Tonight I had the opportunity to watch the first three episodes of Life Unexpected, courtesy of the The CW, which sent me an advanced copy.

The show centers around 15-year-old Lux (which is why the show was formerly known as Life UneXpected), a young girl who is seeking emancipation after spending her life being bounced around foster homes. Since she was never adopted, she needs the signature of her birth parents and sets out to find them. She does (in seemingly record time, mind you) and both are understandably shocked.  All three are then thrown for a loop when the judge, instead of granting emancipation, makes Lux’s parents temporary co-guardians.

For months critics have been raving about the show, saying it is reminsicent of The WB, where substance and heart were favored over style and shock.

They were right.

Life Unexpected has the wit of Gilmore Girls and the emotional complexity of Everwood. Less than 20 minutes into the first episode, tears were already welling up in my eyes. I was moved several times, in fact, but also giggled and chuckled a ton, too. That’s not to say there aren’t any cliches or weak points but as we know from watching the teen dramas, those are to be expected. It’s not surprising executive producer/writer Liz Tigelaar started out working for Dawson’s Creek and it seems she learned well.

Shiri Appleby (Rene, Beverly Hills 90210) stars as Lux’s mother, who is in a romantic relationship with her radio show co-host, played by Kerr Smith (Jack, Dawson’s Creek). It was hard at first to see Appleby as a mom but perhaps that is the point: her character Cate is only 32 years old, making her a teenager when she got pregnant with Lux. Smith, who has thankfully dyed the grey out of his hair, is definitely in a supporting role, one whose future on the show I question despite the press materials. He’s included as if he’s here for the long-haul but it seems to me that Cate and her babydaddy Nate, played by Kristoffer Polaha, are destined for each other in the end. It’s also worth noting that this will be the third show on The CW right now with a main character called Nate.

Lux reminded me of One Tree Hill’s Sam (Ashley Rickards), the foster child Brooke (Sophia Bush) takes in in season 6. The two characters may not look alike but their personalities are strikingly similar. Cate has shades of Brooke as well and at times the plot felt very familiar. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth watching. The three episodes held my attention throughout and I’m eager to see what other angles of this story–which easily could’ve been depicted entirely in a 2-hour movie–are explored throughout the season.

I highly encourage you to tune in on January 18, when Life Unexpected premieres after the new episode of One Tree Hill. I’m honestly worried about the ratings the show will get both that night and in the weeks to come since, as I mentioned above, this show sooooo isn’t a CW show. While I personally think that’s a good thing, other viewers may not. Here’s hoping there’s enough people out there clamoring for the days and ways of the WB.

I have to note, though, that Life Unexpected won’t be covered extensively on this site since it is not a teen drama. I will continue to include it as I have thus far: when there’s something relevant to Smith or Appleby or some other teen drama connection. But, again, I really hope you’ll watch it.

]]> http://mendie22.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/my-favorites-of-the-past-10-years-part-one/ Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:34:56 +0000 mendie http://mendie22.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/my-favorites-of-the-past-10-years-part-one/

  10.  Skins – On January 25, 2007 a ground breaking new show began airing on Channel E4 in the United Kingdom.  A show that ran the risk of being dismissed as baudy and and overtly sexual ended up being a touching realistic look into the world of oung people making their way.  The kids of Skins faced drug abuse, homesexuality, death, broken hearts, absent parents, self doubt, and an assortment of other issues that can come up in the daily life of a teenager.  In stead of feeling as though the show was preaching to the audience or making their world seem more than what it was Skins allowed for the viewer a brief glimpse into a world they might not have seen otherwise.  When watching Skins you don’t leave with the impression that you have watched a scripted television show that is merely hoping for a ratings spike in the 18-34 year old demographics.  You leave with the impression that perhaps you have just witnessed the private moments of some very real people.

  9.  Oh sure you could be watching Project Runway, or American Idol or even if you are really desperate for some over the top drama Jon & Kate Plus 8.  But if you want real life or death drama the Deadliest Catch is where it is at.  Who would have thought that a show about a bunch of scruffy, hard core men crab fishing would be Must See TV?  Whether it is the boys from the Cornelia Marie bickering incessantly or Sid pushing the guys from the Northwestern Deadliest Catch is fast paced and yes fun drama. And it’s all real.  but the true star of the show is the Bering Strait itself.  When you see a 30 foot wave barreling down on one of the poor boats you brace yourself for the upcoming aftermath.  This past season the tragic story of the sinking of the fishing vessel the Katmai was told and I dare you to watch that episode alone and get through it without tearing up.  Go ahead watch it we will see who is right in the end.

  8.  On September 16th, 2002 the WB premiered a new family drama featuring 2 families.  One was obviously dysfunctional and struggling to find their place and the other was the All American family that every one strived to be like.  But as it often is in the real world appearances were not always what they seemed.  Everwood, although heavily touted by critics, never enjoyed the same ratings success as fellow dramas Gilmore Girls and 7th Heaven.  While 7th Heaven had a loyal and forgive the pun devout following Everwood possesed an entire cast worth of amazing actors.  Whether it be Treat Williams or Vivien Cardone when these guys came to the table they weren’t playing around and because of that along with some amazingly good writing I would find myself getting lost in the world of Everwood Colorado.  Their failures, heartbreaks, and triumphs were mine.  I cried and laughed right along with them.  Unfortunately when The WB and UPN merged it was one of the shows that did not follow to the new network who had instead chosen to bring along, in my humble opinion less deserving, 7th Heaven.  ThankfullyGreg Berlanti didn’t leave us hanging with the final episode and we were left with a finale that was both heartfelt and heart breaking. 

  7.  What if God were one of us?  That is the question that 16 year old Joan Girardi was faced with when God began taking the form of average everyday people and asked Joan to complete what appeared to be random tasks that made no sense.  But in the end each random task ended up serving a purpose whether great or small.  The thing I loved about Joan of Arcadia is that even though she spoke to God the shows writers never preached any particular message or tried to pass their beliefs onto the audience.  In the world of Arcadia God merely symbolized how by doing what seems like the smallest gesture can make all the difference in the world around you.  Unfortunately CBS cancelled Joan of Arcadia after only 2 seasons and we were left with more questions than answers, which all considering is probably the best way for the show to have ended.

  6.  If there was ever a show that was meant more for the “outsiders” of high school it would be this one.  How ironic is that they were a bunch of kids that any one of us would have loved to be friends in high school.  The once popular kings and queens of the school are looking at these Freaks and Geeks are wishing they had friends like that when they were in school.  For those of us who were on the receiving end of ridicule and torture for being a Freak or a Geek this show was our F U to anyone who thought that we were the bottom feeders of our high school.  It may have only lasted one season, but that big F-U keeps on going.

I’m baaaaaaack!

Did ya miss me? Because I missed you! I even had a nightmare that, upon my return, I forgot to live-blog tonight’s episodes! Have no fear, though; we are now back to our regularly scheduled programming. In addition to live-blogging this week’s new episodes of One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl and 90210, I’ll (hopefully) have reaction posts up beforehand for last week’s eps. Plus the next several days will be jam-packed with all the news and spoilers that weren’t posted while I was away.

Believe it or not, even in Cancun, I was able to (somewhat) get my teen drama fix. The Sony Entertainment channel airs Beverly Hills 90210 twice a day Monday-Friday (the same episode; they’re currently in season 9) and 90210 a few times a week (the same episode; they’re currently in early season 2). Then there’s WB TV (WB!!!), which airs Gossip Girl at 11pm Sunday nights (currently in early season 3). Neither channel, or any other I got in the hotel, aired One Tree Hill. I did get to see some episodes of Felicity which, though, not a teen drama, I have always regretted not watching it when it originally aired. I really enjoyed it, as it has many teen drama elements, just in a college setting (which some of our teen dramas have gone on to show).

I hope you all had a wonderful week and are as excited as I am to get back into the teen drama swing of things!

