DramatistDreamer

Paramount+ has uploaded some episodes of classic Frasier on their YouTube channel.

Boo boo Drew should understand that she’s become writer’s kryptonite at this time. I am not saying she can’t change this. Perhaps some genuine ways to make amends (not her saccharine-laced apologies) might turn the situation around. Part of me (the wicked part) fantasizes about her show being booted off the air by a scripted show, even an old one.

They’re are getting what they deserve. Twitter, X, whatever the hell it’s now known as, is a ruined platform. Many users have already flown the coup, so to speak, and good luck getting them back. Also, repossessing the platform isn’t going to do anything about the massive problems of harassment and misinformation that were already plaguing Twitter, that people were putting up with until Musty took over. The greedy bankers are getting their just desserts. Hope they lose the sum total of their investments.

That woman still exists?! I had totally forgotten about her! I guess that is a huge benefit to no longer checking for Twitter. Also, since I haven’t subscribed to cable in over a decade, I don’t get whatever it is that CNN and cable news is trying to put out into the ether. I have also promptly forgotten about Yang as well. There is an upside to this horrible year after all, I guess.

I actually read that NYT piece very early this morning and was surprised by its prudent assessment. I also read an Op-Ed in NYT which did mention McCarthy’s role in the launch of impeachment hearings against President Biden as well as other acts of McCarthy’s treachery toward the Democrats in the House. I am not sure how any thinking individuals would come for the Democrats in this mess, when it was McCarthy’s own party who instigated his ouster in the first place. As much as people liked to discuss possible rifts between the progressive left during her time as Speaker, Nancy Pelosi would never! The GOP owns this mess. This unprecedented mess.

It’s so awesome that President Jimmy Carter has been able to celebrate his 99th birthday, especially since he’s now in hospice. His birthday was yesterday but he’s certainly entitled to keep the birthday celebration going for as long as he likes.

Has anyone seen Elena Goode (Jade Taylor, ATWT) in that Old Navy commercial with Natasha Lyonne?

In the midst of all that is happening (and there is so much happening ), may Senator Feinstein R.I.P.

I am situated an hour and some minutes outside of NYC and we are getting that same relentless rain here too. Bracing for the flooding that is sure to follow.

💜 Callie 💜 CallieSpeakz X/Twitter scraps feature letting users report misleading information X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has removed the ability for people to report a tweet as containing misleading information just weeks out from a referendum on an Indigenous voice to parlia... 12:32 AM - Sep 27, 2023 8 19 16 data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== Hopefully enough of the voting public will defy the misinformation campaign and do the right thing. When I mentioned things not turning out well, I meant that I am really hoping for things not turning out well for Musk and Twitter/X. Is anyone else having trouble with the Quotes feature? Maybe it’s just a glitch with Spoutible their embed feature.

Very cool @Bright Eyes! There may be some episodes of McCallum during his time on ATWT on YouTube.

The AMPTP and their cronies can try to spin this all they want but the fact remains that they had hoped to break the resolve of the writers in order to ride roughshod over them and they failed.

This will not go well.

Judge rules against Trump in civil lawsuit brought by NY’s Attorney General Letitia James. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/judge-rules-donald-trump-defrauded-banks-insurers-as-he-built-real-estate-empire/4714354/

The FTC and 17 states are suing Amazon on the grounds that it is a monopoly. https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/amazon-sued-ftc-17-states-allegations-inflates-online-103504208

No problem. You’re welcome. Who’s gonna show up? I’d think that viewers would be pretty disappointed if there are no actors there. While SAG-AFTRA is on strike, will Eileen Davidson show? She’s a fairly ardent supporter of SAG-AFTRA. And Fran Drescher seems to be running a pretty tight ship.

