🏷️ tv

Before I get to the show Rollergirls that I taped last night and watched today. When I got home last night a had a phone message on my machine from a buddy of mines father that his son had a daughter. I didn't know what to say on a call back so i left it at that. It is hard for me to imagine him with a kid.

There is this show on A&E called Rollergirls it was on last night and is repeated tonight at 10 pm. If you go to www.aetv.com you can get more info on the show. One thing I got from there are the pictures below. The show is a reality show that follows girls who play Roller Derby. I used to really like watching that it was fun. Plus there are a lot of fine chicks playing it. It is also a ruff sport. The league they play in is in Austin, Texas. I don't know if each show is going to be the same way. But this one Was about the Rookie Venis Envy number 9 and 1/2 and her life outside of the game and with her team mates and what goes on outside of the sport. But they also had highlites and a preaty good overview of one of there games. I think it is a good series, at least based on the first show.

Ever since I have seen the first episode of South Park I have thought it was great. I liked the move they did and also thought "Team America World Police" was great also. Basketball was ok but I think the idea was good. South Park has changed over time. One thing I love is how they will put in recent issues. The shivo episode was one of my favorites. I think putting in current issues makes it funnier and it also marks it as a certain point in time. A lot of Cartoons don't do that. I know it has to be tough to come up with new ideas. I think this article interview is interesting. I wish I would have bought the first season on DVD. If you bought it from Comedy Cental they gave you CD's with there comentary track. I guess some of what they said bashed the DVD distrubtion company. I think it would have been great to hear. I hope south park can inspire others to push the envelope and be funny and get a big audiance, and continue to be funny.

In the topical world of 'South Park,' the weekly deadlines never end
By JAKE COYLE
Associated Press
10/21/2005



Trey Parker and Matt Stone, right, are in their ninth season.

NEW YORK - With the political relevance of "The Daily Show" and the huge DVD sales (and subsequent hiatus) of "Chappelle's Show," it's easy to forget about that other Comedy Central show, "South Park."
But Matt Stone and Trey Parker's crude cartoon began its ninth season this week, and it remains the network's most-watched program. It is, perhaps, the most manic thing on TV, with entire episodes created just days before they air.

With a ripped-from-the-headlines approach, it's the "Law & Order" of comedy. The first episode, "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow," tackled Hurricane Katrina - by way of the neighboring town flooding.

Parker, who turned 36 Wednesday, and Stone, 34, last month inked a deal for three more seasons and "South Park" has begun appearing in syndication in some markets - both of which assure the world of Cartman, Stan, Kyle and the rest will continue to expand.

Q: Cartman once described independent movies as "gay cowboys eating pudding." Now we have "Brokeback Mountain," an upcoming movie by Ang Lee about gay cowboys.

Stone: If they have pudding in that movie, I'm going to lose my mind.

Parker: No, if there's pudding eating in there, we're going to sue.

Q: Are you guys prophets?

Stone: No, but Cartman is. (Laughs) We went to Sundance a lot in the mid-to-late '90s, and you could just tell it was going toward gay cowboydom.

Q: It's a fast process for you, isn't it?

Parker: It is. We take a lot of time before just to come up with the broad ideas, but until the Thursday before that Wednesday, that's when we really sit down and go "OK, how can we tell this story?" And it leaves us a lot of room, too. A lot of times on a Thursday, we'll sit down and go, "Hey, have you seen this Terri Schiavo thing? This is huge, we should do a story about that."

Q: Sometimes "South Park" is quite topical.

Parker: Yeah, the reason we're able to do that is it's still just Matt and I really doing most everything. We still write, direct and edit every episode ourselves. . . . We can sit there on a Tuesday night and (rewrite the third act), run in the booth next door, record all the voices, get the storyboards together, edit it and see it in a couple hours. It's pretty amazing. It's pretty amazing, too, having done it almost nine years.

Q: Does the fast process backfire sometimes?

Stone: I actually think that makes the show better in a weird way. It's kind of a punk-rock ethic. Like albums that are too produced, you can tell they produced all the magic out of it.

