Erie Lackawanna wrote: Chico - I'm not sure where you saw in one word of the quote you took (either zugmann, Poppa Zit or me) even a hint of a suggestion that we believed that Ted's idea would sell or that he could copyright it. Please try not to attack others making it sound as if they said things that they never did.
Chico - I'm not sure where you saw in one word of the quote you took (either zugmann, Poppa Zit or me) even a hint of a suggestion that we believed that Ted's idea would sell or that he could copyright it. Please try not to attack others making it sound as if they said things that they never did.
I didn't read it that way, EL.
Ted Marshall wrote: I encourage even the harshest critics to sound in as I welcome all points of view.This should be a really good thread.
I encourage even the harshest critics to sound in as I welcome all points of view.
This should be a really good thread.
I'd follow the show "Miami ink" for a program template, but replace the headbangers with flannel shirted good ol boys, backslappin and reminiscing about when rail was king. Have a special segment each week where viewers could mail in their pictures to be shown on the program, and invite a group of nimbys into the studio each week, where they would be gang tarred and feathered by studio audience members.
Oh, and jillions and jillions of pentax run-bys
Several cavemen who were PR-reps for GE, quit their job, get an apartment in Chicago, and complain all day as to why it takes freights 3-days to make it through the city!
How about a weekly hour long drama about a renegade engineer/conductor combo who liberate an old SD40T-2 on the way to the scrapper's torch, and spend the rest of the series running 'outlaw' around the system helping widows, orphans, and other misfortunates? Central to the theme could be an ongoing pursuit by an ornery RR cop and a vituperous old land surveyor determined to catch the boys, who mysteriously both report directly to the RR's CEO, a cranky little fellow by the name of Boss Logg. The show could be packed full of non-stop action and short on substance to be sure and capture the ADHD viewership,
In order to avoid apprehension, we feature serial assists for our heros by various members of the Freight Train Riders of America (cameo appearance opportunities), as well as timely intervention from a sympathetic dispatcher who periodically throws switches just in the nick of time to keep the boys one step ahead of their nemesis. From time to time the boys appear to be headed for certain doom, when they get routed down abandoned lines with missing bridges, but via hollywood special effects always manage to pull off impossible jumps to adjacent lines, rerailed as if by miracle.
The show's theme song could go: -Just two good old boys, never meanin' no harm....Beats all you never saw, been in trouble with the law Since the day they was born.Straightenin' the curves, flattenin' the hills....Someday the mountain might get 'em but the law never will-
I think we might have a winner here.
Convicted One wrote: How about a weekly hour long drama about a renegade engineer/conductor combo who liberate an old SD40T-2 on the way to the scrapper's torch, and spend the rest of the series running 'outlaw' around the system helping widows, orphans, and other misfortunates? Central to the theme could be an ongoing pursuit by an ornery RR cop and a vituperous old land surveyor determined to catch the boys, who mysteriously both report directly to the RR's CEO, a cranky little fellow by the name of Boss Logg. The show could be packed full of non-stop action and short on substance to be sure and capture the ADHD viewership, In order to avoid apprehension, we feature serial assists for our heros by various members of the Freight Train Riders of America (cameo appearance opportunities), as well as timely intervention from a sympathetic dispatcher who periodically throws switches just in the nick of time to keep the boys one step ahead of their nemesis. From time to time the boys appear to be headed for certain doom, when they get routed down abandoned lines with missing bridges, but via hollywood special effects always manage to pull off impossible jumps to adjacent lines, rerailed as if by miracle. The show's theme song could go: -Just two good old boys, never meanin' no harm....Beats all you never saw, been in trouble with the law Since the day they was born.Straightenin' the curves, flattenin' the hills....Someday the mountain might get 'em but the law never will-I think we might have a winner here.
Boy, it sounds like you and Dweezil and the old AG think and write EXACTLY along the same lines.
What a coincidence. Or maybe not.
Poppa_Zit wrote: Not to say you couldn't produce a decent show, but which channel would air such a show? Who would pay for it? Who would sponsor it?
Not to say you couldn't produce a decent show, but which channel would air such a show? Who would pay for it? Who would sponsor it?
You could try ABC.
Hey, if they'll take some lame characters from an auto insurance commercial (that the insurance company has already dropped due to using up the gag lines) and make a half hour show out of it............ <- That's the closest thing to a laugh THAT show will get.
