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The television upfronts continue to take place in New York City this week, and I continue to not know what those are. Hugh Laurie is there? Is it Hugh Laurie’s birthday? Someone get Hugh Laurie another glass of champagne, please! Of course, yesterday we were talking about how NBC faces the nearly insurmountable challenge of pleasing a nation of terrified racists huddled in their dirty bomb shelters. Not as easy as it sounds! But, of course, all of the networks are faced with this uphill battle. It’s like they always say, you can please some of the racists some of the time, but you can’t build a 300-foot-high-electric-steel-fence on the border with Mexico and the nation of Islam fast enough for all of the racists any of the time. Meanwhile, oil continues to pour out of a hole in the ocean at a rate that starts to make you wonder if the ocean itself is going to just be pure oil soon, and although it is 2010 and we can make the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park look incredibly lifelike, still no one knows how to stop this oil, and you turn to The Boy and you are like GET THOSE BLANKETS INTO THE CART, WE ARE GOING TO NEED THOSE TO COVER OUR HEADS AGAINST THE FALLING ASH. So I think we all wish the FOX network luck as they enter the fall season with a slate of new comedies and dramas!
Running Wilde
Raising Hope
Lonestar
Ride-Along
Mixed Signals
Bob’s Burgers
I am really looking forward to Bob’s Burgers and have nothing but high hopes for Running Wilde. The other comedies are less appealing to me, although at least they are not a racist nightmare from the Land Before Time like that Outsourced shit. (Are you kidding me with that shit, NBC?) But those dramas look hilarious. I’m pretty sure that clip from Ride-Along played before Tropic Thunder. FOX also has a new buddy cop dramedy starring Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks called The Good Guys, but a) I couldn’t find a high enough quality clip to post, and b) I heard a story yesterday about how that show was basically STOLEN from a man named Jason Mantzoukas who made a virtually identical pilot called Off Duty (starring BRADLEY WHITFORD!) for Comedy Central and when FOX liked it but couldn’t buy it, they just made their own. With the same lead actor. If this is true, I seriously hope that Hollywood falls into the FUCKING OCEAN. And if this is not true, I just KIND OF hope that Hollywood falls into the fucking ocean. Gross town! Bad town!
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I could really go for another season of Dark Angel
I believe that one is Pretty but Cancelled.
Jessica Alba = HOT!
Running Wilde preview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N0e4WI_1Cw&feature=channel
Raising Hope preview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyjaiWRTKPU&feature=channel
Lonestar preview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UmpZkzGGEc&feature=channel
Ride-Along preview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZKr5r43Ruc&feature=channel
Take THAT, Fox!
Mixed Signals preview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz_x2sMmhGs&feature=channel
Bob’s Burger preview:
http://www.youtube.com/user/FoxBroadcasting#p/u/28/_zccYG8TIAY
They didn’t cancel American Idol, did they? That was a close one!
So, basically continue to not watch Fox. Done and done. And I mean done.
I was done after “This is a house of cards. You don’t get to LIVE IN IT!”
i always wonder just how fox got so lucky to create both arrested development and the clevland show (from the makers of family guy!).
both brilliant (at least i’m sure the clevland show looked brilliant, as i have never watched it) in their own right.
I upvoted one of you for boobz and downvoted one of you for boobs.
Falls into the regular ocean or the oil ocean?
Do they have a phrase of “adding injury to insult”? If not, they should, and you have fairly represented its spirit here.
2 Office actors in mixed signals? Same creators?
Who’s the second one? I only recognized Pam’s ex-fiance.
The guy with the glasses is the new IT guy.
Ah. Ok. I only recognized him from his one scene during the end credits in Party Down, Season 1 (the company retreat episode). He’s such a Jim clone I wouldn’t have ever guessed he was also on The Office.
I personally wish Fox luck of the draw…. in this Russian Roulette of upfronts.
I don’t know if I’ll have room for any of this on my DVR once I fill it up with all 3 episodes of NBC’s ‘The Cape’
“THE VIDEO YOU ARE TRYING TO WATCH CANNOT BE VIEWED FROM YOUR CURRENT COUNTRY OR LOCATION, YOU DIRTY ANTIPODEAN.”
