What’s the latest news on the small screen?
Television News
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The reason I brought it up is more the disparity between how they choose to describe the episode and why the episode was actually removed, which is really interesting to me right now when you look at the neutral language being used in relation to all the other racism discourse right now – like the BBC describing people getting upset about tea manufacturers talking about BLM as “anti-racism opponents”, or the level to which the passive voice is being used to describe people who got injured or killed by the police in the US (a young woman died when she “encountered tear gas”).
It’s very interesting to me.
On the episode itself and Fawlty Towers in general, I think there’s a lot of interesting discussions to be had around how the show presents its characters and ethnic-themed abuse. Like in The Germans, Basil isn’t necessarily uncomfortable when the Major starts using those words, but he clearly doesn’t want to be having this conversation. And the Major is almost certainly a racist to some degree by virtue of harkening back to the days of the Empire but he’s presented as a dotty old man at best and a nuisance and annoyance at worst – the show isn’t condoning his use of the words. But at the same time either Basil or Polly calls Manuel a dago in one episode, and so much of the humour comes from Manuel having poor English. It’s a very mean show at the best of times.
In that regard, I kinda classify it with Rick and Morty and South Park in that box of shows where the protagonists aren’t good people, at best they’re contrasted against someone who’s worse. Basil was based on a real hotel owner who antagonised the Pythons when they stayed there during location filming. Everyone but Cleese and Connie Booth left for a different hotel, because he was struck with the idea for a character. It’s hard to see that level of inspiration and think this guy is a hero. The reason that Basil doesn’t win very often (and most of his wins are against far worse people) is because you’re not meant to be on his side.
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Just to add, what hasn’t been mentioned about Tintin in the Congo is it was initially developed as a propaganda exercise to encourage more colonial workers from Belgium.
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and focuses all attention on such an offensive word
It’s been years since I watched this episode and I can’t for the life of me figure out what he said. I looked up some bits on youtube and I might’ve missed the part in question… Is it the K word (as in Sauer K)? I know that’s a derogatory term for german people and especially pertaining to the war but is it that bad? I seem to remember that word shows up a lot in movies (and comics) taking place during the war. It would be a yeomans work to scrub all of those…
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and focuses all attention on such an offensive word
It’s been years since I watched this episode and I can’t for the life of me figure out what he said. I looked up some bits on youtube and I might’ve missed the part in question… Is it the K word (as in Sauer K)? I know that’s a derogatory term for german people and especially pertaining to the war but is it that bad? I seem to remember that word shows up a lot in movies (and comics) taking place during the war. It would be a yeomans work to scrub all of those…
It’s not Basil but the Major who uses the offensive language. He uses the n-word twice and also ‘wog’.
People have pointed out that the BBC edited that out of the episode around 10 years ago, with Cleese’s approval. UKTV had the unchanged episode up on the streaming service.
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He uses the n-word twice and also ‘wog’.
O_O
I’m glad it was nowhere to be found on youtube, then.
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Three times, actually. But who’s counting.
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Well, I prefer my condemnation then the one they went for.
I like your wording better; I think you’re right in that the way it is written is weak.
It’s something though, I suppose. I mean, obviously this is part of a larger discussion in Belgium, and they don’t seem to be doing all that great in recognising their role in colonial history. Took a look, and they apologised last year (!) for a practice of kidnapping mixed-race children (much like happened in Australia), but apparently that’s the only thing the Belgian government has apologised for at this point.
It’s sort of fair to mention the “young” part because Hergé’s positions and views of the world shifted dramatically over time, if I remember my visit to the Hergé museum (and the comics) correctly.
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Clearly the best way for HBO Max to handle Gone With The Wind is going to be for viewers to be able to type in their own disclaimer, so that the wording can be exactly what they want it to be.
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Way things are I’m sort of surprised the right haven’t already nabbed Fawlty and Garnett as their “heroes”.
Oh I think that already happened with Alf Garnett to an extent. There were plenty of people who didn’t see the satirical aspect and thought of him as a champion for those views.
(See also Al Murray, and pretty much any other character who satirises those kinds of views in that way.)
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(See also Al Murray, and pretty much any other character who satirises those kinds of views in that way.)
Murray has explicitly spoken about how the Pub Landlord is a parody of that insular Little Englander type and is amazed when they don’t get it.
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The trouble with satirising idiots is that they’re spectacularly unlikely to get the joke and just think you’re celebrating them. Happened with Alf Garnett, happened with Ali G, happened with Harry Enfield’s Loadsa Money.
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In the BBC Documentary Synth Britannia, one of the guys from Heaven 17 talks about how Penthouse and Pavement was attacking the burgeoning yuppie scene, but they kept getting people who loved the aesthetic they adopted for the album and never got the message. It’s interesting, especially with reactionary types that their understanding of art never evolved past that surface-level reading. It’s a big part of why fascism and other extreme right-wing ideologies hate abstraction as a concept.
