Social Media and Behind the Scenes: AKA Everything Else Not "News and Media"

[leopardprint]

Due to my completionist tendencies, I have been unable to completely drop Arrow, but I will probably never watch another show he or even Berlanti is involved with, no show of theirs has a solo female or POC show runner does it? Does the CW just not give PR/SM training or is he so immersed in his little comic book bubble that he thinks calling himself a feminist is enough and a shield against criticism?

I can't believe (yes I can) that reverse sexism is the hill he chose to die on as if the huge lack of diversity in the Hollywood production side is not widely documented. What a doofus but you keep posting cracks  at the President dude. 

I had applauded the Arrow efforts to diversify their production but now I'm pretty sure that had to come from above him judging from his comments especially when all the BTS production photos are pretty much a never ending sea of middle aged white dudes yet oddly the offices are full of youngish ladies. 

*I think Black Lightning has a black and very experienced husband/wife showrunner and of course Mayor Lavon Hayes. 

Edited May 1, 2017 by leopardprint

[theOAfc]

3 hours ago, tv echo said:

MG is part of this culture...

(To clarify, this is not a statement on comic book fans, but on the depiction of male superheroes vs. the depiction of female superheroes in the above pic - including the 'classic' butt shot.)

MG doesn't want to alienate potential buyers of the X-Men comics and other comics that he writes.

Its amusing how they over sexualize female heros in comics while male heros are covered all up with the exception of their arms. Either show both sexes with much exposed skin or none. I understand that its men mainly bying these comics but these are their superhero suits,they are important ,they define the characters and they are even symbolic,its not just random daily scenes used for eye candy so it just becomes too obvious how these people mainly see women. I would understand if it was some female characters being presented that way,which would show that the characters' personalities are just different and presented through their clothing type, but its almost all of them,so its clear this is done just to please the readers rather than to present "confident" "badass" female characters.

 I dont think most comic book fans follow this mindset but i do think many of them as well as many of the comic book writers and those in charge follow this mindset. 

18 minutes ago, leopardprint said:

I had applauded the Arrow efforts to diversify their production

They did it only because they were called out and got  triggered. Which, to me,strikes as more them trying to cover their problematic ass than anything else. 

Edited May 1, 2017 by theOAfc

[leopardprint]

Oh, @theOAfc, thanks for the clarification.

[Carrie Ann]

Yeah, Greg Berlanti was one of the showrunners who spoke with Mo Ryan for her piece on diversity in the director's chair, which spurred networks and producers to commit to improving their numbers of women in general and POC in directing their shows. I don't believe MG would have taken any action on his own, tbh, but GB seemed pretty committed. I do still generally like GB and would believe he's genuinely concerned about these issues and knows the buck stops with him. On the other hand, his shows need to do WAY better in their on-screen diversity and in how their female, LGBT, and non-white characters' stories are handled. And it doesn't seem like he's hands-on enough on any of his shows to really be a force for positive change, even if he did make it a mission.

Edited May 1, 2017 by Carrie Ann

[BkWurm1]

I tend to think that MG's Arrow set isn't so much more hostile toward women then most other sets, but that's still pretty much the problem.  The "norm" really shouldn't be acceptable.

[statsgirl]

5 hours ago, theOAfc said:

Its amusing how they over sexualize female heros in comics while male heros are covered all up with the exception of their arms. Either show both sexes with much exposed skin or none. I understand that its men mainly bying these comics but these are their superhero suits,they are important ,they define the characters and they are even symbolic,its not just random daily scenes used for eye candy so it just becomes too obvious how these people mainly see women.

But you see, if the male superhero were topless or in otherwise skimpy outfits, that the men who buy these comics would have something more visual to compare them selves to and come off even worse.  At least if the superguys are covered up, they can prenend it's the costume that produces all those bulging muscles.

And I definitely agree it's how they would prefer to see women.  When women have to be sexualized to have some power, it weakens them overall.

[Guest]

Holy crap, I completely missed that whole MG/Lexi thing. Can't believe he mansplained feminism. I'm just...I have no words. 

