Cable and PBS Deliver Powerhouse Presentations at TCA - Ed Martin Live at TCA

Today dozens of additional reporters and critics will be pouring into press conferences and parties here at the Summer 2008 Television Critics Association Tour in Beverly HillsWhy this surge you ask Because today is the beginning of the segment of the tour that is devoted to the broadcast networks and for reasons that are increasingly difficult to justify many members of the mainstream media continue to value broadcast programming over pay and basic cable and for that matter PBS So they plan abbreviated visits to TCA arriving as they are today after the cable networks and PBS are finished with their presentationsOne might be tempted to point out that this year many cable networks are presenting their shows on days designated for their corporate broadcast cousins Some examples FX will present on what would have been Fox39s second day several Disney Cable Networks will present during ABC39s second day Showtime is sharing a day with broadcast sibling The CW and NBCU39s cable networks are scheduled to present during NBC39s time at the tour But that39s beside the point because even if all of these networks were moved back into the cable portion of the tour dozens of journalists from major outlets would still only attend TCA for its broadcast offerings It has always been that way even before the current economic downturn that has compromised budgets at so many newspapers and magazinesFrom what I know of the way people watch TV and of the popularity of many cable programs this is an antiquated approach to reporting on this medium I simply do not believe that the newspaper magazine and Webreading public collectively cares more for the latest unproven broadcast sitcom or drama series than it does for the myriad of marvelous offerings on cable television Similarly an awful lot of people in particular people who take the time to read a newspaper or two every day watch PBS and PBS always does a damn fine job of pulling together a wide variety of compelling TCA panelsLord knows I have nothing against broadcast television as anyone who has followed my columns in various Myers publications over most of the last decade can attest But I know what I hear when I talk to real people They won39t miss American Idol CSI and Lost but they have similar big love for Project Runway The Closer and Battlestar Galactica That is the state of television todayHere39s a sampling of what those reporters and editors who can39t break free of a traditional approach to television and who may be contributing to the overall decline in their business have missed or deliberately ignored by not being here since last Tuesday when the summer tour beganA virtual cavalcade of beloved television stars promoting the many Hallmark Channel movies they are going to appear in during the next yearHDNet President Mark Cuban discussing his ongoing effort to offer cable subscribers access to theatrical films before they play in theaters Cuban was with renowned director Peter Bogdanovich who declared that if one watches a movie only on television or a computer or a phone one hasn39t really seen the movie only a version of itBBC America39s sneak preview of the series many TCA members feel will become the next cult comedy classic Gavin ampamp StaceyA chance to get to know Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn of G439s Attack of the Show and Joel McHale of E39s The Soup three of the most popular personalities on all of television among those increasingly difficult to reach teenage and twentysomething malesThe spectacular return to TCA of the dazzling cast of Mad Men widely regarded by critics as the best show on television and a frontrunner for this year39s top TCA Awards Stay tunedCountry superstar John Rich talking about the second season of his hit CMT series Gone CountryAcademy Awardwinning actor Jamie Foxx talking about the first season of his new MTV series From Gs to GentsThe chance to see one of the dogs savagely abused in the Michael Vick scandal and to meet some of the people who have devoted their time to rehabilitating all of the animals that suffered in that shameful scandal Their amazing work will soon be seen in a special edition the National Geographic Channel series Dogtown Saving the Michael Vick DogsA press conference with heroic men and women who routinely risk their lives to stop profitseeking Japanese whalers from torturing and killing whales You39ll think they are heroes too after you watch the upcoming Animal Planet series Whale WarsThe triumphant return to TCA of ABC News journalist Bob Woodruff who was almost killed by an IED in Iraq two years ago only a few days after his last visit to TCA He39s hosting a new series on Planet Green Focus Earth with Bob WoodruffRapper Chris quotLudacrisquot Bridges and rocker Tommy Lee talking about their passion for the environment as seen in their upcoming Planet Green series Battleground Earth Ludacris vs Tommy Lee without being half as offputting as the typical celebrity ecobabblersElvis Costello talking about his new Sundance Channel talk and music series Spectacle Elvis Costello with amp8230The effortlessly funny Ricky Gervais promoting his upcoming HBO specialA wild preview of HBO39s adaptation of the smash BBC comedy series Little Britain that included the most explicit and sidesplitting display of full frontal nudity this crowd had ever seenAcademy Award and Emmy Award winning writer Alan Ball talking about his new HBO vampire drama True BloodA special screening of the entire first episode of Cartoon Network39s upcoming series Star Wars Clone Wars This animated highdef marvel was unexpectedly dazzling and immeasurably more entertaining than the three most recent entries in the Star Wars movie franchise put together The series storyline plays out between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith It was one of the best things I saw all week Cartoon Network may own Friday nights when Clone Wars debuts this fallEwan McGregor the young Obi Wan Kenobi in those recent Star Wars movies charming all of TCA with his recollections about his recent motorcycle trip with best bud Charley Boorman from Scotland to South Africa It was carefully documented for the upcoming Fox Reality Channel series Long Way DownIntriguing previews of the upcoming Sundance Channel reality competition series Architecture School filmed in New Orleans and Starz39 series adaptation of the Academy Awardwinning movie CrashA discussion with toughtalking Shirley MacLaine about her distinguished career and her upcoming Lifetime movie Coco Chanel about the legendary title characterPBS meanwhile presented engrossing panels that ran the gamut from the history of music On Record The Soundtrack of Our Lives featuring special guest Sir George Martin the legendary producer of The Beatles among many others to the history of Warner Bros American Masters You Must Remember This The Warner Bros Story PBS hosted a Saturday night dinner at The Jim Henson Company lot the studio that was home to Charlie Chaplin that featured a dazzling demonstration of the technology behind its upcoming animated series Sid the Science Kid in which Sid himself talked with reporters in real time and put together a Sunday morning NOVA breakfast that brought critics up to date on investigations into the histories of the Bible The Bible39s Buried Secrets and quantum physics Parallel Worlds Parallel Lives The latter has me ready not only to watch the special but to read the book on which it is based PBS topped off its tour with an appearance by a majestic American bald eagle Nature American EagleIf TCA endures one hopes that critics and reporters from the mainstream press will find a way to devote as much time to cable as they do to broadcast just as their readers undoubtedly do

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Cable and PBS Deliver Powerhouse Presentations at TCA - Ed Martin Live at TCA

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