It was relaxed and enjoyable on a personal level but professionally, it was largely a bust even though I attended with minimal expectations. Now, having said that, everyone else seemed to be enjoying himself or herself and Deb noted it had more of energy among the attendees than the similarly themed Lunacon.

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May 25, 2007

It was 30 Years Ago Today...

Thirty years ago, I was completing my freshman year at college. I had just been named Arts & Leisure editor and was sifting through the promotional material we received from publishers and movie studios. One item caught my eye, roughly 17” x 11” in size, it was a glossy color brochure about a new movie opening in late May from 20th-Century Fox. The film, Star Wars, looked kinda cool with a no-name cast and a down and dirty production design.

I brought the brochure home with me as a keepsake and put the film out of my mind until I got home. A few weeks later, it opened on a Wednesday night, thirty years ago this very day, and for whatever reason, I wanted to but could not attend that first showing. However, every television news program had reviews and clips and it looked amazing. Nothing quite like it in films and certainly unlike anything on network TV since Star Trek.

I had to go the next night.

That summer, my best pal Jeff, and I were working at the Nathan Lagin Lamp Factory (me, I was in charge of lamp shade receiving) and so we planned to catch the first showing after dinner. Well, word spread and spread pretty fast in those pre-Internet days, so we found a long line. We got in, though.

Like most of America, I was blown away.

The movie was the first one I actively went out of my way to see again and again in a short span of time. I must have seen it four times over the summer and then once more back up at college in September, with a gang of people which included Deb who I had just met.

Every generation there comes something that unites the masses and it has been Superman in the 1940s, Daniel Boone in the 1950s and now, in the 1970s it was Star Wars. It certainly deserves to be lauded for what it brought to America and what it did for cinema. Knock the stuff that came after all you want, but in the context of May 1977, this was a trend-setting, breathless movie that mixed fun characters, some lofty notions of good and evil and state-of-the-art special effects in what was clearly meant as an ode to simpler days.

P.S. Did I happen to mention that Kate comes home in eight days?

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May 23, 2007

This and That

This coming weekend, I’ll be at Balticon for the second year in a row.

I was asked to fill out a questionnaire listing all the times I was free to do programming and which panels sounded like good fits. On Saturday, I received my schedule and apparently, the ones they agreed would benefit from my presence were all on Monday.

Unfortunately, so is my Movie Preview panel, meaning I had two panels opposite my presentation. Movies win. Sigh.

So, it appears that I will either crash panels or be footloose and fancy free, enjoying yet another fine weekend at the Hunt Valley Inn. Deb and Robbie will also be there and Deb is once again a Masquerade judge.

If you’re around, come say hi.

* * * * *

While I’m not doing a panel or hobnobbing with pals at Balticon, it appears I’ll also be proofreading. I received the galleys to Predator: Flesh & Blood this week and Victoria the editor wants the corrections by June 4. The book, at long last, will be available for purchase in August.

* * * * *

Last spring, I wrote two pieces for Marvel about Jack Kirby’s Eternals series. It was initially intended for their website. Lo and behold, more than a year later, it has been in print four different places.

First, it ran on Newsarama, as opposed to Marvel’s site. Then, they used it in Marvel Spotlight, their house organ. To my surprise, it next found its way into their hardcover collection of the Kirby material. Now, I just received a comp copy of the Neil Gaiman Eternals miniseries and tucked away at the very end of the handsome volume is the article.

They certainly got their money’s worth.

* * * * *

Finally, I don’t normally post these results, nor do I regularly take these tests but the answer here surprised me so I thought I’d share.

Your Score: Micah Sanders

You scored 58 Idealism, 37 Nonconformity, 45 Nerdiness

Can we play Scrabble tonight? Congratulations, you're Micah Sanders! You're good-natured, intelligent, perceptive, and naturally inclined toward technology. You're also quite innocent and loving. You've got a fondness for computers and Scrabble.

Your best quality: You're extremely perceptive
Your worst quality: You can be a little demanding at times

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May 22, 2007

Last Night at the RTM

Southport has been getting a tad overdeveloped compared to what it used to be, the really quaint village with many beautifully kept holder homes. Over the last handful of years, though, parcels have been bought up, subdivided and condos and duplexes have shown up with alarming regularity. As a result, the various citizens’ groups have been working to get homes and entire streets declared historic districts to at least try and retain the ld, rustic feel.

