Twitter has, for two complementary reasons, been a sustaining force for event television. The fans want to avoid spoilers. They also want to enhance the collective experience by chattering on the platform as events unfold. In the current century, the world is not only watching together, it is also talking to itself as it does so. – Irish Times
Category: media
After 40 Years, NPR’s Morning Edition Gets New Musical Theme
The original theme – played in many versions since the program’s launch in 1979 was composed by BJ Leiderman. So why the update? The show’s current producers wanted to “freshen” the sound. “I wanted a sound and a mood and a tone and a feel and a vibe all mixed in one,” says executive producer Kenya Young. – The New York Times
David Cameron Gave Tina Fey A Secret Mission To Change British TV
Well, why not? “‘Come and convince our showrunners that they can’t just make six episodes of things. Like you guys, they should make 200 episodes,’ she recalled him saying. Fey rejected the request, however, explaining that US writers were, in fact, jealous of the less-is-more British approach.” – BBC
Alex Trebek, Host Of ‘Jeopardy’ Who Recently Revealed He Has Cancer, Gets An Emotional Win At The Daytime Emmys
If you ignore the controversies surrounding some “sloppiness” in the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Emmy awards last year (and maybe this year too), you can just focus on the positive: Alex Trebek! Also, a lot of other winners (the whole list, indeed), in this post. – Variety
The People Involved In NBC’s ‘Must-See TV’ Are Still Innovating And Changing The Media Landscape
The 1990s really did last into today: “Must See TV veterans have helped shape some of the most groundbreaking shows of the Peak TV era, including Homeland, The Handmaid’s Tale, Atlanta, The Americans, Orphan Black, Fargo and The Shield. And five executives from the Must See TV era, are currently running network TV entertainment operations. – Los Angeles Times
Latinx People Are A Deeply Reliable Movie Audience, But Where Are The Latinx Movie Stars?
There’s some massive underrepresentation, and certainly underfunding. For the new El Chicano, for instance, the filmmaker says, “It took a bunch of Canadian hockey fans to get behind an all-Latino movie set in East L.A.” He also “remembers one studio note in particular: ‘If you could figure out a Caucasian influence, that will help its prospects.'” – The Hollywood Reporter
Another WWII Movie? Yes, And A Necessary One
The movie Where Hands Touch is about a young adult romance – about what happened to the generation of biracial young Germans who were born to white German mothers and French colonial African soldiers during and after WWI. Director Amma Asante (Belle, A United Kingdom) “poured into it her fears that racism and bigotry are flourishing today. ‘We wonder about Nazi Germany and how it got that way. It started with language and scapegoating, and we’re using a lot of [that same]language today,’ she says.” – The Guardian (UK)
Sometimes, TV Lets People Just Be People
That is to say, occasionally trans women get cast as women, no need to elaborate, and sometimes trans men get cast as men, ditto. But. “While television has made great strides in L.G.B.T.Q. inclusion with shows such as Orange Is the New Black and Pose, when trans actors are called in to read for a project, they still find they are only considered for parts specifically written for transgender people.” –The New York Times
What Is A Character Actress?
Margo Martindale, who is so famously called that name that it’s her official title on the Netflix show Bojack Horseman: “Sometimes you do things for money, and sometimes you do things for money that are different, too. But I’m trying very hard not to repeat myself.” – HuffPost
YouTube Viewership Is Exploding. Now It’s Making More Of Its Content Free
“Creators are driving record audiences to YouTube,” YouTube Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl told the presentation audience gathered at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan. “Two-hundred million people come to YouTube every single day just to watch gaming videos. That’s twice the audience of this year’s Super Bowl.” – Los Angeles Times