It’s good enough for OneSixNine!  We’re not going to Capeside, MA, which should be obvious to anyone who understands how OneSixNine works… we’re Cheshire-bound!  Hopefully we’ll find some cute next-door-neighbor who is secretly pining for us and have several years of back and forth over dating or not dating, only to decide to (SPOILER ALERT!) settle down with Joshua Jackson (pre-Fringe) and say a tragic farewell to our resident bad-girl-gone-good as her life comes to a shocking end (before she marries Heath Ledger, whose life ALSO came to a tragic end… THE CURSE OF DAWSON’S CREEK?!)

The Soon-to-be-Former Mr & Mrs Van Der Beek

Anyways, JVB filed for divorce TWO days ago, making our voyage to his hometown very timely.  Not to mention that he’s 32 and did a guest stint on How I Met Your Mother in 2008, so this will be a perfect set-up for Elle.  I’m putting my wingwoman skills to the test, for all you who doubted me!  (I’m looking at you, Wally East.)

With the Paley Center’s “Dawson’s Creek: A Look Back” panel and the release of “Dawson’s Creek: The Complete Series,” I’ve been on a DC high the past week and a half.  Imagine my delight in finding someone who was not only just as enthusiastic but also chock full of insider stories only true fans like TDW readers could appreciate. And when you combine that with the fact that this guy is also partly responsible for introducing Beverly Hills 90210 to the world, well, that pretty much makes him a teen drama god.

After reading all the DC and 90210 goodness executive producer Paul Stupin shared with me, you’ll never want TDW’s stroll down memory creek to end!

TeenDramaWhore: How was the Paley Center panel?  How did it come about?

Paul Stupin: It came about for two sets of reasons. The first was that there are a  lot of die-hard Dawson’s supporters and fans out there that could support such a event. And the second key element is Sony is planning to issue this monumental all-seasons of Dawson’s DVD collection.

TDW: Yeah! It came out yesterday and I went to three different stores and finally found it!

Stupin: I just think it’s the coolest thing ever. So it was a good opportunity to call some attention to the DVD collection while at the same time having an event for the fans. It was really fun for me because when I did Dawson’s, I look back on it as a very special and rewarding time in my life and to be able to talk about it and see some cast members and see Kevin [Williamson, creator] again was just a blast.

TDW: I’m sure. I wish I could’ve been there!

Stupin: Yeah, you would’ve liked it!

TDW: Oh, I’m sure. Well let’s go back even further, to 1997-1998, and Kevin Williamson comes to you with this idea to make this semi-autobiographical show. What made you come on board?

Stupin: Well, that’s not exactly how it happened but I can tell you. I had read an early draft of this film that he wrote. At the time, it was called Scary Movie but that was going to turn into Scream and they used the original title for something else. I had read a draft of that and I had really responded to the writing. One of the things I loved about it is not only did it have some smart thrills and chills but it also had this great sort of teenage/20-something dialogue. I just loved his voice and I loved the different perspectives that he had brought to the horror genre so I pushed really hard to his agent for Kevin and I to sit down. Originally, I wanted to run two areas by him. The first area was sort of a younger X-Files-esque kind of show and the second one was just a really smart, young ensemble sort of show that could tap into younger characters’ voices. I had ran programming at Fox, so the idea of doing a family show was kind of not on the board because Fox had Party of Five. So we started to talk about potentially doing a show about a number of younger characters who live on the same street. Then Kevin sort of went away and came back and sort of pitched to me a bunch of characters living on the same creek, which, of course, was semi-autobiographical. What made that so interesting is that it specified the idea and made it something unique and took us to a place I had never seen before. And the other thing that made that original pitch so exciting was the characters. He pitched to me the characters of Dawson [James Van Der Beek] and Joey [Katie Holmes] and Jen [Michelle Williams] and how that triangle would work. And then as we were talking about that, we came up with the idea of incorporating another character into the mix who could be a confidante for Dawson and that’s how the character of Pacey [Joshua Jackson] originated.

TDW: I think you really hit it when you said the show was unique. There are a couple of specific things that people are still talking about today and they really want the inside details of how it happened. I know you guys went over a bit of this at the panel but I’d love to hear it from you yourself.  So if we can just go over a couple of different storylines, I’d love to hear what you guys were thinking and the genesis of those. So the first one is in season 2 when we have Jack [Kerr Smith] announce that he’s gay [Episodes 2.14 & 2.15, To Be Or Not To Be... & ...That Is The Question].

Stupin: I think there were two reasons for that. The first reason is it was a great way to integrate in a gay character on our series and to do it from the perspective of the kids we’d come to know and love on the show from the get-go. So the thought of involving Joey in a relationship with Jack and seeing that relationship take a completely unexpected turn and then understanding the emotional impact it would have on Joey’s character, and what it would do to Dawson and Pacey–all that seemed really interesting. And at the time, the thought of integrating a gay character and following that journey seemed really powerful and a way to tap into a whole set of emotions that would make our show even more memorable. One of the things that I love about Dawson’s is that it sort of wore its heart on its sleeve. Not only did it capture the voices and that sense of teenage yearning and teenage love and first-time love, and the power and the strength of all that, with love comes heartache as well in many stories. I think it enabled us to tell a really emotional and powerful story for a character that we’d really come to enjoy in the form of Jack. So that was one element to it and I think for Kevin it was a very personal story as well, and it was a way to again put a whole different perspective on the teen ensemble drama in a way that it hadn’t been done before. The second element to it was the fact that when Joey started that relationship with Jack, it was not going to go on forever. The key relationship in our series was what was going on between Joey and Dawson and Pacey, so the Jack character, that romance, was ultimately going to come to an end. And I think there was the thought of what a powerful way to see the relationship head south when the character starts to realize an insight into his own sexuality.

TDW: Going back to the Dawson-Joey-Pacey relationship, I read in Jeff Stepakoff’s book “Billion-Dollar Kiss” that Greg Berlanti–whom I adore–was the one to suggest putting Joey and Pacey together. I was wondering how accurate that story was in the book.

Stupin: Well, at the top of every season, we’ll sit and we’ll talk about [our plans]. We take a couple of weeks and we talk about each character and where we were going and what the sort of macro-issues were that we want to cover over the course of that particular group of 22 episodes. And Greg was definitely a part of that and the thought  of telling sort of a whole Joey-Pacey romance did in fact come out of that, absolutely. But I think you can go back, you can look at the pilot and you can look at the chemistry–and I did, in looking at the pilot last week–you can look at the chemistry between Joey and Pacey and you just know they’re sort of two peas in a pod and sooner or later that element of the triangle is going to get explored. So it’s definitely true what Jeff had in the book but I think that Greg was building from the seeds that were established in the original conception of the show, to tell you the truth.

TDW: Right.  Going to a more somber note: this probably came early on for you guys given how you plan the season but a lot of people were really surprised and devastated when in the 5th season Mitch [John Wesley Shipp] died [Episodes 5.03 & 5.04, Capeside Revisited & The Long Goodbye].

Stupin: Yes.

TDW: I’m wondering what the idea for that was. We never knew if it was casting reasons or storyline-dictated.

Stupin: It wasn’t really casting issues. The thing with Mitch was every year we would figure out a way to have 1 or 2 sort of emotional stories between Dawson and his mom and dad. In the first season we had all that great stuff with her affair with a newscaster. That was just sort of natural. The second season we have the story with mom and dad trying the open marriage, and it’s arguable as to how memorable that actually was. It seemed like such a fresh idea. I’m not sure that it translated quite as well as the idea initially seemed. And then after that, when the inter-relationships between the teenagers grew ever-more prominent and people became much more invested, it felt like the parents–though still important–were not quite as much a part of the storylines. So that’s when we would always try to include them, to have them in different things, to have great sort of Dawson-mom, Dawson-dad scenes but I think we were straining a little bit. And I think that when we got to the point of deciding the fate with Mitch, it seemed like we weren’t using him altogether that much in the series, in the seasons. We were using him but we weren’t using him in a huge way. There weren’t any financial or casting considerations. It really did come from the creative angle, in terms of how would it affect Dawson’s character if in fact this happened to his dad, and exploring that, and exploring the unexpected tragedy of it seemed like another way to really heighten the exploration as to who Dawson was, so that’s basically where that came from. And I remember talking to John Wesley and mentioning that the one thing that this would provide is that it was going to take the Dawson-father storyline to a really heartbreaking sense of conclusion and, at that point, we weren’t using him as much as we had in the past.

