And yet more TV...or more appropriately me railing at the idiot box

[shadowkat]

[You can tell how high my frustration/stress meter is by how many posts I write on TV. I can't rail at the world, but I can rail at the idiot box without too much worry. Okay not true. But what the hell.

TV news:

1. Apparently they are casting a male nurse as a potential love interest for Linda G (Sam) character on ER. Rumor has it: There's two people up for it. A titular leading man type and get this a former Buffy actor - someone who was a leading male character on the show and in the front credits. They don't list names. And the winner will be released soon.

Sigh.

Well, let's see - we know it can't be Anthony Stewart Head or David Boreanze. So...that leaves:
Marc Blucas, James Marsters, Seth Green, and Nicholas Brendon.

The way my luck has been going lately: it will probably be Marc Blucas if the guy gets it. If he doesn't? Someone like Billy Baldwin or Ethan Hawk.

Personally? I'm rooting for Marsters or Brendon. But the only Buffy actors who get good roles are the ones I am truly ambivalent about. Damn, am I the only person out there who thought Brendon and Marsters were the only consistently good male actors with unlimited comic and dramatic range on that show outside of Head? Apparently so. Hollywood likes its buffboys. Buffboy is soap opera speak for pretty boy but not much there. Except for Seth Green who has a great career as character actor who pops up in weird places.

Oh well, doesn't matter - barely watch ER anymore anyhow. Show is getting awfully redundant and appears to have the longevity of Law & Order. Honestly, these shows are like cockroaches, you just can't kill them. No, wait L& O is like a cockroach - you can't kill it and it has unkillable offspring, ER is just well like a turtle it keeps plugging away.

2. Tim Minear has joined the writing staff of "The Stand-Off". Okay. Does this mean he'll give poor Gina Torres something else to do besides look cool and collected? And just when I'd given up on it.

3. Rejoice Jericho fans - your show got picked up for a full season. No need to send worried letters to CBS. It's not that suprising really if you think about it. Jericho has three things going for it that are guaranteed to make it survive, regardless of how badly written the show is. Trust me on this - if writing mattered, there would not be reality shows and TV writers would be treated with more respect. Do I sound bitter? Sigh. Anyhow here's the three things Jericho has going for it: a)Family drama with prodigal son and caring parents, b)crisis - disaster, everyone has to work together to survive and opportunities for much tear-jerking (if you've watched as many dumb disaster flicks as I have you know whereof I speak - Posideon Adventure? Titantic? Airport? Airport 1977? The Towering Inferno? There's a reason people love these things.) c.) a puzzel - why is this happening, and did the government do it? (X-Files, 4400, Roswell, half a dozen Oliver Stone flicks - people like conspiracy things about evil governments). Plus we have Skeet Ulrich. (Prefer Billy Crud-up, whose the better actor, they look a lot a like to me). So not really shocking it's doing well.

4. Rejoice Friday Night Light fans - NBC has chosen to sponsor your show over Studio 60 on The Sunset Strip. Sigh. (NBC is pulling Studio 60 on Oct 30 and airing Friday Night Lights instead, which really does nothing more than piss off the Studio 60 fans, but whatever. Okay updating to clarify - they are doing it, as far as I know, for one night only - October 30. We don't know if it is a permanent move yet.)

Do not understand why it had to be an either/or gambit. The two series couldn't be more different - people who watch Friday Night Lights aren't going to watch Studio 60 and vice versa. I think I've only found one person online who likes both. Most people either like one or the other. And the one's who like Studio 60 find FNL unwatchable. The one's who watch FNL find Studio 60 unwatchable. So, why in hell does the network programming people think that moving Friday Night Lights into Studio 60's timeslot on Mondays going to change anything? Wouldn't it make more sense to move the show to Sunday's after the football game? Football = Friday Night Lights. A match made in heaven. But noooo, instead they are reairing the popular "Heroes" in that slot?? Why? I know why. Advertisers. Yes, it is because of advertisers. Where they'll throw their money. And where ratings matter. They matter more on some nights than others. Ad dollars are higher on some nights. Course - if that's the reason, it makes little sense why they put "Friday Night Lights" an adult drama with no comedy in it that I can see, in an 8pm timeslot on Tuesday nights. Normally the best timeslot for adult drama is 10 pm. Or at least 9pm.

