screeners-related stories
Posted Jan 27th 2009 6:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Ask TV Squad, Reality-Free
We got this question today from a reader:
I'm just wondering how you go about obtaining press kits from networks. Can anyone get a press kit? A lot of web sites and blogs get them which surprises me because I thought that only huge corporations (national trades, etc) could get access to them. If I were to write a network requesting a press kit, do you think they'd send me one?There's some confusion about the TV industry and press kits. A lot of people think that your publication or web site has to be really large and influential to get them. But that's not really the case. It actually comes down to secret passwords and insider information. Odd, but true.
So let me help you out here. If you call ABC and introduce yourself and your publication/site to them and ask to be on the list to get press kits and advance screening copies of new shows, they'll probably turn you down. When this happens, you simply utter the words
"Rod Serling loved chicken salad." The network person will immediately put you on the list to get every press kit they send out.
Continue reading Ask TV Squad: How do you get press kits?
Posted Jun 11th 2008 4:41PM by Jay Black
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Episode Reviews
Screener Hell is an semi-regular feature in which lead blogger Keith McDuffee tries to fry my brain with the worst TV has to offer. (S02E01/S02E02) Do you have any idea how bad a show you have to be to include several scenes of gratuitous nudity
and still be boring!? I love nudity. The more unnecessary the nudity, the better. My favorite kind of nudity is that mid-'90s Cinemax nudity where the main character, despite her ongoing undercover investigation into the exotic world of high-class prostitution, decides to take a shower for 20 minutes for no good reason at all. I'll watch pretty much any kind of claptrap if it includes
that kind of nudity.
But not this show. Not
Foursome. There is no amount of tanned, taut Californian wannabe-actress flesh that could get me to watch another minute of this show. Please, don't think this is because I'm maturing; the show is
just that bad...
Continue reading Screener Hell: Playboy TV's Foursome - VIDEO
Posted Apr 14th 2008 10:05AM by Jay Black
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Early Looks, Episode Reviews
TV Squad's Fearless Leader,
Keith McDuffee, is in charge of meting out the free screener DVDs he receives from various networks. Sometimes the screeners are awesome -- complete season sets of popular shows or weeks-in-advance pilot episodes of hotly anticipated new series -- and sometimes, well, they are
not awesome.
At some point I made a joke that he seems to send me the worst of our screeners (I keed! I keed!) and Keith's response was to start sending me
every single bad screener offered to TV Squad. I'm talking the kind of programming they're currently showing at Guantanamo Bay.
Well, two can play at this game! I've decided that I'm going to review every horrible show Keith sends me. If I have to be tortured with the likes of
Queen Sized and
The Simple Life Goes to Camp, well then, you guys have to be tortured by reading about it. Sorry, it's only fair. Our first foray into Screener Hell is
Farmer Wants a Wife (Wednesdays 9 PM, starting April 30)...
Continue reading Screener Hell: Farmer Wants a Wife
Posted Jun 29th 2006 1:45PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: CBS, Programming, OpEd, Smith, Jericho, Shark
The other day, Keith, Bob and I gave you a
preview of NBC's new pilots, based on the screeners that have been coming into the TV Squad home office (which, in
pure Lettermanian fashion, is located in Wahoo, Nebraska). Today, we tell you what CBS has in store for the 2006-07 season. They don't have too many new shows -- they're in first place, after all -- so this will be short and sweet. Remember, these are only "previews"; even though we'll give our impressions, many things about the show may change by the time the pilots air.
Here's what we'll be previewing:
The Class, Smith, Jericho, and
Shark (even the titles are short and sweet!).
Continue reading TV Squad previews CBS's new shows
Posted Jun 23rd 2006 10:36AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: NBC, Programming, OpEd, Heroes
The screeners have been pouring into the TV Squad offices for the past month now, and we're all dying to tell you what we think of everything. Are these new shows worth catching? Which ones seem likely to miserably fail? Which ones are not to miss? While we can't technically "review" these screeners, we were never told not to give you a short preview of these shows and what our initial thoughts are. (Side note: Joel and I talk about all of these and more in the
latest APB podcast.)
So, to start things off, we've got a slew of NBC pilots to cover:
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Heroes, Friday Night Lights, Kidnapped, 20 Good Years, 30 Rock and
The Black Donnellys.Continue reading TV Squad previews NBC's new shows
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