[lemotomato]

MG released the script page for the "for better, for worse" scene in 410:

Edited May 2, 2017 by lemotomato

[TrueMyth]

Oh, god, Marc is doubling down on his "feminist ideals" on Tumblr now.

[BkWurm1]

It's interesting that essentially we are now seeing the reverse of the part of this scene where Oliver wonders if he hadn't been going far enough and Felicity asks what the point would be if he loses himself in the process.  Now we have Oliver afraid of how far Felicity is willing to go and her losing herself.   It's funny in a sad way how both of them have seemed more than a little lost this season.  

Edited May 2, 2017 by BkWurm1

[lemotomato]

So if they had kept the "I was out there because I told myself it was what you needed. But it was really what I needed. I won't make that mistake again" line, would the self-acknowledgment have cut down on all the "Oliver made Felicity's injury all about his manpain, the selfish prick doesn't love her enough (because he was at Thea and LL's bedsides)" comments?

Edited May 2, 2017 by lemotomato

[Mellowyellow]

For me it would have 100%! 

She's put up with so much sh#t and still wanted to carry his burden in 519.

I still ship them like crazy but really he better start appreciating how amazing she is if he ever gets her back this time around. 

[BkWurm1]

17 minutes ago, lemotomato said:

So if they had kept the "I was out there because I told myself it was what you needed. But it was really what I needed. I won't make that mistake again" line, would the self-acknowledgment have cut down on all the "Oliver made Felicity's injury all about his manpain, the selfish prick doesn't love her enough" comments?

Yeah, owning his actions would have helped a lot.  Instead I was doing a lot of work to not be mad at him, head canonning something similar but all that mental acrobatics would have been nice to skip.   I mean, I never thought he didn't love her enough but I was pretty frustrated in how long it took him to focus on her.  It's nice that he at least was lying to himself that he WAS in his misguided way focused on her.  

Edited May 2, 2017 by BkWurm1

[statsgirl]

Did SA ad lib the "How dare they" line about the nurses taking off Felicity's ring?  Because it was a really bad line.

[BkWurm1]

13 minutes ago, Mellowyellow said:

For me it would have 100%! 

She's put up with so much sh#t and still wanted to carry his burden in 519.

I still ship them like crazy but really he better start appreciating how amazing she is if he ever gets her back this time around. 

To be fair, I think Oliver does appreciate her and find her amazing but yeah, I'm doubling down on him just being a mess this year, emotionally and not knowing how to be there for her if he can't be totally 100% there for her on all levels.  (Yep, more head canon, lol)

1 minute ago, statsgirl said:

Did SA ad lib the "How dare they" line about the nurses taking off Felicity's ring?  Because it was a really bad line.

It was bad when taken literally since of course the nurses would protect her valuables,  but the emotion and the tone and the reason behind it just turned me into goo.  

[SmallScreenDiva]

I found this line in the original script "I promised I wouldn't lie to you anymore" interesting. Because as far as I can recall, Oliver & Felicity never had a conversation about lying before this ep, not in the new timeline anyway. Might be why it was deleted in the final product. 

[Belinea]

Why did MG release those sides? I mean, it is nice of him but did he give a reason for it? (I seem to have a hard time phrasing the question without it sounding rude which is not the intention at all)

[Mellowyellow]

He's been releasing all sorts of Olicity related stuff lately. I think with 520 coming up he's probably in an Olicity mood. Plus it gets the fans excited which can't hurt. 

ETA: I get the impression that whilst he won't change the direction of the show for fans, there seems to be certain Olicity fans which he likes and gives them stuff when they ask. 

Edited May 2, 2017 by Mellowyellow

[Mellowyellow]

4 hours ago, BkWurm1 said:

To be fair, I think Oliver does appreciate her and find her amazing but yeah, I'm doubling down on him just being a mess this year, emotionally and not knowing how to be there for her if he can't be totally 100% there for her on all levels.  (Yep, more head canon, lol)

It was bad when taken literally since of course the nurses would protect her valuables,  but the emotion and the tone and the reason behind it just turned me into goo.  

