television – Page 4 – Observations Along the Road

Music/Musicals in the News

Posted onThursday, August 22, 2013Thursday, August 22, 2013Authorcahwyguy

userpic=theatre_musicals Today’s lunchtime … ummm, make that dinnertime … news chum brings you some news about music and musicals:

Dolly Parton. Here’s a really interesting version of Jolene — slowed down from 45rpm to 33⅓rpm. Surprisingly, it works… and works well.
Fame. Fame — the movie musical and TV show — may be returning to TV in some form. Debbie Allen is developing a drama based on Fame for the CW Network. Debbie, of course, was in the original film and TV show. Could be interesting if done right — certainly better than the covers of Glee, and possibly with a less melodramatic story than Smash.
Hair. Producer Michael Butler is attempting to bring back Hair – The Musical again. This time he’s doing it as a crowd-sourced version, with a large push of social activism. Interestingly, Ben Vereen is involved. Still… Hair was recently on Broadway and on tour, and there are the excellent regular productions from The Tribe here in LA. Maybe he should have gone for Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Finding the Right Paige

Posted onWednesday, August 21, 2013Authorcahwyguy3 Comments

userpic=television This morning, Buzzfeed had a list of 17 Reality Shows that Need To Come Back. Now, most of these were forgettable tripe, but there was one, oh one, that really needs to come back: “Trading Spaces“, with the wonderful Mindy Paige Davis Page (a/k/a Paige Davis).

For those of you not old enough to remember, Trading Spaces was a home-improvement show that had two neighbors trade spaces in their house. TLC brought in a decorator and a carpenter, and they had $1000 per room to redo the room. Simple concept, and it would work well in today’s economic times with constrained budgets. Trading Spaces had a mix of designers each with their specific quirks and styles, and would mix them up on the different shows. It spun off a number of variants (including a children’s version), most notably WYWO (While You Were Out).

A number of things killed Trading Spaces , but they all devolve into “tinkering with the format”. They over-emphasized two of the designers — Doug and Hildi — and their outrageous designs. They kept playing with “surprise” rooms and larger budgets. They had contests to find new designers. They even eliminated Paige for a year! These all hurt the show and its viewership.

Still, I believe that a back-to-basics Trading Spaces would succeed these days, especially on a network such as DIY or HGTV. I’d love to see it… and I’d especially love to see it with Paige!

Saturday News Chum Stew, If Your Pipes Can Take It

Posted onSaturday, July 13, 2013Authorcahwyguy

Observation Stew After my wonderful plumbing experience yesterday, my mind cannot make sense — or find a theme — in this collection of news articles. I’ll leave it to you to find the theme, or determine whether these items need to be tossed into the garbage disposal and washed away. Let’s just hope they don’t clog your pipes…

