New Thoughts Regarding The Shakeup at NBC's Entertainment Department

NBC's Tonight Show Blunder. It is such a cultural non-iconic thing, that is all you have to say now. But there are a couple of massively over-looked points even within the trades. They play a stronger role to one degree or another because of the way NBC marketed their 2 series.

1.) Demographical Shifts.

When Conan got the job in 1993 to replace David Letterman, no one knew who he was. Late Night was then, as it is now an audience comprised mostly of viewers 30+. He was beaten nightly by Tom Snyder, when he arrived in 1995. And it wasn't until Tom Snyder retired 3 years later that Conan's younger audience hit the right age-range(my age group).

When Craig Kilbourn, and later Craig Ferguson were on CBS they couldn't gain any foothold. That is because their lead-in, Letterman is a totally different demo and ideally they would be following Conan rather than Dave, Ferguson started gaining traction shortly before Conan left for the Tonight Show and is currently punishing Jimmy Fallon.

By putting Conan on the Tonight Show that is anointing him to a place that the market that he didn't belong. David Letterman wasn't Conan's rival, or contemporary even. Those are Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel(who single-handedly took 2/3 of The Tonight Show's Ratings), Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert. And the biggest viewers of that 11:35 slot are the 35-55 Female Demo. (45+ Male)

By putting Fallon in that slot NBC gave up on its bread and butter and tried the best of both worlds. It of course failed.

2.) His product just wasn't as good on The Tonight Show.

Ever restrained Conan produced segments and bits that felt watered down. As if someone from Standards and Practices stood behind him at every turn. Jimmy Kimmel during that same stretch put together some of the sharpest strongest comedy of his 7-year-show, and earned more fans. And after the debacle he finds himself in second-place with help from the number one lead in Nightline. The Tonight Show should never be behind Jimmy Kimmel, but maybe it speaks to quality that it is. Letterman over that stretch had his own personal issues and grew as a comedian from them, while Conan and Leno made pot-shots and turned off viewers(Kimmel, Stewart and Colbert never made one joke).

3.) The Marketing. And Conan's Late Night Audience.

The marketing of The Tonight Show, pitching it to the same audience as did the originating Tonight Show with Leno. If we have established that Conan works well with a younger audience than why are we doing this? Did they rework his approach? Somewhat, but they lessened his skits for sure. At the end of the day, watered down Conan died, and as a result, his audience that killed at 12:35 wasn't DVRing his Tonight Show. If his show had ratings, the ratings Leno was pulling in that spot even with the disastrous lead-in... NBC would have never thought of this.

Then they marched in Anger when NBC wanted to undo what they did do, as if the fans who didn't watch the show had any input at that point.

So what now? Well, whenever Leno comes back on The Tonight Show after the Olympics he is going to try to cut into the public perception that he stole someone's job. In this economy, that is a rough sell. Inside of 18 months The Tonight Show which was on for nearly 50 years will be cancelled as a result of NBC's poor planning. There isn't a way he can cross that divide and then add onto that, Conan on Fox, Jimmy doing as well as he is...

The only question one has looking at this mess is, what personally damaging photos does Jeff Zucker have to be retaining his job. Inside of this past decade NBC was the #1 Network and he has single-handedly overseen its destruction. It has gone from Must See TV- to Fox in the late 1980's.... Pathetic really....

On a related note, Southland, which NBC cancelled because it had no room for(Comedy 10PM every weeknight, Splendid!) is doing VERY well on TNT. 2.1 Mil in it's first week, 3Mil in its second, and onward and upward.

What Last Week’s Box Office Means In Terms Of Genre Films: The Division of Horror Fans and Gore Fans

On September 11, 2004, I was in the second audience to ever see James Wan’s Saw. I left the Ryerson Theater in Toronto feeling a tectonic plate in a genre I followed since my youth changing. I remember walking down Church St. in Downtown Toronto and seeing children playing in this park, with their parents watching. It was 2 AM, and very unsettling. Then, the marketing of the film, and further prostituting of one good idea until it had no life left in it. I didn’t like the first sequel and checked out of the series thereafter, continuously shocked to hear that they are getting ANOTHER film out of this franchise.

The major change I felt that night, but couldn’t really identify was apparent the following Halloween season, and the four that have come since then. What had changed was that studios saw how these two guys did it, and used great efforts to maximize the cost-to-profit ratio. No Saw film has made 100-Million-Dollars (the mark of a modern hit). Yet, the most recent one, Saw VI cost $11M and while it was pummeled by the lesser-known, less-costly Paranormal Activity, it turned a profit in 70 hrs of release domestically.

I similarly saw Paranormal Activity before most people, and walked out feeling like something shifted. The film does not contain any gore, and was made for less than I owe DePaul University. The story of two people alone in a house while something is also in their home is weird. But, what has shifted?

