DAVID KRONKE

david-kronke.jpgDavid Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place.

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Strike Updates (Spoiler Alert: It Doesn’t End)

Day Two of the Entertainment-Depriving, Industry-Destroying, Economy-Paralyzing Battle of Civilizations (or EDIDEPBoC© for short), and we have these updates:

* The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers really is getting mileage out of their “It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action” motto. They’ve issued it a number of times today:

In response to the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsing the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey to be attorney general, AMPTP issued this statement: “It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action.”

In response to Pakistan’s government, (barely) run by Pervez Musharraf, declaring a state of emergency (a euphemism for martial law, though it sounds pretty dire in and of itself), AMPTP declares: “It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action.”

In response to the Lakers refusing to quash rumors that Kobe Bryant is trade bait, AMPTP opined: “It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action.”

*

Meanwhile, if you want a lesson in bad diplomacy, head over to AMPTP’s contentious website. A headline reading “WGA: Wealthy Writers” links to a story that actually examines the economic disparity between the members of the WGA. (Oddly, there’s no headline reading “AMPTP: Even Wealthier Producers.”) Another headline reading “No Public Support for WGA” links to a Variety story in which writers concede that ordinary Americans probably can’t relate. (Oddly, there’s no link to a story suggesting polls find that people who are following this support the writers more than the producers.)

By contrast, the WGA’s website isn’t nearly as pugnacious, which makes it a little dull. C’mon, guys, you’re writers, enliven the prose! (Variety upped the ante, imploring writers to talk more to the press lest they get bad coverage).

*

Picketing writers, on the other hand, do manage to continue to annoy those attempting to get to their jobs at studios and networks by blocking their entrances and have upped the ante by building mountains of unsold spec scripts in front of the gates. While at least one driver has been willing to mow down a striker, no one wants to plow into a pile of hundreds of wistful coming-of-age stories for fear they’ll never get the stink off their car.

*

NBC, neatly dove-tailing its “green” initiative with its belt-tightening strategy, announced today that in response to the strike it will be recycling scripts in a new anthology series, “Public Domain Theatre.” Episodes of shows that neglected to renew their copyrights, such as the 1962-63 season of “The Andy Griffith Show,” will be recast and shot anew. NBC’s also readying “DVD Commentary Playhouse,” which will feature the stars of NBC’s most popular shows (all three of them) discussing their complex acting choices while their favorite episodes play in the background.

*

ABC announced plans today to extend their scripted series by inserting previously shot footage into other material. For example, for "Grey's Anatomy," scenes of doctors ogling and flirting with one another will be edited into other scenes of doctors ogling and flirting with one another so that it will appear that different doctors are ogling and flirting with one another. “Viewers won’t likely notice the difference,” one network executive declared.

“Desperate Housewives” footage will be edited into scenes from the film “The Ice Storm” to further heighten the show’s suburban dystopia and bed-hopping hijinx. A slash fiction website will be hired to edit episodes of “Boston Legal” to highlight the romantic affair between Alan Shore and Denny Crane. And scenes from “Cavemen” will be inserted into National Geographic specials.

ABC also said that “Ugly Betty” would remain in production and that the producers would simply use scripts from the foreign telenovelas that inspired the American version.

*

Fox has greenlit a new unscripted series, “Fool’s Gold,” a reality show about a person who embarks on a quixotic quest in to track down the Nigerian prince who offered him untold wealth.

*

The CW has already pushed “Emoticon Valley” into production, a reality-competition show that, per its press release, “goes behind the dramatic, tension-filled scenes as contestants vie to create new and inventive emoticons to add to Emails.” If that show is successful, The CW will greenlight “The Great ROTFLMAO Challenge,” in which teens attempt to come up with ever more obfuscating abbreviations for IMs and text messages in order to confuse their parents.

*

And this one’s true, even though it’s a worse idea than those mentioned above: The appropriately named (under these circumstances) ew.com is reporting that CBS is moving ahead with plans to do a winter version of its reality show “Big Brother.” Producers’ biggest sticking point so far is figuring out how CBS will contrive to get the houseguests to prance about in bikinis and swimtrunks during Studio City’s relatively cool winter months but one imagines a tanning booth, copious amounts of alcohol and an indoor hot tub will figure in there somewhere.

Comments

Ideas like these and you're surprised when people steal from you?

Except for that Big Brother one -- that's terrible...

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