Cineology Live! … The Autopsy

04/09/2010 by AJ.

There’s a saying that you should never go back.  Be it relationships, careers, and indeed hobbies. The world is changing around us, and the speed of that change is gathering pace.  It’s possible to make the case that the majority of these changes are NOT for the better. However, if you feel you can improve things, you become convinced to get back in harness again.

So it came to pass that I was tempted to revive the live weekend celebration that had been the CULT TV FESTIVAL. Something that was part of my life from the middle of 1993 (the start of the run-up to our 1994 event), right up until the end of 2007 - when we concluded proceedings at the excellent Heythrop Park venue in Oxfordshire.

This weekend would have been the debut of the CINEOLOGY WEEKENDER. Taking the best elements of the Cult TV Festival, and improving what we thought had kept people away in the later years of our first format.  We had major sponsorship in place to help make it happen – in fact, we’d been invited to get ‘back in business’. And it all would have been a huge success… ten years ago!

Back in 2007, we still had a core of around 150 people who we knew would join us, come rain or shine wherever we happened to be.  They were not concerned with who we might have along as celebrity guests. Rightly or wrongly we were trusted to do the best we could and to put on an excellent show.  Not only that, charity fundraising was absolutely core to our efforts, keeping alive the altruism of fandom that has been part of true media appreciation from the beginning. We had a ‘professional’ approach, with non-commercial intentions.

I was approached by Pontin’s in July 2009 with the offer to format a new version of the Cult TV Festival. Within a couple of weeks I had tabled a new weekender, and it was warmly welcomed. Unfortunately, it took until the end of January 2010 to get everything was signed off; this is the problem with new ways of working, it takes time to iron out the rough corners.

The real upside was that Pontin’s were prepared to underwrite everything – meaning it was no longer my house (or that of any of the Production Team) which was at risk should everything go horrendously wrong.  We could concentrate on the organising of the programme, the charity fund-raising initiatives, and getting the talent ‘on board’.

Unfortunately, it appears that this radical way of thinking was way beyond the comprehension of a few very-vocal people, at various TV-related society meetings around the county. As far as they were concerned, we had ‘sold out’ to ‘the man’. The fact that the only way I could be tempted back onto the scene was by not risking the rest of my life on such a venture was not something they wanted to pay attention to. The fact that charity fund-raising was still at the core of our format was also dismissed. Yet these self-same people will be seen at the commercial media events happening at various ‘aircraft hangers’ around the country, handing over their dosh, knowing full well none of the profits will be going to charity (unless a celebrity makes that decision themselves).

That was one barrier to success. It’s actually a very minor one, simply because in reality these people only have power when no-one comes to the defence of the side being attacked. As we have known for ages, the problem is that our core of attendees actually kept their interest in Cult TV (the event) to themselves: they never acted as ‘brand ambassadors’, spreading the word to anyone who would listen.

Getting the word out is now more difficult than ever – no-one should believe that the internet gets you instantly to a mass audience!  In terms of genre magazines, we’re now down to two generic ones – SFX and SCI-FI NOW. There are many reasons for this contraction, but one major clue to the reason Cineology failed is how many magazines now out there which are dedicated to specific series – more on that later. But in the case of the generic mags, we just couldn’t find a way to illustrate the difference between us and the other weekend media events out there.

And now the big blocker to getting the stars people want to see at an event such as ours. Celebrity agents. If the stars only knew how their representatives tarnish their image and reputations, many of these doozies would have no clients left. It was nigh on impossible to get them to understand the concept – professional charity fund-raising if you like, so I take full responsibility for not getting through the cotton wool between their ears. The fees being quoted were, quite frankly, laughable. To book them would have been financial suicide – none of them would have brought in what they would have cost.  It’s complete madness.

What of our proposed venue, Pakefield? It’s on the east coast of England, and is definitely the best location Pontin’s has in its portfolio by a long chalk. Once more, we had complaints that we were ‘out of the way’. I believe this gets back to the problem that our prospective supporters never wanted to see Cult TV Weekenders as being a holiday. What they thought our event actually was is still difficult for me to comprehend. The first sign of trouble this time out was, again, that we were having people asking what the ‘day rate’ was.  Therein lies a nice little contradiction… we’re so out of the way for some to get there and stay for a weekend, and then others wanted to get there and back in a day (despite it apparently being such a hike). You can already see how it is impossible to even get close to pleasing everyone.

