Okay, by “meet” I mean, of course, “sitting in a crowd listening to a speech” and by “maker” I mean “the guy I really really like,” but that’s what it felt like yesterday when I went to see Joss Whedon speak at Sydney’s Opera House. This is the guy who wrote the show that changed how I viewed and still view television. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the first show that I watched and then actually retained. I mean, there were shows that I liked and watched frequently, but it always went in one ear and out the other, but Buffy was different - it’s hard to explain and it’s a story for another day, but all I know is that I’m grateful it happened.
I didn’t know what to expect going into this thing yesterday. I figured he was going to talk about how cool it was to do the stuff he does and then he was going to be grilled embarrassingly by over-zealous zealots he calls “fans.” I have some friends who saw him in Melbourne the night or two before and said that he was charming and intelligent (which was no surprise) but the host they had didn’t facilitate well. Even though I believe we had a different host, I thought the worst that could happen is that we’d have a douche up on stage showing his ass, but I mean, a bad host is better than no Joss at all.
We were warned right. Will Anderson, a local comedian, was a crude and disrespectful facilitaor. Not that I think he meant to be, as I understand it, he is quite the fan, but he wore flip flops and swore a lot. Sometimes there were awkward pauses in conversation where the audience and Mr. Whedon were like “ehwha?” Not to mention he would occassionally interrupt the guest of honor to get his own less funny quip in. That said…
…then there was Joss.
And oh boy, was there Joss. He came out on stage with a bang. Smoke and blue light brought a silhouette out into the shape of a man; a hero to so many. Then he started to speak. The fact that he was just talking several yards away from me made the fangirl in me want to piddle in excitement. At that point he could do no wrong. Then, something brilliant happened. He said that he was going to talk about something different this time around, that he wasn’t going to give the stock standard speech about networks and little trivia about the shows that we could find out anywhere on the internet, he was instead going to talk about himself and what made him tick.
Oh. Em. Gee.
That. Just. Happened.
It was amazing. He got really intimate. He spoke about his childhood and his fears growing up and what scared him and what his “dark place” was. He said before he never knew why he wrote teenaged girls with superpowers. He always just thought they were cool, but something must have been asked at the Melbourne talk that made him think because he said that the last few days has put some things into place for him. Yes, he will always write about teenaged girls with superpowers, but more than that, he will always write about hopelessness. He said that these young girls he wrote were his avatar because he is a small scared man that will always need to be saved. Wowza.
Ah, now, that is interesting. He said that he was always frightened, helpless, and alone. He talked about his father and how he was scared of his disapproving scowl 1 and how if you dropped him three blocks from his house and turned him around twice, he would likely die of exposure. There was a vulnerability and a truth to what he was saying that I have never heard from him in any interview or DVD extra. It was amazing. Amazing is not the best, most articulate way to express that, but it’s all I got. There was something very human but still “Joss is God” like about him as he continued to talk.
When he spoke about himself and his eccentricities it was amazing how much I related to him. I know that must sound pompous, but I can’t help it. When he spoke about a plain, uneventful, childhood unworthy of a memoir and his social inability to speak to people, especially women, and I was there with him. When he said that he said he wanted to be everything, to do everything; to paint, to write, to draw, to dance, to play in a band — but then only got good enough to then quit, I wanted to jump out of my seat and shout ‘amen.’ When he said that he was not scared to be alone but often was, I empathized wholeheartedly, thinking about the little study I have made for myself that no one is allowed in. And when he said “I will never be less than a storyteller,” and spoke with a subtle, non-pretentious passion that oozed from ever pore, I was inspired and filled with hope. It was so moving that I didn’t want it to end.
But it did. Will Anderson came back on to try to be funnier than him and the mics were opened up to the audience to ask the equivalent of “what was your favorite childhood toy and why?” 2 I just wanted to scream at them all and get Joss to keep talking about whatever it was he wanted to say – politics, religion, shoe polish, anything – but alas, that would have been really awkward and Joss would have looked at me funny, so I allowed it to continue on course.
I did not expect to be a giant fangirl about this. I thought it would just be something fun and cool to say, like I mentioned, he was the guy who started it all. Showing up was the only way I could show my gratitude. I’m now so glad that I went, I got so much more out of it than ever thought possible.
