Since tomorrow is the 4th of July and no one reads blogs anyway on holidays I thought I’d do my Friday question on Thursday.A reader asked about those pop up ads and ridiculous banners that now appear during programs. As a writer, does it drive me nuts?
YES! As a writer. As a director. As a viewer.
The pop ups are intrusive, they’re DESIGNED to divert your attention from the show you’re watching, they’re completely disrespectful to the creative team that mounted the show, and the audience resents them.
You want to say to the network geniuses who dreamed up these screen invaders, how would you like it if you were in the middle of a private conversation and I jumped in and started screaming for thirty seconds?
Or you’re driving on the freeway and I stick my hand in your face for thirty seconds?
Or you’re in the middle of sex and Universal tour bus drives through your bedroom?
Writers kill themselves to create compelling and entertaining stories that hold the audiences’ attention. If we wanted Kathy Griffin to suddenly appear in the corner of the screen we’d put it in the script. If we thought the viewer was so stupid he wouldn’t know he was watching FRASIER just by seeing Frasier on the screen, we wouldn’t be writing Cezanne jokes for the show.
I find it amusing that networks are so concerned about the program content that they note the writers and producers to death and then when the show is aired it’s obliterated by Brad Garrett or David Caruso (and nothing can kill a laugh faster than seeing that mug on TV).
I remember watcing an episode of SABRINA and as an experiment they employed that Pop Up Video device throughout the entire episode. A character would say a line and a box would blip on saying the cat in this scene died a week later. I felt sorrier for the writers than I did the cat.
I understand that people fast forward through commercials and promos and networks need alternative ways of getting their messages across but turning off viewers is not the way to attract them. I wish I could get some network brass to read this. Hey, is there any way I could put a widget on the bottom corner of their computer screens?
Amen to that. Those pop ups are the visual equivalent of cockroaches crawling across your screen. I fear, however, that old timers like us are dying breed. The current and next generation of tv watchers have come to accept this visual pollution as normal. Hey, we're paying 12 bucks for movies and watching commercials before them. Why not inserting popups in actual movies. There's a fortune to be made there. AGGHHHH.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had to put up with any of this nonsense, because every TV show I watch I get from Netflix, either on DVD or via streaming.
ReplyDeleteVote with your dollars, folks.
Funny thing, I just recently answered a survey of how our network should proceed, moving forward and the first thing I mentioned was the pop ups. I said if we did not have a compelling reason for there existence in the program, GET RID OF THEM.
ReplyDeleteI am sure I was ignored...but hey, I tried. :-)
I hate these splash promos. I also hate the networks that "squeeze and tease" during the end credits and theme.
ReplyDeleteAt least British viewers are speaking up:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2176281/BBC-forced-by-viewer-pressure-to-stop-squeezing-credits.html
Ken,
ReplyDeleteYou SHOULD write them into the script. Hundreds of them. Little Kathy Griffins and Bill Engvalls popping up and fighting each other in a battle to the death, on the arena of Peter Griffins face.
It drives me batty when I see it at the television station I work at. It's annoying, it sometimes unintentionally blocks the action on the screen, and it's totally f*cking unnecessary. And if you don't do it, you could get fired. You know you're annoying the viewer, and you do it anyways because everyone else is doing it. Thus is the state of television today.
ReplyDeleteJames, it wasn't just the British public who complained about credit squeezing, it was the TV Committee of the WGGB who waged a campaign; we few, we happy few, we band of brothers! And, like at Agincourt, we won.
ReplyDeleteWhat I love is when the geniuses who add these things place them over subtitles or supers that are actually part of the show. I'm just waiting for one of them to obliterate the solution to a murder mystery or something and cause a deluge of angry mail.
ReplyDeleteAmazingly, WGA president Patric Verrone has just lobbied to increase the visual pollution by adding banners that would alert viewers to instances of product integration. You know, just in case you're too engrossed in the show to realize that a character is singing the praises of some car or soft drink. I realize that product integration can distract from story, but surely not as much as this proposed "solution."
What's next? All the action of whatever program you're watching pushed on the left side of the screen and on the right side some guy telling people things like "You know that guy? Well, he's not really married to that woman he's talking to. That woman is actually a lesbian in real life. I was reading the paper the other day and she said she actually hated that guy. Wow, they're kissing... she must really be hating that... fucking dyke."
ReplyDeleteOkay, maybe not exactly like that, but you know how I mean.
Thank you, thank you. I resent the hell out of those images, even when they promote shows I like. Everytime the dancers whirled across the screen to promote Dancing with the Stars, I hoped they would trip.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we can bribe some tech at the network to make a fake popup ad just like I envisioned.
j bryant said:
ReplyDeleteWhat I love is when the geniuses who add these things place them over subtitles or supers that are actually part of the show. I'm just waiting for one of them to obliterate the solution to a murder mystery or something and cause a deluge of angry mail.
It's like the Heidi football game.