Parker: It's a little more White Stripes.

Q: Are you surprised at the longevity of "South Park"?

Stone: It's totally crazy. When we first did the show, we thought it would be six episodes and then we'd be done - and now we're in our ninth season and signed up to do three more years.

Q: What do you do to keep it fresh?

Parker: It's so much fun, since we still do everything, you can sort of see our growth as writers. When we started this show, we knew how to do funny, outrageous stuff, but we didn't know how to write.

Q: Is there something you're personally sensitive about or is everything fair game?

Stone: We have a really funny breast cancer episode coming up. (Laughs) I just think it's not contradictory to make fun of something and be sensitive about it. It's just the way we examine the world. "Sensitive" isn't the right word, but we actually have thoughts and feelings about all this stuff; it's not just destruction-oriented.

Parker: Just last week we were on a plane and we were pretty positive we were going to die - and we were making jokes. It really, really felt like the end, and we were making jokes.

Q: Are you thinking about another movie?

Parker: Um, no.

Stone: "Team America" almost killed us. We'd like to figure out a way to do our own movies, but not die doing them, and maybe help some other people produce their movies, like graduate to the next level because we are getting up there in age.

Q: What about a live-action movie?

Stone: Like "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo"? (laughs) That's what we should do, really.

Parker: We could make so much money if we would just write scripts like that and go shoot them and put big stars in them. But, first of all, we hate actors. And second, I just can't imagine being on a set of a movie like "Deuce Bigalow."






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First a little off topic I watched "Elephant" the other nite on tape. It is about one of those hishschool shootings I belive Columbine. With out giving to much away the story was told in differant way it showed each character and what they did that day. Sometimes they where in focus and everything not dealing with them was blurry. Someone might go bye in the background then later you saw there day and saw how they saw the people they walked past. The way it was shot was interesting. Was it violant yes but it to be honest the shooting was the smallest part of the movie. But on to my point. TONIGHT NEW SOUTH PARK and DRAWN TOGATHER are on comedy central. I know some people don't watch much TV but I would highly recomend these two shows if you are going to watch something. Drawntogather is a a Drawn Reality show like The Real World, Big Brother, or The Surreal life. But all the Cartoon Characters are sterotypes. Well except the pissed off pig. You have the fat black and white sex sybol who cuts her self and eats a lot looks like betty Boob. Then there is the Black Heroin, Foxy Cleopatra. Then there is a superman like Character. Xandr is like from a video game and is on a never ending quest to save his girlfriend, but it turns out he is gay. I forgot about the Racist Snowwhite Cinderella type I guess you would call her "when she sings woodland creatures apper. It really is a funny show and is kinda out there. I guess in tonights episode they have to find a new roomate. I hope it is funny tonight. South Park is new. From what I've read online it sounds like it is ripping on "The Day after tommarow" It should be awesome. I have included a couple pics I got from the comedycentral website.

Drawn Togather


South Park

In my previous post I mentioned commericals [inlink]metalpeter,457[/inlink] . I admit that I do like some of them. Good comericals can be fun to watch. But there are so many bad ones. I think when they start affecting the show then they need to be cut back so the writers can make a good product. Currently I'm listening to the Sabres game on The internet and the game is tied 3 to 3 in the 3rd. and during the break I did hear commericals. Now it is going to Sudden Death OT. But interms of watching movies they completly kill them. But I watch most of mine on Pay Channels. But the bottom line is that they are what pay the bills with out them TV stations wouldn't make any money. But the shows are what get people to watch the ads so when you start messing with them you hurt yourself. I had a much longer better point but I lost my train of thought.

I found this article in the USA Today. I think it is interesting it is about comericals during TV shows and how there are more or less of them and how it effects some of the shows. They are one reason why I like shows on cable better sometimes. I love 24 but wonder how much better it would be with out the breaks.

Ad glut turns off viewers
By Gary Levin, USA TODAY
Can't Bree grieve anymore without a MasterCard commercial loudly interfering?

