The Talk Drinking Game

Sadly, I am once again pressed for time and don't know when I'll have the chance to write all of a post that I think that I should be able to write. Hopefully, I don't have to worry about this for a while as I can just get to the post in question where I do a drinking game for the talk show known as The Talk.

Take a shot if any of the following happens:

• Sheryl Underwood gets the audience to either laugh or cheer (two shots if both happen at once).
• The name of the show is mentioned.
• Someone says, "Is that okay or no way?"
• The question they ask after showing a clip or setting up a story has nothing to do with what they had just shown.
• The audience is split in their reaction to the question of the day
• A co-host is also a guest
• Any co-host mentions their family

Crossovers and How They Work

Once a phenomenon so rarely used that it seemed reserved only for fan fiction stories, the crossover is becoming increasingly popular and used a whole lot in this modern world of television. What all will we see with it in the future? Well, here’s a post about them.

Before I get any further, I might as well specify something: backdoor pilots do not count as crossovers in my mind. While they do set up people and characters seen in another show, they aren’t actual events where the characters would see people from other shows that were already established.

Some of the earlier examples of crossovers was when Popeye appeared in a Betty Bop cartoon. This works due to the Fletcher brothers owning both works at the time. There weren’t a lot of other really early examples like in the TV world nowadays.

There are some more modern examples of different shows working together. This happens so much that you kind of have to split the two types of crossovers into minor ones where people appear in more of a cameo role, and major ones where you see a lot more people together in groups. You especially see this a lot with Arrowverse. In fact, it could be argued that Legends of Tomorrow is the first true crossover TV show that we’ve ever seen.

I couldn’t think of much to put in this post. There wasn’t much for me to ramble on about this time around when writing this. Sorry if you think that this is too short of a post. I can’t always do it as well as I would like. Until next time, I’ll be here.

Back to School Commercials 2018

With all of the horrible length of time that all these political commercials were on the air, these seemed like barely a blimp on the radar compared to other things that were on the air. I may never count all of the political commercials. But it might be one of the many reasons why the numbers this year are much lower than in the past. Of course, I’ve been missing a lot with my new(ish) job so that might be what is going on to. Before I get to the reminder of the count from previous years, let’s get to other things that I think I should explain.

You will see the ~ sign at some points in this post. This means that I’m not entirely sure of the number at that point and can only be certain that it is something close to it. I’m sure of the total number of all of these commercials each year. It was hard to get the exact change of the month down. Just know that if I have a number that I know for sure is higher than any of the numbers mentioned, I will be taking out some of these past numbers that I’m unsure of.

In 2014, the official count of back to school commercials before Independence Day is 1. The official count before August is 48. The official count before September is 158. The official total of the whole year is 170. In 2015, the official count of back to school commercials before Independence Day is 0. The official count before August is 44. The official count before September is 125. The official total of the whole year is 136.

In 2016, the official count of back to school commercials before Independence Day is 1. The official count before August is ~61. The official count before September is ~261. The official total of the whole year is 286. In 2017, the official count of back to school commercials before Independence Day is 0. The official count before August is ~68. The official count before September is 219. The official total of the whole year is 234.

In 2018, the official count of back to school commercials before Independence Day is 0. The official count before August is ~20. The official count before September is 110. The official total of the whole year is 115.

Well, this is the lowest count across the board for all of these. Only the ones before the fourth of July isn’t broken for lowest due to the fact that you can’t get lower than zero. I’d honestly rather have over 300 back to school commercials every year than the shitload of political commercials that I’ve seen. I just hope that I don’t have to eat those words. We’ll see what happens in the future.

The Late Show: Stephen Colbert versus David Letterman

It was a long while ago when I first did a comparison of two late night talk show hosts. There was a shift a while ago where nearly every host was replaced by a different host for one reason or another. I think that it is time to compare The Late Show version that David Letterman did versus the one that Stephen Colbert is doing. Let’s get to it, shall we?

What was David Letterman like? He had quite a quirky personality and would often do pranks of some various sorts from time to time. His most notable bit was the top ten where he would mention ten jokes relating to a topic of some sort. His format seems to have remained the most structured of all of the late night shows with little being different from show to show.

How he was good: He seemed fairly laid back and was quite a good host the whole time. He never had many problems with hosting that we can see from time to time with others. His style worked well for the most part and none of his bits seemed dumb like we can get from time to time.

How he was bad: He might not have seemed as weird as most good hosts are like. It could often seem like he was siding with one political side all the time with barely any mention of the other side. Some of his recurring bits could be quite dumb and made even more annoying because they kept happening over and over again.

