While walking the streets of Manhattan, heading to the office early this morning, one of those giant open-air tour buses came flying by me as I crossed Sixth Avenue. Normally, since I see them everyday, I ignore them. But this one had a giant ad plastered across the side of it for Ed Begley Jr.'s green livin' reality show, and I couldn't help staring at it because it confused the hell outta me. Not because it's an inherently confusing ad, but because the fonts and text create an inherently confusing message.
Now, I'm no ad man, but am I the only one who sees the problem here?
I'm all for going green. And I love Mary Lynn Rajskub's Chloe on 24. In fact, I have missed her since she's been gone from the show for a few weeks. But that's no excuse for the horrific PSA she did to promote 24's new eco-friendly green initiative last week. It's taken me forever to wipe the stink of it off my eyes.
Who knew that an actress could be completely incapable of convincingly reading a short script in an even slightly convincing manner. It reminded me of when Saturday Night Live books politicians or athletes as hosts and then are stunned when they can't act their way out of a table read . Honestly, there's nothing more I can say about it that could fully explain the horror. You'll just need to see it for yourself (but it is 30 seconds you can never recover):
It's not only expensive and harder to do than one might think, but it also flies in the face of 24's core audience. Of course, that's not its boldest effect. These days, pissing off the right wing is more "in" than Twittering about your Snuggie.
The boldest move is the effect these new measures could have on the body of the show in ways you may not expect. You might even see Jack Bauer tie a guy to a chair and hook up his nipples to a car battery to get him to admit he doesn't put his plastics and newspapers in separate recycling bins.
Seems that terrorist threats aren't the only things that Jack Bauer likes to thwart - apparently he doesn't like litter, pollution, or global warming either.
FOX announced today that 24 has successfully become the first ever "carbon neutral" television production. Sounds rather complicated (I have a hard time separating cans from cardboard), but it's much simpler than you think.
During production for the seventh season of the real-time drama, practices such as using hybrid cars, purchasing government issued carbon credits, using fluorescent lighting and bio-diesel fuels, and distributing all production memoranda (schedules and scripts) electronically were implemented. That sounds good and all, but I'm actually surprised about the electronic dissemination of scripts. For a show like this, wouldn't you think that would lead to more plots being leaked?
Planet Green and Access Hollywood are rolling out the red, er, green carpet for Hollywood Green. The show, hosted by Access Hollywood and Today Show correspondent Maria Menounos will kick off tomorrow in a special timeslot at 6 p.m. The show will follow Menounos as she talks with her celebrity friends who are champions of environmentally-friendly living. The host will highlight green fashion trends, cover gala events, and put "fans and viewers in the know as to what she and the rest of Hollywood are doing to support the green movement."
Menounos is also a reporter for NBC Nightly News and can be seen in the summer comedy Tropic Thunder.
Planet Green is a property of Discovery Communications. It is a 24-hour eco-lifestyle network that focuses on conversation and meeting the challenge of protecting our earth.
Hollywood Green with Maria Menounos will air tomorrow at 6 p.m. on Planet Green then move to its regular time at 9 p.m. next week.
Each year, television production studios send out oodles (that's the word I use when I don't have an exact figure) of DVDs to voters for Emmy awards. This year, CBS Paramount Television went green with its Emmy campaign. It's all explained on this website, but CBS has essentially decided to save the planet by not creating a bunch of DVDs that will just go in the trash and has, instead, directed voters to watch episodes online.
That means we can watch 'em, too.
Go here to check out which episodes of CBS Paramount (different from the CBS network) were submitted for Emmy consideration. The online video quality looks and sounds great. Among the contenders are a CSI episode with Liev Schreiber, Criminal Minds with James van der Beek, and an episode of Jericho, which the CBS network recently canceled.
Movie actor and political activist Leonardo DiCaprio is helping develop a reality show that is meant to raise awareness about the environment. The show, called E-topia, is about an American town that transforms into an environmentally friendly "utopia of tomorrow". It sounds like the conflict in the show is expected to come when construction workers try to build under the direction of some very passionate eco-idealists, planners and architects. The series is currently being shopped around to the networks.
While the message is undeniably important, it also may be a little too preachy to be called 'reality television'. Since when does reality television carry a positive message? The genre is forever aligned with shows like Laguna Beach, Big Brother, The Bachelor and Survivor. If anything, it sounds like a documentary series meant for Discovery Channel or HGTV.
In 2007, Robert Redford's Sundance Channel will launch a three-hour primetime block of shows called Sundance Channel Green. Original series and documentaries will focus on environmental issues, and the channel also plans to take the new initiative to other platforms as well, including an online portal called ECOMMUNITY and downloads for wireless devices. Redford has been an environmental activist for some time now, and it seems he's taking advantage of renewed public interest in this topic spurred by Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. I think there's an audience for this kind of programming, but I have doubts as to whether or not it will do much to persuade anyone who doesn't already have strong opinions one way or the other about these issues.
Now that the CW has given us a look at their upcoming fall schedule, the only thing that was left in order for them to become a real network was a web site, which went live today. The site is fairly extensive, with individual pages for all the shows and a list of affiliate stations. And it's flashy as hell, with a preview video and everything.
Oh, and see that ugly green color behind the network's ugly '70s-era logo? It's... all... over... the... site. So if you missed the shag carpeting you used to sit on before your kindergarten nap time, go check the site out for a nice reminder.
Seth MacFarlane is producing a theatrical stage production of Family Guy titled, originally enough, Family Guy Live!
The "two-hour, multimedia extravaganza" will feature MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis, and Mike Henry. The actors will read from a classic episode, take part in a Q&A and preview the first new Family Guy episode in three years.
Family Guy Live! is scheduled to premiere with two performances at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theater on April 15, followed by four shows at New York City's Town Hall on April 29 and 30. Tickets go on sale tomorrow.
The really amazing thing is that they don't look related at all.
Fox's charge to make 
Seems that terrorist threats aren't the only things that Jack Bauer likes to thwart - apparently he doesn't like litter, pollution, or global warming either.
Planet Green and Access Hollywood are rolling out the red, er, green carpet for 
Each year, television production studios send out oodles (that's the word I use when I don't have an exact figure) of DVDs to voters for Emmy awards. This year, CBS Paramount Television went green with its Emmy campaign. It's all explained on 
Movie actor and political activist Leonardo DiCaprio is helping develop a reality show that is meant to raise awareness about the environment. The show, called E-topia, is about an American town that transforms into an environmentally friendly "utopia of tomorrow". It sounds like the conflict in the show is expected to come when construction workers try to build under the direction of some very passionate eco-idealists, planners and architects. The series is currently being shopped around to the networks.
In 2007, Robert Redford's Sundance Channel will launch a three-hour primetime block of shows called Sundance Channel Green. Original series and documentaries will focus on environmental issues, and the channel also plans to take the new initiative to other platforms as well, including an online portal called ECOMMUNITY and downloads for wireless devices. Redford has been an environmental activist for some time now, and it seems he's taking advantage of renewed public interest in this topic spurred by Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. I think there's an audience for this kind of programming, but I have doubts as to whether or not it will do much to persuade anyone who doesn't already have strong opinions one way or the other about these issues.
Now that the CW has given us a look at their 
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