September is the beginning of the new television season. New shows and returning favorites vie for our attention. I find the push for attention a bit of a insult. If there is really good content generally people will find it. With the number of channels pushing 200 and many of the cable network competing for the audiences limited viewing time; it becomes all the more imperative to get a audience early and try to hold them through at least the first few weeks.
The flip side of this is that is even more of a consumers market than it ever was.With the DVR and place shifting technologies that are becoming more and more common, the consumer has more say about what and when, and even where they watch their chosen content. Television has to up their game, in some respects here. However, in even more ways they're falling behind.I see a number of "older" stars returning to tv this season, The Michael J Fox Show, staring Michael J Fox, from the 1980's series "Family Ties" and the Legendary Robin Williams. First seen on "Happy Days" playing Mork from Ork, than his own series Mork & Mindy, He then went to become a legendary actor He finally returns to his roots, Television.still as funny as ever. Thats not even counting series that are being brought back, Ironside come to mind. Originally done in the 1970's with Raymond Bur, as the wheelchair bound detective.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironside_(TV_series)
Weather the new version of Ironside will live up the the original remains to be seen. If past history is a judge, it should die quickly. I give you last year remake of Charlie's Angels, which totally ruined the series and mercilessly cancelled after only a very few episodes.
Recently the emmys were awarded. Along with the usual tv shows that were nominated A number of shows for non traditional outlets, ie; Showtime, HBO, and OTT venues like Netflix whose in-house production of "House of Cards" won 3 emmys. Pretty good, considering Netflix has only been in existence for a few years, and is only available online, through connected boxes, often called OTT boxes, which can range from a game console, like a xbox 360, PS3 or even a Blue-ray player, to special streaming boxes, such as Apple TV, and Roku. The point is Netflix made a serious effort to get its name and idea out to the public, doing deals on every platform as they came along, thus giving it a visibility and credibility no streaming venue has had yet. Amazon and Hulu, the other big players in the streaming marketplace, are still playing catch-up in many respects, while they both provide niche content others don't have, there is still a lot of crossover between the services. Youtube is the granddaddy of streaming media in many ways, However, its not the first place one thinks of when one thinks to rent a movie or tv show. Try as it might its still has yet to completely live down its early reputation for silly kids and animals doing silly things. What it has become in many respects is a go-to place to learn how to do almost anything, from kniting, sewing, gardening, playing guitar, and many esotic thing in between, along with becoming a library of past performances though the decades. Granted, some question the legality of putting up old performances of artist for us to reminisce and teach the younger generation the way music used to be. I personally think in the long run it doesn't hurt any one,and everyone benefits from the availability of historical content, in any form.
What would the fall television season be without Football? Frankly I can live without it. But there are much bigger issues here then weather one man likes it or not. The bigger issue is economic. The entire sport industry supports the current television structure as it is now. You take away these huge franchise deals between cities, station, and the teams, and suddenly, your left among other thing, huge holes in the schedules, that need content. but that aside, the monies generated by sports, football, and probably hockey in particular is astronomically ,mind blowing. Most of us mere mortals can't conceive of the amounts of monies that the players and coaches are being played. All of this isn't even counting the economic impact of having a major league sports team in one's town, ie; the money money generated in the local economy. But still, One, can't help but wondered if we as a nation are too focused on the here and now and instant gratification and having everything literally where and when we want it. But I digress, To many people spending sunday and Monday evening together watching a football game is family fun, its been ingrained to them since they were little, that all they know. Which I suppose is fine and theres not alot one can do to undo several generations of family tradition.
As for me I would prefer, if I get the chance to , to enjoy a good classic movies, or two or three, on a Sunday afternoon. I rarely get that kind of down time anymore, but thats not important, what is; is that each of us finds our way to unwind when they have the time.
The 2013-2014 television just just begun and within a very few weeks we'll start to see shows dropped and moved. Also of note, How many of you remember when a season was 20+ episode , now if a series get 13 show out in a season they're doing good. Go look at Netflix at the older shows from the '60's and '70's and count how many episodes per season most shows had,. In other words, they worked really hard and long to put out good content and it makes one wonder why our tv season are so short, they didn't have any more time than we do now, but they managed to put out twice as much content as we do today.