I bitch about him a lot but when Oliver pulls out the heart eyes all is forgiven. I don't think I've ever seen an actor act "smitten" as effectively as SA. He may not be the best actor out there but those are the best heart eyes I've seen!

[lemotomato]

3 hours ago, Belinea said:

Why did MG release those sides? I mean, it is nice of him but did he give a reason for it? (I seem to have a hard time phrasing the question without it sounding rude which is not the intention at all)

Someone asked him for them in his tumblr Q&A. He posted LL scenes too, at the request of her fans.

[tv echo]

MG also released these 510 and 223 script pages yesterday on tumblr...

primal-slayer asked:
Can you show us the script page for 5x10 where Black Siren reveals herself to Rory/Felicity?

theonlycanary asked:
Would you be kind enough to release the script pages for Laurel receiving the jacket from Sara? Thank you, I appreciate it.

Edited May 2, 2017 by tv echo

[tv echo]

More nonspoilery posts at https://marcguggenheim.tumblr.com/ on May 1...

molly2910 asked:
Marc, Do you have days where you wish Twitter was never invented?
No.  I love Twitter.  It’s only some users I have issue with. ;)

cinfos asked:
Does the loft have an elevator? If not how about a downstairs bedroom?
It’s already two stories…

laurelxlance asked:
answer this question truthfully; why can't Felicity die?
Because she’s immortal.  Duh.

laurelxlance asked:
you guys spent more time designing Felicity's one off outfit for legends than you did designing laurel's outfit for all of S3+S4.
Not true.

nevergohomeanymore asked:
Hoping you can settle a debate! Some claim that Felicity at the end of S4 could have sent Darhk's missile to an uninhabited area, but she knowingly didn't, meaning she intentionally wiped out Havenrock. Thoughts?
Hah!  That’s really funny.

arrow123456x asked:
here is a Q you Andrew Grag are all comic books fans since you were kids right, so as fans do U get offended by some section of arrow fans that hate &call U in some disgusting names b/c you are comic fans? cuz that part of fans hate so much comic book fans &all i can think of is arrow is based on comic book without it no show lol AND the ppl who responsible for the show are also comic fans so that part of fans that hate the other part of fans &calling them names basically call you too
There are all different kinds of fans.  And there are all different kinds of comic book fans.

nishtanight asked:
Hey Marc, loving season 5 so far. Since so much of the show has been about Oliver and killing, especially lately, I was wondering if you guys had an idea about how many people he's actually killed. Even just counting post island I have to figure it's well over a hundred which is just breaking my heart to think about!
We actually did a count last year.  I don’t remember, but it was pretty high.

broken-canary asked:
Who picked Alena's hacker handle?
That would be me.

thejusticecanary asked:
How do you feel about arrow's declining ratings?
Last year (Season 4), only two network shows didn’t see their ratings decline.  Only.  Two.  Arrow was one of them.  (The other was Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.)
This year (Season 5), we’ve seen Arrow’s broadcast ratings decline while its online viewing has gone UP.  Personally, I don’t care HOW people are watching the show so long as they’re watching.  So to answer your question, it doesn’t bother me one bit that Arrow’s broadcast ratings have gone down given how its online viewership has compensated.

infinitepunches asked:
What kind of ratings get a CW show cancelled?
Low ones.

aliya22 asked:
Hi Marc this is an olicity fan, not a bot.I know it wasn't you but its unnecessary answering to disrespectful people who call us bots for having our own voice&not following a cb trend. We'd clear that it's always been us, we're vocal. They can do the same, they can change, they're now Tumblr people too (even tho they used that as a derogatory term) Anyway I'm glad arrow is back, we're hoping to see more Olicity connection. I can't wait to see more Josh… please tell me he'd come back next season?
I have to say, this is some very impressive AI at work…  ;)
Seriously though, thanks for watching!

britneh asked:
Just want to say thank you for the fantastic female representation on Arrow. Lots of shows talk the talk or think that by having a Strong Female Character™ they've done their job, but Arrow really walks the walk. While it would've been easy for the women of Arrow to have fallen into the many stereotypical, 2-D caricatures usual found in movies and TV I can honestly say they never ever have and these multi-dimensional characters are always a breath of fresh air. So, thank you for that.
Thank YOU for saying that.