Survivor – My Guilty Pleasure. One of my guilty TV pleasures is the TV show Survivor. I’ve never been able to describe why this show is still head and shoulders above other reality shows. This article presents one analysis of why Survivor is successful. For me, its success comes from (a) the shifting alliance aspects of it — the show is very much like the game Diplomacy with negotiation, trust, and bluffing at its heart; (b) the skillful editing used to craft a story and create characters; and (c) the quality shown in the casting to find a group with strong personalities that draw one to watch.
This American Life. This week, TAL reaches a milestone – episode #500. To commemorate this, BuzzFeed presents the story of how TAL got started, and how it reached episode #500. Related to this, FlavorWire presents their take on their 15 favorite episodes to date.
Hidden Environmental Impacts. Earlier this week, I wrote about how copper mining — required to move to a green environment — really isn’t so green. Another thing that isn’t green are music festivals. This article from LA Weekly is a great exploration on the trash problem created by many festivals.
Autopsy Results. OK, here’s a real weird one. Some people decided, for the hell of it, to do an autopsy of a “Baby So Soft” doll. Here are the grisley results. You’ll never look at a child’s doll the same.
Looking at Things Differently. Speaking of looking at things differently, here are 11 classic works of art reimagined with people of color.
NSA and the CIA. On the grounds of the CIA is a sculpture with an encrypted message. The CIA recently believed they had solved the message. However, the NSA really solved it first.
Places to Go in The San Fernando Valley. Here’s a nice article commemorating Universal City Walk reaching 20 years. City Walk was a trendsetter — it led to Downtown Disney and other integrated shopping areas that are regional draws at theme parks. Don’t like that? How about an old-fashioned soda shop in Canoga Park?
Bringing Up The Rear. Bringing up the rear are a few totally pointless things. First, a gun that uses salt to shoot flies. I have no idea how effective it is. Secondly, a list from the good folks at Vanity Fair point out 40 signs that you’re a BuzzFeed list maker who has run out of ideas. Thirdly, there’s a Wesley Crusher Beer. Lastly, somebody put dummy names for the pilots of the Asiana 214 crash on a recent news report on KTVU. Alas, they made it onto the air. Yup. Today, your flight is commanded by “Sum Ting Wong”, assisted by “Wi Tu Lo”, “Ho Lee Fuk”, and “Bang Ding Ow”. I can only shake my head. Someone has likely been handed their walking papers. Naturally, the station has apologized.

It All Comes SMASHing Down

Posted onTuesday, May 28, 2013Tuesday, May 28, 2013Authorcahwyguy

userpic=theatre_tickets This weekend brought the end of one of the few television shows I’ve enjoyed over the past two seasons: “Smash” on NBC. The end wasn’t surprising; the ratings were in the cellar for much of the second season. Still, I’ll miss the show… and so I thought I would share with you (over lunch) what I think went right… and where it all went wrong. Of course, there is the obligatory triple of news chum related to Smash as well.

Smash, if you are unfamiliar with it, is a musical TV drama that purported to tell the story of the mounting of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, eventually called Bombshell. It started with the idea for the musical; it ended at the Tony awards. When Smash started, I had high hopes for it. It was, after all, on NBC — the network that had given us Fame in the 1980s (the Glee of its era, only with original music, not cover tunes). Smash started off well — we saw the drama of writing the show, the difficult life of actors, the audition and rehearsal process. The problem was that Smash rapidly devolved into a soap opera, focusing more on the love lives and drama of the characters than that drama of the show development process. There’s loads of drama there — much of which was glossed over — such as the set, technical, sound, light, costume designs. As the second season came on, the new show runner tossed some of the problematic subplots that were overly melodramatic… only to replace them with equally melodramatic subplots.

Looking back, what suggestions would I have made if I had been in charge? Here are a few:

View Smash as a Miniseries. Open-ended dramas work well only if each episode is self-contained (e.g., CSI:), or if one is dealing with a true soap opera (e.g., Dallas). If Smash had been defined as a fixed number of episodes for its particular story, it could have been well plotted out — in advance — and appropriate time allocated to build to the various elements. By the way, this was the same problem Heroes had — it needed to have a fixed number of episodes. Trying to stretch out the story with the same characters in multiple books started to make it implausible.
Focus on the Broadway. The show development was unrealistic. I have no problem with compressing the schedule, but focusing more on the drama of the process would have been good. Songs going in. Songs going out. Songs being added at the last minute, or to support/not support a particular character. Set issues, lighting issues, sound issues, costume issue. Issues with Broadway unions. Issues with the entire development process, from multiple workshops to non-profit tryouts. These were all glossed over and resolved far too quickly… and far too much time was spent with a focus on the personal lives.
Understand the Role of the Music. Music in a show needs a context. Within the musical itself, musical numbers don’t exist to just get out a song — they must move the plot forward or illustrate something internal. This is why some of the fantasy numbers of the first season didn’t work. The music that did work was the numbers from the shows under development (and this is why adding the second musical in the second season worked). What was missing was musical numbers about the drama of the show development itself. These numbers (and they do exist — just look at Kiss Me Kate or Me and Juliet) could have provided the needed avenues for the actors to explore their hidden turmoils, or the technical creatives to explore the struggles they deal with.
Don’t Make Things Too Convenient. Although I know this is TV, things worked out far too easy for Smash, and its internal musicals Bombshell and Hit List. It is unlikely they would have swept the Tonys as they did, or have had such an easy process to get to Broadway. I’ve seen shows languish for years (look at Spiderman or some of the development projects from the Pasadena Playhouse.