Then follow it with a show about carpooling? I think they've scraped THROUGH the bottom of the barrel.
Poppa_Zit wrote: What a coincidence. Or maybe not.
Well, if it means so much to you, we could always work a spite driven foil into the script, and give you some airtime too. Cletus!
TomDiehl wrote: Poppa_Zit wrote: Not to say you couldn't produce a decent show, but which channel would air such a show? Who would pay for it? Who would sponsor it?You could try ABC.Hey, if they'll take some lame characters from an auto insurance commercial (that the insurance company has already dropped due to using up the gag lines) and make a half hour show out of it............ <- That's the closest thing to a laugh THAT show will get.Then follow it with a show about carpooling? I think they've scraped THROUGH the bottom of the barrel.
I didn't see the show, but they aired an interview (done by the station's airhead "glitz reporter") with three cavemen on our local ABC affiliate yesterday. It was awful. I assume it was supposed to get me interested in watching the show. It had the opposite effect and so we stayed away.
BTW, why are interviews pimping network shows being shoved down our thoats during "news" programs? These originate from interviews conducted at a central site where they invite affiliates to send their "glitz reporter". There are "stations" set up all around a sound stage and each glitz reporter moves from station to station (or perhaps from room to room) interviewing the principals from all the new shows. Yes, it's exactly like an assembly line. The actors are usually told the name of the "reporter" and are instructed by the network to use it sometime during the interview in an effort to "personalize" it. ("Well, Candy, we think this will be one of the biggest hits ever on prime time...")
Poppa, Those are usually done during an event that is actually known as The Press Tour, but they can also be done at any other network affiliate event. In some cases, stars move around a party set up and the entertainment reporters seek them out. In other cases, rooms are actually reserved in a hotel, and each affiliate has their camera set up in a room. The stars are escorted from room to room by network execs.
Using the news to promote shows has been going on at least twenty years.
This was a big downer for the UPN people (when that network still existed as a separate entity) as very few of their affiliates had news programming.
And I would bet you did not see any coverage on Darfur on that same program...
and , but what the heck....
Which is why I watch the Newshour with Jim Lerher...so far, they havent stooped to doing promos for other PBS shows...and they cover 3-4 stories in depth after the news summary.
I have long considered the Network news as info-tainment ...as far as I am concerned, if I hear about it on the network news, I can find out about the details that are important (but left out somehow....) elsewhere.
Erie Lackawanna wrote: Poppa, Those are usually done during an event that is actually known as The Press Tour, but they can also be done at any other network affiliate event. In some cases, stars move around a party set up and the entertainment reporters seek them out. In other cases, rooms are actually reserved in a hotel, and each affiliate has their camera set up in a room. The stars are escorted from room to room by network execs.Using the news to promote shows has been going on at least twenty years.This was a big downer for the UPN people (when that network still existed as a separate entity) as very few of their affiliates had news programming.
I know, EL. I still have a pinky finger in the broadcasting business. You make some excellent points, especially about UPN's distinct disadvantage due to a lack of promotion opportunities.
The average person needs to know these interviews usually originate with the "Television Critics Association (TCA) Press Tour", a few summer weeks of free food and drinks and goodie bags and star-studded elbow-rubbing in La-La Land by gushing TV folk.
They do the same with, for example, Big Ten football and men's basketball -- bring all of the coaches together at a hotel just before the season begins and let the media from the entire Midwest set up two or three-to-a-table around a hotel ballroom. They often bring one or two star players along, too. Most of the coaches are savvy enough to use a broadcast reporter's name in a sound bite or two, just to create the image that the reporter and the coach have some sort of established relationship other than being total strangers.
But getting pre-season quotes from coaches and players to me is more "news" than previewing the network's new shows. While the TV press tours are run under the umbrella of the TV critics association, I've never an interview where anyone asks anything but softball questions. Just once, I'd love to see an ABC affiliate "glitz reporter" do the same thing for the fall CBS and NBC shows, which would then be real news, but that would never happen in a millenium. I wonder if such a request has ever been made, or if a network or affiliate has ever sent someone to a press tour for a rival commercial network's programming.
I just brought it up because most people either don't know how these are accomplished, or haven't given them much thought. In most cases, it's all gratuitous promotion under the guise of being "news".