Notable horror filmmaker Eli Roth said at a Q&A that most critics and audiences don’t enjoy gore (this came from the guy who made Hostel), “most critics probably have fun with it in theaters, and then give it a negative review.” I don’t know if this is fully accurate. But, at a screening of Roth’s film Cabin Fever, Richard Roeper sat in front of me. He jumped and covered his eyes throughout the entire movie, only to go onto the show opposite Roger Ebert, and attack the film, calling it unscary.

With the characterization of “torture porn,” the horror genre has seen a massive uptick in gore this decade. With the recent success of a film like Paranormal Activity , is the level of gore in these films going to lessen? One major reason the film is successful is that it can be marketed to an unconventional horror audience because of its complete lack of gore. Will this be a film that stays around because of its lack of gore, and thus its easier reach to different age-groups?

Gore has been used, and in many cases over-used in the genre since the late 1970’s. With the recent upping of the graphic-ante by many filmmakers, they have created a division of the fans of the genre. So last weekend, when the inter-web was all a-twitter with the news that Paranormal had slain the giant franchise it came with the forgetting that Saw started as an independent film, and had been forged into a cash cow by a conglomerate who purchased the creative rights. Is there going to be a long term division of horror fans, or is there a new market for people who don’t like gore, but still like a scare? This past weekend, I looked at it as HORROR vs. Gore at the box office, with Horror winning out. I wonder if there is going to, one day, be a subsection of the horror genre for substantially gory films.

With Paranormal’s success, and the Paramounts pronouncement of sequeldom, maybe all of that is for-not. The original SAW is an intelligent film, and the sequels are just designed to make money using graphic gore. Will this become the fate of Paranormal Activity? Will the fans allow it?

The Creation of a Food Desert: A story of Political Rivalries, Legislative Vengance & Racketeering in Chicago. In 4 Parts. It is sadly true. Part 1/2

PART ONE : THE BACKSTORY

First, let me explain my greatly abnormal upbringing. It is only the older I get that I appreciate the complexity and strangeness of it.

I grew up in a brick house on Chicago's Northwest Side. The best memories of my upbringing involve going to my next-door-neighbor's house. He had previously been a photographer for the Chicago Tribune from the 1930's until the 1970's. He had rooms and rooms full of Photos collected over a lifetime. Chicago history. From The Chicago Gang Wars of the 1920's, to a night he and his wife went to the Biograph to see Manhattan Melodrama, only to be the first press on-scene when Dillinger was killed.

I relished opportunities to bound next-door and hear a story, look at old pictures, and learn something of the world, often foregoing "normal" social interaction to hear about Frank Nitty, Al Capone, the things that were, and how they changed. I was 4 when I started going over there... I was desensitized by photos and stuff by the time I was 8. I called him Grandpa Hank, and her Grandma Jo. They were an odd sort of adjunct to the family you acquire by circumstance. I come from a dysfunctional family, and their warmth and guidance was something that wasn't offered at home...

Last week, I found myself on the street on which I grew up. What I saw affected me, so I took a walk around, then investigated all other information that may help me figure out why some of these things happened. Why all of the Grocery stores closed, and why the crime rate in the neighborhood I grew up in has multiplied every year on record since 1997 (conveniently when we moved to the Suburbs ). I believe all of these things are rooted in a political fight that was waged in a crude manner in my neighborhood 18 years ago.

We had a close relationship with our local Precinct Captain, who is now in a Suburban Police Department. His boss, the Alderman, knew all of us, however one year that office was in danger of being lost in the primaries to a very young political upstart.

PART TWO : THE SUMMER OF 1991

The year was 1991. The Bulls were forging towards their first championship on the backs of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. And the 31st Ward was in-battled in a massive Democratic Primary. The long term Alderman was running for City Council. It became a heated battle between Ray Suarez, and, well this guy. That summer was a heated foot-race to know and be known within my neighborhood. I remember parts of it very well, I was 8 at the time. I remember Rod and his wife, Patti, going door to door down Fletcher, asking for donations and support. He had freaky hair in terms of 1991 standards.

Ray Suarez ran against him vigorously, with radio ads and TV interviews. They charged that the man affectionately referred to as "Blago," was a Political Opprotunist, and married Patti(whose Father, Richard Mell, is on the Chicago City Council for political reasons). It got dirtier. Blagojevich charged that because Suarez had been a City Hall Insider for sometime. He was inside the pockets of, at that time, first term Mayor Daley. While knocking on doors one night the two men ran into each-other and had a street-corner debate at Nelson and LeClaire one night.