There are a number of things about Smash that I did like — starting with the casting. I’ve enjoyed Katherine McPhee since we saw her in Annie Get Your Gun at Cabrillo Music Theatre (what’s this American Idol of which you speak — I know of no such show). As for Megan Hilty, we saw her when she was in 9 to 5 at the Ahmanson. All the other leads were great, and the cameos by other Broadway folk were fun. I enjoyed both shows under development (Bombshell and Hit List), and actually hope that both are further developed into real pieces — it would have been great to have had Smash-specials where they actually presented the full productions. One can dream. The songwriters chosen were good (Todd and Mark are always one, and Joe Iconis is a new songwriter waiting to hit it big).

I promised you some news chum related to Smash, so here are the articles that caught my eye… and actually prompted this post:

The Death of Kyle. This Buzzfeed article discusses why Kyle, the upcoming book writer for the Hit List musical, had to die. Part of it was an homage to Jonathan Larsen and Rent. However, more of it was a parallel to Carousel and how the death would spur changes in other characters.
The Story Behind the Music. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman were the two primary authors behind the Bombshell musical. Marc has written a long article looking at all the music he wrote in Smash, and the context behind each and every song (much of which was not shown in the show). Had this context been explained, the songs would make much more sense. I will say that it makes me want to get the CDs of the show even more (and I hope all songs are one them).
The Third Season. After filming on the second season had wrapped, Smash learned it wasn’t renewed… however they knew the writing was on the wall as they were filming the final episodes… and so they crafted them to be able to serve as a series finale. In this article, the Executive Producer talks about the end of the 2nd season… and what had been planned for the 3rd season. It is interesting to watch the finale with this in mind — you can see how they were setting things up for the next season.

ETA (for my reference):

Songs by the Smash Cast (Amazon)

Smash Music (NBC)

Smash Original Songs (Wikia)

Smash – Complete Season Two (Wikia)

Evolution in Action: TVs, Tumblr, Disney, and Cheese

Posted onWednesday, May 22, 2013Authorcahwyguy

userpic=masters-voice Today’s lunchtime news chum theme is evolution. I’m not talking Darwinian evolution here, but the evolution of ideas, companies, and places. As with Darwinian evolution, sometimes this results in something better. Sometimes it doesn’t. I’ll leave it up to you to decide.

