Current Affairs

TVBGone.com

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Tired of the TV blaring in your favorite restaurant or bar, making it impossible for you to have a conversation without yelling? You could ask the owner to turn the set off… or, now, you can do it yourself without anyone even knowing it was you who did it. According tothe LA Times, someone has come up with a handy, key-chain remote that will turn off any television set.

For someone who just wanted a little peace and quiet, Mitch Altman is causing quite a ruckus. The San Francisco entrepreneur, perennially irritated by televisions blaring in restaurants and other gathering spots, revealed this week that he had come up with a solution: a cheap remote that shuts down almost every model of TV.

After the story of Altman’s invention zapped around the Internet, so many people visited TVBGone.com that the website crashed. Even so, Altman had taken 2,000 orders by early Wednesday, accounting for the entire first production run. Through mobile phones, pocket TVs and other devices, gadget makers have spent two decades devising ways to keep people constantly "on." The buzz over Altman’s device shows that some people are eager to turn off.

"I can see it turning into a sort of punky instrument of disruption," Columbia University sociologist Todd Gitlin said of the $15 devices, "a sort of new-style culture jam that’s within a lot of people’s means."

Gitlin warned that with TV such a big part of daily life — Americans watch an average of more than four hours a day — incautious use of TV-B-Gone could be unwise. Picture, for example, a sports bar during Wednesday night’s decisive match-up between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.

Altman started mulling over what became TV-B-Gone after he and some friends found themselves watching a soundless TV in a restaurant, abandoning what had been an entertaining conversation.

Altman, an engineer, tinkered in his studio apartment and then ordered as many of the keychain devices as his one-employee company could afford: 20,000. The gadget works by emitting every known set manufacturer’s signal to shut down. In his daily experiments in stores and elsewhere, Altman said, few people have objected.

"TVs are so ubiquitous that they don’t even think about it," Altman said. They see TV-B-Gone as giving them "some way of controlling their lives."

Amherst College sociologist Ron Lembo described Americans as ambivalent about TV. They want to turn it off, he said, but can’t stop watching. TV-B-Gone "plays into deeper resentment," Lembo said. But even if Altman’s gadget catches on, "you can’t turn off where television is and how important it is in the culture."

Along with customer orders, Altman said, he has been deluged with suggestions for follow-up products, including Car-Alarm-B-Gone, Booming-Bass-Speakers-B-Gone, and the clear favorite, Cellphone-B-Gone.

Altman has put some thought into that last one. "There are many possible ways to do it," he said, "but I don’t think any of them are legal."

“The Shield” Gets Close

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It used to be that movie stars wouldn’t slum in television…certainly not on a weekly drama series. Those days are long gone. James Spader, Gary Sinise, Sharon Stone, Rebecca DeMornay… those are just a few of the names that have shown up in episodic TV lately. The trend is picking up speed. Variety reports that Glenn Close is joining the regular cast of THE SHIELD.

Marking her first series regular role on primetime television, Glenn Close has joined the cast of FX cop drama “The Shield.” Thesp, who landed an Emmy nomination this year for her portrayal of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Showtime movie “The Lion in Winter,” will appear in every episode of the 13-seg fourth season. Production begins in January. Close will play Monica Rawling, the new captain of the Farmington precinct, who empowers Det. Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) to enforce her controversial community policies.

Could it be that stars have started noticing something viewers did a long time ago… that, by and large, TV shows are better written, produced and directed than most feature films these days? And not just on HBO, either…

There is a God

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Variety reports that NBC’s cop show HAWAII has been cancelled. 1hawaxn04

We should start seeing the full-page advertisements from the fans, clamoring for its return as a feature film with the original cast, appearing in the trades in about 25 years. Mark your calenders.

Ivan Sergei is now officially tied with Jason Gedrick as the kiss of death for any TV show.

The Road to Sequels

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The prolific and charming Max Alan Collins is a remarkable writer… effortlessly moving between mediums… graphic novels, comic strips (he wrote “Dick Tracy” for years), mystery novels, movie novelisations, and TV tie-ins (he authors the “CSI” books now), among other things. He wrote the original graphic novel “Road to Perdition,” which became the Tom Hanks movie… and then he wrote the screenplay novelization of the movie based on his graphic novel. I don’t think that has ever been done before. Now he’s taking the idea of the sequel to a whole new level.

Collins has announced that “Road to Purgatory” (hardcover novel, Morrow, a book publishing group of Harper-Collins) and “Road to Perdition 2: On the Road” (graphic novel, DC Comics trade paperback) should begin hitting stores by late November and no later than Dec. 1.

