Now I’m not a big TV fan really. There isn’t a lot of British Telly that will make me remember to set aside an hour every week, I don’t really feel like any of it is aimed at me. If I really feel the need to watch something that looks really important I’ll have to find it on the internet because it’s American. The US just gets TV in a way that we don’t which is why I’ll spend hours tracking down Mad Men in a good enough quality to meet my demands and I will still sit my arse down at 18.00 every week day for The Simpsons (unless it’s one of the new ones) at the same time as derisively spitting in the direction of home-grown dramas that will I assume involve corsets, bonnets and people getting out of carriages in front of the same two or three stately homes used for this type of thing.

We can either chase the audiences that fantasise about the bonnets and arrogant attractively aloof douchebags on horses or we go catastrophically off the deep end of the other direction and make shows that belong underneath the mulch at the bottom of the cultural gutter like the god-awful Skins. Caution: All teenagers are having drug ‘n’ sex parties all the time! I’m convinced that show is written by reactionary old men trying to justify the creation of nationwide curfews and muzzles for anyone below the age of 20.

Which is not to say that America always gets it right. I mean look at Heroes. The series that showed a great deal of promise indeed during its first season and then catapulted gleefully into nonsense from there on in as the writers sit atop the whole mess, flying through the abyss shooting looks of panicked terror at each other. That show is such a mess that the best thing they could do with it is to collect all the characters together in the middle of a desert somewhere and nuke them all into oblivion, starting afresh. I wouldn’t bet against that being a back up plan of some description, it’s just the sort of plot contrivance they love.

So why, why is it gods of TV, why is the first British TV show to capture my interest for longer than two minutes a bizarre combination of the two shows I just crapped on? E4’s Misfits would be what happened if Heroes and Skins had a hilarious, sweary, filthy baby in a parallel universe where that could be considered a good idea. The show’s premise takes the idea of the cultural impact of comic book style super-powers that fiction has been examining for the last twenty years to a logical and very British conclusion. Why should crazy-awesome super powers only find their way to lantern-jawed, morally strong, John Everyman and not to a bunch of dirty kids with ASBOs doing community service? All the way up to the end of the first episode I still wasn’t sure whether it was genius or eye-rollingly lame. I seriously doubt it’s a work of genius but it certainly is a hell of a lot of fun. If you like the idea of serious written actors, acting seriously inside a silly plot with some even sillier moments thrown in for laughs then you should definitely be watching this. Warning: If you are planning on doing so you may want to read this after you’ve watched the available episodes. I’ll try not to spoil anything but I may do so you know, get on YouTube.

So the cast of broken, almost morally bankrupt criminals get zapped by a deus ex machina in the form of a mysterious electrical storm and get mental super powers that they do not decide to utilise by banding together and saving the world. They don’t even like each other. You’ve got the rotten chav (complete with hilarious ‘what were you aiming for’ all-purpose chav accent) suddenly becoming telepathic, the promising athlete with his bright future shattered by a drugs bust somehow gaining future sight, a possible sociopath mental kid predictably being gifted with invisibility (but only when no one is looking. Seriously. I have that super-power at bars) as well as an amoral party girl that men absolutely MUST have sex with when they touch her as played by Antonia Thomas who is so pretty she actually makes me profoundly sad.

Pictured: My self worth evaporating.

But these guys pale in comparison to the show’s greatest asset and only member of the main cast who seemingly didn’t gain any powers from the storm, Nathan played by the fantastic Robert Sheehan (last seen in the last Channel 4 show to leave me gobsmacked and official best thing on TV since Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, Red Riding in which he played troubled cross-dressing rentboy B.J.) Nathan is one of those roles that young actors must be willing to kill for. He’s allowed to behave outrageously and is constantly blessed with the every episode’s funniest line, delivering them with obvious glee. Through characters like Nathan, shows like these waste no time letting you know what you’re in for. The C Word is sprinkled liberally throughout but never feels too gratuitous, let’s be honest here, if all the people I regularly hung around with all got super-powers and I didn’t I think I’d be shouting the C Word a lot too.

