Below, please find the keynote speech that former Community showrunner Dan Harmon gave at the recent XOXO Festival. It’s got it all: Powerpoint gags, references to vodka and redheads, digs at multi-camera sitcoms, a solid point about how ridiculous it is that the best drama on television is on a network called “American Movie Classics,” and a little history lesson on the various people connectors throughout time, from cave drawings to the Internet. Oh, and he also goes into great detail on the subject of broadcast television dying, using his own personal experiences through the years as reference points and examples.
It’s all very cool, and kind of inspirational. and if you can carve out 30 minutes in the next day or two, I highly recommend checking it out.
via io9
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Great address and I’m glad all the attendees put on their best pajamas for it.
Brilliant stuff.
On Thanksgiving, American Movie Classics did play all the Godfather films. MTV is still showing nothing but reality shows. Haven’t seen a music video in 10 years.
Click this link and then you’re never allowed to make the MTV doesn’t play music whine ever again.
[www.youtube.com]
Don’t forget that TLC doesn’t show anything having to do with learning anymore.
Got a wise-ass youtube video for that Matchstick?
I don’t. Other than television channels, like every other business, change with the times and ratings. Nokia doesn’t make rubber boots anymore and ABC is no longer the NBC Blue radio network. Mad Men and Breaking Bad are also not classic American Movies.
But the “MTV doesn’t play music” complaint you see all the time is from people who aged out of the MTV demographic a decade or more previous and wouldn’t watch it even if they did play videos. And that video nails it.
He does make a good point. The only way I’ll even give a new drama or sitcom a chance is if it’s on some kind of specialized movie channel, like HBO, AMC, Showtime or FX. But if it’s on broadcast, I won’t even bother with it.
As a society, we’re growing more and more comfortable with “vulgarity”, but broadcast television and the FCC seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Imagine a show like Game of Thrones airing on NBC. Cut out the twincest, dwarf-whoring, horse beheadings, surplus titties and gratuitous lesbian ass porn and what are you left with? A show about dragons. And the same can be said for all of the greatest TV shows that have aired over the last decade or so; The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Rome, Homeland, Boardwalk Empire, etc.. They ALL would’ve bombed on broadcast.
Until the broadcast networks break the shackles the FCC has placed on them, they’ll only continue to slide into irrelevancy. I mean, when the people demand more titties, you either give the people more titties or you suffer the consequences.
no way, If NBC could show boobs and swears all you would have is bad shows with boobs and swears.
Guy who got canned says former job was in a dying industry??? [dismissive wanking]
Yep. never heard that logic before…
Doesn’t mean his critique is invalid by default.
He is remarkably naive. Funny, though