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He also made it clear that his father was a good man, one who never beat or abused him. He was just intimidating and Joss was just scared of disapproval. ↩
Though sadly that girl wasn’t there this time, even though I have seen here at every event I’ve gone to since moving to Australia. ↩
There is semen at every single crime scene and it shall be the crucial DNA fingerprint that will solve the case.
You will magically lose 10 lbs. from May to September if you are female, but gain 10 lbs. if you are male.
Relationships have a two year maximum before they get boring. A wedding will be announced but will be the relationship’s kiss of death.
You are not pregnant. You will think you are at an inopportune time in your life but will reluctantly grow attached to the idea of parenthood only to find out it was a false positive when you consult your doctor.
You will learn your lesson only to repeat the mistake next week.
Murder mysteries can be solved in three days and all murderers will be caught. Usually they’ll confess if you can make them cry.
You will find yourself hanging on the proverbial cliff in the mid to late May. Watch out.
No matter what you do for a living, you can afford a spacious and trendy apartment in New York City.
You don’t have to go to class, just show up and hang out on couches and/or in the lunchroom all day.
A musical montage is a great opportunity to rapidly get something done, solve a problem or learn a new skill.
Only 1-2 extended family members will show up at any important life event such as graduation or open heart surgery, that is if any show up at all.
If you die, you might not actually be dead.
The bumbling geek can win over the attractive popular girl.
You more than likely have a destiny that only you can fulfill. No worries though, there’s generally an old dude to help you out.
Your destiny is a top secret from everyone except your closest friends and the only person you don’t want to know but inevitably will find out.
YOu can talk to hallucinations and/or otherwise invisible people out in the open without passersby noticing.
If you have an item that must be kept a secret, it is important that you take it out of it’s uber-secret hiding place to look at it on a regular basis.
You often think aloud even if it is unnecessary to do so. These thoughts are usually short pointed witticisms that only you can hear, even if others are around you.
Chess club and science clubs are high school suicide.
All geeks are hotties behind thick rimmed glasses.
Same sex encounters only happen sometime around November and are never mentioned again.
As soon as you’re happy, some outside force is going to take it away.
Mean people are really just tortured souls who actually have a sensitive side and a transparent reason for being mean.
Amnesia is a likely outcome to any number of events but don’t worry, it’s usually temporary.
If everyone is telling you the creepily dreamy guy is a stalker, listen to them, he’s a stalker.
Last night Aneeta and I had a very strange marathon; the last three eps of Battlestar Galactica and then Baz’s Australia. It was an interesting juxtaposition to say the least. Oh, the options I have available, this may turn out to be a blog marathon weekend itself, unless of course, I can draw comparison between the two and make it one super post. Unlikely.
In order to pump the most relevant spoilers into my post, I choose Battlestar.
DEFAULT SPOILER DISCLAIMER FOR BATTLE STAR GALACTICA
I am not going to full-on recap and take you through the workings of the entire episode(s) because, presumably you have seen the finale and that is why you are continuing to read on. That, or you’re stupid and therefore you deserve to be a bit lost. Due to the fact that I am a bit behind on my viewing, it has given others plenty of time to ruminate on the series ending and give their typo-riddled opinions about it. Mostly fans seems to take umbrage with how the series wrapped up, calling it cliche, overused and a tad cheesey, therefore, I have decided to focus our attention on the ending.
To get you caught up to where I’ll be: Being the sentimental and over attached man that he is, Admiral Bill Adama decides to take his Babystar Galactica on one last suicide mission to retrieve Hera, which was stolen by the schitzo-Boomer, and because or beloved core of characters will follow him wherever he may lead, our nearest and dearest line up behind him, including the very wobbly Laura Roslin. Then a very loud and confusing space battle happens, 1 some strange glowy people and a inspirational speech by Gaius Baltar occur, ultimately leading Kara Thrace to make a strange connection to the musical notes she has arbitrarily assigned numbers to, sending the Battlestar to random coordinates in space. As it turns out, this is near a planet that has continents that look astoundingly similar to the ones we have come accustomed to outside of TV Land. The 30,000 odd suvivors decide to take up residence there, leaving their ultra-advanced ways of the past in their, well, past, and take up with the aborigines and cavemen. You with me? Excellent.
