| Author |
Message |
    
argile stox
Hunger Member
Post Number:
54
Registered: 12-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 09, 2006 - 10:19 am: |   |
Well, I have been thinking & writing again. If you have a few spare minutes - please click on the link below; enjoy!
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/uk_news/article026.html
Argile Stox
Computer-End Program
ISBN 1-4137-2496-5 / PublishAmerica
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/columnists/argilestox/
|
Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2994
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 09, 2006 - 12:28 pm: | |
I'd heard that our local NBC affiliate wasn't going to air it due to local complaints, but I think they did anyway.
I didn't watch it, simply because the previews made it look really stupid.
I'll stick to watching new shows that actually sound funny (as I did with The Office)...
Mindsight Moderator
Check out the musings over at Aston's new blog
|
Alphabeter
Wandering Member
Post Number:
230
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - 12:22 pm: | |
It will die after people actually watch it and discover that it is a mismash rip-off of other quality series.
Nothing Sacred did it much better last decade.
Joy*
Memo: "You'd better learn proper grammar. You'll need it when you apply for parole."
Life is chaos without the source code. |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1347
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - 12:35 pm: | |
The sooner that television goes under, the better. For the most part, producers look for the lowest common denominator and pander accordingly. I would much rather be informed than entertained. Perhaps that is why I prefer books.
http://www.fdungan.com/vigilantes
|
Olen Armstrong
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
402
Registered: 06-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - 01:51 pm: | |
And Fred did you notice that the common denominator keeps spiraling every downward, a slow drop to oblivion. I wonder what cheap DVDs will do to the industry in about 5 years. Broadcast will have to make a major change. Young'uns want it when they want it, and won't stand a rigid schedule. Old farts (like me) just use the "on/off" channel selector and crack a good book.
I always told my kids "Taking off your clothes or talking dirty will ALWAYS get you attention, for about 5 minutes. Then you'd better be able to do something WORTHY of attention." TV doesn't seem to get that. If all they have to offer is skin and dirty jokes..well...I've heard the jokes and seen lots of skin. Is that all they got?
Alternately, I'm now hooked on OTR (Old Time Radio). Nothing on TV today can stand up to Jack Benny or Dragnet or Radio Mystery Theater. And I always get to be the director and cast the parts as I see them on the screen in my head. I'm trying to infect my grandkids too.
Later,
Olen A |
Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number:
1610
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - 02:24 pm: | |
Olen,
You remind me of something I ponder. The old radio show (and, I think, TV), "Amos and Andy" was one of the funniest sit-coms ever produced IMO.
To call it racist was as silly as branding "The Honeymooners" anti-white.
I love all those characters on A&A and it did not demean negros one bit to me. In fact, who was slicker than Kingfish? What a mind.
Too bad politics has to screw up everything it comes in contact with.
If people find Daniel, they can simply turn it off. The ratings will take care of it if enough people don't like it.
Now T&A in prime time, well, I'm not for that... That's another subject.
Bill Nelson
RISEN, ISBN 1-93301616-4
Behler Publications
Hiding Places, Den of Deception |
Tom Elkins
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
310
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - 03:19 pm: | |
Don't hold your breathe waiting for television to "go under". It will continue to change in the direction viewers demand. We superior intellects may not like it. C'est la vie. Television is best when it's live. That's why I watch sports.
Tom Elkins
NORTH of TEXAS
www.authorsden.com/tomelkins |
Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
3008
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - 07:51 pm: | |
I think that even sporting events are now tape-delayed by a few seconds, to avoid the possibility of something offensive being shown unintentionally...
So much for live TV...
Mindsight Moderator
Check out the musings over at Aston's new blog
|
Olen Armstrong
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
403
Registered: 06-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 09:59 am: | |
Bill,
the problem with Amos and Andy WASN'T the scripts. You could probably redo them today and it would be gut-bustingly funny.
The problem was the sterotyped black characters, as portrayed by the white actors.
And that was accepted in the day as "no problem". They did the voices as old mistrel-show "white-face" black characters, the worst of what we now know were unfair sterotypes. They all sounded like bad copies of "Steppin Fetchit". I get very uncomfortable listening to it, even while cracking up at the jokes. I don't have collections of that show for that reason, but do have some on Sampler CDs. The writing was tremendous.
An interesting experiment: record some shows with regular actors doing it without stupid accents, racially neutral. I'll bet it would be ten-times funnier than most of what comes out of Hollyweird today.
That was a major difference between that show and Jack Benny. "Rochester" (Jack's black valet/cook/housekeeper/chauffeur/nanny) very quickly changed from any sterotype to being Jack's secretly-smarter, go-to guy. They quietly acknowledged the racial tone of the day, then thumbed their noses at it. "Mr. Benny" was the boss, but Rochester was in charge of the homestead, and that was obvious. Without him as a surrogate "Mommy", Benny's character would have floundered, hopeless, in all situations. Benny tried to make himself the butt of every joke. He was the straight guy. "Rochester" (actor Eddie Anderson) got the laugh lines. The audiences loved it.
