Dan Harmon
In 1988, Glenn Gordon Carson wrote the premiere of Moonlighting Season 5. It was called “Womb With A View” and is my all time favorite episode. It was the last episode he ever wrote, as he was fired as Executive Producer and never returned to Moonlighting. In 2003, Aaron Sorkin wrote the Season 4 finale of The West Wing. He led the show up to a major cliff hanger. He was fired and never wrote for The West Wing again. Thursday night 2012, Community played its Season 3 finale produced by Dan Harmon. News came out days before that the show was renewed. We all rejoiced. Two days later Dan Harmon was fired. I am pretty freaking sure he will never write for Community again. I have compared Community to Moonlighting quite a bit these last weeks on our podcasts and the comparisons continue. Cybill Shepherd was not a fan of Glenn Gordon Caron. Chevy Chase was not a fan of Dan Harmon. The brass at Sony Studios and NBC say that the Chevy feud had nothing to do with why Dan Harmon was fired. I believe ABC said the same thing about Moonlighting. NBC said the same thing about The West Wing. In the past, when they have removed the main creative person behind a show, the show fails. When David Lynch went off to make Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks crumbled. David E. Kelley left Chicago Hope and Picket Fences, both shows suffered. When Joss Whedon stopped being in charge of the daily goings on at Buffy, the show became unwatchable. The West Wing and Moonlighting became shells of their former selves. This becomes a pattern so predictable you would think that networks would be able to see it. In fact it’s so predictable you would think they would sign this pattern to a 13 episode commitment because predictability is what Network Stooges like most.
Aaron Sorkin - Fired From His Own Show
I love Community and I want the final 13 episodes to succeed but I am fairly certain that will be impossible without the writing staff that brought us here. The really scary part of Community is that the other show runners are leaving as well. We all want to see Community sent off with the final season it deserves. What would possibly be the point of bringing this show back for a shortened season without the heart that made it? I have seen Dan Harmon interviewed. I have read his online statements. I find him to be a very unpleasant person. I would never want to work with him. Aaron Sorkin seems like he’s twice as arrogant as the characters he creates. Glenn Gordon Caron freaking discovered and created Bruce Willis. Can you imagine that ego? I wouldn’t want to have to manage that person. Guess what? That is why I am not a network executive. The fact that these writers are difficult is what makes them artists. Networks should want that kind of person. Do we want to eat dinner with them? No. Do we want to try to force them to meet a deadline? No. But we do want them to write our entertainment. They are called artists. They see the world differently and they don’t follow the norms. So what can we as viewers do? Well, I think we blog, we podcast and we try to point our friends in the right direction when we see great shows, great networks and over all greatness. Dan Harmon should do what everyone should do when they are fired. Go do something better. Community is a great show; I know he can make a better one. Just don’t go to NBC when you come up with it.
Check out my Other Community Blogs
A review of their Return to Primetime
Read my list of the best episodes of Community
Listen to our Podcast about Community
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Tonight Ben Folds Rocked the Suburbs of Columbus, Ohio for a charity event that they said raised $150,000 for Nationwide Children’s Hospital. But more important than that he used Twitter, Face book and Email to show where entertainment is going. An hour before show time I tweet @benfolds asking him to open the Show with Effington from his CD Way to Normal. In two minutes he replied: @redroompodcast DONE. And sure enough he opened the show with Effington. I responded asking if I could be so bold as to hear Boxing from his first CD with Ben Folds Five. He announced from the stage that from a request from a tweet, here is Boxing. It made me feel involved and made the show interactive. He also carried out a request from someone who tweeted him asking if Ben would be so kind to tell some dude that he was an Asshole. Ben obliged. In the midst of beating up the solo piano for a 2 hour set, Ben asked how many people had smart phones there. Most of the crowd raised their hands. Ben then gave out an address: ImaDamVP@gmail.com. He told us to send an email to that address and he would send us a free Ben Folds Five brand new song from their upcoming CD. I did immediately and so did countless others. This is the new media. As we sit here in the last days of when executives control what we will watch and listen to, I look forward to when the people who consume the art will decide. Ben is going to give his song away to his fans for free because he knows we will pay for the album when it is completed. We will go to see him in concert and we will buy his T-shirts. We here at the Red Room Podcast give our weekly show about television away for free because its what we love to do. Art and commerce have always been the guiding light of what we report here. Tonight, I was moved by music, technology and a hope for the future of Art. And he sang Boxing for me. Pretty awesome. I encourage you all to email Ben and get on the mailing list and help support Ben Folds Five to record, produce, distribute and control their art and their music and we will all be better for it.
To hear Boxing from Columbus, go to Youtube, The video is poor but you can at least hear it.
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If you are a fan of Late Night Talk Shows, this is a great week for you . . . and me. My TV obsession has always been Late Night Shows. I love the idea behind them, the study of them and I love watching how different hosts work on variations of the same format. The format that was famously perfected by the great Johnny Carson. On Monday May 14th, do yourself a favor and tune in, DVR or TiVo the American Masters Series on PBS at 9 PM. They are having a two hour documentary on Johnny Carson. Even though Johnny retired in 1992 and passed away in 2005, this is the first sanctioned look at the greatest TV star in American History. They recorded over 45 interviews with some of the greatest living comedians alive. To prepare, I watched my copy of the show David Letterman did the week after Johnny died. Dave did an hour tribute to his mentor. I had saved the show back in the day and pulled it out this morning to watch. His guest was Peter Lassally, the executive producer of The Tonight Show for twenty years. The stories they told were amazing and it made me so excited to watch the documentary tomorrow. He also had on Doc Severinsen and members of the Tonight Show Band. They played an instrumental piece called Here’s That Rainy Day. It was so beautiful. I can not believe that kind of music used to be played on television on a nightly basis. I am so looking forward to this documentary. I have always viewed comedy as a science and I study at the hands of the masters. Johnny was the King of Comedy, the King of Late night and a Prince of a guy.