What I'd do if I were NBC is put Friday Night Lights on at 10pm on either Sunday or Tuesday or Wed nights. Keep Studio 60 on Mon or maybe move to 10pm on Tuesday. Another option is Friday Night Lights on Friday - nifty name thing. Kick Numbers to Wed. And I'd be less irritated if they put Studio 60 in the Tuesday slot - maybe at 10pm. But nooo, it's one or the other?? Fuck that. Because I got news for you - the Studio 60 fans are not going to start watching FNL. You aren't going to get new viewers. And for those of us, like myself that were considering given FNL a second chance, now won't out of annoyance for losing the show we enjoyed in order for it to succeed.

The other problem with all of this - is something that has been bugging for a while about network programming. If either Studio 60 or Friday Night Lights premiered on Showtime or HBO they would have been guaranteed a full season. Time to build a following. Both are shows that require that. They are not hot out of the pan shows. They have a slow build. It takes the writer time to find his/her footing. Plus both appeal to "nitch" audiences not broad. Which means you aren't going to get the ratings of a Grey's or Lost or ER. I honestly think NBC would have a couple of hits on its hands if it gave the shows time.

Baad network programming decision. And frustrating.

Okay enough railing at tv, off to eat lunch.

Comments

[scrollgirl.livejournal.com]

Wait, are you telling me the CANCELLED Studio 60????

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Not yet. Not yet. But it is in line to the chopping block. All they are doing is pulling it for one night to try another show in the time slot. But the thing of it is that NBC has two dramas they were excited about and spent a lot of money on and hired expensive writers/directors, casts for - Studio 60 and Friday Night Lights. (Actually Studio 60 may have a more expensive cast, not certain.) And they appear to be choosing between the two. The fact they are pulling Studio 60 from a timeslot to see if Friday Night Light does better in it, worries me. But it does not mean they've cancelled it. It's still chugging along. So hopefully it's just the network playing weird programming games.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Not yet. But this is Very Not Good News for its future.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Yep - just picked up the new TV Guide which gives the ratings count. And Studio 60 stopped bleeding ratings, but and this is a big but - the general view is the only reason for that is "Heroes" which is doing so well. What worries me is the network's thinking appears to be along the same lines as what cjlasky points out below:
that Studio 60 and Heroes are a bad combo. Too many people online and off that I've spoken to don't like this show. I adore it. They well can't get into it.

It is very hard to get a drama about the television industry to connect with the audience. I can't think of one that has. And they've tried numerous times. For some reason most people can't connect to it.

Shame. Since I really love everything about this show.

[cjlasky.livejournal.com]

I don't see Marsters or Blucas as a male nurse, and I don't see them using the goofier Brendon as a romantic interest for Cardellini. My guess is Seth Green, because of the Scooby Doo connection (although God knows where Seth would find the time).

You know me--I would love to see Nick Brendon as a semi-regular on ER; anybody with his natural comic timing would give the ensemble a huge shot in the arm, but I don't see it happening. Marsters would be amazing as an egotistical surgeon, but I don't see that happening, either.

NBC is doing well with Sunday Night Football, so nothing is going into the Sunday timeslots until the season ends in January. I think FNL and Studio 60 would be a good tandem for Sundays in 2007, and I hope they can both hang on long enough to find a proper slot. S60 and Heroes are a terrible combination, completely incompatible demographics; a show like Medium or even repeats of Battlestar Galactica would work much better at 10 p.m. Mondays.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Don't know, actually can see Marsters in it as a male nurse. But I've been watching ER off and on lately and their current thing is casting against type. Also Sam - who the character would be paired with is a bit of a mess. And tiny. She's the same height as Gellar, they appeared in Scooby Doo together. Add to that I've seen Marsters play that type of role before. But...I don't see it happening. They'll probably cast someone like Ethan Hawk in it. Than again not sure they can afford Ethan Hawk.

NBC isn't doing well by the way. Learned from a friend tonight who knows folks who work there - that they are about to have major lay-offs, writers, production staff etc. Really struggling. The current joke about Heroes is - Save a Network save the world.

It may have to ditch all its new series but Heroes due to cost and replace them with game shows.
Which are cheap - $600,000 as opposed to 1.5 million per episode, but have a short life-span, audiences love them for a year then get bored. Burn bright then die. But there's quite a few that NBC has sitting in the wings. Medium is coming back in November apparently - it will take over Kidnapped spot.