What we also get back to is that despite having run the Cult TV Weekender for 14 years, still there were those who didn’t have us on their radar. Then there were those who knew of us, but didn’t associate it with being something for them. This is where ‘brand image’ comes in. For instance, are you one of those people who heard the initial press last year that ‘organic’ food was no better for you than ‘ordinary’ food?  After the headlines, the small follow-up articles actually said that they’d effectively got it wrong, and organic products were indeed packed with higher levels of valuable nutrients.  This didn’t stop organic sales going through the floor – I was picking up a plethora of organic stuff cheaply for a long time afterwards. The lies stuck, and to some extent I think the early bad press that Cult TV got (thanks, SFX magazine et al) never went away – it was always an uphill struggle to sell.  It didn’t matter what amazing things we managed to pull off, they never get reported.

For instance, we were the first organisers to have Philip Glenister along as a celebrity guest. A year later and a commercial organiser would have you believe that THEY were the first event where he had signed autographs.  ALL Cult TV’s guests signed autographs – and what the commercial organiser didn’t mention was that at our show you got the autographs of most stars included in your registration price…

Indeed, the cost became the final unsolvable mystery with Cult TV. Some looked at the overall price and considered it was too good to be true, so didn’t sign up. Others thought it a lot of money to go for a weekend at Pontin’s, so didn’t sign up. Many didn’t want to make a commitment in advance – why should they when the aircraft-hanger events demand none such? So, they didn’t sign up. And despite it being virtually an ‘all-in’ package price, some couldn’t do the maths to see how much they were getting – the bang for their buck. Guess what? They didn’t sign up.

And on top of that there were those who had already made their plans for the year, and others who simply said in the current climate they couldn’t afford to come along.  So, even our core audience couldn’t help us out, either. With less than 50 people having signed up, early July saw us all agreeing that we had to pull the plug.

Unfortunately, this means that I have to admit something which is the ‘elephant in the room’ concerning television fandom. TV is a passive medium – the majority just sit there and consume. When there was little access to the shows, and no DVDs with extras where you could find out more, then conventions had their place.  For sure, that has all changed now. You no longer have to spend a weekend away to ‘have a look’ at a celebrity.  Or get their autograph.  No point watching their interviews onstage at an event as you’ll have heard it all on their DVD commentaries or specially filmed extras on the discs.  Not many actually want to ask questions of these stars (although plenty use ‘question time’ to ask for a hug or a kiss … yuk). 

The result is that the hit-and-run aircraft-hanger events have taken over the market.  As for interacting, you can get all that online, and not have the inconvenience of having to go anywhere to mingle…!

And that’s the final nail in the multi-series event format. Fans actually don’t want to mingle with fans of OTHER shows. These people won’t have the same central interest, so Heaven’s above, there might be some debate about the merits of various series.  Don’t have comedy, some said. Don’t have this. Don‘t have that, don’t have the other.  Just include what ‘they’ like. Rather than be supportive of others who find similar apathy to their own favourite shows and stars, fans make their appreciation incredibly insular. They don’t want to know about other shows discovered by what could be like-minded people, they’d rather stay obsessed with their own series.  Until they get bored of it and move on to the next obsession, that is…

So, what of live events in the future? Well as Sean Connery said, ‘never say never again’, but the answer stems back to something cynical I once said, and I stand by.  In the case of some fans, you could hold a convention (they say) they’d really love to go to in their own front room, and they’d still choose that weekend to go out! Equally, the number of acquaintances in the last year of Cult TV who said to me “I really must get along to a Cult TV weekend some time”, to which my reply was “you’ve missed 13 already, you’re obviously just incredibly unlucky!”, well, it’s too many to mention. They were given a final reprieve with Cineology, and they failed once more.

To summarise … I don’t know what real fans want from a live event any more, if there are indeed enough ‘real’ fans out there. Put it this way, if it’s only autographs, traders and home by teatime, I’m not interested in serving that market.

Which is why internet broadcasting is the next stop for Cineology. We’ve tried podcasts, but I realised from feedback received that many TV fans can’t cope with ‘radio’ as a medium!  They need pictures in front of them. And that’s the thing. This route of delivery CAN be straight into their front room, as more and more people will be able to view the internet on their main telly. And they can choose to go out whenever they like, but we’ll still be there when they get back, on a re-run. Which will leave them with just one thing left to say: they are simply not that interested to make the time to watch.

At that point, we’ll finally know what the truth is!

 

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Boston Legal lives, gives chance for Life on Mars USA?

25/05/2008 by AJ.

So, Boston Legal lives on, and it would appear that by doing so has assisted the American version of Life on Mars to go into production.