“I don’t believe two sequels to the same work in two different mediums, by the same creator, has ever been done,” said DC Comics vice president Dan DiDio.

“I knew there’d be demand for a sequel,” Collins said.

But he debated as to what form to pursue — prose or graphic novel, a comics style form for which Collins has become nationally recognized. He decided to use both. “Road to Purgatory” follows the son of hitman Michael O’Sullivan into adulthood on his journey to a showdown with Al Capone, whom O’Sullivan’s son blames for the death of his own gangster father. “Road to Perdition 2: On the Road” is a new narrative that takes place within the structure of the original story.

Collins said that it’s too early to tell if there will be a film sequel to “Perdition.” However, he said DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox have expressed “strong interest.”

In TV, Imitation is the Sincerest form of Desperation

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Variety reports that the surprise success of ABC’s DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES has the networks scrambling to develop “housewife” shows of their own.

In the race to come up with the next big procedural hit (a la “CSI” and “Law & Order”), no one saw the mega-openings of ABC’s new drama hits “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” coming.

Now, just as they were about to finish buying scripts for next season, drama execs have made a U-turn and added a few more quirky female dramas and big-concept thrillers to the development mix.

“There’s always that Oct. 1 curveball that comes in, when everybody suddenly looks for the opposite of what they had been after,” says 20th Century Fox TV drama chief Jennifer Nicholson Salke.

By October, of course, development execs finally have a chance to digest what’s hot and what’s not. And although procedurals are by no means cold, webheads can’t help but take into account the excitement over “Housewives” and “Lost.”

As a result, nets and studios are taking a second look at projects they may have passed on earlier in the year, hoping to capture some of what made “Housewives” so appealing.

NBC and 20th took it one step further, redeveloping the 7-year-old Todd Holland/John Riggi script “Five Houses,” a single-camera comedy about families living in a Los Angeles cul-de-sac.

The success of LOST hasn’t been, um, lost on them either…

“The word right now is ‘eventize,’ ” says ICM’s Matt Solo. “People want pitches and projects that can be turned into events, and promoted as being really different.”

ABC Entertainment exec VP Francie Calfo says it’s clear everyone is now looking for the next show in the vein of “Lost” — even her own net.

You Don’t Bring Me Money Anymore

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There’s a rumor being reported by Billboard that Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand will be teaming up for a nationwide concert tour.

A planned tour by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond could set a new record for high ticket prices, Billboard reported Thursday. The duo has been guaranteed approximately $3.5 million per show, putting estimates for tickets to be $300 to $400 on the low end, an unidentified source told Billboard magazine.

VIP packages could sell for $3,000 or more, some industry executives said.

Streisand and Diamond, who collaborated on the 1978 No. 1 hit “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” reunited for the first time in 24 years last June for a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Diamond’s last tour, in 2001-2002, grossed $80 million.

Streisand is credited with breaking the $300 ticket barrier in the early 1990s and reportedly has charged as much as $750 per ticket in recent years.

The diva grossed $18.2 million for two 1999 New Year’s Eve shows to ring in the new millennium at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Insiders predict the proposed tour will be successful.

“Streisand and Diamond is the ultimate 60-year-old show,” an unidentified industry executive said.

I’m not 60, but I’ll be there. Considering I write Diagnosis Murder novels, this admission can’t come as a big surprise to anyone. I also wear Depends… for the comfort.

WGA Reaches Tentative Accord

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The WGA has struck a tentative deal with the networks and studios… which, while giving us gains in our health and pension program, screws writers out of DVD royalties (at a time when the industry is booming and entire seasons of TV shows are being packaged for DVD). The deal also grants networks the right to rebroadcast the first episode of a drama mulitple times without paying residuals. Apparently, no gains were made in the foreign residual pay structure.

Granted, there are big gains in our health plan at a time when we need it… but I think this deal also signals the death of meaningful royalties & residuals for writers in the future from any existing or future means of distribution (DVD, internet, foreign networks, etc.). The networks are airing fewer and fewer reruns, so gains there are really window dressing. Foreign and DVDs, for the moment, are the future for reruns and our portion of those revenues are miniscule. In the long run, I believe the elimination or extreme diminishment of royalties and residuals will have a devastating impact on screenwriters and their ablity to earn a living at their craft.

WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA REACHES TENTATIVE AGREEMENT WITH THE MAJOR STUDIOS AND NETWORKS

Los Angeles – The Negotiating Committee for the Writers Guild of America, west and East has reached tentative agreement on a new three-year, $58-million contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, ABC, CBS, FBC, and NBC covering writers in the film, broadcast and cable industries.

