project greenlight-related stories
Posted Jun 11th 2009 3:00PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, The Amazing Race, American Idol, Survivor, Big Brother (US), Dancing With The Stars, Celebreality
Considering how prevalent reality television is these days, it's got to be a pretty daunting task to try and put together a comprehensive list of the best and worst of all time. But
Entertainment Weekly thinks they've done just that. They've compiled the
top 20 reality shows of all time, but also the
ten worst reality shows of all time. All in all, they did a pretty damned good job.
I completely agree with the top six, but they lose me with
Jackass at number seven. I have never understood the appeal of filming morons doing stupid things on purpose just to be stupid. But there were some shows missing from the list completely, like
Little People Big World, So You Think You Can Dance and
Beauty and the Geek. Surely those shows are better than
The Hills and
The Real Housewives of Sesame Street, or whatever franchise they're spinning now.
Continue reading EW declares the all-time best and worst of reality television
Posted Aug 22nd 2007 7:58PM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E17) I'm praying that those of us still watching this show witnessed the
series finale
of
On The Lot and not a
season finale.
If this show ever gets a second season, I may be forced to boycott all future Burnett and Spielberg productions, and I really want to see the next
Survivor and
Jurassic Park IV. Well, maybe not
so much
Jurassic Park IV.
Anyhow, take all the things you disliked about this season and point the world's most powerful electron microscope at them. That's about what these last two episodes have been like.
Continue reading On The Lot: Series Finale (2 of 2)
Posted Aug 15th 2007 7:27PM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E16) Initially, I was opposed to the way they planned to do this finale. It just seemed natural that the final three directors should have had to complete some monumental 5-10 minute piece of work that truly exemplified their talents as a director. The prize is a million dollar deal with Dreamworks, after all, not a first place trophy at the local film festival.
Then, after thinking about it for a bit, it actually made some sense for them to do it this way.
To make the directors create a new piece of work, and totally neglect their previous body of work would have been unfair - particularly if they were having an off day. It'd have been nice to what these guys could do given something more than a couple of minutes, but I can see how that could be construed as a little unfair to the contestants who didn't make it to the final three.
Continue reading On The Lot: Season Finale (1 of 2)
Posted Aug 8th 2007 1:25PM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E15) It's a sad thing when the reveal of who's leaving a reality show is more interesting than the actual show.
Case in point, Zach went home this week and we were forced to hear his stifled crying while Adam, Jason, Will, and Sam were named the final four. I liked Zach, but his odes to such-and-such director were getting old and lacked any originality.
Continue reading On The Lot: Contestant Films
Posted Aug 1st 2007 7:19PM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E14) Throughout the season I've commented on how many of the director's films end up looking more like car commercials thanks to the heavy placement of Ford vehicles throughout their features.
This week the problem was exacerbated because everyone had to make films using "automobiles" as a loose theme. I find it a little suspect that "automobiles" was considered the theme since in previous weeks we had genres like comedy, horror, action, and romantic comedy.
Continue reading On The Lot: Contestant Films (Automobiles)
Posted Jul 25th 2007 7:42PM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E12) The only romantic comedies my palette can tolerate are of the British variety. This may or may not make me a complete tool. I haven't quite decided.
These comedies usually star Hugh Grant playing Hugh Grant and are full of witty banter, unlikely but enjoyable scenarios, and slightly tolerable romance.
Going with that criteria, none of tonight's films came close for me and that's pretty sad considering I've set a pretty low bar for the genre. For the most part, the judges disagreed with me.
Continue reading On The Lot: Contestant Films (Romantic Comedy)
Posted Jul 17th 2007 11:35PM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E11) I'm really surprised
On The Lot has made it this long without getting yanked.
My suspicion is Fox doesn't quite have the guts to cancel a show produced by the venerable Steven Spielberg, but they're covertly doing everything in their power to get this stinker off the air. Hence, the double eliminations for the last two weeks.
By my calculations, if we continue cutting two people a week, we'll only be subjected to four or five more episodes tops.
I think this may be the first time I've ever consistently watched a show on a weekly basis while simultaneously wanting it to die.
Continue reading On The Lot: Contestant Films (Action)
Posted Jul 9th 2007 10:22PM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E10) I'm pretty sure the
On the Lot studio audience is tricked into thinking they're at a "My Favorite Things" taping of an
Oprah show each week.
The only way they could possibly be as enthusiastic as they let on is if they think they're getting a free iPhone, a fresh batch of crepes Fedexed in from Paris, or an early copy of
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Seriously, the crowd is in such a frenzy each week, it's nearly impossible to hear Adriana Costa during her introduction. She practically has to shout and the funny part is, she's using a microphone.