Star Trek fans will note that in the pilot the character of Gene Hunt was played by Colm Meaney, old Miles O’Brien himself. And would you believe, there’s a trailer on-line:

Meanwhile, let’s take a look at what has been axed this year (for those of you just coming in….):

• Aliens in America
• Back To You
• Beauty and the Geek
• Big Shots
• Bionic Woman
• Cane
• Canterbury’s Law
• Carpoolers
• Cashmere Mafia
• Cavemen
• Eight Days a Week
• Girlfriends
• Jericho
• Journeyman
• K-Ville
• Las Vegas
• Life Is Wild
• Men In Trees
• Miss/Guided
• Moonlight
• New Amsterdam
• October Road
• Shark
• The Return of Jezebel James
• Unhitched
• Viva Laughlin
• Welcome to the Captain
• Women’s Murder Club

As the time of nominations in the Cult TV Awards is fast approaching, this is obviously the base list for the Award SHOW THEY SHOULDN’T HAVE CANCELLED, which thus far has gone to such luminaries as THE WEST WING and STUDIO 60. Nice for once that it WON’T be an Aaron Sorkin series winning!

Which would I put as the five shows to go into the category? Well, top of the pile is SHARK - back on five in the UK Fridays at 10.00pm (and how many of you missed that gem of information … five for some reason didn’t give the second season much fanfare, but at least they moved it to a new slot for this run). SHARK is one of those shows that is always engaging, although I have to admit the world does shake on its axis if I miss an episode.

Next up is JERICHO which I have to admit I haven’t seen any episodes of the curtailed 7-episode second season save for the first one, which seemed to run out of steam before it began. I gather from those who have sat through all seven segments that it does get bogged down in itself before rising to a humdinger of an ending. I will be following it on Hallmark, Friday nights at 8.00pm to see if I agree with their prognosis! I guess I put this in with a shout as fan-power got it a reprieve, but didn’t ya just bet on the American network not giving it the right support to survive!

MOONLIGHT would also be in the frame, again as it seems to have ignited a fandom, and as Cult TV is the name of our game, we should protect shows even if those who are passionate about it are few in number. Like most shows that become cults, if people see something in it that the majority don’t, likely as not it’s just because the majority have yet to give it a chance. Count Moonlight in that category …

JOURNEYMAN is another show that you can ink into this category. It was just finding its feet and then has the rug pulled from under it. You really feel that some shows should insist on a 22 episode order before they go into production, if only so that the DVD release has a good chunk of content that people can catch up with at a later date.

My fifth entrant would be a British series, and that’s THE WHISTLEBLOWERS. Again, this got transmitted on ITV last Autumn with very little ceremony. Here’s the press blurb:

Every company, every institution, every Government department has its secrets. From Deep Throat to Dr David Kelly, ‘whistleblowers’ have risked their careers, their reputations and even their lives to expose those secrets. And each episode of The Whistleblowers begs the question – could you? Or, more truthfully, would you?

The Whistleblowers is a six-part series created by the award-winning Tony Marchant (The Mark Of Cain, Passer By, Holding On, Recovery, Kid In The Corner), who writes three of the six episodes. One episode is written by real life whistleblower and ex immigration officer Tony Saint, another by ex teacher Steve Thompson and a sixth by Paul Logue (Sea of Souls).

BEN GRAHAM (Richard Coyle) and ALISHA COLE (Indira Varma) are lawyers at the same highly successful London firm. They witness a miscarriage of justice on their own doorstep and, instead of giving in to the temptation to look the other way, they speak out. However, by trying to do the right thing, Ben and Alisha suddenly find themselves on the other side of the law – enemies of the state.

In making the extraordinary journey from average citizens to whistleblowers, Ben and Alisha see the need to support others who are faced with the same moral dilemma. Realising whistleblowers are central to the continuing integrity and freedom of our society, they set up an agency to support those who are brave enough to step forward. Aided by private investigator and friend KENNY REED (Daniel Ryan), they step into the worlds of the education system, pharmaceuticals, the immigration service, the drinks industry and an environment agency to help potential whistleblowers take on those who will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.

I knew nothing of this show until I saw Amazon was almost giving the DVD set away for about a fiver, and the premise sounded great. It’s got “old school ITV” values in its DNA, and Carnival Films is the production company, who gave us BUGS which, for a time, looked like it would become a cult series in its own right. No-one talked about Whistleblowers, and the reviews there were seem to have been mixed, to say the least, which immediately suggests ‘Cult Show Ahead’!

It even got nominated for the drama Rose d’Or, losing out to Channel 4’s SKINS, which shows where that judging panels sensibilities lie. Have to admit, that is another show that has slipped under my radar - still, the DVD box set of season one was cheap so at some point I’ll catch up on that one, too.

