Ere I Saw Elba starts us off.
How did they set up the stage for HOLLYWOOD SQUARES? I know you weren't on that show, though I share your dream of being a panelist on it. More generally, are game show sets just different compared to sitcoms?
See the above photo, which gives you a view of the set from behind.
Game shows are lit very differently from sitcoms. They’re all extremely bright. And they’re lit for tape, not film, although now everyone records in HD.
It also seems like today’s game shows are all frenetic light shows with lasers and sound effects. And some of the sets have become giant. Gone are the days of witty intelligent panelist just sitting at a dais. Now they’re STAR WARS video games.
PolyWogg asks:
Here's a Friday question about retooling shows. When I watched B-Positive last season, one of the few comedies I can stand even though it's not great, I kept wondering what they would do for S02 if renewed? The whole premise of S01 is that an acquaintance from high school donates a kidney to him. End of S01, surgery's done, all is good. But what happens after that? She was living with him, sure, but that could get creepy quick as he inevitably falls for her now in S02. So what's the hook? They've retooled the show, she's running a retirement home with an opp for fantastic guest stars each season, and he's a therapist who comes into consult. It's Cheers in a nursing home! J/K. What retooling of shows for, say, S02 do you think have worked well and others that completely sank?
PARKS & REC springs to mind as one that worked. Not that they changed the setting or premise, but their mid-course corrections turned it into one of the best sitcoms of its era. Good going, Mike Schur.
HAPPY DAYS and THE ODD COUPLE both switched from single-camera to multi-camera and that proved to be wildly beneficial for both. Kudos, Garry Marshall.
Most shows don’t work when you retool. If you have to change the premise it’s like making a U-turn in a battleship. A number of shows tried and failed. Two MTM spin-offs fall into that category. Both RHODA and PHYLLIS groped around after their first seasons.
We made a bunch of cast changes on AfterMASH for the second year, along with new spiffy opening titles. We were re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
I think my favorite example is SANFORD ARMS. Both stars left the show. As some wag said, “NBC just renewed the set.”
As for B-POSITIVE, you’re right, once he had his surgery and things were fine there goes your premise. They had to re-develop it for season two. There was a time networks wouldn’t pick up shows that only had a finite number of episodes. But all bets are off today as networks scramble to find anything that will attract viewers right this minute. They'll worry about season two if there's a season two.
I’ve talked about this before because it’s a very common problem on streamers and cable. Great first seasons that have natural endings, and then what? Usually, the “then what” is TV’s version of feeling around in a dark closet.
Houston Mitchell (one of my favorite writers) wonders:
I recently watched an episode of Matlock, where Andy Griffith and Don Knotts recreated a Judo scene from The Andy Griffith Show. There's a video on Youtube that shows them side-by-side and it's an exact recreation, which seems fine since they both involved Griffith and Knotts. I have seen other shows do an almost exact recreation of a scent from classic sitcoms of the past, and when asked about it the creators pass it off as a tribute, which may be true. My long-winded question: Does the original writer of the scene get any money for that if they are still alive?
I wish, but no. I think if you look at a lot of so-called “classic” bits on sitcoms they were derived from something else. The great candy conveyor belt scene in I LOVE LUCY — a direct lift from Charlie Chaplin’s MODERN TIMES.
If anyone deserves the money it’s Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton.
And finally, from Mike Bloodworth:
Do you think it's just the tiniest bit elitist that so many actors, directors and producers are now making shows for streaming services instead of the networks? Or am I just a dinosaur who doesn't realize that broadcast TV is dead?
I hate to say it but I think the latter. Streaming is the future. One just has to look at this year’s Emmycast to see that the exciting, innovative, original shows of today are on streaming platforms. Networks are filling their schedules with franchises. How many NCIS’s and LAW & ORDERS do we need?
Like I said, the future is in streaming.
What’s your Friday Question?
On the subject of retooling - do you feel that a show can be retooled so much that it ultimately soils the entire series.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of Brockmire - we loved Season 1, but Season 4 was so painful that it has tainted my memory of the entire show.
The Goldbergs is reaching that point. I keep hoping that they will announce that they are on their final season, because it's just getting difficult to watch.
Do you have any shows whose final season(s) ruined the entire series for you?
Chuck Lorre is an expert at retooling his sitcoms. Look at Mom's 1st season vs Anna Faris' last season. Two different shows but he made it better.