My guess would be that unless there is a deal worked out with SAG-AFTRA, it would still be frowned upon, if not, outright forbidden. Although WGA and SAG-AFTRA are in solidarity and they share a couple common goals and perhaps an overlapping demand, their contracts are completely separate. What the WGA has worked out with AMPTP has little to nothing to do with SAG-AFTRA and what they are trying to negotiate with AMPTP. Since SAG-AFTRA is still trying to demonstrate their worth in the industry and what it means to be without their presence, my assumption would be that no, they will not be on the talk shows promoting movies that benefit the very entities that stand to profit the most from them, the entities that they are currently in conflict with. It would be counterproductive to their cause.

David Haggerty has been re-elected president of the ITF. I guess helping to put together that disastrous deal with Piqué and the Kosmos for Davis Cup won’t hurt his career prospects.

Streaming (I really hate that word “content”) had potential when Netflix streamed indie films and shows that people wouldn’t have seen elsewhere that’s when I think they had potential. When the networks all had buy in with Hulu, that’s when Hulu had potential. As it is now, I am tired of most of these streamers as they all seem to serve the same purpose. Add in Max and the rest and there are now too many of them. Greed has done in a few years with streamers what took decades to happen to cable. Corporate media can try to lay blame on union strikes (at this point, perhaps blame has already shifted to SAG-AFTRA which has always been seen as less sympathetic and taking a harder line than the writers) but no one in normal life sees the billionaire corporate titans as being remotely sympathetic, so they can have at it. Create some fake polls like they are now doing with Biden vs Trump. And another thing, everyone like to talk about AI taking writers’ jobs first but has anyone considered the fact that producers and executives’ jobs don’t actually require a unique or special skill set and might actually be easily performed by algorithms and software? Remember when everyone assumed that the manual laborers and people who worked with their hands would be the first ones to lose their jobs to automation? Until we saw that it was in fact a lot of office workers who spent hours on the phones who were the first ones to suffer the fallout? If that wasn’t enough, the pandemic really illustrated who were the essential workers. When everyone flocked to their televisions to watch “comfort” shows, it wasn’t the producers they were heaping praise on.

Of course, the likes of Netflix bragged about this, as if it were some brilliant strategy. They deliberately got rid of viable series simply because they got to some arbitrary episode number. It wasn’t long before their so-called strategy began to backfire.

Probably, although a few of them had already increased subscription fees as they were crying poverty before the strike. They’ve also got the problem that many of their shows don’t survive the third season. How they actually believed they could maintain a loyal workforce without offering a modicum of job security is anyone’s guess.

No, I just meant that the AMPTP issued a very terse statement compared to the one by the WGA, which was triumphant. Even the statement from other entities (SAG-AFTRA, DGA, President Biden, etc) congratulating the agreement was longer. The AMPTP was not happy but they are resigned to the agreement.

I read it this morning in the NYT this morning. Did you check the AMPTP’s website? It may be on their website as a press release. It was a very trite abrupt statement anyway, not sure it’s worth the effort to search for it.

It seems that the writer’s guild got just about all of their demands met. Keep in mind that this will still need to get approval by members who have yet to vote. As for the AI provision, while no one can completely anticipate the future and the direction of AI, it does seem as if this tentative agreement respects compensation terms for the writers regardless of how/if AI is implemented. Also, people need to know that at this time, AI is pretty terrible at doing what a screenwriter does, and even worse at doing what a playwright does. Perhaps because those programming AI are not good at that type of writing. I can’t speak to twenty years from now, but at this present moment, AI is pretty atrocious at producing this type of work. By the way, the A.M.P.T.P. is not too happy about having to accede to this agreement but judging by their statement, they realize they have no choice. Read between the lines. Also, keep in mind that the actors are still on strike and, believe it or not, they have more and more complicated demands than the writers did. The only shows that can restart right now are talk shows, game shows and ones that don’t require actors.

Well, the ATP and the WTA and the PTPA, PTA or whatever they’re called are all probably waiting for Saudi Arabia to fix everything. Tennis lost a lot of steam during the pandemic and has yet to fully recover, attendance records (and the long lines of spectators waiting for the uber-pricey hone deuce cocktails) at the US Open notwithstanding.