technicallychiefthing asked:
Hi, Marc! I was just wondering how much specific planning goes into each season. Do you guys plan the overall arc (I.E., Prometheus and his endgame) and fill in the blanks as you go, or do you start and let the story tell you where you're going to end?
For each season, we spend a month ahead of time working out an overall gameplan.  There are always some blanks, but for the most part we adhere to that plan.  In the case of Season 5, we knew where the season would end up and the big takeaways.

crazyaboutpurplefangirl asked:
The pacing and execution of last night's episode was so amazing that I didn't even realize there weren't any flashbacks until this morning. How did you guys come to that decision? And forgive my fangirl fail, but has that ever been done in an episode before?
We didn’t do flashbacks in episodes 107, 108 and 420.  :)

collectielyuncollected asked:
genuine question: why do you think the arrow fandom is so divided? I don't understand why theres so much hate. If you like comic books, cool. if you like romance, cool. it shouldn't be so filled with hatred and bullying. any tips on how to calm it down?
I feel like I should be asking you!  :)
I honestly don’t know.  We don’t have this kind of divisiveness over on Legends.
That said, I truly am grateful for people’s passion, even if I occasionally take issue with how it’s expressed.

justinebenard asked:
If Mark Pedowitz would come into your office and say "today, you are writing an episode of Arrow without the action and superhero aspect" what would be the plot of the episode
It’d probably look a lot like 513.

graffitimerlyn asked:
did you know that when a woman is calling out institutional sexism (male directors losing millions of dollars and still getting the next job over a woman) by using the label for a general group (men) she's not being sexist? and you shouldn't argue with her and back it up by saying it's only because you want equality when you have a 10 second head start in a race she didn't even sign up for. being a feminist means looking past your bruised ego from being grouped with "all men" and backing her up.
Setting aside the question of whether Lexi was being sexist – she and I clearly differ on the proper definition – I was pointing out the hypocrisy of her statement.  Hypocrisy doesn’t bruise my ego, but it does vex me and, occasionally, I give voice to that.  And I’m capable of doing so without violating or contradicting my feminist ideals.
I hope that answers your question.

graffitimerlyn asked:
tbh if you don't answer my last ask that just proves my point that all you really have is some faux ass white feminism.
I wasn’t aware that was the point you were making – I didn’t know “faux ass white feminism” was a thing – but I answered your last post anyway.

Edited May 2, 2017 by tv echo

[tv echo]

MG's tweets and tumblr posts about Arrow and LoT directors/diversity yesterday...

"This year, Arrow's directing slate was 50% diverse (racial and gender). Next year we plan to improve on that."
https://twitter.com/mguggenheim/status/859162089302011904

"I neglected to mention the incredible number of female directors who we offered episodes to this year who turned us down."
https://twitter.com/mguggenheim/status/859272792285433856

"Nice try. But the S2 writing staff had only three white men on it. More than 50% diverse."
https://twitter.com/mguggenheim/status/859207806628446208

issmudpie asked:
I'm not on Twitter, so I can't respond there, but I saw the discussion about feminism that occurred last night (4/30), and wanted to say I'm glad you so adamantly stated that feminism is about equality. I'm looking forward to seeing this equality reflected in your shows' directors. So far, only 16 of Arrow's 115 episodes, and 5/33 LOT episodes, have been directed by a woman (14% and 15%, respectively). Can we expect a more equal ratio next season?
We’re always working to improve diversity in the writing and directing ranks.  That said, I view the current statistics regarding racial diversity to be as concerning as those for gender diversity – and vice versa.  This year, 50% of Arrow’s directors were “diverse” (female and/or non-white) and we’re looking to do better in Season 6.  We’re aiming for similar diversity in Legends’ directors in Season 3.

aswagcashew asked:
While episode 19 was very good, it wasn't my favorite. Saying that, the director for this episode did an incredible job. From the sets to the cinematography, it was all incredible. Was the scene at the beginning with Oliver in the office talking in the meeting before going to give statement filmed using a handheld camera? It seemed like it and I thought it was aesthetically beautiful and really created tension. You need to get this director again and have him direct more episodes.
Oh, we’re bringing him back for sure!