Spruce Street is a perfect candidate for preservation so most of the street and the nearby buildings comprising the Southport train station have applied for Historic District status. To be included 2/3s of the proposed area had to approve the plan so of course there are numerous hearings and procedures. When the final area is ready, the Historic District Commission brings the deal to the Representative Town Meeting for approval.

According to the state statutes, we have to take action and we have three choices: approve it as is, reject it with an explanation, or return it to the HDC with specific recommended changes.

Regulars here know that this first came before us at a Special Meeting two weeks ago, which began the grumblings among us. What was the hurry we asked? The mealy-mouthed reply was something along the lines of, we need to hurry this up to get the process done before more disaster befalls the neighborhood.

We heard from all those in favor and the one family, at 115 Spruce, that was vehemently opposed. During the Special Meeting and subsequent Standing Committee meetings, we kept hearing how 80 got to opt out but a semantics issue forced 115 to remain. None of us liked what we heard. Away from the meetings, we started to hear details such as the guy at 80 threatened to sue to stop the process, got taken out so the 2/3s vote would pass. We also learned that this failed ten years ago and it wasn’t until the folks at 115 began the application process to subdivide and potentially build duplexes on the land that suddenly this came roaring back to life.

Last night, we zipped through the agenda, disposing of some ten items in thirty minutes. We then dwelled for another 90-100 minutes on Spruce Street. A lot of the time was caught up as my colleagues weren’t paying close enough attention so the Moderator had to repeat himself endlessly clarifying where we were and what our options were. As a group, it was a fairly poor showing.

The first thing we did was propose to go with option three, sending the item back to the HDC with the recommendation that 80 be added back in. This brought vigorous debate from the Body while it was uniformly objected to by the Southport residents, largely because if it meant another vote, they feared it would fail. Well, it passed. Then a member proposed revising the item to still include 80 but now exclude 115. That failed since the sense of the Body was that it should be all or nothing. The next motion was to delay the entire matter one-month figuring this would give us more time to learn and more time to cool off the hot tempers. That too, failed, as we felt we had heard enough and a month wasn’t going to change that.

We were then dealing with the revised action item and debate was renewed from the Body and the floor if this was the right thing. I wound up being one of the final speakers and I pointed out that regardless of what happened at the HDC hearings and meetings, the perception we received was that this was a seriously flawed process and we weren’t happy with the results. Additionally, I felt they hadn’t done due diligence when it came to the Southport station so had no support from the Parking Authority and therefore, no vote had been received Since everyone was counting noses, this was a glaring omission. There was also the issue that between the vote 10 years ago and today, two more historic houses were demolished in favor of five duplexes yet they did nothing. “Where were the HDC and the neighbors when 100 and 112 came tumbling down?” I asked. I finally objected that after all this time, for it to come at us with the speed of (ahem) a bullet and therefore wanted my colleagues to approve the measure. (As I took my seat, one of my peers leaned over and whispered, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you find your tires slashed.”)

In the end, that’s exactly what happens and the HDC now has 65 days to get their ducks in a row and get something accomplished. It could be, that in that time, 80’s sale will conclude and the new owner can vote rather than the current owner’s temper tantrum.

If anything impressed me, after the disappointment over our collection comprehension issues, was that the various votes were incredibly bi-partisan. I wish more of the votes were like that.

And as I drove home, I was pleased to see my tires were intact.

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May 21, 2007

Last Night at Shea

I was rather frustrated to see the New York Mets hold an on-line lottery to earn the right to buy not only Opening Day tickets but also seats for the Subway Series at the same time. That meant a ton of Yankees fans entered a lottery that skewed the chances for us diehard fans. As a result, the Greenbergers went 0 for 9.

Until Thursday. Remarkably, the three game series that started Friday had not entirely sold out so just before dinner, Deb received an e-mail from the Mets saying her name came up in a second chance lottery drawing. She wasted no time in ordering three tickets for the Sunday night game, the only day we were free. We then waited for Robbie to come home from college on Friday to share the good news.