Commercial gridlock: Shirley Knight plays Bree’s (Marcia Cross) mother-in-law on Desperate Housewives.
ABC

Lately, fans of Desperate Housewives, Lost and other top shows have been complaining about excessive commercials that seem more intrusive than ever and slow down the programs they surround.

"I have definitely noticed that the shows on ABC that I watch have significantly more commercials this season," complains Julie Raines, 33, of Denver. "It's so frustrating. Once you are really getting into a juicy story line, it stops, and you are bombarded with the same ads over and over."

Viewers have been griping about ads on TV since the days of black-and-white sets. Some have turned to digital video recorders such as TiVo to skip commercials altogether. Others sit and bear it.

We'll be back

The amount of “clutter,” including network and local commercials and plugs for other shows, steadily has increased on broadcast and cable, to the point where an “hour-long”
drama is about 40 minutes of original programming. Average non-program minutes in an hour of prime-time for each year:

Year Broadcast Cable
1996 9:53 12:46
1999 14:00 13:53
2001 14:39 14:30
2004 15:48 14:55

Note: Reflects prime-time hours on the six broadcast networks and all basic cable networks measured by Nielsen. Source: Nielsen Monitor-Plus






ABC ad-sales chief Mike Shaw says he's perplexed by increasing complaints.

"We've had the exact same commercial load for three years in a row," he says of the 9 p.m. ET/PT Sunday time slot, home to Housewives and before that, Alias. Viewers must "feel that way because they love the show so much, that they really notice it when the breaks are there."

But across prime-time TV, the number of ads and promos has increased sharply over the years. A typical "one-hour" prime-time series clocks in at less than 42 minutes, down from 44 minutes several years ago and nearly 48 minutes in the 1980s.

And shaving off the "previously on ..." recap, opening credits and a teaser for next week's episode, Sunday's Housewives ran 40 minutes and 30 seconds, meaning for every two minutes of programming, there's a minute of commercials or promos for other network shows. On cable, MTV has even more so-called clutter, with USA and Lifetime close behind.

But ABC, which studies show has slightly more commercials than other broadcast networks, has changed its drama format in a way that makes it seem even more loaded with ads.

Until recently, dramas unfolded in four segments, or "acts," often preceded by an introductory teaser that aired before the opening credits.

Starting this fall, ABC required all drama producers to carve up each episode into six portions. For some shows, including Housewives, the first segment runs for nine to 11 minutes before the first break. Once viewers are hooked, they're confronted with four more commercial breaks, each about 3½ minutes long, over the next 45 minutes.

To prevent channel surfing, networks increasingly avoid airing commercials between shows. Instead, they save several minutes of more substantial scenes for a show's ending and then move "seamlessly" into the next program. The upshot is that more ads and promos air within programs.

'Housewives' adds to clutter

Prime-time dramas are being broken up into smaller segments and interrupted more frequently by commercials and network promo spots.

Sunday’s Desperate Housewives, which carries 30 seconds more of ads than other ABC shows, featured six “acts,” up from four traditionally.

The shortest ran for 4 minutes 14 seconds, not much longer than the commercial breaks that surrounded it.

The total episode included 40:30 of programming, 13:49 of commercials and 5:45 of promos, credits and a recap. The breakdown in minutes and seconds:

9 p.m.: Recap, “Teaser”
(opening scene), Opening credits

Break 1: (9:09:45; 6 national
commercials, 3 promos)

Break 2: (9:22:25; 3 national
commercials, 2 promos,
3 local commercials)

Break 3: (9:30:22; 5 national
commercials, 3 promos)

Break 4: (9:40:43; 5 national commercials, 2 promos,
2 local commercials)

Break 5: (9:51:07; 6 national
commercials, 3 promos)

End credits/teaser for next
week’s episode/promo for
Housewives DVD






"The way the structure was before didn't make any sense," says ABC Entertainment chief Steve McPherson. "You'd have people sit through a commercial break to come back to 30 seconds of programming" at the end of an episode.