TDW: How does that contrast, then, to the decision in the series finale [Episodes 6.23 & 624, All Good Things... & ...Must Come To An End] to have another death and this time it be Jen?

Stupin: It was so interesting last week; it came up that in a way it was a great book-end for the series. It frankly never occurred when we were talking about the beginning or the end of the show but one could argue that the series began with a catalyst and that was the arrival of Jen. And the series ended with a catalyst as well, and that was the departure of Jen. And the one thing that I think that it did is it really brought a sense of emotional resonance and power to that final episode, because one of the things with a final episode you want to be able to do, you want to be able to end a series in a satisfying and emotional and interesting way. And if we essentially had the last episode in history for Dawson’s Creek, we could talk about and we could explore issues of mortality involving some of our characters. Then when we talked about it, if we were going to be dealing with the characters’ mortality, she seemed like the most natural character in which to explore that.

TDW: Going back to the catalyst idea, it could be extended that that was really what it took for Joey to finally make up her mind between the two boys.

Stupin: Yeah, I think a little bit. I think the interesting thing was the series sort of ends twice. It ends in the episode before then [Episode 6.22, Joey Potter And The Capeside Redemption] where we get the sense that finally Dawson and Pacey are going to be friends and Joey did actually get to Europe. And I think that had a sense of closure. Then we took it another step and went to a sort of even more sort of larger-than-life ending of exploring who she was going to end up with. I think that was the big question: who was she going to end up with? And I think that that was handled pretty well, too. Like I personally love the thought that what this show was really about was not the romance of Dawson and Joey but about the strength and depth of that friendship and how that friendship was going to exist forever.

TDW: So if you had to answer the question, in your heart of hearts, do you think Dawson belongs with Joey in a platonic, friends soulmates sense and Pacey in the romantic soulmate way?

Stupin: In my heart of hearts, I think we ended it the right away. I think that what she did have in the romance with Pacey was as powerful as the friendship with Dawson. And I think that we were able to come up with a sense of satisfying closure for both of them. ‘Cause I will tell you, weirdly enough, when I was looking at The Sopranos–I’ll weirdly liken it to the conclusion of The Sopranos, at least from my weird perspective, because I was a fan of that. I like to think, in my mind, that Tony Soprano is still out there–maybe it wasn’t going to last forever, but maybe he’s still out there with his family, still dealing with the issues and still dealing with all the balls he was juggling. And in my mind, I like to think that Dawson and Joey are still out there in our alternate TV universe, still communicating with each other and still sharing the inner-most aspects of their hearts and still dealing with their friendship as adults, and that Joey and Pacey still have that romance. Because I feel like what we were able to come up with was, for me, an emotionally-satisfying conclusion for both stories which doesn’t let anyone down. And I know there are people who think Dawson and Joey should’ve been together romantically and I totally understand that point of view but I think we did the right thing.

TDW: Well, as a Joey and Pacey fan, I completely agree with you!

Stupin: Well, I can tell you this: that decision wasn’t made until the last hour was being shot and so if you look at the first hour of that final two-hour, I think at that point we were leaning toward her ending up with Dawson and so there are a few, I think, little cues–for the life of me I don’t remember exactly–that were set up to lead us in that direction and then, frankly, in the last hour, when the last hour was being shot–because it wasn’t shot as a two-hour; it was shot as two separate 1-hours–that when we came up with that conclusion, it caused us to shift things around a little bit. So I’ll tell ya, we were undecided up until the very last minute ourselves.

TDW: Wow. Well, switching gears slightly, you spoke about Dawson and the way he would communicate with Joey. Going off that, both Kevin Williamson and James Van Der Beek are on Twitter these days. I was wondering, had the service existed when the show was on the air, how do you think Dawson would’ve used it, if he would’ve used it? As I said, They’re both on it now, and Dawson was very much a storyteller.

Stupin: Well, I think Dawson might’ve used it to express his emotions. I think he might’ve used it as a shorthand way of communicating with both Joey and Pacey. It’s certainly easier to communicate things to someone by Twitter than it is necessarily in real life. He might’ve, at some point in our storytelling, he might’ve used it to express something that he might not have been so willing to express in person.

TDW: When you look back on the show and the television landscape then and now, what do you think the show’s legacy is?

Stupin: You know, I think for me it’s–well, first of all, I’m so proud of the show. I think the characters were amazing. I think their stories were amazing. I think the quality of the writing, the quality of the direction was–of course I’m biased but I think it was just top-flight. And I really do think it took the young adult teen genre and elevated it from just a niche kind of show to something universal and iconic. I think adults could look at it. When we were doing it we never looked at it as just a teen show.  We looked at it as just a smart, interesting, relationship show that happened to deal with teenagers and though our core audience was teenagers, it was written for everybody, for people in their 20s, their 30s, their 40s. And I really think it managed to transcend all of that and bring an element of quality and exploration to the genre that really took it to the next step.

TDW: Do you have a favorite episode or storyline?

Stupin: You know, I’m so biased. It’s like trying to pick if you have 120 kids which one’s your favorite. But I think for me there are certain sort of moments that I love. There’s certain episodes, like the pilot because it introduced us to that world, and I remember so much of it almost like it was yesterday. The first season-ender when Joey went to visit her dad in prison, I loved that. I loved the detention episode [Episode 1.07, Detention]. A lot of them are some of the original ones. But then I think I love the episode when they graduated high school [Episode 4.22, The Graduate]. I thought that was just sensational. I love the one-hour ender as well as the two-hour series finale ender. I think there’s so many. The episode where they studied and it was an all-nighter [Episode 2.07, The All-Nighter]. The episode where Joey had to enter the beauty pageant [Episode 1.12, Beauty Contest]. I just love all of those.

TDW: Well, conversely, do you have a big regret or something you wish you did differently?

Stupin: Yeah. My biggest regret would probably be, as I think about it–and it was a mistake we made–was the character of Eve. Remember that character?

TDW: Yeah. You guys even have a joke about that in the episode before the series finale.

Stupin: Yeah. I don’t think the first episodes of season 3 really were as memorable as the other episodes. And I think that whole notion of “Is she Jen’s sister? Is she not?”–I don’t think that was that effective. I don’t look back on that run of episodes as my favorites.

TDW: Yeah, I think the fans do agree with that.

Stupin: Yeah, but you know what, we turn it around.  In the middle of that season we turned it around with–

TDW: With Joey and Pacey.

Stupin: Yeah, with Joey and Pacey. And that certainly helped get us back, I think, to our roots.

TDW: Going more to your history, I know you played a bit of a role with the creation of Beverly Hills 90210.

Stupin: Yes, I did.

TDW: What influence, if any, did that show have on Dawson‘s Creek?  If you learned anything from how viewers took to what was really the first teenage show, as Dawson’s Creek is largely considered the next step in the genre.

Stupin: Well, two things. And it’s an interesting question. The first thing: when I hired Darren Star to write 90210, I felt as if his voice was just so unique in terms of his ability to write characters and come up with dialogue and wit that seemed like it would be a particularly good fit if he put into teenager characters’ mouths. So in a way I think that when I read Kevin’s voice, I felt some of it was the same in terms of being clever and sharp and smart and pop culturally-savvy. I felt like I had found another voice who was capable of taking the genre to the next step. So I felt like both Kevin and Darren brought originally a really unique sense of humor and sharpness to their creation of characters and dialogue. So I think there was a similarity there. The one issue that I took away from 90210, that was very effective in 90210, was the mix of issue-oriented episodes and personal inter-relationships. Though, when we jumped into Dawson’s, we veered away from doing the issue-oriented episodes and explored further just all of the great inter-relationships.

TDW: Going further ahead to the rest of the genre and the teen dramas that are on today, do you think Dawson’s Creek influenced them?