I just heard (or noticed) the term “antipodean” for the first time this past week. Therefore, I welcome you Aussie/Kiwi Monster and I simply ask: What is it like in the future? Who wins the World Cup? and Does Tupac ever come back?
hey is Africa also antipodean?
Ah, right. forgot about S. Africa. I guess I’m just a racist. Can’t wait for Fox’s fall lineup!!!!!!
To an Australian, Americans are antipodeans.
DID I JUST BLOW YOUR MIND? No? Then what was I blowing just then?
Curiousgum! Is it pronounced anti-PODE [rhymes with load] or anti-po-dee? I was pronouncing it the first way for a while in my head and then I realized it’s probably Greek so I started pronouncing it the second way and oh my god will I ever stop talking??
I didn’t really pay attention to the World Cup, I was busy riding my hover-kangaroo around. Tupac returns to guest star in Glee.
It’s pronounced anti-po-dee
I am so happy that there is another show on TV that features a one-dimensional, emotionally manipulative female who never lets her boyfriend/husband go out!
i relate to it because i am a member of the horrible shrew demographic!
Also, don’t you girls HATE having sex with your boyfriends/husbands? God, why do they ALWAYS want to do that?
I crush his spirit and destroy his happiness every single day, you’d think he’d be finally impotent by now!
Every time a couple gets married, two single people die.
It’s like some strange version of reverse logic employed by right wing Christians. Pat yourself on the back.
Man, I’m going to get down-voted so hard for this…but the term “racist” is thrown around a little too much on this site, and improperly. I only care because it is such a strong word with such a serious implication. Racism by definition is the belief that a group of people (or a line up of shows?) thinks that a race of people are lower or less apt because of their race. So…Bob’s burgers? Riffing on racial stereotypes is stupid, ignorant, and can be very offensive, but it does not necessarily mean it’s racist.
Ok, you can kill me now.
The racists referenced here are the majority of Americans who support Arizona’s new immigration law (cf. yesterday’s post about NBC’s line-up; while we’re on the subject, cf. also previous posts about Jeff Dunham for an overview on Gabe’s philosophy towards racism and comedy), not Bob’s Burgers or the other FOX shows themselves. The only show specifically called racist here is Outsourced, which, again, cf. yesterday’s post for context. Just, you know, fyi.
This post dedicated to the memory of David Foster Wallace. Cf. forever.
No man, he wasn’t referring to the shows but the people who watch Fox news. In which case, I can’t think of a more succinct way to describe the audience. He’s referring to the repressed religious conservatives who hate on black people all the time, etc.
By “repressed religious conservatives”, you mean Korean people, right?
Don’t take this the wrong way, but I would say that your comment belies your naivete and ignorance of racism. Your second to last statement, “Riffing on racial stereotypes is stupid, ignorant, and can be very offensive, but it does not necessarily mean it’s racist,” is, in my humble estimation, incorrect. It is that kind of thinking that leads to a watering down of the concept of racism until only Overt Vile Acts are classified as such. In reality, racism is the small and the large stuff, the small permissive jokes amongst friends of the same race and the obvious blatant horrible ugh moments.
But yeah, Rex is right, it pertains to yesterdays joke.
Consider though how often comedians riff on racial stereotypes and how if you call that racist (essentially declaring these comedians horrible perpetuators/exploiters/lynch-encouragers) we would lose out on huge chunks of hilarity from Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock (niggers vs black people, however abusively it has been quoted by idiots), plus probably a lot of old-school Jewish comedians like Jackie Mason or Robert Klein, and so on. Sam Kinison, I don’t know, make your own list. Stereotypes need to be fair game for riffing.
On the other hand, I’m Irish, so I go around looking for fights.
I think the difference between Dave Chappelle [who is hilarious] and racist right-wingers [who are also hilarious, but for an entirely different reason] is that Chappelle makes use of perceived racial stereotypes in order to illuminate their ridiculousness, and the nuts use racial stereotypes because they think they’re true. Admittedly, Chappelle’s stuff can sometimes miss the point, but I think that’s why he cancelled his show; because he was afraid he was perpetuating these stereotypes.