Yesterday, we left at 5:30 figuring there’d be traffic as we got to the Whitestone Bridge. Well, first there was such incredible volume on 95 in Connecticut, Deb sat there muttering, “We’re doomed.” It didn’t help that as we crawled through the state, the traffic reports were already talking about volume building on the bridge and at all approaches to Shea.

On the other hand, we arrived 1:17 after departure (according to son) which was not bad at all. The bridge and Whitestone Expressway weren’t all that crowded, and we found parking near enough to the stadium so it wasn’t annoying. We took our seats in the upper deck, out in right field, and enjoyed the setting sun, the building cool breeze and the activity all around us.

We were cautiously optimistic, what with the Mets having won the first two games and the Yanks starting yet another rookie pitcher. However, history has proven that the Mets struggle against rookie pitchers for the first time. It’s a given. Sure enough, this 22 year-old, Tyler Clippard, looked great. He had command, threw a lot of first strike pitches and didn’t let himself get rattled.

John Maine, on the other hand, for the second game in a row couldn’t seem to find the strike zone. His strike to walk ratio was horrible and he couldn’t get anyone out. The Yankees’ bats finally woke up on a night when they had good pitching and together, they clubbed out six runs, holding the Mets to two.

Meantime, way above us, the Yankees’ supporters and Mets’ advocates began good-natured catcalling and chanting. By the fifth, though, things started to turn ugly and people were standing and watching as a crowd went from words to deeds. Apparently, since I could see none of it, chanting gave way to some food and full cups of beer being tossed. It got bad enough that some fifteen people were escorted away by security. Not long after, another scuffle broke out in the same area so more people left and this time NYPD officers came with stadium security. When another handful of people left, our area was ringed with uniformed people. And a third incident occurred. Robbie says he lost count around thirty people leaving the game.

Here’s the question: you paid $30-35 for the ticket, $14 to park, $7 apiece for the beer. Why waste all that, miss seeing the game and let yourself get so blotto you lose self-control? As it was, people all around stopped watching the game to catch a glimpse of the melee.

We remained where we were, watching, rooting, scoring and making the most of a forgettable night for the home team. They didn’t win. It was a shame.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at 11:50 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 20, 2007

Third Time's not Always the Charm

After several failed attempts, Robbie and I finally made it to see Spider-Man 3 last night.

I’m glad I saw it, and watched it on a big screen because it’s the kind of movie that deserves to be see big. Visually, it was a delight with better CGI webslinging and terrific Sandman effects.

I give Sam Raimi a lot of credit for keeping the major and minor cast intact for three films, which only enhances the experience for the audience. His eye for casting remains spot on with Thomas Hayden Church perfect as Flint Marko, Bryce Dallas Howard very Romita-esque as Gwen Stacy. Getting Cliff Robertson and Willem Dafoe back for cameos was also a lovely touch.

Still, it all comes down to story and this time, Raimi let us down. By trying to up the ante by adding Sandman and Venom to Spidey’s struggles with the Green Goblin, it became all too much which meant just about every character go short shrift. In the last film, Raimi added the brilliant comic book touch of starting subplots as Norma Osborn’s ghost influenced Harry and we got introduced to Curt Connors, knowing at some point we’d get the Lizard. And that’s what he should have done here by introducing Eddie Brock, maybe even the Venom symbiote, but saved them for Spidey 4.

Peter Parker remained way too reactive until the end, when he finally used his smarts to figure out how to stop Venom. For a brilliant guy, he sure seemed inept. Not only that, but his spider sense seemed to be absent from the entire film. Worse, was how Mary Jane was portrayed. Throughout the entire film she was a victim, someone to pitied and rescued, not the MJ we grew up loving. If I were Kirsten Dunst, I would have demanded an arc that made better sense.

Aunt May existed merely to act as the moral voice of the story. She literally would show up, say something pithy and walk off the set. I was more interested in Ursula, poor love-besotted young thing. And Harry’s butler…WTF? He had nothing to do or say through three films and suddenly has one key scene? Bad writing and set-up. Speaking of set-up, too often Raimi delivered on expectations rather than surprise and thrill the audience. We all knew that once Harry rejected Peter’s request for help, of course he would turn up just at the right moment. Geez, that trick hasn’t surprised us since Han came back to save Luke at the Death Star.