Stupin: I’m sure it did, though I can’t say–you know, again, I’m biased. I don’t know. In my mind, I’m undecided as to what the next real step in the genre is after Dawson’s. I’m not sure what it is. I haven’t watched enough of the shows. I hold, of course again I’m so biased, but I hold everything up to the prism of Dawson’s. I don’t know if any of them that have come since have quite represented that cultural milestone that Dawson’s did.

TDW: Do you think Dawson’s Creek would fly on The CW today? Because it’s so different than what The WB was.

Stupin: Yeah. I’m not sure. I’ve often thought would I be able to sell Dawson’s today? Would I be able to pitch that as a series and get it going, and I’m not altogether sure. Because now, when you look at Dawson’s, we sold it off the strength of the characters and off of the strength of Kevin’s voice being so fresh. Now, I think that the networks are looking for slightly higher concepts. So I’m not altogether sure that a Dawson’s would be able to sell today.

TDW: I have to ask, then, why do you think the 90210 spin-off sold?

Stupin: Oh, I see, are you talking about bringing able to bring it back, for instance?

TDW: Well, no, not for it to be a spin-off. But the 90210 concept today is working.

Stupin: Well, I think the 90210 concept–everyone, myself included, has fondness for that original show. The thought of sort of putting two new outsiders into that world and bringing the  show back is a great way to hook people into a whole new group of characters, and I think it was a great idea. The thing with Dawson’s is I don’t know if bringing the world of Dawson’s Creek back with a bunch of new characters would generate quite the excitement. Because I think when you think about the show, you think about Dawson and you think about the very unique 3 characters, the 4 characters we had, and the actors that played them. And I’m not sure if it was brought back again–I certainly wouldn’t want to redo it with a new Dawson or a new Pacey. So the question would be could we go back to Capeside with a whole new group of characters, and I’m not sure we would be able to put together a new group of people as memorably as we did originally.

TDW: Right. You know, they say lightening strikes once.

Stupin: Right. And you know, I’m afraid you always run the risk of–when you make a sequel to a movie that’s not as good, it kind of reflects negatively on the original movie.

TDW: I completely agree.

Stupin: And I like to think of all our episodes as being so special, I’m not sure it’s something you could bring back.

TDW: Well, my biggest disappointment right now is that Dawson’s Creek is no longer on any channel in America.

Stupin: Really? You know, they gotta get on that! Wasn’t it running like forever in the early morning hours?

TDW: It used to be on TBS. When I was in high school, it used to be on at like 10am. And then they pushed it to 4:30am, 5:30am and then it just faded away there and now it’s not on at all.

Stupin: I’m not sure what the design is on that because I always like to know that Dawson’s is out there.

TDW: I know, I know. It saddens me that it’s just not in repeats anywhere anymore in this country.

Stupin: You know what, those things tend to be cyclical. Maybe in the future you’ll be channel surfing one night. Knowing you, you’ll know way before then but maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

TDW: Fingers crossed.

Stupin: Exactly.

TDW: Well, let’s bring it back and finish on today. You’re with Make It Or Break It on ABC Family. Just looking at your career over the years, what is it about Make It or Break It that you’re here now?

Stupin: Well, what I love about Make It Or Break It is I’m a big fan of the genre, having originally developed 90210 and then developed Dawson’s. When I left to become a producer, I never really thought that my first real success would be in the same genre as 90210 because I actually never thought that lightning would strike twice in that genre for me as quickly as it did. But after I ran Dawson’s, you know, for six years, I developed a real love for the genre. And the thing that I love about Make It or Break It is the idea. It’s a fresh idea, it’s a fresh world. And it provides a pretty unique prism in which to explore sort of teenage relationships in a really unusual way. I mean, these girls aren’t normal teenagers. They’re elite gymnasts and there are rules against relationships as they’re pursuing their passion. How do they deal with that? And how do we deal with the same elements of teenage love and relationships and heartbreak but from a whole different perspective? And I love that about it, and I also love the relationships between the main characters and their parents and their parental figures. I think they’re a really organic element to the show and give us an opportunity to deal with really unusual family situations as well. So that’s why I love it. And also the gymnastics is just really cool. It’s a lot of fun just to see the gymnastics.

TDW: Oh, the gymnastics is just phenomenal to watch.

Stupin: So I think that Make It Or Break It is just such a special show. We’ve done 10 episodes and I think it’s just starting to get its sea legs. I think it has a huge successful life in front of it, I hope.

TDW: Well, best of luck to you on that!

Stupin: Thank you!

Come back next Sunday for another exclusive interview!

TDW Interview Index

This is an excerpt from my lastest article published in CinCity2000’s Web site.

Teens, tweens, and even young girls get flustered when they see or even think about Robert Pattinson, the sexy actor who plays vampire with a bite in the Twilight movies (based off of Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling book series).  Many even seem to relate to the character Bella, the lonely, emo heroin from the books and in the movies.

But what most Twilight fans don’t realize that in 1999, the WB had a teen drama called Roswell (watch the pilot here) that pretty much has the same plot with aliens instead of vampires. The show never had as much popularity as Stephenie Meyer’s creation, but it did have just enough to become a cult classic.

The rest can  be read here.

Last night after a praticulary long day I was in desperate need of some comfort programming.  Now I could have finished watching Season 1 of Fringe, but frankly although I like the show it is starting to feel like homework because I borrowed it from a friend and everytime I look at it I just know that I have to complete it and get it back to her.  The pressure of watching it was just too much for a long day so instead I went for one of my personal favorites, Roswell.  And then I realized that I could include Roswell in My personal favorite series so score on both parts.  Guys let me just say that sometimes the best Saturday nights are spent vegging out with what makes us happy. 

Can I just say thank the Gods for The SciFi Channel.  I have discovered so many great shows through that channel.  What a great channel that is.  It has everything from Miami Beach Shark Attack (don’t laugh it is cheesy brilliant) to Megafault.  And for those crazy SciFi television show fans Roswell, Tru Calling, Moonlight, Ghost Hunters, Sanctuary, and well loads of other fangeek goodness.  Although I am pretty sure Roswell is no longer showing on SciFi, but that is ok because thanks to them I own the complete series on DVD.  Oh yeah that’s right all 3 seasons.  When I first bought Seasons 1 & 2 I stayed up for almost 48 hours marathon watching all the DVDs.  And let me just say that it took alot of Mountain Dew and talking short walks to get through them.  Crazy right?  Wrong.  It was awesome.  For 48 hours I wasn’t thinking about paying bills, going to my dreaded job, or the plight which had become my love life.  For 48 hours I was totally and completely engrossed in the lives of four aliens and their friends.  It was so completely relaxing. 

 In October of 1999 The WB began airing Roswell, a show that was produced and co-written by one of my favorite writer’s Jason Katims.  Roswell was based off the young adult books Roswell High (which I have been meaning to get a hold of for sometime now) and they followed Max & Isabel Evans, Michael Guerin, & Tess Harding.  Four aliens who crash landed on earth in what would later become known as The Roswell Incident.  The premise of the show is rather simple, Max Evans sees that the love of his life, Liz Parker, has been accidently shot while waitressing at the CrashDown Cafe (probably the coolest cafe ever assembled) and instead of hiding his not quite human status he exposes himself and Michael & Isabel in the process by using his powers to save Liz.  And as is so often the case with teen dramas chaos quickly ensues and doesn’t let up until the series finale.  Joining our merry band of aliens are their human comrades Liz, Maria DaLuca, Alex Whitman, & Kyle & Sheriff Jim Valenti. 

While the first season focus more on establishing relationships and bringing everyone together, it also manages to build on the mystery that surrounds how the 4 came to have crashed on earth.  It does so successfully because both sides compliment the other without overpowering each other.  It as if the two sides needed each other in order to coexist.  I did feel as though they left my new fanboy crush, Colin Hanks, out alot but after I discovered that was because he was working on other projects I didn’t feel quite so badly.  Unfortunately it was during the second season that things began to lose their focus and suddenly none of it made sense any more.  In fact somewhere in Season 2 and I apologize but I am not quite sure where it comes into play be it on a DVD itself or possibly in the packet that comes with it, but somewhere you will notice that there was an episode in which Alex and Michael switch identies and a case of extra-terrestial freak friday occurs.  Except this episode is no where to be found.  In fact it isn’t even included in the deleted scenes.  Another disturbing thing about Season 2 is that none of the episodes are cohesive with the one that came before it.  It was as though they were trying to lay the groundwork for a series mystery that would last until the end but could never quite decide which mystery they wanted to focus on and in the end focused on none of them.