Dan
Well If anyone remembers the train program on radio
about 65 years ago,it was called "The Main Line" all about
the Breakmen ,Linemen,Switchmen and Engineer.I don,t
remember if there ever was a Conductor,Every wednesday
nite at 8, DaveBr. What would be good is
where the trains havn't shown the old abandoned lines
where possible.
i find this thread very interesting because of the behind the scens talk about the TV business. I never knew the new show interviews wer done gang-style. I always thought the stars stopped bt the local studios and that they were old friends with the reporters they way they got along.so now i know even the Tv news people are actors.
Chico
A thirty minute weekly show on trains would be a hoot to produce. I think it could be done and it could be done. Better yet, maybe a Train magazine should produce a show for their web site and charge folks for viewing. You could literally do a show a week for years and never revisit the same place. When I was at my last TV station, I did a 30 minute show almost by myself in a weeks time -- some of the video predated that and actually one of the segments was from when the ex-L&C 2-8-0 on the NH&I was repainted in L&C colors -- on the Lancaster and Chester Railway.
One of the most well received stories I've done at my current station was about the South Carolina Railroad Museum. There is interest out there that many of us might not even think about.
In South Carolina, I can think of these stories of the top of my head --
-- Running trains over the Intra-Coastal bridge on the Carolina Southern into Myrtle Beach
-- The passenger car restoration that goes on at the L&C
-- A look at the operations in Hamlet Yard
-- A feature on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad
-- A look at the Columbia Model Railroading Club
-- Go railfaning with some of our serious and not so serious photographers; mic them up, mic up a scanner and let them go
-- Individual stories on Carolina shortline ops
And that's just of the top of my head and just in the Carolinas. This would work. Even a 15 minute montly addition to the web site.
Joe H.
WIS-TV
Columbia, SC
Joe the Photog wrote: A thirty minute weekly show on trains would be a hoot to produce. I think it could be done and it could be done. Better yet, maybe a Train magazine should produce a show for their web site and charge folks for viewing. You could literally do a show a week for years and never revisit the same place. When I was at my last TV station, I did a 30 minute show almost by myself in a weeks time -- some of the video predated that and actually one of the segments was from when the ex-L&C 2-8-0 on the NH&I was repainted in L&C colors -- on the Lancaster and Chester Railway. One of the most well received stories I've done at my current station was about the South Carolina Railroad Museum. There is interest out there that many of us might not even think about. In South Carolina, I can think of these stories of the top of my head ---- Running trains over the Intra-Coastal bridge on the Carolina Southern into Myrtle Beach-- The passenger car restoration that goes on at the L&C-- A look at the operations in Hamlet Yard-- A feature on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad-- A look at the Columbia Model Railroading Club-- Go railfaning with some of our serious and not so serious photographers; mic them up, mic up a scanner and let them go-- Individual stories on Carolina shortline opsAnd that's just of the top of my head and just in the Carolinas. This would work. Even a 15 minute montly addition to the web site. Joe H.WIS-TVColumbia, SC
This is basically what I had in mind. We have many shortlines here in Georgia and the Carolinas that are pretty interesting, to me at least.
Joe the Photog wrote: ... maybe a Train magazine should produce a show for their web site and charge folks for viewing.
... maybe a Train magazine should produce a show for their web site and charge folks for viewing.
Ya gotta be kiddin', Joe. On this FREE forum paid for and maintained by Kalmbach Publishing Co. we got guys proudly telling everyone who'll listen why they don't subscribe to any of Kalmbach's fine magazines. No offense, but you expect them to fork over money to watch a Kalmbach-produced TV show here?
Poppa_Zit wrote: Joe the Photog wrote: ... maybe a Train magazine should produce a show for their web site and charge folks for viewing. Ya gotta be kiddin', Joe. On this FREE forum paid for and maintained by Kalmbach Publishing Co. we got guys proudly telling everyone who'll listen why they don't subscribe to any of Kalmbach's fine magazines. No offense, but you expect them to fork over money to watch a Kalmbach-produced TV show here?
Well, I didn't say I expected them to. But it would be nice if Trains or some start-up company could and would. Bean counting is not my cup of tea. I'm the guy with the camera, the lights, the mics and the ideas. I do think the idea could work. I don't know if the better idea is a web produced product or a thirty minute weekly show on some cable channel. My feeling is that the web would be the way to go, but again, I'm not a bean counter.
There are a million railroad stories out there waiting to be told and retold. I think it just needs the right people who can think of how it will work instead of why it won't work.
Joe
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