(no subject)

Having a lazy weekend...

Writing, reading, grocery shopping, watching the telly, cooking, and knitting.

The emmy's are on tonight next Sunday, but I won't watch them and I rarely if ever remember the winners or for that matter care. To me they are a joke. Why? Well, unlike the Oscars or even the Tony's - the voters haven't really watched or seen most of the things they are voting on.

Most people who work in the film and theater industries actually do watch and see films and plays. They even read them. But, the people who work in tv? They rarely if ever watch television. It's the biggest joke in the industry. The people creating the stuff we watch and fall in love with? Rarely watch it.

I've lost count of the number of actors, writers, producers, network executives that I've met, talked to, or read interviews with - who told me - "TV? Don't have the time. Don't care that much about it. Only watch it on occassion and when I do? It's usually a documentary or reality show." LOL!

Television requires more time from the participant and more of a committment than watching a movie sent to you on a DVD. Or going to a performance of a play. Less money sure - but they get free theater tickets and the movies are sent to them often for free - so that isn't an issue.

In short - the reason shows like BSG, the Wire, the Shield, Buffy, Six Feet Under, etc rarely if ever get nominations is not because the people voting don't like them but because they've never had the time or wherewithal to turn them on. There's too many choices.

The tv shows that get the nominations are usually the mainstream, popular, heavily marketed ones - such as Boston Legal, 24, West Wing, ER, Sopranoes...works that are on main channels or HBO and that their producers have spent a lot of money on marketing. Which is why it's the same shows over and over. Or why we'll see a Heroes in the nominations but not a BattleStar Galatica or Supernatural or Buffy the Vampire Slayer or even a Mad Men.

The people voting don't watch tv, they only watch a little of it and only if someone brings it to their attention - ie - they are told about it constantly or get a script for it or their friend is on it. It makes sense if you think about it. After all, would you want to go home after 12-13 hours and relax watching the very thing you've been working on for 13 hours straight? Or even worse - watch your competition - ie the show you auditioned for but lost out to another actor? The show that is beating yours in its time slot? It would be like a lawyer going to a court room after spending all day in court to watch trials? Or going home to watch Court TV. Or a Cop going home to watch COPS. Or a teacher going home to watch the educational or learning channel. When we leave work - we want to REALLY leave it or the stress follows us into bed at night.

So it makes a lot of sense that James Marsters watches the Discovery Channel and Sports in his spare time not fictional tv shows. Or that Sarah Michelle Gellar watched American Idol.
Or that my landlord who films tv commericials for a living and his wife who is a struggling television actress who has only done tv commericials - don't watch television or if they do, watch the news, sports, the Food Network and maybe 24.

Which begs the question how in the hell do they do the Emmy's? If it's anything like the daytime emmy's - Each of the tv shows sends in a montage tape of episodes. And the actors send in montage tapes of their performances. So the voting is often based on the montages. The daytime emmy's have a panel of judges who watch the tapes. I think the evening doesn't, can't remember. But I'm pretty sure they both do the montage tapes. This means that the show with the best montage wins?

LOL!

TV Sluttage Report

Well, I don't know about anybody else but I'm going to enjoy television a lot this season. Already am. .

I'm currently getting a kick out of Doctor Who, Supernatural, Smallville, and Torchwood reruns -which are new to me. As well as The Closer, Damages, and The 4400. Plus watching Bones in reruns. Bones is in my opinion the most entertaining of the procedurals, while the Closer continues to remind me of Prime Suspect in a good way. And my favorite new summer show? Burn Notice. Which reminds me a lot of those old detective/action shows that you no longer see much of any more - such as Magnum P.I., Matt Houston, The Equalizer, Nero Wolf, and what I hoped the Dresden Files would be. Burn Notice is better written and acted than Dresden. It of course helps that it has Sharon Gless and Bruce Campbell in supporting roles.

( Sci-Fi TV currently on )

And coming up? Well this upcoming tv season is a literal smorgesborg for a fan of quirky/cultish sci-fi tv serial drama and comedy. Say hasta la vista to the copies of the CSI/L&O, Survivor, Amazing Race, and 24 tv shoes. The networks apparently learned their collective lesson last year with Kidnapped, Jericho, The Nine, Six Separations, Will Traveler, Runaway, etc. This season we get fresh new blood. We can thank the success of Heroes, Brothers & Sisters, and 30 Rock for some of it.

