I had the great pleasure of seeing my friend Kevin perform stand-up in Kentucky on Thursday night. There, we both appeared on Fist City, the radio show* hosted by my friends Brock and Greg. You can listen to the whole show by clicking here (scan ahead 1 hour), or a not-so-brief clip, that I’ve embedded below.
*internet-radio show
“I think we’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
As I look at all of the fall premiere dates and then try to figure out exactly how I’m going to get all of the requisite television watched and still have time for, y’know, sleep, I came up with the following conclusion: it can’t be done (well, it probably CAN be done, just not by me).
So I’m putting out a request for some help. There are two series this fall I won’t be watching, but which should get some prominent placement on this blog because they’re both fairly popular and/or culturally significant. More on this after the jump…
I’m about to leave my apartment for the 2007 U.S. Open, and thus posts on Flight of the Conchords, the return of Saxondale on the BBC, and why I’m now hooked on GSN’s Grand Slam will have to wait until tomorrow with posts about My Boys, The Hills and Weeds — yikes, looks like someone isn’t going to be sleeping much these next two days.
In the meantime, keep yourself busy by reading Alan Sepinwall’s summer-long recaps of Freaks and Geeks. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
Advantage: Pecoraro.
I looked at my DVR to see what was going to be on tonight and almost startled myself into a coma. Tonight is the most jam-packed night of programming since the standard television season ended in May. It is a clear sign of things to come as the fall gets underway and sleeping patterns greatly diminish. In any case, here’s a list what I’m hoping to watch:
What’s that? Scheduling conflicts? I don’t understand. I’m just thankful I bailed on Big Love two months ago or things might have been really hairy.
Four of five of those shows will likely work themselves into the regular weekly rotation (Californication is a toss-up as early word is it sucks). The real question mark is on MTV’s The Hills, a series I watched during its first season and was more or less repulsed by. That being said, when a friend’s Gmail away message today reads “Spencer Sucks” I have to wonder if perhaps I was grading the show a bit too harshly and not savoring its “cattier” qualities — so I’m going to give it another shot.
Last night my computer died. This is obviously problematic for, say, a blogger. I’m going to try to hold off on getting a new computer until August 7th, when Apple is suppose to release “something.” Until then, please bear with me as posts will be few and far between. Thank you for your future patience.
XOXO,
The Management
Clearly these kids are gathering for the premiere of Damages on FX, a legal drama starring Glenn Close and Ted Danson… not Art Brüt.
Now that we’re officially out of the 2006-2007 television season — with roots firmly planted in summer programming — I wanted to take this time to fill everyone in on what exactly we’re going to be covering this summer here at MagneticMediaFed. How about we do so after the jump?…
I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the past ten days of living in a television vacuum (which technically isn’t even true as I watched plenty of television– though television that I wanted to watch, not shows that were stacked up on my DVR). Really, for the sake of being considered a legitimate TV commentator, I should just lie and say I spent the last week and change in front of my set, eyes locked on all of the new network content while fervently scribbling notes on various sheets of A4 trying to figure out the sociological connections between On the Lot, National Bingo Night and leftover episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
That, as we all know, would be idiotic. Thank god that isn’t this site.
Instead, my recent free time was spent walking around in flip-flops, trying to survive on a vegetarian diet (which sucks), hitting golf balls and watching programs including (but not limited to) Arrested Development season one (still makes me laugh after the umteen millionth viewing), select Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared episodes (in preparation of “Knocked Up,” which for me completely lived up to the hype), the first two episodes of Homicide and the first season of The Larry Sanders Show.
It was a good time.
Now, back to the grind. Thank god its summer as that means all of the significant programming will be coming from cable and thus will automatically be far more interesting than most of what I had been dining on since September.
Welcome back. It’s summer. It’s hot. Let’s watch some television.
With the third season of Lost wrapping up Wednesday night, the 2006-2007 television season effectively came to a close. Not that this really matters in the current TV landscape, as the major networks were preparing to shift to their summer line-ups just as Jordin was named American Idol and as Jack begged to return to the island. Still, it’s nice to think of things in self contained blocks of content.
For me, I’d say the year was mostly a success. Obviously there were countless shows that never found an audience and were quickly dumped from the networks. Nevertheless, we still managed to get a full season of Friday Night Lights (the strongest drama of the year) and 30 Rock (the funniest new show), along with uneven but ultimately successful seasons of The Office and Lost among others.
Before Rescue Me and Damages start on FX or Weeds on Showtime or John From Cincinnati premieres on HBO I think now would be a good time for us to put down the remote, go outside and commune with nature (or at least commune with some meat on a grill). It’s the best time of the year to not watch television and I’m going to attempt to steer clear of my RGB friend for a few days.