  That was of course until the writers had to come up with a way to write the Alex Whitman character out of the show, because Colin had spent more time working on other projects than he had on the show.  Finally with the loss of a friend the series was able to ground itself back into what made it so compelling in the first place.   The emotional connection was back.  For most of the second season there was so much focus on the science fiction part of the show that they lost sight of the emotional component.  But in one single episode the scifi part of the show took a back seat and for the rest of the season you could tell the writers were more focused and had an end game.  Unfortunately by the time the show reached it’s third and ultimately it’s last season the writing was firmly on the wall.  Luckily though instead of fighting it the writers and producers of the show allowed for the show to take it’s natural course and by the end we were left with the feeling that everything in their lives were going to be ok.  Seeing as how I didn’t begin to watch the show until years after it had left the air I was pleased with the fact that the series ended in the 3rd season and with a sense of finality because I have found that too often shows go on and on until the viewer no longer realizes why they loved the show in the first place.  But if you ever find yourself with 48 well no make that 60 hours (I forgot to include the final season) to spare and feel like you need a mental escape I highly recommend this little known gem.

Tahiti 80 transformed legos into a cosmically romantic feat with their music video, ” A love from Outer Space.” I love indie bands and how theycreatively use pop culture to construct a work of art–musically.

Watching this video brought me back nostalgic memories of when I was in middle school and  when I used to adore that  1999 WB Alien/ Teen romance show  ” Roswell”.

I was  such a huge fan of Max and Liz, the cosmic Romeo and Juliet of my time, that my imagination used to escape me when it came to thinking about the possibility of aliens existing.

Ten years later, the 12-year-old inside of me still looks up at the stars and wonders if aliens do exist, could they possibly be romantic partners to humans like in the movie  ” Star Trek” (Uhura and Spock) or in  1970’s “Starman”?

Every day, new evidence is popping up over alien life existing in distant planets but those facts–compacted in scientific jargon– doesn’t leave too many young dreamers a chance to daydream about stellar romances in space since it’s hard to decipher all of that ( true but technical) stuff.

If aliens land on earth in 2010, would do they look like a green martian or Jason Behr? This is the big question I want everyone to think or comment about…

]]> http://lizthrilla.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/great-my-secret-weapon-is-pms-thats-just-terrific-thanks-for-telling-me/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:12:15 +0000 Liz Thrilla http://lizthrilla.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/great-my-secret-weapon-is-pms-thats-just-terrific-thanks-for-telling-me/

During the original run of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, there were two major camps: fans of the movie and fans of the series.  It’s died down since the series ended, but there are still rabid fans that despise the other incarnation of they’re favorite slayer.

Until the past few years, I was firmly in the movie fan category, and was a rather disappointed 12 year old when I first watched the series.  I remember reading about the new Buffy series in TV Guide, but when I first watched it 1997, I didn’t recognize it.  If you can’t tell, I love all things camp!  The more ridiculous and campy a movie or series is the more I’ll probably enjoy it.  The series was lacking the purple spandex and took itself far too seriously for my liking.  Then I just became anti-anything that had to do with the WB, so it took until the 6th season episode, “Once More with Feeling” for me to finally change my mind.  Through the years I’ve grown to enjoy and love the series, thanks to some research on Joss Whedon and the complete series on DVD.

I might love the series now, but I still prefer the movie–even if it’s a “bastardization” of Whedon’s original script.  I’ve found my favorite episodes of Buffy tend to be the most over the top ones.  For example, “Once More with Feeling” or the one where we follow Xander around for a night, while Buffy and Co. try to save the world in the subplot.  My love for the movie probably explains why I prefer Spike to Angel (not as a love interest) and the nerd villains of Season 6–because they capture the over the top humor from the original film.

I realize Kristy Swanson isn’t nearly as kick-ass as Sarah Michelle Gellar in the role, but she captures the frivolity of a cheerleader from the valley who’s realized her life plan–involving graduating from high school, going to Europe and marrying Christian Slater–has been permanently interrupted by a pre-determined destiny involving mythical creatures.  Of course, the difference in characterization is partially due to the fact the series and the film introduce Buffy in two very different places (in the series, she already knows she’s the slayer and has seen the destruction it causes to her, her family and her friends).

However, I must say the biggest reason I love the film was the way Buffy can sense vampires through menstrual cramps.  The character of Buffy was created by Joss Whedon as a response to the horror genre tropes, where bubbly, blonde “cheerleaders” are usually the first to die.  Buffy is unsuspecting and that is her appeal.  However, taking something that every woman deals with (menstrual cramps) and turning it into a super power to help her fight evil was brilliant.  I know I wish my monthly cramps would signal something more than the shedding of my uterus.  Don’t you?

Anyway, this stemmed from the news I just received (and I realize I’m probably slow to the game) that they are trying to “relaunch/remake” the film for 2012.  It seems it won’t involve the TV Series cannon nor Whedon in the production, which makes sense as his original script underwent so many changes to make it “lighter.”  However, I have one request: keep the cramps!

The weekend consisted of me watching numerous YouTube videos of the defunct WB network’s classic teen soap, “Dawson’s Creek,” which gave us Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, James Van Der Beek, Michelle Williams and Kerr Smith.

Because I’ve been in a nostalgic mood, here are some of my favorite scenes. (Disclaimer: Most, if not all, are Pacey-related. You have to root for the underdog ..) I was never a true “Dawson’s” viewer when it was on. I think I was still a little young to actually understand what was going on .. although I was allowed to watch “Beverly Hills, 90210″ so maybe I’m kidding myself .. What are your favorite scenes or episodes?

Joey (Holmes) and Pacey’s (Jackson) first kiss. [Season 1]

Drunk Joey is way too entertaining. [Season 4]

The highlight of the “Anti-Prom” episode. [Season 3]

The series finale: “The Creek” was too cheeky for my taste, but enjoyable nonetheless. [Season 6]

I don’t know how many people remember the TV series Popular from the WB’s 1999-2001 seasons, but it’s an awesome gem that suffered an early death by cancellation. Before I get into the reasons I love this show, let’s go over the history of the WB circa 1999.

The WB launched in January 1995 and for the first two years didn’t really have any “hits” outside of 7th Heaven, and to a lesser extent the Steve Harvey and Jamie Foxx Shows, though I personally enjoyed Unhappily Ever After, and to a much lesser extent Sister, Sister. Then Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired in March 1997, which changed the WBs course forever. Instead of focusing on broad comedies or family oriented dramas, the powers-at-be decided to go for the teen market, and quickly following Buffy’s success, they churned out Dawson’s Creek that catapulted the station and it’s stars to the stratosphere. Following James Van Der Beek and company, the WB launched Felicity and Charmed in the Fall of 1998.

The WB wasn’t the first station to reel in the teen market, but it was the first one to cater primarily to teenagers. Fox had Beverly Hills, 90210, but also The Simpsons, and Married With Children–while popular with the younger demographic, they weren’t aimed specifically at teenagers or about them. ABC had TGIF, but Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and Boy Meets World, didn’t have the bite that the hour long Dawson and Buffy had.

Dawson, Buffy, and 7th Heaven shaped every program the WB launched until it joined to form the CW Network. The “Dawsons” were shows about young adults, featured impressive dialogue for the character’s age groups, love triangles, relationship dilemmas, and never really found an audience beyond the teenage girl demographic. These included, Felicity, Young Americans (a Dawson’s Creek spin off), Hyperion Bay and D.C. (back-to-back shows with Mark-Paul Gosselaar that both failed), Glory Days (which could be considered a “Buffy” but it’s from Kevin Williamson), and One Tree Hill. The “Buffys” obviously had supernatural aspects and loads of action and included Charmed, Angel, Smallville, Supernatural, Roswell, Birds of Prey, Tarzan and a few others. Finally, the “7th Heavens” were family or generational dramas: Everwood, Jack & Bobby, Just Legal, The Mountain, and Related. Gilmore Girls is perhaps the only one I hesitate placing in the “7th Heaven” category, as the character development and dialogue quite easily fit in with the “Dawsons,” it’s ultimately about the family of relationships between Emily, Loralei and Rory.

