Robo-Post of the Day: You Are the Programmer

You know, this is a FASCINATING question. I really can't share your appreciation for Cop Rock (although if we're going to talk television musicals, the singing Buffy episode must go straight to the top of the list), though. Too weird.

The other night I was flipping through movie channels trying to find something to watch, and I came across The Paper, a highly underrated Ron Howard movie all about 1 day in the life of a New York City tabloid. And while I sat there, I thought, "Hey, why aren't there any television shows about journalists trying to get a story right before deadline?" I mean, we have tons of cop shows, medical shows, and lawyer shows, but nothing about the high pressure (and sometimes equally exciting) arena of investigative journalism. A show based around a paper (or news magazine, TIME!) could be fascinating - it could work as a procedural (journalists investigating a crime or mystery every week) or as a drama (Grey's Anatomy but allowing people to get out of the hospital/newspaper office) or as a combination.

I'm thinking a show about a newspaper is long overdue.

Now, someone get me a job in network television development.

You should check out 'Dirt' on FX. Its about a tabloid and its entertaining.

Chad,

I guess Night Stalker doesn't qualify. It wasn't as much about the inner workings of journalism as it was the goonies.

I'll probably get slammed for this, but what about a variety show? Not a "Thank God You're Here" which I've never watched or a "Who's Line Is It", but an updated version of the old variety show.

No, Keith and Jenn, I never watched Dirt (which seems to trashy) or Night Stalker (though I heard that was good). I was talking more a "realistic" drama of working at a "real" (not celebrity tabloid) newspaper. Seems like a place where you could have a multicultural/multi-age/multiple character-type cast in a fun city, and have "stories" that people are investigating that shed light on the inner relationships of the journalist/editor characters (the way that many medical "cases" at Grey's reflect or shed light on an aspect of a character there). We'll see if this idea ever gets made.

Keith, as for the variety show - why not bring back the Muppet Show? I mean, all celebrities want to work with the Muppets....the success of Shrek and the Incredibles on the big screen have shown there is an audience for fare that is "kid-friendly" with a large helping of "adult" in-jokes....and a show like this would be perfect in many timeslots (probably best in the 8 pm slot) and many nights (Sunday? Friday? Tuesday, particularly if ABC teamed it up with Dancing with the Stars?)

Chad,

You are speaking of resurrecting "Lou Grant" and I agree, it could make for some great TV. I'd prefer that it be "real" mature people with only a smattering of beauty kings and queens fresh from college. Keep the emphasis on the workings of journalism and not who is sleeping with who.

I'm all for an updated Western too.

A "Walter Mitty" show or a time travel show would be good. Kind of a different take on Quantum Leap.

Chad,

I think Disney or one of it's insidious minion companies own the Muppets now so I doubt that the mouse-eared powers that be are going to return to the Muppet Show's original more mature (read: Not as Profitable) roots.

But the first season is on DVD and it's got a few good extras. I recommend picking it up.

But I like the idea of a variety show. With the new influx of 'triple threat' celebrities like Justin Timberlake and J.Lo and the like I think something like the Carol Burnett show would be a good idea.

Now if we could only clone her...^_^

Well, Disney is also behind some of the animated movies that Pixar made that so perfectly melded cartoon animation/kid-friendly format with sight-gags and jokes/references that were very much for the adult audience.

And throwing the Muppets together for a new weekly prime-time variety show would certainly revitalize the brand and lead to a lot of cross-promotional marketing and merchandise abilities.

While I'm here, Michael Ausiello at TVGuide.com is reporting that things are looking better for Veronica Mars - evidently with Gilmore Girls leaving the CW has an hour of prime-time to fill, and creator Rob Thomas' idea of jumping ahead to Veronica in the FBI (a la Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs) has been received positively. VM might be back, people, but probably with big cast (and location) changes, plus perhaps a new title....maybe "Agent Mars"?

(As long as Kristin Bell is on television, I'm happy....)

The broadcast networks air nearly a hundred hours of prime time programming each week. It's a shame one of them couldn't spare one little hour for a good, old-fashioned western. Given all of the so-called "reality" slop that is dumped in front of us these days, I'm about ready to give up on those network clowns and confine my viewing to old shows on dvd. I have been following program development as a hobby for years and years, and this is the first time I have looked at a slate of pilots and found absolutely nothing to root for.

Something entertaining but decent and harmless for a change, that families can watch without their children being constantly polluted by sleaze, violence, fear and negativity, and by constant assaults on the values of those of us who still have morals.

I think a western sounds like a good idea, if it's done well. I guess there was Deadwood, but I don't get elitist cable, so I've never seen that show.
Anyway, TV executives are too afraid to take risks to do anything much that isn't in style.

How about dramas that have good writing as their foundation, rather than simply being primetime soap operas? I thought The Black Donnelly's was remarkably well done, but NBC pulled the plug after just five weeks. Studio 60 was another show of similar quality that appears in danger of being axed. I have to believe that there's room for good writing on network TV, not just the cable channels.

The only TV show I want to see on broadcast is Blood Ties, which is a Canadian show based on the Blood books of author Tanya Huff. Huff is one of the best authors I've ever read, her books are funny and intelligent, and if you've got to have another vampire-detective-in-toronto show (remember Forever Knight?), this one's a pretty damn good choice. (Especially since the vampire's a romance novelist.) Sadly, Lifetime has it in the US--but I don't have Lifetime. Not that this normally bugs me.

And I doubt anyone's heard of this, but does anyone remember The Professionals, of British TV fame? It was the darker, more sophisticated Starsky and Hutch, more of a domestic-terror-hunting kind of thing (assassins, bomb threats, espionage, and so forth). I think it could do very well today in this age of complicated moral choices, big guns, and terrorist bad-guys.

I thought that NBC's Andy Barker, PI was wonderful. It had a great cast and dry, intelligent, wry humor. Classic Conan O'Brien stuff. Any change of resurrecting that show?