Edited May 2, 2017 by tv echo

[Delphi]

Quote

laurelxlance asked:
you guys spent more time designing Felicity's one off outfit for legends than you did designing laurel's outfit for all of S3+S4.
Not true.

 Seriously?  I must have read ten different interviews just about how much work went into the Black Canary costume,  and how much insight Katie had into its design and her makeup and her eyelashes.   But saw literally one design sketch and some Instagram photos from the makeup artist.   That's where certain fans are drawing their line in the sand?  How much attention to detail Felicity's costume that got roughly a minute of screen time got?  Yeah,  okay. 

Edited May 2, 2017 by Delphi

[Mellowyellow]

I find it hilarious how that person seems to rampage about Felicity obsessively despite being a Laurel fan!

And it seems to be a common theme with a lot of these people. Never ending obsession with Felicity despite hating her. Go away and put your energy into writing LL fanfic or something!

[Primal Slayer]

The 5x10 script page made me lol. Mainly because of the SKREEEEE

1 hour ago, Mellowyellow said:

I find it hilarious how that person seems to rampage about Felicity obsessively despite being a Laurel fan!

And it seems to be a common theme with a lot of these people. Never ending obsession with Felicity despite hating her. Go away and put your energy into writing LL fanfic or something!

These people though? Lets just talk about the one person.  And never-ending obsession can be said for both sides of fans who arent pleased with either character.

[SmallScreenDiva]

The question about "why can't Felicity die" is pretty sad, if you think about it. A lot of the people who ask about that or actually believe that don't seem to understand how storytelling or TV works at all. Maybe I'm wrong but they seem to think that because THEIR fave was replaced as LI and then was killed (actress fired) that the same thing will easily happen to Felicity. This is one time I get Marc being facetious. Any kind of serious response that would indicate Felicity's importance to the show would probably just piss off the askers.

Edited May 2, 2017 by SmallScreenDiva
yikes, wrong they're/their

[wonderwall]

9 hours ago, statsgirl said:

Did SA ad lib the "How dare they" line about the nurses taking off Felicity's ring?  Because it was a really bad line.

I actually really loved that line. It was a teasing almost playful line to offer some lightness in such a heavy scene. I thought it worked well

2 hours ago, tv echo said:

laurelxlance asked:
you guys spent more time designing Felicity's one off outfit for legends than you did designing laurel's outfit for all of S3+S4.
Not true

So even LL fans think that Felicity's outfit was better than LLs (which is hilarious because KC was the one who had a lot of input in her outfit) lolll

[wonderwall]

3 hours ago, tv echo said:

laurelxlance asked:
answer this question truthfully; why can't Felicity die?
Because she’s immortal.  Duh.

This is honestly the most pathetic question. Instead of focusing on what she loves, she focuses on her hatred of Felicity. Quite sad. It reminds me how the LL tag on tumblr and twitter would be more filled with Felicity hate than LL love. No wonder the network was ok for her to be killed off in season 4. 

[Trisha]

5 hours ago, tv echo said:

thejusticecanary asked:
How do you feel about arrow's declining ratings?
Last year (Season 4), only two network shows didn’t see their ratings decline.  Only.  Two.  Arrow was one of them.  (The other was Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.)
This year (Season 5), we’ve seen Arrow’s broadcast ratings decline while its online viewing has gone UP.  Personally, I don’t care HOW people are watching the show so long as they’re watching.  So to answer your question, it doesn’t bother me one bit that Arrow’s broadcast ratings have gone down given how its online viewership has compensated.

I'd love to see some evidence that online viewership has gone up. Netflix doesn't release their ratings (even to the show creators) so I guess he could be talking about views on cw.com and the CW app. But as someone who buys a lot of TV on iTunes, this is the only season I can remember when I'm not seeing Arrow trending in the top 10 charts very often (I think 519 was the first time I'd seen it there in a while). And it dropped in its rankings on the most pirated shows list (which is not exactly the same, but I assume has a correlation to overall streaming behavior). 