ReplyDeleteBill Lawrence is a good retooler, too. Halfway through Spin City's first season, he realized it was a workplace comedy, not a relationship comedy. Not only was Carla Gugino jettisoned as Michael J. Fox's girlfriend but she was cut out of the reruns. Also: Cougar Town went from "Courteney Cox tries to find younger guys to hook up with" to "The Cul-de-Sac Crew Drinks Wine".
In 2021, with all manner of special effects and movie magic at our disposal, why do we need a deadly weapon on the set?
ReplyDeleteFriday question that I don't know how to phrase!
ReplyDeleteI get suspicious when I see three or four or five writing credits for a film. In fact, I think there was a joke about a script having multiple writers in the movie "Notting Hill." But then I know you and others have worked on projects without getting a writing credit. And didn't Lawrence Town make a reputation for punching up scripts? So a film could have one writer shown in the credits but you and David rewrote most of it. But then I see a comedy with five writers given credit and I instantly think it's going to be awful and it often is.
Assuming you can understand my question, can you explain this phenomenon?
Here's my Friday Question:
ReplyDeleteI see this a lot and it drives me nuts. A story will hit the web--[Actor X] joins cast of [Awesome Forthcoming Project.]
But, the thing is, I know for a fact that [Awesome Forthcoming Project] has been wrapped for months. And there have been no major reshoots to incorporate a new actor/character. So why say someone has "joined" a cast that late into the process when it's obvious they've been with the project the whole time?
Huh. "Networks are filling their schedules with franchises. How many NCIS’s and LAW & ORDERS do we need?" I wrote about that just this week. https://www.rogerogreen.com/2021/11/09/is-network-television-dead/
ReplyDeleteI hate modern game shows. I blame WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE for this. Before, there used to be tons of content -- the show was full of questions, or events, or whatever (depends on the show) from start to finish. Now, you get about five minutes of actual game show. The rest is just fluff. You get a question. And then there's five minutes of backstory, closeups of people clasping their hands, zoom shots and droning keyboard notes -- all just trying to create suspense. It drives me crazy. The only ones worth watching are the few (like JEOPARDY) that have survived from before the change. Everything else is not worth watching.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteA great, unexpected, unrelated homage occurred in this season's penultimate episode of 'Billions' where Chuck (Paul Giamati) cooked an omlette. It was one shot, probably one take and lasted nearly five minutes. It was a recreation of the final scene of "Big Night." And it was brilliant.
THE OFFICE (US) - another Greg Daniels show like Parks and Rec. - also had some mild retooling early on. Season 1's Michael Scott was definitely closer in spirit and tone to the original David Brent. Season 2's changes made the character much more adorable and worth watching, and it also affected the show and its growing ensemble as a whole.
ReplyDeleteFriday question: I know you hated a lot of the music you played as a disc jockey, but could you have survived if you had to play 2 months straight of Christmas music like some stations do today?
ReplyDelete404, you may want to look at some of the BBC stuff. For a nice mixture of banter and actual questions, QI(Quite Interesting) is a nice diversion. It's what is known as a "panel game", where the humor/personality is important and, in this case, the celebrities have to test their knowledge.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to try radio, try the Radio 4 Quiz podcast, which has a revolving set of VERY hard quizzes, "Brain of Britain", "Counterpoint" (about music) and "The Round Britain Quiz", which is a trivia quiz with cryptic questions.
Also try the "Says You!" podcast which is an American panel game that is very challenging.
I live in Columbus, Ohio. I personally believe that LAW AND ORDER: COLUMBUS would be a welcome addition to the franchise. Alongside NCIS: CLEVELAND, with boat chase scenes on Lake Erie.
ReplyDeleteFriday Question, which I've asked before and I hope you don't mind a second attempt: How do copyright law and residuals apply to YouTube clips of TV shows? There are numerous scenes from M*A*S*H, CHEERS, etc. on YouTube, often from personal accounts. Do those clips violate the law? Could you force them to be taken down if you wanted to (if you were the writer)? Can residuals be demanded by whoever owns the rights to the show? Do you get upset if a scene that you wrote is available online for free? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
MAD ABOUT YOU is a series that I believe was a reboot disappointment. Quickly, they eliminated Paul's friend Shelby and had Jamie quit her job and return to school. Over time they recast the roles of Jamie's parents more than once. Even the guest spots with Mel Brooks,while enjoyable, seemed forced and went against the show's stated premise.