MagneticMediaFed will be on hiatus until June 3rd (when The Sopranos returns for the first of its last two episodes). Despite the lack of TV talk, I will continue to update the Fantasy Television League Scores and hope to announce a winner the week I come back.
In the meantime, please feel free to use this post’s comments to discuss whatever other magical television moments might happen over the next few days. I’ll leave you with my top 10 favorite series from this past season.
Please feel free to post your own! See you in June.
(In the meantime… enjoy “Clark and Michael”)
Hey everyone, I wanted to let you know that tonight at 9:00pm (EDT) I’ll be the featured guest on East Village Radio’s super-duper comedy program Fist City.
You can listen live by going to the aforementioned website, or you can listen later by checking out the show’s podcast.
I’ll probably be talking about the fall television season and serving as resident Fist City Super-Villain what with their focus on May being “literary month.” Check out the show, you can always watch The Office later.
Do you smell that? That’s the smell of hope. Yes, it comes around once a year when the networks present their fall schedules to the advertisers, certain that this will be a year of greatness. The new shows will all be big hits and the returning favorites will attract viewers they didn’t even know were around. It’s a pretty sweet time to be in network programming.
That is until the fall actually arrives and one by one your great-write-hopes start falling of the schedule and your returning favorites begin to alienate their audience and suddenly you’re living in hell.
Now is not the time to dwell on the negatives, but instead a time to bask in the unlimited potential of NEW TELEVISION.
Here at MagneticMediaFed we hope to provide you with all of the upfront-coverage for which you could possibly ask… after all is said and done. Due to my own schedule and the fact that I won’t actually be attending any of the upfront presentations, don’t expect related posts until late in the evenings. Each night I hope to run through that day’s network’s line-up and offer some related commentary.
Here is the schedule for the week:
If you absolutely can’t wait to see if (for example) Veronica Mars made the fall schedule, might I direct you to The Futon Critic who seem to have a pretty good handle on the festivities.
Otherwise, MMF will have your fix starting early Tuesday morning.
I know last night was kind of a big night for television (the return of the always awesome The Sopranos and the frequently underwhelming Entourage), but I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to post anything until much later this afternoon, as I have tickets to see the Mets home opener. First pitch is at 1:10. Awesome.
There should be new posts by this evening however (including my review of the new movie The TV Set, which as you might have deduced from the title, is about television — hooray!).
Until then: DAVID WRIGHT
I’m going to be going on vacation this week, so don’t expect any posts until the podcast next Thursday (or if I get bored back in Omaha, which I think we can all agree probably won’t happen). In the meantime don’t forget that there are a couple new shows popping up over the next few days that may interest some of you.
Otherwise, it looks to be a slow week for new television — a perfect excuse to flip over to your regional sports network and watch some spring training baseball (or just head down to south Florida).
What’s that you say? You’re naked? You upper body is cold, but not your arms? You say you wish there was a way you could go outside, be protected from the elements, AND share your love of television (and television web-sites) with the rest of the world? Well have I got a deal for you!
Allow me to introduce the official MagneticMediaFed T-Shirt! It’s green. It’s two sided. It’s printed on an American Apparel ringer T (made in the U-S-A! U-S-A!), and it’s available in THREE fantastic sizes (S, M, L).
Now get this! If you send me $20, I’ll send you a shirt.
It’s the magic of commerce mixed with the fun of wearing clothes!
Hey everyone, if you happen to find yourself in front of a computer tonight (Thursday, January 11) around 9:00pm EST, you should dial your web browser to East Village Radio where I’ll be appearing on the program “Fist City” to talk about the winter television season. Also, its a very funny program and would be worth listening to regardless.
Hope to see* you there!
Taking this time to compile a year-end ten best list seems awfully standard faux-critic fare, so I’m going to skip it. Look, we all know what was good this year (The Wire, Saxondale, Friday Night Lights, The Colbert Report etc.) and we all know what was simply the worst (Happy Hour, ‘Til Death, every third moment of Studio 60…). So instead of dwelling, lets think for a moment about this year that has passed. Personally, in 2006 I watched 36 whole television seasons totaling more than 436 individual episodes (which doesn’t count all of the late night programming I love so much and those series which I hadn’t seen in their entirety). Having typed it out and having those numbers looking back at me, I have to stop and say to myself, “Rick, what the hell were you thinking!?”
Now that that’s out of my system, what did you make of television in 2006? Apparently YOU had a lot to do with how things turned out. How do you feel about that? There’s pleanty of time to discuss as MagneticMediaFed is going to be going on holiday hiatus until January 8th when I hope to come back with some words on winter programming and hopefully information on Fantasy Television League’s second season.
See you then!