Evolution of … Televisions. For those of you who are old (like me), you may remember the TV sets of the 1960s. Big, elegant wood cabinets housing gigantic tube televisions … often in black and white, but increasingly in color. You remember how the sets changed over the years into the sleek designed monitors of today, with nary a wood box surrounding them. Television has gone from being a piece of furniture to being art on the wall. One of my various feeds led me to this article, which chronicles the rise and fall of Television Manufacturer empires. A very interesting piece, exploring how we went from black and white sets to the new color TVs, creating explosive growth of RCA… which then fell to the Trinitron monster of Sony… which then fell to the electronics of Samsung… which is now falling to the new manufacturing approach of Visio.
Evolution of … Tumblr. With the recent news of the Yahoo acquisition of Tumblr, it is interesting to look at the origins of Tumblr and how it began as a site for Tumblelogs. What I found interesting in this article was the repeated comparisons of Tumblr to Livejournal, the seminal journaling site where I began blogging. I can see some comparisons with friends list, but I haven’t used Tumblr enough to see the creative free-form blogging, especially with the detailed commentary and discussion. Tangentially related to this is the evolution of language, and how teens are using what is called social steaganography, hiding meaning in banal and otherwise topical discussions. This is a movement of language from straightforward expression we saw in the USENET days to discussion explicitly designed to be public yet private, with one level of surface meaning and another level designed only for friends.
Evolution of … Disney. We start with an article that links to the early history of Disneyland: the prospectus sent out to investors. Reading the linked prospectus one can see some of the original ideas; if one is familiar with the park in the 1950s one saw those ideas executed. Some of them failed (Recreation Park, Holiday Land), and some succeeded (Fantasy Land). The evolution of the park and of marketing led to the evolution of the Disney Princess. This concept is being shaken somewhat with the kerfluffle over Merida, and it has created the question of whether the notion of princess must evolve beyond either “girly-girl” or “tomboy”.
Evolution of … Cheese. We’re all familiar with Little Miss Muffet, who ate curds and whey. What we probably aren’t familiar with are curds and whey. Curds are the coagulated milk solids one gets when you coagulate milk with acid or rennet; the remaining liquid is the whey. One used to never see curds and whey, but now they are everywhere. Curds, of course, are in cheese (or you can just buy curds at Sprouts… yum!). Whey is also making a culinary comeback, both for cooking purposes and for making protein powders (in fact, there’s so much money in the latter that California dairyfarmers want in on the windfall). However, not all whey is valuable. The growth in the Greek Yogurt has resulted in the growth of acidic whey, which is difficult to convert to profitable uses. But that doesn’t stop people from trying.

Music: Backstory (2011 Original London Cast): “Money”

Entertainment News to Chew On: Music Spending, Carrie in Los Angeles, Veronica Mars

Posted onWednesday, March 13, 2013Wednesday, March 13, 2013Authorcahwyguy3 Comments

Staring at the collected links today while eating my salad over lunch identified two distinct themes. The first brings together a number of entertainment items of interest:

Money for Music. Some interesting numbers out of SXSW 2013 provide a picture of entertainment spending: Serious music fans spend over $442/year on music. Specifically, Neilsen has identified three core consumer categories. The “aficionado” is willing to spend more than $422 per year on music, concerts and artist merch, and does so via sites such as iTunes, Amazon and indie outlets. The “digital fan” was determined to spend about $363 per year and views a smartphone or tablet as the entertainment hub. Finally, the “big box” fan shops at mass retailers, is partial to pop and country and spends, on average, $196 per year on music. Those who can be classified as music fans account for nearly 75% of all music spending in the U.S. The bad news? The most avid of fans in Nielsen’s sampling of 4,000 consumers downloaded the most tracks for free, approximately 30 in a year. What’s more, those classified as “music fans” account for just 40% of the music-buying public in America. Based on these numbers, I’m in the aficionado group — about 3-4 times per year, I’ll do a $100+ music buy — usually a mix of used CDs, new CDs, LPs, and digital music. I go to lots of concerts and musicals during the year, but don’t buy that much merch. I also listen to my music — I’ll note my Music playlist on the iPod is at 30,888 tracks, and nearly two-thirds of those tracks have been listened to at least 8 times.
Blood on the Stage. This is some exciting news. Playbill has announced that the Transfer Theatre Company will be mounting a production of the musical “Carrie” this fall. Transfer Theatre Company is what used to be known as the Neighborhood Theatre of Palos Verdes. In that guise, we saw truly excellent productions of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Parade” (the latter even better than what the Mark Taper Forum did). So I’m really excited about TTC’s production of Carrie. The original production was a notorious flop; the revival redeemed the musical’s reputation, and I can’t wait to see what TTC will do with it.
Veronica Mars Lives. Now I’m not into TV that much, except for a few guilty pleasures (cough, Dallas, cough, Survivor, cough, Smash). But I have been having fun with Kickstarter lately, so an article in EW about the brief UPN/CW series “Veronica Mars” being revived for a movie was interesting. Why? Because the only way it will happen is if a $2 million, 30-day Kickstarter succeeds. I’ve seen Kickstarter used for lots of things — cast albums, theatre productions, and some specialized movie projects, but this is the first time I’ve seen it for a major-market product with a major studio. It is also a gigantic amount they need to raise. It will be interesting to see if they can do it. [Note: In less than a day, they’ve raised over $800,000; if this pace continues, reaching $2,000,000 is clearly possible.] [ETA: In less than 8 hours, they are up to 1.84 million. I expect them to reach their goal in under 24 hours. Amazing!] [ETAA: They made it, in less than a day. Expect to see funding efforts for movies like this again.]