Lost and Housewives adopted the six-act structure early last season. ABC quickly expanded the practice to its entire lineup of hour-long series. Competitors followed suit: WB's dramas began adopting the same format last January and since last month has used it on every show. CBS and NBC employ it on newer shows including Criminal Minds, Las Vegas, Numb3rs and Surface, although producers of CSI, Law & Order and ER refused to go along. Fox uses it only on Bones.

McPherson says most producers "like it because you have real content in each of the acts."

But Boston Legal producer David E. Kelley isn't among them.

"There's no opportunity to develop any kind of storytelling momentum," Kelley says, fearing that quiet scenes of dialogue will never hold up to increasingly loud — and frequent — commercial breaks. "High-octane shows, or puzzle shows, will be immune to it.

"If a knife is plunged into someone's sternum, you pay attention," Kelley says. "But for shows that don't depend on violence or melodramatic scenes, it's tougher to compete in a six-act show than in four acts, or in 41 minutes instead of 45 minutes. You have to be a little more aggressive with them, musically or filmically, just to get people's attention back."

Everwood producer Greg Berlanti says carving up emotion-packed dramas into even smaller pieces can be "annoying," even if it's a necessary evil in a business that exists to sell advertising. "It makes you long for the day when everything comes out in boxed sets of DVDs so you can enjoy it."

And advertising researchers say the cluttered airwaves, which also include logos and promos during shows, risk turning off viewers even from must-see shows and worsening recall of their ads.

Yet Nielsen Media Research says TV viewership in U.S. homes hit record highs last season.

"There's been a lot of hand-wringing in the business about when viewers are going to say, 'Enough's enough,' but they haven't," says Tim Brooks, a TV historian and research chief at Lifetime. "It may never be that commercials drive people away from the set, but it makes them pay less attention to avoid the irrelevant interruptions."

No federal agency regulates the amount of commercial time on television. Until 1982, the major networks adhered to a voluntary code of the National Association of Broadcasters that limited commercials to 9.5 minutes per hour in prime time. But since the code was dropped, the number of commercials on prime-time TV has crept steadily higher.

Housewives sells 11 minutes, 15 seconds of national ad time and about 2½ minutes of local spots. On Sunday, it ran 4 minutes, 10 seconds of promos for 11 other series. Added up, they account for nearly 18 of the show's 61 minutes.

Housewives is among TV's most expensive shows. Thirty-second spots that sold for $450,000 in May, in advance of the season, now fetch $500,000 to $600,000, Shaw says, meaning the network rakes in at least $5 million an episode.

"If we had extra time to sell, I would tell everybody," he says.

Advertisers tolerate the excess bunching of commercials for the sake of reaching 25 million viewers in TV's biggest hits.

Housewives is among a handful of shows "where there's tremendous attention, passion and a halo effect where your commercial might actually resonate," says Initiative Media's top ad buyer Tim Spengler. "Up to a certain point, (they) look the other way."

I was watching my tape of Laguna Beach today and started to think about something. You only see the kids on that show. First of all they can all drive and all have cars. Not only that but they go on trips and all sorts of stuff. That got me thinking that it most be wierd when they edit the show to never show parents or any adults other then ones who work places where the kids go. It sord of makes the kids seem a lot older then they are. When I say kids I don't mean kids I mean that they are sons and daughters they are all basicly in there last year of high school. I know there have been some parents shown but not much really. Even though I was never a film student I think seeing how they edit reality shows might be interesting. But of course that footage would have to be edited also but it still might be neat to see.