So here we are, 1999 and the WB is in full swing, they launch a Friday night schedule: Angel, Roswell, and Popular. Although a dark comedy, Popular was generally scheduled around the other successful teen dramas, which did not make for good bed fellows. It was never very successful. It was pure camp at it’s best, and bad, forced drama at it’s worst. Personally, I believe the show was canceled due to the second season, which became a train wreck when the writers/creators/producers attempted to conform to the “Dawson” genre by adding drama and loosing a lot of the comedy. Of course, the comedy also suffered when Leslie Grossman negotiated her contract to allow her every 4th week off due to the intensity of her performance as Mary Cherry. Understandable, but with her out ever fourth episode or so, the writers, who relied on the character for most the humor, created dramatic story points to make up for it–unsuccessfully. However, while the second season was the final straw that canceled the show, I think the reason it was unsuccessful was because it’s gay.

I mean it. It might not have any openly gay main characters, but it has a gay sensibility, aka it’s one of the campest show’s I’ve seen on network television. Mary Cherry is a straight up drag queen, Ms. Glass (aka “Sir” aka “Claw) is a closeted, butch lesbian who deals with her own sexuality through the course of the show, and most importantly, it doesn’t fall into the homogenized “Buffy,” “Dawson,” or “7th Heaven” genres, which is why it’s the only WB show I ever watched (excluding Buffy which I only started watching a few years ago after it had been off the air). The only other show that ever attracted my attention like Popular, was the short lived Gross Pointe–a satirical look at Beverly Hills, 90210. Much like Popular, Gross Pointe parodied the other network shows.

This is only the beginning of a series of posts I will be writing about Popular. For my birthday, I received the complete series on DVD and I plan to write an article on the most notable episodes (if not all/the majority). Eventually, I might do the same with other WB shows, but seeing as I only have Buffy on DVD and I don’t know if I could ever get myself to watch even a whole episode of Dawson’s Creek, we’ll see how that goes.

I have decided in all my limited knowledge have decided that some of my readers may be interested to know and discover some shows that are on my all time favorites list.  These are shows that not only would I watch on TNT (and sometimes do) in reruns, but I also either own them on DVD or I plan on getting them on DVD (if they ever come out).  The first show on this small yet highly entertaining list is Veronica Mars (2004 – 2007).

If you haven’t heard of this show than you are living under a rock and if you haven’t seen this show yet well let me just say that if you have a friend who has it on DVD beg, borrow, or steal it from them.  Because this show is smart, heart-warming, witty, ballsy, and well hell a whole lot of other adjectives that I just can’t think of right now.  (please excuse this because you see I am supposed to be working right now and instead I am writing this article).  Created by screenwriter and producer Rob Thomas (Cupid, 90210) in 2004 Veronica Mars stars Kristen Bell (Couples Retreat, Heroes), Enrico Colantoni (Flashpoint), Teddy Dunn, Francis Capra, Percy Daggs III, Michael Muhney (The Young & The Restless), Tina Majorino (Big Love), Kyle Gallner (Smallville, A Nightmare on Elm Street), Chris Lowell (Private Practice), and Ryan Hansen (Party Down).  Seasons 1 & 2 aired on the now defunct UPN network and when the WB & UPN merged in 2007 the show was picked up for the 3rd and final season on the newly formed CW.  Even though fans of the show were surpirsed the show was picked up for a 3rd season we were all skeptical of it going on any longer and as it turns out we were right.  But thankyfully the show lives on in the hearts and minds of fans everywhere and hopefully (wishful thinking on my part yes) one day we will see a movie of our beloved teen crime noir.

  Don’t let the photo fool you this is not a show that caters to merely the teenage girl group, although it does manage to cover them nicely.  When I first started watching VM I came in on the middle of the 2nd season, because you see shows that were aired on UPN often came on after all the shows from the WB had already aired (don’t ask me why, apparently channel 17 decided that it would be best to air 2 different networks shows but whatever).  Well anyways that’s not the point.  The point is that from the first episode I saw I was hooked.  All through my teenage years I had to deal with teen shows that treated us like we were stupid and could only grasp the simplest of storylines.  Everything had to wrapped up in a nice neat little package by the end of the hour.  The heroines were often vapid, simple minded creatures who I couldn’t relate to on any level.  They were always popular or looking to be popular.  And they couldn’t come up with an intelligent comeback if it was written on a cue card. 

   But finally here was a show I could relate to on an intelligent level.  Granted it was about ten years after my teen years were over, but the teenage girl who didn’t care about being a cheerleader and who wasn’t popular still lived inside of me.  Each season (except for the 3rd, a mistake if you ask me) had a mystery arc that spanned the entire season with each individual episode solving a smaller mystery.  These mysteries were solved by our young sleuth Veronica Mars who worked for her dad at his private investigators office.  Luckily for us viewers VM often had help from her friends Wallace and Mac and her dad Keith.  No of course this wouldn’t be a teen show without the proverbial love triangle and Rob delivered by giving us Logan-Veronica-Duncan.  Although I will be the first to admit that even though the chemistry between Kristen & Jason was spot on from the very beginning (their verbal sparring was like watching a well choreographed fight) I never saw the triangle coming.  I was positive that she and Duncan (Teddy Dunn) would end up together.  .

  Now dont get me wrong even though VM was perhaps the coolest chick in any high school she had her problems.  For one she wasn’t very trusting of anyone, except perhaps her dad and even then you got the feeling she didn’t trust him completely.  She also had a tendency to be very hard on those who loved her and pushed them away so often that you may feel like throwing soemthing at the screen everytime she does something you don’t understand.  (the saddest scene in the entire series is between her and Logan in S3Ep9 trust me you will know what I am talking about when you see it)  So if ever you are having a sick day or a hookie day or even just a lazy day and you are in the mood to watch a really amazing show I suggest you go out and buy, rent, steal, or borrow Veronica Mars.  Trust me, you will not regret it.

Birds of Prey is sort of legendary among geeks. The concept was make a Batman television series ala Smallville but without Batman. So the focus shifted to Barbara Gordon (aka Batgirl, aka Oracle) and then the muscle came from the supposed daughters of Black Canary and, well Batman himself. And bingo, you have three lovely femme fatales who fight crime in the spirit of Batman.

The original pilot for the 13-episode series was very elaborate and well very well could have been the best pilot The WB produced besides Smallville. The pilot opens with Helena Kyle (Ashley Scott) screaming as her mother’s murderer runs away from the scene. Then it cuts Barbara Gordon (Dina Meyer) in the shower as she has flashbacks to her and Batman fighting the Joker.

A voice on the TV announces that the woman murdered was Selina Kyle (Catwoman). But just when you thought it couldnt get any darker, Barbara races to the front door and the Joker appears and shoots her. It is quite a cryptic and gothic setup for the series.

Just the visuals on the opening scene, the Joker’s line of “Knock, Knock” (sounding a lot like Mark Hamill’s Joker from the cartoon), the trail of blood as it spills towards thebat symbol and Batgirl’s mask. This is a brilliant take on Batman lore and set the tone for the series.

The series takes place seven years after the events of the opening. Dinah (Rachel Skarsten) is a lost innocent, Helena is in therapy and Barbara is dealing with being in a wheelchair.

The first season villain was setup to be Helena psychologist, Harlequin (in the unaired it’s Sherilyn Fenn, network pilot it’s Mia Sara). Kind of like the big season baddie Buffy the Vampire Slayer used to have per season. The series also introduces us to a very young Dinah Lance (aka Black Canary) who eventually becomes the ward of Barbara Gordon.

One more secret is dropped that Helena is the love child of Batman & Catwoman and that Barbara Gordon is also Helena’s ward. It is explained that Helena didn’t go live with Batman because when her mother was murdered Batman had no idea he had a kid and she was okay with that.