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Why are sitcom dads still so inept?
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In the BBC Documentary Synth Britannia, one of the guys from Heaven 17 talks about how Penthouse and Pavement was attacking the burgeoning yuppie scene, but they kept getting people who loved the aesthetic they adopted for the album and never got the message. It’s interesting, especially with reactionary types that their understanding of art never evolved past that surface-level reading. It’s a big part of why fascism and other extreme right-wing ideologies hate abstraction as a concept.
Reminds me of that one time David Cameron said Eton Rifles was his favourite pop song
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Apparently, there were people who viewed Fight Club as a validation of disenfranchised young white men’s anger. Or so I seem to have heard in endless discussions here…
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Or… I think it was Paul Ryan saying he loved working out to Rage Against the Machine.
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Or… I think it was Paul Ryan saying he loved working out to Rage Against the Machine.
Yeah, and Morello posted that he was the living embodiment of the machine they were raging against.
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I’m guessing the US version didn’t take off too well?
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Or… I think it was Paul Ryan saying he loved working out to Rage Against the Machine.
Yeah, and Morello posted that he was the living embodiment of the machine they were raging against.
Bulls on Parade is about a triumphant basketball team coming home
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Or… I think it was Paul Ryan saying he loved working out to Rage Against the Machine.
Yeah, and Morello posted that he was the living embodiment of the machine they were raging against.
Bulls on Parade is about a triumphant basketball team coming home
Killing in the name is a Death Note tribute.
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Katherine Langford is the only thing that interests me about this.
She was supposed to appear in Avengers Endgame as Tony Stark’s grown daughter, but the Russo Brothers cut her filmed scenes from the final release. Maybe we will see those scenes when they release the Snyder Cut.
Wait, what?!
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Oh, so this is already pretty far along, ey?
David fucking Goyer. Man, I hope they’ve also got some people with actual talent on this.
I’ll watch though. For nostalgia for one, and because I love Jared Harris secondly.
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What’s this Foundation thing? I’m assuming a book?
You’re in the target audience! Don’t get informed, you’ll only dislike it more!
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Interesting article here from Daniel Taylor – the writer of Timewasters and (formerly?) half of Ginger and Black – about some of the struggles in working as a TV writer while also being black.
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What’s this Foundation thing? I’m assuming a book?
You’re in the target audience! Don’t get informed, you’ll only dislike it more!
Well that’s one of the perks of not being a hufe book reader I guess… I can enjoy TV shows… as long as they ain’t shit, of course.
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It’s been an honor to play Cleveland on Family Guy for 20 years. I love this character, but persons of color should play characters of color. Therefore, I will be stepping down from the role. pic.twitter.com/FmKasWITKT
— Mike Henry (@mikehenrybro) June 26, 2020
‘The Simpsons’ Will ‘No Longer Have White Actors Voice Non-White Characters,’ Producers Say
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I’m kinda torn about that.
On the one hand, I agree with the sentiment. That the main character of Family Guy’s “black spin-off” (as it essentially was) was played by a white guy was a bit embarrassing. But he did just start as a minor supporting character and if limiting the casting of even minor characters like that by the race of the actor becomes standard, it’s probably going to have the opposite effect of reducing casting opportunities for non-white actors (because this would really need to go hand in hand increasing representation on-screen and in production roles and I’m not holding my breath for that).
Because there are plenty of instances of non-white actors playing characters that don’t match their own race. Destro in the original GI Joe was played by a black man (Arthur Burghardt). Shredder in Ninja Turtles was played by James Avery (Uncle Phil off Fresh Prince). Roscoe Lee Browne was brilliant as the Kingpin in the 90s Spider-Man cartoon. Phil Lamarr has played plenty of non-black characters on loads of shows including Family Guy. In voice acting more than anything else, the whole point is that it doesn’t matter who you really are, because it’s all just acting in its purest form. The problem with Apu wasn’t just that a white guy was playing him, it was that a white guy was playing him with a borderline racist comedy accent and that he was one of the few Indian characters on TV at the time, meaning that accent limited the scope of what real Indians were able to do on TV. Is/was Cleveland Brown anywhere near as impactful or harmful?
The other issue is that, however well intentioned, this really ends up meshing into the demands of the bigots who got bent out of shape about a black woman playing Hermione in the Harry Potter play or when Shakespeare productions gender-swap roles in the theatre. A reductive absolutism.
