Is Fringe getting renewed, or cancelled?
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News on the street is that negotiations have started up for the renewal of Fringe for a fifth season. But that’s the sliver of good news. The not so good news says that Fox says that they are losing money airing the show. And that, my dear readers, is never a good thing when it comes to a TV show on the air, but then again, it’s almost always the inevitable with every single TV series.
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What that Fox statement about losing money on Fringe says is that basically, viewers have strayed and the ratings are not baiting the advertisers. And I get that, as the show has sort of hit a pothole or two along the way from mid-last season to mid-this season. But something has changed in the show and we suddenly have a few new dynamics that are making the show look a bit better than it has been in a long time.
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-Andy Rooney passed away Friday, a mere one month after signing off with his last telecast on the 60 Minutes news broadcast. Andy Rooney was 92 and died from complications from what’s called a minor surgery.
He was a cornerstone of wry wit, reflecting on trends and fads with that usual, “Why do we really need it” kind of perspective. His observations left no stone unturned as he pondered being a pack-rat, hoarding celebrity autographs and the latest social trends on the internet.
He was always on the leading edge of what ever was happening and he was mostly always right for the thirty-three years that he spouted his observations WHY? on the air.
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So the after-Friday reports are coming out and without baseball going on, other shows benefited from that. Or at least that’s how it’s being spun in some circles.
For Grimm fans (Check out my Grimm season premiere TV review), it’s numbers dropped, but still beat out the other genre show, Fringe. (5.9 vs 3.3 million estimated viewers.)
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-Laugh Track; Laff Boxx or Canned Laughter… but no matter how you label it, it’s still a tool used to propogate the popularity of various entertainment performances. And, like advertising on TV, it works.
Take a single moment and think about this: If laugh tracks didn’t work to the advantage of the studios to elicit what they want out of TV show viewers, laugh tracks would not stick around. Because, face it, it costs money to add in post-production and studios don’t waste money.
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There are those that don’t mind the proliferation of laugh tracks in their show, but then there are those who can’t take the repeated mental pounding of this trick and sadly, I’m one of them.
The other day I had tried to partake in a comedy series premiere for the TV show called Whitney. The show was hilarious, but it turned out that on average, a laugh track went off every seven seconds. And that was too distracting for me to be able to enjoy the show.
For me, (That is an important distinction here) I find laugh tracks to be distracting and I feel insulted that someone feels I need to be psychologically convinced or prompted that I think something is funny. Or that a laugh track will make me think more agreeable thoughts about a TV show. I tend to think for myself and I’m swayed by things besides programmed psychological ambiance.
Again, that’s me. I know other folks out there feel different about laugh tracks. I had written a piece on Whitney and made note about being driven bats from the very distracting laugh track. Think about it, every 7 seconds. Yea, my mute button was getting a workout.
It got me to thinking about it and I started to wonder who in god’s name started laugh tracks???
Comedy in TV and Movies on AMAZON
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Have you ever been watching a TV show and suddenly there’s a song blasting at you that makes you go, “Wow!”, and now you have to have that song on your player?
The other night my wife was watching The Secret Circle, and there was a tune in the background that just caught both our attentions.
I headed out and was able to find the exact name of the song.
Yea, I get moments like that too. Sometimes a tune jumps out at you!
One good way to find a song is to head on over to TuneFind. I don’t know how quickly they update, but they seem to be pretty quick about it. I looked at a few shows and TV shows that aired the previous night from when I’m writing this now had music track updates.
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Fringe‘s fourth season premiere has started on an all new path. Olivia (Anna Torv) seems more in charge than she did before. Both sides are now working together. The Observer (Michael Cerveris) is on an assignment to wipe someone from history, and oh yea, Peter (Joshua Jackson) never existed.
It’s a new path in which Fringe‘s third season finale showed us… Peter kicked in the machine that he powered and he disappeared. But before he did, he managed to get both sides, both universes to work together. And then he just vanished. From view and from time.
Now, Peter has never existed and the world moves on as if he never existed. Things have occurred or not occurred, depending on how march a part of an event he was.
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If you’re wondering what new Fall 2011 TV shows are having their season premiere for new or returning this week starting Sunday, September 18th, here’s the list of shows showing up!
Of note… favorites like Castle & Hawaii Five-0 are back! Also Fringe and Supernatural! Not to mention Grey’s Anatomy, The Biggest Loser season premiere and well, a whole bunch of faves.
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New DVD & Blu-ray releases coming out this week include mutants, a community of funny people, a classic Al Pacino flick, some hard-core exercising and a few more TV shows with sci-fi tendencies and some crimes that need to be solved. Don’t forget, we also have a child assassin on the loose, exploring the world for the first time!
With that said…
Movies Coming to DVD/Blu-ray
The highly praised sci-fi/fantasy comic book genre movie, X-Men: First Class, starring Starring James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, is due out this week. Though most new DVD releases are coming out September 6th, this title is coming out Sept. 9th.
