not falling down

The shooting scripts for Firefly. I borrowed a book on television writing a while back and never read it; I think these will be more valuable.

My brother Ian wants to move to Hawaii and live in a sailboat. He also enjoys poker.

Me: Bad news–all gambling is illegal in Hawaii.

Ian: Illegal gambling isn’t!

The WB and UPN will merge in September, creating a new network called CW (because it’ll be jointly owned by CBS, which owns UPN, and Time Warner). Presumably this means a bold new vision of alternating teensoaps with incredibly-low-production-values “urban” sitcoms and wrestling. Also maybe Star Trek?

This actually is a fairly big shakeup in the electromagnetic spectrum–a lot of areas have stations allocated to both UPN and the WB. The WB reliably does better than UPN, so that’s probably the station where CW will reside in most markets. I think it’s obvious, when all the factors are considered, that the leftover stations should go to: me.

Seriously, the first thing I thought when I read that headline was “but–but–what will happen to Veronica Mars?”

Heard from the office next to my cube, mere moments ago:

(chuckling) “Yeah, a rose by any other name… is… still a rose!”

“As I’ve said to friends, we can’t expect to tell our fans ’see you in court’ and then ’see you at Massey Hall next fall’–we have to choose one, and I choose the latter. This current litigious atmosphere is simply a product of the record business trying to prop up a dying, obsolete business model.”

It’s so great to know that BNL gets it.

For better or worse, (Ultimate) The Office is the new Arrested Development. The Tuesday Night Ballers gave it up after four episodes last year, when it came on after Scrubs; the first season was like watching a Christopher Guest movie with all the jokes surgically excised. But Yale, persistent fan, got Maria and me to try it again last week. And it got funny! Funny and poignant! They put the jokes back in!

It’s not as edgy or fast or thick as AD, and probably no show on network TV will be again. But it’s self-aware, filmed with handhelds, and clever. It’s good.

Also, I think Jim from the show is the subject of Jimmy Eat World’s name. Not because he eats the world. Because he angsts charmingly.

Er. Hem. Ahem hem.

What are… what. What are some good.

podcasts.

So much for Mondays. The final four episodes of Arrested Development are airing in one two-hour block on Friday, February 10–the same time as the Olympics’ opening ceremonies. I think it would be less a gesture of disgust not to show them at all.

My mom says she doesn’t really like AD because while she’s fine with sex in a dramatic context, she dislikes the constant innuendo (also why she doesn’t watch Scrubs). That made me think about the things AD relies on for jokes.

Popular humor topics:

• Coincidence
• Annoying family members
• Sexual innuendo

Nonpopular humor topics:

• Repressed homosexuality
• Sex with people older than fifty
• Sex with ugly people
• Blind people
• Retarded people
• Amputees
• Incest
• More incest
• Iraq
• Political activists
• Gangrene
• The Blue Man Group
• Vast amounts of continuity

And I was like, oh. Is that why?

“The fingerprints of zombies are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.”

Sumana takes the old disappearing sock meme and makes it funny and touching. That’s skill, gentlemen–skill like we’ve not seen. Not since Morocco. Haskins! Initiate the Marianas Contingency! Good God, man, there’s no time to lose!