ReplyDeleteI think you're referring to developments during the show instead of a reboot. Actually there was a revival of the show a few years ago with 12 new episodes, focused on Jamie and Paul's adjustments when their daughter leaves for college. It's a pretty good watch overall, maybe too many empty-nester cliches, but fun to see them all again with some of the other characters like Ira, Lisa, and Mark.
DeleteAnyway the first season of the original show wasn't great and Shelby was a terrible character/actor. Jamie quitting her job led to some fresh story arcs about her college experiences and eventually starting her own business. And I think the Mel Brooks episodes were wonderful and well integrated with the other characters, especially the hospital scenes where on his deathbed he asks Paul and Jamie to name their kid after his real name, Deuteronomy, and stages a musical number with the doctors and nurses. I'm curious what you think the "stated premise" of the show was and how it should have followed that. One of the joys of the series was how zany it was with a lot of physical comedy and stories that felt original and unlike other sitcoms. The "Pursona" episode was amazing. Clamenza!
Didn't I ask that exact question, only using the example of how Bill Asher recreated said conveyor belt scene from I LOVE LUCY on BEWITCHED, since he directed both of those episodes from those shows?
ReplyDeleteThe I Love Lucy episode "Lucy Does a TV Commercial" ("Vitameatavegamin") first aired on March 5, 1952. The night before on the Red Skelton Show (which was broadcast live), Red performed the Guzzlers Gin routine. Newspaper critics noted both Lucy and Red were doing Fred Allen's old vaudeville bit.
ReplyDeleteI recall seeing the Hollywood Squares set up when my dad and brother and I did the NBC tour in the early 80s.
ReplyDelete> Great first seasons that have natural endings, and then what?
ReplyDeleteTo me the perfect example of this was Californication. Tom Kapinos had enough material for 12 episodes, and the last one ended in a logical satisfying manner. Yet Showtime renewed them for 6 more seasons, so 6 more seasons were produced.
Ken-
ReplyDeleteWhat is your opinion on showing text conversations? I get that this is how we communicate now, but the type on the screen is usually so small that I almost always have to stop, rewind and move closer to read them (and then also have to read aloud to my wife). I don't find this any different than your pet peeve about inaudible dialogue. Thanks.
Blogger Eduardo Jencarelli said...
ReplyDeleteTHE OFFICE (US) - another Greg Daniels show like Parks and Rec. - also had some mild retooling early on. Season 1's Michael Scott was definitely closer in spirit and tone to the original David Brent. Season 2's changes made the character much more adorable and worth watching, and it also affected the show and its growing ensemble as a whole.
And teh supporting characters developed personalities beyond interchangeable office drone. Even Kelly and Angela were pretty much the same one-dimensional character in the first few episodes, and even Jim, Pam and Dwight were pretty two-dimensional compared to later episodes and seasons.
I might also suggest THE HUSTLER as an example of a game show that's very low-key and quiet, played on a set straight out of "Clue." And yes, QI is marvelous, especially in the earlier years when Stephen Fry was the host.
ReplyDeleteAnother sitcom that hugely improved from switching to multi-cam was "The Joey Bishop Show." The first season is barely watchable; the second and third seasons are gold (though in fairness, it too was completely retooled).
Scottmc, I never thought of “mad about you” as a reboot but you may be right.
ReplyDeleteDumping Paul’s friend did expand the role of Ira which worked out well, I think.
Changing the parents may have just been a way to keep the stars interested, i.e. “now you’ll get to work with Carol Burnett!”
FRIDAY QUESTION: I also noticed watching that show that in year four or five when Helen Hunt became a producer suddenly there were a lot more references in the scripts to how “beautiful” her character was.
Ken, do you think that was a coincidence or is that something a Star Who’s Now Also A Producer would do?
About Ken's bow to the early silent geniuses ....
ReplyDeleteFrank Tashlin, who later directed Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and Jerry Lewis films, was a Warner Bros. cartoon director. He would sit in a movie theater at the back with a flashlight and a notebook, and make notes of gags and camera angles.
Well, one of the favorites of Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng in particular was having two characters chase each other through the streets, stop when the light turns red, another chase runs through the other green light, that turns red, then their characters start again when the light turns green. Dead steal from Keaton.
And thanks especially for mentioning Laurel. Keaton called him the greatest of all. He was.
