"There are two reasons why we need a new creative strategy. Audiences are changing. And technology is changing. In a way, everyone knows this of course. What's surprising - shocking even - is the sheer pace of that change. In both cases it's faster and more radical than anything we've seen before."

Mark Thompson (The Guardian) via plasticbag.org

Getting started...

By far the most unlikely star of a prospective fall situation comedy is that still-active lead singer of the Rolling Stones, who has signed on to an ABC pilot for its fall schedule. Just to increase the degree of unlikelihood, Mr. Jagger shot his scenes for the New York-based pilot in a hotel room in Auckland, New Zealand, last week.

That was the culmination of a saga at least as whimsical as the premise of the show, which, for now, anyway, is titled "Let's Rob Mick Jagger."

The writing team that came up with the idea, Rob Burnett, long David Letterman's executive producer, and his partner, Jon Beckerman, had previously created the NBC comedy-drama "Ed." As Mr. Burnett outlined the tale in a telephone interview, he and Mr. Beckerman "wondered if there was a way do a serialized comedy — something like a comedy version of 'Lost' or '24.' "

Hatched in numerous meetings, the concept centered on a janitor for a prominent New York building, to be played by the character actor Donal Logue. Down on his luck, the janitor sees a celebrity on television wallowing in his wealth during a tour of his new Manhattan penthouse. Enlisting a crew of similar ordinary but frustrated accomplices, the janitor conceives a plot to rob the big shot's apartment, a story line that would unfold over a 24-episode television season.

From an article in the New York Times

Heute auf arte:

19.00 Uhr Morricone in Concert

20.40 Uhr Django - Ein Spielfilm von Sergio Corbucci

22.10 Uhr Denn sie kennen kein Erbarmen - Der Italowestern Ein Dokumentarfilm von Hans-Jürgen Panitz und Peter Dollinger

23.45 Uhr "Frauen, die durch die Hölle gehen nimmt insofern eine Sonderstellung in der Geschichte des Italowesterns ein, weil er einer der wenigen Filme ist, in dem die Protagonisten weiblich sind."

Ein Spielfilm von Rudolf Zehetgruber

Stan : "Why would God let Kenny die, Chef? Why? Kenny's my friend. Why can't God take someone else's friend?"

Chef : "Stan, sometimes God takes those closest to us, because it makes him feel better about himself. He is a very vengeful God, Stan. He's all pissed off about something we did thousands of years ago. He just can't get over it, so he doesn't care who he takes. Children, puppies, it don't matter to him, so long as it makes us sad. Do you understand?"

Stan : "But then, why does God give us anything to start with?"

Chef : "Well, look at it this way: if you want to make a baby cry, first you give it a lollipop. Then you take it away. If you never give it a lollipop to begin with, then you would have nothin' to cry about. That's like God, who gives us life and love and help just so that he can tear it all away and make us cry, so he can drink the sweet milk of our tears. You see, it's our tears, Stan, that give God his great power."

Stan : "I think I understand."

Via DuVernois

Erinnert mich irgendwie an Bill Cosby...

Great collection...

See it here! Guests this week: Chuck D & Jurassic 5. Next week: Werner Herzog & Frank Black.

Nice: Rollins Ringtones like "Hey, this is Henry Rollins. Answer your phone, or I'm gonna smash it on your head."

Via Supatyp!

"The LOST Experience is an Alternate Reality Game that is supposed to begin sometime in May, 2006 based on the hit television show LOST, on ABC.

If you listen to the latest podcast, (www.abc.go.com) producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse give us perhaps the best news this season. They say that they are currently in the middle of preparing a LOST Alternate-Reality Game (en.wikipedia.org) that will take place this summer."

From A Guide to the LOST: Alternate Reality Game

Update: The clip featuring Muhammed

TVSQUAD: Muhammed was on South Park before

Wiki: Super Best Friends

"Ich dachte, es ist sinnvoll, damit das Volk die Wahrheit erkennen kann. Daher habe ich das Dokument freigegeben', sagte George W. Bush gestern bei einem Besuch der Johns Hopkins University in Washington über die umstrittene Veröffentlichung einer Studie."