Music: The Wedding Singer (Original Broadway Cast): “If I Told You”

Entertainment News Chum: Pierced Ears, Smash, & Ticketmaster Competition

Posted onTuesday, February 5, 2013Tuesday, February 5, 2013Authorcahwyguy

userpic=masks Today’s lunchtime news chum brings together a collection of stories all about the entertainment industry:

A Period Problem. A recent LA Times article explored a growing problem in period movies: Period actors who don’t look period. The problem is that audiences these days expect their movies to correctly reflect the period, even in high definition. Everything must be exact. Now combine this with actors who actually have good diets, visit the dentist, have tattoos and piercings, and you have a problem. Somethings you can cover with makeup. Others you can. The article gives the example of Daniel Day Lewis’s pierced ear, and Brad Pitt’s pecs, but I’m sure there are others.
A Smashing Problem. Tonight, Smash returns to the schedule. Many people thought the first season turned into a train wreck. I actually enjoyed the first season, but do agree that some of the subplots were simply silly and some of the musical numbers made absolutely no sense (such as the Bollywood number, which I enjoyed anyway). BuzzFeed has a very nice article exploring the first season of Smash, and presenting their opinion as to why the first season became a train wreck. From everything I’ve read, the new showrunner is doing a good job bringing the show back to where it should be.
A Ticketmaster Problem. When I went to purchase tickets for Elton John, Caesars was using a ticketing service I had never heard of: AXS. They still added outrageous service charges, so I put them in the same book with Ticketmaster (I use them only when I must). The LA Times had an interesting article on who is behind AXS: Evidently, AXS is AEG’s competitor to Ticketmaster. AEG is moving to use AXS at all of its Los Angeles venues — including the Staples Center (and for all Staples sports tenants). The transition from Ticketmaster will slowly be moved out. Only two venues I frequent use Ticketmaster (Pantages and Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza). I avoid fees at the first by going to the box office in person; I avoid fees at the second by being a season subscriber.

Foolproof Science

Posted onTuesday, January 8, 2013Authorcahwyguy

userpic=mad-scientist I’ve been staring at my saved links, wondering if I could construct a coherent theme out of any triple, when the titular theme hit me (and no, I’m not talking about Courtney Cox):

Tracking the Guest. There are a few articles here, all related to the “One Mouse, One World”. First, Disney is introducing a new system to track its guests. In the name of “convenience”, they may soon be selling a bracelet that contains an RFID chip. This chip would serve as a credit card in the park, as your admission ticket, as your door key for your Disney hotel… and would also allow the park to track where you visit in the park, when you visit, the order you visit, how many times you go to the restroom, and which ones you use. Well, I’m not sure they would do the last two, but they might. Remember, this is the park that requires a fingerprint for entrance in Florida, and is now taking your picture if you use a multiday pass in Anaheim. But their motives are only for good, right?
Reaching Your Goal. Here’s another use for science: Figuring out a guaranteed way to get on The Price is Right. Yup, this guy used science and spreadsheets to figure out how to maximize his chances of getting selected to go on the show. Interesting read. You might get more prizes easier by going on Jeff Probst.
Obesity is Rampant. Everywhere you look, things are gaining weight that shouldn’t. Today’s guilty party: The standard reference Kilogram. Looks like it needs to shed a few micrograms. But it needn’t worry. Being moderately overweight might not be that bad.