A lot of people knock the show that Happy Days became but you can't argue with success. It was on the verge of being canceled and Garry Marshall turned it around. They were getting killed in the ratings against Good Times and JJ with his catchphrase dynomite!! Garry decided to go in front of a live audience, add catch phrases and focus more on The Fonz. The show went through the roof!!! Lunch Boxes, Fonzie Dolls. Crazy. Lol
ReplyDeleteKen if you haven't read it you should check out Ron Howard's book on his years growing up in Hollywood. Great read.
On credit for old bits: Even the masters had gag men, the key being that the same gag in different hands usually became something new and not instantly recognized. In old comedy shorts, cartoons and even movies you'll see bits, plots, and whole sequences recycled or repurposed, since in pre-TV days it was assumed the previous version would never be seen again.
ReplyDeleteIn "Duck Soup", the Marx Brothers put a personal stamp on a mirror routine that had already been explored by Max Linder (a servant tries to hide a broken glass from hungover Max) and Charley Chase (as a cop bluffing a madman). In the Disney cartoon "Lonesome Ghosts", Goofy faces a playful ghost in a mirror and slowly gets suspicious. All variants of the same routine, each unique.
Abbott and Costello were famous for using ancient burlesque and vaudeville bits. Even their new material was crafted to evoke the old stuff.
Clyde Bruckman worked with Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, among others. When he wrote some Three Stooges shorts Lloyd sued over a scene involving an unraveling tuxedo, which echoed "The Freshman". Pretty nervy, since Lloyd himself often spoke of his character being "inspired" by a very specific film of a bespectacled hero.
On a larger scale Hollywood studios would immunize themselves by buying up old properties similar to ones in hand. I understand RKO bought the rights to Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" lest his estate claim "King Kong" was based on it.
Anyway, does our blogmeister have any good tales of ripoffs and/or legal battles claiming same?
Speaking of "I Love Lucy" and recycled bits, there was a scene on "Frasier" that seemed heavily borrowed from a Lucy episode. Maris was having an affair with her fencing teacher who didn't speak English. That had to form a four-language translation line from Niles to Frasier to Niles' housekeeper to the fencer. It was very similar to a scene where Lucy was arrested in Paris.
ReplyDeleteGlad someone had something nice to say about "B Positive," as I've become a fan of the fabulous Annaleigh Ashford (a Tony Award winner who now sings its theme and has become the show's primary character). I too wondered where season two would go, and feared the worst when Annaleigh's free-spirited character Gina was willed millions by someone at the senior home she worked at. Would she quit her job, become a world traveler, what? No -- she bought the home and runs it, bringing in a slew of talented veteran actors to join Linda Lavin (whose two guest appearances on "Mom" ranked among the series' funniest episodes) in comprising its residents. "B Positive" now is second only to Chuck Lorre stablemate "Bob [Hearts] Abishola" as my current favorite sitcom.
ReplyDeleteAs always Ken, thank you for answering my question. I sincerely appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteIn previous blogs I made known my intense dislike for "B-Positive." Retooled or not it's a show I just can't watch. To me it's a great example of Chuck Lorre's inevitable decline.
In my opinion the biggest retool failure was with "It's About Time" when they moved the cavemen to the present day. The show went right into to feces receptacle after that.
M.B.
https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?t=16699
ReplyDeleteAs the above thread—with far too many dead links — illustrates,
Chaplin had many unheralded and uncredited story and gag writers,
including Milt Gross
One anecdote, from an “as told to” Zanuck Bio:
“After about three months at Sennett's, Zanuck switched to Chaplin. Chuck Riesner, Chaplin's chief gagwriter, had heard about Zanuck and hired him. From the beginning he was Riesner's boy, and not Chaplin’s. ‘Chaplin took an instant dislike to me, I think, because of my youth more than anything else.’ The dislike, or at least disrespect, was reciprocal. As Zanuck describes writing gags for Chaplin: ‘We would sit around working up gags among ourselves. Riesner's job was to invent gags but not reveal them to Chaplin. He would place all the props and then let Chaplin ‘discover’ the gag. We’d sit in the background, holding our breath waiting for him to fall on it. If you made a suggestion— you're dead! He would always finally find the gag and damn near on every occasion he would bawl the hell out of us for not discovering it.’ “
And the inspiration for Chaplin’s Modern Times factory/assembly line scenes,
and The Gold Rush’s dinner roll dance, may have originated with Roscoe Arbuckle and Rene Clair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RMAfsbfr4k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNN7bd3QHFE
Clair's A nous la liberte seems to have inspired Chaplin's Modern Times. There was a lawsuit claiming infringement but both Clair and Chaplin tried to quell it. Chaplin claimed he never saw Clair's film and Clair was a great admirer of Chaplin and didn't want to take him down. It seems there may have been outside parties with their own unsavory interests that tried to press the lawsuit, which I think was finally settled out of court. In any case both films are brilliant. A nous la liberte is delightful with innovative early sound design. I love Clair's early work and he made a very successful transition to Hollywood though his films are somewhat underrated. Early Edition evokes Clair's It Happened Tomorrow.