Speaking of the obvious: Spidey posing in front of the American flag was such a…Christopher Reeve…moment that it fell flat as did Stan’s cameo which felt tacked on.

The new characters were ill-defined. Who was Gwen and what did she see in Eddie Brock? Why was she even in the movie other than to make MJ miserable? And Captain Stacy, while well cast, had no real role and seemed shoehorned in. Marko’s desire for money to help his ill daughter was nice motivation but what on Earth changed his attitude so he had to step in and provide explication to Spidey while Harry lay dying? Also, he just drifts with the wind, leaving his daughter without the money she needed, and Spidey with a potentially dangerous foe on the loose. Spidey should have at least been seen telling a reporter or Captain Stacy about the girl so something could be done for her.

The movie needed shaping and sharpening, focusing more on the main characters and their stories while giving him a foe, allowing the threads to be woven, like a spider’s web, for subsequent films, whether Raimi, Maguire and Dunst returned or not.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at 03:48 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 18, 2007

Hi-Tech and the new TV Season

The Upfronts is the traditional week for the major and minor networks to show off their new series for the television season, which runs from September through May 2007-2008.

Of course, the model keeps changing and evolving so the television season has really gone to a twelve-month cycle with September being an increasingly arbitrary starting point. It used to be, seasons began in September and new series would run for 39 weeks with 13 weeks over the following summer for reruns or replacement shows. Then, in 1966, ABC startled the world with the notion of a “second season.” What they basically did was acknowledge that failed series were yanked over Christmas and new shows debuted right after New Year’s Day. Their second season concept came about because most of the network’s Fall 1965 offerings failed to win fans (one exception being a show called FBI kicked off with a little project called Batman and things haven’t been the same.

Flash forward to today. In addition to the new season planned for the fall, all the major networks now have to come up with new strategies to keep people interested in their branded programming. Given the arrival of DVRs and the ability to watch shows on line, on iPods, on DVD, et. al., the new shows have to be accessible.

This week, NBC announced their Digital Entertainment division will promote their shows in a variety of ways. The Office 360, coming this fall, will allow visitors to open branch offices of Dunder-Mifflin Company and perform tasks on line or at the show’s WAP site.

For their new prime time series, fans will be invited to sample:

Lipstick Jungle - an online publication co-branded with iVillage.com, complete with fashion profiles, relationship advice, articles, quizzes and forums.

Bionic Woman - will show action geeks how each week’s biggest scenes were filmed using camera tricks, special effects and other production secrets.

Chuck - will offer hotspots revealing top-secret government information and bonus video.

Journeyman - visitors will be able to track Dan's travel through time with an interactive video timeline. Additionally, there will be scene comparisons reveal how show producers recreate the authentic look of locations from earlier years.

Life - Fans of the series will be able to further investigate Billy's conspiracy wall, hidden in his home.

The NBC.com website will also have an exclusive soap, Coastal Dreams.

ABC, on the other hand, is pushing their established hits across as many platforms as humanly possible. This week, they announced that streaming will be possible for normal web visitors in addition to an HD version (1280 X 720 resolution ) on a branded video player come July. Series will include Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty. By September, the network announced plans for a wider variety of programming including national and local news. Advertisers will like that the new HD player will offer geo-targeting capabilities, allowing ads and content to be customized for each user.

Fans who happen to use Sprint, will be able to access episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty via phone starting now. In the near future, Disney-owned series Hannah Montana, The Suite Life of Zach & Cody, Cory in the House and Kim Possible will also be included in their Vision TV Pack. These will be available either On Demand or through streaming channels.

That is, if you like watching TV on 2” screens.

The eagerly awaited iPhone, though, will allow users to purchase TV episodes from the iTunes store.

That is, if you like watching TV on 4” screens.

CBS, usually late to the technology party, has announced series episodes will be available through its new CBS Interactive Network, whatever that is. At least they are offering, on CBS.com a toolkit to enable users to embed or email their favorite clips of the Tiffany Network’s new fall shows.

That is, if you find any of them interesting. (OK, I admit, I like the cast for Cane and will likely try it. A vampire detective? I’ve already seen Angel, thank you very much.)

Over at Fox, their most interesting technological announcement was that they will be basing their advertising rates on regular network viewing plus DVR audiences. So, those of us watching House or Bones at a later date, will finally be counted.

