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ABC

Certain Songs #687: The Jackson 5 – “ABC”

November 1, 2016 by Jim Connelly

j5-abc Album: ABC
Year: 1970

You down with “ABC?”

Yeah, you know me!

The follow-up single to the eternal “I Want You Back,” “ABC” was at once weirder than its predecessor and also more conventional.

[Read more…] about Certain Songs #687: The Jackson 5 – “ABC”

Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: ABC, The Jackson 5

How to Save Pushing Daisies

December 3, 2008 by Jim Connelly

A couple of weeks ago, ABC canceled Pushing Daisies, a show about which I could never figure out if it was crazily quirky or quirkily crazy. Either way, it was a show that I never really thought about all that hard about after it was over.

It was good, dark fun, but it wasn’t a show that I missed during the writer’s strike, either. For whatever reason, it never crossed the threshold into greatness.

So while I’m sad to see it go, I won’t be rushing out to buy the DVDs. Some people will, of course, and they are the people behind the inevitable “Save Pushing Daisies” campaigns, where no doubt 100,000 people all thought it was their original idea to send daisies to the “head of ABC.” Which, in the show’s iconography, would be the floating, disembodied head of Walt Disney.

Of course, you can send ’em dead flowers by the U.S. mail, and it ain’t going to help.

What will help? Two words: Time Machine.

[Read more…] about How to Save Pushing Daisies

Filed Under: Television, Unexpected Results Tagged With: ABC, Anna Friel, Kristen Chenoweth, Lee Pace, Piemaker, Pushing Daisies

How ABC and Disney Spoiled “Wall-E” For The Entire World

June 11, 2008 by Jim Connelly

Last night, I was watching Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, and during one of the time outs ABC turned their cameras to show the Celebrities in the audience at the Staples Center, one of the inevitable and annoying trends of the past couple of decades.

Naturally, ABC was running through all of the usual Celebrity suspects: there was Jack, flanked as always by Lou Adler and a young chick; Dustin Hoffman; Spike Lee, etc. Suddenly, out of the blue, there was an interview or something with Wall-E, the robot subject of the latest movie by Pixar.

And all I could think was “Gee, thanks for spoiling the movie for me!”

[Read more…] about How ABC and Disney Spoiled “Wall-E” For The Entire World

Filed Under: Actual Mileage, Movies, Robots!, Television Tagged With: ABC, Disney, Marketing

CBS Reaffirms Its Commitment To Appointment Television

August 21, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

CBS News LogoStarting on September 5, you will be able to access the CBS Evening News from the comfort of your laptop. That’s the good news. The bad news? After a series of what seemed to be good moves, CBS is taking a step backward. This time, it’s a classic case of protectionism.

The question is, of course, who is CBS protecting?

With Katie Couric at the helm, CBS is hoping to attract a younger viewing audience. Setting aside the fact that the audience they’re gunning for — the net generation — isn’t likely to be swayed by the addition of Couric, except from a curiosity perspective, CBS’s move seems like the same old appointment television with an online twist.

[Read more…] about CBS Reaffirms Its Commitment To Appointment Television

Filed Under: Mediacratic, Television Tagged With: ABC, CBS, evening-news, katie-couric, world-news-tonight

NBC: Getting Smarter

July 25, 2006 by Jim Connelly

When faced with the world of 21st Century Television, different networks do different things to bring audiences to their shows. In the past couple of weeks we’ve learned that FOX will continue to ruin the baseball playoffs; ABC wants to disable the fast-forward button on DVRs and CBS is going to advertise on food.

Lame lame lame. (Actually, I recognize that the FOX/MLB partnership is shrewd from the marketing standpoint; it’s just that I’m a lifelong baseball fan who recoils in horror at being faced with Tim McCarver, those dopey “Sounds of the Game” and sitcom stars in box seats every goddamn October until 2053 or whenever it is.)

So just when you’d figure that NBC would also come up with some kind of dumbass stunt or idea of their own, they actually go in the complete opposite direction and do something very very smart.

[Read more…] about NBC: Getting Smarter

Filed Under: Mediacratic, Television, YouTube Tagged With: ABC, CBS, FOX, MLB, NBC, nobodys-watching, The Office

CBS Eggvertising: The Yolk’s On Us

July 18, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Mention the 1960s and 1970s to broadcast TV execs, and you probably get sad sighs, as they reminisce dreamily about a time before the internet; before TiVo; before VHS; before original cable programming; before the remote control; when people would turn the TV to one single network and leave it there all night, watching the commercials and everything. It was the “Golden Age of TV,” for sure. Because TV got all of the gold.

