Posted Dec 26th 2007 8:00AM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: OpEd, American Idol, Festivus, Alumni
If you're scratching your head and asking "Sanjaya Who?" then you probably don't own a TV, or a computer for that matter. For two months, Sanjaya-hysteria ruled our television airwaves (sometimes three times a week). Thanks to a little show called
American Idol, Sanjaya became one of the breakout reality TV stars of 2007.
Like many breakout reality TV stars, Sanjaya Malakar was able to successfully steal the spotlight from his more worthy opponents, gliding by on personality and charisma. He's living proof that a winning grin and luscious locks can sometimes take you a lot farther than actual talent.
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2007: Sanjaya
Posted Nov 30th 2007 4:21PM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: American Idol, Judges, News and Gossip
It's not even December, and
American Idol's seventh season is still a month and a half away -- but the hype has already begun. According to
an interview with Extra, the
American Idol judges - Simon, Paula, and Randy -- are in agreement: This is going to be the BEST SEASON EVER!!
Last year, as you may recall, season six was often slammed by fans and critics as the WORST SEASON EVER. Who could forget Sanjaya? Oh wait, we did. His 15 minutes of fame only lasted 12.5 minutes. But for all of our Sanjaya-bashing, at least he kept things interesting in an otherwise bland and uninspiring year. Seriously, does anyone even care that
Jordin Sparks just released her debut album?
Continue reading American Idol season seven hype begins
Posted Nov 19th 2007 10:21AM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Web, Pickups and Renewals
It's being called a
"revoluntionary step" in television entertainment.
Quarterlife, created by
thirtysomething's Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, has the honor of becoming the first webseries to be acquired for broadcast television. The hour-long drama will begin airing on NBC sometime in February.
Herskovitz and Zwick reportedly
launched the series (about a twentysomething video blogger and her friends) directly on the web in order to maintain complete creative control. However,
after viewing the series online , I began to suspect that
quarterlife simply wasn't good enough for primetime. In fact, I doubted it would ever gain a strong fanbase or end up on network television.
Shows how much I know.
Continue reading NBC picks up webseries 'quarterlife'
Posted Nov 17th 2007 9:41AM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: Industry, WGA Strike
Variety is reporting this morning that negotiations between the
AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) and the
WGA (Writers Guild of America) will resume after Thanksgiving. However, the WGA will remain on strike, even though the AMPTP had originally insisted that they would only resume negotiations if the striking writers temporarily went back to work.
A joint statement was released late Friday night, reading: "Leaders from the AMPTP and the WGA have mutually agreed to resume formal negotiations on November 26."
Continue reading WGA Strike: Writers and studios agree to resume negotiations
Posted Nov 14th 2007 4:21PM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: Industry, WGA Strike
Yesterday,
Variety reported that several writers from the
Young and the Restless had crossed the WGA picket line in order to keep their jobs. After the article ran, a spokesperson for the WGA-East condemned those planning to cross the picket line and warned them that they'd "never be full members of the Writers Guild again."
However,
the Variety article isn't true, according to a memo sent out late Tuesday from the WGA-West and the
Y&R writing staff. The
Y&R statement reads: "We were incensed to read the incorrect information
printed in Variety that several writers on our show sought financial core status...Our entire writing staff of 18 is united and we fully support our union."
Continue reading WGA Strike: soap writers won't cross picket line
Posted Nov 13th 2007 5:38PM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: Industry, WGA Strike
We've entered Week Two of the WGA Strike, and although we're not getting any closer to a resolution, there's still plenty of WGA Strike news to report:
Posted Nov 12th 2007 7:01PM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: OpEd, Web, Episode Reviews
(S01E01)"We blog to exist...therefore, we are idiots." (Dylan Krieger)
I mentioned last week, that
I am a huge fan of Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick (creators of
thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, and Once and Again), and I was eagerly anticipating the launch of their new webseries,
quarterlife. Lots of people have talked about producing programming for the internet, but nobody has been able to launch a completely original successful series with mass appeal and excellent production value -- yet. So, I put a lot of faith behind the professional team of Herskovitz and Zwick, and applauded their bold experiment.
Unfortunately, their experiment, at least to me, went horribly wrong.
Continue reading Quarterlife: Part one and part two (webseries premiere)
Posted Nov 9th 2007 1:23PM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: Industry, WGA Strike
The WGA strike continues. And it doesn't look like there's an end in sight (as all negotiations have stopped). The longer the strike lasts the greater impact it will have on the economy -- especially the California economy. So what is California's Governor Schwarzenegger doing about it?
Nothing, according to
Brothers & Sisters creator Jon Robin Baitz. In an open letter to the Governator,
on yesterday's Huffington Post, Baitz basically accuses Schwarzenegger of
"fiddling while California burns."Continue reading Brothers & Sisters creator asks Governator to do something about WGA strike
Posted Nov 8th 2007 2:02PM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Web
Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick are responsible for creating some of my favorite TV shows:
thirtysomething,
My So-Called Life, and
Once and Again. They've influenced my writing and even my desire to write for TV probably more than anyone else in Hollywood. They've been absent from the TV landscape for a couple of years, and I've definitely missed them.