I’m also a little perplexed by Jenny Slate’s similar decision to stop playing a character on Big Mouth. She also used the line “black characters should be played by black actors”. But her character is mixed race; with a black father and a white Jewish mother. She can’t “pass” as Hollywood used to say though, so she’s now just “black” and thus apparently only fair game for a black actor (not a mixed race actor, oddly), which again feels reductive. My best friend at Uni was (well, still is, obv) mixed race, but with very dark skin. People would just assume he was black, but every now and then he would take issue with that and point out that he was mixed race, that his mum’s white and that is just as much a part of him as his skin tone.
You can kind of see a similar thing with Miles Morales’ Hispanic heritage, which often gets ignored. I assume all the black actors that have and do voice Miles will be asked to step aside for someone who is the right racial mix?
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I’m all for opening those types of job opportunities, but restrcting voice actors like that is silly… they should get the job based on who does it better, period. Instead, maybe they should have black actors voicing white people to offset that.
But then again, considering the times we live in, it’s only a matter a voice actor or a comedian gets “cancelled” for doing “black voice” or something stupid like that.
I do wonder though, what happens to all the women who voice boy characters in a lot of cartoons? Are they gonna start hiring child actors of the correct gender/race? Man… it’s silly…
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I’m all for opening those types of job opportunities, but restricting voice actors like that is silly…
It’s not “silly” if someone makes a conscientious decision to stop doing something because of his concern that it might be offensive to others. Hank Azaria and Mike Henry should be applauded for their decisions, stepping away from a well-paying role for the right reasons. Anyone who has a problem with that is, in my opinion, a racist.
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It’s not “silly” if someone makes a conscientious decision to stop doing something because of his concern that it might be offensive to others. Hank Azaria and Mike Henry should be applauded for their decisions, stepping away from a well-paying role for the right reasons. Anyone who has a problem with that is, in my opinion, a racist.
Well, good thing I wasn’t talking about Henry’s “conscietious decision”, but rather this:
‘The Simpsons’ Will ‘No Longer Have White Actors Voice Non-White Characters,’ Producers Say
Also, no I’m sorry, I’m not gonna applaud some dudes for stepping away from a well-paying job (20 years later, mind you) for the “right reasons”, because I’m not that naive as to believe that they’re doing it for “the right reasons”. If they believed they could still get away with it, they would keep doing it (and imo, they should)… sounds to me like they’re feeling pressured to do so, but hey, maybe that’s just my opinion, maybe they did have a change of heart… that much I can’t know…
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Hahaha Germany not good at everything are you?
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Well, neither is your face.
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🤘🤖👍
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What magic is this
Your face
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Keep persevering. There’s more poetry in there somewhere. ⛰
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Because there are plenty of instances of non-white actors playing characters that don’t match their own race. Destro in the original GI Joe was played by a black man (Arthur Burghardt). Shredder in Ninja Turtles was played by James Avery (Uncle Phil off Fresh Prince). Roscoe Lee Browne was brilliant as the Kingpin in the 90s Spider-Man cartoon. Phil Lamarr has played plenty of non-black characters on loads of shows including Family Guy.
Or the most well-known example of all: James Earl Jones played Luke Skywalker’s father.
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Because there are plenty of instances of non-white actors playing characters that don’t match their own race. Destro in the original GI Joe was played by a black man (Arthur Burghardt). Shredder in Ninja Turtles was played by James Avery (Uncle Phil off Fresh Prince). Roscoe Lee Browne was brilliant as the Kingpin in the 90s Spider-Man cartoon. Phil Lamarr has played plenty of non-black characters on loads of shows including Family Guy.
Or the most well-known example of all: James Earl Jones played Luke Skywalker’s father.
He was played by four white guys and James Earl Jones, so he’s stil 80% white.
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Because there are plenty of instances of non-white actors playing characters that don’t match their own race. Destro in the original GI Joe was played by a black man (Arthur Burghardt). Shredder in Ninja Turtles was played by James Avery (Uncle Phil off Fresh Prince). Roscoe Lee Browne was brilliant as the Kingpin in the 90s Spider-Man cartoon. Phil Lamarr has played plenty of non-black characters on loads of shows including Family Guy.
Or the most well-known example of all: James Earl Jones played Luke Skywalker’s father.
He was played by four white guys and James Earl Jones, so he’s stil 80% white.
Any excuse:
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10 Nixed Spinoffs We Wish We’d Seen
Definitely wanted to see “Most Wanted”.
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Now that Mike Henry has consciously given up the role of Cleveland,I am publicly starting a campaign to voice the role myself on The Cleveland Show. #WendellIsCleveland @TheClevelandSho @SethMcFarlane_ pic.twitter.com/Ux3F0uk1p6
— Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) June 28, 2020
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attempted a re-enter
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‘Katy Keene’ Canceled By The CW After One Season; ‘Riverdale’ Spinoff To Look For New Home
I’m shocked by this news!!
I mean, I didn’t even know there was a Katy Keene show on The CW.
