kib

Nice. At least someone outside the writer's room grasps elements of the narrative. Maybe we'll hit the jackpot and Hall will drop a Sorkin-esque snark shot at Internet criticism. It least it would be in character, covering already trodden ground and all...

Love Freeman the actor, but his production company has had.... ahhh, mixed results. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelations_Entertainment

Too late for that. The co-ed during the library lecture clearly had a case of steaming silks. In addition, each of the Leoni/Daly pillow talk scenes had an element that it's hit or miss cuddle time for the pair. Pedestrian writing requires one thing leads to the inevitable another. If they were comfortable busting out the conspiracy card right off the bat I don't see any reason they wouldn't go to the playbook and drag out an additional sure fire device.

Call me underwhelmed. Why on earth would you hire Bebe Neuwirth if all you're going to let her do is reaction shots of either affirmative knowing smiles or (when diplomatic protocol is breached) grimacing like someone passed wind? Also why bother with a hacked up conspiracy theory right out of the gate? It doesn't show much faith in the premise (sadly) if you're already busting out cliche plot devices that are usually held back until the end of your sophomore season. Too bad because there's a lot of names attached to this project that should know better.

If psychotropic pharmacology were only that simple...

More than enough time to roust the unfortunate intern charged with monitoring the feeds out of their hypnotic stupor to scrub the video servers of any criminally liable evidence when the inevitable 'going postal' incident occurs.

Just spitballin' here but the "Experience Utopia" event seems like a prime opportunity for production to tinker with a number of issues. If they bus in a large group of paid shut-in's, syphilitic circus folk and ne'er do well's it would serve to recapitalize the Utopian's within the story arc. It would also offer the illusion that the tours (and the program itself) are viable and worthwhile. Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd. Aaron might have tipped production's hand with his $2K proceeds prediction. I'd look for an attendance equal to what can be fit in a charter bus from the FOX lot in LA.

I have to admit I smiled when Red introduced the girlie show like he was Bob Hope doing a gig for the troops including swinging the golf club around... Here she is fella's, Joey Heatherton !!!!

If this feed blogging stuff doesn't work out for you Zahdii, I'm pretty sure you could get a gig writing for NBC News correspondent Keith Morrison. Just pitch perfect, well done!

Admittedly I've not gone out of my way to do any data mining, but it would seem the producers have done a good job of burying Utopian back-stories or at least I've not seen much in the way of friends, families or acquaintances stepping up to offer character references. One would think the vast news gathering resources of the Cecilia Kentucky Times (or whatever it is) would have done an extensive feature on their favorite son. Photo essays, side bars, pull-quotes, "This Day In History - Red Edition", ya know... the whole shebang. For Chrissake, UK Basketball coach John Calipari doesn't appear on network television twice a week except in March. [EDIT: My crack research staff informs me the name of the local fishwrap is The News-Enterprise. Further investigation shows a keyword search word "Utopia" of their archived stories offers the result "Did you mean funtopia?", something this program is decidedly not...]

That website constructed by the Utopians sounds like a swell idea... No chance of anything going wrong as far as being a hacking target huh?. I'm sure it will be reveled that Red wrote code along side Bill Gates back in the day.

If being a DA was an appointed position or was in the private sector I might agree but I can't imagine, given the body politic circa 2014, what transgression against man or beast would constitute being unfit for office? "As long as they spell my name right" and all...

Far be it from me to carry FOX's water, but to be fair it's John de Mol's production company that are the lead architects of this shitstorm. His past crimes include Big Brother/Fear Factor/1 v 100/Deal or No Deal and The Voice. Not exactly Shakespeare but The Bard didn't have $2.2B in the bank, so there's that... This program could could have easily appeared on any one of the major networks, he's done business with them all, but in this instance it was FOX.

In the interest of full disclosure, the program really should have been named DSM Illustrated.

One needs to remember however, ratings are a relative term. NBC was a guilty as anyone promoting the concept that good ratings are nice (and doing quality work for that matter) but generating profit is better. Zucker was happy as a clam if a program didn't do squat numbers wise, but was making oodles of cash, and equally upset if the numbers were good but nothing was going into the bank. More so now that Kabletown is in charge. I think you're fundamentally right that folks knew the old set wasn't working early on, particularly compared to Fallon's high-pedigree digs appearing an hour earlier on the network's airwaves, but I can't shake the feeling that it's an indication that storm clouds are brewing.

