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Television Media

Dilbert, the cartoon, UPN 7:00 Tonight 99

Posted by CmdrTaco from the dnrc-members-will-watch dept.
steven writes "The Dilbert Cartoon is starting tonight on UPN at 7:00 (in Houston). I know it is probably going to suck, but I'll be watching just in case! *smile* " I don't think I get UPN, but I'll check anyway- I have to admit I'm curious.
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Dilbert, the cartoon, UPN 7:00 Tonight More

Dilbert, the cartoon, UPN 7:00 Tonight

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  • It was actually pretty funny :-)
  • It's his life and he can be stingy if he wants to. He has no obligation to come, and you have no power to force him to come.
  • If you get a broadcast channel on there, maybe. (example: WGN from Chicago is carried on a lot of cable systems, and they're WB.. Dunno if any other large stations carry UPN, tho..)
  • UPN is technically a broadcast network, so DirecTV is forbidden by law to carry it unless you live somewhere where you cannot get broadcast TV. Even then you have to fill out a pile of paperwork and pay mucho $$$ to have the honor of getting broadcast TV over your satellite.

    Just thank your local special interest groups for that one.
  • UPN is the United Paramount Network, a United Artists/Paramount joint-attempt at a broadcast TV network. About it's only claim to fame besides "Star Trek: Voyager" is the brand-new "Love Boat: The Next Wave." *Oh-boy!* (note sarcasm) It and the WB (run by Warner Bros., of course) tend to fight for 5th & 6th place among the 4 major broadcast networks. ;) If you have either of these, they'll probably be really high on your UHF dial (assuming you don't have cable).

    That said, I don't know why everyone is expecting the show to be bad; I thought the commercials were hilarious, despite the fact UPN was advertising the show *before Christmas*.
  • Posted by Mr. Assembly:

    It was worth a couple of chuckles, which is more than you can say for most of the drivel on the tube these days. I thought the opening sequence with Dilbert "evolving" was lame though.
  • You might also notice the density of strips in the old Dilbert books and the new ones; the new ones have a lot fewer strips. And some of his management help books contained more than one copy of the same strip. Talk about padding... Hasn't the guy already earned more money than he could ever reasonably use?

    Not to mention how the strip has gone downhill recently. Too bad he (and even more so, Charles Shultz -- have you laughed at a "Peanuts" in the last ten years) couldn't take a cue from Bill Waterston, halting Calvin and Hobbes before the quality declined.
  • As a matter of fact, Scott Adams is a long-time Mac user. If I remember correctly, he has a PowerMac 8500 in his home studio.

    That and a cat.

  • I can't answer the question of whether you're going to see that kind of product, but he has brought the idea up. Did you read his book, The Dilbert Future? In the subchapter on ``Food in the Future'' (page 213 in my copy), Scott Adams . . . umm . . . predicts:

    Someday, you will be able to buy a burrito-like meal that is engineered as scientifically as a can of motor oil. This burrito-like thing will have just the right combination of food to give you 100 percent of what your body needs. It won't require much invention, just combinations of existing foods and some clever packaging.

    You thought his books were a mere vehicle for cynical workplace humour, but he does sneak some common sense and . . . umm . . . interesting ideas in. Methinks every single PHB should read the ``OA5'' chapter of The Dilbert Principle.

  • UPN = United Paramount Network, which is a US-based broadcast network. Other shows on UPN include The Sentinel and ST: Voyager.

    http://www.upn.com/ has a "find station" button with a list of US affiliates. Probably if you're outside the US, you're out of luck for now.

    In the San Francisco Bay Area, the UPN affiliate is KBHK channel 44, channel 12 on most cable systems.

    Adam
  • Blew chunks.

    At least the ads for HotBot were hilarious.
  • Yes, he's still around (as far as I know) but
    he's not doing the writing or the drawing, I
    think it's his son or a bunch of people. These people are not funny.

    In his day, Schulz was a very good at political satire in the same vein that Waterson was good with Calvin and Hobbes. I remember there used to be a Charlie Brown encyclopedia whenI was like 8 years old, the political wit was quite good (looking back, not when I was 8 years old. ;)

    Peanuts stopped being funny when he stopped writing/drawing it.

    sri
  • FYI The greatest mind of our time was in fact a gentleman name Lamop'DuPchan of the North Umberland tribe of the Maori. He understood the tax regulations and was typically able to navigate the most difficult voice mail system on the first try. Mr. Lamop, unfortunately, died last year at the age of 56 after suddenly understanding a particularly distressing actuarial table dealing with blowgun fatalities.


  • Einstein would not play dice with Hawking. -- God
  • Celebrities are people too. Just because they might not give you that extra moment of personal attention you've been craving or they might be having a bad day doesn't mean they're evil.

    I met Douglas Adams (for the second time) at this month's Macworld Expo. He was sitting at a table autographing free Starship Titanic boxes and even a few beta copies of the game which were being given away (the game's not out for the Mac yet, and he apologized profusely for that). Lots of people in the line tried to strike up personal conversations with him, and some of them walked away annoyed that he didn't seem as enthralled by them as they were with him. No one took a moment to consider that they were holding up a long line and Douglas. Adams's hand was probably getting tired from signing so many boxes.