If most viewers HATE, HATE, HATE these as much as all of us here do (including me), then WHY are they still around? Do the networks have proof that it really helps whatever they're advertising? I know as much as everyone hates e-mail spam, there's some tiny percent of people ("idiots") who actually click on it, so it's worthwhile. Is there similar evidence for these popup visual cockroaches? I get that 14-year-olds don't mind because they've been staring at MySpace pages, but "teenagers won't mind" really isn't a good enough reason, on its own, to f*k with the months, if not years, of effort that dozens, if not hundreds, of professionals have put into whatever dramatic or comedic program is being broadcast underneath all that animated garbage.
ReplyDeleteone reason I loved the riff on the Simpsons where Marge sprays them down and kills the little pop-up ads. I still laugh every time I think of that one.
ReplyDeleteIt's the vicious cycle of life.
ReplyDeleteWe all think the quality is of programming has dropped off so fewer watch.
Less viewers means less ad revenue so programmers are forced to take advantage of every nook and cranny they can to sell even more ad space
It pisses us viewers off so we watch even less frequently.
Repeat ad nauseum.
I remember being very annoyed by the semi-transparent network logo in the lower right corner when that first started appearing. "WTF, I know I'm watching NBC get that off the screen!" I was a teenager then. God I wish that little logo was my only complaint about network programming these days.
But honestly, do the people making these decisions care at all about the viewing experience or are they simply just after the paycheck?
doug walsh said:
ReplyDeleteI remember being very annoyed by the semi-transparent network logo in the lower right corner when that first started appearing. "WTF, I know I'm watching NBC get that off the screen!" I was a teenager then. God I wish that little logo was my only complaint about network programming these days.
I remember when Mystery Science Theater 3000 moved to the SciFi Channel, and the logo was covering up the silhouettes at the bottom of the screen. People protested enough that SciFi not only made the logo transparent, it moved it to the opposite side of the screen just for that show (which helped a lot).
Sometimes viewers can make a difference.
I was going to suggest that shows write in characters that beat the crappola outta those pop-ups, but lo and behold, Darth Weasel mentions SIMPSONS did it already.
ReplyDeleteSigh.
I now return to defending the shriveling equity in my house and performing CPR on my 401k.
-AE
Here is a question for you. I think most writers crave feedback. Did people read your article, watch your show, etc.?
ReplyDeleteThese days, you could go to jumptheshark.com and see if viewers liked your episode(s) or visit various Web boards. But what did you in the pre Google era???
I remeber in their book Stay Tuned: An Inside Look at the Making of Prime Time Television Richard Levinson and William Link mentioned a few days before the broadcast of their TV movie adaptation of William Bradford Huie's book The Execution of Private Slovik that one of them was watching a primtetime broadcast and during the credit crawl noticed an announcer coming on touting the next show. Feeling this would be inapproriate after the somber end of their movie they made a big stink until the network acceded to their request that the credits on Slovik run without such a voiceover. That was in 1974. Sadly the trend has been toward more intrusion. SNL some years ago had a skit where so many graphics, running headlines, etc. filled the screen the anchor was forced into a tiny corner.
ReplyDeleteBob of course provided the ultimate answer--watch stuff on DVD.
Lewis Black at the 2007 Emmys:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFYhupmhhBw
Done right, widgets work wonders. In this day and age, the more complex the incoming information, the better. That's why I like plaid so much!
ReplyDeleteBut if everyone watches the shows on DVD, then the networks cease to exist. And if the networks cease to exist, there's no one to produce the shows to begin with. Not to mention that the only reason the shows are on DVD is because they're at least moderately successful. Given how quickly a show can get canceled today, I find it hard to believe that someone could get the financing to a full season of an untested show.
ReplyDelete"Those pop ups are the visual equivalent of cockroaches crawling across your screen."
ReplyDeleteAnd what's worse, they distract me from the actual cockroaches crawling across my screen.
DANCING WITH THE NOBODIES, WEDNESDAYS AT 8.
My favorites are the intrusive widget ads for the shows you're actually trying to watch behind them at that moment. "You're watching "Doctor Who" on the Sci-Fi channel. I KNOW what I'm watching, or
GET A LARGER PENIS NOW WITH DICK-GRO. 818-555-1212
am trying to watch around the ad for the show they are blocking.
The Squeezing of closing credits is
ONLY 6 MORE MONTHS UNTIL SEASON 5 OF LOST!
particularly annoying, as they become unreadable. I may want to know who that maddeningly familiar face on the delivery guy belonged to, but
YOU CAN WEIGH LESS TOMORROW!
when already pretty small lettering gets squeezed down to three pixels per letter, it's impossible.
AMERICA FACES CERTAIN DESTRUCTION BY MIDNIGHT. DETAILS ON TOMORROW'S TODAY SHOW.
When I hit the mute on my TV, the closed captions automatically switch on. If I switch over to the TV Guide channel to find out what
WHY NOT GET UP AND GET A PEPSI RIGHT THIS SECOND?
is on, I naturally hit the mute, since I do not need to hear two losers from a reality show of three seasons back interview bimbos from THE HILLS about who they are rooting for on American Idol while I'm
IT'S NO SHIRT WEEK ON BIG BROTHER, TONIGHT AT 8. SEE JULIE CHEN'S CHEST.
tring to find out what's on. The idiocy is, they position the closed captions over the listings, so I can't see the only thing I've switched them on to see. Do they REALLY think that
BE TOLD WHICH CERTIFIABLY INSANE REPUBLICAN TOOL TO VOTE FOR ON THE FOX NEWS CHANNEL
anybody turns to the TV Guide channel for the programs? Even the immediate family of the people on the programs don't do that.