Misfits serves out its subject matter with equal parts respect and mockery. Every deadly serious scene or plot is littered with ridiculous, smirk-inducing moments. Kelly’s telepathy reveals things she doesn’t want to know, leading her to find out exactly what everyone thinks of her and to break up with her grubby boyfriend in the same scene as she hears her dog’s mind muttering about going next door to ‘shag that poodle, she’s proper dirty’. In the fourth episode Curtis is tragically forced to repeat the moment that ruined his life for the greater good and we find out Simon is more fucked up than we already thought all against the back drop of a super trendy rave-type thing with all the popular electro hits of the day! Anyone who saw this episode gets bonus points if they can tell me what in god’s name a ‘rolex sweep’ is. Nathan gets to engage in the most hysterical bout of foreplay before a shocking revelation is made. See where we’re going here? No plot point is treated with utmost reverence or flippancy. A healthy balance is maintained never allowing the viewer to take it too seriously or to lose interest.

I haven’t managed to track down the fifth episode yet so forgive me if I’m a little out of date here (but you know, I am on the other side of the world, cut me some slack) but I already know this is very much a guilty pleasure I will devour as quickly as I can get my hands on it. Very few shows have the power to make me laugh out loud on my own after all. I have to think if a programme achieves that you have to stick with it. Also if you’re into that kind of thing they apparently have Twitter updates from the actual characters during the beginning parts of the episodes that will help clue the audience in on the identity of a mysterious figure to be revealed in the final episode which is just delightfully NOW but I wouldn’t know about that seeing as I refuse to venture into those murky depths. I may be watching what equates to Skin-roes but I’m not doing Twitter! I can take solace in that.

As of the time of writing the first four episodes are all up in very good quality on YouTube so go do yourself a favour and have a bit of fun if you’re not watching already. And if you are watching it already: Oh-mah-gaw right? I know! How crazy was that last one!??!??!?!!! and all that business.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=misfits+1×01&search_type=&aq=f

DH.

This one’s for the Darkplace fans out there.

For the uninitiated, Darkplace is quite possibly one of the funniest shows ever made. British, ridiculous, hilarious. Especially for anyone who was at all sentient in the 80’s, there’s a lot here to love.

Watch this clip. Brilliant.

Please pay close attention to Sanchez’s recipe suggestion ::

Sanchez: What I do is sometimes get a tin of soup…
Dagless: Yeah.
Sanchez: …Heat it up, poach an egg in it, serve that with a pork pie, sausage roll.
Dagless: I’ll get a Wimpy.

Though Liz doesn’t bite, Sanch does have a chance to serve his favorite later in the episode ::

On a recent Friday, we were searching for dinner options in a somewhat barren fridge and Sanch sprang to mind. So, I took the plunge. Egg in soup.

I didn’t poach it (I went with fried, sunny side up), but served it very much as pictured above. I did not have the pork pie, sausage roll on hand, so I went with two eggs. Cream of chicken soup. Here is the result ::

However it sounds to the reader, I must say, it was delicious. Props to Sanch. Liz and Dagless really have no idea what they’re missing.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

It’ll make you laugh, cry, and shit yourself at the same time.

If you have never seen this show… you are missing one of the funniest shows ever.

Darkplace is a parody of the horror genre. The show is created by the fictional character Garth Marenghi who is the “Orson Wells of horror.”

Each episode starts with Garth talking to you about his show, and during each episode their are interviews with the characters.

You will honestly laugh non-stop through each episode.

My favorite character in this show is Dr. Sanchez. And here is a reason why:

He also has hundreds of great lines, such as:

If those two videos haven’t convinced you to watch this show, then your a dick.

It’s only 6 episodes long, and is the funniest 6 eps you will see.

I also am going to write no more on this subject because I am really tired, however i wanted to make you aware of this show.

