At least that's the somewhat sarcastic conclusion I'm jumping to. As I started watching the east coast feed, an email bounced into the TV Squad inbox from reader 'Jay.' He noted that when he tried to record The Middleman on his PC, he was greeted with an error message. I had to wait three hours for the regular airing on the left coast, but I dusted off an old Media Center PC and got that very same error, as you see in the picture. I like to think that Wendy is showing her shock and outrage at the snafu in that shot. But wait, there's more ... after the jump.
This isn't anything new. A similar thing happened in May where a number of users found themselves unable to record American Gladiators and Medium on NBC one night. The difference is that, on that occasion, it seemed to be exclusive to Vista users. Jay didn't leave his system details, but my Media Center is running the earlier MC 2005. With that last go 'round, NBC eventually copped to inadvertently flagging the content. Microsoft claimed innocence, saying that they were just adhering to flags used by broadcasters. The sticky wicket being, of course, that there is nothing that actually compels them to do that.
For what it's worth, I'm leaning toward this being a Microsoft problem. I was able to record both the HD feed and the normal broadcast on my CableCo DVR. There is no reason for the Media Center software to even be looking at broadcast flags, let alone adhering to them. It's not a Microsoft problem.
Perhaps, if there are enough of these incidents, and the resulting uproars on the internet, the networks will turn some of their influence back on the Borg and help to bring about change. It doesn't seem that listening to their customers is high on the list of priorities. On a side note, with Microsoft in mind, I'd like to point out that while my Media Center wasn't recording The Middleman, it was more than happy to record All About Dung. Thanks Microsoft!
The other bit of this, the part that ABC Family plays in the headline, is the new time slot. Were you, like me, caught off guard when you went to watch The Middleman and found Mean Girls? I mean, it's one thing to get bumped to a different time slot by another original show, but for a tired old movie? Maybe I'm just not in touch with my inner PTC, but is there one thing about The Middleman that makes it a 10PM show? Furry reference? The Booty Chest? That's not the stuff of 10PM. It's goofy comic book action. It has 8PM written all over it.
Am I over reacting? Possibly. I just get a little antsy when red flags like later time-slots and recording shenanigans start popping up for a show that I really want to find success.
TV Squad previews CBS's new shows
Tim Daly: The TV Squad Interview
Virtuality -- An early look
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
7-01-2008 @ 11:42AM
keithnl said...
Wow, here in canada we have new Copyright legislation that has yet to be voted into law, but one of its provision is to legalize the time shifting using your PVR. Of course all the supposed new freedoms can be short circuited by the fact that breaking a digital lock is totally illegal.
Long story short I didn't even now the technology existed to block the recording of a show. I knew it couldn't be hard to flag a show as non recordable , but I wasn't aware of anyone actively doing it.
This might also account for the fact that episode 2 of middleman was notably absent from the file sharing scene last week.
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7-01-2008 @ 11:45AM
bill said...
Worked fine for me; the midnight airing in Seattle recorded fine.
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7-01-2008 @ 11:56AM
kukkurovaca said...
I haven't actually watched the third ep yet, but I'm almost surprised they didn't debut the show in this time slot. One of the first pieces of dialog in the show is a hentai reference. Then we get sex time references, plenty of sexuality jokes (What's it like being someone's beard?), an ape ogling a pole dancer, and the array of phallic weaponry the middle man pulls from --wherever -- follow that up with succubi, the mix tape thing, the bit where the kid finds out he was conceived while his mom was drunk on a business trip in the far east...
It seemed a pretty odd choice for ABC Family to park in an early slot. I do hope, however, that the move doesn't presage any more drastic action by ABC Family's standards and practices people...
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7-01-2008 @ 12:57PM
Oreo said...
You mean ABC Family has actual standards and practices?
:)
7-01-2008 @ 1:12PM
ChrisG said...
I never "got" american morality standards; that show is as tame as tame can be. Show me one country here in Europe where "Middleman" wouldn't be deemed suitable to run any time before 8 PM.
7-01-2008 @ 2:32PM
Oreo said...
Just so you know Chris, it's a tiny amount of people in the USA that have problems with things. Sadly out of 305 million Americans 10-1,000 complain and the FCC is 100% useless in today's world, so it makes all of the USA look bad.