Part of the reason CBS kicked Smith is it cost $8 million per episode. Filmed entirely on location without an studio sets.

Not sure I agree with you on Heroes /Studio 60 demographics - they aren't that incompatible. The people online who like it with the exception of the one on my flist, like both. And watch both. What is jarring is they are very different in style. Your mind sort of has to switch tracks.

[cjlasky.livejournal.com]

Yep, NBC/Universal just laid off 5% of the workforce. They're putting game shows in the 8 p.m. hour to cut costs. This is very bad for Studio 60 and FNL. NBC is looking at the $3 million and $2.5 million price tag per episode, and the suits are muttering: "why the hell did we green light these shows?"

You know as well as I do that TV execs don't want audiences to "switch gears"; they want a solid two- or three-hour block where no one even thinks about switching the channel. The demographics on Heroes are geeky fanboy (and fangirl), while Studio 60 skews older and VERY affluent. The one piece of good news about S60's ratings I've heard over the last few weeks is that the series does very well with people earning $100,000 and up--meaning, limited audience but big ad revenues.

I honestly don't know what NBC is going to do here. They've invested a lot of money and it might be in their best interest to let Sorkin work out the kinks--if not on Monday, then a less pressurized time slot with a more "appropiate" lead-in.

[ladyhelix.livejournal.com]

NO - you are not the only one!

Damn, am I the only person out there who thought Brendon and Marsters were the only consistently good male actors with unlimited comic and dramatic range on that show outside of Head?

And based on the other actors they are rumored to be considering - they will probably cast someone TALL like MB or NB rather than JM (though Seth has his "comic card" stamped enough times so he could slip in even though he's not terribly tall).

My mom once insisted I not date a perfectly respectable, intelligent, polite young man because "he's not taller than you". We were the same height, and that was a problem for her. It still boggles my mind, but unfortunately she's not the ONLY one who feels that way.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Not sure why it needs to be an issue on ER though? The actress playing Sam is quite tiny. She's about the same height as SMG, they were in Scooby Doo together. She played Velma. Wait - okay, if they cast Blucas, Brendon, or Marsters as her potential love interest? LOL! Yes, we are all just separated by six degrees.

In TV height isn't as big an issue. The camera actually prefers smaller people. Tom Cruise is 5'8, the same height as Marsters. Paul Newman also 5'8. Marsters isn't tiny. He's not 5'3 or 4'10.
Gellar was 5'0. Brendon is about 5'9/5'10. Blucas was 6'3 and Boreanze 6 ft. On Smallville Marsters looked tiny, but that's only because Welling and Rosebaum are close to 6 ft.

In Hollywood - it's harder actually for big actors to get roles. They tend to get typecast.

So he has a chance, if it's him.

I prefer tall men. But I'm 5'11 and 1/2 with a large bone structure. I overwhelm small men and very few find me attractive. I want to feel protected by the guy, to feel like the girl, not the dominant party and they feel the same way. So for me - I'd prefer a guy between 5'10-6'7. I dated a guy in college who was 5'8 and trust me the difference in height proved to be a problem. And prior to college, I had crushes on short men which never ever worked. It was hard not to, most men prior to college in my age range were shorter than me or my height. My brother didn't shoot up above my height until he was in his junior year of high school.

I find Marsters attractive onscreen - but not necessarily in person. The only time I saw him was onstage at a concert and in the situation he was standing on a stage. Very attractive man. He moves well. For me, its how the guy moves more than anything else. Marsters moves like a dancer. Antonio Banderas and Mikhail Brysanshikof (sp?) turn me on for the same reason. As does Richard Gere.
And for some reason I don't quite understand - smaller actors - around 5'8-5'10, leanly muscled move better than bigger ones. So what turns me on - onscreen or onstage is not necessarily what will in life. But then I don't plan on dating James Marsters - I just want to watch the man act.







Best height? 5'8.

[ladyhelix.livejournal.com]

Have you really given up on Stand-off?

I'm gonna hang in a little longer, and I'd love some company! I was prepared to hate it before I saw it... but I'm excited to see the next ep - if there ever is one!!

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

It's coming back, Fox hasn't given up on it. And Fox is reairing it on Sunday I think. Or Sat.
I've given up I'm afraid. Just doesn't hold my interest.