Until Next Time, OBALLER.

Resonance is a British artsy radio station, and as with everything done pro bono, there’s plenty of throwaway stuff but also some interesting people and music on. The reason I’ve been tuning in lately is the recent appearance of legendary dreamweaver Garth Marenghi (of Darkplace) on the OST show. It was quite good, lots of tasty tunes were played and of course, any Marenghi interview is not to be missed.

Luckily for you, it’s going to be repeated tomorrow (Wednesday 22nd), at 3 PM GMT, so be sure to catch it!

Todd Rivers – “One Track Lover”:

The past is stirring in the halls of Darkplace, and for Dr. Rick Dagless M.D., that means Trouble. With a capital T (the rest of the letters lowercase). Something long dead has been reborn on ‘B’ Wing. Is it a macabre sign, a terrible warning, or a sacred gift from the gods? What’s certain is that it is a giant eye. A journey of discovery lies ahead for both of them… Garth Marenghi, the titan of terror, introduces this lyrical episode of his hospital horror drama.

I love you Skippy

Some of the best stuff I’ve seen come out of the UK has been in a small, grainy box on Youtube and that needs to change in a hurry.  Come on BBC video, get cracking and get these shows ready for me to purchase!

The Mighty Boosh is a splendidly surreal trip into the universe of Vince Noir and Howard T.J. Moon (Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt).  Each episode finds the duo faced with a bizarre foe (often played by Fielding or Barratt) who often wants, or steals, something ridiculous from them.  Loaded with big laughs from the stars along with Rich Fulcher, Michael Fielding and a guy in an ape suit, the Boosh is a must have for my DVD collection.  Favorite characters include the Hitcher, the Crack Fox, Saboo, local crocodile Eric Phillips, and, of course, Old Gregg.  Look into this one if you love bizzarre comedy.

Peep Show series one is available but there are four more series out on DVD in the UK.  What happened?  Get those discs out.  A look inside the twisted minds’ of best friends, Mark and Jez (David Mitchell and Robert Webb), Peep Show pushes the boundary of good taste with each episode and I love it.  How can such horrible characters keep me wanting to see more of their story?  The best sopporting character has got to be Super Hans.

A similar case is I’m Alan Partridge starring the brilliant Steve Coogan.  Alan’s mock talk show Knowing Me, Knowing You and series one of I’m Alan Partridge are available but where is my series two?  Long before Ricky Gervais made you cringe uncomfortably, Alan was getting himself into some pretty awkward situations.  The biggest blowhard since Ted Baxter, Partridge is a great program that I want to see properly and in its entirety, please.  Fantastic stuff.

From Father Ted creator Graham Linehan comes the hilarious I.T. Crowd.  Moss and Roy are socially inept computer geeks who work in the basement of Reynholm Industries; their new boss, Jen, knows absolutely nothing about computers.  The set-ups in this sitcom are fantastic.  Roy trapped under a desk or Moss attempting to extinguish a fire don’t sound particualarly funny, but they are.  Snappy writing and great performances (especially Richard Ayoade as Moss) highlight the 12 episodes produced thus far.

Another sitcom featuring, and directed by, the aforementioned Richard Ayoade is Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.  The show is a bit high concept, which may explain why it lasted only one series, but it is ace.  Back in the 80s, schlock horror writer Garth Marenghi (the brilliant Matthew Holness) created a TV show which never saw the light of day, except for a brief run in Peru.  In the new millenium, however, the network asked him to release six episodes of the program spliced together with interviews of the cast.  A hilarious send up of cheap 80s sci-fi/horror, Darkplace needs to be on a shelf in my living room.

If you can find any of these shows anywhere on the world wide internet, watch them immediately.  Otherwise, wait and see if they arrive on this side of the pond for purchase as proper DVDs.  You will not be disappointed.

Honorable mention:  Nathan Barley and The Inbetweeners.  The first is a cult hit and the second is quite recent.

