Nov 07 2006
Producers in the News.
I regret to say that I have no real updates on the MHCH cartoons for the past couple weeks. It has been nothing but college work and working other jobs, all which take cartooning-time away.
The Simpson’s season 8 DVD is coming to stores, and a nice write-up about the show is over at ToonZone. Why this is any bit of news here? Because the author takes notice to why season 8 was such a smashing success. Mission Hill creators Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were the show runners at the time. (They are also “loved” in the Season 7 write-up.)
“Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were in a difficult position. As writers on The Simpson’s since Season 4, they were promoted to executive producers at the beginning of Season 7, replacing David Mirkin. Many fans felt that Mirkin’s work in Seasons 5 and 6 was some of the best quality material on The Simpson’s. How do you top that? It was no easy feat, but Oakley and Weinstein proved their stuff, as did many talented writers, and as such, Season 7 ended up as one of the best years in the show’s history.”
Both Bill and Josh are present for most of the commentaries for both season sets.
By the way, a trailer for the Simpson’s movie can be seen this coming Sunday at 8pm on Fox.
Bill Lawrence is in the news again. Well, the TV Guide magazine, to be precise, as a guest columnist.
The Creator of Scrubs Diagnoses the State of TV Comedy
by Bill Lawrence, TV Guide guest columnist – Nov 6, 2006
| My name is Bill Lawrence, and I like television comedy. (Way to go, Bill, the first step is admitting it.) The landscape of television is changing overnight. When I created Spin City and Scrubs, there were comedies all over TV. Now there are hardly any (as opposed to 23 different CSI’s, including “CSI: Nantucket,” arriving this mid-season).Scrubs isn’t on the fall schedule again. “Impossible,” you say, “NBC has always treated the show so well in each of its 160 time slots.” But alas, it’s true. [It has since been announced by NBC that Scrubs will return Nov. 30, in the Thursday, 9 pm/ET time slot.] It’s also true that young folks get more of their comedy fixes off of Internet sites like YouTube or Break.com. |  |
Now, I’m not technically young, but I’m only 37. And it’s not an old 37 — for instance, I make an effort to say “dude” a lot. And even though I’m basically computer illiterate, I’m trying to embrace the Inter-highway with something called Nobody’s Watching.
A few years ago, I did a pilot with Garrett Donovan and Neil Goldman for the WB called Nobody’s Watching. The network picked up other, hysterical comedies instead, changing television history forever. Really? No. They offered lame shows, and their network went away. Our obsession for Nobody’s Watching did not. Last summer, the show appeared on the Internet and was sort of revived by NBC. I say “sort of” because, unless I’m missing something, it’s still not on TV. (NBC doesn’t seem to be picking it up as much as they seem to be kicking it until it stops breathing.)
Anyway, we’re making viral videos of the show, putting them online and hoping someone cares. If this works, it raises questions about the future of television. Will the Internet start to drive content, with networks posting pilots online and picking them up based on public response? Are there other uses for the Internet besides e-mail and porn? As I surf the Web, I’m sure of one thing: If the Internet had been this popular when I was a kid, I would not have seen daylight. Even now, as I play online poker until 2 am, I can barely picture my son’s face. I wonder if he misses me.
I was going to quit the Internet cold turkey. Then recently, the unthinkable happened. A Nobody’s Watching video we made — a parody of the popular Diet Coke-and-Mentos video — popped. More than two million people have watched it so far. Does this mean anything? Will this show finally be on TV? Should I tell my wife that I lost most of our savings online? I don’t have the answers. But even if it’s not us, someone’s going to create a TV show on the Web that grabs hold of the zeitgeist and becomes a bona fide hit. No matter what dude pulls it off, I just hope that he or she doesn’t think I look old.
To check out Nobody’s Watching, go to nobodyswatching.tv.
How about [adult swim]?Frisky Dingo – Keeps me entertained quite well. They’re off to a great start and I hope it continues. I almost want the show to be a half-hour show, and not a 15 minute show. It seems just when its getting momentum it cuts off, but it’s still not hurting the show.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force – I actually got into liking that BananaHand Dog episode. It was quite funny. A little off in parts, but overall rather funny. However, the “party all the time” episode where Frylock gets sick, was not funny. Maybe I just didn’t get it, but there really was no point to the episode. For me, this season is turning into another “Hit or Miss” season. Which is sad.
Robot Chicken – Hooray for spoofing Calvin and Hobbes. Wonderfully done!
The adult swim fix underwent some changes recently. I don’t like that they have clips added. Save that for youtube… 
Just keep the shows on there. I hated having to watch a stupid commercial before every clip. Sometimes the clip was shorter than the commercial. Maybe I wouldn’t mind it so much if the commercial differed, but still, get rid of the show clips. And now, all of the sudden, between chapters of episodes, it kicks you out of full screen mode, which is lame. Hopefully that is just a bug and is being worked on.
Stroker and Hoop – Ugg, again, I have taping troubles. I go to hit record on my computer recorder, and it just freezes. And although it was the 1:30 am showing and not the 5:30, I didn’t feel like staying up and just set my TiVo to record it. Hopefully it won’t be too much trouble to transmit it over.
And if you haven’t been paying attention, another couple episodes of Gary and Mike are available to watch. Go get into it. I would hope that [adult swim] would pick up at least season one to put on the air.