As I've alluded to before, Garrett and I, along with other friends, gather at Graham's house once a week to watch TV shows on DVD. In the past we've watched West Wing, Firefly (I was not a regular attender for these first two shows since I was still in school at the time and valued my sleep, but I have since seen all episodes of both shows), Friday Night Lights (we got through season one and part of season two, I'm not sure if we're going to watch more or not), and Chuck. Last week we watched the first three episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and last night we watched three more. It's too bad I didn't watch this when it first came out in 2006. Allow me to explain.
There was an episode last night that made me NOT want to be in the TV industry, and I can't help but wonder how it would have made me feel if I watched it while I was in college. At first I asked, "Why in the world did someone not show me this before I declared my major?!". But then I realized I probably would have taken an idealistic point of view, rather than the cynical view I have now that I have gone through college.
So what was it that made me so adamently against working in TV after all? It was an exchange that took place between Jordan McDeere, the President of Entertainment Programming of fictional network National Broadcasting System, and Jack Rudolph, the chairman of NBS and Jordan's boss. A new reality show was pitched to them that Jack insisted they had to have because it would be an instant hit, but Jordan refused to bid on it because it was low, and she wanted NBS to cater to a higher caliber. She also works to get a well-written show about the United Nations on NBS, and of course Jack points out that no one cares about the UN.
Years ago, I would have been like, "Yeah, one day I'm going to be like Jordan!" Now though, I realize there are too many Jacks out there and not enough Jordans. And the Jordans get trampled on. In other words, she's not going to save TV, and neither am I. Studio 60 is smart humor, and it only lasted a season. It seems like a lot of good TV shows run short, whereas bad ones run forever (I mean, 20 years of Simpsons... really?!). So there you have it. I once wanted to save TV. Now I don't want to bother anymore because I know it's not going to happen. So I think this dream is officially in the toilet, as if not being able to get a job in the industry was not enough to do that. I still hope I can work on a movie one day though, I won't give up that long-lived dream quite yet. Now I just need to focus on... well... something else... writing I guess.
4 comments:
firefly is another example of a good show that didn't last very long.
this actually ties in with your post on lambert, in my mind. where's the line between giving up on society and doing our part to change it or try to make it better?
Unbelievably, The Simpsons has a lot of intelligent humor, with many a Shakespearean reference within the lines of the episodes. I never would have believed it had my eleventh grade English teacher not told us and proceeded to let us watch a clip of an example of this in the show. Granted, you had to actually BE intelligent to watch it, and most viewers aren't in that mindset when it's on. Then again, this was going on six years ago, and a series can evolve a lot in six years, so I don't know if it's the same now.
But yeah. A lot of it just isn't any good. And I usually don't like a lot of the 'good' stuff anyway, so I usually just don't bother with it, lol.
I do know the Simpsons has it's moments, but the two moments I have watched were pretty lame.
Funnily enough, I had next to no interest in network TV until after college... probably because we don't have cable so that's all I can watch besides DVDs!
hahaha anna's comment made me laugh .. "you have to actually BE intelligent to get it"
i think that when people pitch tv shows, there should be a season CAP! otherwise, story lines get so dull and eventually trashy (i'm pointing at you, grey's anatomy).
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