Program scripts from week of November 24, 2013
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.
Unreal Reality
So let’s start off today with a question. Pretty simple one really. If you were signed to appear in a reality show, a reality show that was about the work you do, what would you expect? Doesn’t really matter what you do, the show is about the line of work you’re in rather than about you. So we’re talking “Deadliest Catch” (which is about crab fishing in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska) versus say “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” (which is about God only knows what).
Well, if you’re like a lot of the folks on these shows you might forget who, or rather what, is the center of the show. I probably can’t blame them too much. There you are on the screen, endlessly re-running, with an introduction that might even include your own little “nickname” (“The Hustler”, “The King”). Oh and the fans! You will have fans. Fans who will argue about if you are the best part of the show or the worst.
It has to go to your head eventually.
Which explains a lot of the hubbub over at “Storage Wars”. If you don’t know the show it’s about the folks who bid to clear out storage lockers after people default on their rentals. I was a dedicated viewer for a while but the problem is that it all starts to look alike after a while. The variety is in the personalities of the “cast”.
So it was no doubt a huge surprise to a couple of the “stars” of the series when the network gave them the axe. What choice did the producers have though? You can’t fire the storage lockers. So once things started to go stale you have only way to make changes. You rotate out the cast members and replace them with someone who will bring some new schtick to the program.
Which brings us back to the original question? What would you expect if it were you? Just in case let me give you a model to follow. Check Chumlee on the reality show “Pawn Stars”. He commonly plays the “village idiot” on the show but reports are that he is stashing away the money he makes from doing personal appearances and has founded his own company to market various Chumlee novelties. Chumlee seems to have figured out that fame in the reality TV game has a shelf life and is making the best of his time in the spotlight.
Turns out the “village idiot” may the smartest guy on TV. Not the answer you expected, was it?
So where do you spend most of your time? Our browsers, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Explorer, whatever, probably tell the story pretty clearly. Most of us take the chance to make sure we can get to our favorite sites as easily as possible. You do this by having your browser open to some of those sites in tabs and the rest can be placed on your Favorites bar. So what would it say us, if we took a look at the stuff we want at easy access?
I offer mine as an example. My primary browser is Chrome. When I fire it up it gives my home page at igHome where I can scan news, sports and weather at a glance. Next it is Facebook, then my blog feeds on Feedly and finally my to do list at Toodledo. Pretty straight forward stuff.
Under that on the Favorites bar you’ll find links to both Blogger and WordPress for my two blogs (including the one for this program), then a link to MyDrive from Google because that’s where I do things like write these program scripts, next comes Dropbox where I put the recorded versions of this program so WRFA can download them. After that is my Netflix link (gotta keep my queue up to date), then MapMyRide to track my workouts (that one doesn’t get used as often as it should). Finally you’ll my link to HootSuite, the application I use to control my social media posts, Google Play for when I need to have a little music in my life. Last but not least is PhotoSig, a photo web site that I enjoy and don’t use nearly as much as I’d like.
So what would you learn about me by looking at my browser? Well, about half of the items are related to the media, and about half of them are related to this program. Yeah, that worries me a little. I am both a media consumer and a content provider.
And I probably should work out more.
So where do you go?
Christmas Mistake
A couple times over the last few years I’ve taken some time to talk about my favorite Christmas movies. Now because I’m allegedly very cranky on the subject of when Christmas media like music and movies should first start airing I will not start my annual viewing for another week. However it’s not too early to start TALKING about the subject.
For this year I offer first some bad news and then some good news. The bad news is that there are folks out there with no respect and no sense. These are the folks proposing to do a sequel of the Frank Capra classic “It’s A Wonderful Life”. Worse than that it sounds like they are proposing a really bad sequel.
My first thought when I read the story was that it was a fake. But it was reported in “Variety” and several other respected sources seem to indicate that this bad idea is true. The story says that they are proposing a script where Jimmy Stewart’s character “George Bailey”’s grandson, also named George Bailey, is visited by an angel to show him what the world would be like if Bailey redux had never been born. That would be bad enough but the latter generation George is an unpleasant person apparently.
Then there’s the stunt casting. Stunt casting is when you bring in a “name” actor to make an appearance in a movie or TV show. Think, most of William Shatner’s career. In this case the actor who played Zuzu Bailey in the original is to play the angel this time.
Feeling nauseated yet? I could go on but it just makes me crazy.
The good news in all of this is that Paramount still owns the rights to “It’s A Wonderful Life” and all the characters. They’ve issued a statement that they will block any attempt to make a sequel of any kind. Let’s hope that they stick to that position. At the same time it’s called the movie “business” for a reason.
Now if you really want a different take on“It’s A Wonderful Life” I can make a recommendation. Check out a book called “The Last Temptation of Clarence Odbody” by John “Jughead” Pierson. Warning, it’s a completely different take on the story. But it’s pretty interesting.
And that’s all I ask for at Christmas. Something interesting under the tree.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
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