I also find it hilarious that MG and SA spent so much time last year boosting about their ratings -- and now that they've dropped drastically, ratings suddenly don't matter. And yes, ratings across the board are down, but Arrow's decline has been steeper than any other CW show.

[leopardprint]

I also would think the switch from Hulu probably lowered their internet ratings but maybe since the show streams next day on Netflix internationally (iirc) that picked up the slack. 

[BkWurm1]

The CW Ap is a lot easier to use this year and free. Less hoops to jump through.  Maybe iTunes purchases would be more about people wanting to collect the episodes, than just who is watching?   

[leopardprint]

I would think casual viewers would more likely watch it on Hulu or Netflix since it just appears rather than having to download essentially a single purpose app. Too bad there's no access to the data. They must have some numbers to support the switch.

@BkWurm1, we will have to agree to disagree about the CW app. ?

[BkWurm1]

18 minutes ago, leopardprint said:

I would think casual viewers would more likely watch it on Hulu or Netflix since it just appears rather than having to download essentially a single purpose app. Too bad there's no access to the data. They must have some numbers to support the switch.

@BkWurm1, we will have to agree to disagree about the CW app. ?

Lol, were we arguing?

[leopardprint]

Even just a mention of the CW app is rage inducing. Why don't the captions work, CW, whyyyyyyyyy? 

[Morrigan2575]

1 hour ago, Trisha said:

. And yes, ratings across the board are down, but Arrow's decline has been steeper than any other CW show.

Supergirl down 56% (technically down 56% from CBS but it's pulling the same demo as Arrow so...)

I-zombie down 43%

Crazy-Ex Girlfriend down 35%

Reign down 35%

Arrow down 34%

The 100 down 33%

Arrow is down big but it isnt the biggest drop for The CW. 

Edited May 2, 2017 by Morrigan2575

[SmallScreenDiva]

Speaking of rankings among pirated shows, a friend noted that this week is the first time she'd seen Arrow show up in the top 10 this season. It was a regular until this season. 

[leopardprint]

@Morrigan2575, Is that Supergirl % from last year on CBS or S2 premiere on CW? 

I think there might be Superhero fatigue setting in. 

CW went from Teen Soap network to Comic Book network. 

Edited May 2, 2017 by leopardprint

[lemotomato]

7 minutes ago, Morrigan2575 said:

Supergirl down 56% (technically down 56% from CBS but it's pulling the same demo as Arrow so...)

I-zombie down 43%

Crazy-Ex Girlfriend down 35%

Reign down 35%

Arrow down 34%

The 100 down 33%

Arrow is down big but it isnt the biggest drop for The CW. 

Even Flash is down 22% (compared to -4% last season) 

[tv echo]

Update...

Ottawa Comic Con, May 12-14, 2017 (Canada)
John Barrowman and Alex Kingston
http://www.ottawacomiccon.com/en/our-guests/?page=2

[Morrigan2575]

12 hours ago, leopardprint said:

@Morrigan2575, Is that Supergirl % from last year on CBS or S2 premiere on CW? 

I think there might be Superhero fatigue setting in. 

CW went from Teen Soap network to Comic Book network. 

Yeah,  that's comparing Supergirl on CBS to Supergirl on CW. Not 100% perfect comparison given the network change.

12 hours ago, lemotomato said:

Even Flash is down 22% (compared to -4% last season) 

Yeah. I pretty much just covered the ones that dropped more but, Flash is down 22%, The Vampire Diaries was down 25% and I believe The Originals dropped 20%.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Morrigan2575
Because it's Diaries, not Dairy.

[tv echo]

New podcast interview with MG (starts at around 33:45 mark) - no spoilers - I debated whether to post this here or in the Starling City Times thread, but decided this interview was more behind-the-scenes than news...

-- MG talked about his background and past jobs, how he got to where he is now, past TV shows he's worked on, meeting GB, the Green Lantern problems, etc. (I may have blanked out during some of this chatter.)

