The hottest shows on American television this fall aren’t reality shows, and they aren’t on HBO, or any other cable network. In fact, they’re good, old-fashioned over-the-air network programming, with emphasis on “good.” As it turns out, the networks that so many critics had all but dismissed as dinosaurs are still capable of drawing an audience, when they actually put a little effort into churning out high-quality programs.
Tag: 10.06.04
Major Layoffs Planned At Royal Festival Hall
The refurbishment of London’s Royal Festival Hall, which will begin with the hall’s closure next summer, is expected to create 181 so-called “redundant” positions, and fully one-third of the venue’s staff will likely be laid off. The staff will be increased again when the hall reopens in 2007.
Australia’s Arts Policies: Same Old, Same Old
It’s an election year in Australia, and as Prime Minister John Howard struggles to hold his Liberal government majority together, the arts have taken a back seat to more hot-button issues. And despite some serious problems in the country’s orchestral industry, and uncertainty surrounding the future of the National Portrait Gallery, neither the ruling Liberals nor the opposition Labour Party appear to have any new strategies for the arts. In fact, “the arts policies of the major parties appear to cancel each other out rather than break any new ground.”
Those Crazy Nobel Voters
“The annual Nobel Prize in Literature, which is to be awarded in Stockholm on Thursday, assures the happy laureate a gilded place in posterity. Or does it? The Swedish Academy is so eccentric in its choice that the astonished winner often enjoys 15 minutes of fame and is quietly forgotten. No less bizarrely, the academy has overlooked some pillars of modern literature, like Proust and Joyce. Then there are those well-known writers who year after year are considered to be contenders only to be disappointed. This year the word in Stockholm is that it is time for a woman to win again…”
Comedy’s Lovable Loser Dies
Comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who built an extremely lucrative film and performing career on a single catchphrase (you know what it is,) has died of complications from heart surgery. Dangerfield’s act was exceedingly personal, and consisted mainly of one-liners at his own expense, delivered with a chuckle and a sad-sack shake of the head. He got his first big break on the Ed Sullivan Show, and acted in more than 20 movies. Dangerfield was 82.
A Troubled Museum Comes Of Age
The Los Angeles museum created by billionaire Armand Hammer to house his personal art collection got off to a terrible start when it opened in 1990. First, Hammer himself died only days after the opening, and lawsuits over the money used to build the museum followed. The organization “limped on with no clear identity, serving chiefly as a venue for staid traveling shows. [But] no more. Today the Armand Hammer, on Wilshire Boulevard in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, is considered one of the city’s hottest cultural attractions, with a keen eye for emerging artistic talent and a busy schedule of ‘destination evenings’ that routinely draw crowds to the museum for readings, concerts and films.”