An event 5 years in the making

I appeared on my final episode of Fridays Live yesterday.  It was a very bittersweet time for me.

I was excited that my time on the show was coming to a close, because truthfully, it had started to not be fun anymore.  It felt like for the last year of the show, that nobody had really tried very hard to put the show on, and those who were were being overlooked. Cast members left and right always seemed to show up whenever the hell they wanted to.  Writers never understood the formula for writing jokes, or thinking outside the box.  and worst of all, people on the show, were becoming unhappy with the people in charge to the point where they would just leave.

As far as the show went.  It was OK it wasn’t 100% what i was expecting, but I guess it never is.  Before the show,  an old friend of mine, who had been trying to get an appearance on the show since we last told him, never again, came in and did stand up to warm up the audience.  Ever since I announced that I was doing my final show, he had been hounding me to get on, I told him it wasn’t MY decision, (even though I had all the lee-way to put him on of I wanted to).   I’ve heard his stand-up before, and personally, I don’t like it.  But rather than be bitter, and flat out tell him no, I decided to tell him that if he wanted to warm up the audience he could.  So, he comes in,  and does probably a WORSE set than I have ever heard. Bottom Line: I was not happy.  He did more than just warm up the audience, he offended them.  While at dinner, after the show, My Brother, who had heard his material beforehand said that he didn’t do the jokes he thought he was going to do.  And not only that, but he had shown up drunk as well.  I went backstage behind a lip in the set, in order to hide my dissapointment.  They finally cut his mic (thank GOD) and we got underway with the show.

The cold open was sprung from an idea that the musical guest (Mike Ward) had which was a parody of  “I’m on a Boat” by the Lonely Island Boys, It went well, although a majority of it had to be Censored, Which is understandable, as it is TV.  Zac wrote the banter, and cameo-ed in it, as Me from the future, telling me to get off the show.  at the end, he made a knock on one of the sketches, which I wasn’t totally expecting, and didn’t go over well with one of the cast members.  While talking about her favorite moments on the show, she stated that she enjoyed working with the girls despite the fact that people didn’t take respect them or take them seriously.  The knock was not on them, as actors, it was a knock on the writing.   Then, We did Grandma Gab, which was kind of a nice throwback to what we had done back in what i’ll call the ‘Golden’ age of FL.  Fabs came back, as well as Conor, and Craig.  and it was really nice to have those guys, who had been apart of some of my best times on the show.
I was very sad to leave.  I ALMOST made it through the ending credits without getting emotional, but alas, it didn’t work.  I got to (for the most part) do the show MY WAY.  and while there were a few parts of the process I was not happy about, I had fun with it.  Fabs, Craig, Zac, and Conor all came back and made cameo’s on my final show.  and while they didn’t get any applause like one would on SNL when someone makes a cameo, It meant a lot for me to have them there.

My big project today, is going to be going back to the dressing room, and cleaning all of my stuff out of there.  which shouldn’t be too hard, but it will still be a little rough.

If you’re reading this, and have been apart of the show in any capacity, including the audience, I do want to say thank you.  Fridays Live has been my comedic outlet for the last 5 years.  and your support, and work has not gone unnoticed by me.  I will always treasure my time on the show, and will miss spending my Fridays in Studio C.

Thoughts on Superbowl XLIV

Well, I watched the superbowl tonight, as did millions of other people around the world.  I was obviously more interested in the commercials, as I am every year.  I really liked the commercial with Abe Vigoda, and Betty White.  Those two actors are amazing.  A lot of the dorito commercials were really good too.  I didn’t care so much for the commercials that parodied the dramatic squirrel.  The reference is a little too old, I think.

I fell asleep right before halftime, and at that point the Colts were winning.  I slept through the Who’s halftime show, which i was indeed dissapointed about, but i’ve been up a good majority of the day, and hadn’t had a chance to get a nap before the superbowl.  But I woke up just as New orleans scored their final touchdown.  From there I watched the rest of the game. 

The one image that I think will stick with me is the shot of Drew Brees with his son.  It was justa nice shot to see closing out the superbowl. 

More to come later…

ANIME? … Oh, You mean Japaneese Animation…

Eh, it’s late… i’m not worries about the title…

I finished yet another article for 367.  I’m realizing how I havent blogged since I was in high school, and Xanga was popular… But I digress…

Anime over the last 15 years has been a very popular… I guess you would call it ‘Genre’ here in America over the last 15 or so years, at least with the advent of ‘Pokemon.’ Shinobu Price wrote this article, and discusses the art of anime, and how it has become such a popular genre here in the US, and how some people look down upon it.

When I say ‘people look down on it,’ I’m simply referring to how this genre doesn’t translate to some of its american viewers.  which is weird seeing as that with as much crap as we send out to other countries, like Japan, we would be a little more culturally acceptable to shows from the outside world in the US.  however that doesnt seem to be the case.  Anime, is Japaneese animation.  it reflects the style and culture of the Japaneese culture, and has been adapted and translated into various programs here in the United states.  There are many examples of these programs, such as the aforementioned ‘Pokemon.’