    If you set unrealistic expectations for the people you idolize, they're going to fall short, and it's not their fault.

    About the Dilbert TV show: Dilbert started out cool, but Scott Adams's continual moneygrubbing is really bugging me, too. I mean, $20 for little magnetic cutouts of the characters? He probably deserves credit for shamelessly and unapologetically milking the franchise while it's still milkable, but he won't be getting any of my money.

    Besides, the jokes are becoming stale. Jokes about choosing the name of a new product are funny the first time you see them in the paper, but they become very old very fast when they start appearing on mugs, on tee shirts, in calendars, and now on TV...

  • What is UPN, and how can I find out if I get it? I know, if I have to ask... I probably don't get it. But just in case? If you really want to help, my line-up is here [clicktv.com].
    --
  • Yup, I checked, and I don't get it. It's in the lineup, but along with pay-tv. So what the hell is UPN?
    --
  • I had wrist surgery to remove a cyst which ran late and I missed it. Now I'm typing one handed for the next week, which is a royal pain in the ass. I wonder if I can find a keyboard mapping for one of those funky one-handed devorak layouts... :)

  • Cool (Score:1)

    by mwarps ( 2650 )
    By God, man! You call the greatest mind of our times by 'Hawkings'? what are you? a fool?

    It's HAWKING.
  • The Simpsons is the only comic strip (well, ok, it wasn't really a comic strip--but I do remember seeing the buttermilk commercials before the cartoon came out) that made after going from daily comic strip to regular cartoon.

    Well, Life in Hell was and is a weekly. Not daily.

  • I have seen a number of clips for the new Dilbert cartoon. What I seen does not impress me. The delivery of the lines was flat and not very funny. Hopefully it will not be like a giant office max commercial. I am not getting my hopes up.

    Since it is on UPN, maybe they can do a Dilbert/Voyager crossover. (6 of 9 as the boss' domanatrix or something...)
  • I'll host it on my web site...mail me


  • But the Dysfunctional Family Circus [spinnwebe.com] is hilarious....

  • Obviously, Adams' reply comment was meant in jest. If you read the strip, you're probably aware that he has a very dim view of corporate America (and tie-ins) and that, in turn, justifies the goofy merchandise.
    As always, the caveat is if you don't like it, don't buy it. Scott Adams is not arriving at your doorstep wielding a flaming pike and demanding your wallet.
    As for personal judgment on the cartoonist himself, while he may be a "techie", he uses AOL. That should say it all. Humorous chap though.

    ~Dan
  • I gotta say I liked it. Whatever you think of Scott Adams -- get over it. Separate the man from his art.
  • I am still in shock.

    It will be a while before I can jump in the shower at the same pace again.
  • It's true that the last scene of a lot of the adventures is of Calvin waking up in class, but with C&H the punchline was never the last thing said - it was usually the second-last statement or frame that was the real joke. The "waking up" was more of a wrap-up.

    As for giving up - I respect him a great deal for that. I think I did see two strips towards the end that really were repeats of earlier stuff and I think he knew it. I'm glad he didn't indulge himself and let it linger on like Peanuts which, however clever it may have once been, is incredibly dull now.
  • That was total crap. Hardly funny at all and really stupid in parts. Why would anyone think the chicken man stuff was funny? Or the vibrating barco-loungers?

    And other than Alice, the voices all sounded pretty much the same.

    These guys need to call Matt Groening to learn how to make the transition to TV.
  • Unfortunately, talent and popularity don't make you a nice person.

    A doctor friend asked Maya Angelou to visit a dying 7-year old boy who worshipped her. Her response? "My appearance fee is $10K." I'm not making this up!
  • Oh well, didn't really expect it to be.

    And that part in the opening sequence where it pans back to reveal an infinite field of identical cubicles was terrifying. I nearly had to stop watching right there.

  • How the hell did Dilbert end up using a MAC?!?!?!
  • I love Dilbert - don't know how the show will be though
  • I don't know how a TV show of it will be though.
  • ...nothing else close.
  • Thanks to this article we can have a cartoon flame war to provide a contrast to the usual hardware flame wars, OS flame wars, and the occasional language flame wars... ;-)
  • On your line-up it's listed as


    74 WSBK UPN

    That would be channel 38 in Boston MA USA, longtime TV home of the Boston Bruins hockey team.
  • Chris Eliot as the voice of Dogbert.


    'nuff said.
  • Yeah. Schulz is still around (I'd assume). My understanding (last I read) is that he plans to have no successor, that the strip will die with him.
  • finished watching it 1/2 an hour ago...
    not that funny, except for dogbert...
    the chicken-man thme was taken a bit too
    far.
  • For years computers in Dilbert could be easily identified as Macs. Too cool to hear the beep though. :)

    --
    I saw Satan laughing with delight

  • I thought that tonight's episode was a greatly overexaggerated but mostly accurate of corporate cubicle life (It was a cartoon after all)...The chicken thing did get annyoing, but parts of it reminded me WAY too much of real life. Not bad for a first episode (Btw, the first simpson short SUCKED! but the show redeemed itself over time).

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