It’s been a minute… actually let’s be real folks, it’s been several HOURS since we’ve last spoken. I thought the 6 PM idea was a good one for a blog, letting the name be a placeholder for the time to expect new content. What I didn’t expect was that my penchant for personal “slacktitude” would get in the way of me actually trying to build this thing. Well peeps and bees (and if you’ve heard me say that either in person, behind a microphone, or over the radio airwaves - it’s a play off the old Wu-Tang reference) THAT… ENDS… TODAY. 6 PM is back, and regardless of what is or isn’t running through the noggin each day, I’m going to try and spit something at you that’s worth following, paying attention to, and hopefully commenting on.
The thought that’s been affecting me over the past few months is this: Is the process worth the result? Do the MEANS justify the end, to take a different take on a classic social phrase. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to post work on the Internet and actually make yourself believe that it counts amongst a vast sea of random content. You have to post your blog everywhere, attack forums with “Please check out my show” and then of course inundate your friends and family and internet acquaintances with various links to the work across social media. It’s the only way to make it feel “worth” it to be posting the work. Well ladies and germs, yours truly has made a decision that I believe to be life-changing and existence-affirming all at once — I don’t care. One quote that I’ve always admired and loved is the following from former President Harry Truman: “It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you do not care who gets the credit.” I’m taking that quote and twisting it on its head to say that it’s amazing how enjoyable and cathartic the process of writing, doing a podcast, radio, or anything I choose to do can be if you simply put it out there and let that be it. Blogs are nothing more than 21st century diaries at this point. The beauty behind a diary was that it was for the writer, because the writer was the real. So here you go, I’m going to share what’s on my mind every day to stay creative and stay proactive, most likely pissing everybody off at some point, but these are simply one man’s thoughts - albeit a spectacular one of a kind man. ”I’m not a businessman… I’m a BIZNESS… man!” Arrogant? Yes. Honest? No. Funny? I damn well hope so.
So here’s what’s rattling around inside the grape today, let me know what you think, or at least let YOU know what you think about it. With the news from NBC that Community will not be a part of the midseason programming schedule, but will finish its run sometime in 2011, I felt compelled to comment and try to juxtapose that reality with some less-positive related developments. First, the tough truth. If you’re familiar with the television industry, NBC’s promise to make sure all planned third season episodes will run is not exactly a “promise.” It may run, but if it does, they will try and place it in no man’s land on a Saturday night, maybe running two a week just to get them out of the way. You’ll have to follow the show online to even realize when it comes back, and then NBC will feel they fulfilled their obligation. Technically they’re right, but let’s try to keep this real - Community is dead in the water. You can read tons of stuff on the show and feelings internally and externally about the decision so I’m not going to go that route. I’m taking it from the perspective of WHY this… and NOT that.
Community isn’t the first show, nor will it be the last to suffer this kind of fate. Look back at Firefly, which still holds a devoted fan following, holds annual conventions, and still ranks as one of the most contentious cancellations in small screen history. It didn’t rate, Fox put it on a Friday night where no shows ever truly succeed, because people aren’t home, and that was that. Whedon’s show was no more. If you haven’t watched the travails of Serenity, you definitely owe it to yourself to do so to see THE most overlooked show of the past twenty years. But let’s go with even less-known fare that felt the power of poor ratings overruling quality. Shawn Ryan, one of the more talented and critically acclaimed show runners of the past decade, best known for The Shield, is responsible for a failed show from 2009 that might have been one of the more well-constructed shows in recent memory. It was called Terriers. What? You haven’t heard of it? Of course not… but you should have. If you had, you’d STILL be watching it. I’m sure you have your own examples, your Freaks and Geeks, your Undeclared, etc, but the crux is on what’s unseen rather than what’s seen. The key question is why these shows end up as long-term television omissions and so much dreck stays on the air for decades.
