Confessions of a Primetime Snob

[A F Waddell]

I've gone through periods of not watching TV for months or longer. I'd lost interest in typical primetime programming and developed Fear of Bad Sitcoms. I tended to not have hope about the quality of premiering series and didn't bother watching. Cable series such as Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Weeds provided entertainment - along with brit crime fare Prime Suspect, Cracker, etc.

Eventually, due to sleeplessness, satellite and syndication, I'm now hooked on CSI.

The original CSI is amazing (CSI:NY is good as well, IMO). Petersen / Helgenberger (and Sinise ) have long been faves of mine. The technical research, writing and acting are top notch. What an interesting creative team! A fave episode is String Theory.

(Go ahead, mock me cuz I'm a relative CSI newbie.)

trivia
If you haven't seen Michael Mann's Manhunter, check it out!

Does anyone remember the 'new' Twilight Zone series from the 1980s? How about the episode with William Petersen and Frances McDormand
solving a mystery in a small southwestern town? Very quirky.

A
http://afwaddell.com

[John Dishon]

Actually, David Crane was 37 when "Friends" premiered in 1994 and Marta Kaufman was 38. A far as the different writers on the show, I don't know, but those two were the creators of the series.

As a young person (24), I'd like to thank the older people for leaving my generation with such a prosperous economy and a beautiful, safe, clean world to live in. Oh wait.

[A F Waddell]

I totally agree, Dan. Good writing and intelligent characters seem sparse. The industry panders to a younger audience, as does film, eh?

Some of the older quality sitcoms that you mentioned, such as Mash, MTM show, All in the Family etc did indeed have excellent writers who happened to be middle-aged.

What are you proposing? Writing a sitcom synopsis, or an entire episode? . . . I could possibly get my mind around it and write something.

[I. J. Parker]

Love MASH to this day. But about those shows that aim at younger viewers: one of the funniest and most well-written recent comedies is the British COUPLING on BBC America.

[A F Waddell]

I've seen it. Coupling is fantastic. I love 'britcoms'. Over the years I really enjoyed "Chef!" and "Joking Apart".

[I. J. Parker]

I have cable. As I said: BBC America. Here it comes on Tuesday, prime time.

[Jessica]

I liked the Dexter series based on the Jeff Lindsey novels.

[D.R. MacMaster]

I enjoy CSI and CSI: NY too, but I can't stand the cartoonish CSI: Miami, which is the first show to ever make me not want to visit a city.

As for shows hiring younger and younger writers, it is true to an extent. I call it Juvenile Dementia, it's where advertisers tell them to get young viewers, and that becomes their sole objective, even though their often shameless pandering repels a lot of media savvy young viewers.

If you pay attention to the hype machine, you'd think the soap opera Gossip Girl on the CW network was the biggest show on TV, yet its ratings are comparatively abysmal in pretty much all demographics. It gets the hype because the media machine thinks it has to be big, because it has all the ingredients that their marketing experts think make hits: Pretty young actors, sex, and fashionable clothes. It's actual performance in the ratings seems to come in second.

Of course, rantings like this are why I have a blog for them. ;)

[A F Waddell]

I don't like CSI:Miami either. Hmm . . . what were they trying to do, create a CSI for everyone?

CSI: Peoria
CSI: Fargo

[Cliff]

My own favorite is CSI:NY. It seems a little more gritty for my tastes.

I do find myself kind of thinking sometimes when they bring out some of their gadgets, "Yeah, right..." Some of it is over the top and technology is near not as advanced as they make it out to be on those shows.

And everything always wraps up very neatly with the criminals spilling out their guts at the end and just confessing to everything.

But they are entertaining.

[A F Waddell]

True on the too-neat endings - but it's an hour show and people need action and closure (?)

And definitely entertaining!

[A F Waddell]

You have a good plan in place. :)