“It’s been a long five months since we walked away from negotiations without a contract on June 2nd,” said Daniel Petrie Jr., President of the WGAw, “but it has been well worth the wait. This tentative agreement is projected to be worth almost $58 million by the end of its term, nearly double what the producers offered us on the June 1st. The new agreement will fully address the needs of our health plan, ensuring us a six-month reserve at the current level of benefits by the end of the contract in 2007. We consider this a major victory that was critical to protect the health benefits of writers and their families. What’s more, the companies have also agreed to recommend to the pension fund directors that they increase pensions.”

“Looked at purely on dollar terms, the deal is unusually rich, and for that our negotiators should be congratulated. In other ways, the gains fall far short of what we had hoped for and what our members feel we deserve,” said Herb Sargent, President of the Writers Guild of America, East. “The deal ensures that our health plan will remain viable for the length of the contract – no small matter – but the companies have refused to acknowledge the need for an improvement in our “abnormally low” residuals formula for DVDs and home video, and the deal includes some roll backs for TV writers and news writers, and only very minor gains for screenwriters. Nevertheless, our negotiators believe that this was the best deal possible at this time. Now it’s up to our members to decide.”

“The WGA should be commended for their professionalism and resolve that made it possible to reach a fair deal that keeps writers working, keeps the town working, and addresses their most crucial concerns,” said J. Nicholas Counter, III, President, Association of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

Health Plan

Starting at the beginning of the new contract, an increase in the contribution rate from 7.5 percent to 8.5 percent. In the last year of the contract, there is also an option to increase the contribution rate to 9.0 percent, by reducing the percentage increase in minimums by the same half percent. All told, the companies will be putting an additional $37 million over current levels into the health fund.

Pension Plan

Effective January 1, 2004, the contribution limits on writers’ earnings will go up by $35,000 per company, which translates to an annual increase of as much as $1,000 in pension payments for every year the writer earned more than $170,000. The trustees will also raise the payout ceiling by $10,000, so writers can enjoy more of the benefits they have earned.

Minimums

Three percent increase in each year of the contract commencing November 1, 2004. Two and a quarter percent increase for reruns on network primetime and non-primetime serials. Five percent increase for Excerpt fees commencing November 1, 2006.

Term

Three years: November 1, 2004 through October 31, 2007.

Reality TV

We made significant headway developing a mutual understanding with the Companies on reality television, as did the DGA before us. Like the DGA, we expect that these discussions will lead to future gains for writers.

Internet Download Sales

The companies agreed to 1.2 percent of the licensing agreement for internet-download rentals in the 2001 agreement. The guild sought to clarify that the same formula would apply to download sales. Reserving their positions, the guild and AMPTP will form a joint committee to address the problem.

Made-for-Pay TV

The agreement will provide for a 20 percent annual increase in half-hour residuals and a 15 percent increase in one-hour residuals.

Late Pay

Writers have often been unaware of various legal impediments that impact their contract, contributing to the affront of late payment for writing services. To ensure that a writer is aware of any conditions to his/her employment that must be satisfied before commencing services, the company will now outline the conditions precedent (such as securing underlying rights, the execution of the producer’s contract, etc.) when the writer and studio come to terms.

Previously or Currently Employed Writers

The companies will state in the writers’ individual employment agreement the names of all other writers then or previously employed on the same material.

Training Program

The tentative agreement also calls for a producer-funded program to provide training for episodic writers to enable them to develop the skills required to be a successful showrunner/executive producer.

Promotional Launch

To help establish a wide-viewing audience for new one-hour dramatic series, the contract will allow for two of the first three episodes (including the pilot) to be rerun within two months of the launch of the series without residual compensation.

“There is no question that this tentative agreement was heavily influenced by pattern bargaining, for good and ill,” said Petrie. “While we are very pleased with the total dollar amount of the deal, which is equivalent to the DGA’s success, we are disappointed that our deal, like the DGA’s, contains no gains in DVDs. In the end, we felt that protecting the health benefits of writers and their families had to be our top priority, and continuing to pursue a DVD increase would mean putting those gains at risk.”

It’s Not ‘CSI’ or ‘Law & Order’…

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Variety reports that Fox has greenlit a one-hour pilot called PRISON BREAK…

“Prison Break” revolves around a man who robs a bank and waits around for the police to arrive, in order to be arrested and sent to prison. Once there, he relies on one of his tattoos — which doubles as a map of the facility — to escape with his brother, a death-row inmate, in tow.

Eventually, the prisoners break free — and it becomes a story about fugitives on the lam.