Those days are gone, of course, but it doesn’t stop the broadcast networks from devising plans to once more grab, trap and have their way with a mass audience. Last week, ABC reportedly wanted to disable the fast-forward buttons on DVRs, and this week, CBS has announced their bold new marketing strategy: they are going to advertise on eggs.

[Read more…] about CBS Eggvertising: The Yolk’s On Us

Filed Under: Focusing on the Wrong Problem, Marketing, Television Tagged With: ABC, CBS, eggs, eggvertising

ABC: Always Being Clueless

July 12, 2006 by Jim Connelly

ABC, the network that has been at war with DVR owners for the past several yearrs may be going nuclear. According to at least one report, they are in talks with cable & satellite companies to disable the fast-forward button on future DVRs. Somehow, I doubt this is one of the features that Kirk had in mind when he wrote about his ideal DVR.

Even better, they claim that consumers will be OK with this, that people don’t actually want to fast-forward through the commercials. That the only reason they use DVRs is for the time-shifting aspects. And that we’d all be willing to put up with commercials to continue to time-shift, so there would be no backlash whatsoever.

Holy Jesus Frack! Do these people even use DVRs? There are so many things wrong with this, I don’t even know where to begin.

[Read more…] about ABC: Always Being Clueless

Filed Under: Focusing on the Wrong Problem, Television Tagged With: ABC, DVR, Television

Some Saturday Suggestions

May 31, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Once upon a time, the TV networks gave a rats ass about Saturday nights. It almost seems apocryphal, but there was a fabled season long ago that had this Saturday night lineup: All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show and The Carol Burnett Show. Three solid hours of comedy all-timers.

Slow-forward about 35 years, and what do we have on Saturday nights? As Al Swearengen might say, a huge bag of shit. Sports. Reality. Magazines. Not a single scripted comedy or drama. Saturday night has become a major TV casualty of the overabundance of entertainment choices, and the networks aren’t even bothering to address it.

But isn’t there *anything* they could do? Maybe. But it would involve taking a gamble on some programming concepts that they’ve been slow to embrace, and actually taking advantage of what I will dub “The Spinal Tap Paradox.”

[Read more…] about Some Saturday Suggestions

Filed Under: Mediacratic, Television Tagged With: ABC, Everwood, Lost, NBC, Saturday-Night-Live, Spinal-Tap, Studio-60-on-the-Sunset-Strip, Television, The-CW, veronica-mars

Upfronts: I Was Lost And Now I Am Found

May 17, 2006 by Jim Connelly

ABC, who once was blind, now can see.

ABC has announced that Lost, a show that is either (take your pick):

  • intricately plotted by insidious masterminds
  • completely cobbled together by panic-stricken monkeys
  • both

will air next season with no repeats, the plethora of which this season has taken some of the wind from its sails.

Good! Of course, FOX has been doing this with 24 for a couple of seasons now. However, unlike 24 — which derives at least part of its adrenaline rush from the fact that the airing of its episodes is as relentless as the beep-boop! beep-boop! beep-boop! beep-boop! that powers it — next season of Lost will air in two disparate chunks.

Some people see that as a problem. I don’t.

[Read more…] about Upfronts: I Was Lost And Now I Am Found

Filed Under: Television Tagged With: 24, ABC, FOX, Lost, Television, Upfronts

Will Online Programming Kill Local Television Affiliates?

April 16, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

Last week Fox announced it plans to make 100% of its prime time programming available online within the next three years. While this is the most ambitious move yet by a major network to embrace online programming, what sets Fox apart from the other networks is the way it has dealt with its local affiliates.

While NBC, ABC, and CBS have been selectively testing limited programming downloads (to the dismay of their local affiliates), Fox has been working to obtain affiliate buy-in before making any moves online. The result is an agreement that has Fox sharing online revenue with local affiliates in exchange for the right to eventually make all of its programming available on the web.

Presumably the other networks are in similar negotiations, but one has to wonder whether those negotiations will be any easier now that the networks have made their initial move without first consulting their affiliates.

While Fox’s approach might look like a win for local affiliates, the nature of online programming raises questions about the very concept of network affiliates. In a world where consumers can obtain programming from the web, iTunes, cable, and satellite, do networks still need local broadcast affiliates?

[Read more…] about Will Online Programming Kill Local Television Affiliates?

Filed Under: Television Tagged With: ABC, affiliates, CBS, FOX, NBC, Television

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2549: Sugar – “Try Again”
  • Certain Songs #2548: Sugar – “Needle Hits E”
  • Certain Songs #2547: Sugar – “Man on the Moon”
  • Certain Songs #2546: Sugar – “If I Can’t Change Your Mind”
  • Certain Songs #2545: Sugar – “Helpless”

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