As karma seems to be unsure whether or not to actually reward me and my new blog with new Futurama (it will NOT be Futurama if there are new voices, and the collective public guesses at the inner workings of 20th Century Television's negotiations, figuring out various ways to influence their decision, I am struck by how familiar this situation seems to be. Familiar in the sense that I've seen the inner workings of the television business on many occasions. From watching TV. In dramatic and comedically exaggerated terms of course, but still in some detail.
Obviously, emmy-darling 30 Rock is the most immediate example, though satirizing the television business has fallen to the wayside in recent episodes. But there was also HBO's brilliant The Larry Sanders Show (right), set behind the scenes of a Late Night talk show. Here in Australia we had Frontline, which satirized the current affairs/magazine style TV show. Plus I just got my greedy hands on Aaron Sorkin's pre-West Wing dramedy Sports Night, set behind the scenes of, you guessed it, a nightly Sports News program. He also had the short-lived and (as yet) unwatched (by me) Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. But the most iconic example, and the one that I grew up with and made me interested in the process, is the 3rd season of NBC's Seinfeld, which dramatized the process of creating the show-within-a-show, aptly titled Jerry.
Many shows also have single episodes that satrize the business. The TV executive is a fun one to parody it seems. Futurama itself had a stab at them with the 4th season episode "Bender Should Not be Allowed On TV," with robot TV executives programmed to like things its seen before, underestimate Middle America (It's good, but will it get them off their tractors?) and roll dice to determine the fall schedule (More reality programming!)
Of course, these are fictionalized accounts. And though they may be hilarious (and in Sorkin's case, melodramtically poignant), fidelity to the actual workings is usually secondary to entertainment. As well it should be. But now thanks to DVD commentaries, podcasts, Comic-Con Panels, blogs, twitters and facebook (I'm now friends on facebook with both John Dimaggio (voice of Bender and others) and Maurice LaMarche (voice of Calculon, Morbo, Kif also many others), the public has been granted unprecedented access into the actual television processes.
Yes, it seems that long gone are the days where TV shows were created by the mysterious, unknowable "them". Writers, Producers and Directors are no longer sequestered, anonymous cabals dictating to us trends and providing titillating but ultimately hollow entertainment existing only to get us to watch commercials for soap. (That sure was a simpler time wasn't it, when the worst shines apple cheeked boys would find themselves in would be facing a spanking after stealing an apple pie cooling on the window sill.)
And so I introduce a new segment to Robot Fingers. See, now it seems almost like there's too much access. Too much to keep track of anyway. So I offer this service to you, loyal reader. In a format shamelessly stolen from music news and reviewing juggernaut Pitchfork, and with a name chosen in true Robot Fingers fashion, I will here pass on to you some of the pearls of wisdom gleaned from the godlike men and women behind television. Hopefully this will also provide some content when I can't be bothered writing anything. (And will offer insights a little deeper than Conan's Twitter Tracker)
So today, above, I offer you this inaugural edition of Leonard Says, culled from the hours of Simpsons DVD commentaries.
I also urge every Futurama fan out there to show their support for the voice actors. I've given a couple of links already, but in case you missed them here they are again.
http://tinyurl.com/savefuturama
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/futura13/petition.html
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105012526501
-hobospaceman
i've got something in my eye