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‘MacGyver,’ ‘Magnum P.I.’ Boss Peter Lenkov Fired at CBS
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Maaan… what a wonderful period of TV shows… Legion, Preacher, Happy!, American Gods, Doom Patrol, The Boys, the Umbrella Academy… shit, even the lesser stuff like Watchmen*. Lots of ultra trippy Vertigo-esque goodness…
I’m suprised they haven’t optioned Transmetropolitan yet. We need more Ellis stuff… Oh and they should for sure do a Hellblazer series, but this time not as a shitty CW-y show…
Meanwhile, Millar’s stuff is totally MIA…
*Yes, I know I’m the minority on that one…
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It was an asterisk for Watchmen… it’s just the asterisks are super tiny on this site =P
Try this:
“…even the lesser stuff like WatchmenASTERISK.” Slightly more visible.
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Maaan… what a wonderful period of TV shows… Legion, Preacher, Happy!, American Gods, Doom Patrol, The Boys, the Umbrella Academy… shit, even the lesser stuff like Watchmen*. Lots of ultra trippy Vertigo-esque goodness…
Yeah, it’s quite incredible. The Boys 2, Doom Patrol 2, Umbrella Academy 2… I need to find lots of time to watch TV this summer.
Do you mean you’re in the minority for seeing Watchmen as “lesser stuff” or for liking it at all? Because it seemed to me like the consensus was exactly that – that it wasn’t what it could have been, but was still a decent Watchmen-themed show?
I’m suprised they haven’t optioned Transmetropolitan yet. We need more Ellis stuff… Oh and they should for sure do a Hellblazer series, but this time not as a shitty CW-y show…
With Netflix doing sci-fi, and already having a working relationship with Ellis, it did seem like a great match. And on his last newsletters, he did hint at new TV stuff coming. But of course, all of that may be moot with the current goings-on.
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It was an asterisk for Watchmen… it’s just the asterisks are super tiny on this site =P
Try this:
“…even the lesser stuff like WatchmenASTERISK.” Slightly more visible.
How about this:
Watchmen
is that visible enough? =P
Do you mean you’re in the minority for seeing Watchmen as “lesser stuff” or for liking it at all? Because it seemed to me like the consensus was exactly that – that it wasn’t what it could have been, but was still a decent Watchmen-themed show?
No, for thinking it wasn’t very good…. beyond the stellar production values, that is. I mean, it’s a trippy show, like the above mentioned, but to me the writing was mostly a gigantic directionless mess. I’m fairly certain most people loved it, or at least that seems to be the “internet consensus”.
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Meanwhile, Millar’s stuff is totally MIA
Jupiter’s is coming next year. There’s a lot of other stuff in development but obviously the pandemic has disrupted production schedules for the time being.
There also seems to be a distinct lack of urgency at Netflix. Things like The OA and Lost in Space takig over 2 years to film a second season even though they aren’t particularly long.
Covid obviously is going to make that much worse but it adds to them seemingly being happier to take their sweet time than broadcast networks. It is nearly fully 3 years since they bought the rights and there’s only been set pics of one show.
I heard Millar on Word Balloon say American Jesus was fairly far along, they had a directing team and a location in Mexico for filming, it even has a placeholder page on Netflix.
https://www.netflix.com/title/80217665
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Yeah the Hooded Justice episode was REALLY amazing, easily the best of the show and of a lot of shows, and it was one of the tightest episodes too, in terms of writing (however it was also the most disconected from whatever the main plot was)… in terms of production values, acting and directing, zero complaints about the show… the writing however, oh the writing… =P
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Yeah the Hooded Justice episode was REALLY amazing, easily the best of the show and of a lot of shows, and it was one of the tightest episodes too, in terms of writing (however it was also the most disconected from whatever the main plot was)… in terms of production values, acting and directing, zero complaints about the show… the writing however, oh the writing… =P
Watchmen was brilliant until they felt they wanted to go into the Dr Manhattan stuff, which is just dumb.
His story arc in Watchmen is pretty clear, he becomes more and more disconnected from his girlfriends and then humanity in general that he just fucks off to Mars with no intention to return. It’s a sequence you can see, he starts madly in love, takes a role in politics and then moves ever further away from all human affairs as his consciousness sees the futility of it all.
That the two sequels to Watchmen, in comics and TV, want to try and convince you he changed his mind to get concerned with either the colour of Superman’s boots or to go dating in a diner. There’s so much to mine in that world without going there.
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Even the Veidt side plot was kinda dumb… from what we know of Veidt (or for what I remember at least) in the book is that he’s a guy who trained both his body and mind to perfection… so him going a bit insane goes against his character. I don’t believe he’d feel remorse (or at least enough to ask Jon to send him away) in the first place either.
It’s a shame though, they did have enough solid to great ideas here and there to make a truly fantastic show, but they kinda made the wrong decisions over and over again.