DeleteI couldn't agree more about game shows. I just put on the new "You Bet Your Life." It has more neon than the Vegas strip and Jay Leno is no Groucho. The audience applauds and yells for everything. Even the duck is gone.
ReplyDelete-- I've also seen the "Hollywood Squares" set reconstructed for sketch comedy, particularly "In Living Color" and a recent "SNL", which featured Anya Taylor-Joy as Baby Spice surrounded by now-cancelled celebrities (Bill Cosby, Jeff Dunham, Jared from Subway, etc.).
ReplyDelete-- I thought Chuck Lorre would've gone with a more somber note in "B Positive" Season 2. Perhaps the kidney transplant didn't take and Drew is still stuck in dialysis. Or, Drew dies during the surgery (giving them an excuse to fire Thomas Middleditch, who's a weak actor and has some serious sexual harassment accusations), leaving Gina to figure out what to do next. That said, the focus on the nursing home is a pleasant surprise. It gives Annaleigh Ashford a chance to shine outside Broadway, and it becomes probably the first senior-friendly sitcom since "The Golden Girls". But Jane Seymour is now playing a nursing home resident; am I really that old?
-- @Andrew: Apparently YouTube is okay with users uploading TV or movie clips, as long as they don't monetize their channels. If all someone's channel featured was snippets of "Friends" highlights, they're OK. But if they were already producing my own topic-focused content (opinions on soccer, politics, cell phone models, etc.), accepting ad revenue and posting affiliate marketing links in the video descriptions, they wouldn't be allowed to post those "Friends" snippets.
That's very interesting. I didn't know that. Thank you, Liggie. (PS. Autocorrect is not a friend to your name.)
DeleteFirst, a Happy Disney+ Day to those who celebrate.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I second Joel Keller's comment about "Cougar Town". That show became very enjoyable after it became about drinking wine with friends (and playing Penny Can). It also then struck me as an analogue for "Friends". The six main adult characters each had a corresponding character on "Friends"; they'd all just moved to Florida and it was easier to understand how they could afford their homes. Even the bar stood in for Central Perk.
@Vincent
ReplyDeleteIt's good that Annaleigh Ashford has become the star of the show because it doesn't seem like her male co-lead (the guy from Silicon Valley) has the chops to pull off starring in a network sitcom. He is completely unlikable.
It turns out that Ashford was born Annaleigh Swanson, but it isn't clear why she changed her name. Her husband's name is actually Tapper. Maybe she wanted to be like Don Adams and move up to the top of the call list #FunFact
I really enjoyed this weeks Friday questions. Loved Parks and Rec, I didn't really notice the pivot though. I think another show that kept dragging on was Prison Break. Season one, they escaped. Now what. Ok, season two - another prison, just swap around who's incarcerated. I like the picture of the Hollywood squares set. I bet it was hot with all those lights. I agree - Jeopardy is the only real game show left. I think Ken Jennings is doing a great job.
ReplyDeleteQuestion I had while watching MeTV's Veterans Day re-running of the "M*A*S*H" finale. The last installment was originally planned to be a 2-hour show, which got extended by another 30 minutes to incorporate the real fire that went through the exterior set. From any of your interactions with the writers from that episode, what exactly got added for that extra half hour? And what portions of the original 2 hours got folded into the sequence involving the bug-out location?
ReplyDeleteAlso wondering if you remember how long your original interview was for the Q&A clips that MeTV did for that. Seems like MeTV would have collected a lot of oral history from everyone who was involved with those interviews that hasn't ever been publicly shared.
To Mike Bloodworth: Regardless of its setting, "It's About Time" was always feces-worthy. It's on many people's lists of the 10 worst-ever sitcoms, and deservedly so.