Die Parallele zwischen den neuen Enthüllungen in der Libby/CIA-Affäre und der fünften Staffel der TV-Serie 24 ist mehr als erschreckend. Aber während Präsident Logan im Fernsehen von Jack Bauer gejagt wird, der gerade für drei weitere Tage Terror unterschrieben hat, sitzt Präsident Bush weiter fest im Sattel.

Und dabei ist Charlie Sheen doch eigentlich der wahre Präsident....

Channel 101 and Channel 102!

Video! Fuck, I love "South park"!

Matt Stone and Trey Parker on Letterman discussing it all, as well as the orgins of the show (Video)

"The mob story, it might be argued, replaced the Western as the great American epic in the last third of the 20th century. As the counterculture was shredding the myth of the West into a million little pieces with movies such as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Wild Bunch" and even "Midnight Cowboy," the first two "Godfather" movies were winning Best Picture Oscars. Those films retold the American epic on the urban frontier. "Goodfellas" solidified the idea that "Mafia + Movie = Art."

story at washingtonpost.com: Mob Hit: The Boss of Comedy?

1.)..."you pay these companies for a whole bunch of television you never even watch(...) 2.)...the motivation for the content producers is not to give all the revenue to the content distributors, and they may not have to - you only have to see the straight-to-DVD market that Disney exploits to see that, and many shows recently (Futurama / Firefly) make more money on DVD than on TV distribution.(...) (3) In terms of how you promote things if you just avoid broadcasting the shows themselves - well the same way you promote everything else that isn't a TV show.

...pay-per-season, one-time subscription is the best way to get down the programmes that you actually always want to watch,..."

Interesting thoughts from Tom Coates on TV distribution

"Madonna Inks Deal With Lucasfilm For Star Wars Television Show

Liz Rosenburg and a spokesperson for Lucasfilm just confirmed that the reigning Queen of Pop and the father of Star Wars may, in fact, soon be working together. This comes after a photo was leaked to the internet of Madonna's audition for the forthcoming Star Wars television project." theforce.net (Posted on April 1, 2006)

"Der Titanic-Redakteur Bernd Fritz will vom ZDF nicht als Betrüger bezeichnet werden. Kurz vor der Jubiläumssendung zu 25 Jahren 'Wetten, dass...?' liegt der als "Buntstiftlecker" bekannt gewordene Satiriker mit dem Sender im Clinch."

Mehr im Spiegel

Update: The Map from last nights episode has been decoded. The blurry image popped up in the hatch for only a few seconds after John Locke got stuck.

All parts of the The Map translated

Dharmatel is a real company

Die Firma Arena gibt sich in Sachen Empfang der kommenden Saison reichlich kryptisch. Unter Arena.TV wird alles etwas klarer. Dort heißt es: "Empfangbar über Satellit oder über Kabel in Unity Media Regionen." Im Klartext bedeutet dies, bisher kann nur eine sehr kleine Minderheit in ungefähr zwei Bundesländern Arena über Kabel empfangen. Für alle anderen wird es mit dem angekündigten Tarif von 14, 90 EU wohl zunächst nichts werden. Ohne Sat-Schüssel plus Digital-Receiver geht da nichts. Man hofft aber auf möglichst viele Verträge in naher Zukunft um gegenüber den Kabel-Gesellschaften im besseren Licht zu stehen. Dafür drückt man sich um die tatsächlichen Preise für die meisten Menschen schön herum.