I suppose the question that needs to be posed is this; how else would you expect this series to the end? From the very beginning, I’m talking episode 1 here, the fleet has been searching for a planet that they can call home, free from the murderous cylons and gluttonous sins of their bretheren. Four years later, that happened. Well done, Bill. Halfway through the final season, the fleet finds the thirteenth colony’s “Earth.” It was a wasteland, a wasteland destroyed by the very people Adama and his people sought after. They found Earth, but it wasn’t their Earth, it was someone elses. The first three seasons set up the idea that the fleet had to find the Earth, then the fourth season determined that they couldn’t just find any old Earth, they needed their own Earth. Luckily, they ultimately got it.
It gets tricky here, because we have to ask the show to be self aware enough to consider how us as an audience fit in. We’re willing to accept intergalactic space jumping, sentient robots and life on other planets, but the second they collide with a world that actually exists, we have trouble. It has to be done in a way that’s walks a delicate balance; satisfy the characters, satisfy the audience. It’s intense. The fact that they landed on our (the viewers) planet and helped to eventually form the human race at we know is actually quite clever. The fact that they decided to stay primative opposed to advance as they were was explained quite nicely by Bill Adama when he said, “Never underestimate people’s need for a blank slate.” It actually fits. Of course, they could have made it more clever if they went onto heavily imply that they were to form the Greek mythology, thus simultaneously satisfying the religious aspect of the series, but the powers that be didn’t ask me.
It comes back to the question, how else would you expect the series to end? If you ask me, and since you’re here, I’ll assume you did, there are a limited amount of possibilities. Considering in the first episode (and in the opening credit sequences to follow) it was said that the fleet was looking for a home called Earth, certain ending scenarios jump out.
They don’t find it. After all the bloody skirmishes, dwindling supplies, and rotting battlestars, the remainder of human civilization whither out until nothing is left.
They find “Earth” and it’s smack dab in the middle of our current day, posing the “aliens are coming!” scenario we see in apocolypse movies for the current resident Earthlings.
They find “Earth” and it’s a wasteland, destroyed by it’s past inhabitants, leaving the planet empty for the fleet to live on (or, alternatively, not live on because of the said wasteland.)
They find “Earth,” and it’s the dawn of time, therefore the fleet gets to create a civilization that will become the civilization we know, just with a slightly alternative history.
The first option is probably the least expected, but probably the least fulfilling ultimately. Think Quantum Leap x 38,000. The second option poses a lot of logistic questions and highlights a lot of fundamental problems with the show. How come the society formed lightyears away speaks English? Dresses like us? Have any ammenity we can imagine? Smoke cigarettes? How are they just like Humans from Earth? The only way I think this possibly could work is if they made the Earthlings seem to be the aliens – but that’s a bit complicated, and hard to make 100% clear and that’s why this one probably wouldn’t work. And it would be a bit cheesy. Not to mention, all the wars that tend to break out when suspicious UFO’s land on the planet. Stupid humans.
The third scenario the series explored only to prove that it too was unsatisfying. Being second after mankind only leaves for sloppy seconds. The fleet would have to accept all the baggage the Earthings left behind. Ultimately a bit meh.
So, that leaves the forth and final scenario. The fleet stumbles onto a new beginning and is able to intertwine with our familiar history, making a fairly satisfying and complete story ending. To some degree it can almost answer any question of the show – the ones scenario two could not — including similarities in language, customs, religions, etc. Ultimately, it excuses all these “weaknesses of the premise” are not actually weaknesses because the show creator says that they are nothing but our orgin story. It should be looked at as well planned, not a cheap and easy out. It also makes it more relatable to the views because it becomes a history that’s commonly shared opposed to being thrown into new one and being asked to accept it. Think about it a while, this ending works.
My biggest problem with the finale, other than the death of Laura Roslin (sob) was the whole Kara Thrace deal. WTF was that? For four seasons, Battlestar Galactica was based on a certain realism rooted in plausibility. Yes, it had it’s faith aspects and so-called supernatural elements, but in the sense that it could always be chalked up to human nature or science or something tangible. It can be argued that even though Roslin thought she was destined to lead her people to the promise land, it could easily have been a self-fulfilled prophecy based on certain parallels that existed between her and a particular mythology. Nowhere in the show’s premise did it say that there could be ghost or a spirit or figment wondering around leading people to certain jump coordinates. It just doesn’t fly, it’s way to jarring. Way to go, stupid Kara.