ReplyDeleteTo Liggie: If we're going to bring up senior-friendly sitcoms, don't forget "The Cool Kids" (Martin Mull is an always-welcome presence). It performed decently for Fox on Fridays in 2018-19, and likely would've received a second season had the network not signed a deal with the WWE for that night.
My thoughts on "B Positive": I was disappointed in its portrayal of dialysis, given that it is presumably based on the writer's personal experience. Dialysis isn't received in a quiet, pristine environment. You're in a large room that accommodates probably 50 people. It is not as pleasant as the series would have you believe. If they've taken a turn to explore an assisted living environment, I can only hope they take a page from the wonderful short-lived hospital series "Getting On" that aired on PBS based on a British format. It featured the fantastic Laurie Metcalf, as well as Alex Borstein. Metcalf should have won the Emmy that went (again) to Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I, for one, love Thomas Middleditch and find the talented Annaleigh Ashford's character beyond annoying.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I catch it in reruns, I always wonder about he backstory of how the “Our Finest Hour” episode of MASH came together. Did CBS order it? Who is David Lawrence and how did he become involved? How was using the interview as the driver decidedr? I’d love to read an “oral history” of this episode.
ReplyDeleteSpike you are correct, I meant to type retool not reboot.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes I did see the actual reboot on spectrum, it wasnt bad but also wasnt great, certainly no laugh out loud moments and it was hard to get past how old they all look now.
The first few years, before the baby came, they had some great episodes.
My favorite was “our 15 minutes,” where Paul shot a short film in the apartment.
My FQ involves streaming. Specifically, so many streamers -- particularly the free ones -- pick up classic series for streaming, which I very much enjoy.
ReplyDeleteMy question, however, is do the actors, directors, writers, etc., ever see royalties from this given that streaming didn't even exist when they signed their original contracts?
Thanks, as always,
Janet
To ask your question -- No, I never tire of Christmas music. You just have to know how to avoid the crap. No Johnny Mathis, Mariah Carey, Wham or that Bubble guy.
ReplyDeleteMy Friday Question - I had to babysit a bunch of kids (don't even ask) - we ended up watching "Clifford the Big Red Dog". It wasn't bad - they were into it. What kid's movie do you think hold's up?
ReplyDeleteWhat you can't see in the Hollywood Squares shot is there's a beat-up desk and a couple production staffers sitting there between the tic-tac-toe grid and the desks where Peter Marshall and the contestants sat. That's why you never saw a full shot of both (that and I'm not sure if cameras could handle that wide an angle). Subsequent versions of the show staged it differently so everything could be seen.
ReplyDeleteFor old-time game show fans, a pilot episode of Tic Tac Dough was shot in September for a possible return next fall, with Tom Bergeron as host and Harry Friedman (the previous executive producer of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! before Mike Richards) at the helm.
https://deadline.com/2021/09/tom-bergeron-tic-tac-dough-nbcuniversal-harry-friedman-1234840831/
I'm late to the game so I am going back through all the old podcasts (all great, by the way). I notice you discuss a lot of pilots that did not get picked up for a series for various reasons. Some of them, such as Characters, sound like they would be great and still relevant today. Is there anything that prevents these old pilots from being reconsidered now?
ReplyDeleteDidn't mean to post anonymous do replying with name included. :)
DeleteFriday Question:Hi Ken, what is your opinion on (mostly drama) shows that play a song over a montage of scenes , usually in the last few minutes of an episode, usually with very little or no dialogue (I don't know if there's a term for this)? I really don't like it, it seems like lazy writing and cheap emotional manipulation by the choice of song. I think of shows like Sons of Anarchy, Parenthood, House, the L Word, some of which used it way too much in my opinion, I'd rather get more dialogue than music (and I'm a musician).
ReplyDeleteThanks Ken for answering my FQ! :)
ReplyDeletePaul
aka PolyWogg
I watched B Positive. Actually, I think the dialysis patients were funny especially the sharp, tough lady who is gone now. The dentist, the nurse, and the football player are good. The guy who had the successful transplant--he pales when he's with other people. I wanted to see the fooball player/Gina relationship. The nursing home is not that intersting. It feels sad more than funny. Remember Vicki Lawrence on the recent "The Cool Kids"? That was a better, more fun version of retirement living. Not a "great" show, but good for laughs. I would rather watch that than B Positive.
ReplyDelete