This morning, as I watched the Today show, I noticed that they had "team coverage" of the big fire on the Universal Studios back lot. Not only did they have reporter Peter Alexander doing a live remote from the scene, but they decided to send Al Roker, who was in L.A. to tape Celebrity Family Feud, over there, as well. Matt Lauer called the fire "devastating," and Alexander went on to list all the sets that went up in smoke, including the town square from Back to the Future. Oh, and some of the video archives were destroyed, even though there are backups.All of this was delivered in somber tones, as if this was like those wildfires that have enveloped that part of the country over the last few years. It made you wonder if anyone got hurt. Thankfully, no one did. So why the somber tone? Sure, these sets might have some sentimental value, but they're just fake storefronts. And why have a reporter there if Roker was already available? It makes you scratch your head until you realize that NBC and Universal are corporate siblings.
OK, so that might explain some things. It's going to cost NBC Universal a lot of money to rebuild those sets and retrieve the video backups. And I'm sure NBCU's CEO, Jeff Zucker, isn't exactly in the best of moods this morning. But I'm not sure why that somber attitude translated to such overblown coverage from NBC News. I'm sure ABC, FOX, and CBS have reporters on the scene, since it was a big fire that may have spread due to low water pressure in the area. But I'm sure they didn't have nearly as serious a tone as the stories from NBC.
The networks have been known to use their news programs, especially the morning shows, as shills for their entertainment programming in the past, but would they go so far as dictate how they cover legitimate news that concerns their own interests? Do you think Today's coverage was overblown? Let me know in the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-02-2008 @ 11:14AM
Oreo said...
I watched 5 minutes of it and thought it was a joke.
Huge fire yes, but move on.
I also don't feel bad for the people who lose their houses in wildfires, don't build there! There are always fires in that area, it's nature, just don't build or rererererebuild there!
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6-02-2008 @ 11:22AM
Dayna said...
You say no one was hurt. CNN reports otherwise:
Ten people -- nine firefighters and a sheriff's deputy -- suffered minor injuries in the blaze. The deputy and a firefighter were injured in an explosion in the building where the videos were housed at around 2:30 p.m., authorities said.
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6-02-2008 @ 11:24AM
Joel Keller said...
Ok, then, no one was *seriously* hurt. My theory above still holds, though.
6-02-2008 @ 11:36AM
skimmer said...
This is a perfect example of why blogs are crap. You're "sure" that the other networks "didn't have nearly as serious a tone as the stories from NBC"? Yet you didn't watch coverage on the other networks? So you're just making stuff up.
NBC had TWO reporters there? Wow. That's just so outrageous.
For a guy who writes for a TV blog, you have no clue what is of interest to the general public.
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6-02-2008 @ 12:12PM
GigG said...
One reporter + One weather man does not equal two reporters.
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6-02-2008 @ 12:32PM
rick cokely said...
I for one welcome our Corporate Overlords™
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6-02-2008 @ 12:58PM
EbonyDad said...
I personally gasped then shed a tear when I heard one of our national landmarks, the courthouse from "Back to the Future" burned down.
I really don't understand why flags aren't being flown at half mass.
Maybe they should do it at all the Blockbusters and movie theaters.
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6-02-2008 @ 1:42PM
GL said...
The loss of the fake building from Back to the Future is a tragedy.
Not as tragic as having to read skimmer's comment, but still, I shall have a rough go of it today.
I always knew that 1.21 gigawatts was going to start a fire.
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6-02-2008 @ 1:52PM
Jake said...
You are way too cynical. It was a huge fire and i'm saddened by the back to the future set which i don't think they will rebuild. All news outlets reported it including ABC affiliates and I guess for you -- news of fires have to involve actual deaths.
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6-02-2008 @ 2:55PM
tv junkie said...
Oh come on, this post is really mean spirit.
Here in LA, the coverage across all local stations have the same somber tones as the Today's. Universal Studios is an icon in Hollywood, and it's pretty devastating how big the fire was and the movie AND music history it destroyed, and I still remembered going to the King Kong and Back to the Future attractions as a kid. This is pretty sad for all movie lovers.
I don't think the coverage was overblown at all. I'm sure if there was a huge fire at the Warner Bros. lot, TVSquad and AOL TV and CNN will give the same coverage like NBC did for Universal. Don't be so judgmental.
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6-02-2008 @ 5:01PM
EbonyDad said...
Actually, with all this political stuff going on, I don't think you could or would find anything to trump election stuff on CNN.
6-02-2008 @ 5:39PM
tv junkie said...
msnbc is all politics too, i'm simply referring to the corporate synergy between cnn and time warner.
6-02-2008 @ 10:55PM
Dan said...
I don't think that the coverage was overblown... it was sad to see those sets go up in smoke, and I was interested in the coverage of it. What did bother me was Al Roker's inaccurate "reporting." At one point, while going down the list of movies that had been shot at the burn site, he mentioned The Music Man. Not true. The (original) Music Man was shot on the back lot at Warner Bros. The (yuck), Matthew Broderick, remake was shot in Canada.
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6-03-2008 @ 12:58AM
MERVE-THE-PERVE said...
Did they say if they saved the flux capacitor?
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6-03-2008 @ 8:35AM
Tamara said...
Didn't see that, but reading that it's understandable the way the Seven Network(in Australia) carried on, on their breakfast show (Sunrise) this morning. Seven is the "sister" channel of NBC and have been for a very longtime.
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6-03-2008 @ 1:31PM
Scott Schrantz said...
And what a lot of the coverage seems to be glossing over (or the reporters just don't know) is that the Back to the Future courthouse was saved. It's still standing, although most of the buildings surrounding it have been leveled.
They also seem to be missing the fact that many of these same facades burned in 1990 as well. So any movie before then wasn't filmed on "these" sets, except for the courthouse, which survived both fires and dates back to the 1950s.
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