-- On whether he thinks television and the serial nature of television is a better medium to tell superhero stories than movies because of the nature of the medium they come from (namely, comic books), MG: "No, I mean... I've always said that comic books and television have a closer relationship to each other, but I think... there are so many great superhero movies that have been done over the years... I wouldn't say that, uh, television is better at telling comic book stories than movies is, you know. Um, certainly, you know, The Dark Knight or, you know, Captain America: Civil War, um, or any number of really great superhero movies belie that argument. So, uh, it's just different. And you're telling different kinds of stories, you know."

-- On whether comic book TV shows are so successful because they're now being created by people who grew up reading the source material (as opposed to someone like Tim Burton who admitted never reading the comics), MG: "Yeah, I think...  I want to be really sorta clear on this because I have, not surprisingly, a very specific and strong point of view on it... I think you absolutely need the movie or the TV show to be done by someone who has a love of the medium and a love of the characters, and who has respect for the characters. Um, you know, that said, I think a lot of times we tend to confuse respect for the characters and love for the characters with a overarching fidelity to the comic books. Um, you know, I - I personally as a comic book fan - I don't require my, you know, movie - my superhero movie or my superhero TV show to be a live action, panel for panel, adaptation of a comic book. Um, but I also recognize there are a lot of fans out there who do. Like, that's what they're - you know, that's what they're looking for. And, as a result, a lot of comic book TV shows and movies are unsatisfying to them, because there's not as much fidelity. Um, truth be told, I think, really the only true - in my mind, literal adaptation of a comic book to a movie or TV show is Watchmen. Um, you know, Watchmen is - is incredibly faithful, you know, down - it's panel for shot, or shot for panel. Um, you know, and, you know, everything else take - has to take a certain amount of liberty, um, you know, with the source material because it's a different medium. Um, but I do think that if the person making that adaptation, the person making those changes - the end result is always better if that person has a love of comic books and is coming to it from a place of loving and respecting the source material. Um, I think that's very, very key."

-- On how the CW TV shows feel like they belong within the DC universe, even though characters are shifted around, and how everything always feels right, even though the details may be wrong from the comic books, MG: "Well, that's - that's, yeah, that's what we're always going for. Look, the truth is, like, Greg, Andrew and I - we are true fans of the comics. Um, you know, so we know sort of what 'feels right.' Uh, and we also know that, you know, the - you know, the details can change. Like, doing Arrow, you know, both of Oliver's parents were dead, um, in the comics. Um, you know, he didn't have any siblings, um, in the comics. You know, we changed these, you know, fundamental things because we felt it works better for a 23-episode-a-season television show, uh, for him to have, you know, some family to interact with. Um, you know, I think - you know, I think it's important to sort of recognize the core of what makes the character the character. Um, you know, I'll give you an example. Like, JJ Abrams did an incredible, incredible Superman script, uh, way back in the day. Uh, but the thing is, Krypton never exploded so Superman was never the last of his race. And, as a result, it's a phenomenal screenplay, it's a phenomenal superhero movie. It's not a great Superman movie, however... because you change his integral point. It's sort of like, you can't do a Batman movie without killing off his parents. Um, I don't think you can do, you know, Green Arrow, without having him gone through some sort of crucible on a deserted island for a certain amount of time. Um, you know, and certainly like, you know - look, we have plenty of fans of Arrow, um, or critics of Arrow who feel like you can't do a, uh, Green Arrow TV show unless he's in a romantic relationship with Black Canary. Um, you know, we - we have obviously gone a different way on Arrow. Um, so obviously - reasonable minds will differ as to what is 'a fundamental component' of a character. Um, but uh, again, if you don't have - if you don't have a working knowledge of the characters, you certainly can't figure out what - you know, what your idea of fundamental is or not."

-- MG also talked about why and how they decided to do LoT (they wanted to do something different from Arrow and Flash, they decided to have ensemble superhero team, GB added time travel element, they discovered need to make it "completely insane").

-- He also talked about the responsibility of being a TV showrunner (like being a CEO of a company who employs lots of people).

-- MG talked about writing the X-Men Gold comics and his history of writing comic books.

-- On Arrow going into S6, MG: "It's crazy, yeah, Arrow's going into Season 6. We are, uh - we just pitched to the studio yesterday our season-long plan. Um, it's, uh - it's exciting. And Legends is going into Season 3."

