Questions about anything

[D'Snowth]

I guess if the premise or concept sounds interesting, they may fund a test pilot just to see if the series would be as interesting as it sounds... maybe? I don't know. I do know that in some cases, if the network is the one to offer a studio or company to do a show, they'll give them a budget to see what they can come up with; again, some guy at NBC was intrigued by Japanese singing duo Pink Lady (who were like The Beatles of Japan), and wanted Sid & Marty Krofft to do a variety show with them, since they had already had the likes of DONNY & MARIE and THE BRADY BUNCH VARIETY HOUR under their belt, so NBC gave them a million dollars to do a test tape to see what kind of a variety show could be built around the duo.

Of course, back then, there was a comfort and trust level that networks don't even have today: if you were able to get on their comfort level, and earn their trust, they would probably give you the money necessary to do whatever it is you want to do, but that wasn't always easy to do.

 

[fuzzygobo]

Pink Lady and Jeff! I remember that well. They built up all this hype leading up to the premiere, then it had a lifespan shorter than a drunken butterfly.

 

[D'Snowth]

PINK LADY AND JEFF was not only considered the worst show the Kroffts ever produced, it was considered one of the worst shows in TV history... I don't think NBC even knew exactly what they wanted to do with it: Sid had the idea of having the entire show take place inside a Japanese music box, but apparently the head of NBC thought that didn't make sense (has anything the Kroffts have done ever really made sense?) and just wanted to make it another DONNY & MARIE. The first episode tanked, so NBC added an ensemble cast of comedy players, including a then-unknown Jim Varney - that didn't work, so they tried to save the ratings by bringing in such icons (at the time) as Larry Hagman and others as guests. That didn't work either, so after five episodes, it was yanked from the air.

Another problem too was Pink Lady didn't speak a word of English (the NBC execs lied to the Kroffts and told them they did), so there was a language barrier that was frustrating to get past during tapings; I think the girls had delivered all of their lines phonetically.

Oh yeah, there's also this running gag NBC forced just so they could keep seeing Pink Lady in bikinis:

Gosh, the original laugh track was so wore out by then, half the laughs sound like record scratches.

 

[D'Snowth]

Why does one half hour episode of a TV show require like half a dozen writers to come up with the story and another half dozen to actually write the teleplay nowadays?

 

[minor muppetz]

So do pre-season 20 episodes of The Simpsons get shown in syndication anymore? It seems like whenever I watch the show in syndication, it's a widescreen episode. Of course, with the first 16 seasons on DVD, that's not a big loss (but then there's four seasons not widely available for fans to watch, unless they recorded the episodes off TV).

On The Big Bang Theory, there's often scenes where the characters are walking up or down three floors. They all look identical. For these scenes, do they just reuse the same set (which would be the best option) or do they actually have a set of three floors for them to walk up and down in real time?

And after watching last night's Big Bang Theory, in which Penny proposed to Leonard and Leonard turned it down, I wonder, would The Big Bang Theory have to end if the two did get married? I don't know if the show could work well if Leonard and Sheldon weren't roomates, and although Sheldon could live with Leonard and Penny, I don't know how I'd feel about her living with both of them. The same goes for if Sheldon and Amy got married.

 

[mr3urious]

So do pre-season 20 episodes of The Simpsons get shown in syndication anymore? It seems like whenever I watch the show in syndication, it's a widescreen episode. Of course, with the first 16 seasons on DVD, that's not a big loss (but then there's four seasons not widely available for fans to watch, unless they recorded the episodes off TV).

It's just a part of the syndication deal.

 

[D'Snowth]

As far as THE SIMPSONS go, I think some local markets may still do, because it really wasn't too awful long ago I was watching "Homer Alone" from Season Three on my local FOX.

As far as THE BIG BANG THEORY goes, I have two answers for that:
First, the straight forward answer: There's an unwritten rule in fiction as far as TV relationships go, in that the further they progress, the less interesting they are... like, apparently, audiences prefer the uncertainty of a TV relationship when the two in question are like a, "Will They Or Won't They Couple", because they somehow keeps the dynamics interesting to watch, but when they finally do hook up, or anything like that, then it's like there's nothing to hold the audience's interest anymore, because it finally happened, so then it becomes boring. Again, that seems to be the way it is as far as TV relationships go.

Now, for my cynical answer: What? Let them get married and then stop having sex? What would Chuck Lorre live for then?

 

[minor muppetz]

As far as THE SIMPSONS go, I think some local markets may still do, because it really wasn't too awful long ago I was watching "Homer Alone" from Season Three on my local FOX.

I just remembered something. Back in 1998, syndication for the show had changed so that every local station that aired reruns could decide what episodes air. I'm not sure if that had changed since then, but it's possible that my local station chooses to only air the widescreen episodes.

 

[D'Snowth]

Am I the only one who experiences crashes whenever trying to access Bitstrips?

 

[fuzzygobo]

Back in Psych 101, they discussed some people as being "anal-retentive". Usually uptight, bordering on obsessive-compulsive behavior, things having to be in neat and exact order, doing things methodically and meticulously sometimes with obsessive devotion to the most minute detail. You know the type.

But what would you call the opposite? Someone carefree, who goes with the flow, the complete opposite of "anal-retentive", would be what? Oral-retentive? Anal-expulsive? Maybe I should've taken another semester of Psych to find out...