Uhhh. Sooo. Uhhh.
Oh, right. So. I think it’s acceptable to make use of racial stereotypes if it’s being done in a constructive way [i.e. pointing out how ridiculous they are and breaking them down] and not just accepting them as real reality, which they are not.
Sorry if this doesn’t make any sense, I’m sick and haven’t had my coffee WAHH SOMEBODY GET ME MY BLANKIE
You have talked sense. I agree, anyway. I just wasn’t 100% comfortable with DS3M’s statement that unless we condemn even “small permissive jokes amongst friends” we are somehow tolerating racism (and therefore racist).
Also, I’m not sure this is what DS3M meant, but it seemed a likely reading of what he said, so I thought I better throw in my 1-3 (avg: 2) cents.
So I think that those comedians jokes are in fact racist, you (we) just don’t find them offensive. Or at least they are partially offensive which is why they are fun, but we feel comfortable laughing knowing we don’t truly hold ‘racist’ opinions. Personally I define racist as ‘pertaining to race’, which is of course incredibly broad but at least it keeps one from pretending as if there is in fact this clear line in the sand between ‘fun racist’ and ‘offensive racist’. Its easy to say “Stereotypes need to be fair game for riffing” but you know as well as I that there are a ton of racist jokes you would in fact find offensive and ‘racist’, specifically when told by someone whom you suspect does in fact hold racist beliefs.
Personally I like how Gabe blatantly and without reserve calls people (shows) racist because it seems to make the point of saying “your wholesome, cute, prime-time-approved racism is still racism, don’t pretend like thats not part of the reason we are laughing”. While its clearly not as harmful as, say, calling to lynch a black dude for marrying a white chick, don’t pretend that we are a post-racist generation who can laugh at stereotypes and still claim to not make any value judgements based on race – those two concepts are mutually exclusive.
But in case it seems like I’m making a different point, I’d just like to clarify that I personally believe that racism is a natural human reaction and thus will never disappear entirely, and feel that political correctness actually does more harm than good by implying racism is wrong in a moral sense rather than an empirical sense. I think we as humans need to learn to disapprove of racism consciously, in terms of letting it effect how we treat people, but still recognize that we very much can be racist by nature and that its better to recognize and accept it than to pretend we don’t even have the capacity (thus the confusion over ‘how can this possibly be funny to me and also be racist… I’m clearly not a racist so its impossible!’). Okay that’s my 2(many!) cents.
Hey, we both ended our latest posts with “2 cents” riffs! Ben I hear ya. My whole thing is just that blanket policies like “Personally I define racist as ‘pertaining to race’” are in danger of shutting down interaction & good will & understanding. After all, your post pertains to race. Is it racist? I prefer Rex Manning Day’s take, immediately below (nicely illustrated with Jeff Dunham). Another way of putting it: is the goal of race-based humor to laugh at The Other, or to begin to laugh at ourselves?
Overall my point is: racism is super-complicated. Broad statements don’t do justice to human interaction.
Racism = Capitalizing on the audience’s implicit agreement with a racial stereotype for humorous effect.
Example: Jeff Dunham
Not Racism = Exaggerating a racial stereotype to comically absurd lengths, or otherwise commenting on the nature and social significance of that stereotype itself.
Example: The people you listed (at least in their stand-up; Eddie Murphy hasn’t exactly been a bastion of social commentary in his movie choices)
You’re also Hotspur. Nothing but a fighter there.
I wish I understood this comment
AHA. Okay, Yes. I had to scroll up to realize you were replying to ME. I thought you were replying to Ben. Hence my swirl of confusion.
now that we’re on the subject; is “outsourced” really racist? I mean the show takes place in an indian call center or something like that, right? so most of the characters will be indian. Being a comedy, many of the characters will be ridiculous. I didn’t notice any racial stereotypes though.
I’m not trying to take Gabe to task here, just wondering what your collective thoughts are on the matter.
you know, familydiscussiongum.