Edited May 2, 2017 by tv echo

[BkWurm1]

2 hours ago, tv echo said:

look, we have plenty of fans of Arrow, um, or critics of Arrow who feel like you can't do a, uh, Green Arrow TV show unless he's in a romantic relationship with Black Canary. Um, you know, we - we have obviously gone a different way on Arrow. Um, so obviously - reasonable minds will differ as to what is 'a fundamental component' of a character. 

Makes me happy just to hear him acknowledge they've gone a different way and that they don't feel they've missed a fundamental part of of who Oliver is with not putting him in a romantic relationship with BC.  

[looptab]

11 hours ago, Morrigan2575 said:

 The Vampire Dairy was down 25% 

I love this :D

[Morrigan2575]

2 minutes ago, looptab said:

I love this :D

Oops that's what you get when you're on a phone. I hate not having computer access to this board. ?

Edited May 3, 2017 by Morrigan2575

[catrox14]

Quote

 The Vampire Dairy was down 25% 

This sounds like a case for the Winchesters!

[theOAfc]

16 hours ago, Trisha said:

I'd love to see some evidence that online viewership has gone up. Netflix doesn't release their ratings (even to the show creators) so I guess he could be talking about views on cw.com and the CW app. But as someone who buys a lot of TV on iTunes, this is the only season I can remember when I'm not seeing Arrow trending in the top 10 charts very often (I think 519 was the first time I'd seen it there in a while). And it dropped in its rankings on the most pirated shows list (which is not exactly the same, but I assume has a correlation to overall streaming behavior). 

I also find it hilarious that MG and SA spent so much time last year boosting about their ratings -- and now that they've dropped drastically, ratings suddenly don't matter. And yes, ratings across the board are down, but Arrow's decline has been steeper than any other CW show.

I also think he is talking about the cw app. Which doesnt say much. I heard many people who wanted to watch Arrow on hulu cant do that anymore so maybe they watch it on the cw site and app. Yet, i think its more possible that even if views went up in the cw site from the start of this season compared to last season,they still probably dropped throughout this season just like how DVR numbers dropped. Or are we supposed to believe that just like that, people suddenly started watching the show on streaming sites and thats why DVR is down? lol

Online views definitely dont compensate the ratings drop,and we dont need online view numbers to figure that out. 

 I visit a lot of streaming sites in general and i also see that Arrow is not very popular this year compared to last year. I think MG is simply making vague statements that he cant back up with actual numbers because he is too butthurt to admit the truth.

[leopardprint]

I think you're right, the CW app views this year are probably up compared to last year but not up compared to Hulu or overall. IIRC, the show was available on free Hulu. I wonder if there's a way to compare app usage to cable on demand subscribers. 

The CW does keep basement dwellers JTV and Crazy Ex for prestige and the 100 and iZombie aren't even critical darlings (maybe super cheap to produce?) so they're not entirely wrong when they say that ratings don't matter, at least at the CW, but yeah he's definitely cherry picking. 

Edited May 3, 2017 by leopardprint

[BkWurm1]

38 minutes ago, leopardprint said:

I think you're right, the CW app views this year are probably up compared to last year but not up compared to Hulu or overall. IIRC, the show was available on free Hulu. I wonder if there's a way to compare app usage to cable on demand subscribers. 

The CW does keep basement dwellers JTV and Crazy Ex for prestige and the 100 and iZombie aren't even critical darlings (maybe super cheap to produce?) so they're not entirely wrong when they say that ratings don't matter, at least at the CW, but yeah he's definitely cherry picking. 

The 100 and iZombie do have cult hit status.  I freely and without reserve recommend iZombie.  It's fun.

Edited May 3, 2017 by BkWurm1

[leopardprint]

11 MINUTES AGO, BKWURM1 SAID:

The 100 and iZombie do have cult hit status. I freely and without reserve recommend iZombie. It's fun.

I agree, iZombie is so much fun, I watch when the CW App lets me! ?

Edited May 3, 2017 by leopardprint