Now, as a kid I didn't understand most of what was happening around me. On Mother's Day at the beginning of that summer I was hit by a car, and spent the month of May in the hospital. The Precinct Captain who was very close to us, made sure the city installed a stop sign at the corner of Fletcher & LeClaire. The stop sign has since been hit by a car... While in Children's Memorial Hospital, Rod Blagojevich sent me a "GET WELL SOON" card. 16 years later he attempted to defraud the chairman of the same hospital, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Election Night Came: Blagojevich lost. But he wouldn't go down without a fight... Ray Suarez still retains that seat.

The corner they had the argument on, as well as my house got redistricted 2 years later.

The Creation of a Food Desert: A story of Political Rivalries, Legislative Vengance & Racketeering in Chicago. In 4 Parts. It is sadly true. Part 2/2

Part Three : A Very Vague Overview Of The Next 15 Years and My Personal Run In With RODDY

NOTE ALL OF THE IMPORTANT THEMES WITHIN BLAGO'S POLITICAL LIFE:

1992, Rod ran for and won a spot in the Illinois House. Instead of mud-slinging, he used his past experience as a Prosecutor (who knew?) to his advantage. The District Blagojevich had won was previously held by someone under indictment for Tax Evasion.

1996, Blagojevich Runs For ILLINOIS' 5th Congressional District. He beats Michael Flanagan, who had only been in office for two years, because Dan Rostenkowski was charged by the Government with Postal Fraud.

2002, Rod Blagojevich, fresh off of being the only IL Democrat in the House or Senate to Vote for the Iraq War, ran for the Governorship. All any Democrat needed to do to win was somehow tie the Republican to the current Governor, at the time, George Ryan. While Ryan was States Attorney there was massive fraud in the DMV, and a lot people bought licenses. After some disastrous crashes the FEDS began investigating. By this time Ryan was Governor, and was sinking in the polls. It was a cakewalk of an election.

In 2003, the Cubs, my Cubs, made it to the NLCS against the Marlins. My Father, through a lot of people he knew got us 3rd row tickets. Sitting behind us was Governor Rod Blagojevich, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and a bunch of rude people. Rod remembered my Father's name from the car accident I had had years earlier. Then he realized it was me. I had changed in 12 years. NO- THIS WAS NOT THE BARTMAN GAME...

At the time I was attending Columbia, and I asked him about flaws in the ILLINOIS FILM BILL. The Flaws I referred to were regarding the bills strength when it came to larger budgeted projects, but weaknesses when it came to Independent Film. He said the bill was "the best we could have gotten done right now."

PART FOUR: MODERN DAY

Now, I revisit this neighborhood, decimated by an uptick in Gang Violence. Where have the politicians been who has long held a power control over the neighborhood?

Well, after his election Ray Suarez began a long-running internal power struggle with Richard Mell, because of what he had said about Mell's daughter 18 years previous. Services in the neighborhood after 1995 started becoming scarce. When the CTA chose to reduce services (instead of cutting Executive Pay) in 2007 the Northwest and Southwest Sides were hit hardest. Suarez went to the Capitol Building with a large group of Aldermen in September of 2006, pressing for more statewide financing of the RTA. Blagojevich was, by all accounts, curt, and left the meeting early.

Blagojevich’s response, rooted in his opponent questioning his marriage fifteen years previous is somewhat abnormal. Policy briefings, legislatively speaking, are all required to be held with a sitting Governor present. As a result, only one more group of Aldermen made the attempt to go to Springfield. Suarez was not with them.
Blago approved a state bill, granting the CTA more State Cash. However, they did begin cutting select services on the Northwest and Southwest Sides. Noticeably routes like the Central Bus routes were cut dramatically, as were ¼ of Belmont busses.

Albertson’s® knocked down the Jewel® I lived around the block from in 2003 and built a new store. With the service cuts in the CTA, and the discontinuing of the Laramie in 2006, the new store closed in late 2006. Albertson’s® invested $3,000,000.00 into that neighborhood, their store stayed open less than 22 months.

The other Grocer in the area, Dominick’s®, on Central closed not too long after the new Jewel® went under. Due to low patronage from a non-existent CTA in the area, now the neighborhood has a CVS® Pharmacy. It regularly only has 2 cars in the lot. Other stores that have closed because of this: Aldi’s® and Cub Foods®.

The nearest grocery store is 2 ½ miles away now, it used to be around the block from the house on Fletcher, where I saw my childhood pass by me. The neighborhood is officially a Food Dessert, only fast food lighten Belmont, nothing is the same. Nothing stays the same.

My question in closing: Why is this contentious race between Blagojevich and Suarez not on either man’s Wikipedia Page? Public perception may, perhaps, be an endearing thought. Memories fade… People forget things, and stories get fudged. But the above is sadly true. :(