“There’s a lot of slow-motion. The episodes were running up to 8 minutes under. The only way to stretch them out was with slow-motion. And, we, tried to keep the slow-motion away from the dialogue as much as possible, but anything without dialogue was considered for slow-motion.”
-Dean Lerner

Fire Joe Morgan, a blog that satirizes bad sports writing, frequently chastises writers for excessive use of food metaphors, which are apparently frighteningly common in columns about Juan Pierre’s baseball prowess and the importance of not “clogging the bases.” I’m half-tempted to turn FJM’s lens on the reviews for My Blueberry Nights, few of which could resist using dessert puns to peg the movie (recently out on DVD) as an unsubstantial confection. I resist the temptation because as corny as they are, most of them are still pretty accurate.

This is a Kar Wai Wong film in which the lovelorn leave keys at restaurants and eat food immediately before it’s supposed to expire. This is not the first Kar Wai Wong film in which the lovelorn leave keys at restaurants and eat food immediately before it’s supposed to expire. That would be 1994’s Chungking Express, the film that (along with In the Mood For Love and 2046) established Wong as a pared-down romantic with a feel for loosely structured stories and moody, colorful visuals.

The light and airy shades of Chungking are replaced here with heavy red and black brocade, smothered in velvety musical layers of Norah Jones and repeated douses “Try A Little Tenderness” (soundtrack on Blue Note!). Kar-Wai filmed Chungking in 23 days as a break from another film, and it’s characterized by a spontaneity that leaves specific interpretations to the audience. My Blueberry Nights is the opposite, with heavy-handed letter-writing narration that tells the viewer exactly what protagonist Elizabeth (Norah Jones, in her acting debut) is feeling.

Jones herself is actually a respectable blank slate for Wong to slop with cinematic oil paints, but it doesn’t help that she’s upstaged by a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it film debut by fellow singer Chan Marshall (Cat Power) as the one who got away. Jones also doesn’t get much traction playing against Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, and Jude Law, who all go over the top and sport ridiculous accents in this film. I’ll admit that my skepticism of Law’s Manchester accent is secondhand, as I am far too much of an American original rube to distinguish between a London and Manchester brogue; I feel a bit more confident in thinking Weisz’s “oh mah gawd” Memphis femme fatale and Portman’s southwestern gambler could only have been greenlighted by a director from halfway around the world.

Visually the film makes more than a few interesting cinematography decisions, and more than a lot of extraneous, terrible ones. The worst are the incredibly distracting speed-change camera effects that produce a sort of stuttering action and, in their frequency, remind me of the explanation from the late, great Darkplace, quoted at the top of this post.

The Penn Relays Track and Field Meet – arguably the greatest track meet in the world – took place this past weekend at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Being a former competitive runner, I made it a point to mark my calender months in advance in anticipation of the phenomenal event. Penn Relays has everything that a running fan could hope for in a track meet; exciting races, a historic setting, and an energetic crowd. The meet is sure to be an absolute blast for followers of the sport.

Although I was in Philly for the entire weekend, I didn’t watch a single race. Now that I think about it, I didn’t even see the stadium. Come on people, I’ve got better things to do than hang out at a fucking track meet. What better things, you ask? Seeing a puppet show and punk band of course!

On Friday night, Scottbrundage.com and I arrived at Philly’s best nerd hostel, Mockubunkport. We slammed some beers while watching downloaded episodes of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. If you’ve never seen the British sci-fi/medical spoof, then I highly recommend checking it out on youtube. One of Scott’s college “love” interests, Allison, invited us to her birthday party at 10 Stone in Center City. How could we turn down the request? We jumped into the MockuMobile and headed other there.

The scene was kinda bizarre. The party’s attendees included Allison’s coworkers, current boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, and our idiotic trio. Thank God for alcohol. We got smashed and managed to offend only one hipster in the establishment. Scott and Mocku did urinate all over the walls of the bathroom, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. Mocku claims that he ran into Jeff Daniels (Harry from Dumb and Dumber) at the bar, but I’m convinced it was a Sparks mirage. We talked to a couple of girls until closing, but neither seemed to want anything to do with us. Once again, nothing out of the ordinary.