As for the creative side of the new offerings and the timeslot battles, I’ll get back to you.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at 04:13 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 16, 2007

Public service can be tiring.

Monday was Standing Committee night and even though we had a fairly full agenda, we managed to whip through the first eight or so items in just under an hour. Then we got to hear about the proposed new Historic District. Last week, we had the Special Meeting that irked many, especially as no one seemed pleased we rushed this and we weren’t entirely thrilled with how things were handled.

As a result, one committee had the Historic District Commission and passionate neighbors for so long we were left cooling our heels. To save time, we combined our hearing with a third committee so the HDC only had to repeat themselves once more for the night. Our room filled up and we were there over an hour hashing through the details and hearing from people on Spruce Street both for and against the block being made a Historic District. I came away concluding that despite most residents living there for decades or their entire lives, they were not a particularly close set of neighbors. Anyway, we wound up around 10 and a long night ended.

Last night, the Special Committee reconvened since April to once more see what we could or should do with the zoning ordinances. In between meetings, I had a letter to the editor published in the two local papers, asking for additional feedback. I got a small deluge of e-mails and phone calls, mostly saying things we had heard but now in greater number and convincing me there was no clear consensus one way or the other.

We had quite the turnout. 28 members of the public showed, several were repeat attendees but we also had many first-timers. As a result, I began the night attempting to explain where we were and what needed to be done. We started by hearing public comment on all three ordinances, which sometimes was passionate, sometimes questioning and sometimes confused. We attempted to answer questions and clear confusion while also trying to direct the commentary, ensuring everyone spoke at least once per ordinance.

Our First Selectman, Ken Flatto, dropped in well after we began and left before we ended but he sat and listened and then spoke, adding a level of confidence in the committee and support for the ordinances in principal if not in word.

When everyone had said their piece, then the committee assessed where we wanted to go and what needed to be done. In two cases, we felt dropping the ordinances and seeking administrative approaches seemed best. For the tension-fraught Demolition Delay, we knew something needed to be done and continued to wrestle with how long a delay, under what circumstances and using what definitions.

In the end, it certainly felt like we had made some progress. Our next meeting will be only about the Delay and with luck that too can be settled so when we’re obligated to report back, we’ll be ready.

Four and a half hours later, just before midnight, we adjourned. By the time I finished talking to people in the parking lot and drove home, it was a new morning. As a result, today feels long. I was very pleased to find some e-mails from attendees awaiting me, with kind words. The reviewers said:

Congratulations on doing such an expert job last night in keeping all parties on focus. You run an excellent meeting.

Well done on chairing the meeting tonite. Patient, courteous, inclusive.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at 02:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 15, 2007

How to Exploit a Hit

Last week, I babbled on about ways to retain audiences when you only have twenty-two episodes of a series to spread across a season measured by thirty-nine weeks. Yesterday, NBC was the first network to make their announcements and they came up with something novel for their smash hit Heroes.

For those who missed the news, a six-part series called Heroes: Origins was announced. The miniseries, promised to run on consecutive weeks, will introduce viewers to a half-dozen new potential heroes. Viewers would then be able to vote for the one they like best who would then be featured on the main series’ third season.

What’s neat is that this pod of shows can be dropped in between storylines as a breather or run at either end of the season. Regardless, whenever the main show needs a break, NBC can then schedule this series so viewers for thirty of the thirty-nine week season will have a show called Heroes on Monday nights. Pretty nifty if you ask me.

Regulars from the main series have been hinted as making cameo appearances on some of the Origins episodes so viewers don’t feel totally alienated from new people and settings.

In addition, to keep people interested between seasons (and Mondays), NBC Digital Entertainment has announced Inside Heroes which will be an eight-part web-only miniseries that goes behind-the-scenes and shows what it takes to make each episode. This begins next Monday, timed to the season finale’s airing, and new chapters will turn up throughout the summer.

On the same day, the website will also offer up Heroes Character Profiles which should help explain the background of each principal participant in linear fashion. Peter Petrelli gets the first slot and others promised include Claire Bennet, Hiro Nakamura, Nathan Petrelli, Niki/Jessica Sanders, Matt Parkman and Mohinder Suresh.

