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Reality Is Almost Always Wrong
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| FOX originally paired this show with *Melrose Place*. Quick, somebody call the CW! |
[May. 29th, 2009|03:23 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
In the ongoing adventures of Things Jayne Finds To Watch Before Bed:
Make Or Break TV is a half-hour "documentary" series that purports to show the viewer the behind-the-scenes journey of TV series that, for whatever reason, just didn't manage to get off the ground. (Really, though, it's CanWest doing the absolute bare minimum required to claim a thrown-together collection of soundbites, graphics, and cheaply-produced interviews as A Homegrown Production that should totally count towards their Canadian Content quota.) And what quickly-cancelled series was profiled on Thursday morning's ep?
None other than Profit. Which, you know, caught my attention, 'cause I'm me, and I have a Thing.
Now, despite its "documentary" claims, Make Or Break TV really is not much for worthwhile journalistic content: the interview segments--with John MacNamara (showrunner), Robert Greenblatt (exec VP of programming at FOX back in the day), Rob Iscove (director), Adrian Pasdar, Lisa Darr, and some other former exec from FOX whose name is escaping me--are edited to within an inch of their lives; pretty much all the information provided in those insanely edited clips is covered in more detail (and in less careful, more entertainingly casual vocabulary) on the Profit DVD commentaries and/or making-of feature; and, since the show's made on a TVTropolis budget, they can't afford to clear more than, like, a minute and a half of actual footage from the show, so there's a lot more telling than showing going on (which, if you're not already familiar with the series being profiled, gets frustrating and interest-lossy really quickly). So I'm not telling you about this show because it's a must-see for Profit fans, or anything; I'm telling you about it because it provoked in me the urge to comment on two things:
1) In any interview I've ever seen, heard or read about Profit, the interview subject said they loved working on the show--but I think Lisa Darr really loved working on it, and really loved playing Gail, and really continues to think of the show as one of the best experiences she's had professionally. Even in MoBTV's edited-down-to-soundbites interview clips, her enthusiasm and affection for the show are really quite wonderfully obvious. (Which, you know, just makes me like her more than I already did. :)
2) There was one interview segment that wasn't atrociously edited, and was, in fact, hilarious. Clips of all the interviewees describing the character of Jim Profit were edited together; you got this string of the behind-the-scenes guys all, "...blah blah psychopath, blah blah disturbed, blah blah slept in a box, etc etc"--and then they cut to Pasdar, who, Lord love him, said with great, earnest fervour, "He was living the American dream!"
To which I could not help but say to the TV screen, "Yes, Pasdar. Yes, he was."
Oh, Profit. *happysigh* |
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| WEEKEND YAY. |
[May. 29th, 2009|08:35 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
This evening, I Haz The Night Off. Also, the following:
--an ample supply of lime-enhanced Diet Coke
--a rather spectacular post-thunderstorm sunset
--jellybeans
--a stockpile of the final week of In Treatment
--fic that is one scene away from being finished
--PLANS.
*fingersteeple* Excellent. |
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