But what is so much better about this version of the pilot is how they setup up the aired version is just how much these characters feel like the comic book not WB versions.

Sure they gave Helena “cat-like” powers and Dinah psychic powers. But if the show started with this version of the pilot instead of the watered down version. I really believe that this show could have become as successful as Smallville. It was all there!

Pilot Score: 4 out of 5.

Note: You can find the unaired pilot on the Birds of Prey: Complete Series DVD set.

TV shows are one of the best places to mine new music from. As I’ve jettisoned my way through more and more TV shows over the course of time, I’ve gradually picked up more and more good music from them. Here is some of it.

Dawson’s Creek:

Say Goodnight not Goodbye Brooke Allison

Grace, Cara Dillon

Deep Blue Ocean, Lisa Meri

The Race, Deb Pasternak

Come Inside, Mary Beth

On Days Like These, Jannis Ian

More Than Meets the Eye by Vaughan Penn

Any Lucky Penny, Nikki Hassman

London Rain, Heather Nova

Felicity:

Here Comes the Flood, Peter Gabriel

Day Before Yesterday, Scout

Veronica Mars:

Stereophonics, Dakota

We Used to Be Friends, The Dandy Warhols

The O.C.:

Paint the Silence, South

Orange Sky, Alexi Murdoch

Into the Dust, Mazzy Star

Something Pretty, Patrick Park

Dice, Finn Quayle & William Orbit

Runnin up that Hill, Placebo

If You Leave, Nada Surf

California, Phantom Planet

Worn Me Down, Rachel Yamagata(Season 2 ep 3)

Everwood:

Leader of the Band, Dan Fogelberg

Golden Slumbers, Ben Folds(end of episode 105) Download

Greetings from the Side, Gary Jules(end of ep 106)

Lost:

Downtown, Petula Clark Download

Wash Away, Joe Purdy Download

Slowly, Ann-Margret

Are You Sure, Willie Nelson Download

Oberon Entertainment is a full service production company based in Omaha NE with network members in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Vancouver. Partners Andy Anderson and Mark Hoeger collectively have over 50 years in the entertainment industry and have produced hundreds of local, regional and national commercials. Some their commercial clients include: Union Pacific, Qwest, Gallup, Inc, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Nissan, Case Knives, Inc, Peter Kiewit Construction, Hallmark Cards, Inc, Burger King, Wells Fargo, Maytag, and General Motors.

Andy and Mark have also worked with The WB, PorchLight Entertainment, NBC, ABC, British Sky Broadcasting, M-G-M, Showtime, Ardustry Entertainment, HBO – Poland, HBO – Russia, Starz – Asia, Paramount Studios, MTV, Sony Pictures, and The Movie Channel.

Oberon Entertainment brings together an award winning team of successful film professionals. Collectively, they have been involved in creating over 60 feature films, television programs and home videos as well as hundreds of commercials and corporate presentations.

• Jennie Garth (Kelly, Beverly Hills 90210) is back on Twitter with a slightly different username.
• According to Michael Cudlitz (Tony, Beverly Hills 90210), James Eckhouse (Jim, Beverly Hills 90210) will be on an upcoming episode of Southland.
• At the premiere for Extract, a film in which Dustin Milligan (Ethan, 90210) appears, he discussed how he won’t be back on the show.  Jessica Stroup (Silver, 90210), his girlfriend, was also there.
• AnnaLynne McCord (Naomi) is on the cover of the first issue of Beauty Entertainment Magazine.
• TVGuideMagazine.com has a spoilish interview with McCord and Matt Lanter (Liam, 90210).
• Star News posted a “first look” photo gallery for One Tree Hill’s seventh season.
• According to the Associated Press, it hasn’t been decided what will happen to Antwon Tanner (Skills, One Tree Hill) in regards to his role on OTH.  Tanner plead guilty last week to fraud charges.
• Ausiello has interesting spoilers on a Chuck (Ed Westwick, Gossip Girl) storyline for this season.
• MTV is developing a U.S. version of Skins to be the “absolute opposite of Gossip Girl.”
• Michelle Trachtenberg (Georgina, Gossip Girl) will star in Young Americans alongside Chris Pratt (Che, The O.C.). Coincidentally, Young Americans used to be the name of a show on The WB, a spin-0ff of Dawson’s Creek which starred Rodney Scott (Will, Dawson’s Creek).
• MTV has an interview with Adam Brody (Seth, The O.C.) on his role in Jennifer’s Body.

Cover of Movie Music: The Film Reader; image courtesy of routledge.com

So, one thing I didn’t mention in my indictment of (500) Days of Summer is the soundtrack. While I may have mentioned my thoughts on how music culture is configured in the movie, I didn’t discuss the soundtrack itself: how it serves to bolster the narrative, enforce the movie’s indie-ness, or its commercial success as an ancillary product.

I didn’t discuss it because I don’t really have any opinion on it. I wasn’t particularly familiar with or blown away by the songs in the movie — I thought the music was pleasant. I’d imagine it’s doing a respectable job as its own product and as an extension of the movie’s marketing campaign, though say this while qualifying that running the numbers is now a completely different game than it was, say, in the 1990s, when soundtracks were big business that could easily be reflected by a quick glance at the Billboard charts. Now, we have iTunes, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook groups, online ad campaigns, innumerable blogs, and several other outlets fragmenting the marketplace. But I’d imagine the soundtrack is doing well.

All this is to say that I wondered what the scholars who contributed to Movie Music: The Film Reader would make of the movie’s soundtrack. The anthology is a slim collection of essays edited by Kay Dickenson that was published in 2002 but primarily feature pieces from the 1990s, a decade that I’ve already defined (along with many others) as a peak time for soundtracks, which is reflected in some of the scholars’ inquiries. Perhaps it drove home for me just how temporal the objects of analysis in media studies can be, particularly music. A good reminder, if still a frustrating dillemma.

With that said, I thought I’d briefly highlight some essays that I found useful.

Jeff Smith’s “Structural interactions of the film and record industries” is a fascinating and concise industrial history of the relationship between record labels and film studios from the 1950s on. Starting out as a mutual-benefit relationship, film studios tried to form their own record labels with the intent to fashion albums and recording talent in-house, which was met with little success. As a result, record labels kept the upper-hand from the 1970s on, but left movie studios the opportunity to further develop cross-promotional and synergistic strategies without having to worry about A and R. 

This is interesting to read alongside romanticized notions that the 1970s was a renaissance period for maverick filmmaking that eschewed studio control (I specifically like to think of this story while working out the bureaucratic steps that may have been taken in order for Martin Scorsese to get the rights for The Ronnettes’ “Be My Baby” for Mean Streets).

And, as Smith’s piece was originally published in 1998, I also think of it as a harbinger of deregulation measures and conglomeration to that defined the culture industry at the end of the 20th century.  

Lawrence Grossberg’s “Cinema, Postmodernity, and Authenticity” gives a cursory glance at the importance of rock music in teen pics from the 1950s on, but pays particular attention to movies from the 1980s (specifically the ones aligned with the Brat Pack). He argues that while rock music is meant to indicate an intergenerational upheaval of value systems between establishment parents and rebel kids, movies from the 1980s actually saw teen protagonists questioning and grappling with identity politics while ultimately (or presumably) toeing the line, doing very little to break down gender norms, class divides, racist ideologies, and heterosexist agendas. At the same time, these movies incorporating more a post-modern political sensibility through irony, parody, and reference.

I wonder what Grossberg would say about how French electronic act M83 hails the 1980s, specifically in 2008’s Saturdays = Youth, an album heavily indebted to both the sound and style of the Brat Pack movies and soundtracks. I’m sure he’d get a chuckle out of learning that Anthony Gonzalez, the man behind M83, is in his mid-20s and too young to remember these movies “authentically.”