The online only graphic stories will also continue and if you haven’t been following these, you’re missing some neat stories and artwork. In some cases, we get introduced to characters before they show up on air, and other bits of business get explored. Talent announced for the new summer chapters include Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau, Steven T. Seagle and Joe Casey.

And, the DVD box set for Season One was announced for August 28.

This will no doubt become the model for maximizing exposure of a hit series, extending the brand and retaining control of the content. ABC, for example, was slow to exploit Lost and missed a bet when someone else launched the Lost-pedia.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at 12:23 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 11, 2007

Quick Notes

As the saying goes, one door closes and another one opens.

I found out that something I have contributed to the in the past has come to an end (and I’m awaiting formal announcement elsewhere before I say anything more) and on the same day, learned of another anthology opportunity I can pitch too.

So yeah, sometimes it feels like there’s a cosmic balance at work.

I also received today my galleys to BenBella’s Grey’s Anatomy 101 essay collection, which I believe is set for a fall release (timed to the fourth season debut). I actually received a PDF of the entire book so I can see what everyone had to say. Interestingly, of the seventeen essays, I only know one of the authors personally, my old friend Lawrence Watt-Evans. The biggest name among the credits is Jacqueline Carey, writing about, what else?, sex on the series.

Did I happen to tell you Katie comes home in a mere 22 days?

Posted by Bob Greenberger at 03:43 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 09, 2007

Rethinking the "Season"

We’re watching another fundamental shift in the way the networks are going to be schedule series in the future.

Serialized shows continue to attract diehard fans in the desirable demographics but they are also demanding fans who dislike being kept waiting. In the past, Fox with 24 and ABC with Alias pioneered the notion of debuting their shows later in a season but running them without a break or repeat. Both shows experienced upticks in the ratings as a result. Fox has continued that with 24 ever since.

ABC, though, tried something different this year with Lost. With just 22 episodes to spread out over the 39 week season, they tried a six episode mini-season in the fall and then came back uninterrupted during the February sweeps. Problem was, the mini-season focused on The Others so people were angered they didn’t get to see more of the “regular” cast. The ratings reflected that and I’m sure the new 10 p.m. timeslot didn’t help. The slide by 3 million viewers was a little too glaring to ignore. (On the other hand, now that statistics are coming in as to how shares fare when recorded for later viewer, Lost jumped by 18% which shows the impact DVRs are having.)

Wisely, ABC and the producers sat down and worked out a game plan and the, even more wisely, announced it now ahead of the Upfronts, the announcement f the new 2007-2008 schedules which begin next week. In case you missed it, Lost will run for three more seasons, at 16 episodes each, and will be schedule without interruption each season in an earlier timeslot. This gives the producers an exact number of episodes they have left to make certain every thread is tied off, every question answered and the viewer left satisfied. This also announced to the audience that the show will be given the time needed to satisfactorily wrap up so they can continue to commit their precious viewing time to the series.

Heroes which effectively supplanted Lost as the it show of the season, took a seven week hiatus after ending what they considered their second pod of episodes. However, when it returned last week, it lost three million viewers achieving its lowest ratings. The ratings this week were also lower than the average -- a worrisome sign considering how hot the storyline has gotten. That must have been alarming and now NBC has to figure out how best to schedule the series, also stretching out 22 episodes over a 39-week season. Word is they will do something like two halves, 11 or so episodes each, with self-contained arcs while character storylines continued. (For more on this, see this week’s excellent Entertainment Weekly cover story.)

Of course, many of the cable channels already figured this out by running short seasons, mostly for budget reasons, but also giving them scheduling flexibility. Battlestar Galactica, The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, Weeds, The Sopranos, Deadwood, The Closer and others have all benefited from this approach. Why the networks have taken this long to start replicating the successful pattern beats me. The entire economic model needs to be rethought and the major networks should be learning some new tricks.

Rather than give us cheaper game shows and reality fare, they might want to look into shorter seasons which might keep the cast and crew fresher and provide greater variety in the offerings. It used to be, back in the 1950s and 1960s, the thirteen weeks between seasons would either be reruns or cheaper series that also served as testing grounds for new talent and new concepts. By the 1970s that notion got lost as reruns almost exclusively filled the airwaves. In the 1990s, competition from cable had the networks offering up more shows or, like Fox, debuting their new seasons earlier in an effort to introduce their series when people were seeking something new and to avoid rolling out the shows right before interrupting them for the baseball post-season.

