I'm a big girl's blouse for the new Galactica. Even my lovely wife, who has zero tolerance for most television (to be fair, because it sucks) actually cheated on me with Tivo and watched backlogged eps while I was fighting a deadline.
(NOTE: well aware many of you don't understand the context of "cheat on me" in that sentence. The other Tivoids do. Oh yes.)
Ron Moore is doing podcasts on each episode, like little downloadable director's commentaries. But not, because in TV we writers are king, as IT SHOULD BE -- ahem.
Anyway, he's not charging for them, just plowing them out, keeping his fans interested and creating value-added to his show which is now in reruns. He's not going to let the little sci-fishies get distracted and wander away, no he's not. Mr. Moore understands -- in the new media, the fans are your friends, they are your allies, they are your proselytizers. They are not cows to be milked. They are the community, and they are in charge.
This, of course, is the complete opposite from the way most networks and studios are run, because the top-down is what keeps the people in charge in jobs. Do we need them? A few, yes. But even now, as I go to meeting after meeting, where we younger writers and execs realize that the nature of television is changing, that we're no longer bound to 22 episodes for the mass audience, that in fact other models are even more financially efficient, you hear the dreaded "Of course we have to shoot a pilot, that's the business we're in."
In an effort to avoid my notorious two-subjects-one-post habit, I'll leave it at that. Let's just say, I've been looking at the pilot process from a statistcal standpoint annnnd ... think monkeys, darts, a board with show names on them, and vodka-injected bananas.
That would be the better system.
4 comments:
big girl's blouse?
?
I don't watch Battlestar Galactica, but Ron More put the fashizzle in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. That was one of the best shows -- ever. I've given up fuckin' Star Trek since. Also, who co-wrote the last good ST movie. Ron fuckin' Moore, that's who!
badMike
I have been thinking for awhile now that Americna television needs to change. Look at this season's programming. Lost has been broken up over the season to the point where I lose interest at times and have missec critical points. Alias has been shown as one continuous run, which while slightly boring for this year, I keep tuning into every week since I know I am getting a new episode.
I have a couple of questions John.
First, do you think that American TV suffers from producers trying to get the four seasons for syndication rather then just trying to make a compelling first season?
Since you have been a producer/are a producer, do you plot out the entire run of a series? I ask this since I get the feeling watching certain shows that maybe the writers and producers are sometimes working more with just a general idea of what the overall plot of a series should be rather than knowing exactly what they need every week (Lost comes to mind witht his). And again this goes back to trying to get that sybdication package after four seasons.
Do you think American TV should be made more like British TV with a whole season shot and broadcast without delay?
Thanks in advance.
sigh... Had I but known.
K-
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