WATCH HOUSE. LAUGH AND VOMIT AT THE SAME TIME. IT'S THE FUN WAY TO SLIM DOWN.
I have seen shows where the dialogue continues over the closing credits, and they STILL turn the sound down and lob a voice-
WHO WILL BE ELIMINATED FROM PROJECT RUNWAY TONIGHT?
-over over the dialogue.
But I'm just a
HOT DISEASED WHORES ARE WAITING FOR YOUR CALL NOW! 818-555-1212.
cranky old curmudgeon.
Regarding the opening paragraph I can just say, have a look at this comic strip ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I now watch on the actual television is basketball, and even then I get so annoyed at the constant ads I often lose interest and turn the television off. I didn't realize that they did the pop-up ads for shows, as well. I download anything I watch because the networks have driven me away.
ReplyDeleteGrant, if everyone watched shows on dvd or off the internet then shows might be produced by people who care about something other than advertising other products.
D. McEwan, it took me a bit to realize what you were doing, but I think that was my first laugh of a bad day. Thank you.
Marcel, I related to the comic because, as I'm in Canada, I don't actually celebrate the 4th of July as anything other than it being a Friday. We in Canada have come to grips that many in the US don't understand the rest of the world doesn't revolve around them.
>Or you’re in the middle of sex
ReplyDelete>and Universal tour bus drives
>through your bedroom?
Um, well, yeah!
Hey, the Fox Network MORONS are so stupid they are going to what amounts to a 4 Act Structure for their 30 minute sitcoms... and they wonder why people don't stay tuned for the garbage on their network. Morons. Complete Morons, although honestly, I've never met a smart network exec in 20 years. That's not an exaageration. I've met some nice execs, some benign execs, but mostly I've met arrogant, stupid people who are completely unqualified for their jobs. Anyone who owns an entertainment company stock should be very, very worried about their investment.
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm still pissed off at NBC for being the first network to kill off its shows' theme songs in 1994 (Frasier got a legacy reprieve, and by the end of the decade, was the only TV show left with a closing theme, which might be worth a story by itself on how the producers managed to keep NBC from sticking a closing VO promo in there the way they did with every other show).
ReplyDeleteC'mon, Ken, what are the 97% of the film brats at the University of Spoiled Children too dumb to get careers shooting NASCAR ads supposed to do with themselves? They have a right to a job in the Entertainin' Bidniss, and tormenting their talented classmates with idiot ideas is such niiiiiiice payback for all the humiliation they suffered when the prof laughed at their sadsack attempts to write their name the same on three consecutive attempts.
ReplyDeleteI mean, if these guys didn't exist, places like Residuals would go out of business selling booze to writers. (Oh, right, Residuals now sells booze to grips)
jbryant said:
ReplyDeleteAmazingly, WGA president Patric Verrone has just lobbied to increase the visual pollution by adding banners that would alert viewers to instances of product integration. You know, just in case you're too engrossed in the show to realize that a character is singing the praises of some car or soft drink. I realize that product integration can distract from story, but surely not as much as this proposed "solution."
It's surprising that our talentless 1937 Socialist Worker's Party organizer with a turkey neck in a bad suit and a Hitler haircut is publicly demonstrating himself the moron he's been since he was dropped on his head the day he was born?
Patric Verrone and Alan Rosenberg are proof that the rules need to change so that the otherwise unemployables can't pay the rent by becoming professional apparatchiks - let them curl up in the boxes under the freeway overpass where they belong.
The popups always turn their heads and stare out of the TV. How freaky is that if you're not watching TV fully clothed?
ReplyDeleteIt's like the old Yakoff Smirnoff joke. "In America, you watch television. In Russia, television watches you."
Scrubs did an amusing parody of this in one episode, promoting a fictional spinoff series starring the Janitor and Ted.
ReplyDeleteSimpsons of course, did a great parody of the pop up banners as well. But then, later on in the recent series, I noticed more than one direct product placement, by name, which wasn't feeling good. I felt used. Don't force the characters to use real products, like the shampoo Marge raves about or whatever. And so on.
ReplyDeleteI thought the whole pop up business was also to screw up TiVo, so no one can get a pristine copy...
I'm sick of those pop ups! If I'm watching Super Password, Match Game, or Password Plus on GSN, it keeps popping up to call GSN Live to play their games. Maybe I don't want to call and play, I just want to watch! Aside from that, it takes up the whole bottom portion of the screen and I can't see what the next word is on Password or the answer someone gave on Match Game.
ReplyDeleteTV Land does the same thing when promoting their She's Got The Look reality show. I'm sick of seeing previews for it. I want my classic TV back.
To TCinLA: There's always more money in selling booze to grips. Always.
ReplyDeletejim 7
To D. McEwan: 10/10!
ReplyDelete