You’ll notice I’ve steered clear of including BIONIC WOMAN in my selections. This is another one of those “re-imagings” that take the format so far from its origins that they really should have called it something completely different, rather than feasting on its origins like some demonic vampire. Look, guys in charge of productions of re-imaginings everywhere, check out the two most successful revivals in TV history: STAR TREK and DOCTOR WHO.

What did they have in common? They didn’t erase history, they added to it. Same universe. The back catalogue remains part of the continuity. It’s a no-brainer on the merchandising front. So, how come this is just so difficult for some folk to get their head around? Get a new audience, sure, but keep the original fans happy - who will become some of your greatest ambassadors. It ain’t difficult if you’re truly a creative worth their salt.

So, talking of re-imaginings brings us full-circle back to the American version of LIFE ON MARS. The fact that there’s a link to BOSTON LEGAL should mean that British Sam Tyler fans shouldn’t be too concerned that this different version of the series will be off-kilter from what we are aware of. Aside from the minor change that it will be set in 1972 rather than 1973, an American cop backdrop will play differently to THE SWEENEY backdrop we had with the British version.

BOSTON LEGAL was on-the-ropes renewal-wise as it’s not a cheap show to produce, the cast being high-calibre and core to its success. Ratings are respectable but not stratospheric, and for a lot of viewers its politics is left-of-centre liberal, if indeed such terms have any relevance these days. After intense negotiations, the network oreached an agreement with creator David Kelley to bring “Legal” back in the Autumn. The network had originally intended to hold “Legal” as a mid-season replacement for any new show that failed.

The clincher was throwing the Stateside version onto the negotiating table. The ABC network had been keen on a series order of the show, starring Jason O’Mara, with October Road creators Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg becoming the executive producers.

Such a deal had to be blessed by Kelley, who owns the American rights. This is the second time the fates of Mars and Legal have been linked. Two years ago, putting the pilot of Mars into production helped clinch a renewal of Legal.

All of which means LIFE ON MARS (USA) is expected to be one of handful new additions to ABC’s Autumn schedule line-up.

So, all in all, I am excited that not only do we get to feast on another season of BOSTON LEGAL, but with a bit of luck, the American version of LIFE ON MARS can be considered something to eagerly anticipate, rather than dread …

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Who lives and who dies?

13/04/2008 by AJ.

It’s that time of the year, as the clock ticks down, where we find out which American shows will make it to another season (or at least kick off one, and then see how it does).

For those of you just joining us, amongst those that are already gone Stateside, not to return (save any episodes left ‘in the can’) are the likes of Men In Trees, Cane, Jericho (again!), Bionic Woman, Journeyman and Las Vegas.

And then there’s the shows which are said to be ‘on the bubble’ - in other words, their bubble could be burst at any moment by their sponsor Network. For many it’s a toss-of-the-coin thing; has the show got enough left in the tank to keep on being entertaining for another season? Can the ratings still see an upturn if the show returns? More than anything one of the biggest problems is that the more seasons a show runs for in America, the more expensive each episode becomes. The cast get guaranteed raises for enduring more episodes, the Network has to pay more for the show, and so forth.

So, which shows have the axe hanging over them? Of the shows we know in the UK, we have:

• Reaper
• The Sarah Connor Chronicles
• Shark
• The Unit
• Rules of Engagement
• Moonlight
• The New Adventures of Old Christine
• BOSTON LEGAL

Must admit to liking Shark a lot, but out of these, without a shadow of a doubt the highlight of my week is Boston Legal. This is one show that actually gets better the longer it runs, and it is undoubtedly currently the highlight of my viewing week.

Yes, above everything else. Even Doctor Who. If it was a choice between cancelling either the BBC’s flagship or the best show on LIVING tv, then Denny Crane beats the good Doctor hands-down.

And that’s not to suggest that Cardiff’s finest export is not any good, far from it. It’s more to do with Boston Legal being so in touch with the world around us, that within its drama and comedy are some absorbing facts that simply don’t get relayed to us via the news services where most of us get our view of the world. This week they explained more about the sub-prime mortgage market fiasco in a single secondary plot than we have had in hours of coverage on BBC News, ITN or Sky News. Or CNN. Or, undoubtedly, Fox News.

Alan Shore demolished the perceived logic of the event in Iraq in the previous week’s episode.  In three minutes, James Spader’s character Shore explained what could have been possible for the American people if they hadn’t have spent the Trillions they so far have in fighting a war that, in the end, seems more about oil than democracy.

And when a British show does a similar thing in terms of what the UK could have done for its people if it didn’t keep blowing the budget on keeping a war going which will only continue to perpetuate even more hatred and keep hostilities going on ad infinitum, then maybe the wake-up call will begin to resonate worldwide…

Which, all in all, is an around-the-houses way of saying: SAVE BOSTON LEGAL !

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