Innovation is a risk, whether financial, personal, professional, or psychological. It takes effort with the definite possibility of nothing in terms of reward and sometimes the potential for exorbitant cost. Dan Harmon put together a show about a study group from a local community college and as the pilot aired, the one thing the masses understood was that Chevy Chase was doing a television show. I submit to you that the reason why the public never heard more about what Community was actually going to be is that the network executives either didn’t know, or more likely, didn’t care because they couldn’t find a way to market it. I’m not certain that they have any clue what “meta” even means, much less what an original concept they had staring them in the face. So here’s 9:30 PM after The Office, but the advertising is going to focus on what the show isn’t instead of what it is, and the result is obvious. For Season Two, we’re going to put the show directly against the most successful comedy on television, a great show in its own right, The Big Bang Theory. Established with Chuck Lorre as executive producer and Jim Parsons fresh off his Best Actor Emmy. In the words of Ron White, “now THERE’S a good idea.”
But why does Whitney succeed? While we’re at it, why did (insert bullsh$%) show here continue to get renewed over and over and somehow continue to draw ratings? One of two choices, either because the networks gave them a chance, or because a lot of people are just DEE YOU EMM - dumb. People consistently flock to the most vapid crap imaginable, never questioning the stupidity or the nonsense of it all, but miss out on actual art. Whitney Cummings has become a popular comedian thanks to her work on Chelsea Lately and friendships with the right people in stand up comedy. She executive produces and created 2 Broke Girls, which while not a perfect show, is quite good. She is supposedly past the expected and cutting edge. The show she stars in that carries her name, features the most unlikable lead I’ve seen on television in quite some time (her) and focuses on cheap sexual humor, one liners, and hipster sarcasm to be funny. It also features a laugh track. During the cold open, the audience is silent. As the credits end, Cummings makes the point that the show is taped before a live studio audience. I found that amusing because it seems to me that if she HADN’T told the audience that, we’d have all thought the laughter was canned. It sounds so unbelievably fake and contrived that it certainly feels like the classic laugh track. She’s basically screaming at us, SEE, this is FUNNY! Listen to the REAL PEOPLE laughing! Please LAUGH with us! No thanks… that show is garbage, pure and simple. But it’s almost a “certain” renewal according to TV By the Numbers.
I know not a single person that watches and actually enjoys the show, which I hope shows more about the people I choose to associate with, even casually, but I cannot imagine why anyone would watch the program. It makes no sense to me at all, hence the title of this blog. I’m going to give you an answer, but my guess is it’s going to be highly unsatisfactory. So here goes nothing:
- The networks, the suits, the advertisers, which in effect are nothing more than a cabal, decided beforehand that (whatever) show would succeed. Even if the ratings were mediocre, they were going to push it down everyone’s throat to make sure that everyone possible would be exposed to it. They were going to MAKE it a success. In NBC’s case, they’ve been one of the biggest failures of the past five years. Their news organization has become a joke thanks to a cable disgrace known as MSNBC. Their programming was driven by General Electric, run by a terrible executive who had no clue how to run his own company, much less hold sway for a television network. Immelt and Zucker were embarrassments, shills, and dopes. Is Comcast any better? Time will tell, but NBC is so poorly run at this point that without clearing house, I fail to see much in terms of a future. CBS lapped the field years ago thanks to a few sitcoms and then the boom of the crime procedural, which they continue to milk for all they possibly can.
Community is a niche show that needs time to build, but it also needs the RIGHT time to build. Donald Glover is starting to break out as a major player in show business behind his music work as “Childish Gambino,” his stand up work, and the cult phenomenon of the “Troy and Abed” characters that all stemmed from his writing work on 30 Rock. You could run down the entire list of people from the show and see the success that’s coming. But because of NBC’s incredible ineptitude, we will continue to see Whitney and reality television over and over and over and over and watch the good shows fall through the cracks and end up on the DVD shelves of people I would like to know. For other examples, see Arrested Development, the aforementioned Firefly, Freaks and Geeks (Apatow’s start), Family Guy (Before the comeback), and even stuff like Upright Citizen’s Brigade or Cross and Odenkirk’s Mr. Show. I ask you, as I close for today, and this has been stream of consciousness, which often happens with yours truly… what do we do about this? If we don’t really factor in the decisions, particularly with the utter farce that is the Nielsen system, how to we make sure that what matters… gets seen. Think of this final point:
There’s no “college radio” for television… if someone could make that happen and somehow make it matter, ponder the possibilities. In the words of my hero, Dennis Miller,
Of course that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.
And as I always say to close - You can’t see me, but I’m throwing up deuces. That means peace folks. Catch you on the flip.
-J