Bei der gestrigen Präsentation für die Presse, die nach internen Informationen 800000 EU gekostet haben soll, hat man deshalb wohl auch das Kleingedruckte ausgeblendet, wo es heißt: "zuzüglich 5 Euro monatliche Satellitenbereitstellungsgebühr bei Satellitenempfang. Voraussetzung für den Zugang zu arena im Kabelnetz ist ein Kabelanschluss einer Unity Media Gesellschaft, durch den zusätzliche Kosten (wie z.B. Anschluss- und monatliche Kabelgebühr) entstehen. Gegebenenfalls entstehen weitere Kosten für einen Digital-Receiver."

Besser erstmal nicht abonnieren....

Darauf haben Millionen Fans dieser Serie nur gewartet.

"The TV series spin-off of the Stars Wars film franchise will run to at least 100 episodes, according to producer Rick McCallum. He told BBC Radio 1 the writing team would soon be meeting to start on the project, which would begin filming in 2008 and be ready the same year. (...) 'Hopefully if we can make it work and everybody's excited and watches it we will keep on going,' said McCallum.

The series will be set between episodes three and four of the film saga.

It would cover the 20 years in the life of Luke Skywalker growing up that remains a mystery to most film-goers."

More at the BBC

"On Wednesday, March 22, 2006, Comedy Central suddenly switched out episodes of South Park -- replacing the previously-scheduled "Trapped in the Closet" without any explanation. According to a friend of mine (secretary for a certain company that owns Comedy Central), Tom Cruise has blackmailed the company into not showing the episode, which portrays him as a homosexual and his religion (Scientology) as a cult." (Chefgate.info)

From Hollywood Interrupted (account now suspended): "Sources from inside Paramount and South Park Studios report that parent company Viacom pulled last night's scheduled repeat of the high-rated "Trapped in the Closet" episode after the humorless Scientologist movie star Tom Cruise threatened to cancel all publicity for Mission Impossible 3 if Comedy Central aired the episode that satirizes Scientology and mocks his sexuality again. Not only is this the first time that the South Park creators have been officially censored in their ten hit seasons with Comedy Central, Viacom officials also reportedly ordered Matt Stone and Trey Parker not to discuss the reason why their episode was cancelled."

"What if everyone that was offended by an episode by an episode of South Park -- or any other satire -- could suddenly have an episode taken out of circulation? There wouldn't be a lot to show left..."

Sign the Internet Petition!

Actor Henry Ian Cusick, who plays the mysterious Desmond on "Lost", appeared as a German intelligence agent on "24" this week. Since Desmond has not been seen after running away from the hatch, this must mean something. Everything means something in the puzzle...

Wait until Jack Bauer find out the Germans are behind the Dharma Initiative and the nerve-gas at the same time! CTU will locate the island in ten seconds!

But will 24 hours be enough to find the castaways on the island, kill the smoke-monster, solve all the mysteries on the island, torture The Others, team-up with Sawyer, blow up the Hatch, save Walt, blow up the island, go back to L.A., shoot a bunch of minor terrorists on the way, reveal that Desmond has been working for the vice-president selling top secret information to Angela Merkel, go to Germany, blow up the Reichstag, go back, shoot more minor terrorists on the way, arm-wrestle with the traitor in the White House, get himself thrown into jail to infiltrate a secret terrorist network living in a cave underneah the Oval Office, link them to the Hanso Foundation and kill everyone involved to save Los Angeles one more time? Jack Bauer could do it in 9 hours and still have enough time to kill more terrorists, find more traitors in Washington,....

Du bist Deutschland

Roger Friedman (FOXNEWS) : "Isaac Hayes did not quit "South Park." My sources say that someone quit it for him.

I can tell you that Hayes is in no position to have quit anything. Contrary to news reports, the great writer, singer and musician suffered a stroke on Jan. 17. At the time it was said that he was hospitalized and suffering from exhaustion.

It’s also absolutely ridiculous to think that Hayes, who loved playing Chef on "South Park," would suddenly turn against the show because they were poking fun at Scientology."

More about Chef's Quitting Controversy

More Links and "South Park - The Scientology Episode" for your viewing pleasure!

This search-engine for TV torrents really works!

Hilarious!