!marty finestone's activitybook » tv

hey you guys! the electric company returns

Marty Finestone — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:43:36 +0000

PBS is bringing back the Electric Company, although updating it for today.

Click here to view the embedded video.

scrubs is moving to abc

Marty Finestone — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:40:53 +0000

Scrubs, which is an uber favourite television show of mine, will be saying goodbye to NBC and moving to ABC for 18 more episodes next season. I am so happy that Scrubs lives on.

hrc to be on the colbert report

Marty Finestone — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:34:28 +0000

Hillary Rodham Clinton will be appearing on The Colbert Report this Thursday night. Should be fun, and hopefully funny.

broadcasting blackouts

Marty Finestone — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:02:01 +0000

Have you ever contemplated what the rationale for broadcasting blackouts during sports and other events? I recently did when I was blacked out from seeing a Canucks game. The answer is not so fascinating.

the impact of apple sponsoring american idol

Marty Finestone — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:29:53 +0000

Apple, you know those ipod folks, has become the lead sponsor of American Idol. The implications of this venture include:

American Idol

Additional information can be found via this Variety article.

arrested development movie is looking more likely

Marty Finestone — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:04:55 +0000

According to this article on Page Six, Jefferey Tambor was on XM Radio and let it be known that the Arrested Development movie just might actually be coming.

via Pop Candy

traditional sitcoms are coming to an end

Marty Finestone — Tue, 15 May 2007 12:17:30 +0000

Roger Catlin, by way of the Hartford Courant by way of the LA Times, writes that with the series end of The King of Queens, the traditional network sitcom is coming to an end.

The end of “The King of Queens” is another step toward the end of another kind of network comedy — those that are simply presented in a studio before a live audience, where the resulting laughs (sometimes enhanced after the fact) are as much a part of the show as the multiple-camera setup, shooting the action as if it were a play.

Nowadays, comedies are much more sophisticated, without laugh tracks and shot like a movie or drama series. They’re called single-camera comedies, though they certainly involve more than that.

The studio style of sitcoms continues most often on kids’ channels, where the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon churn out inoffensive and cheap comedies that attune young people to the rhythms of studio-audience laughter.

But an attempt to update the form to accommodate adult humor was a huge flop on HBO with “Lucky Louie.”

via artsjournal

season finales

Marty Finestone — Wed, 02 May 2007 13:17:57 +0000

Need to know when the season (or possibly series) finale of your favourite show will hit the airwaves? Check out this handy guide.

via Pop Candy

remember head of the class? does brad pitt?

Marty Finestone — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 15:45:06 +0000

Remember the high school sitcom Head of the Class that was on ABC back in the 80’s? You know that show about a bunch of kids in a gifted class in a New York high school. Well from this clip you’ll get to see the intro and Brad Pitt in a bit role for just an episode. He has come a long, long way.

Click here to view the embedded video.

vanity fair interviews david chase

Marty Finestone — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:31:52 +0000

David Chase, producer and creator of The Sopranos, gets the Q&A treatment in the April issue of Vanity Fair. This is a must read for any fan of the Sopranos. Here is an excerpt:

How involved are you in the editing of the shows?
I do all the editing. I sit over the editor’s shoulder. I hardly ever even show [my cut to] my colleagues. The truth is, what you really want is for people to say, “It’s perfect! My God—don’t change a thing!” (Laughs.) And when they say anything other than that, you tend to say, “Well, they didn’t get it.” We take a long time to do postproduction. We change the stories, and we take scenes that were meant to have one purpose, and re-purpose them to do other things. Or change the whole order of the way the story’s told. Often, because it’s somewhat of a serial story, we’ll realize—like, say, in Episode 8—”You know what? We really should have introduced this guy earlier on.” Or introduced this idea earlier on—so it doesn’t come out of the blue. So we’ll go back and do some retrofitting of information, or character, or some story points.

You’re famous for not tying up loose ends.
I think, probably, that’s because that’s not what the story was about. It’s not important. It seems to be part of life, too, that things recede into the background or whatever. Something that was so important to you Thursday—all of a sudden, you’re caught up in something else and it’s not important Friday.

jim pranks dwight – deleted scene

Marty Finestone — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 15:48:53 +0000

Here is a great deleted scene from the “Conflict Resolution” episode from season 2 of The Office. Don’t remember the episode? It was the one where Michael assumed (read took over) the conflict resolution duties from HR and he – of course – makes things much worse.

Click here to view the embedded video.

aww snap! fred willard is coming to tv!

Marty Finestone — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 13:45:21 +0000

Fred Willard, who played for laughs in Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, amongst other films, is going to be a regular star on Fox’s future sitcom Action News, which also stars Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton. Fred will be the sports reporter on this comedy about a former anchor team who reunite on the anchor desk of a local news broadcast.

via TV Squad