The TV thread

I can’t wait until Kelsey Grammer complains that the show has been canceled because he’s a Republican.

 

I sheepishly admit I watched "Outer Range." A wasted 8 hours of my life. There was so much ..... so many ...... oh, never mind. Don't even bother.

 

Mike Schur talks about what his “Field of Dreams” TV show would’ve been had it not been axed. It sounded pretty good. Andre Braugher, Kristen Bell, Nick Offerman and William Jackson Harper were going to be characters.

 

Is it anything like Poe’s story?

 

I thought so too. They've uploaded the first episode onto YouTube as well and I watched it Saturday afternoon when some of the college games were blah. The writing seems to be approaching the tightness that was there in the original show. I also thought having the show center around the death of John Mahoney was a good plan.

 

Bad night for TV last night. Amish Witches made my slapping hand itch. Generation V was ugly, gross, and stupid. Why do vehicles lose their souls and sense of humor as soon as the Muppet Babies Editions come out? (I'm lookin' at you, too, Wednesday, Riverdale, and Sabrina.) Actually, Muppet Babies was darned near brilliant for what it was. I need a better example.

 

The success of and the money made by actual play gaming shows like Critical Role is drawing interest from TV producers. Essentially something close to a reality show, where the script is created by those playing the game (and thus no need to pay for a writer's room), if they can figure out how to make a show that is interesting to the non-D&D playing crowd there is potentially money to be made. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome to make it a viable TV property. For instance, virtually every such actual play show is very time consuming, often a three to four hour run time once a week. Obviously that's not going to fly as a television property unless they can break it into one hour shows and compact a lot of the time intensive elements without losing the charm of the game, the interpersonal interactions that build audience buy in to the various players and the GM.

The trick to this is figuring out how to make a commercially viable TV show without losing the things that make an actual play show interesting to watch, without forcing a plot that the producers want to see into storytelling that is at it's heart communally written by the players as they interact and respond to events, enhanced by the randomness of dice rolls which decide the success or failure of their efforts. That's going to be a helluva fine line to walk, and I don't know if Hollywood will be able to restrain the impulse to override what makes the show so interesting.

Hollywood is going to come for D&D actual plays sooner or later — will they survive?

We'll see if they can bring it off. If any of you have any interest, the best example I can offer is an offshoot of Critical Role called Exandria Unlimited: Calamity. It's a four episode show - but the run time is 19 hours or so. It's up on Youtube, and if you've never watched anything like this the first hour of the first episode will do a lot to inform your choice as to whether you want to invest the time. Hell, once you get past the pitch to sell some merch and the introductions, the first 23 minutes is just the storyteller and one player doing a scene, and that all by itself will tell you what this show is like. At an hour in you will have met three, perhaps four of the characters. It's one hell of a role playing game show, both players and gamemaster/storyteller operating at a very high level. No Matthew Mercer, although the show is set in the legendary past of the world he has created, but you get Travis Willingham, Sam Riegel, and Marisha Ray from the core cast, as well as as well as Aabria Iyengar who is phenomenal, and a couple of others who are very good but you are unlikely to have ever heard of. (As if most of you have heard of the people I named, lol.) The gamemaster is Brennan Lee Mulligan, who is absolutely world class at role playing games.

Give this a shot if you have any interest. I don't invest my time in these often, but this show is a topnotch example of this form. Even if you don't play D&D you'll be able to follow most of it from context. The imagination, the dialogue and situations that the players spark, the way these people build a world and inhabit it is not something the non-tabletop gaming community sees often.

 

I remember watching Bebe Neuwirth in an interview and she was stunning. I think she was a dancer and she had amazing legs. I was shocked.
Khandi Alexander is another former dancer with amazing legs.

 

I honestly forgot Poe's story (read it in HS) so I'm not a good resource.

 

Neuwirth and David Hyde-Pierce are both excellent in Julia on Max, which is coming back next month for season 2. I doubt we will get any more Frasier alums.

 

If I have one complaint after two new Frasier episodes, it's that they seem to be pushing a Frasier nephew (Niles' son) into the mix. He isn't necessary to a pretty good ensemble.

 

This is known as someone who stands behind their principles.