Toob Talk

I’m apparently a little behind the times.

There’s a new show that should be hitting the NBC airwaves next year and I just found out about it.

Normally, that’s not too disconcerting of a thing. After all, I live in the DC area and not LA or NY.

What’s disturbing here is that the show I just found out about is by a high-powered producing team, with a solid (though not well-known) cast, that’s already drawing in viewers.

How’s it doing that if it hasn’t hit the network yet? By hitting the Web first.

The show is called Quarterlife and it’s the brainchild of David Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz (they’re the ones that brought us My So Called Life and Thirtysomething).

I spent some time today watching the six parts that have been posted so far (over at MySpaceTV), each between seven and fourteen minutes long. In the television world, they would be strung together to make the first hour-long episode. Online, they’ve been posting two a week for the past three weeks.

Unlike last year’s LonelyGirl15 stuff, Quarterlife doesn’t try to sneak in as a genuine blog–it is unabashedly a produced series. Even better, it’s got production values on par with your normal network show. If they’ve really cut any corners, they’ve been more than covered up by the style (kind of quickly cut and quirky) and basic format (online video) of the show.

The basic premise is relatively common–a handful of 20-somethings living with or near one another, trying to make sense of the world their in, trying to make friendships and romance work, trying to figure out life and work in general. There’s an actress, a couple of film makers and then there’s the character who’s the audience’s gateway into this world: a video blogger.

If that isn’t a cutting edge show, I don’t know what is.

It’s not the most original premise, but the first six parts definitely touch on themes that have been commonplace in entertainment media for generations. This show just frames them in something it’s current target audience can really relate to. Fifteen years ago, it would have been centered around that same bunch of friends accidentally finding the online message board postings of the main character. Twenty years ago, they’d have to actually be reading a paper diary or the main commentator would have to actually have a print column somewhere–in other words, it really wouldn’t work the same at all.

The performances by the cast are pretty good based on normal television pilot standards and excellent based on what you normally see on independently produced videos. The difference, I’m guessing, is in the amount of money and time the producers have had to invest in the thing. The actors have all shown up in other places before–I know I spend a lot of time thinking “Hey! I’ve seen them somewhere before!” and, sure enough, a quick check of the show’s listing on IMDB turned up slightly unfamiliar names with much more familiar credits.

As an interesting side note, the producers tried a show with almost the same name (and a similar premise) a few years ago on network TV. It was called 1/4Life and didn’t quite take (I didn’t even remember it until I really sat and thought for a while–and even then only because Shiri Appleby was in it).

If Quaterlife does make it to air on NBC, as has been reported, it will be the first show to make the leap from independent web production to mass network consumption. Even better, since the show is already well into production for the web, the ongoing writer’s strike shouldn’t really have an effect.

Could this be the way of the future? Short runs of shows done for an online audience that then vie for the attention of the TV networks? Do the “five or ten minutes here and there” habits of online video watchers translate to the “you’ll watch when we say you’ll watch” mentality of traditional networks?

I’d like to think that, at the absolute least, we can count on more high-quality online shows. While I’d love to see some of the better ones make the leap to the traditional mass media screen, I won’t be holding my breath. If there’s one thing the major media companies have proved again and again it’s that they adapt slowly. (They are, after all, still using sweeps months and Nielsen ratings to determine what stays and what goes and not at all taking into account the changing viewing habits of their key demographic.)

If things go exceptionally well, the online arena may, indeed, become where nascent shows duke it out. We all know that the online community can be more vicious than any network executive. We also know that it can be a fully interactive process, with the viewers and fans communicating directly with the people who make the decisions on how the show progresses. That’s something that traditional TV has never really had on a large scale. It completely inverts the power structure.

For now, though, I say check out Quarterlife. It may not be the future, but it is good entertainment. It touches on important issues for those of us who communicate and hang out here in the Blogosphere should be well aware of. How our personal observations, when posted in a public forum (be it accidentally or on purpose), can deeply affect those around us. How this new method of communication is still growing and still experiencing growing pains.

We’re all learning how to best interact here in the public digital realm. We may as well watch some fictional characters muddle through it, too.

And then, if they end up on our television screens, watch how it plays out in the “real world” of the general population.

If you haven’t been watching Heroes, you’re missing out.

Yes, this season isn’t quite as tight as the first season was. There’s no “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World” type catch phrase (a failure on the part of the marketing department, in my opinion). But there has been a “Who am I?” theme running through the show.

A lot of that paid off tonight as we finally found out what happened to some of our heroes in the four months that passed between when the first season ended and when the current season started.

It was impressive stuff.

The best, though, is seeing Kristen Bell playing a distinctly non-Veronica Mars type character. In fact, Elle, here shocking (literally) sociopath, is much closer to the character she played (briefly) on Deadwood than her young, cute, smart and sarcastic PI on Veronica Mars.

With only a handful of episodes left before we may be done for the whole season, there’s a lot more loose ends and half-told stories to tie up in some way.

We already know one way it could go–we’ve been shown that, much like we were shown the destruction of NYC in the first season. But the question is how the prophecy will be twisted, misunderstood, used and sidestepped (if it is avoided).

I, for one, can’t wait to see.

With the writers on strike, some shows are in immediate trouble. Others have between a few weeks and a couple of months before they run into trouble.

The LA Times put together a nice grid about it the other day.

