcom, sex generally is relevant. We're watching every bit of these peoples' lives. Anything that's funny is more or less fair game, and there are certainly lots of potentially funny things that take place when you throw dating, sex, and relationships into the mix.
Besides, in virtually all forms of story telling (television, books, movies, etc.), you're generally expected to identify and understand the characters to one degree or another. Empathy helps draw the observer into the story and keep them hooked. While sexually orientation is (rightfully so) a relatively private part of what makes up a person, it's still an important part. Of course, I'm not saying that there's a "gay outlook on life", but rather that your sexual orientation, your race, your nationality, your religion, your upbringing, and where you went to school are all things that affect how you see the world -- knowing some or all of these factors are a key part to understanding a character.
If you _did_ actually like the show... (Score:2)
For those who did like the show, go to the "Lone Gunmen Second Season campaign". http://lonegunmen.furvect.com/lgmseas2.htm [furvect.com]
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:2)
They get FAT ratings, and they're cheap to make. Let's face it, the participants are HOPING to win $1,000,000. On some shows *cough FRIENDS cough* they expect that per actor per episode.
Re:More stereotypes (Score:2)
Consider the tightrope you walk on this one (don't count Showtime's show). Make the guy in ANY way some kind of freak (leather, whips etc) and the Falwell crowd will go more psycho than normal. They're probably writing letters just for having the nice sassy clean upper-middle class neighbour with a cat.
Make the guy evil, insulting, gross, stereotypical in a nasty way, whatever, and you get to deal with the same Politically Correct hordes that shut down Dr. Laura (rightly). And shut down they did.
This particular community LIKES being portrayed as clean-cut, affluent, upper middle class and excitingly interesting. Why not cater to em?
Re:Neil Stephenson (Score:2)
Re:Geek TV (Score:2)
"Stereotypes of what Geeks are like (not good writers),"
Hollywood wants a 90 minute script, crisis at the 45 minutes mark, boy gets girl in the end, preferably with explosions and jiggling boobs. There's actually a template they expect you to follow. Unless you're doing "art" pictures or "independant" cinema, in which case you aren't in Hollywood.
RE: and what they like (boring details about the evolution of life on planets 1.4 times the gravity of Earth with a Methane atmosphere).
Most people like sci-fi when it's cowboys and indians, but zargs vs. zoombas in fast rocket ships. That's why Star Trek (white hat Federation, black hat enemy-of-the-series, we're riding on the range, oops in the Federation space on the star cruiser, long range scanner indicates injuns whoops I mean Klingons/Borg/Ferengi/whatever, lots of lasers, cap'n we've got a problem, just "remodulate the frequency..." FIRE! BLAM take us outa here.) did well. And why Babylon 5 was inaccessible to most people.
RE: Sterotypes of what Hollywood Screenwriters are like (cocaine-snorting yes-men cranking out mindless drivel)."
Oh, I'm sorry, you're so right. They're all English majors, attempting the next version of Citizen Kane. WRONG. They're looking for proven formula of this month, and then to patch a few relatively original ideas onto it. e.g. There's Something about Mary begat Tomcats begat Freddy Got Fingered. OR Saving Private Ryan begat Pearl Harbor will beget another bunch of WWII films...
People don't want risk. They want to get paid.
Re:Geek TV (Score:3)
Consider how much time you have for a show. Not long (assume 30 minutes). Now. Remove time for credits on both sides (we're left with 25 minutes, say), and commercials. You have about 16 minutes in which to construct a story, set it up, let it roll, wrap it up, and move on.
This explains why, for example, if you need a drug dealer, you don't have a clean cut white kid, and then waste three minutes explaining how he got into selling drugs. And even then, half the audience will drool into its cheetos cause you didn't put "THIS GUY IS A DRUG DEALER" in ten inch high letters on his shirt. You're supposed to have a sleazy looking, shifty eyed hispanic guy in a hairnet with a pistol going "chu wan coke, mon?" 10 seconds guaranteed, vs three minutes, maybe. You think assembly language coders strive for efficiency in clock cycles, you ain't seen network TV.
Re:Neil Stephenson (Score:3)
2) Stephenson, Gibson, etc. write interesting stuff, but it doesn't translate well to TV.
Geek TV (Score:5)
1) It is against unwritten network rules to write something above an eight year old reading level (they figure that by doing so, you risk losing a sizable chunk of the TV viewing population who don't have a high literacy and will switch off)
2) Computer programming/hacking doesn't involve smoke, explosions, fractal 3D patterns that escape the computer monitor and chase you down corridors, and especially not jiggling bits of female anatomy.
3) RE the above: a chess match is high drama for those in the know: but to a channel surfer flipping through the channels looking for some light entertainment between "Survivor" and "WWF Raw", it's terrifically boring. Ditto software development or hacking.
4) Keeping things bleeding edge is difficult with the writing/editing/shooting cycle, so either set it so far in the future you just plug your cyberBorg headset into the computer and stare steelily into the Federation flat-panel screen, or risk people laughing their ASSES off at "yeah! This state of the art 486 is k-Rad!" (especially when the show goes into reruns).
5) Biggest hurdle: most geeks can't write. Those who do are VERY BORING WRITERS. "Hey dutch! When are you going to finish the script!" "Quiet! I'm working out the physics of the alien lifeform given a planet 1.4 x Earth's gravity with a methane atmosphere!". Most writers are cocaine snorting media whores. Write to spec as fast as possible. Open up the template, stick in some stock characters, sell the script, move on.
Hence, any "geek" oriented show will have to by definition not work. Hence the inclusion of jiggling women, dumb jokes, offensive stereotypes, and unrealistic, stupid storylines.
Re:who watches TV anymore? (Score:3)
I refuse to believe that there isn't enough legitimate news to fill the half hour from 11:00pm to 11:30pm. It's pathetic. the local NBC affiliate even has a segment where they will allow you to vote on their website for the news stry you want to see that night. What they do is give viewers the option of watching one half baked news story or one purely human interest story. I guess this is how they justify it. People are constantly voting for the human interest story, so I suppose that's what they assume peopl want more of.
It seems that nowadays people can create their own view of the world through the news sources they make use of. Thanks to int Internet, the sheer number of news sources has increased to the point where you don't have a choice between the liberal newspaper and the conservative newspaper, but now have the choice to select anything inbetween as well as numerous fringe publications.
People now can become completely disconnected from reality because there is always a 'news' publisher/broadcaster who is willing to cater to the whims ofthat customer. I guess in a sense feeding the fringe lunatic in all of us. We all percieve the world different.y, and it is important to have differing perspectives, but we the news consumers of the world, now have the choice of through what colored glasses we view the world, where previously we only had the option to choose rose colored glasses, or not.
Now the population at large has the 'opportunity' to suffer from what the Romans called the Imperial Diease, the condition of becoming acustomed to having every desire fulfilled, every whim satisfied and every gross pleasure gratified. It has the characteristic of serving to promote your own opinions and world view to a level where fact and opinion become synonymous. Emperors were surrounded with yes-men who gratified every opinion and every wish. The modern news media caters in the same way to their audiences. It's really a dangerous prescident to be setting and I'm saddened that this is what the information revolution has wrought.
--CTH
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Fox has exactly two good shows: (Score:3)
2) Futurama. Almost as good as the Simpsons, in the same style. Bender is quite possibly the funniest character on TV right now.
As long as Fox has these they're OK.
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Re:The Lone Gunmen (Score:4)
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