Price talks about how unwilling and sometimes how ignorant american’s can be when it comes to understanding and accepting anime in their culture, and on a personal note I can’t blame her.  I do think a lot of Americans are ignorant and also prejudace to other culture’s ideals and traditions, and with anime, you do have a stong example of how the Japaneese culture works.  My belief is that we as an American socitey need to be more open minded to other cultures.

Shinobu Price

Indonesian-American Idol

I just finished reading an article on ‘Indonesian Idol’ by Penelope Coutas.  It was very insightful as to how the big corporation of  ‘Idol’ created by Simon Fuller is translating worldwide.

The article discusses how ‘Idol’ was created and distributed.  It compares the highly successful versin of “American Idol” as well as the ‘Indonesian idol’ in which she primarily discusses in the article.  She talks about how the series, although set in two different countries, are actually pretty similar in terms of how it’s produced, marketed and even distributed within indonesia. 

Obviously there are some cultural differences with ‘Idol’ including the kind of songs that are sung, rights restrictions, and even the people who host and judge the series.  Voting is also different in terms of how many people actually vote, and vote via text text message, as american’s commonly do.

Personally I do have to say i’m not a huge fan of the whole ‘Idol’ series.  whether it’s here in the US or overseas.  However, I can not deny its contribution to not only pop culture, but television history as a whole, in terms of viewership, and revenue.  Indonesia, Just like america, has a culture that enjoys reality TV, and has a good market for making such shows, And I find that in my own personal experience, it’s cheap and easy to make a show like that.  the key for each country that produces an ‘Idol’ type show or any other successful reality TV show, is something that most of their viewers will want to watch.

Canadian Televison: Thoughts

I just finished reading the chapter, ‘Television in Canada: Community or Change?’  I’m not really sure how I feel about this, but I will attempt to try to figure out as I go.

The chapter was written by David Skinner, and is doing exactly what the title of the chapter says; talking about television in Canada, and he is posing the question as to whether or not Canadian television is owned and operated fairly.

The Author goes through the details of how the CBC and the CRBC came to be and how the many laws and acts passed throughout the 20th century in canada have regulated the distribution of its advertising and and programming.  They had a lot of dealings with american stations and transmissions bleeding in to canadian areas, most people were ok with it, but the government wanted to regulate it, obviously in order to make a profit off of it.  so, with the numerous legislative acts invoked by the Canadian Government, they worked ways around it.  Until they advented new technologies such as Cable, and satellite.  Then the government came up with work arounds for it as well. 

They did claim they had no control over the internet, so with that the sharing of media over the internet was quite frequent by both canadians and American’s alike.  However, some in Canada wanted to be able to openly share media and advertising openly with their American counterparts.  They did such things as adapt the NTSC format, as well as other american television and broadcast traits.  As a result, the CBC lessened their restrictions on licensing programming to the US and other outlets.

I personally find that a lot of programs made available through the CBC are wonderful show, and should be freely distributed to the US, just as our American shows are… none of these silly loopholes or regulations.

Dubbing The Simpsons: reflection

After reading the article about the adaptation of ‘The Simpsons’  it really opened my eyes as to how other countries translate shows that are produced (relatively locally) in the USA. 

In summary, the author, Chiara Ferrari (sounds like the heiress to the car company, but I digress) discusses how the translation of ‘The Simpsons’ has actually worked throughout the world.  She talks about how the Arabic culture completely changed the characters within the show, giving them new names, as well, as new personas.  Ferrari also talks about its adaptation into japaneese culture, and how they find the disrespectful antics of one, Bartholomew J. Simpson, to be appauling, as they hold respect and honor in high regard.  Then she spends a good majority of the time talking about how ‘The simpsons was adapted to the Italian culture.  She discussed how Even though some of the humor may have been lossed with the accents and things american viewers of the show may find funny, for example, most noteably, Groundskeeper Willy’s accent.  Having the characters come from different areas of Italy, via voice dubbing, and script changes actually aided the show and helped make the series successful overseas. 

The Simpsons is one of those shows that has now institutionalized itself within american pop culture.  Much like how some would argue that modernly, the show, ‘Family Guy’ has done the same.  While I don’t know how first-hand other shows work in different parts of the world.  I do eventually see ‘Family Guy’ being distributed worldwide, if it is not already.  However, since it relies off of the humor of current events, and other popular events mainly in US history, I Do not believe it would be a successful series if distributed other places. 

I would be interested to see Chiara Ferrari do the same kind of research that she applied to this article about ‘The Simpsons’ and apply to another popular animated series such as ‘Family Guy.’

I guess if I were to pose a question regarding this, what would you expect to be the outcome of a show like ‘Family Guy’ to be if distributed around the world?