The other big late night event this week is on May 17th. Conan O’Brien will be a guest of Dave for the first time in 13 years. More importantly, the first time since Conan joined the two man club of people who got The Tonight Show stolen from them by Leno. I can’t wait to hear these two comedy giants discuss their experiences in late night, NBC and their dealings with one of the most successful hacks: Jay Leno. I am assuming since both Conan and Dave are taking part in the Johnny documentary that they will discuss that as well. I am very excited that this week a legend is being recognized. I have a hope, futile as it may be, that this will inspire a new generation of comedians to balance hilarity with civility. As they said between each commercial bumper on the true Tonight Show…More To Come.
Read my Blog on Johnny Carson
Read my Review of all the current talk show hosts
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This week we are back with Part 2 of our Top 100 Countdown of the best TV characters of all time. We are now moving into the section of some of our favorites. If you missed part one, it is located below on the same page. But enjoy the countdown from #66 up to # 34. Next Week we will reveal the last part and get you to the all time Number 1 TV character, but for now enjoy the middle section. You can download at iTunes or listen below.
Listen to Part 2 Here:
MP3 File
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We finish out the TV season with a list. This time we searched high and we searched low and came up with the top 100 TV Characters of all time. We split this podcast into 3 parts taking on 33 characters at a time. We will post the three shows on this page each weekend here to finish out our season of podcasts. Basically the ranking is subjective and making the list is what counts. Most of our characters are from the 90′s to now because that is when TV became more realistic. And for all the people that complained that the Simpson’s didn’t make last season’s count down of the best shows of all time, don’t worry, Homer is on the list.
Enjoy Part one 100-67:
Part 1 of our Countdown of the top 100 TV Characters of all Time
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I just finished watching Game Change on HBO. The Red Room is close to rounding out the coverage of our first full TV season. Many of my friends ask me why we cover television. Television? Why not something else? Game Change is why. This HBO movie about the McCain/Palin campaign of 2007 is the reason that right now TV is the place to be. This made for TV movie was better than EVERY movie I saw at the theater in the last year, or 2 or 3. And why is this a TV movie? It has a guaranteed Emmy winning turn by Julianne Moore. Why not an Oscar? Because a studio wouldn’t touch this subject. No way, no how. Studios are as far behind as the political process the movie portrays. And I have to be honest, I am fired up about it. I am so sick of Vampire movies. I am so sick of super heroes movies. Can someone please make something that an educated 40 year old would want to see? Or even better, is compelled to see. Well, yes they can. They put it on TV. Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, and Game Change are tackling subjects studios would run fun. And lets look at what this movie shows. It shows how easily the people who chose our government would gladly put up a candidate who knows nothing, as long as they can win. And that isn’t the plot of the movie, in fact its not even the sub plot. No one says, this person, this character, Sarah, would ruin the country if she won. No one cares, they want to win. The movie handles this deception that was almost played on the public with very little time. They do not struggle with this moral decision, they know we know these people have no morals and in not covering that topic it is more subversive than any Hollywood movie would ever attempt. Viewing it as a story told in a movie think on this: it is a plot where the main character doesn’t win. Can you imagine Hollywood spending money on a movie where the main character loses? That is a movie that hasn’t been made since The Empire Strikes Back in 1981. And to be fair, that isn’t why HBO is making it either because they know that everyone watching the movie will know that Obama wins. But its an interesting thought, what if they made movies where sometimes the main character was dumb and a great mom. That was arrogant but also wanted to do good for special needs kids. Someone who loses but doesn’t know it. It would be deemed too complex a character probably even for HBO.
I am old fashioned when it comes to TV. I think it should be great. In watching this movie, I wonder where we would be without HBO movies. Recount is a great movie just like John Adams, From the Earth to the Moon and countless others. Game Change was produced by Tom Hanks. Even a two time Oscar winner can’t bank roll a movie for the big screen with a grown up, important plot. There was a scene in the movie when the financial crisis began and John McCain historically suspended his campaign to go back to Washington to work on the bail out. All factual and I remembered it clearly. But the thought I had was how from now until November we are going to be told by the Republican party and FOX News that the financial melt down happened on Obama’s watch. Even though we all know it happened in the summer of 2007. And a good portion of Americans will believe it because they can’t even remember 4 years ago. And may I say the right should and can blame the left for many things but that melt down isn’t one of them. I had to pause the movie at that spot and think about our political process. Imagine the gull of a movie causing me to think? But I guess the people who just believe what they are told despite having lived through it will simply go see a summer blockbuster and not notice that it is just the 400th version of a vampire, magical, super hero cartoon, Pixar, alien, twentysomething, rom-com that they have seen a million times before. We need a Game Change in all our art forms.
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