1. Bionic Woman - a new version created by David Eick of BSG, with Michelle Ryan, Katee Sackoff, Miquel Ferrer, Isiah Washington amongst others.
2. Reaper - a horror dramedy about a twenty something who is forced to play bounty hunter for the devil after his parents sold his soul to the devil when he was a baby. The pilot is directed by Kevin Smith, but written by two women - who started out with a spec script for Buffy and went on to write for a couple L&O's before pitching this one. Smith wanted to polish the first script - having come from the film world where the director is king and the writer is a lowly peon - in TV? It's the opposite. Which may explain why I prefer tv sometimes. And why most writers do. It stars Ray Wise as the Devil.
3. Pushing Daisies - the new Bryan Fuller dramedy - you know the guy who did Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls. About a pie-maker who brings dead things back to life with a touch, but kills them again when he touches them a second time. Stars Chi McBride as the detective he works for, Swoosie Kurtz, and Kristen Chenworth.
4. Moonlight - the new David Greenwalt series starring Jason Dohring who used to play Logan on VM as a snarky vampire named Josef - friend of the lead. It's a family friendly vampire detective show where the vamps can walk around in daylight and don't have problems with stakes.
5. Journeyman - a time-traveling series about a reporter who gets sucked back in time and can't return until he solves the problem.
6. Life - about a cop who was sent to prison for a murder he didn't commit, has gotten released, gotten a million dollars and uses the money to go back to being a cop and solving the crime that put him away.
7. Viva Laughlin - produced by Hugh Jackman - based on the Brit series Viva Blackpool about a vegas casino owner who may or may not have killed an investor who pulled out at the last minute. Part musical/part murder mystery/part drama. It stars Jackman in a cameo, Melanie Griffith, DB Woodside, amongst others. They sing along with top songs such as Sympathy for the Devil in key places.
8. Aliens in America - about a Muslim kid who is plopped into the middle of a midwestern family. Scott Patterson (Gilmore Girls) and Amy Pietz play the parents.
9. Samantha Who? - Christina Applegate of Married With Children - returns in a series about a girl who lost her memory and has to deal with the horrible things she did but can't remember. We see her past behavior in flashbacks. Sort of a Doctor Jekyll/Miss Hyde, except Miss Hyde is the former and Jekyll is the new version.
10. Dirty Sexy Money - it's pitched as Dynasty meets Six Feet Under - with emphasis on the latter. Stars Peter Krause, Jill Clayburgh, Donald Sutherland, Billy Baldwin...
11. Cane - a Latino Sopranos - with a killer latino cast - Jimmy Smits, Hector Elizondro, Rita Morena...about a cuban sugar company in Florida.
12. Kid Nation - the bizarre and highly controversial reality series about a bunch of kids running a town without adult supervision. Yes, we now have a social psychology experiment involving children that parents have actually agreed to - hence the controversy.
13. Big Shots - a boys version of Sex in The City starring Chris Titus, Josh Malina, Dylan McDermott, and Paul Blackthorn late of the Dresden Files.
14. K-Ville - a cop buddy show filmed in New Orleans.
15. Gossip Girl - a teen soap that takes place in NYC prep schools and reminds me a lot of that old Sarah Michelle Gellar/Ryan Phillipe/Reese Witherspoon film based on Dangerous Liasions. With a voice over narration by Kristen Bell.
16. Back to You - a new series about a local broadcast news station - focuses on two anchorpeople played by Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton

And... if that's not enough - we get a two hour prequel movie for BattleStar Galatica, starring Michelle Forbes Admiral Kane character and the rest of the BSG crew before the events of the series. It's called RAZOR. Plus another great documentary from Ken Burns featuring a World War.

It's literally a season with something for everyone and not a new procedural in sight. YAY!!
I knew the market would get saturated eventually and they'd try something else eventually, just a matter of time.

That's for the new stuff. The old stuff?

( vague spoilers - but only if you consider the ones released in TV Guide and EW by the producers of the series spoilers. )

Don't know about anyone else? But My DVR is going to be packed. Am going to have to make choices and watch some of these shows in reruns over the summer - assuming the networks let me or on netflix.

I love the fall.

Sigh. I know, I know, it's pathetic to be excited about tv, but what the hey.