Traditionally a new set is the first event in the death spiral of a program. Ratings taking a hit? Get a new set. Happens all the time. Money isn't spent when things are hunky dory (although it appears they didn't spend a whole lotta cash on the new set). The next of the four horsemen will probably be an announcement of a new producer or executive producer, followed by changes in the writer's room. What seems odd to me is unless the wheels have completely and irreparably fallen off, why make the changes prior to Ferguson's departure? Only thing I can imagine other than getting/about to be killed in the ratings is the recent retirement of the long time head of NBC late night programming with perhaps someone who is more in tune with Kabletown's... err Comcast's shark-like business model for fiscal goal attainment. Sorry Seth, it was a noble attempt, just a bad time and place to do business.

That's for posting the link. While it's a generally well reasoned piece, using the example of the Academy Awards streaker as the epitome of televised spontaneity was a poor choice. Cursory research on the streaker, Robert Opel, seems to indicate the event, as well as David Niven's quip may have been foreshadowed if not out rightly staged. For my money the gold standard for the truly unexpected television moment remains the Johnny Carson/Ed Ames ax throwing incident. A true bolt of lightning divined from the clearest of skies.

Did Jennifer Aniston embrace the role of being pissed off about being involved in the pseudo "Friends" reunion skit at little too much? At the beginning of the segment it appeared she's kinda/sorta pals with Kimmel and his wife but as soon as she laid eyes on the "Friends" set mock up, things seemed to get chilly very quickly. Maybe she's a far better actress than I give her credit for, but based on the body of her work, I'm not convinced.

Hands down the most narcissistic individual appearing on any broadcast, anywhere (and that's sayin' something). Overstating things? I defy you to watch her go for more than thirty seconds without a "me" or "I' reference. Watch a taped piece. You'll see twice as many "B" roll cutaways of her reacting/mugging than any comparable piece done by someone else. Either that or she feels compelled to inject herself into the action. Not every story requires or even should be a participatory narrative. You would have thought she might have toned it down after she got kicked off of regular desk duty, but it sounds like it didn't phase her a bit. Really quite sad actually because they don't hand out network gigs willy-nilly. To take that opportunity and turn it into a farce because of an overinflated ego is truly unfortunate.

You are aware that if the "Today" show's producers could figure out a way to strap a GoPro camera on baby Guthrie's head during the birth they'd already have the promo monkeys working on a "Join us for a very special Today show" campaign...

I don't want to even think about what would appear on my computer screen if I were to do a casual Google of the keywords in the title of that segment...

Perhaps I was a little harsh. At least I now know which network I need to pitch for my "Celebrate the Suits Very Special Christmas Special" pilot. The More You Know...

Anyone notice the little 'inside baseball' moment from last night's (7/29) program? After the monologue, from the desk, Fallon mentions to Higgins about a guy, by name, that dropped by the office earlier in the day and how it was nice to see him, what a good guy is and then, that was that. The name was Rick Ludwin. Who is Rick Ludwin? In very many ways the guy Fallon can thank for his current gig. Ludwin just retired as VP Late Night Programming at NBC. The guy whose fingerprints were all over the Leno/Letterman train wreck, the Leno/Conan train wreck and the Leno 10:00pm train wreck. (depending on who's spin you choose to believe). To me it was a flashbulb moment that captured a little bit about what makes Fallon tick (or not). There couldn't have been more than 100 people in the building that know the guy's name, let alone why it was noteworthy to mention his visit. Likely fewer watching the broadcast, yet Fallon made the mention at the top of his network program. It sure plays to the "Isn't he sweet and thoughtful" persona, but means little to anyone else watching and just served as another distraction seeing Fallon fawning over something or someone. YMMV BTW - The only reason I tuned in was the great joy Aubrey Plaza brings to these types of shows in confounding hosts if she's serious, seriously disturbed or seriously skilled at pulling one over on the program she's appearing on.

I think folks might be extra amped up getting in to see the show before Daddy punches the time clock for the last time (or maybe the thermostat in the Ed Sullivan has been set especially low recently) I'm hopeful I can catch a show when I'm in NYC early this December. I know I'll be particularly cheery if I can score a ticket ! (Hint..hint..wink..wink to any lurking LS staffers)

Sedaris rocks. Fun to watch two sharp funny minds batting it around. Tada chottomatte !!!