Increasingly, the TV industry’s most successful programs are not the creative result of a traditional production team (writers, producers, directors, actors) working together to beat the odds and make a hit show. Rather, the prime time landscape is now dominated by “showrunners… [who] do just about everything on a dramatic series, from writing scripts and casting actors to negotiating with the networks over salaries and budgets.” It may seem like a cosmetic change, but the fact is that showrunners are changing the landscape of scripted television.
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Famed Harlem Troupe Shutting Down For The Winter
“The Dance Theatre of Harlem, one of the most acclaimed dance troupes in the world, plans to disband its 44-member company and shut its doors for the rest of the 2004-05 season until its finances can be restructured.” The shutdown will not be officially announced until this Tuesday, but officials from both the company and the union which represents dancers are confirming the story. The company’s dance school will remain open during the hiatus, but some in the dance community are doubtful that the company’s fiscal situation is fixable.
Which Website Wins?
Websites are an easy and (usually) cost-effective way of promoting symphony orchestras, which got AJ blogger Drew McManus wondering which American orchestra website was the best. He looked at a lot of them – 70, in fact – and he has declared a winner…
Should BBC Sell Its Old Shows?
Should the BBC sell its archived programs to commercial broadcasters? It’s not so much for the money – but Making archives available for sale would increase the distribution of classic radio.
V&A: The Spiral Is Dead
It’s official – the Victoria & Albert Museum has shelved plans for the dramatic £70 million Daniel Libeskind-designed expansion. “The museum’s board of trustees voted to abandon the ambitious design after the Heritage Lottery Fund rejected its £15m application.”
Two New Museums Bent On Changing Perceptions
This week the Nationa Museum of the American opens in DC. Last month the The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center opened in Cincinnati. “It’s a particularly American irony that two groups that have struggled since our nation was formed to find their place in its cultural fabric now have national institutions that are uniquely their own. Both museums offer much more than history…”
The Billionaire Poet
Felix Dennis is a billionaire. “He owns Stuff magazine. He owns The Week. His Maxim, where the staff calls their proprietor “the bearded dwarf,” is the biggest-selling “men’s lifestyle” publication in the world. His privately owned company, Dennis Publishing, has launched more than 40 magazines, typically with prosaic but profitable prescience: Computer Shopper used to carry more than 1,000 pages of advertisements in each issue. Now Dennis, 57, has decided to become a poet…”
Georgia’s Struggle To Rebuild Its Culture
The Republic of Georgia’s culture is in tatters, and the young president has his eye on rebuilding. “Despite its devastated economy, Georgia boasts a rich cultural heritage and an operatic and choreographic tradition renowned worldwide. It produced Balanchine. And it is famous for its unique three-voice polyphonic singing. Nearly everybody sings in Georgia — usually at the dinner table — and culture is viewed as an crucial part of life by Georgians, who in the midst of the civil war in the early 1990s continued to flow to the opera to support their artists. Today, half the population of Georgia lives under the poverty line, but the opera still plays to sell-out audiences every night.”
Free Fall – Good For The Emmys?
Most of the big entertainment awards shows – the Oscars, the Golden Globes – are scheduled at the beginning of the year. And then there are the Emmys, which languish all by themselves in the fall. “Could an earlier Emmy ceremony juice viewership, which last year measured just under 18 million? That’s compared to nearly 27 million viewers for this year’s Golden Globes and 43 million-plus for the Oscars.”
Our Lust For Wealth Made Us Civilized?
“A new scientific study says prehistoric hunters loved to be dripping in luxury goods, and the taste for flashy trinkets may have been what turned humans from savages into a civilised society.”