Family Guy breaks Windows

If you have seen the show Family Guy, and at this point that would be most anyone from age 45 and down, you know what you are going to get. The jokes are hardly tame, the show is about as close to All in the Family as Archie was open-minded. But there is no question that this is all a given.

That's why advertisers love this show. Most of the time. Because they can reach their target audience, plus other people equally flush with cash. And almost every product can fit into the theme of any episode. It's just that sometimes the advertisers just can't handle an episode or a dozen.

Microsoft is the latest of advertisers to balk at the content. After making major plans, and potentially a lot of money, to have Seth MacFarlane hawk Windows 7 in the upcoming Family Guy special Microsoft lost their nerve. Either that, or the execs that loved the demographics of the show never bothered to watch a single episode before they made the deal.

But once they did get to watch a special taping of what they would be involved with, well the deal broke. It seems that deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest are all topics that Microsoft can't find humor in. Not that any of these things are new subjects for this television program to tackle. I suppose they really would have lost their minds if it included the recurring BDSM themes of the show (or maybe they would have liked that??)

Honestly this makes me wonder only one thing. How stupid can the brains at Microsoft be? All they had to do is watch less than 30 minutes of television and they would have known if this was the right kind of show for them. A quick Google search (or MSN if they want to lie) and they would have found no end to the topics that some object to on Family Guy. Instead they look dumb, snobbish, and insincere.

Somehow I think Microsoft will get a bit of advertising in the end. It may not be this episode (though I think it will be) but I think that Seth MacFarlane will trash talk the computer giant - with references to broken windows or more directly to the landmine that was Vista. Somehow I don't think Microsoft will like the attention, and I'm sure it won't add to their bottom line. But it will probably be very funny.

So I look forward to seeing that in Family Guy.

Oh, for Microsoft. I have advertising space available for you on my blogs, if you can handle what I say. Give me a call.

Maybe there is hope for mankind yet

In probably the happiest news I've learned about in year I can now say that the Fox 'Reality' Channel will be ending. That's right, a 'reality' network is going to dust.

After what seemed like an endless run of this programming trend, turning countless numbers of people into chattel for the television corporations, an end is in sight. And not a moment too soon as Flava Flav is about to venture into schools and directly corrupt minds with this trash.

I cannot say that I will miss a single program. In fact, I can say with glee that I have never seen more than 5 minutes of any 'reality' program since I watched a full episode of Survivor the first season. That experience was enough to kill more brain cells than the grain alcohol party in my freshman year in college.

Maybe, just maybe, television executives will spend a little money and get writers to provide something with the semblance of originality. Just maybe a spark of innovation will venture through the ITV and provide the next generation something more than the notion that acting like a buffoon is desirable.

Considering the plethora of copycat shows (CSI is CIS: NY is NCIS, Law & Order is Law & Order with an alphabet, they all are more original than Medium, Numbe3rs, Cold Case and so on) and the near limitless ways that Viacom found to market Flav and his nymphette minions, I was ready to declare that the Romans watching the gladiators as Rome decayed into ruin were riding the crest of the wave of their civilizations demise compared to today. But Fox may be ahead of the curve in noticing that reality is what people want to escape while watching TV. And there is just so many times you can watch some idiot make a complete churl of themselves.

I don't know what the next trend in television might be, but I can only hope that it might have some tiny bit of imagination and intelligence. I'm asking for way too much, but you never know. You can't get what you don't ask for.

If Someone's Gotta Go, it should be the producers of the show

With television programs you usually have the choice of bottom of the barrel, idiotic, brazen, a complete copy, or boring. Since the advent of cable television programming this has widened a bit to the sophomoric, the original, the good, and the blatantly wild/violent. On rare occasion, mostly by accident, we even sometimes get a great show. But rarely is an idea on cable or broadcast television so far into bad taste as what I have heard is now in production.

Fox Network is creating a new reality television program, yes yet another one. But this on has a twist. A bitter hemlock sort of twist. The show, made with Endemol USA – responsible for Fear Factor and Deal or No Deal – is called Someone’s Gotta Go. There is your first clue how bad the taste in your mouth will be.

Someone’s Gotta Go is the opposite of the Apprentice. The premise is that a small company of some 15 – 20 employees, cannot continue to keep everyone in this economy. So the books are opened up, co-workers gather and likely plot to isolate an employee, and then a vote commences. The winner of the vote gets fired.

No joke. No punchline. They are now part of the expansive number of people on unemployment in this nation. And you get to watch this happen on national tv.