I certainly long for more variety among the choices available to us and certainly don’t need 22 episodes of marginally entertaining shows that might be keeping better, more interesting fare off the air.

Next week’s announcement will bear watching. We’ll talk more after all five networks speak.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at 04:45 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 08, 2007

Odd RTM Meeting

As RTM meetings go, last night ventured into some bizarre territory.

At 8 p.m. we had our annual budget meeting. Since March, there have been over a dozen hearings and meetings to dissect the $200+ million town budget (which includes the schools) so last night was merely the final vote. At our April 23 meeting, we were asked to announce which, if any, cuts were to be proposed since the RTM is only allowed to cut not add or change.

OK, our majority leader, Doug Jones, scrutinized the budget and found about $160,000 that could be cut from a particular education budget line. Since the Board and Superintendent fight for every nickel, he began chatting up the usual suspects to find out what sort of fight he’d have for proposing such a cut. It appeared that they’d be willing to negotiate but not swallow the complete $160k. So, Doug did some questioning from the floor and then said he’d likely be back on May 7 to ask for a $60k cut.

Last night we begin the meeting and the first thing we discovered is that the town can’t do math. As worded, the budget before us had sloppy math that, when corrected, saved us a few hundred grand, lowering the budget – at least on paper. Nothing like being embarrassed in public.

and the Minority Leader, Brian LeClerc, got to the mike first. He said some complimentary things but then raised an old topic, which had been more or less hashed to death at the committee meetings, but insisted on exploring this since, after all, it’s an election year and any prodding of the Democratic First Selectman is always an opportunity not to be missed.

After we heard the same answers as we had before, Doug got up and made his suggestion. Sure enough, our Superintendent stood and said that while $64k seemed like a piddling amount, they needed every nickel. I presumed it was show on her side especially since they usually find a few hundred grand to return to us at the end of each budget year. Somehow, though, Doug’s proposal went down in flames as even members of his own party abandoned him, which was a rather public slap in the face and one I was not at all happy about.

After that, the budget, corrected numbers in place, sailed through. Our meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.

Not so fast, though. Without even five minutes for a bathroom break, we began a special meeting, called by the First Selectman to hear for the first time, an ordinance that would designate a street a Historic District. We had a presentation on the area a few months previous and this was the final step. We got an overview from the assistant town attorney followed by comments from the newly elected chair of the District Commission.

Once we saw the map, saw pictures of the house and noted how red faced some of the audience was, we knew something was up. On one side of the street, one house managed to get itself carved out of the proposal for unknown reasons. The house is an older one, beautifully maintained and certainly worthy of inclusion. On the opposite side of the street was a 60 year old home on a large plot that few would consider historic but was included in the plan. The red faced man turned out to be the owner, who didn’t want his home included, didn’t like how the other guy got out of it and how the whole process stunk. Further questioning revealed that this had been defeated ten years ago and it took this long to get the neighbors to vote for recognition. The designated area was to also include the Southport train station buildings but those were owned by the state and operated by the Parking Authority but no one got their two cents as to whether or not they supported this.

Member after member of the RTM got up and questioned things as the flustered chair tried her best to answer the questions as positively as possible. I sympathized with her since after all, I got hammered not that long ago.

As time wore on, members of the RTM began to drift out, which was unusual. The amount of cross chatter was more than usual and our normally unflappable Moderator seemed to be losing his cool as members neglected to use the mike and tried to ask questions from their seats. We as a whole, were not behaving as properly as we should have.

Finally, the public got their say and we heard plenty on both sides of the issue. However, in the end, we still had no idea how one house got carved out and why or how the newer house got trapped. Worse, this special meeting irked members of the RTM, feeling this didn’t merit the special meeting status and could have gone on the normal May agenda. By doing it this way, we heard it for the first time last night, get to discuss it at next week’s Standing Committee meetings and then vote on it at the following week’s RTM meeting (a week early thanks to Memorial Day).

