Month: September 2012

LB: Mary McDonnell Said the Truest, Wisest Thing in Showbiz on MAJOR CRIMES Last Night

There I was, watching a cutish episode of MAJOR CRIMES, containing the kind of humor I usually find cringeworthy, when suddenly Mary McDonnell’s character, Captain Raydor, came out with the most insightful line of dialog in the history of TV. Yes, I know that a writer wrote it,  probably James Duff (but I’m not finding that info on the web so if you have it let me know), McDonnell’s understated and totally sincere delivery is what made it ring so true.

The situation wasn’t exactly unique. It was one of those times when the FBI invites itself in on a local, in this case LAPD investigation, with the agent in charge calmly telling Raydor all the things the Major Crimes Unit is going to be giving him and his guys. Raydor listens calmly. Then, without blinking (a sure sign that she’s a star, btw, as Michael Caine once told me), Raydor says these immortal five words: read article

Be Bold Dept: Take on New Things!

No kidding around here. This is the most inspiration video we’ve ever seen, especially if you’re all about being creative:

Don’t know who Paula Scher is, but she’s all about asking questions, going where you haven’t gone before, and the reinvigoration of your work, your life, and the lives of everybody and everything around you, just by taking the risk of being daring. read article

“The Fien Print” on ABC’s THE ZERO HOUR

Take Me To The Pilots ’12: ABC’s ‘The Zero Hour’ – by Daniel Fienberg

The Pitch: Horologists, Nazis, Rosicrucians and Goose… Oh my!
Quick Response: In previewing “Do No Harm” last week, I mentioned that it was one of “three or four audaciously weird, wacky and possibly terrible (but possibly terribly addictive) new dramas” premiering at midseason. ABC’s “The Zero Hour” is another. Creator Paul T. Scheuring (“Prison Break”) is no stranger to seemingly unsustainable premises that may have been better suited to a miniseries format and I guess you could *kinda* argue that “Prison Break” found ways to regularly reinvent itself frequently enough to justify airing for four seasons, rather than for eight episodes as a Limited Series Event. But “Zero Hour,” with its tenuous and sometimes foolhardy alternate history involving the secret religious orders and scientific exploration and the Holocaust, is possibly even less suited for a long run and even more suited for a strictly capped episode run. Some stories aren’t meant to run for 200 episodes and I get the feeling that with its Rosicrucians, demon babies, underground clockmakers and 12-centric numerology, “The Zero Hour” should maybe run 10 hours, deliver answers and get out while the getting’s good.

Read it all read article

How the Copyright Bots Kept Us From Seeing Neil Gaiman Receive His Hugo for DOCTOR WHO!

What? There’s “copyright bots?” WTF?

How copyright enforcement robots killed the Hugo Awards – by  Annalee Newitz

Last night, robots shut down the live broadcast of one of science fiction’s most prestigious award ceremonies. No, you’re not reading a science fiction story. In the middle of the annual Hugo Awards event at Worldcon, which thousands of people tuned into via video streaming service UStream, the feed cut off — just as Neil Gaiman was giving an acceptance speech for his Doctor Who script, “The Doctor’s Wife.” Where Gaiman’s face had been were the words, “Worldcon banned due to copyright infringement.” What the hell? read article

Strong Female Characters Trump Sexual Violence

…Nonviolently, of course. (Hence our use of the word “trump” in the title, instead of “beat,” “kill,” etc. Ah, it’s good to be entitled enlightened. Excuse the Freudian slip.)

Study: We Benefit From Seeing Strong Women on TV – by Lindsay Abrams read article