Another problem I found was in the “vision” Gaius and Six. Why in the “flash foward” did their acting suddenly degrade into community theatre melodrama? After 150,000 years, did they just forget how to have a conversation without emphasizing every word?
In conclusion, I’d call it a winner. The show was at it’s ultimate in the first two seasons, but after New Caprica happened, the show lost a lot of it’s urgency and therefore fissled a bit. That said, it was still pretty good television, and the finale held a lot of water. There were a lot of threads seeded from the very beginning that paid off in the end (opposed to being seeded a few episodes before and being paid off nanoseconds later) and overall had a lot of sophisticated storytelling elements. I think it will be a while before a show this strong comes along again — though I hope it does.
Stay tuned for my thrilling review of Australia. It’ll knock your socks off….surely.
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Confusing to me, I can never follow battles very well. ↩
It’s pretty much just that. The entire series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer series compressed into 3 minutes to that song. You know, that song. Well, you’ll know it when the video loads.
Okay, so it’s not one of those quasi-clever mash up vids that we’re all such big fans of these days., but it’s well edited. That’s why I like it. It’s simple. The editing and timing take you on an actual journey instead of merely having you observe clips taken from a show. People with a lot of time on their hands really baffle me and I’m constantly surprised with what they come up with.
Sometimes it’s good to have a look back at things you enjoyed once upon a time and remember why you liked them in the first place.
When I was much younger, I was a big fan of Nick @ Nite. I’m not really sure why, but I really dug the Laverne & Shirley and Taxi reruns (though I’m fairly sure I never absorbed one single storyline and could not tell you, to save my life, what one episode was about). Peppered in the commercial breaks, Ben Stein, of all people 1 would come out and give little TV tidbits. I can remember one night in particular when I was floored to find that the television hour was only fifty minutes long. Fifty? Wow, that’s amazing! What do they do with the other ten minutes?
My older self is all too aware of what they do with the other ten minutes. They stretch it so it’s more than double and pack it full with the most grading ads of television history.
My Ben Stein/ I Love Lucy days were probably around 1995/1996. Last night, I was watching a show and it t was 39 minutes long. I know, you’re saying, Carrie, that’s pretty long for a sitcom. Yeah it is, except I was watching a so-called “hour long” drama. Do I need to repeat myself? 39 minutes. ”Hour long” show. Sitcoms today, like 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother are fortunate enough to hit the 18 minute mark these days.
I don’t even know how I can express how ludacris this is. Packing a fulfilling storyline into less than twenty minutes– it’s doing more harm than good for our shows. The quality of our shows are having enough trouble as it is without having this uphill battle. It is possible to argue that it just forces the writers to make a much more crisp story in which they have no time to fool around with fluff, but you know what, that’s bull feces, and just an excuse for slackness and the lowest common denominator philosophies 2
The average Buffy episode lasted 43 minutes. That’s a four minutes drop in eleven years. When How I Met Your Mother first began, it was 22 minutes long. That’s four minutes in four years. And it’s the same damn show!
Not only is the hour disappearing, but at an increasing rate. At some point, writers aren’t going to be able to tell any story at all.
I don’t watch TV shows as they air. I prefer to watch them in large chunks of episodes and without commercials. I do not think I am going to like being able to watch a half-hour show in ten minutes and a hour show in thirty. The luxury of watching an episode is gone. It has been swept away with the rest of our face paced existence.
There might be a glimmer of hope though. Most basic cable hours are still forty-seven minutes long while some of the networks like Showtime and HBO still hit 53-54 minutes. Too bad these aren’t all that mainstream, and we still rely on the four major networks to supply us with our fix — even if the quality and quantity are racing each other down the drain.
At least I think it was Ben Stein, why would my brain lie to me? ↩
As you may or may not know I have been spending the last couple weeks trying to write a sample for All Saints. In one of my former posts, I talked about my day in the writer’s room and how I was asked to submit a segment from the episode if I wanted to. Since then, I have sort have poked at it but have used the excuse that I haven’t received the medical research, so how am I to do anything of worth? Today, I received this medical research1 and, now that my excuse is invalid, I feel as though I’m still at square one. In fact, where ever right before square one is, that is where I am. It’s eleven page document filled to the brim with Medical Jargon that flies nicely right over my head (with room to spare). I couldn’t finish reading a line before cross referencing it with some Idiot’s Guide on the internet. Here I thought I would be getting around to an earnest first draft today when really, but it has taken me all day to get through this little document and digest what it all means.
