Holiday Wishes - From Then and Now
It's striking how little has changed.
and now for something completely different:
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December 23, 2007
December 21, 2007
Gettin' Lots of Internet Love
It's been quite a great week at Wallstrip. Nearly every show has had amazing responses, comments, views and online coverage.
Our Facebook show made Michael Arrington's blog, TechCrunch. FB is one the blog's favorite topics to write about and with nearly 700k viewers daily, I was happy to be the daily pick. Silicon Alley Insider gave us some love too.
This was very difficult to direct, because we never had 2 actors in the same space except for the vampire gag. Green screen is so much fun!
Then we had a go at Oprah with some good ole safe sex. This is all about the love.
And then there's yesterday's show. I'll just say I am very proud of this piece as well as the team that made it possible and now I'll let it speak for itself.
I have to give a big shout out to New TeeVee for doing THIS. Please go there and vote for us. The Huffington Post included us today as well.
December 15, 2007
Fired Doctors and Vampires
We got in a little trouble with the lawyers with this one, but the short disclaimer up front cleared all that up. John Pieza turns in a stellar solo performance in another smart John Behlmann script.
Here John portrays his recurring character, Leslie the Vampire for our show on Abaxis, a blood testing company.
December 05, 2007
Carson Daly: Late Night Tool!
Now the pets have something to say. PLEASE, execs let the writers have their rights! Think of all the puppies... and their skateboards!
So Carson (TOOL) Daley gave a earnest plea of why he is the first and only "late night" show (martyr) airing during the strike last night. Sounded legit, but... if you watched that first video, here's a still that "blips" in at the end.
All the other "late night" shows that he allies himself with have managed to cover their "peeps." He'd like to make everyone think that he has so much integrity and that he's taking one for his "peeps", but in reality, he's just a shill unwilling to play on the right side of the picket line. Here are some of his words from last night:
"If I had not been back on the air tonight, 75 members of my loyal staff and crew were going to get laid off."
He was faced with "an ultimatum, if you will," from the network that boiled down to: "You either come back or they're laid off. I said, `Let's turn the lights on, I'm gonna come back.' It's that simple."
"Last Call" thus became the first to break ranks among the six broadcast late-night talk shows, which, since Nov. 5, all had aired repeats rather than tape new shows without their striking writers.
"I don't know what we're gonna do, moving forward the rest of the week," Daly said. "But I'll figure it out."
Production on Daly's Burbank-based talk show, which tapes several days ahead, resumed last Wednesday, with the Writers Guild expressing "profound disappointment."
The only late-night host who's not a member of the Writers Guild, Daly had said in a statement, "I feel I have supported my four Guild writers and their strike by suspending production for a month."
After last week, NBC effectively laid off the nonstriking staffs of the network's two other late-night shows. They, along with "Last Call," are owned by Universal Media Studios, which, like NBC, is a unit of General Electric.
But Conan O'Brien stepped forward to personally cover the salaries of his nonstriking "Late Night" staff at least this week, as did Jay Leno for his "Tonight Show" staff. Both of those shows are continuing to air repeats.
In mid-November, staffers of CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" were similarly promised payment at least through December by Letterman, whose production company, Worldwide Pants, owns both shows.
And staffers for ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" so far have continued to be paid by the network, which is owned by the Walt Disney Co.
People make mistakes, Carson. Take for instance everyone who ever told you that you had talent.
And here's David Schussel. Obviously not capitalizing on the strikes attention:
December 03, 2007
Guitar Hero, the Next Scary-Oky?
Look closely. I'm rockin' out with the best of them. Our Lower East Side neighbor, Pianos (as well as a slew of other bars across New York) host a weekly Guitar Hero "party." This was fun... and a little weird.
If you listen closely, we have three of my favorite bands playing in the background. That'd be (in order of appearance) White Stripes, Bloc Party and the Beastie Boys. This was another one that we all got involved with. You'll see Adam Elend, our Exec Producer, myself, Terrence (as Val Kilmer doing Jim Morrison doing Jose Cuervo) and of course, Lindsay. Does it make anyone else hang their head in sadness that we ran into "brokers" and "traders" at the venue? Sigh.
Guitar Hero, like most games these days, is all about finding the "sweet spot" of the game's responsiveness to succeed. Honestly, it did nothing for me. I think I might be in the minority with this one. Judge for yourself:
December 02, 2007
Gift Idea 2.0
Lindsay Campbell, our big-hearted host of Wallstrip, spearheaded the "Wallstrip 5k Challenge." Despite its marathon-like title, it's really Web 2.0 philanthropy at its best. Just in time for the holidays:
Invest in something that will always have positive returns! We've collected 12 amazing teacher-initiated projects which aim to teach students about money laundering...er...sorry, money and its many uses. Please help us meet our goal by the end of 2007. CLICK HERE
From their site:
DonorsChoose.org is a simple way to provide students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. At this not-for-profit web site, teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn. These ideas become classroom reality when concerned individuals, whom we call Citizen Philanthropists, choose projects to fund.
Here's our interview with the sites founder.