What is Stephen Colbert like? He is highly eccentric which often works well. He reports on the news a lot in great detail, often poking fun at different issues that they do. His version is very political and even has political guests a lot more than you’d see on other shows like this.

How he is good: His antics are normally always entertaining with very few issues. He proves that he does not need a sidekick to keep things interesting. One can often get a lot out of his show, specifically his take on what is going on in the world.

How he is bad: It would seem quite often that his politics are often too biased in one way which might anger some of the other party. It can seem like he rushes through his guests too much in an attempt to fit everything into what’s going on in the show.

Who do I like better? This is hard for me to say. I’m not sure that there is one that I prefer to the other. I had known David’s show for so long that it is hard to think of anyone else doing it better. But Stephen does the show quite well. I’d have to say that since David was more simple with what he did, that I’d put Stephen as the slightly better host. If you aren’t into politics, then David is clearly the better person for you to watch. Of course, you might be better off with a different late night show.

I can’t think of anything else to say outside of this closing that I normally put in most of my blogs. It is hard to tell for sure when different posts of this blog will be. I’m still not done with the posts that are on Mondays just yet and I’ll be sure to tell you when I am done with that. Always keep an eye out for a post in this blog as you never know when it might come.

Best and Worst Show of 2017

Welcome to the shortest post that I do year after year. If you look back at the winners of the silver globe awards and the winners of the golden huckleberry awards, you will notice that I mentioned shows that would qualify as the best show on television and the worst show on television. Check the archives of this blog for the nominees. Here are the winners of both awards.

Best show on television winner for 2017: Time after Time

Worst show on television for the 2017-2018 TV season: The Americans

I hope that you liked this post. I know that I sure do as there isn’t a whole lot for me to write in it. I wish that I could always do posts this simple in the future, but that’s not what I always do. I still need to do the huge post on shows cancelled from the previous TV season because I haven’t done that yet. I do not know if I will keep up with the posts I need to do or not.

Deciphering Different Scheduling Changes: Upgrades, Downgrades, and Stuff like that

You often see me talking about various things in the schedule when I do my cancellation predictions. It can often be telling going into a season what will be airing when or if it will be airing right away at all. I might as well do some sort of terminology into it. Most of this is something I’m inventing.

Upgrade: Let’s say that you started out at midseason and then you will be on during the fall the next time around. Or you were on during the summer and then you’ll be on earlier, such as during midseason before the summer months. This is typically a very good sign that they care about your show.

Downgrade: This is pretty much the same thing the other way. If you are always on during the fall and are then sent away to midseason, that’s a very bad sign for your long term chances of survival. If you have been on a while, you might not last much longer when this happens.

Long hiatus: There are two different ways that this can happen. One is that you are renewed, but don’t have a return date for a while. Another is that you aired a lot of episodes and then are pulled, but not in a way that means cancellation, during the middle of the season. The first one is more problematic and more likely will spill your doom when you return that you will be airing your final season. The second one is also a problem, but doesn’t always mean things will end.

Later than planned airing: A show being announced as airing at one point in time but doesn’t air until later is a huge problem. In all but one cases of this happening, that season ended up being the final one of the show. I have no idea why this would have happened most times.

The Friday move: Often, when a long running show is moved to Fridays, it is a bad sign that the show is going to end soon. Maybe it doesn’t hurt like when Hawaii Five-0 moved to Fridays. There are other times when shows are always there and often aren’t hurt as a result. It isn’t always a bad sign, but more than likely is. It's called a graveyard slot for a reason.

Sudden replacement: You’d think that if when a show is cancelled it gets replaced quickly, that would be a good sign for the newer airing show. But it often isn’t. More often than not, these shows are the next ones to get cancelled themselves, or never brought back.

No starting date: This is a variant that applies to new shows most of the time. The longer a new show doesn’t have a starting date, the more unlikely it is to last more. Also, if it has a starting date later in the season, then it is more likely not to stick around for future seasons. If it starts as late as the summer, then it might not be as bad as it could be. An odd thing that happens is when it is announced as part of one season but doesn’t air until the next season. Even if it is on at the fall, it likely won’t last then as a result. Look at 10 Days in the Valley or Terra Nova.

This is the end of this post. Sorry if it is full of information that you already know. I often have a habit of repeating myself from time to time. So if I already wrote a post with most of this information, then at least be glad you get to read it again if you haven’t before. And that’s all I can think of for this post.