I think that parents should controll what there kids watch if they think a show is offensive. But I think it is up to the parents. They can't use a TV as a babysitter then get mad when there kids get messages and images that they don't aprove of. One good point that the article does make is the packaging of stations. That you should be able to only have ths stations you want. I belive that is how it worked in the old days of cable. I think it is possible to do. But each station might cost differant amounts and it would make cable bills very a lot. I'm sure the cable companies and stations don't want that(more work and more complicated). There would be no guarnte of how many homes a station would go into. I think it is a good idea but think it might really hurt cable and hurt a lot of weaker stations. For example LOGO if your not gay you probably wouldn't order it (ibelive a MTV or some major company owns it) But with less viewers then it would get less revunue and less ads from fewer presumed views. However the upside would be that each station would know how many people watch it. If every channel was picked you wouldn't pic a station you had to payfor if you warn't going to watch it. But this might hurt good stations that you don't watch that often. A good example of that is Comedy Central. I love South Park and Drawn togather but if that is the only thing I watch on there then I might decide it isn't worth the money for two shows. Sometimes you learn of interesting programs by watching other shows on the same net work. That happens a lot with football and WWE if you watch either of them then you see adds for that networks or stations shows that you may not have known about. In any event I think it is an interesting article.


BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Battle of the network watchdogs

---

The Parents Television Council has emerged as an aggressive advocate of family-friendly programming. But Hollywood is finding a new way to fight back.

By COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON
Dallas Morning News
8/25/2005

Click to view larger picture

Fox's "The O.C." is one of the many programs targeted by Parents Television Council.

DALLAS - "The O.C." is out when it comes to family-friendly TV shows. And don't even get started on what's wrong with MTV.
"If MTV isn't vulgar, then Colorado doesn't have mountains, and the pope isn't Catholic," says L. Brent Bozell, president of the Parents Television Council, a million-member organization that takes aim at indecency in the media. He calls MTV an "innocence-nuking spectacle for the pre-teen audience."

But now, with the fall TV season approaching, Hollywood and the networks are fighting back. Three major media companies - NBC Universal, Viacom and News Corp. - have launched TV Watch to advocate parental controls and oppose government intervention. This newly minted group, which has brought together an unusual mix of corporations, creative types and conservative, free market proponents, is emerging as the council's adversary in a growing battle over what's appropriate for the airwaves. "The discussion had turned into a very one-sided debate," said TV Watch executive director Jim Dyke. "Our group was formed to balance out the debate and provide some reason."

The Parents Television Council was founded 10 years ago but became more visible after Janet Jackson bared her breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.

Now, the privately funded nonpartisan organization is signing up new members and starting local chapters. Their goal: Compel the FCC to crack down on programming the group believes crosses the line. But critics say the parents' council represents the minority view.

"They have a heckler's veto over speech and content," said Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a think tank that studies the digital revolution and supports limited government. He notes the council's list of worst TV programs includes many of the most popular, including "CSI" and "Will & Grace."

Opponents of the Parents Television Council have dubbed the group an automated complaint factory. The group's Web site does make it easy to express your outrage. You can sign up for alerts detailing sex, violence and profanity in the media. You can study the council's assessments of almost every TV show. And you can add your name to a form letter and submit a complaint to the FCC.

And the council leaves little doubt about where it stands.

" "Nip/Tuck' is not just a show that's completely inappropriate for impressionable children to watch," the group says of the edgy FX network drama about plastic surgery. "It's a show adults should be convincing other adults not to support. The sanity of our popular culture depends on our objections."

But TV Watch says that parents already possess the antidote to all things offensive. Nearly all televisions now have V-chips (electronic circuits that can be used to block programming), and cable and satellite systems offer an array of other parental controls, said Dyke, the coalition's executive director.

The problem? Most people don't use them. "People are still a little bit leery of programming their TV," Dyke said. "They want to watch it. They don't want to build it."

So, TV Watch is launching new advertising trying to get the word out, telling parents how to use the V-chip and other controls and explaining the TV ratings system, he said. TV Watch is nonpartisan, and though the seed money came from media companies, the coalition includes groups from opposite ends of the political spectrum, including the Creative Coalition and Americans for Tax Reform.

Dyke, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee, said his group aims to stop the Parents Television Council from using the government to decide what constitutes quality television.

"The government as parent has not typically been a successful model," he said.