We headed over to Pat’s for some late-night cheesesteaks. After consuming the wads of grease and meat, Scott and I waited for Mocku by the car. From a distance, we could see him stumbling down the sidewalk, clearly too drunk to drive. We told him so once he got to the car, but he explained the situation: “Nah guys, I was just taking a piss while walking. I’m fine.” Who were we to argue? Arriving back to Mockubunkport, we soon passed out on couches half our size with the lights and television blaring. My standard Philly sleeping conditions.

On Saturday, we headed over to the 2pm showing of Animal Farm, staring Dave Johnse. Dave is an actor, currently performing in a puppet-rendition of the Orwellian classic. Before the show, I was grabbing a cup of coffee in Starbucks and met a super-cool girl named Erica. She informed us that she’s a bartender, and invited us to stop in for drinks later that evening. It would have been idiotic to turn down the offer.

Dave’s show was a blast, even with the annoying ADD kid sitting in the front row. My favorite part was when the animals overthrew Farmer Jones and his crew. Dave and the rest of the cast put on a great choreographed wrestling scene, which even included a sick body slam. Props Dave!

At this point of the day, I had planned on checking out some races, but Chuckblog VIP’s Catie and Danny came into town for the evening showing of Animal Farm. While enjoying some beverages and light-hearted laughs at Skinners, I made the mistake of inviting some random dude sitting alone at the bar to chill with our posse. He seemed like a decent enough fellow at first, but he turned out to be pretty fucking out of his mind. And by “out of his mind”, I mean in the uncool sense, as in he might have mutilated our bodies and murdered us later that night.

Things got wierd when he followed us to another bar across the street. At one point, I went to go use the bathroom, and he came in soon thereafter. I thought to myself “if we’re going to escape, this is the time to do it.” As I walked back to Mocku and Scott, I started mouthing the message, “If you want to leave…” at which point, Scott started shaking his head furiously before I could finish, and we darted from the bar. We left half-full drinks behind, being much more concerned with sprinting to avoid being caught by the dude as he walked out of the bathroom. It was a pretty mean thing to do, and we were fairly confident that the guy committed suicide after the incident. To get ditched by our group is deifnitely a sign of hitting rock bottom in life.

Next up on our itinerary was catching a performance by my friend Mark’s punk band that travelled in from NYC. The name of the band is Fucking Hell (FH), which sums up pretty much everything that the band represents. They’ve got a straight-up DIY, screw-everyone mentality, opposed to bands like Fallout Boy and whatever other group-of-the-year is conforming to their money-hungry record label. We picked up a case of Sparks before the show. I think it’s safe to say that  8 cans of Sparks per person is enough to let our hearts and blood pressure know who’s boss.

FH put on a great performance. In between songs, someone made the glorious mistake of yelling out “Voltron”, triggering Mocku’s nerd switch. He began yelling out a string of obscure, early 90’s robot-cartoon references, such as “Go-Bots”. People were either wildly amused or very confused. After FH ended, Scott accidentally cursed out a 10 year old girl at the show. I’m not sure of what’s more puzzling, the fact that a 10 year old girl was at a punk show, or Scott “accidentally” cursing her out. Soon thereafter, Mocku fell down the steps and broke the staircase. Needless to say, it was time to leave.

The mind-erasing effect of Sparks hit me hard after the show, so the details of the rest of the night are pretty fuzzy. We headed over to meet up with Erica, and kept our cool for the sake of her job. Knowing a bartender is very strange for someone like myself, as I’m so used to sneaking alcohol into bars via Lil’ Gibraltar. The next morning, Mocku said that I was so puzzled when I paid for less shots than were actually poured. I couldn’t grasp the concept of being given free drinks. I must consult with my scoundrelling mentor over this odd occurence. At closing, we headed back to Mockubunkport, resumed our positions on couches half our size with lights and television blaring, and packed it in for the night.

