Monthly Archives: August 2013
BBC Announces the 12th Doctor
Since 2005, the BBC’s Doctor Who has gained a legion of rabid fans, transitioning from a cult classic to a full-on mainstream hit. The eponymous Doctor is a time-travelling alien who regenerates his body when he’s close to death, meaning that sooner or later, a new actor takes over the part. Current Doctor Matt Smith revealed in June that he was hanging up his bow tie, and from there, speculation on the identity of Twelve has run rampant. As of Sunday, however, this particular rumor mill has ceased production.
Whovians, join me in welcoming Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor!
Why Writers Should Try Improv
This article is a tie in with the review of Sundance’s Writers’ Room.
As an aspiring TV writer, I’m always looking for ways to improve my skills. It’s easy to look at the obvious choices to help with this: write something everyday, read EVERYTHING, take a writing class, these are all things a lot of us have already done. However, there is one thing that I feel has really affected my work for the better and is something most writers seem to not talk about for some reason: improv class.
I know it’s terrifying for us book worms with a relationship with Netflix so strong it threatens our significant others. Us writers who like to work from the comfort of our own bed with a bottle of Sriracha and a bag of Sun Chips close by in case something doesn’t go quite the way we expected, but, believe me, improv classes can be helpful, especially so for those of us looking specifically to go into TV for several reasons:
Shows That Should Be Forgotten: ‘Pink Lady and Jeff’
Pink Lady, better known as Pink Lady and Jeff, is a notoriously bad show. It regularly makes it onto Worst TV Shows Ever lists. There is no good excuse NBC can come up with for having produced this train wreck of a show, which put the final nail in the coffin of the already dying variety show genre.
In 1980, NBC President Fred Silverman decided to create the show Pink Lady featuring the Japanese singing group Pink Lady, which had two members: Mie and Kei. He called in Sid and Marty Kroft, who are were known for their surrealist children’s show like H.R. Pufnstuf, to produce the show. Everyone quickly realized Mie and Kie didn’t speak a word of English, so NBC brought in comedian Jeff Altman. This should have been about the time NBC cancelled production of the show, but production went ahead anyway, leaving Mie and Kei to learn their lines and the English-language pop hits performed on the show phonetically with predictably terrible results.
‘Spell-Mageddon’ Tries To Make Torture Fun
Did you ever wonder what would happen if Nickelodeon threw up all over a spelling bee? No. Well, too bad because ABC Family answered that question with Spell-Mageddon. The Alfonso Ribero hosted show would be at home on 90s Nick. The only problem is some of the situations are straight up torture, so the show is more terrorist’s nightmare than messy kid-friendly entertainment.
The show doesn’t start off too bad, but quickly gets boring. The first round has contestants maneuver over a blow-up obstacle course. The first person to reach the end and buzz in gets to spell a word. If the contestant gets it correct, they get to move on to the next round and the process is repeated over and over again. In total, viewers see the same thing six times in a row. While the obstacle course undoubtedly gets harder, the final round has the contestants wearing vision impairment goggles, no one cares because they are still watching basically the same thing and just wasted time that could have been better spent doing anything else like being unproductive on Facebook.
Wait! What's A Dial? 