Month: June 2012

Nikki and the Gang Love on a Guy Whose Work Truly Deserves It

Deadline.Com gets it very, very right. (And wait’ll you get to the really cool part about Louis C.K. writing all the episodes.)

‘Louie’s Louis C.K.

It would be an understatement to credit Louis C.K. as another stand-up who has redefined situation comedy like Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. C.K. isn’t just making funny TV every week in Louie as a single New York City father. He’s revolutionizing it with an anthology of exceptional short films. After pushing the boundaries of multi-camera comedy onHBO with Lucky Louie, C.K.’s latest show on FX serves as an evolution to the festival and Showtime short films he created throughout the ’90s: The black-and-white jazz mockumentary The Legend of Willie Brown, the Elia Kazan-esque Ice Cream and the Depression-era talkie sendup Hello There to name a few. These bellwethers laid out the themes that C.K. harps on in Louie: Man’s challenge to conform to socially acceptable roles (i.e. not asking 19-year-olds out on dates as C.K. did in the episode ‘Duckling’) and the absurdity of urban life gone awry (accidentally tossing a lunatic vagrant into oncoming traffic in ‘Bummer/Blueberries’). The TV Academy is already more than OK with C.K. having lauded Louie last year with Emmy noms for comedy writing and lead actor.

A Genuine Robin Reed Cartoon

Robin Reed, Cartoonist Supreme (among other things – check out Robin’s Kindle goodies) has come through with this televisiony comment from her archives.

And, as she way too modestly adds, it “was also in National Lampoon’s Best Cartoons of the 21st Century.

read article

Hey, It’s the Doctor Who Puppet

…What else can we say?

I’m back! I had a busy week of traveling around New York, including a visit to the Eastern tip of Long Island. I explored the beach and met some of the local wildlife. Crabs are lovely creatures, though they do get cross when you pick them up. I may have been pinched a few times.

This is the Way TV Ends. Not with a Bang but a…

TV networks try to connect with young, tech-savvy multitaskers

With kids watching less live TV, networks are coming up with new ways to reach young viewers on their smartphones, laptops and tablets

By Dawn C. Chmielewski and Meg James, Los Angeles Times
Hollywood has a problem. He’s Cole Chanin-Hassman, and he’s 10.

Like many other kids his age, the Los Angeles fourth-grader counts among his entertainment tools his Xbox 360 game console, his Android phone and his computer.The television is almost an afterthought. When Cole comes home from school, he turns on Cartoon Network‘s “Regular Show,” but the characters on the TV screen compete for his attention with the world-building game “Minecraft” and a parade of YouTube videos on his computer.”Sometimes, I’ll kind of lift my head up a little bit and watch,” Cole said. “But usually I’m just kind of listening to [the TV] and playing on my computer.”Cole’s habits illustrate the enormous challenges that confronttelevision networks fighting to remain viable and profitable in the digital age. They’re losing viewers, and they know it.

But here’s the thing: This only matters to TV executives. How we get our entertainment isn’t the big consumer concern – as long as we get the most entertainment the easiest way. Video doesn’t kill the TV star. It just co-opts him or her…and takes the money too.

Whew.