I don’t know how Meredith Grey does it. I’m completely surrounded by doctors and ailments that I can hardly concentrate on getting to the fun relationship stuff. I don’t know how she does it. All I can say is that I have truly underestimated writers who do this sort of thing for a living. I don’t know how the writer’s of Greys or All Saints can do this without ten years of med school…
Hopefully I will get around to a draft this weekend so I can get it done. But next week is hectic too because I’m supposed to be completing my second draft of one of my features this coming week. AGH.
WII FIT:
Lost .5 kg and .15% BMI. GO DIET SHAKES!
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The Medical Research is a scene by scene break down of all things medical in the episode. It tracks the progress of all the patients from the symptoms they are showing, to proper vocabulary, to the equipment that they’re plugged into. ↩
In 2003, I was devastated when my favorite show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, came to its inevitable end. And I was on board for all the various rumors circulating about potential spin-off movies and not-so-secretly wished that the animated series would be made, even though it went back to the beginning of the series. Eventually when the shock had worn off, I got over it and moved on to bigger and better things. 1 Now, over five years later, you’ll still hear a “rumor” that someone is finally going to get around to making that Spike/Faith spinoff that we were all so excited about. I don’t actually know how this keeps happening even though the fact that Buffy’s God himself, has said “Uh-uh, no more. No Spikey, no Faithy, no Cartoony,” and really I think that that should be that, but my fellow geeks just can’t let it go. In fact, I think this very mentioning of the Animated Series is enough to get a small flutter of internet Geek-Goss.
Unfortunately, this undying hope doesn’t seem to be limited to Buffy, in fact, it turns out that all Geeks are apparently just satisfied, ecstatic even, by whatever the creator deems to release of a long finished franchise. Recently, I ranted about the low-stooping of producers who would dare release yet another Terminator movie just for a quick buck, but as it turns out, it might not be entirely their fault. Geek groupies want more and they don’t care about the quality they get it in. The people in hollywood with the power are more than willing to oblige if it means that they can make a quick buck without the extensive ad campaign.
Geeks have no urge to branch out from their comfort zones, so why would filmmakers and TV series creators feel the need to branch out themselves? If they keep churning out more of the same, they are still guaranteed the audience, and nothing feels better than blind worship. Why take a risk on something new that could possibly flop? Several weeks ago, I read an article that said just this very thing about Star Wars God, George Lucas.
These days Lucas sounds like a museum curator, fussing with dusty memorabilia… If he has any inspiration left, he shouldn’t waste it on exploiting something old when he could put it to use dreaming up something new.
I tend to agree. Come on, Georgie, you don’t think six movies and a few ill-fated 80′s series were enough to satisfy ALL the story lines that Star Wars legitamently had to offer? Turns out, he didn’t have think that. There was still enough buzz circulating the animated Star Wars movie that just came out (that tells the story that we have already seen the ending for!2) and the upcoming live action TV series that he doesn’t even have to remotely consider making something fresh.
George Lucas has created two thrilling franchises – Star Wars and Indiana Jones – so surely if he put his mind to it, he could come up with another good trilogy before his time is up, instead of beating up one of his other dead horses. He isn’t that old. George, use your powers for good not evil!
And if the so-called god of cult classics3 can do it, why can’t the little guys? Now there is talk of a Veronica Mars movie appearing on the “to-do list.” Veronica Mars was one those few shows that somehow sprung up a devoted cult audience — whether that had anything to do with the endorsement of one Joss Whedon is debatable — which is somewhat surprising considering it only lasted three seasons and by the end of which, kind of sucked, in my opinion. My guess would be that this movie would try to wrap up the so-called cliffhanger of the last episode. You know what would have done that? Not having a cliff hanger. Creator Rob Thomas’s theory was “if we leave them with some half answered questions, surely they will have to renew us to find out.” Some good that did, now the questions will always go unanswered.4 The movie is not the answer folks, the world has moved on from Veronica, and nostalgia and sugar dreams can’t change that.