But the council complains that parents are thwarted at almost every juncture when they try to stem the flow of objectionable television into their homes. Cable companies, they note, bundle channels such as MTV into all-or-nothing packages, forcing viewers who want to order Nickelodeon to pay for other programming that may not appeal to them. Bozell said that channels should be offered a la carte.

The parents' council dismisses suggestions that the V-chip and other controls are sufficient to protect children. Bozell called the argument "hokum," adding that "Hollywood needs to clean up its act instead of lecturing parents about what they need to do."

Yeah I know HBO has a saying "Its not TV its HBO" so maybe i am using the wrong catogory but oh well. I have to admit I like my HBO Documanteries like Real Sex. Cathouse the Series is great it really is. They have a couple more shows about sex coming on that might be interesting one is about transgendered hookers in Hiwai, then they have a better sex mini series that was on in england, and an indepth look at a porn star who's name I forgot. More more info you can go to www.hbo.com . I also really enjoy Bill Maher, I think that even if you disagree with his politics you can still enjoy his show. I'm looking forward to the Return of The Sopranos that is a great show. I think one thing that makes HBO and other pay stations shows and mini series so good is they can do what they want. They don't have to worry about content being edited. The other thing is that they can make shows however long they want. For example Entourage not all the episodes are exactly the same length on a network that would never really work it would mess up the commericals. I wonder if other stations other then Fox will come out with cable stations where they can push the envolope a little farther or a pay station where they can do what they want. Don't get me wrong I love 24 and think the writing is amazing. But if it where a pay station they could raise the bar even higher it would be in real time with out commericals. I don't know if any of the networks are willing to take a chance. The other thing that might be interesting to see is a Pay perview in depand service. It would be like HBO in Demand and it would be free with HBO service but by a network that way some shows could be a lot more graffic and better. A good example I can think of is The OC, there is a lot of hooking up. I think it would be great to have seen Alex completly nude or skin could have used real shots on real porn sets. [bgcolor]#a6fef6[/bgcolor]

On Thursday Nights there are two new comedies on FX. One of them is Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and the other is called straved. I will say that they are both a little out there. I taped the repeats of the first episodes last night and the new episodes are on at 10pm tonight. I'm not sure when they are repeated. I thought the first episone of always sunny was great. I really found it funny. Straved was not funny to me. But comedy shows go episode by episode or at least for me. I also watched the the new episode of Over There, it was a verry good episode I think that is a great show also. All 3 shows have a warning about mature subject matter. But what I don't understand is that movies, TV shows, and music all have warning labels or notifactions on them but why not commericals. For example there is that anti smoking add where they show all that goo that bulit up in an artery that looks like cottage chese that is gross. If I where eating I might puke. How about victoria secert adds. Those are some huge busty and heavly clevaged adds they don't bother me but for some young kid I don't know as they should see that. If people are warned about footage that might offend why not on commericals? I know that they are what is used to make money for the TV stations and TV programing but if the Warnings are to truely protect people then adds that might offend people should be pulled. Like what about Condom ads and parents who teach there kids that sex before marriage is wrong. I think if this trend continues we may start seeing the most sex and violance in ads as opposed to shows. But maybe there are restrictions on ads that I don't know about. I know I saw some anti drug commerical where there was some real dead girl in a morg. I don't want to see that give me a warning first. [bgcolor]#00ff00[/bgcolor]

I don't know if anyone has any tattoos here or if any one likes them. I myself like them but don't have any. If you are interested by them or like reality TV there are two shows you may enjoy. I know I should be encouraging people to go out side and enjoy the great weather but you can allways tape them if you like them. One of them is Called Miami Ink it is an hour long show on TLC (The Learning Channel) Tuesdays at 10pm I belive. Then on A&E there is a half hour show (they show 2 episodes) called Inked on wendsdays at 9pm and it is repeated I belive on tuesday at 10pm but not sure if that is correct. It is about a shop that opened up in Vegas at the Palms. Both shows are verry interesting but both shops are verry differant. You might even enjoy them if you arn't into Tattoos.