Kay Dickinson’s “Pop, Speed, Teenagers, and the ‘MTV Aesthetic’” is an interesting look into how teen movies and their soundtracks incorporate the look and sound of MTV, specifically looking at Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes (a movie dear to my heart — I still have a copy of the soundtrack and nursed a brief crush on DiCaprio when he was at his most androgynous). Dickenson is particularly interested in three aspects:
1) The symbiotic relationship between the highly stylized movie, its soundtrack, and the music videos that accompany both.               
2) The deliberate uniformity of each text’s aesthetic and how they maximize youth-oriented marketing potential for what was widely regarded as a teen movie.
3) How the fast editing style of the movie and music videos popularized by MTV result in visual imperceptability (i.e., that the eye cannot keep up with the images); while a bit of a tangent, this phenomenon reminded me of John Cline’s Flow column about the increasing incomprehensibility of many segments in action films shot on digital camera.

I think there are limits to Dickenson’s argument — the Brat Pack movies or the Hughes-influenced teen pics from the late 1990s, which were not so reliant on fast editing as they were on soundtracks, trendy clothes, slang, and photogenic young actors, talking about their feelings still uphold the MTV aesthetic in my mind, perhaps suggesting that the network did not have a uniform visual style.  

Also, there’s minimal discussion of how Luhrmann’s kinetic style heightened the story’s romantic elements and how this might have played into its intense popularity among teenagers (seriously, I saw this movie dozens of times during my junior high and high school days; I also assume that DiCaprio’s vaunted teen idol status as a result of the movie led him to be cast in Titanic, a movie beloved by kids of my generation, including my friend Brandi, who saw the movie at least sixteen times in theaters and taped the ticket stubs to the wall by her bed). I’d be very curious how Dickenson reads Luhrmann’s visual style against Hughes’s (and Dawson’s Creek creator-wordsmith Kevin Williamson’s) use of dialogue, particularly regarding matters of the heart. 

Lisa A. Lewis’s “A Madonna ‘Wanna-Be’ Story on Film” is a piece I was already familiar with because, as I’ve mentioned numerous times on here, Gender Politics and MTV: Voicing the Difference, from which the essay originally emerged, was a formative text for me as a media studies scholar. 

In this piece, Lewis does a formidable job mapping out a multitude of texts surrounding Madonna in the mid-1980s. There’s star text (Madonna). There’s film text (Susan Seidelman’s 1984 classic Desperately Seeking Susan, starring Rosanna Arquette, who plays a young suburban housewife who becomes obsessed with and later develops a liberating friendship with Susan, a mysterious club denizen, played by Madonna). There’s soundtrack analysis (Lewis particularly pays attention to the club scene where Susan dances to Madonna’s song “Into the Groove”). There’s fan discourse (teen girls and young women — maybe unmentioned young men as well – appropriating the Material Girl’s iconic look, while mutating and individuating it; this development is read alongside the movie, which shows Rosanna’s Roberta becoming Susan, as well as behind-the-scenes goings-on, as Rosanna and Madonna became friends off-camera). There’s even consideration made for how corporate culture feeds into all this, coming to a head when MTV and ABC document a Madonna lookalike fashion show at Macy’s to coincide with the film’s release. In short, a dizzying but lucidly plotted out argument about the power female artists (and their fans) can exert within and outside of an increasingly synergistic media culture. 

Hmmm. Also a reminder of how much I love Desperately Seeking Susan, which I would catch on Comedy Central from time to time when I had cable. I haven’t watched it in a while. May warrant a repeat viewing ASAP.

There is something about Kristin Kreuk that makes you just want to move to Canada. I think it’s her eyes, she has those eyes that make you want to do anything. Anyways, enough of that hypothetical day dream why don’t I tell you that it’s Canada Day and we are showing off the Canadian goods today on InternetPopular. Most will know Kristin from the WB’s Smallville or the Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li movie that came out, but what you might not know is that she is a beautiful Canadian Girl. So take a look at these pictures and start thinking about moving to Canada.

My Brother and Me was one of my favorite shows as a kid. I can’t believe it only lasted one season, with 13 episodes! One day last week, out of boredom I decided to go research kid stars (on shows I use to watch) and google their name to get some “nowadays” info on them.

Arthur Reggie III who played the eldest brother Alfred “Alfie” Parker hasn’t been seen in much since the series went off air. He is now a “rapper”.

The younger brother whom we all should remember from the infamous episode in which he repeatedly shouted “Hit Me! Hit Me!” to a bully and as an outcome… he got hit! LOL! Ralph Woolfolk IV who played Derek “Dee Dee” Parker is a Morehouse Alum. He looks the exact same!

And I’m sure none of us could forget Alfie’s chunkier best friend “Goo” played by Jimmy Lee Newman Jr. Newman hasn’t been in too much of anything either since the show. Here he is looking like a member of Omega Psi Phi (LOL)!

NOW, GUESS THIS ONE ON YOUR OWN!

This young lady played in a TV series back in 1995. Her father (on the show) is both a famous actor and director. She was the youngest cast member on the show.

HINT: For those of you that follow me on Twitter I acquired this photo via her Facebook. Who do you think it is?

Of the 3 teen dramas no longer airing new episodes, Dawson’s Creek is the only one not on television at all anymore.

And it frustrates the hell out of me!

The show ended on The WB in spring of 2003 but continued to live on in syndication through TBS and The N.  Each aired them daily for quite some time in either the morning or evening.  Then they slowly disappeared from the airwaves, with TBS first banishing it to 4:30am where it could die a quiet and slow death.

I don’t understand what happened, as no public comment was ever given.  Logic tells me the syndication deals probably expired and the ratings weren’t worth negotiating a new contract.

But why does TBS still have it on their Web site? It doesn’t appear when you just go to the TBS homepage, but doing a search will find a lot of DC content.  You can even access its original page on the site (I have it bookmarked on my Links page), which stills says it airs at 4:30am.  But, of course, clicking upcoming episodes doesn’t yield any results.  (It’s hardly still on the Web site for The N–now called Teen Nick–save for two quizzes.)

Why does Sony still have the official Dawson’s Creek site still up?  Beverly Hills 90210’s home on the web is long gone, as well as The O.C.’s.  If you’re going to keep the site, at least use it.  Most of its features are still functional but the homepage, which features all the DVD releases, hasn’t been updated to advertise the Complete Series set which comes out next month.

Yes, if I long for the show that badly, I can just watch my DVDs.  But there’s a certain satisfaction and pleasure that comes from knowing it’s still on television somewhere and there if I want it. Plus, it not only keeps the show present in pop culture but also deepens its legacy.

I can’t imagine a day when Beverly Hills 90210 isn’t on TV at all.  Hopefully that’s a long way off and keep your fingers crossed that, by some miracle, some channel brings Dawson’s Creek back on again.

A série mostra a vida do Superman quando ele ainda era apenas um adolescente, que nem imaginava os poderes que tinha. Ao invés de lidar com vilões e proteger o mundo, Clark Kent terá que enfrentar a escola, as dificuldades de se conquistar as garotas e lidar com seus rígidos, porém amáveis, pais, enquanto seu corpo passa por muitas mudanças — e nem todas elas relacionadas à puberdade: uma super-força, visão de raio-x…
Mais forte e mais rápido do que qualquer outra pessoa, Clark não consegue entender porque se sente tão deslocado, principalmente na presença da bela Lana Lang, cujos pais foram mortos da chuva de meteoros que o trouxe à Terra. E numa grande diferença em relação às outras histórias, Clark se torna amigo de seu futuro inimigo, Lex Luthor, após se encontrarem por acaso.

Agradecimentos pelo texto: UP

As temporadas anteriores podem ser baixadas do site abaixo:
http://up.tl/serie/f032e4e2e5/Smallville.html

9ª temporada:
S09E01 – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SDRL63WW
S09E02 – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HOG7SY71
S09E03 – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BGAFXC8M
S09E04 – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OVN5K82G
S09E05 – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AANWNMGM
S09E06 – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZXRZUB8D
S09E07 – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7F1JPU8Z
S09E08 – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AF5KANL0
S09E09 – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4PC640UK

Episódios indexados através do site up.tl

OBS: o formato dos episódios são AVI e sem legendas. As legendas podem ser encontradas no Legendas.tv (o cadastro é gratuito).