“It was one of those things where we heard the pitch and said, ‘God, that’s a great idea,’ ” said Fox execexec VP Craig Erwich. “It just feels like a signature Fox show.”

I don’t know if it will be any good, or if it can sustain itself as a series (without becoming another rehash of “The Fugitive”), but at least it’s not another version of CSI or LAW AND ORDER…or a thinly-veiled ripoff of those shows… or yet another series about cops investigating homicides. You have to applaud Fox for being willing to try unconventional formats for series…even though they often stumble after an intriguing pilot (remember JOHN DOE?)

By the way, I worked with Craig Erwich many years ago when he was a devleopment exec at Cannell Productions and I was toiling on a bad syndicated series for the studio called COBRA.

Chernuchin’s Book & Pilot Deal

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Variety reports that former LAW & ORDER producer Michael Chernuchin has struck an unusual pilot deal at ABC. Not only has he landed a script order for “Expert Witness,” but a publishing contract, too.

“Expert Witness” is a sort of legal “CSI” that revolves around Roger Cleary, a thirtysomething coroner-turned-professional freelance forensic witness who works for both prosecution and defense cases. Cleary’s dad is in jail for killing his mom, and that crime inspires his career.

Interestingly, even before ABC decides whether to greenlightgreenlight the project to pilot, Chernuchin has already sealed a deal with book packager Alloy to write a series of novels based on the lead character in “Expert Witness.” Indeed, the book deal predated the ABC pactpact.

“We sold the project to TV faster than we thought,” he quipped.

This may be the first time where the “TV tie-in” novel was sold before the TV series. Chernuchin is also adapting the hit BBC series “Judge Deed” for NBC.

“Deed” focuses on a federal court justice in Washington, D.C., who is “totally moral in the courtroom by not so moral on the outside,” Chernuchin said.

“We’ve seen legal stories through almost everyone’s point of view but the judge’s,” he said. “When you see a judge on TV they’re usually just saying ‘sustained’ and ‘overruled.’ This gives me a whole different way to think about cases.”

I guess he doesn’t watch JUDGING AMY, either. And he missed THE COURT, FIRST MONDAY, and QUEENS SUPREME… just like most of America.

Clueless Morons

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Yesterday in Variety, a bunch of clueless morons calling themselves The Colonial Fan Force ran a full-page, color advertisement clamoring for a “Battlestar Galactica” movie starring the original cast.

Millions of fans still dream of seeing the Battlestar Galactica roam the heavens once more in a big screen continuations of the epic story that began in 1978 with the original cast and characters leading a new generation of warriors

Yeah, right… there are millions, no TENS of millions, of fans clamoring for the return of Herb Jefferson, Laurette Sprang, Dirk Benedict, and Richard Hatch (who is not nearly as powerful an actor as the nude guy of the same name on “Survivor”… nor as successful). I suspect the real audience is about 100 fat guys in their 40s, who at this very moment are busily duping all their Heather Thomas videos onto DVD…
Galacticaad
That said, I am always amused by the losers who spend their comic book money on pointless ads like this (or, worse, the ones who publish a synopsis of, or excerpt from, their unsold screenplays). The advertising guys at Variety and the Hollywood Reporter must laugh themselves silly with glee every time one of these suckers comes in.

In the case of the “Battlestar Galactica,” the folks at “The Colonial Fan Force” urge the readers of Variety (most of whom are entertainment industry professionals) to write writer/producer Glen A. Larson and Tom DeSanto, a guy who once tried to launch a movie version of the TV show. This shows just how little the people who paid for this ad understand about how the business works…and even sillier when you consider the SciFi Channel is already in the midst of shooting a new “Battlestar Galactica” TV series from NBC/Universal Studios with an all-new cast led by Edward James Olmos.

I suppose we have Gene Roddenberry to blame for this, ever since he cleverly engineered the so-called “viewer campaign” to save “Star Trek” from cancellation. So now we get ads demanding the return of dull supporting characters axed from TV shows (the “Save Marina” campaign on “The L Word” comes to mind) and from the millions of fans still crying over the demise of “Manimal.” I’m looking forward to the “Bring Gloria Reuben back to MISSING” ads… maybe the Colonial Fan Force can take up the cause.

I’m sorry, I shouldn’t joke. This “Battlestar Galactica” stuff is serious business, as is clear from the Colonial Fan Force website:

We’ve got to buckle down, and get to work. It’s going to be up to each member of fandom to make sure our efforts come to fruition. The CFF and its leadership will remain active in coordinating fan efforts as much as possible, but everyone reading this page has got to accept individual responsibility for making sure that we, as a group, rise together and speak with one voice. None of us can afford to think that “someone else will do it.” We’ve all got to find some time (and some stamps), and make it happen. We’ve got to make some collective noise.

