New Red Dwarf Series Threatened By the Twitter Era 228
An anonymous reader writes "The announcement that the new series of Red Dwarf is likely to be shot in front of a studio audience, which hasn't happened for the show since 1998, has made one of the show's actors wary of the practicality of it. Commenting on his blog, Robert Llewellyn, who plays servile robot Kryten in the hit British SF comedy show notes: 'The fear among the producers now is that it's impossible to imagine an audience of around 400 people at the recording of a TV show like Red Dwarf, where nobody does a bit of a hint on Twitter, or sneaks a picture on Facebook or posts a bit of badly shot video on YouTube.'"
duh (Score:1, Insightful)
Oh no free advertising! (Score:5, Insightful)
All Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube posts will do is generate extra hype for the show at no extra cost to the producers. No one is going to watch a shitty YouTube cell phone capture instead of the actual show. Free advertising is always good and word of mouth is extremely valuable. If someone sees a commercial for a TV show they just file that away with all the other advertising they ignore. If they get the pitch from someone they know or better someone with similar interests they're way more likely to pay attention. If I was making a TV show I'd beg my audience to talk about it on every channel they had available.
Good (Score:4, Insightful)
Red Dwarf is a classic Sci Fi series and something I grew up on and still enjoy today, but it is clearly a series that doesn't work any more. They tried to revive it before when they did a mini series and it was by far the worst episode(s) of the entire thing.
People always cry for remakes and updated versions of older TV series, but some things just don't work in the current climate. Doctor Who is a prime example of a TV series that doesn't work in the modern climate, so when it was brought back it was massively retoned to suit modern TV. But Red Dwarf can't be retoned, when they tried it, it just didn't work. Some times you just need a budget of £10 an episode and a dude wearing a spandex suit rather than massive CGI scenes and unlimited funds.
Red Dwarf is an all time classic and something I hope anything I spawn will get to watch and enjoy as I did, but it feels like the actors have no careers any more (especially Craig Charles, who is now badly dubbing Japanese game shows for cable channels) and just want to milk sucess 30 years ago.
So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
The WWF (now WWE) has had to deal with this for ages, as their shows are often broadcast days after they're actually performed.
Their solution? Do jack shit.
The fans who don't want to be spoiled, don't look up the spoilers.
The fans who do, do.
Nobody really loses out unless someone on the cast has an unexplained need for secrecy. This isn't Survivor.
Re:duh (Score:2, Insightful)
Pretty sure they're more worried about spoilers.
Re:In other news... (Score:3, Insightful)
Except that the perceived downfall of Red Dwarf ties in with the omission of the studio audience.
It has long been touted by comedy writers such as Richard Curtis (Blackadder) that a studio audience gives them a very solid gauge of what is working and gives them feedback on how things could be done better.
Plus, news that "there will be a new series of Red Dwarf" is one for the TV websites. A story on a technology site about concerns about social media accessibility and it's effect on TV series production is totally appropriate in my view.
Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)
It has nothing to do with respect and everything to do with ratings. Welcome to TVland.
Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)
Probably because the last time they touched it since the end of series 6, they messed it up horrifically.
Series 1 was not fantastic, but then both the writers and the actors were still finding their feet. Series 2 was OK, but it definitely needed the refreshment that took place at the beginning of series 3.
4 and 5 were also great series. By series 6, however, it was pretty obvious they were running out of gags. 7 and 8... ugh.
Then they remastered series 1 and 2. The net result was:
Scene 1 - characters sat around wearing grey boiler suits on a grey set which was obviously cobbled together some time in the 1980's from a bit of scrap wood and a special deal on grey paint.
Scene 2 - characters wandering around a fantastically cheap grey set.
Cut to swishy modern CGI spaceship animation with lots of colour and pretty FX. Maybe a starfield in the background and a few bright colourful planets.
Scene 3 - character walks in on a cheap & nasty grey set.
The mental jarring was painful.
Then they did "Back to Earth". I couldn't watch that through, it was so bad, and I don't think I'm alone.
Has anybody told Graham Linehan? (Score:3, Insightful)
wont matter (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is why (Score:4, Insightful)
I always thought viral marketing was a good thing?
Paranoid anyone? (Score:4, Insightful)
The people watching are fans the people seeking out the sneak peeks, virals, bloopers, etc are also fans. Its not like they are going to loose anything by letting this stuff get out. Most fan sites are good about hiding "spoilers" for those that don't want to know..and for those that do all it does is generate hype and buzz...which usually is something niche programming clamors for.