An Interesting Television Business Decision

Last year’s writer’s strike caused an interesting thing for FOX’s show 24, which I love dearly. Now, the reason I enjoy the show is because I immediately stop worrying about the concept being “24 hours” and “real time”. If realism will destroy your enjoyment of a fictional show, then this ain’t for you. I got into the show on DVD a few years ago because Scott Spears tipped me off that Buy.com had season one on sale for $15 including shipping and for a 6 disc set, that’s cheaper to buy than it is to rent, plus I could sell it for that amount at a used DVD store.

My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ and I were hooked right away and Netflix © kept us going until we caught up with the current seasons. I’ve liked Kiefer Sutherland since THE LOST BOYS and STAND BY ME in the 1980’s and his JACK BAUER character has been a source of acting challenges with range for him that I enjoy watching.



24 starts shooting like every other TV series in the fall even though none of their episodes begin airing until January. They do this because they feel that the show is much more effective with the audience to consistently get new material every single week with no breaks for all 24 episodes. This even affords them some double episode weeks and really gets the anticipation going from start to finish. Shows like LOST are emulating this model because shows that are highly serialized demand audience attention for continuity, etc.

Last year, 24 got off to a rough start. They had a highly publicized halt to their production. Supposedly, they were breaking their difficult show model and were going to do 24 hours, but not all in a row. So 6 hours in this city, then a week later, 6 hours in another city, etc. The original intent was going to be the first 6 hours taking place in & shot in AFRICA and the next 6 hours in Washington D.C. The writers & producers felt each year being in Los Angeles was limiting and they were right. The formula was getting a bit stale, so breaking it up and moving it out would have been better.



So, the problem became that FOX was deeply concerned about shooting in Africa for real and knew that the budget would skyrocket, so just as they were about to pack up and leave, FOX pulled the plug and told them all to re-think the season minus the Africa segments. Since the show doesn’t premiere until January, this wasn’t an emergency per se, but they did have a lot to catch up on and re-do to alter everything they intended. So they re-tooled, re-wrote and started off with the Washington D.C. segments and laid the Africa stuff as backstory that occurred off camera between.

They got 7 new episodes in the can before the writer’s strike kicked in for 2007-2008’s season, then the writer’s strike set in for months. Even when the strike was over, a show like this cannot catch up, nor can they do less than the “24” episodes that is the core of the show’s concept. Kiefer Sutherland also had to serve a jail sentence for drunk driving, and it all worked out.
The decision was to completely hold off any producing any new episodes until the 2008-2009 season.



So cut to the new season, FOX has already invested in 7 fully produced episodes and wants to continue where that left off. That means for the current season they have a surplus in their budget for 7 episodes and taking after another TV series, NBC-Universal’s Sci Fi Channel BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, they offered the producers a chance to make a one off 2 hour TV movie for 24 called REDEMPTION. They could use the majority of the 7 episode surplusmoney to produce it, and the writers/producers decided to dust off their scripts and ideas for the AFRICA storyline. NOW they get to produce the African storyline with even more budget, not conflict with the 24 hour real time aspects, and get the backstory for the new season as something we can visually see with high production values.



Still following the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA model, used to do their 2 hour movie RAZOR in 2007, this 24 movie REDEMPTION will also get released within a day or two of its airing on DVD in a longer, unrated producer’s cut. Since the new season doesn’t start until January, they can still satiate fans with new content in the fall with this made for TV movie. Given what neophiles and the compulsive nature of fandom, this idea has real brilliance. The buildup hype for the new season, using annual production budget surplus, and then offer it as a retail item immediately for the big cash return. It’s genius, if only because the product is good.

Next week I’ll be watching the broadcast, then probably renting the producer’s cut, and getting psyched for some Jack Bauer terrorist ass kicking since it’s been nearly 2 years. I love these ancillary products like the TV movie for things I’m into. It deepens the mythology of the stories I like, it creates alternative revenue for a dying industry, and it’s just feeding the fans desire for MORE of anything.

Electoral Pinings

Today, I voted. Seemingly this would be an innocuous feat, but I’m 36 years old and I have never voted before. In my youth, I vowed never to vote as a stand against several things; I hate the two party system which denigrates the entire concept of “democracy” as to me it becomes simply a less obvious and only slightly more voluntary monarchy of sorts. The second reason I never voted was because of the Electoral College. I find the entire concept, created in an era when it was blamed on technology as a way to supersede the real counting of ballots for such a large collection of supposedly free peoples.

I broke my vow because the last 8 years have sucked. Plain and simple, there has been suckage. I am a pragmatic anarchist in terms of how I view politics. The real problems of society and especially America at this point all revolve around a greater problem than pointing fingers at any one person or even small group of individuals. I also believe that one man/woman can make a difference to make a, forgive the cliché, change.



Unfortunately, this year looked to be a tough decision. In 2007 I started paying attention to the the maverick, John McCain. He looking into his past and his history, I would have really believed in him as a man to rebel against traditional Republican nasties, but still be conservative where it counted. Then the last 6 months have him undoing everything he used to believe in to cater to a Republican base. THE DAILY SHOW, unlike the formerly respectable media, actually showed a montage of things he said from 1999-2007 and played them back to back with Summer 2008 speeches of John McCain and he has gone 180 degrees the other way. He doesn’t believe in what he’s saying now or he changed his mind, either way, he’s not someone I would then trust in office, nor is that something I find respectable. He’s not evil, nor do I find him to be a bad person, but he’s not earning any respect, and now not my first vote.

What happened to the media being watchdogs? Why aren’t they really attacking some key, important issues? Why do I have to get a sense of justice from a comedy show? The “news” if they dare to be called that, has become “info-tainment”. Whole networks or individual shows now cater to specific points of view and warp facts & reality to the point of creating mistrust in the news. I can’t stand either polarizing side at this point. It appears that the Associated Press and Reuters are about all that’s left of news organizations that try to leave their politics and views out and just report facts, and even then they still fall prey to the sway of press releases and rumors, only not as often.

The state of the world today and how it affects me directly got me off my ass (the tubby one) and into the booth today. My goal was to get up and go to the polls between 9:30AM-11:00AM because by my logic, all the early go-to-workers will be done and I can beat the vote-at-lunch-crowd too. Also, I guessed the lines would be down because of all the early voting, that including My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ this past Sunday, who braved a 4+ hour line. Today we go to the polling place and I walk right in, no lines outside. They direct me to the 3 windows broken down alphabetically, and there’s no line for “R”, so I then go right up to one of the 20 voting machines, more than half of which empty await voters. I cast my votes and got on out of there. I guess this is NOT the experience of waiting that I was expecting. I had brought a book, some juice, and a mindset for waiting.



Even though the electoral way of voting seems futile and the unfairness of getting to only select one of two candidates chosen for me, I still felt it necessary to vote today. It seemed important and could make a significant difference to how things are going to go. I voted what I believe to be best for the future and to make the most impact in a positive light.

I’m inundated with editing work, all of which keeps me from working on the documentary now less than 2 weeks from playing in front of an audience. YIKES! Time is NOT my friend. I want to take a week to myself when COWTOWN is done. It won’t happen, but it’s what I would like.

Anyways….

- Peter John Ross on Election Day