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How TV is wiping out the movies -- again
The New Republic ^ | 09.19.06 | Christopher Orr

Posted on 09/27/2006 11:04:53 AM PDT by Keltik

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1 posted on 09/27/2006 11:04:53 AM PDT by Keltik
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To: Keltik

800 channels and nothing is on worth seeing.


2 posted on 09/27/2006 11:06:39 AM PDT by FormerACLUmember
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To: Keltik

If Hollywood would stop making all those pro-American pro-family feel good movies and start making some good left-wing movies that depresses people, maybe they would make more money.


3 posted on 09/27/2006 11:11:36 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: FormerACLUmember

Heroes was pretty good. Prison Break is enjoyable and House is a good watch. Smallville, Lost and 24 make it for TV for me though. Those shows are great.


4 posted on 09/27/2006 11:13:01 AM PDT by Personal Responsibility (Amnesia is a train of thought.)
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To: Keltik

The anime I watch blows most live action US shows and movies out of the water. American TV has gotten good in the last few years though with the serialized series. 24 and The Shield come to mind. American cinema has grown stagnant and unimaginative. Where are all the great movies like we had in the 80s?


5 posted on 09/27/2006 11:18:36 AM PDT by Sir Gawain
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To: Keltik

I *love* watching series on DVD. No commercials, no waiting a week for the story to continue, and then there's the extra features. Good stuff. Well worth the money - especially when compared to the costs of going to the movies.


6 posted on 09/27/2006 11:24:42 AM PDT by Lil'freeper (You do not have the plug-in required to view this tagline.)
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To: Keltik
The Sopranos: Season 6, Part 1 (out in November). The "Part 1" in the title gives away the real problem here. At its best (e.g., with the Vito storyline), this semi-season was as good as ever. But too often David Chase et al. seemed to be killing time with redundant filler--the overlong dream subplot, the recycled storylines (Christopher falling off the wagon, Artie getting in trouble over a pretty young hostess). Here's hoping that when it returns for its finale, the show will have a little more forward momentum toward one of television's most richly deserved curtain calls.

It sounds as if the Sopranos has jumped the shark. In the months leading up to the first episode of season 6, Chase and his PR people were leading the audience on, giving the (false) impression that the sixth season would be the season to top them all. Instead, it turned out to be a dud. It looks as if it will never get any better anymore.

"the show will have a little more forward momentum"

Werent we promised something like this before the start of season 6? Why should we believe that now?

7 posted on 09/27/2006 11:26:35 AM PDT by lowbridge (I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming, like his passengers.)
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To: Personal Responsibility
Just started 24 and House on DVD....Netflix is great for series. Over halfway into the first season of each, House is good, but too damn formulaic. They better get some better plot lines than 1) strange illness 2) almost kill the patient twice with two different treatments and 3)patient is saved, 3rd time was a charm.

24 is better, but almost ticked me off with a soap opera style car wreck, daughter miraculously jumps clear and the wife wandering around with amnesia. Other than that, it's been good so far.

8 posted on 09/27/2006 11:27:17 AM PDT by lovecraft (Specialization is for insects.)
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To: FormerACLUmember

800 channels and nothing is on worth seeing.



$73 a month to watch Andy Griffith.


9 posted on 09/27/2006 11:29:50 AM PDT by WKB
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To: FormerACLUmember
800 channels and nothing is on worth seeing.

I spend most of my viewing time on The Science Channel and the History Channel.
That and taping "24" on A&E. Other than that it's Sci-Fi Fridays.

Gad, I hope Season 11 of Stargate SG-1 makes it to Sci-Fi.

10 posted on 09/27/2006 11:30:29 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (I can't complain...but sometimes I still do.)
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To: lovecraft

House would be a better series if it was more about the characters than the patient of the week. That's what makes it formula; after a few episodes you are watching to hear some observations and one liners and a little bit of the "bigger story".

Are we supposed to become emotionally attached to these patient families who will never be seen on the show again?


11 posted on 09/27/2006 11:34:39 AM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: Keltik

When is Fox going to compile a "Best of O'Reilly" series?


12 posted on 09/27/2006 11:37:17 AM PDT by wolfpat (To connect the dots, you have to collect the dots.)
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To: Keltik
We are watching "The 4400" now.

But I don't really like it. Kind of dumb IMO.

13 posted on 09/27/2006 11:38:06 AM PDT by what's up
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To: lovecraft
Netflix is great for series

Unless you get the dreaded "long wait" or worse "very long wait". Which is what happened to me with the 2nd season of the series "Ghost Hunters". So I deleted it from my queue and put it in my Blockbuster Q where its on a "short wait", but I've had better success at getting "short wait" movies from BB.