If you’re curious about the single-disk DVD version, check out my DVD Review of X-Men: First Class. I also talk about the Blu-ray features you can expect. The Blu-ray is the way to go. It’s loaded with two hours of content.
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Amongst some of the new Blu-ray releases this week is the classic, Scarface, with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer, is coming to Blu-ray finally. The Blu-ray is called ‘Scarface Limited Edition Steelbook [Blu-ray + Digital Copy].’
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Hanna Starring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana & Cate Blanchett is finally here. But before making any snap decisions, feel free to check out my movie review of Hanna.
The quick of it: Almost all the action scenes are in the preview movie clips you’ve seen. The rest of the movie is a journey as Hanna crawls out of the rabbit hole. (That will all make sense to those who have seen it.)
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Scream Five-Film Set (Scream 1-3 + Two Documentaries) starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette and the rest of the murderee’s are part of this collected set of Scream movies is coming out on Blu-ray disc.
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TV News
Check out some bits of TV news I dug up for the upcoming new seasons for Fringe, House, Law & Order: SVU and Storm Chasers:
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Fringe‘s new season will kick it in gear in what I gather, will be the future from where it ended last season, when Peter didn’t seem to exist. The whacky part though, is a quote or two from executive producer Jeff Pinker to TV Guide:
The future that we had seen in Fringe in past episodes, will now, not be the same. Since past events are changed, that impacts the unfolding of future events.
Pinker also said the following:
“There will definitely be [flashback] episodes, but the past would be different as well because Peter wasn’t a part of it, but he would be in the future.”
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Law & Order: SVU will be handling Chris Meloni‘s exit in an absentee fashion. We will not be seeing Meloni in the upcoming new season of Law & Order: SVU in other words.
Instead, season 13 of L&O: SVU will be starting up with Stabler on adminstrative leave and Olivia will be figuring out how to do things on her own.
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More on House and Storm Chasers after the break:
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Ted Danson is replacing Laurence Fishburne on CBS’s hit crime-drama, CSI.
Danson’s character is a graveyard shift supervisor who steps up to the role as the team is still reeling from the events between Langsom and serial killer Nate Haskell.
If you’re thinking Ted Danson? The funny guy from Cheers??? Think again. I was a huge fan of the Glenn Close starrer Damages. He’s spent a season being the “bad guy” over there and he was impressive in that dramatic role.
I don’t expect as much in this role as he had in Damages, but I’m not worried at all about his stepping up into the CSI cast-cadre. Yea, Damages was that good.
And don’t forget, we’ll also be seeing the departure of Marg Helgenberger, if she hasn’t changed her mind about leaving the show. I expect her departure sometime in the first few episodes of the 12th season of CSI.
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Jewel Staite lands a guest appearance on the CW’s hit demon-hunting drama, Supernatural!
She’ll be appearing in the third episode of the upcoming 7th season of Supernatural and will be playing one of Sam’s childhood friends. Thanks to Buddy TV for the TV news tidbit.
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-Comic Con released their schedule for Saturday, July 23rd for their 2011 Comic-Con event in San Diego.
Saturday seems lite on movies and heavy on TV with a few focused panels on some fan-focused personalities like Robert Kirkman, J. Michael Straczynski, Kevin Smith and Joss Whedon.
Movies making appearances in panels include TWIXT, Immortals, Knights of Badassdom & Snow White and the Huntsmen. TV shows include Chuck, Terra Nova, The Vampire Diaries, Fringe, Alcatraz, Being Human, Sanctuary and more.
Check out first, Ballroom 20‘s schedule, followed by Hall H‘s schedule and after that, a selective list of events from other rooms and locations. This is NOT a comprehensive listing of everything… so be sure to check out the Comic Con website for more and updated details.
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Ballroom 20
- 10:00-10:45 Chuck Screening and Q&A
- 11:00-12:00 Terra Nova
- 12:15-1:00 Futurama
- 1:00-1:45 The Simpsons
- 2:00-2:35 Family Guy
- 2:35-3:15 American Dad
- 3:30-4:15 The Vampire Diaries Screening and Q&A
- 4:30-5:15 Fringe Screening and Q&A
- 5:15-6:00 Alcatraz Pilot Screening and Q&A
- 8:30-11:30 HBO’s True Blood Presents the Comic-Con International Masquerade
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Hall H
- 11:45-12:45 TWIXT: Francis Ford Coppola and Dan Deacon
- 1:00-2:00 Relativity Media: Immortals
- 2:15-3:15 Knights of Badassdom
- 3:30-4:15 Universal Pictures: Snow White and the Huntsmen
- 4:30-5:30 Further over the Rainbow: A First Look at Dorothy of Oz
- 5:45-7:30 An Early Evening with Kevin Smith
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