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Speaking of Simpson’s Halloween specials I couldn’t resist posting this. In an episode aired a few weeks ago, Marge gets sick of the Fox promos cluttering her screen and asks the very reasonable question ‘can’t anyone just watch the show they’re watching?’.
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It’s 1959, and a screenwriter named Rod Serling is about to launch a show onto television called The Twilight Zone, it will not only bring veiled social commentary onto an unsuspecting world, but also provide the plots for many a Simpson’s Halloween special. Before any of that though, he has to convince the most important people in the world of television (no, not the audience)… the advertisers that his new show has legs, and that together they can make “product pushing that much easier”.
The first video, is Serling’s pitch that was played before viewings of the pilot episode, the second video is a series of sponsorship billboards “product pushing” everything from cigarettes to shaving cream… I guess not that much has really changed with television, except maybe the cigarettes.
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Not surprisingly, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip reignited an interest in Saturday Night Live for me. Sure Studio 60 over romanticised the importance of late night comedy, and its place as a cultural institution, but I still wouldn’t change an episode.
Comedy and satire are important (as I went on about here), and although SNL isn’t perfect, its still pretty good. Locally however, while The Chaser may not have the long history that SNL does, it has been having the actual, tangible impact on Australian culture that Studio 60 claimed its show-within-a-show was having.
This week SNL was hosted by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who pokes fun at himself in this ‘digital short’, the second video is from an earlier ‘digital short’ this season where Andy Samberg serenades Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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The Emmy’s aired last night here in Australia, and while it was your usual awards show fare, I thought a few moments were worth sharing…
In order of video above we have; a Family Guy musical tribute to the current state of television (Scrubs fans watch out); the cast of The Office making fun of Steve Carell; Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert talking global warming; and finally the uncensored version of Sally Fields bizarrely censored acceptance speech.
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ITV1 had an unfortunately long technical fault the other day at the beginning of their live broadcast of Hell’s Kitchen. Fortunately for me though its the perfect chance to show off what happens to a network when everything goes to hell. For over seven minutes the ITV technical fault caption graced viewers screens, along with an announcer apologising for the problems.
Besides the rather cool graphic used during the downtime, I wanted to mention that I’ve never seen something like this happen in Australia, I’m not saying we’ve never screwed up a live TV broadcast, but what happens when their is a technical fault? I’ve certainly never heard an announcer come on and apologise for it, is that a purely British oddity or do I just not watch enough television?
Thanks Andy for the video, and check out ITV1’s idents collection here.
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For someone who makes quite as big a deal about The Simpsons as me, I have to admit.. I still haven’t seen the movie, although not through lack of trying.
Watch David and Margaret’s review above (and David’s virginity admission), or check out what Triple J’s resident critic thought about it here.
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Channel 9 is no longer the one, the dramatic fall, the “spiritual death” if you will of Australia’s once favourite television network is the subject of Gerald Stone’s new book, Who Killed Channel 9? The Death of Kerry Packer’s Dream Machine.
Stone was on this mornings Weekend Sunrise talking about the book, the possible movie adaptation, morale at Nine and why it matters who owns and runs our television broadcasters.
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The Chaser was again lambasted on Today Tonight last Friday over a stunt they did about mobile billboards. It was the lead story on that nights edition, filed by reporter Bryan “funny in a sad way” Seymour, and stirred this moving response from Anna Coren.. “it really is a negative war on everything”.
And last night Chris and Andrew appeared on The Nation to talk about their new musical Dead Caesar among other things.
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Alan Jones delivered his final editorial on the Today Show last Friday. I’m surprised he lasted this long, but I’m also surprised about a lot of things that happen at Nine.
Bask in his final words in the video above. Unfortunately he’s not going away for good though, with new videos starting soon on 2GB’s website. I really have no time for Alan Jones, but he’s always fun to laugh at. (Thanks for the video Naomi).
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Back in January I suggested that the behind the scenes drama of Sunrise would probably make for a good show in itself. And, while the day to day Hollywood reports and weather wagons probably outweigh anything worthy of a scripted drama, when you start to get people questioning the relationship of the alternative Prime Minister of a nation to the shows producers, throw in angry war veterans, the entire Australian media, and an apparently annoyed station owner who happens to vote the other way it suddenly all becomes pretty interesting.
I like Kevin Rudd, and I like Sunrise, and quite clearly Sunrise likes Kevin Rudd. His presence on the show has raised his profile immensely, I look forward to him being the next Prime Minister of Australia, and I look forward to Sunrise however subtly taking some credit for it.
Read the press release about todays announcement below.