I am the first to admit that finding a show that is worth devoting your heart-and-soul to is few and far between, but have some dignity. Squeezing the life out of a franchise until it is nothing but recycled and recasted waste is not going to bring back the feeling you had seven years ago. Shows (and movies) have a limited story potential, it’s inevitable. The reason some shows (and movies) are so great is that they know how to exploit this potential and then make it come together in a nice, well-deserved ending that provides us closure. A show ending is not the worst thing that can happen, in fact, it’s generally the best. Spinoffs and comic books and movies only muddle the ending and what the show was trying to accomplish in the finale.
When a show ends, there will be another one day. It might not be tomorrow and I know that that hurts your little internet-raised, instant-gratification soul, but it will happen. Buffy ended in 2003. It was great, and it has been untainted5 since then and therefore it will live on as something awesome forever. A few years later I have discovered Battlestar Galactica, albeit a couple years late, and that fills the gap just fine. Great shows don’t come around too often – and really, would they be just as great if they did? – but they do come around. So be patient and don’t fool yourself into believing lame rumors or watching tired spinoffs. It will all work out in the end. The worlds of TV and film aren’t going anywhere, if anything, they’re just growing.
As for Wii Fit… I’m still on the incline… and you would think that burned more calories.
I guess this term is relative these days, considering the mainstream success of his once snubbed trilogy ↩
If I were Rob Thomas, I would have pulled out all the guns, done anything and everything that I could with the characters and story — kill people off, explode things — do the unexpected and figure out how to fix it ONCE the show was renewed. And if it never was? Well, at least my show can go down in history as something that went out with a bang. Too bad for you that I’m not Rob Thomas, it would have been awesome. ↩
No matter what anybody ever says, I will not acknowledge the Buffy Season 8 comic as canon. It is a fun little read but it is nothing more than any of the other Buffy comics put out over the years. Sorry guys, it’s just not the same thing. ↩
My friend Ben has finally decided to get a real blog. He’s been sort of blogging on Facebook, but he decided that it was time for him to branch. Good for him, bad for me. Unfortunately, Ben writes on THE topics and in THE way that I would love to and he does it much better than I could. 1 As I scanned his blog for the second time this evening, I saw he has delivered yet another terrific post. This one was about the sudden disappearance of the TV credits over the last few years. Personally, I would have just said “Blame Lost” and be done with it, but that’s why he’s better at blogging than me. I am just as sad as he to see the credits disappear from our television screens. I remember being physically depressed every time I watched Lost and saw the incredibly boring type float across the screen into abyss because it meant no real credit sequence, but ultimately, I got it, and it worked on some levels. Lost is about a group of people who are quite literally lost and are floating in what seems to be nothingness — it might as well be anyway. It’s a theme thing. My heart sank when this seemed to be an “Aha!” moment for TV Execs who thought this would be an excellent way to squeeze in yet a few more ads. Perhaps I am wrong on this though, and this is merely showrunners last attempt to regain a little bit of their ever-dwindling hour2 of entertainment by chucking the credits and adding 43 more seconds of awesome TV. Who knows.
While I completely echo Ben’s disappointment, I wonder if perhaps there is a light in the tunnel. The way people watch TV has changed over the last decade and will continue to in the near future. This is largely due to box sets and internet downloading (legal or otherwise). Now hours and hours of a series can be consumed in one go, ad free, for as long as the viewer can stand it. It’s like watching an insanely epic movie that just keeps going. You watch a season and when it runs out, you just run down to Blockbuster and get the next one. I often talk to people who have spent the last weekend marathoning or catching up on a show (or two). It’s easy to spend days on a show that’s a masterpiece. I know I’m guilty of this, and surely you are too.
Now, let me ask a question. You have the entire series of 7th Heaven in front of you to get through — what you don’t like it? It’s a perfect example because it has eleven seasons of deliciously boring episodes to get through, but fine, you pick the series of your choice. Depending on the show, you can have 80 – 100 episodes to get through. So here it is… How many episodes in are you before skip the title sequence? 10? 5? 2? Whether it is because the viewer is so engrossed in the show that they want to get to the action as soon as possible or it’s just due to the credits’ repetitive nature, spending that 45 seconds watching characters do the same dance to a song you will have in your head for days now is an absolute chore. I know I skip them, especially now that credits are less common, and I come to a show that still has them (usually a cable network) I just want to claw my eyes out. This goes double, triple even, for Showtime’s Dexter, who’s credit sequence goes on for almost a full two minutes.
As someone who’s ultimate goal in life is to get their own successful television series, I would love nothing more than to have an awesome credit sequence leading into my equally as awesome episode. I even have the tone and music and shots picked out in my head. It would be easy to blame commercials and the ever decreasing hour, but I wonder, even if we were given back the lost time, with the current trend of viewing, would we want to bring back credit sequences?
In the spirit of Ben’s post, I have decided to post a few fave sequences myself. Enjoy.
Full House
By todays standards, the series and credits were God-awful, but there’s still something about these credits delightful. It’s possibly that thought that these characters would take the time out of their busy days to turn and smile at the camera. How nice is Danny Tanner? Though I have long grown out of the show, and others of it’s calibre, there is something about the early nineties opener that really knew how to get your toes tappin’ and put in you in a good mood going into the episode. Step by Step, Family Matters and many more are all guilty of it and have equally entertaining opening counterparts.
Growing Pains
In a similar vein, there was Growing Pains. I loved this show and I still know every word to it’s theme song. I remember loving watching all of them grow up — though the young Jason and Maggie pictures that have been technicolored is a bit off putting. Oh look! They’ve left silly Jason out by the fence again! Silly man.
Edit: I just noticed in this particular version of the credits it was Mike who was left abandoned on the curb. Oh, those Seavers, always mixing things up!
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pardon me, but I can only link to this one. For some reason it’s near impossible to get the actual credits of the show off of youtube and once I actually found said actual credits, the embedding rights have been removed. Such is life. However, if you are in the mood for Buffy credits Alias Style, Charmed Style, Season 8 comic style or in still photos you are absolutely in luck.
Buffy had a great title sequence. It quickly set the mood for the show and introduced the characters in a way that showed off their individual personalities. I may be bias about this, but I think if you’re able to find them, it’s worth checking out.
And just so you’ll feel my pain.
Dexter
These credits are a beautiful work of art and damn near perfect. They are visceral and confronting while maintaining an mundanely domestic quality, in other words, these credits ARE the show. Well done, Showtime… but really, two minutes?
Since this post took so damn long to put together, no Wii Fit for me tonight. I’m taking my flabby self to bed.
Also, a link to Ben’s blog has been added to my links.
Ben, if you are reading this, you better not get a big head or I’ll have to punch you in it. ↩
A forty-two minute hour. What a concept… I wonder if works in exercising? ↩
Yesterday, I was lucky enough to be an observer in the All Saints writer’s room. For those who cannot easily guess what that may entail, let me explain, I observed in the room with all of the writers. I spent a whole day watching the writers do there job. Does it sound boring? Well, it most certainly was not. In fact, it was pretty much on the awesome side.
As an American, I am not an expert on Australian television, especially their dramas. I’m not totally opposed to it,1 but it would seem that the more actively I pursue my interest in television the less time I have to sit and watch it. Ain’t life grand? I have seen only a handful of All Saints episodes, so it can be easily said that I was a bit disoriented at first but I think I caught on fast enough.
Because we 2 were plotting out an episode that doesn’t air until next year sometime, I don’t really know what I’m allowed to say about the actual episode in terms of respect for the show and respect for spoiler phobia, so to be safe, I’ll just stick to the “My Day” part of the story.
The day before I was sent a brief rundown of what the episode was that we were going to be looking at. After I got over the “I don’t know which faces to put to these names” portion of my anxiety, things went a bit more smoothly. (Turns out there are a few new characters to appear an that’s why they weren’t able to be found anywhere on the web). I was also informed that they were starting at 10, so please be there by 9:45.
If only I had gotten there at 9:45. Not wanting to be late, I left my house at about 8:45, knowing that though the distance to Channel 7 studios wasn’t far, the traffic in that area could be a real bitch. Of course, with my luck, there was no traffic. None. In fact, from what I could tell, the roads were bored. I got there at nine. NINE! Yes, it is good to be on time and even a bit early, but I believe an hour early falls into the category of “Annoying” because your hosts have to discreetly find a place to put you so they can get their actual work done. So, I went and grabbed a coffee, which took about three seconds, so for the next half hour or so I just drove around the three or four block radius in order to kill some time. At 9:35, I thought that maybe I had crossed the “Annoyingly Early” threshold into the “Professional” area and headed on into security.
I, by any means, did notdress up for this, but I did make sure that I looked presentable, which included a pair of boots with a very small kitten heel on them. I like them and they look nice. However, I was the only one there who had any form of hard sole on 3 and every time I walked across the hardwood floor it echoed and felt like then entire studio could hear me. I may be exaggerating here, but not by much.
Annabel Davis, the script department manager, a very nice lady who had been handling me up to this point, introduced me around to the writer’s department before sitting me on a couch to wait for everything to begin. As people started to trickle in I got more aquatinted with everyone. Naturally I gravitated toward the writer’s assistant, Nicky, because I saw her the most as she set up for the day but I also got to speak with one of the show’s medical advisors, Camilla (unfortunately, I never caught her last name). Finally I met the show’s script producer Louise Crane (an insanely hilarious lady with a great feel for story telling), the script editor Trent (aka Trent 2, for my purposes) and the actual writer for this particular episode Trent Atkinson. I instantly fell in love with Trent Atkinson a bit, possibly because upon meeting him I just assumed he was twelve and not to mention he was just the most pleasant human being on the planet, which is so taken for granted these days. Trent and Louise really worked well together, seeming to fuel each other, both in story telling and comedically. Trent told me which seat was Lou’s and as long as I didn’t sit there, I would probably be fine.
Like I mentioned before, they are in the process of adding new characters, so Lou showed a couple of casting DVD’s of the people they have cast since the last episode Trent wrote. That was neat, because I was able to familiarize myself with the new faces considering I really only knew “Frank” and “Von” by name/face and recognized the people who turned out to be “Dan” and “Bart” as “All Saints People” before this time. So then the writing process began. Lou and Trent began to talk through the episode’s story with the occassional input from Camilla and/or Trent 2. On the other end of the table, Nicky typed everything they decided on — eight hours of essentially typing what everyone said. This is pretty much how the day went (except Trent 2 made an exit at lunch time). It was really cool and one of my favorite parts was watching Camilla. They could give pretty much and time lapse (ie, for surgery or recovery) or visual (ie, coughing up blood) and she could tweak the ailment to have that desired effect. That was really interesting.
It was a pretty exhausting day for me, and I wasn’t really doing much. I did take notes though. Apparently, observers are allowed to write a submission for the episode plotted in the room and someone will give them feed back on it. I’m definitely going to do one in the coming weeks. It’s going to be really hard, especially since I have no idea about any of the medical ailments that were discussed. Annabel said that Camilla would have a summary for the episode’s medical but it probably wouldn’t be out for another two weeks, so I might have to wait for that so I don’t look too much like a tool.
Yesterday really confirmed for me that this is what I want to do. The creative energy was awesome and you could really tell these guys were having a ball doing it, even when they got serious and “down to business.” And it didn’t really hurt to hear the “insider info” about the actors that you might not hear elsewhere. They sound like great people to work with though, I’ll say that. It seems like there is never a dull moment around those parts and I can’t wait to get my foot in the door. I left my CV with Annabel just in case something ever comes up where they may need someone to do … anything really, I am not too fussed.
On a little side note, Trent is directing a series of short films hoping they will help him get funding for his feature. I offered my assistance if he need it and hopefully he will take me up on it. He told me to give him an email and he would let me know some details. It would be cool to get back on set again, it’s been too long.
So, yep, yesterday was a bit A+ in my book. Hopefully I didn’t make too bad of an impression (though, would that be better or worse than making no impression at all, and be forgotten instantly?) I wish that I’ll be able to do something else like that again some time in the future. Thank you so much Stephen Davis for getting me the connection with his show writer friend Blake Ayshford and All Saints. It was definitely a great experience.
The episode will probably air in February or March, so it’s a while to wait. Hopefully though I will be able to post my submission on this website after I submit it, granted I’m allowed to.
In other news, when I did my Wii Fit yesterday it said I lost .5 kg. Today’s results are as follows:
BMI: 22.79 (from 22.94)
Weight: 61.3 (from 61.7)
So down .4 kg is a good sign I guess, but I’m still far away from my goal and rapidly running out of time. (Not to mention over a week ago I started at 61.4…)
Though from what I have observed, a lot of it is a bit shit. ↩
I say “we” like I was somehow an integral part of the plotting process and day’s work. I was not, if I was, that’s pretty much anti-observer, don’t you think? ↩
Writers truly are the “way casual” bunch, wearing their Chucks and Ugg boots to work. ↩
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