Thanks to all for the great weekend, including but not limited to SPA, Mocku, Dave, Danny, Catie, Erica, Mark, the residents of Chernobyl, and the makers of Sparks.

Chuckblog loves you more than Philly! Come back to me!

This is the intro from the best show i’ve seen in a very long time. I made a post about it a while ago. You can see it, and links to six full episodes on youtube by clicking here

Intro video

Deconstructing Darkplace and the decline of television

This is one of the funniest shows i’ve ever seen. All six episodes can be found at the links.

Episode 1   Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6

Part 1                                     Part 1      Part 1    Part 1        Part 1

Part 2                                   Part 2      Part 2    Part 2        Part 2

Part 3                                   Part 3     Part 3     Part 3         Part 3

Todd Rivers – “One Track Lover”

a bit of snuff from the Snuff Box

This post is about everything.

2008 is shaping up to be the best year for music EVER. We’ve already had leaks of kickass albums from Mexican bizarro-proggers The Mars Volta and Swedish skull-crushers Meshuggah. Add to that the huge amount of releases that are to come, and I’ll mention some of my most anticipated ones: Opeth, Guapo, Katatonia, Yndi Halda, Univers Zero, Anathema, Black Bonzo, Russian Circles, VDGG, Midlake, dredg, maybe Cynic and Enslaved… yes, all the best bands in the world are coming up with new stuff!

This year is also going to rule (at least for me ) in terms of live shows. You should already know I’m finally seeing Maiden this August – but what I’m really pumped for right now is the melloboat. The lineup is amazing: in two nights I’ll be seeing Opeth, Comus, Katatonia, Anekdoten, Trettioariga Kriget and many others. Also present will be Fredrik Thordenal of Meshuggah, as a guest of the Mats/Morgan Allstar Team. Thordenal is a fucking monster, and I’m plotting to steal his hands and brain and implant them into a robot that I’m building, which will enable me to conquer the world!!! …but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he’s already a robot.

I finished Catcher in the Rye a couple of days ago, what a beautiful book. Everyone should read it, all the praise it’s received is justified as far as I’m concerned. My version was the Romanian translation, but I plan to buy the English version asap.

I’ve been indulging another obsession of mine these past few weeks, and that is British comedy. I’ve already told you about Darkplace in a previous post. Looking up other appearances by actors in Darkplace, I discovered The Mighty Boosh, a surreal comedy featuring Howard, a delusional jazz-loving softie and Vince, a lovable fashion-conscious guy with big hair and a way with animals. The first season, where the two are zookeepers in “The Zooniverse”, is the bestest.

Further investigations led me to discovering The IT Crowd, another hilarious sitcom, this time centering on the IT department of a large firm, featuring Roy and Moss, nerd duo, and Jen, the obligatory female presence.

This show isn’t directed towards geeks, in the same way that you don’t have to work a desk job to love The Office – in fact, a real geek is more likely to complain about various inconsistencies and stereotypes, instead of enjoying the infectious humour. If the two-guys-one-gal formula rings a bell, it should come as no surprise to you that the show’s writer is none other than Graham Linehan, co-writer of Black Books, yet another awesome sitcom which everyone should know and love by now.

The link between Darkplace, Mighty Boosh and IT Crowd are actors Richard Ayoade and Matt Berry. I love them both, especially Ayoade, but what’s up with Matthew Holness, the man behind Garth Marenghi, master of the macabre?

In case you hadn’t noticed, and shame on you if you hadn’t, the links to the various shows I’ve mentioned lead to the British Sitcom Guide, a great resource for… British sitcoms! Apparently the site will transform into the British Comedy Guide soon; I hope it’ll feature up-to-date info on all my favourite British comedians, that’d pretty much be the perfect website.

