Amazing, isn’t it, how the experience of watching television has changed recently. And that’s not even counting the blessing of the fast-forward button.
We are accustomed to seeing news crawls, logos and network “bugs” in the corner of the screen. We’re so bombarded by them that nobody has complained about the latest busyness, odd images of miniature dancers twirling across the bottom of the screen, a distracting burst of promotional activity from “Dancing With the Stars.”
In TV programming, retro- is the new proto-. Bob Barker’s retrospective drew more viewers than the “Ugly Betty” finale. Plus, the most exhilarating spectacle today’s digitally savvy, high-tech producers can cook up is … bingo.
Next, extreme tiddlywinks.
The cheap and simple-minded game gets a flashy graphics makeover, and millions of traumatized Americans seeking stress-free, old-school amusement dutifully tune in to “National Bingo Night.” Imagine you’re on a folding chair in a church basement next to someone with a “World’s Greatest Grandma” sweat shirt, and the sensation is complete.
The mechanics of marketing television shows have evolved, too. In past years, critics waited until summer to see the complete pilots of series announced at the May upfront presentations. This year, NBC sent its DVDs before the upfront week was over. Additionally, anyone with a computer could see advance glimpses of the shows online at YouTube.
In the same vein, HBO has posted its comedy “Flight of the Conchords” online a month ahead of its June debut, free, as a tease to new subscribers.
Signifying a remarkable shift, primetime plots are now so convoluted they require on-air explainer hours by the creators. Witness ABC’s “Lost-Answers” show last week, in which writer-
producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof narrated clips of “Lost” to bring into focus the various threads and mythologies. This resulted in more questions than answers, but what did you expect?
In the past, the idea of television so dense as to require an hour of annotation would have been unthinkable.
To try to keep viewers in the loop, the networks are offering various “extras” – deleted scenes, backstories – to make story-lines more accessible. Fans are increasingly keeping track of their favorite shows with helpful timelines, theories and recaps online.
Here’s a change from the era when fact and fiction were strictly segregated: Dan Rather will do a guest shot on the ABC fall drama, “Dirty Sexy Money,” playing a reporter. (At this point, what has he got to lose?)
A decade ago critics and journalists were outraged when a number of CNN anchors played “themselves” in the movie “Contact.” A long list had cameos in that film and were met with tsk-tsking. Now we have a former network news anchor and active investigative journalist playing a dramatic role. Brian Williams, call your agent.
Other updates … CW is pioneering an ad-free program for fall, a Sunday night magazine show, heavy on product placement. “If it looks like a big commercial, it’s going to blow up on us and the advertiser,” Bill Morningstar, head of ad sales for the CW, reportedly told advertisers in New York last week. The network that previously brought us “content wraps” (commercials embedded in little stories) next plans to sell clusters of “cwickies,” or 5-second spots.
Good to know modern network executives give viewers credit for being able to spot a “big commercial” when they see one.
Similarly, the level of writing on TV continues to reflect respect for viewers’ IQs, no matter what the anti-TV snobs say.
Literary references abound in May: “Ugly Betty” had a Carlos Castaneda-style spiritual journey into Mexico, Tony Soprano has his own peyote-inspired Hunter S. Thompson-like trip in the desert, and, as the mobster exclaimed to the sunrise, “We get it!”
A sign of the quickened pace of modern TV: Note the fast turnaround for fall in the Fox drama “K’Ville,” about cops dealing with post-Katrina rebuilding, to be shot in New Orleans and set two years after Katrina.
This kind of immediacy didn’t work for “Over There,” the 2005 FX drama about the war in Iraq that fell to weak ratings after only 13 episodes.
Of course, the ratings will determine “K’Ville’s” future, too. Some things never change.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
