Tommorow should be kind of cool. Let me just say first that I am sucker for sneak previews. I love them. From the moment in The Wizard where we suddenly saw the glorious Super Mario Bros 3 for the very first time to free screenings of yet to be released movies, I love seeing new stuff before anyone else. So tommorow I and some other pages will be working at NBC's Program Development Conference, where NBC will try to wine and dine bigtime advertising execs and wow them with sneak previews of next year's crop of upcoming primetime shows, in a blatant attempt to get them to fork over their sweet sweet cash for advertisements on new shows. I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing, probably just helping to seat people or something ... but still, it's going to be pretty cool, even if it does start at the ungodly time of 7 am. (sidenote: the old-school 90's techno Mortal Kombat themesong just came on my Winamp!) Anyways, it's a safe bet that all the top NBC brass will be in the house, so it should be cool. But the real cool part will be if we get to sneak a peak at new upcoming shows, the ones you'll be reading about in the magazines next week. Two shows I am interested in analyzing the reception that they will receive are Fathom, a crazy-sounding serial drama about aliens who live underwater, and The Office - a remake of the British show which in my humble opinion is one of the all time greatest things ever to be on TV. Now NBC recently had a huge bomb on its hands with their remake of Coupling, but that show was nowhere near as beloved as The Office, so it wasn't THAT big a deal. Plus NBC BADLY needs a new hit comedy, as they are currently really really struggling in that area.
RANT:
WHY do they even need to remake The Office? We HAVE THE ORIGINAL - it's on DVD at any major store, and it is amazing. Americans can accept it. Sure there are British accents, but James Bond, Obi wan Kenobi, and Monty Python do as well, and we sure like THEM. Yes, there are some pop culture references that many might not get, but the same is true in any episode of The Simpsons, Family Guy, or I Love the 80's. I was reading the review of the new Office in EW, and it was kinda what I expected. Overall a lot of positives - funny, quirky, different from the usual sitcom. A good cast featuring Steve Carell. BUT ... there is NO WAY that you're going to recreate the layers of comedy upon tragedy upon comedy in the British version. There's only one Ricky Gervais, and the thing that he did that Carell will not is that he was incredibly crazy, goofy, and awkward yet he was truly, poignantly SAD and TRAGIC, which in turn made his comedic performance all the more legitimately funny. The only other show to really ever combine such insane, inspired comedy with genuine emotion and heart was probably the classic era Simpsons episodes, and The Office, in its own starkly realistic way, is the best ever depiction of life's mundane, crazy, nonsensical tragi-comedy. It's just a true shame that from now on when someone says "The Office" they will have to distinguish between the two versions. "The Office" should refer to THE Office. So in a way I am happy that NBC is doing the show, because, well, Ricky Gervais himself (not sure about cocreator Stephen Merchant) was instrumental in its creation, and it finally gives NBC a primetime show that I as an employee of NBC can say "hey, now that is a funny show." Funny, yes. But great? Nope, I've got the DVD's that will show you what great is. So do yourself a favor, don't let your first exposure to The Office be a pretty funny show that is a remake of a better show. Check out the original and see why NBC is going to such lengths to try to recreate the original's magic. Only this is network TV, so don't worry, they may come close, but, sadly, you can only expect so much.
DENNIS MILLER STUFF:
Actually a really cool DM show yesterday. Tori Amos gave a great interview which succeeded in totally hypnotizing both the audience and Miller himself. She talked in such a fascinating, intelligent, artistic way that even a comment somwhat bashing Republicans drew nary a response from staunch conservative Miller, who seemed entranced by the ethereal figure before him. Cool. And she deserved a standing ovation for her pull-no-punches comments about the music industry. One great line she had was something like "You know, I made my way in this industry by pressing my mouth against a microphone. A lot of these young pop starlets are getting noticed by pressing their mouths against something, but that something isn't quite a microphone if you know what I mean." Classic. Also Jeff Probst from Survivor was on, and I really like that guy ... he really loves his show and had a lot of interesting comments about the way the show works. Also, there was a panel of NAACP Image Award Winners on the show, including the new writer of the Black Panther comic from Marvel. Sweet.
Speaking of nerdiness, me and some other pages today confirmed that we have indeed scored free press passes to Wizard World LA this weekend! Yes! I always wanted to go to one of those things. Yes, I am a huge nerd.
Checked out the new Project Greenlight yesterday. Interesting choice with that very eccentric movie-nerd guy as director of the horror flick. This guy was right out of an Aint It Cool News Talkback forum or something (Man In Suit!), but hey he may just have talent. Also nice to see that they went with what they admitted was the worst script they had just because the studio thought it could make more money than the others (sarcasm). IBA: The Movie will be money, I'm telling you right now (definitely NOT sarcasm).
Still need: dishes, silverware, couch, barstools.
My NBC thought of the day: put 30 early-20's ppl in the same work environment and you get WAY too much drama and not enough professionalism.
Mmmm ... girl scout cookies.
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