I watched Forbidden Planet a couple of days ago. A groundbreaking classic, I recommend you watch it if you’re curious about seeing young Leslie Nielsen, the very first miniskirt, or Robby the Robot.

Well this should be enough for now …oh and fyi, last.fm just saved music.

from Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace

Television stations need to explore solutions that drive viewers to online content

By Michael Hackmer
Email: mhackmer@bia.com

We’ve known for some time that the number of people viewing online video is on the rise.  With the expansion of broadband and high speed internet access, more people finally have the bandwidth to support video downloads.

But where do we really stand?

In 2006, the number of Americans between the ages of 12 and 64 that viewed online video content every day was 9 percent.  This year however, that number has grown to 14 percent and could end up being higher.  Frequency of viewing online video also is on the rise.  Last year, 44 percent of 12 to 64 year-olds watched video online at least once a week.  This year – that number is up to 52 percent.

YouTube is driving much of the rise in online video consumption with 20 million or more viewers per month watching over 100 million video clips per day (Let’s just not forget there are numerous providers of video content, including Yahoo!). Though YouTube and others provide some news content, they traditionally reach audiences interested in viewing comedy and what some may call “fringe” or alternative content (like Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, which has reemerged as a cult favorite online), as well as those posting personalized content as opposed to news and special interest stories – a backbone of most television programming.

In point of fact, research demonstrates that the most popular video downloads on the Internet are news and special interest stories, with comedy, television programming, movie clips / previews, and weather the next most popular selections. 

This means that the interests of Americans who view video online plays directly into the strengths of television stations, which have access to video content that they produce, as well as the ability to offer network and audience produced content that may not normally be aired in regular programming cycles.

Another facet to the trend of people viewing video online includes the growth of people who are online while they watch television.  According to a study conducted by the Solutions Research Group (highlighted in a recent Time magazine article), 37 percent of the US population over the age of 12 use their computers while they watch television.  This means that close to 100 million Americans are multitasking – shifting between watching television and online computer use. 

Other research shows that the longer people use the Internet (in numbers of years they have been online), the more their television viewing decreased.  Though the time spent online per day remains less than total time watching television, such a trend represents viewers lost from television stations’ over the air service, but in fact they could be recaptured with on-demand and download Internet based services delivered to

One way to both maximize the trend towards online video viewership and combat declining market share and audience is to implement a desktop application or widget to deliver video and other programming directly to the computer desktop. 

Desktop applications and widgets are particularly effective in driving viewers to a station’s website, because they offer one click access to any portion of a website. Desktop applications reside on the computer desktop of a specific viewer giving a television station the ability to stream video and audio content directly to the desktop, as well as alert messages, RSS feeds, weather, and other forms of content.  This has the effect of creating a communication bridge between the station and the viewer whenever the viewer is online.

Once the communication bridge has been established, a desktop application or widget can then drive viewers back to a station’s website for additional breaking news, severe weather bulletins, school closings, community updates or contest and promotional information.

Given the growth of online video consumption by Americans, the growing trend of multitasking between television and online viewership, and the possible decline in television viewing in favor of Internet use, television stations have the opportunity to enhance their online presence by delivering interactive content through desktop applications that also help to funnel these viewers back to their websites.

To learn more about DESKTOP APPLICATIONS AND WIDGETS for television, click here.

For more information on how to build a digital strategy for your television station, please contact BIA by clicking here.

Having previously created the DVD menus for Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, Richard Ayoade and Matt Holness returned to us for the menu and packaging design of Man To Man DVD. The illustrator who provided work used in the show was commissioned to create two paintings which we then used as the main menus on each disc. After scanning in the pictures, we added small animation loops to create two ‘moving paintings’. Simple, but very much in keeping with the style of the show.
The same two paintings were then incorporated into the DVD packaging, along with a new Man To Man logo that we designed, which was used as the on-body disc artwork, and also on the cover of the Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace/ Man To Man boxset.