Now there is one consolation for the loser. They will receive an undisclosed severance pay. It is unclear, but likely, that the television show will pay that severance.

But that hardly makes up for the loss of a job, the search for a future position, and the embarrassment of the worker and/or their family. I mean what is that person to do? Walk into an interview and be recognized as the guy (or gal) who everyone at their old job said goofed off and thus was fired. Well that really will help the resume.

What about the family of that former employee? Imagine the kid that has to go to school with the stigma that their parent was so incoherent that they lost their job on national tv the day before. Kids would never use that public display of incompetence to pick on someone. Plus the fame of being a loser and useless is just the kind of self-esteem building experience that every kid, or adult for that matter, needs in a time of economic crisis the likes of which most have never seen before.

I can’t understand one aspect of this show that is entertaining, fun, family-oriented, or positive. If you can, please do share that with me.

I understand that all good ideas seem to have dried up in Hollywood. I understand that a ‘reality’ program is the most cost-effective way to keep couch potatoes vegetative for an hour at a time. But where is the decency. Where is the respect for another human being?

And if this show, somehow, becomes better than the bottom of the Neilsen ratings what comes next? A show about kids dropping out of school? A show following the homeless begging? A show where someone gets to lose all their money – oh wait, that’s the Obama economic plan.

Look, I understand that television today is all about the lowest common denominator. That the cheapest, fastest television programming is the first line of approach. Still there has to be some modicum of quality and sensitivity involved. Or have we all just gotten to the point where when we are given sand we will drink it like water?

Dr. Kutner’s dead, blame Sean Hannity

I’m sure that at some point a liberal nutjob will utter (or type) those words. And when they do they will be partially correct.

The first thought I had, when I was the news of the death of Kal Penn’s character, Dr. Kutner, on House was that Penn in fact had died. I was shocked at the thought he would commit suicide. That was just the way the article was being presented in headline form. But my relief was short-lived.

House is a great television show. I love the re-runs and have seen many episodes. But I rarely get to see the first-run shows. So I have not been quite up to date on what was happening to all the characters. Still I was unaware of any problem that the Kutner character was having. In fact, there seems to be no problem.

This troubles me. There are many things that television says to the public these days. The show Bad Girls Club celebrates depraved actions of a group of MTV wanna-be women, I Love Money celebrates the degradation of individuals for the chance to win cash, American Idol primarily entertains with the embarrassment of thousands winding down to the insulting and occasional humiliation of just a few. And now we have a character that is doing what they love, being paid well, is respected, who just kills himself. Wow.

Yes, I do realize that the intent of all the shows I mentions, and many I did not, are not what I stated. But their effective communication is that, if only on a subliminal level. Which is dangerous.

Add to this another thought I have. While I applaud the desire of Kal Penn to be involved in public service, and to support deluded actions that he believes in, what is his presence in the Obama Administration saying?

Kal Penn is an actor. While he will be associate director of the White House Office of Public Liason, ostensibly a pitchman for the Obama Administration, he will not be targeting people in my generation. He is useful to the Obama Administration because he is known for his role as Kumar of Harold & Kumar movies. And that means he is targeting a young generation.

So the Obama Administration is trying to gather more support and attention within Americans that recognize Penn primarily as a pot-smoking, junk food nay-do-well. This is the face of the Obama Administration that is being used to gain political attention.

Again, like the sudden and illogical death of his character, I have issue with the message being sent.

Now some will say I am reading too much into this. That this is entertainment, and that the American public can discern a character from reality. Yet if this were true, why are there so many programs on television that must state that you should not do what you see in your own home? Why is it that as television programs and movies that highlight the promiscuity and drunkenness of teens have coincided with the increase in single parents and teenage pregnancy? Why is it that the debauchery of Girls Gone Wild is seen as fun and something to be attained, as opposed to any number of other things?

Because all of this, especially in combination, is not all harmless. Were there no effect, there would be no commercials on television. It’s just that simple.

So the fact that Penn’s character was removed in such a manner disturbs me. And the fact that his main claim to fame is the tool that will be used to promote a President and a social agenda that actively seeks to destroy the America I grew up in troubles me. Maybe it won’t upset the general masses of the public, but then again that same mass buys up Girls Gone Wild and vegetates to American Idol regularly.

Again I commend Kal Penn on following through with a public service agenda that he believes in. I just don’t like the path that agenda leads to, nor the means by which it will achieve its goals. At least I hope Penn has paid his taxes.