14 posted on 09/27/2006 11:42:04 AM PDT by lowbridge (I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming, like his passengers.)
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To: WKB
$73 a month to watch Andy Griffith.

And well worth it :-)

15 posted on 09/27/2006 11:42:43 AM PDT by lowbridge (I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming, like his passengers.)
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To: Keltik
The new venue is the everynight serial. "Sex Lies and Videotape" maybe the call phrase for today's TV fare. Bo Derek owns a Fashion house and we are treated to scanty dresses "Hoos" and promiscuity of preposterous proportions Mon-Fri with rebradcasts in the late of night.

Remember When Lucy and Ricky were in separate beds with nightclothes of opaqueness extraordinaire. At least one foot on the floor when in the same bed and God forbid, (well it was the network censors), the utterance of the word {gulp} PREGNANT!

Myself? I always had a crush on Princess Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring!

16 posted on 09/27/2006 11:45:50 AM PDT by Young Werther
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To: Always Right

"If Hollywood would stop making all those pro-American pro-family feel good movies and start making some good left-wing movies that depresses people, maybe they would make more money."

I know your comment is tongue-in-cheek, but consider:
"All-Time USA Boxoffice
Rank Title USA Box Office
1. Titanic (1997) $600,779,824
2. Star Wars (1977) $460,935,665
3. Shrek 2 (2004) $436,471,036
4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $434,949,459
5. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) $431,065,444
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) $419,654,338
7. Spider-Man (2002) $403,706,375
8. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) $380,262,555
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $377,019,252
10. Spider-Man 2 (2004) $373,377,893
11. The Passion of the Christ (2004) $370,270,943
12. Jurassic Park (1993) $356,784,000
13. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) $340,478,898
14. Finding Nemo (2003) $339,714,367
15. Forrest Gump (1994) $329,691,196
16. The Lion King (1994) $328,423,001
17. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) $317,557,891
18. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) $313,837,577
19. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) $310,675,583
20. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) $309,125,409
21. Independence Day (1996) $306,124,059
22. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) $305,388,685
23. The Sixth Sense (1999) $293,501,675
24. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) $291,709,845
25. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) $290,158,751"
http://us.imdb.com/boxoffice/alltimegross

That is just the top 25 (the list goes on) and, so far as I can see, there is not one movie on there most families would be uncomfortable watching (with certain exceptions, like young children). But that is not the usual fare offered by Hollyweird; rather it is stuff that is left-wing, depressing, violent, and full of gratuitous sex and profanity.

You would think the studios would recognize what sells, and then offer it. But no...


17 posted on 09/27/2006 11:46:07 AM PDT by Robwin
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To: Keltik
I just finished the first 4 seasons of 24.

It's as good as the action-drama genre gets. However, it'll leave you with withdrawls and the hope that you can find another, comparable, series to watch.

I guess I'll check into some of the above:)

18 posted on 09/27/2006 11:48:58 AM PDT by Mariner
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To: Keltik

People who buy DVDs don't throw them out. Eventually they build up a library of all the films they want to see and then turn to buying classic (and not so classic) TV programs. So to keep up sales of DVD movies, you either have to make new movies that people want to see over and over (pretty hard to do) or you have to expand your marketing so that people who never watch DVDs now want to go out and buy them (maybe by giving away the DVD player for free). Or you need to change the format from DVD to an entirely new system so people have to upgrade their collection to stay current with the technology. Since this would take years it is not much of an alternative.


19 posted on 09/27/2006 11:52:38 AM PDT by Kirkwood
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To: Keltik
What stops me from going to the movies:

1) Parents who bring their babies or young children to a PG-13 thriller only to spend the entire 2 hours explaining to the crying child that it's not real...it's only a movie.

2) People who don't turn off their cell phones and proceed to take calls and talk through the movie.

3) People who talk to their neighbors through the movie even when you politely ask them to be quiet.

4) People who eat like they've been raised in a barn.

5) Parents who use the movie as a two hour babysitter, which means children running wild, not sitting still, and talking through the movie.

6) Even though there are 200 sets in the theater and 10 strangers watching the movie...they all sit with a chair of each other as if they are afraid someone might attack them in the night.

After listening to 2 little old ladies talk through the entire 2 hours of Shakespeare in Love, I did turn to them at the end and say, "You might take into consideration the next time you come to a film that people like me did not pay $6.25 to listen to you talk through the whole movie."

That's why I wait for the movie to come out on DVD.

20 posted on 09/27/2006 11:53:28 AM PDT by carton253 (He who would kill you, get up early and kill him first.)
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