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Showing posts from December, 2009

The Story of The Four Networks

Once upon a time, there were four networks. One was an orphaned network that struggled a bit when they were growing up trying to find an identity. He didn't like his name, Nimby. He spent the sixties trying to find out who he is, started wearing colorful clothes that people didn't get at first, hung out with spacemen, and ended up found in the haze of the hippie counterculture. He felt good, but he realized they had to grow up, so, they did some soul-searching, figuring out what's out there. Seeing what works and what doesn't. He found himself back in the counterculture again, though they limited their parties to Saturday nights. After a few rough spots, he cleaned himself up, was proud as a peacock, and now called himself Pete. During the booming 80s, he hung out with a lot of rich folks with kids, taxi drivers, doctors, students, families, cops, barkeeps, mercenaries, lawyers, and judges. At the turn of the decade, they shied away from those people and lived a singl...

Another Tale From Another World

It wasn't supposed to be this easy. A year ago, they were just kids. Without purpose. Without hope. Looking for answers to questions that plagued their minds. Looking to belong to something bigger than themselves. Five kids who I've helped mold into the best chance this lost land has to offer. For one year, I've trained them to become warriors. I've taught them how to fight without fighting, but I also didn't want them to get their rears handed over to them either. The big one's like my son. He came to me because I knew his father. I fought and trained alongside him in a previous life. I won't bore you with the details now, that's for another time. He is the most balanced of the quintet, shows precision with weapons and bare hands. The blonde is quick, even-tempered. She's a little headstrung, but lately, she holds herself back. She's not afraid, but nowadays, she knows there's consequences for her actions. Shame she's just learning that ...

Characters Welcome . . . Unless They're Animated

I like USA. I do. If the wags get their way and NBC goes cable through its new majority owner Comcast, I shall miss USA because I don't see them keeping a cable-only NBC and USA, unless they become like Time Warner's TBS and TNT networks, but better. But that's not what I'm writing this article about. The tagline of USA for the past four or five years is "Characters Welcome." It's a catchy tagline, especially when they showcase folks of all walks of life. Of course on air, the characters that are present at seemingly all hours are detectives. There are detectives that are behind the badge. There are detectives that are freelancers, albeit with a few personality quirks. There are detectives that are fake psychics. There are detectives who work for the government. There are medical detectives who find out what's killing you from the inside. There are medical detectives who discover who and what killed you from the outside. There are detectives who are co...