I could talk about reality shows, but I really don't want to dignify them with the space here. So now we sit back and dvr the shows we like and dvr shows we may like and then delete after one viewing, and remember theres always Netflix and other OTT places to find good content, when theres nothing on tv.
Kenneth Lawson
The flip side of this is that is even more of a consumers market than it ever was.With the DVR and place shifting technologies that are becoming more and more common, the consumer has more say about what and when, and even where they watch their chosen content. Television has to up their game, in some respects here. However, in even more ways they're falling behind.I see a number of "older" stars returning to tv this season, The Michael J Fox Show, staring Michael J Fox, from the 1980's series "Family Ties" and the Legendary Robin Williams. First seen on "Happy Days" playing Mork from Ork, than his own series Mork & Mindy, He then went to become a legendary actor He finally returns to his roots, Television.still as funny as ever. Thats not even counting series that are being brought back, Ironside come to mind. Originally done in the 1970's with Raymond Bur, as the wheelchair bound detective.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironside_(TV_series)
Weather the new version of Ironside will live up the the original remains to be seen. If past history is a judge, it should die quickly. I give you last year remake of Charlie's Angels, which totally ruined the series and mercilessly cancelled after only a very few episodes.
Recently the emmys were awarded. Along with the usual tv shows that were nominated A number of shows for non traditional outlets, ie; Showtime, HBO, and OTT venues like Netflix whose in-house production of "House of Cards" won 3 emmys. Pretty good, considering Netflix has only been in existence for a few years, and is only available online, through connected boxes, often called OTT boxes, which can range from a game console, like a xbox 360, PS3 or even a Blue-ray player, to special streaming boxes, such as Apple TV, and Roku. The point is Netflix made a serious effort to get its name and idea out to the public, doing deals on every platform as they came along, thus giving it a visibility and credibility no streaming venue has had yet. Amazon and Hulu, the other big players in the streaming marketplace, are still playing catch-up in many respects, while they both provide niche content others don't have, there is still a lot of crossover between the services. Youtube is the granddaddy of streaming media in many ways, However, its not the first place one thinks of when one thinks to rent a movie or tv show. Try as it might its still has yet to completely live down its early reputation for silly kids and animals doing silly things. What it has become in many respects is a go-to place to learn how to do almost anything, from kniting, sewing, gardening, playing guitar, and many esotic thing in between, along with becoming a library of past performances though the decades. Granted, some question the legality of putting up old performances of artist for us to reminisce and teach the younger generation the way music used to be. I personally think in the long run it doesn't hurt any one,and everyone benefits from the availability of historical content, in any form.
What would the fall television season be without Football? Frankly I can live without it. But there are much bigger issues here then weather one man likes it or not. The bigger issue is economic. The entire sport industry supports the current television structure as it is now. You take away these huge franchise deals between cities, station, and the teams, and suddenly, your left among other thing, huge holes in the schedules, that need content. but that aside, the monies generated by sports, football, and probably hockey in particular is astronomically ,mind blowing. Most of us mere mortals can't conceive of the amounts of monies that the players and coaches are being played. All of this isn't even counting the economic impact of having a major league sports team in one's town, ie; the money money generated in the local economy. But still, One, can't help but wondered if we as a nation are too focused on the here and now and instant gratification and having everything literally where and when we want it. But I digress, To many people spending sunday and Monday evening together watching a football game is family fun, its been ingrained to them since they were little, that all they know. Which I suppose is fine and theres not alot one can do to undo several generations of family tradition.
As for me I would prefer, if I get the chance to , to enjoy a good classic movies, or two or three, on a Sunday afternoon. I rarely get that kind of down time anymore, but thats not important, what is; is that each of us finds our way to unwind when they have the time.
The 2013-2014 television just just begun and within a very few weeks we'll start to see shows dropped and moved. Also of note, How many of you remember when a season was 20+ episode , now if a series get 13 show out in a season they're doing good. Go look at Netflix at the older shows from the '60's and '70's and count how many episodes per season most shows had,. In other words, they worked really hard and long to put out good content and it makes one wonder why our tv season are so short, they didn't have any more time than we do now, but they managed to put out twice as much content as we do today.
I could talk about reality shows, but I really don't want to dignify them with the space here. So now we sit back and dvr the shows we like and dvr shows we may like and then delete after one viewing, and remember theres always Netflix and other OTT places to find good content, when theres nothing on tv.
Kenneth Lawson
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