7-01-2008 @ 3:22PM
ChrisG said...
@oreo: Yeah, sorry didn't mean to imply that every American (or even the majority) agrees with those standards. What I meant to say was that I don't understand why that censoring body, the FCC, even has such ancient standards. How can it be that so many Americans (well, at least the ones I've met) are open-minded and have moral standards close to our own and the regulatory bodies like the FCC are so uptight and puritanical. It really looks like they are still run by the puritans that landed on your shores that many moons ago. Even my grandmother (74!) just shrugged her shoulders and said "So, what's the big deal?" when she saw the famous Janet Jackson-Super Bowl-incident on the telly. I just cant believe that Americans put up with something as ancient as the FCC. I thought this was the freest nation on earth, or is that just false labeling?
7-01-2008 @ 3:32PM
ChrisG said...
I should clarify that my 74-year-old grandmother doesn't watch the Super Bowl :-), but she saw the infamous scene in television reports about the reactions of the american public and media.
7-01-2008 @ 4:18PM
Oreo said...
Most Americans have been things to do then try and fight the FCC. No one in this country has any clue how the FCC is run. It started off doing good when there were only three networks, but then they just gave themselves more and more power. Then George Carlin tried suing the FCC and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the FCC.
So pretty much it's all the Republican presidents that stick psychos on the Supreme Court who give the FCC power.
7-01-2008 @ 9:05PM
Franklin said...
It's funny though, isn't it, that the Republican presidents put "psychos" on the Supreme Court who give the FCC power, but generally uphold most of our traditional freedoms. Then the Democrat presidents put "whackos" on the Supreme Court who give just about every other government entity more power than they deserve while at the same time trying to take away our freedom to do silly things like own a gun, keep most of our hard-earned money (rather than pay it all out in taxes), choose our method of healthcare, hire the most qualified person (instead of hiring based on color/gender), etc.
Yeah, I'm skewed to the right, but the point I'm really trying to make is that both "sides" have drifted too far away from what made them the major parties. It's time for a change away from Democrat/Republican to something else, possibly libertarian, that utilizes highly uncommon common sense. Should that happen, I'd love to see a day when anything can be broadcast as long as it has a rating describing the content so that viewers can make up their own minds.
I don't think I'll live that long...unfortunately.
7-01-2008 @ 12:09PM
RadioScott said...
"Were you, like me, caught off guard when you went to watch The Middleman and found Mean Girls?"
You ought to get a TiVo. Name-based recording generally makes this a thing of the past.
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7-01-2008 @ 1:04PM
Brett said...
I actually use a DVR from the cable company for just that reason, but The Middleman is one of those shows on the short list that I try to catch live.
7-01-2008 @ 12:55PM
Michael said...
I got the same error message with Vista Media Center edition.
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7-01-2008 @ 1:04PM
enos said...
Funny, i got this too, however, I'm on Mediacom in the midwest. last night our little red light on the cable box was on showing it was recording something, it was listed in our to record list, and when you went to the guide, it showed the little record symbol. However, when i went to the list of recorded items.
I was chalking this up to a weird bug, since it's never happened before, but after seeing this, maybe Mediacom blocked the recording too.
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7-01-2008 @ 1:25PM
Leah said...
I'll have to see if it recorded for me last night on my dvr. I hope it did.
But, doesn't abc family have these on it's website, so you can still watch them.
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7-01-2008 @ 1:44PM
Carissa said...
Recorded just fine on my Dish DVR. Already watched it. ;-)
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7-01-2008 @ 2:44PM
Mark said...
I have one word for you: MythTV
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7-01-2008 @ 3:32PM
lucyfan62 said...
I was really surprised bu the sudden time change too, but at least the DVR picked it up. I found the show to be extremely kiddie/goofy on the first episode and it certainly seems geared for younger viewers so the 10:00 switch was very weird.
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7-01-2008 @ 4:08PM
LC said...
It's most likely a bug in Microsofts DRM system for Media Center. Media center users had a similar problem with NBC shows a little over a month ago.
The FCC's broadcast flag was overturned in 2005 so a bug on MS side is the most likely culprit. Isn't DRM fun?
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7-01-2008 @ 5:28PM
Jim said...
Supposedly they patched this. Check your Windows Updates
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