I don't let the racial stuff distract me too much. That was the way it was then. You have to accept that stuff as just an ugly part of history, then look through it to the talent beyond. I call it "the bad ole days". It wasn't right, but it was what it was.
But we're Americans. Once we admit our foolishness, we learn from it. We learn. We grow.
I'm afraid this is skewing this thread. Sorry folks. Think I'll go listen to some OTR. Orson Wells as "Harry Lime", I think. Or maybe "Gunsmoke". "Fred Allen's Town Hall Tonight", maybe? "Johnny Dollar" is pretty good too.
Later,
Olen A |
Olen Armstrong
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
404
Registered: 06-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 10:14 am: | |
Bill,
I missed addressing your point. Sorry.
If we could kill the racial junk, Amos and Andy would still be great, always dreaming up stupid schemes to get-rich-quick, just exACTly like Ralph Cramden and Ed Norton. And, no matter what, the Kingfish would always somehow come out on top, kinda like Sgt Bilko.
I always say: The color of the rind don't much matter, as long as the fruit inside is good.
The key to their long success was the writing, not the race.
Maybe one day we'll mature enough to look through even that to the talent beyond.
Later,
Olen A
(Note: there was a TV show in the 50s with black actors. But the radio era was dying and the public didn't accept the show. The characterizations just weren't the same, and the original white actors in black makeup would NOT have worked. I suspect that with TV the writing went down the tubes too. It died quickly and quietly. We're blessed with small favors sometimes.) |
Stephen Lodge
Awareness Member
Post Number:
35
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 10:39 am: | |
The Amos and Andy TV Show was one of the funniest shows I remember watching as a kid. I certainly didn't watch it to laugh at the characters' race; I watched because it made me laugh my 10-year-old butt off. As for the public not accepting the show, I can only remember it as being quite popular.
Novels by Stephen Lodge:
"Shadows of Eagles"
"Charley Sunday's Texas Outfit!"
"Nickel-Plated Dream"
|
Olen Armstrong
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
405
Registered: 06-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 01:23 pm: | |
I was too young, so my info isn't first hand. Derived form OTR discussion groups.
So...of course, I Googled it to see if I was led astray.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
It was only on for 2 years 51-52. But they made 78 episodes. Sounds right since back then one year of a series was 39 episodes. That leaves a good number for reruns. So popularity in ratings was not good (only 2 years). But popularity for the shows themselves must have been pretty good, since they were rerun up to the early 60s around the country.
Guess I should do the research FIRST, huh!!?? I wouldn't have been so certain. Did find plenty of references to the blatant stereotypes they used. That ran face-first into the Civil Rights movement and killed the show forever.
Sure is a shame that all that skin-tone stuff keeps getting in the way. I ain't white. My printer paper is. All this white-black crap is tiring. Why are we Americans so intent on absolutes, anyway. The proper color range is light peach-to-dark chocolate. That sure makes us sound more alike, doesn't it.
I ain't white. Never met a person who was. I'm overripe dark peach. Met an albino guy once, but he was a pale pink. He was of mixed race too. Never have met a black person either. I know lots of brown folks of various shades, but nary a black person. My son-in-law is mixed race. He's only darker than me in the summer. I beat him out in the winter.
What a buncha crap. Why do Americans waste so much time on this stuff?
Amos and Andy was funny, though. Great scripts.
Ah well, sorry to divert things again. As always, I could be fulla crap. I often am.
Later,
Olen A |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1355
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 01:52 pm: | |
Actually, many of these eary shows enjoyed a long run on radio prior to moving to television.
http://www.dunganbooks.com |
Stephen Lodge
Awareness Member
Post Number:
36
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 05:07 pm: | |
Most shows had shorter runs back then, if you don't count Gunsmoke. I worked on The Fugitive in the '60s -- it was always in the top 10, but only ran four years. Star trek only ran three. I love Lucy, five, if I remember correctly.
Novels by Stephen Lodge:
"Shadows of Eagles"
"Charley Sunday's Texas Outfit!"
"Nickel-Plated Dream"
|
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1357
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 06:45 pm: | |
You worked on The Fugitive? That was my mother's favorite show (she got so involved that she would occasionally shout at the actors, telling them what they should do next). Did they ever get around to unmasking the one-armed man who committed the murder? David Janssen was one fine actor. I saw the movie they made after the television series went defunct.
http://www.fdungan.com/vigilantes.htm |
poker casino486 (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 194.151.99.134
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 06, 2006 - 02:31 pm: | |
poker casino poker 63 |
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page