We adjourned at 10:15, much later than anyone anticipated. A rather odd night and one that did not sit well with me.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at 04:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 05, 2007

No Hope for The Cure

I admit it; I’m one of those people who like to fill out online surveys. So sue me.

I like to consider myself a fairly savvy consumer and don’t mind sharing my experience and opinions if it can help make for better products and services. Every now and then, someone in the family is demographically targeted and we get sent a television pilot to sample.

This week was my turn and I received a VHS tape containing the pilot for a new Fox series, The Cure. I had to watch it then go on line and answer a bunch of questions.

Unfortunately, there was no mechanism for me to ask them questions, starting with which moron thought this should be green-lit for a series?

In a nutshell, this unimaginative piece of drivel is House crossed with Mission: Impossible. Fox, which already airs House, should know better as should Warner Bros Television, which produced the series. Given their ability create ground breaking series such as ER and The West Wing, they should be ashamed of themselves.

The lead character, Dr. House, er, whatever, is a maverick who stopped working for the big pharmaceutical companies to skirt the rules in order to bring cures to diseases to patients faster than the FDA and the drug companies will allow. To do this, he and his team of dedicated do-gooders, work on the edges. They find conveniently closed hospital wings to treat patients and work in a lab hidden in a warehouse.

The trio of assistants match House: two guys (Anson Mount, Esai Morales) and a girl (Liz Vassey), just substitute the black character for a Mexican, portrayed by Esai Morales. Dr. House, er, whatever, is devoid of personality as are the cipher aides. The dialogue is flat, the characterization non-existent. The thrills and danger, such as will the hospital guard find the secret surgery in the closed wing before the patient is treated is lacking in any suspense since we know they will get away with it. At least on M:I we saw how they cleverly got out of the danger.

Then, add in the hoary sub-plot of Dr. House, er, whatever, being blackmailed by someone, who hounds the team, takes away from disease-du-jour. And somewhere in the mix is a woman hoping for a cure played by Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon.

While filling out the survey, I gave it mostly negative marks, from the lackluster music to the horrible storytelling. I only today found out this piece of crap will air on Fox, starting June 1. Save yourself the trouble and skip this.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at 04:55 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 02, 2007

My Daughter, the Star

I do not often take time to be the proud parent and boast about my kids. Every so often, though, something fills me with such pride that I have to share. As many regulars here know, Kate is in Egypt and one of the highlights of her time there has been starring as Adelaide in Guys & Dolls, the first musical at American University in Cairo in six years. The show opened last weekend and by chance, the timing worked allowing my mom to be there to see it during her Middle East senior tour. We have to wait and see a video when she returns in a mere four weeks and three days.

The Daily Star Egypt reviewed the play and wrote, “Greenberger is the one who steals the entire show though. Her Adelaide is flamboyant, jolly and always entertaining. Her presence on stage is felt whenever she's off and her aura is so strong that, on many occasions, it upstages her co-stars.”

So cool.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at 07:42 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

May 01, 2007

A Quiet Time

I know, it feels like forever since I last posted.

Largely, there hasn’t been much to comment or report on. Life has been relatively stable and quiet, while remaining productive.

Been catching up on television and we find ourselves enjoying The Tudors, largely through the time it takes to explore the characters and setting. John Rhys-Meyers is wonderful as King Henry. Deb is a major anglophile, especially during this period, and she is enthralled. Heroes is back and remains a Must See Now show as we rocket towards the first season conclusion. I have to say, the glimpse five years from now is very much “Days of Future Past” and very nicely done.

I’ve also had a chance to look at the finished, edited manuscript to Predator: Flesh & Blood, coming soon from DH Books. I’m pleased to say I recognize large chunks of the book so I clearly didn’t make my coauthor, Mike Friedman, do massive rewrites. Yes, there are bits of business I liked that got changed but that’s what collaboration is all about.

I’ve also been hard at work on my unnamed project and have a nice head of steam built up and hope to plow through the last half and come close to the deadline. With luck, we can speak about this soon.

Yesterday, Deb and I enjoyed a free day together. She began a new job today so it was going to be our last chance to hang out for a while, certainly before the kids come home from school. It was a day where we did stuff together, the most noteworthy part was test-driving the Toyota Camry hybrid, which was pretty impressive. It was a day at a relaxed pace and something we both needed before things revved back up.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at 04:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack