Program scripts from week of October 3, 2012
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Peacock Victorious
Normally I would never spend the time even on this quick little program to get all hot and bothered about the weekly TV ratings. The reality is that they are usually pretty boring, pretty much the same from week to week. You wait to see what might be the new hit of the season early on but they’re pretty much a yawn after that.
But I was just so excited when the ratings for the first week of the new TV season came out recently. Because for at least the first night of the new season, NBC was in first place. After so many years talking about the seemingly bottomless pit that the Peacock Network had fallen into I just couldn’t believe my eyes.
And it wasn’t some skimply little squeaker of a victory either. This was pretty convincing. The overall rating for the first night from the folks at Neilsen was a 4.0 rating and a 10 share. Now those numbers don’t mean a whole more to me than they probably mean to you so let’s take a look at the competition for comparison. CBS had a 2.7 rating and a 7 share, ABC had a 2.6 rating and a 7 share and Fox had 1.7 rating and a 5 share. That’s a fairly comfortable edge for the network that couldn’t shoot straight.
Even better it wasn’t just NBC’s new programming titan “The Voice” that was a winner. A new program “Revolution” took on a couple of veteran shows, ABC’s “Castle” and CBS’s “Hawaii 5-0” and beat both of them handily.
I need to sit back and savor that concept for just a moment. NBC won a night and has two, count ‘em two, hit programs on Monday night. Would I sound terrible if I said I wasn’t sure that NBC would EVER manage to pull that off again?
In the end there’s something about rooting for the underdog. And in the last couple years NBC has been about as under as you could possibly put a dog. As always there is a sure fire cure for making your way from the back of the pack. You need to find something new and interesting that can carry the audience forward. “The Voice” has been just that for the network. With any luck they will be able to build some momentum so that those embarrassing days will behind them forever.
Nice to see some new plumage for the Peacock.
MySpace Returns?
I have no idea how to respond to this. This invitation to check out the soon to be re-launched MySpace. It’s like an old actor that you haven’t heard about in years. My first reaction is “Aren’t they dead?”. Apparently the answer is - not yet.
MySpace. Time for a quick review I think. Launched in 2003 it was the first big social network for most of us. By 2005 it was big enough that News Corp bought in for 580 million dollars. In 2006 it became the most visited web site on the Internet passing Google. That lasted till 2008 when Facebook passed it worldwide and in 2009 passed MySpace in the United States as well. Between then and now (just three years, my friends!) MySpace has fallen to the 161st in total web traffic. Among sites in the U.S. they currently come in behind the likes of tumblr and WebMD. In that same time they went from approximately sixteen hundred employees to about 200. Talk about crash and burn.
For all that they are not ready to throw in the towel. In June of last year Specific Media Group and pop star Justin Timberlake pitched in and bought the company. Sale price? 35 million dollars. Ouch.
Part of the problem with MySpace the first time around was that it really focused on an adolescent audience which made it a very uncomfortable place for college aged users and adults of all other ages. Which is part of why Facebook supplanted it as quickly as it did. So what will the new MySpace look like?
That’s a good question. There is an introductory video out there that gives glimpses of it. What I see doesn’t look quite like anything quite so much as Pinterest with a strong helping of music and Twitter type comments. At least that’s what I think it looks like. The problem is that I’ve tried watching the video on several different computers and haven’t managed to get it to play the whole way through yet. If you’re trying to attract a media savvy user base that’s probably not the way to go about it.
In the end I look at it and say “So why do I need this?”. I already have one social network I rarely use (Google Plus). Maybe Justin and the brain trust at the new MySpace have a really cool new idea. Or maybe that’s 35 million dollars they're never going to see again.
Beach Boy Cover Bands
I’ve always wondered about the life span of a rock band. At what point is the band no longer the band? How many original members have to remain? If Paul and Ringo got a couple of guitar players would they really still be the Beatles? Or is the name the thing?
Mike Love of the Beach Boys is betting that all he needs is the name. I’m not sure how else you explain the fact that Love fired most of the rest of the band last week. The Beach Boys have been on a 50th Anniversary tour. Just before the tour ended in London at the end of September Love announced that the post anniversary tour version of the band would no longer include David Marks, Al Jardine or Brian Wilson. Think about that for a minute. The Beach Boys without Brian Wilson.
The original Beach Boys were Brian, his two brothers Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. David Marks has been an on and off member for years. With more than two dozen Top 40 hits in their career they have been international stars, one of the biggest acts of their era and sometimes called America’s Band.
Trouble in the lives of the cleanest of the clean cut ‘60s group is nothing new. Brian Wilson’s mental health issues, arguments, break ups and even law suits. One of which awarded Mike Love the rights to the name of The Beach Boys.
But that brings me back to my original question. When does a group stop being that group? There are some ‘50s Doo Wop groups touring that have no original members, largely because the original members have all died. If there were only Mick and Keith would they still be the Rolling Stones? At some point don’t you really just become a cover band of yourself? What really happens is that some members of the band realize that they can’t make it as themselves and need to hang on to the identity that pays the bills. Unfortunately you can end up with what I can only describe as zombie bands. The re-animated corpse of a once great entity that goes through the motions of life but without the soul.
Meaning no disrespect to Al Jardine or David Marks but in the end that’s The Beach Boys without Brian Wilson. A zombie shambling it’s way through our memories of one of the seminal catalogues of American music.
The Beach Boys just became the sound track to the Zombie Apocalypse.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
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