I don’t understand this anxiety about TV supplanting literature as the main cultural vessel for our stories. Why does it matter? To me, TV and literature are on the same team. It’s the stories themselves that matter: good stories are good stories, regardless of what medium they reach us through, and there are television shows on the air today that way down the line will be treated with the same level of legitimacy that the “classics” receive now. What’s really interesting is that I would bet that the few television shows that do endure will share the same basic themes as many of our most beloved and respected books. In fact, there have even been a couple of times that the most popular shows of our time have expressly borrowed or paid homage to  “great” works of literature, adapting them for a modern audience. Here are a few of my favorite examples:

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A frightening instance of "reality television"

A little over a decade ago, I was sitting in my junior high homeroom – furiously trying to finish the algebra homework I had forgotten to do the night before.  As if my absolute ineptitude for mathematics wasn’t enough, I was very distracted by the cluster of kids in the corner talking about the mysterious letters they had received from a production company asking to use their homes as sets for a new HBO show called The Sopranos.

Like most suburban towns, the New Jersey suburb that I did most of my growing up in was (and arguably is) one of the most boring places to come of age.  None of us understood how a television show could be entertaining if we were to be their setting.  Later on we learned that The Sopranos was about Italian mobsters which was not a reality in our town at all.  Our mobsters were Russian… which of course reminded us all of the day our middle school’s backyard became a helicopter landing pad when authorities learned that the body of Russian Olympic boxer, Sergei Kobozev (missing for nearly a decade) was dug up when a couple tried to put a pool in their backyard.

When I really think about it, my boring little Jersey suburb did see quite a bit of excitement over the course of the thirteen years that I lived there.  However, whatever excitement existed is still diluted by a higher ratio of “reality” or days where nothing out of the ordinary occurred.  Successful narrative television such as The Sopranos know not to show you the days where Tony Soprano is just chilling with a copy of The Star-Ledger in his backyard and various other narrative dramas boil down the occurrences of thirteen years into a single season to keep things compelling.

Around the same time that The Sopranos had begun their narrative journey, I happened to be chilling in my backyard with a copy of The Star-Ledger and noticed that their TV listings had a new genre color code.  Now, among the likes of comedy, drama, news magazines, game shows and talk shows was what many of us had believed to be a passing trend: Reality TV.  Read more »

Have zombies taught us nothing? Resurrection is just… never a good idea (unless of course you’re that guy whose resurrection resulted in the celebration of Easter).

Case in point: the musical television drama.  If you didn’t know such a genre existed, it’s for good reason – these shows have incredibly short life spans and it really takes a very special person to stomach a single episode.  In fact, I had pushed everything I’ve viewed of this genre into the same dark little closet in my brain that I keep bad break-ups and embarrassing moments.  It wasn’t until a recent conversation I had with Julia that I remembered such a genre existed.  Julia has quite a taste for the cop show genre.  She (like many others these days) is also really into Glee, Fox network’s musical comedy.  As a business school alumna, Julia understands the value of her time and doing things efficiently, thus pitched the idea of a musical cop drama so she and others with similar taste could save time by watching these two genres in one place.  To her shock/horror/dismay/amusement, I told her that like most things in TV – it’s been done before.

Cop Rock.  Yes, Cop Rock. If you’ve never heard of it before – it’s exactly what the title suggests.  Hailed as one of the worst television shows of all time, Cop Rock’s greenlight continues to baffle us nearly two decades later (unless of course, you’re Peter Bowker and erroneously thought resurrecting the genre with Hugh Jackman may mean a better shot at success).

When Julia and I parted ways that night, we left the conversation with a lot of unanswered questions.  Below is our iChat transcript of our attempt to wrap our minds around the existence of Cop Rock (with embedded videos for your viewing pleasure) and if or how this genre could succeed today: Read more »

The Guardian’s Vicky Frost thinks 3D television might not do well because the cardboard glasses you have to wear look goofy. And because strapping those red-and-blue suckers onto your face is a pain. And, yes, she’s right on both counts. But I think the main reason 3D TV won’t do well is because–even if we develop the technology to enjoy 3D TV without the glasses–it’s just not necessary.

These days, pretty much everything we can possibly imagine, we can create.  So of course we’re going to try out new digital methods in storytelling, especially if there’s money to be made and there are television studio executives behind it. But just how much innovation is too much? At what point does technology stop giving us opportunities and instead start becoming a distraction?

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"It takes a lot less time and most people won't notice the difference until it's too late"

Literary Lovers – I don’t expect you to know who Sandra Lee is because I would hope that most of you haven’t the half hour time slot to fit her into your lives.  For the purposes of today’s article, however, let me take a moment to “enlighten” you.  Sandra Lee is the host of The Food Network’s television show “Semi-Homemade.”  She is also one of the many descending steps The Food Network took to get to the substandard hell it dwells in today.  Before you call me out on my tendencies to overreact to things that don’t really affect my life and do not pertain to storytelling whatsoever, understand that my anger for her and that network is really anger at a bigger picture – she is the face of our society’s acceptance of mediocrity as the norm.

Sure, who the hell am I to say anything on the matter? I don’t even reread what I write here before I post it (please don’t fire me, Julia).  I publish with the assumption that no one expects the respect of proper grammar and structure (although I confess I am so often tempted to correct grammatical and spelling errors on people’s Facebook statuses).  We live in a society that doesn’t expect us to suit up for work and we buy electronics that we anticipate to break within the year.  We are used to, accept, and fully expect things to be semi-acceptable and we’re totally okay with it.  Things that used to require a written letter are done via Facebook comment.  Announcements of important events are done via Twitter.  Everything is casual.  Things are good as long as they’re good for now.  Formality is dead.  Quality check is optional. Read more »

Peggy's Job + Joan's Wardrobe = Mad Men Daydream Happiness

I am the daughter of an Ad Man.  Product loyalty to company clients dictated the brands of my youth (I still hesitate to buy Crest Toothpaste even if it’s on sale because it was Colgate’s biggest competitor back when it was my father’s client).  While I recognize that we are two steps away from a world where our dreams are interrupted by commercial breaks, I have also developed a bit of taste for the innovative lengths companies have taken to make their brands known and remembered.  Though we’re likely about a century and a human rights movement shy of having our subconscious being the latest vehicle for advertising, we’ve also come quite a long way from our simple magazine and television ads.  If you do recall (and I am talking to you, David Simon), these mediums of entertainment were created solely to keep you seated between commercial breaks.

I’ve heard great things about The Wire.  In fact, I’ve only heard great things about The Wire. And while I’ve heard nothing but great things, I don’t watch it because it requires me to pay beyond basic cable.  That’s right.  I’m not paying extra for HBO.  Don’t get me wrong, HBO is fantastic – that sense of freedom both the creators and the viewers feel without the constraints of commercials? My God.  Curse! Have sex! Throw a friend into a wood chipper! You can do it and you can do it graphically because there are no sponsors breathing down your neck about how their product will look popping up right after you’ve viewed a candid conversation about teabagging.  Read more »

You may have heard about an innovative little company called “Twitter.” It’s no secret that the overnight(ish) sensation essentially has no business plan for generating revenue. There have been rumors going around for some time about Twitter introducing advertisements, or charging businesses for premium accounts…but a Twitter reality TV show? I think it’s safe to say this is something none of us ever expected. And let me emphasize that last part: ever. Read more »