This would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Think of all the truly worthy causes that could benefit from the same time, effort and money these morons are devoting with such earnestness to this idiotic pursuit…

UPDATE (10-22-04)

As you can see, the above post listed many comments, prompting me to explain the reasoning behind my opinion about the advertisement in more detail. For the benefit of those who don’t feel like slogging through all the comments to find that post, here it is:

You’ll notice that, with the exception of the STAR TREK and NAKED GUN movies, that none of the many other movies-based-on-TV series that have followed have starred the original cast, nor have any that have been announced for development

But that’s not the issue that makes the VARIETY ad so stupid or the people behind it so…how to put this nicely?…naive and wrong-headed.

These theatrical remakings of TV series are basically trading on the name identification of a hit series to create a new movie franchise, which is why they keep the name but cast movie stars in the roles. The original franchise is the selling point, not the actors. (Which is why I SPY didn’t have Bill Cosby, it had Eddie Murphy, and why WILD WILD WEST had Will Smith and not Robert Conrad. And why the new MIAMI VICE isn’t going to star Don Johnson or Philip Michael Thomas…but Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, instead).

These movies are intended to be blockbusters. And the blockbuster imperative doesn’t extend to nostalgia-friendly casting, with the exception of cameos (ie Patrick MacNee as invisible ghost in AVENGERS or Mark Goddard with one line in LOST IN SPACE) as a sop to the fans.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA has been done…as miniseries. The franchise value is already being mined. And it’s highly doubtful that people will flock to the theatres just to see Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict and company.

On a whole different level, the ad itself was wronghead, directed at an audience of writers, producers, directors, and studio heads who aren’t about to write letters to Glen Larson or Tom DeSanto.

The fans threw $12,000 away on an ad targeted at the wrong audience for their message (the message itself was wrong-headed, but I will get to that later, too). They humiliated their cause in the eyes of the very Industry that the fans were hoping to impress. Industry professionals who see ads like that in Variety aren’t impressed (any more than they are buy the struggling screenwriter who spends the money on a full-page ad to reprint pages of his unsold screenplay). The ad simply reinforced every preconception Hollywood has about fandom. It certainly did for me.

(On a side note, even if Glen Larson was dying to do a BSG movie, he does not have the clout to get a $100 million feature off the ground. You will notice he is only tangentially involved in the features in works based on his other TV series. So writing letters to him isn’t going to persuade a studio to dump money into the revival of a franchise that is already being mined on television, if in a “re-imagined version).

The ad in Cinescape, however, was also money poorly spent, though less obviously so. I’ll get to the reasons why in a moment.

You want to revive BSG? I think it’s a lost cause, especially since the valuable aspect of the franchise is already being mined on TV, but here’s some constructive advice:

Investing money in trade ads is useless. It’s better to use that money to organize a grass-roots campaign to make people aware of the BSG DVD and get them to buy it. On your website, make it look more businesslike and less fannish.

The trick is not to convince the powers that be that there are 100,000 absolute diehard fans who will do anything to get BSG back as a feature. You need to convince them there are actually tens of millions who have at least a passing interest in seeing BSG brought back. You want to spend money? Spend it on raising awareness among non-devotees of BSG. Get a groundswell of interest in the show itself. Try to push the DVD on people who aren’t familiar with the series. This is how it worked with THE NAKED GUN (on video) and later THE FAMILY GUY and FIREFLY, which were revived after cancellation because a lot of people saw the shows on home video and fell in love with them. Those video sales convinced the studios there was a lucrative market still out there.

The only thing that will convince a studio (or financiers) to make a movie is to be persuaded by hard facts and hard cash that there is still MORE money to be made Slavish devotion by a handful of fans… even if there are 100,000 of them… won’t bring in nearly enough money to justify a film.

Bottom line: Expose people to the show, not to your fandom. Expose studios to sales, not examples that some diehard devotees exist.

Which brings me to the website the advertisement directs readers to. The design and writing on the website only serves to confirm every Industry professional and non-fan’s immediate assumptions from the ad: This isn’t about the quality and merits of a TV show… it’s about a handful of diehard fans who can’t let go and have no real-world perspective.

The more you can do to NOT make this about the fans— and about THE SHOW, the better chance your campaign has of succeeding. But you’ve sabotaged yourself, and your campaign, from the outset… by crafting the wrong message and sending that wrong message to the wrong people. You need to rethink your image (the name “Colonial Fan Force,” for example), your message, and the best way to present it to the people you need to reach…

Which isn’t the studios.

It’s the viewers.