Okay, I am no Professor in Indian or Race Studies, over here, nor have I watched more than that 90 second clip that was posted yesterday, but I am going to go ahead and say – yes, “Outsourced” is racist and very much THE WORST.
The show’s attempt at comedy is not derived from the cleverness/wittiness of the characters themselves, but from them doing the dumbest, unfunny things in a goofy, exaggerated, and awful Indian caricatures. For instance, the clip posted yesterday features 1) a guy quoting Glengarry Glen Ross 2) a girl singing and 3) a guy dancing and singing. None of these things, on their own, would be remotely funny to anyone. If this show was a bunch of white guys doing such things, America would be all, “wtf.” But, throw in some HILARIOUS INDIANS doing them in GOOFY ACCENTS, then we have AMERICAN COMEDY GOLD. Ugh.
There’s a very big difference between a bunch of white people being ridiculous in a sitcom and a bunch of “brown people” being ridiculous in a sitcom. It’s all about social context. Like racism.
Since we’re on the subject, when did getting called a racist become a worse offense than , y’know, racism? These days the internet is all “hey, let’s not throw that word around, it’s so strong!” and “hey, let’s make sure this is really racism before we hurt people’s feelings by calling them something so awful as racists!”, and yet racism itself goes around everywhere and no one cares because we’re too busy trying to figure out what it is. In 2010. Oh, us.
Amen!
I’m not worried about all this crap TV. Sometime by August, the underwater oil plumes will make their way from the Gulf of Mexico to the deep South Atlantic where they will awaken a cosmic terror which will eradicate us all just before fall premiers and definitely by November sweeps.
Fortunately, both Cthulhu and Godzilla are sleeping in the Pacific, not the Atlantic. I guess the Cloverfield monster’s in the Atlantic? And Jaws. So basically, on the scale of cosmic terrors sleeping in the ocean that could be awoken by a massive and uncontainable oil plume, we’re definitely getting off easy here.
Well, I was thinking of the Elder Things. But thanks!
“Ph’nglui MGLW’NAFH Cthulhu R’lyeh WGAH’NAGL FHTAGN.
AmPat, I just snort-laughed so hard seeing that in your signature caps.
Me too, That One. Major snarfage.
I was hoping for a Sharktopus.
That looks like someone I know.
Gumbercules? I love that guy!
As granny tables always used to say, Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.
We…took away her whisky after that one…
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all the contents of its underwear drawer.”
“VG’s Monsters > HP’s Monsters”
-Birdie
New Loren Bouchard? Okay. I’ll put the bazooka down now.
I am having so much difficulty telling which ones are comedies and which ones are not. Lonestart looked like it might actually be funny, then it just didn’t pan out, then I figured out it was a drama and it was sort of funny again.
I’m only doing this cause it’s the second time you brought it up, but “upfronts” are where networks introduce their new fall line ups (usually in a lavish setting with lots of theatrics) and advertisers bid on them without ever seeing an episode. Which benefits the networks cause they make money regardless of the shows crappiness and audience size.
This information comes to you via me forgetting to bring a book to read when I spent the night at my sisters a couple weeks ago and picking up her copy ‘Desperate Networks’. About the main cable networks and how jerky they are.
Ooh, I hate myself for this, but i chuckled at that preview for ‘Raising Hope’. Maybe its just myself hoping we get a worthy successor to Malcom in the Middle.
I dunno, Gabe. These shows are awful for sure, but you seem a little paranoid and snarky today. You all right? Could I get you a soda or something?
For once I would like to see a major network commit to a really violent, well-animated action-drama of some sort. I’m so sick of seeing animated programs about a no-chinned family with three kids with character designs equivalent to less-than-spectacular newspaper comic-strip characters. Japan kicks our asses in animated prime-time programs every time. Every time? every time. (I didn’t really even need to ask and answer that question, but still)
That’s why I like the Boondocks and am looking forward to Black Dynamite. At least the Boondocks does some awesome shit from time to time and actually has a view point that isn’t ALWAYS centered in shock-value while actually commenting on the culture it’s depicting.
Meanwhile, coming this fall on Lifetime is “Fencing Farrakhan: The John McCain Story”
I’ve really been looking forward to The Good Guys. What Fox (allegedly) did sounds pretty crappy, but I’m sure I’ll still enjoy the hell out of it anyway.
