It’s not as drastic a change as I was planning, but idents.tv now looks slightly different! It’s a bit wider, and now has a third column.
If you’re having problems viewing the new design, try holding down shift and pressing refresh in your browser.
The layout had gone unchanged for nearly two years, so hopefully this small freshen up will breathe some new life into the site.
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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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Bio. (formerly The Biography Channel) is an Australian subscription television station owned by the A&E Television Network, however the brand is fully licensed to Foxtel who produce, broadcast and program the channel locally.
While the content can be a bit of a mixed bag (Entertainment Tonight.. really?), the network does have some gems in Iconoclasts, Letterman and their live award show coverage.
This 60 second station identifier has always caught my attention whenever it ran, the use of “The Time Is Now” by Moloko in conjunction with the historical images is surprisingly creative and well executed, I guess it shows how much creative mileage you can get out of just some photos and a catchy tune.
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Its almost too exhausting to have to defend, but after the Chaser filmed a sketch involving Today Tonight host Anna Coren at Seven’s studios in Sydney.. “there was a bit of a Mexican stand-off with cameras for about an hour and all these Today Tonight executives went berserk and ran off to the Supreme Court” explained executive producer of the Chaser Julian Morrow.
Long story short Channel Seven have obtained an injunction to prevent the footage being aired on tonights episode of The Chaser’s War on Everything. Today Tonight led with this story tonight (first video) in a piece running for 16 minutes (topping an earlier Chaser story they did for 11 minutes). The story is basically one long interaction between Chas and TT reporter Bryan Seymour where he tries to be as offended as possible by the whole thing, while Chas waits to hear from the ABC’s lawyers and continues to point out the enormous irony of the whole situation.
Whatever comes out of this, the fact is that Today Tonight masquerades as a serious news program while doing nothing more then chipping away at our society and culture with the garbage its broadcasts five nights a week. Its understandable then that a show like Today Tonight, the complete antithesis of the Chaser would be so upset by the success of this amazing satire, that so publicly tears apart the role and significance of tabloid television on a weekly basis.
For more on my admiration of this show check out The Simpson’s War on Everything, or download entire episodes right here.
Update: Read the official response from The Chaser and ABC here.
Update 2: Read the interim injuction granted by the NSW Supreme Court here.
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Skins is a British teen drama whose first series was broadcast earlier this year on Channel 4’s hip digital sibling E4 to some of the networks highest ratings. In Australia the show is set to air Mondays at 10pm on SBS over summer.
Having only watched the pilot episode when the show first launched, and breaking my own oft-proselytised rule of at least watching a second episode before giving up on a show, I don’t have much to contribute review wise about the show..
For an actual review of the show though, from someone whose watched it, and almost convinced me to give it another chance, check out Triple J’s film critic’s thoughts about it here. And I tend to agree that ABC2 needs to score some content like this to help build an identity for itself, Peep Show was a good start, but it needs more.
– Much belated thanks for the video Craig.
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The Australia Network (formerly ABC Asia Pacific) is a free to air satellite television station operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Its available to over 20 million homes across Asia, the Pacific, and India, and although technically not broadcast in Australia, some of its programming is available on ABC2.
The above video comparison shows the opening sequences of ABC News as broadcast locally, and ABC News Asia Pacific produced for the Australia Network.
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I realise this news is now a week old, but I was only just reminded that I actually had footage to accompany it. Basically, if you haven’t heard, Charmaine Dragun, a 29 year old journalist and news anchor for Network Ten tragically committed suicide last week. Read more about her life, career and battle with depression here.
A public memorial will be held on Monday, and in lieu of flowers the family is asking that donations be made to Beyond Blue.
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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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Fifteen days after the Seven Network launched their digital multichannel Seven HD, regional affiliate Prime Television this evening started to broadcast the same “breakaway” program schedule on their Prime HD channel.
This means viewers in regional Victoria, New South Wales, and the ACT can now also receive the channel and its alternate programming. For more details on the schedule check out the official Seven HD site here.
My pick for the week? The brilliant Kinsey this Wednesday night at 10:30pm.