Luckily,
Herskovitz and Zwick are back with a brand new series, called
quarterlife. The series, however, will not currently be available on ABC or any other network. Herskovitz and Zwick are bringing this new series to life on the web. And in
a recent L.A. Times item, Herskovitz explains why they've left traditional television behind.
Herskovitz believes "the business of television has become an exclusive club, closed to new members," which has some producers "turning to the internet to have a voice."
Continue reading Thirtysomething co-creator explains reasons for leaving TV
Posted Nov 7th 2007 9:36AM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: Industry, WGA Strike
It's Day Three of the WGA Strike, and things are getting serious. Production on some scripted sitcoms and dramas is already
coming to screeching halt -- despite the fact that completed scripts have yet to be shot.
Sitcoms which have already gone dark are:
The New Adventures of Old Christine,
Back to You, 'Til Death, and
Rules of Engagement. And with Steve Carrell refusing to cross the picket line,
The Office has
shut down for business, as well.
Meanwhile, Shonda Rhimes (
Grey's Anatomy,
Private Practice) and Shawn Ryan (
The Shield,
The Unit) have publicly stated that they won't perform their showrunner responsibilities either. Without their showrunners, these high profile dramas will most likely cease production earlier than networks expected.
Continue reading TV production halts as showrunners refuse to cross WGA picket lines
Posted Oct 24th 2007 12:00PM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Character: Widow FortuneShow: The Dark Secret of Harvest HomeEpisode: Mini-seriesI recently watched R.L. Stine's
The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About it with my children and I had an epiphany -- TV was a lot creepier when I was a kid. We didn't watch water-downed kiddie horror. We watched what the adults watched when they obviously didn't know we were watching.
My parents didn't allow me to see scary movies, such as
The Amityville Horror or
The Exorcist. Yet, somehow they didn't stop me from viewing all sorts of frightening TV, including the
The Twilight Zone ,
Chiller Theater,
Salem's Lot, Frankenstein: The True Story, The Dark Night of the Scarecrow, and
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.
However, it was
The Dark Secret of Harvest Home that left the greatest impression on me -- thanks in a large part to Bette Davis in the role of the creepiest senior citizen ever. Davis played the sinister Widow Fortune so brilliantly that almost 30 years later, I still remember it vividly.
Continue reading All-time scariest TV characters -- #7: Widow Fortune
Posted Oct 3rd 2007 1:06PM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Early Looks
Breathtaking vistas? Wild animals? Vibrant culture?
Life Is Wild, the new fish-out-of-water drama on the CW promises all these things, and yet, doesn't quite deliver. It's more of a "Life Is Mild" -- a generic family drama set in a lush South African locale -- that strips all the color out of the scenery by weighing down its story with bland characters played by nondescript actors stuck in unoriginal situations.
For real excitement and back-stabbing familial drama in the South African wild, check out the spectacular
Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet. My family may be late to the game (
Meerkat Manor is now in its third season), but those meerkats have us absolutely riveted. And maybe that's why I had a hard time getting excited by
Life Is Wild. There's no real sense of danger. Unfortunately, this fictionalized African drama just can't compete with the real life-and-death struggles of those photogenic meerkats.
Continue reading Life Is Wild -- An early look
Posted Sep 18th 2007 10:41AM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV Royalty, OpEd, Early Looks
In July, I was at a
sitcom writing seminar in which
Sam Simon (who helped develop
The Simpsons)
declared: "the sitcom is dead." Veteran comedy writer
Ken Levine (who hosted that sitcom seminar), however, disagrees. Ken believes the traditional multi-camera sitcom
might be on a respirator, but still has a pulse. Levine said, "I would amend Sam's statement and say that yeah, the bad, stale, family sitcom with tired rhythms, forced laughs, and bogus characters is dead."
I guess if you're trying to revive the dying sitcom, a good way to start is by assembling a top-notch team. And Fox's new Wednesday night comedy,
Back to You, does just that.
Continue reading Back to You -- An early look
Posted Sep 14th 2007 12:01PM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: OpEd, NYTVF
I sometimes look around the internet and am amazed by the sheer volume of content. People can write about almost anything -- especially when they're obsessed with a specific topic. And a lot of people seem to be specifically obsessed with television.
Not that I can judge. I'm TV addict who writes for
TV Squad. But I sometimes wonder if it all really matters. Is anyone listening to any of us? And more importantly, do we have any influence on the television world at large with our opinions and criticisms?
As a devoted TV addict, I headed out last week to cover the
New York Television Festival (NYTVF) and listened in on a panel discussion which looked at the explosion of blogs and TV fan sites and questioned their impact (if any) on the industry.
Continue reading NYTVF: TV Criticism on the Web
Posted Sep 11th 2007 1:00PM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, NYTVF
I know what you're thinking. Who would want to work on daytime soaps? They're cheesy and lame. And they're not "real" TV shows. So why would anyone waste their time checking out the
NYTVF's panel on "Breaking into Daytime Drama?"
Well, I would. And I'm glad I did. As a writer trying to break into television, I like to know all about potential employers. Besides, it's not like TV shows grow on trees out here in NYC. Us actors, writers, and other creative types have to take what we can get where we can get it.
And as I found out Saturday at the Daytime Drama panel, I'd be darn lucky to land a job on a soap.
Continue reading NYTVF: Breaking into Daytime Drama
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