Really? The Good Guys? Starring Colin Hanks? You’re looking forward to The Good Guys, starring Colin Hanks, on FOX? The show with the tagline “Kick Some Badge?” Really? You’re really looking forward to watching the summer FOX sitcom starring Colin Hanks called The Good Guys from the creator of Burn Notice? Really?
Okay then. I hope you enjoy it.
I am looking forward to it, but only because I have a crush on Colin Hanks. I probably will not watch it, because whatever, but being able to see tiny 30 second clips of him while I’m watching Glee always brightens my day a little. I would like that to continue!
Yes. I am looking forward to The Good Guys, starring Colin Hanks and Bradley Whitford, from the creator of Burn Notice. Burn Notice is pretty perfect as far as light summer entertainment goes, and this looks like it will be the same, plus Bradley Whitford. I do like how you mentioned Colin Hanks(who is a perfectly cromulent actor, by the way), but left out Bradley Whitford. I also like how you somehow have me defending my tv watching habits online, which is probably not what I should be doing right now.
St. Roger Ebert, on the movie basis for the exciting new NBC show of the same name (that Gabe is going to watch because he wants to, not because he has to):
“Outsourced is not a great movie, and maybe couldn’t be this charming if it was. It is a film bursting with affection for its characters and for India. It never pushes things too far, never stoops to cheap plotting, is about people learning to really see one another. It has a fundamental sweetness and innocence.”
Based on watching the cringey scenes in the “upfront” you posted yesterday, I ask myself how the Indian actors can live with themselves. What’s the Hindi word for “Minstrel Show”?
I can’t watch these cause I’m from Canada, but I was able to find the preview for Running Wilde. I would watch Will Arnett in pretty much anything.
Bob’s Burgers looks really good too….was anyone able to pick out any of the voices? I recognized Kristen Schaal’s voice in there, but that’s it.
Jon H Benjamin as the main man. Eugene Mirman as the son. Because I am great and I know these things.
It’s basically got the best cast. Between this and Archer, Jon Benjamin will hopefully someday have more shows on than Seth MacFarlane.
I will watch any show that has Jon Benjamin. His voice is great, and plus I can always close my eyes and pretend he’s Ben Katz.
Dr. Katz reference? No? I’ll just crawl on over into this mud puddle here. Yep. That about does it. Bye!
Napoleon Complex’s Dr Katz reference? Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit STINKS!
That made me grin like a crazy person, Exene. I needed that little pick me up.
*high five*
Cheer up Gabe
Don’t let it get you down
Pick yourself up off the ground
It’s gonna be alright
Cheer up Gabe
You look a little sad
Your life ain’t so bad
Just think of all the good times
Remember your 83rd birthday
You threw a great big party
And all of your friends were there for you
Topher Grace, Mans, and me
We brought you a cake in the shape of a nine and a three
’cause we all thought you were ninety three
You got a dog
He loves you Gabe
It’s one hell of a dog
It’s an Shiba Inu
And you’ve got a car
Don’t you Gabe
It’s a Model-T
Only one previous owner
And you’ve got a blog
You’ve got all of your limbs
You’ve got a sensitive nose
Yes, you do one hell of a blog
You’re good at matching your ties to your clothes
You’ve got an ex-wife named Betty White
Though she comes and goes
Some people don’t return your calls
They don’t return your calls
People will call you Oldmanballs
They’ll call you Oldmanballs
Those people don’t know what they see
They just see Oldmanballs
Oldmanballs
Cheer up Gabe
It’s time to forget
Your ex- wife met someone on the net
Let’s go and get an ice cream
Cheer up Gabe
So nothing goes your way
It’s the same every day
Well, tomorrow is another day
Oldmanballs
Here is Stefan Gagner Dubois preforming this song:
I thought this Running Wilde thing was going to be an Oscar Wilde biopic miniseries.
Damn.
I thought it was going to be a reality show about Olivia Wilde training for the Boston Marathon.
Will watch Bob’s Burgers and that’s about it.