And, for Lost fans, today’s Ask Ausiello over at TVGuide.com points out:

Question: What does the strike mean for Lost? Any idea how many episodes they finished pre-strike? Is it still scheduled to air some time in February?— Mike

Ausiello: Why do I suddenly feel as if I’m talking to myself, Mike? Why do I also suddenly feel like I’m not going to like what I have to say? At least I know the answer to that second part — it’s because I don’t like what I have to say. If the strike extends into the new year and beyond, there is a chance ABC may opt to delay the new season until the fall. Or worse yet, February 2009. Another scenario has the network simply airing the eight episodes already in the can this February as originally planned — something Team Darlton would not be in favor of. Says Lost cocreator Carlton Cuse, “Damon [Lindelof] and my concern about running the [eight] episodes we will have made is that it will feel a little like reading half a Harry Potter novel, then having to put it down. There is a mini-cliff-hanger at the end of Episode 8, but it’s like the end of an exciting book chapter; it’s not the end of the novel. Damon and I didn’t write [the ending of Episode 8] differently [with the looming strike in mind]. We wrote it to be the ending of Episode 8.” In any case, he concedes that the decision to hold or air the episodes isn’t ultimately theirs. “It’s really [ABC honcho Steve MacPherson's] call,” Cuse notes, adding, “No one was happy with the six-episode run last season.”

So, this season may end up a complete wash depending on timing.

Jack Bauer fans may be a little out of luck, too. A recent TVGuide.com Strike Watch blog post says:

Fox’s “revised” 2008 schedule kicks off Jan. 13 and 14 with the series premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and starts cooking with gas on the 15th with the two-night return of that singing show known as American Idol, but now is experiencing a Bauer outage. “The seventh season premiere of 24 is being postponed,” explains the network, “to ensure that Day 7 can air uninterrupted, in its entirety.” Fair ’nuff.

Heroes will make it through its current arc, but may end up going with an alternate ending if the second half of the season won’t be ready. And the Heroes: Origins mid-season break replacement is already dead.

Hopefully, this strike will be over quickly and things won’t get too much more screwed up. I’m not holding my breath for that, though.

So, enjoy your shows while they’re on and new.

On Monday, the members of the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike.

This has thrown the entire industry into a wee bit of chaos. Late night talkshows have already started running repeats. Many sitcoms only have a few episodes before they’re out of fresh stuff. Most hour long shows will be able to last until December or January.

Between now and then, most of the viewing public won’t notice much different aside from the mention on the news every now and then.

But a lot of other people will be noticing.

With no new shows being produced, the people that make production happen are left with nothing to do. The people and businesses who support those production crew members–everything from prop shops to caterers–are losing money. If the strike goes on as long as some predict, getting productions back up and running may be a problem as related support businesses, already facing higher costs for everything (just like the rest of us), may not be around.

I’m frequently very critical of the quality of the shows I watch on TV and the movies I pay way too much to watch. I’ll even complain (frequently) about the writing on shows. Don’t let that fool you into thinking I don’t sympathize with the writers.

Having worked as a professional writer (in the news business, not the entertainment biz), I know how difficult it is to put out quality. I can only imagine how much more difficult it is when you have to satisfy numerous commercial interests (studios, advertisers, “hands on” producers who don’t quite get it, etc.) and deal with drama and egos (from actors, directors, producers, executives, and what have you). Perhaps most of all, I know that the general public doesn’t understand how much work it actually is to create something that even vaguely holds together after all the other fingers poke at it.

Joss Whedon just recently wrote:

Writing is largely not considered work. Art in general is not considered work. Work is a thing you physically labor at, or at the very least, hate. Art is fun. (And Hollywood writers are overpaid, scarf-wearing dainties.) It’s an easy argument to make. And a hard one to dispute.

My son is almost five. He is just beginning to understand what I do as a concept. If I drove a construction crane he’d have understood it at birth. And he’d probably think I was King of all the Lands in my fine yellow crane. But writing – especially writing a movie or show, where people other than the writer are all saying things that they’re clearly (to an unschooled mind) making up right then – is something to get your head around.

Whedon is one of the writers and creators out there that rarely produces anything I can seriously complain about (especially since even he admit just how bad his bad stuff *cough*Buffymovie*cough* is). He and others like him–others who have put down their pens and closed their work laptops–keep me entertained. That’s no small task and I’d like to see them paid fairly for it.

The problem is, in the modern media business world, fair pay doesn’t exist. The top of the food chain gobbles up as much as they can and everyone else just gets the crumbs. Granted, those crumbs are still a whole lot bigger than what I ever expect to see from a job, but in that eco-system they are crumbs. This is how it has been for a long time and, probably and sadly, how it will continue to be for some time to come.

At issue (but only one of the issues) is how writers get paid when their work begins to appear in new media formats like DVD and webcasts. Thing is, “new” media isn’t that new any more. The studios have had more than a decade to work toward figuring it out.

But just like the RIAA, they’re slow to adapt and learn.

Television networks fought tooth and nail to keep their shows off of the web. Now every major network has it’s own webcasts set up for its shows. There’s revenue generated there. Not what they get from putting it up during prime time, but revenue none the less. The overhead to show stuff online is lower (or should be) than to broadcast it in traditional ways. The advent of digital production and storage should have cut the cost of warehousing film and editing and a slew of other production steps.

Yet, the consumer still pays through the nose for so much of that entertainment. The profit margin for the big companies must still be there. Bu the people at the bottom of the ladder–the writers, the actors, sometimes the directors–most certainly haven’t seen a comparable increase in their bottom paychecks. Especially when what you’re comparing them to is the network or production company executive’s pay grade.

I want to see the strike end soon–hopefully before we all notice that there’s nothing new on TV except sports shows and game shows. (It may already be too late for that, apparently.) But I hope it ends with the writers getting what they deserve. I hope that they don’t end up fighting a war of attrition.

Most of all, I hope that this really gets everyone in the entertainment business thinking more about making effective use of that new media they’ve been tinkering with for the past five years.

So, to all the writers out there, I support you and wish you the best. But, honestly, for once I’m really glad I’m not one of you. A strike like this is a difficult thing for everyone.