There is no way a sane human being could like this show that much. It's against nature.
Continue reading On The Lot: Contestant Films - Round 3
Posted Jul 4th 2007 2:17AM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E09) Last week a reader by the name of Videophile posted a link in the comments to
this YouTube video noting the similarities between it and Zach's film
Die Hardly Working.
After watching the film, I tend to agree and encourage you to have a look for yourself.
I'm not accusing Zach of stealing from the SecretFunTime crew, but the video was posted on
their site on May 1st and apparently, Zach only shot this film last week. Also,
On The Lot didn't start airing until May 23rd which presumably means Zach could have seen the video before leaving to participate on the show. Just something to think about.
I apologize for the rampant conspiracy theorizing. I have to keep myself interested in this show somehow.
Continue reading On The Lot: Contestant Films - Round 2 (continued)
Posted Jun 27th 2007 10:24AM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E08) I hate to sound like a broken record, but once again, On The Lot underwent a few more tweaks this week.
To begin with, thanks to a somewhat revealing outfit, the studio audience was mere millimeters away from finding out what exactly resided on Adriana Costa's lot. I'm pretty sure Garry Marshall would have had a heart attack had this actually occurred.
Continue reading On The Lot: Contestant Films - Round 2
Posted Jun 19th 2007 11:36PM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E07) I'm pretty sure Fox has an intern whose sole job is to check the web every Wednesday morning to see what the bloggers and web magazines had to say about the previous night's episode
.
I say this because it feels like the producers take the online criticism into account and have been making little adjustments here and there to try and make the show a little bit better.
Continue reading On The Lot: The Final Personal Submissions
Posted Jun 13th 2007 1:13AM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E06) To the producer's credit, we finally have a format for this show, and it appears we're sticking with it. We also seem to have hit upon a trend with easy on the eyes but hard on the ears host Adriana Costa.
I could be wrong, but it appears her outfit gets a little skimpier every week.
If I'm right, somewhere around week 10 Fox's ratings are going to kill in this time slot since it's likely Adriana will have her outfit whittled down to a couple of squares of toilet paper held together by some fishing line.
Continue reading On The Lot: Five More Finalists Present Films
Posted Jun 6th 2007 12:52AM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E05) Tonight's show was a definite improvement over last weeks, but that's kind of like saying being forced fed one turd sandwich is better than being force fed two. At the end of the day, you're still eating a turd sandwich.
Never in my history of TV watching have I encountered a show so maligned by schizophrenia. The producers of
On The Lot know they want to find "the next great Hollywood film director," but they have absolutely no clue what the means are to reach this end.
And what's the deal with Adriana Costa. I think one of the readers mentioned that he and a friend created a drinking game that revolved around one of them taking a shot every time she botched a line.
Sadly, I received email confirmation that the both of them died of alcohol poisoning after this evening's episode.
Continue reading On The Lot: Five Finalists Present Their Films
Posted May 29th 2007 11:52PM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E04) This may go down as the longest hour of TV in the history of TV. Tonight's episode was only an hour long, but it felt more like thirteen thanks to the lame effort to
American Idolize the show with all the awkward pauses and the "we'll tell you right after the break" nonsense.
It probably sounds strange for a guy who practically typed a novel during yesterday's review to be criticizing the length of anything, but what else could I do? There were still 24, pardon me, 18 contestants left, and I couldn't very well not talk about someone's film. It'd be like the producers of this show completely leaving out an episode. Things like that just shouldn't happen.
Anyhow, I guess there's no real reason for me to stretch this out any more than it needs to be. I'll tell you who got cut, but we're going to have to wait...until...after...you...click..the...jump.
Continue reading On The Lot: 3 Directors Voted Off
Posted May 29th 2007 1:19AM by JJ Hawkins
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, On The Lot
(S01E03) New host, new show format, and a new time slot on a new night. If I didn't recognize the judges and the directors, I wouldn't have even realized I was watching
On The Lot this week.
Call me crazy, but they should have gone with this
American Idol like format from the get go. After watching tonight's episode, the shows from last week feel even more disjointed from the series.
I'm afraid that the plodding, "me-too-reality-show" that was portrayed last week probably turned more people off the show than anything. It's a shame too, because this week the pace really started picking up, and we got to see what the show truly has to offer.
Namely, a great bunch of films from a great bunch of directors. Well, mostly great films from mostly great directors. Click on for a walk through of 18 one-minute comedy shorts from 18 good and not so good up-and-coming directors.
Continue reading On The Lot: 18 Directors Compete
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