Back in the swing of things...

After being absent from the blog for a couple of weeks, I thought I would ease back into things today. The Great '08 Move is mostly over, though a few boxes remain scattered around, waiting to be dealt with, so it's high time to get back to pop culture and see what I've been missing.

Like I said though, I'm going easy for now. Today EW.com had a run down of 20 Fall releases the EW writers are itching to see. It's pretty good, and there were even a few on there that I had no idea were coming out so soon (The Road in particular).

One of those exciting new releases appears to be stalled, though. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is being postponed until Summer '09 (hat tip: Perez).

Warner Brothers is blaming the writer's strike, basically saying they needed to shift around some of the big-money movies to protect their bottom line. That's a pretty crappy thing to do to fans, especially since this is basically the biggest movie franchise going right now. We'll see if this decision sticks, but until we know for sure it looks like we're down to Twilight for our fun fall book series adaptation.

Mixed Reactions to SNL's Return

It was ladies night at SNL last weekend when the show returned after it’s three-month, strike-induced hiatus. Tina Fey, former head writer and cast member, started things off as the first host. From the commentary I’ve been reading post-show, the episode played to exactly the strengths it was expected to with Fey on display. Her goal during her time as head writer was always to promote women being funny.

What was not so funny, and has been getting some less-than-thrilled reactions, was the choice to use Fred Armisen as Obama in the night’s first political sketch. The sketch itself was a pretty good lampoon of the Obama idolization going on these days. Huffington Post blogger Daniel Holloway was not amused by the casting choice:

Apparently unable to find one black comedian able to do an impression of the frontrunner for Most Important Black Person of the 21st Century, Michaels turned to cast member Fred Armisen, who is of Japanese and Venezuelan descent. If you've seen Billy Crystal doing Sammy Davis Jr. on the show in the '80s, it was like that but less funny.

While I don’t agree with Holloway when he says that black people “were actively picked on” in the episode (to me, the sketch illustrating his point is simply an example of lazy writing—a little too dependent on clichés) he has a good point overall. It’s long overdue for SNL to become as culturally diverse as it’s less intelligent, less watchable younger cousin Mad TV. The show shouldn’t have had such a problem figuring out who can play Obama.

Here’s hoping SNL takes a clue from the presidential race it’s parodying and diversifies. If we can finally vote between a woman and a black man in the democratic primaries, we should certainly have already seen a more multicultural cast of characters on America’s sketch comedy gold standard.

It’s Official: Scribes Back to Work Tomorrow!

After three months and six days of picketing writers (and 88 days with no new episodes of The Office) the WGA and the AMPTP have struck a deal and officially ended the strike. The deal comes just in time to squeeze a few new episodes of our favorite shows out before the end of the TV season.

The major concessions in the agreement? Writers will get a percentage of the distributor’s gross on permanent downloads. The agreement also defines what “promotional use” is, which was cited as the reason the writers were not previously getting residuals on downloaded material. The new arrangement states that if a clip is being used to refer viewers to methods of renting, downloading, or watching the program, it’s promotional; if it is just to archive old footage, it is not promotional and the writers are entitled to compensation.

The good news won’t be immediately evident. It may not be until early April that we see any new episodes on the air. In the meantime, we’ll get The Daily Show back to its normal levels of hilarity (not that I think Jon Stewart is doing so bad on his own, he’s just better with his writers behind him), and in a couple of months we can put this whole mess behind us.

The best thing about all of this? All of the people in Hollywood who do the hard work and get none of the glory (writers, crew members, food-service workers, etc.) will get their jobs back.

To find out the status on your favorite scripted shows, keep checking here for updates.

Let's hope...

this is good news.

News that surprises no one

CBS and ABC are suffering some pretty big ratings drops as a result of having to air repeats during the strike. Both networks saw especially sharp declines among the 18-49 age bracket, which brings in the most advertising dollars.

This is especially bad news heading into February sweeps, since the advertising rates for the year will be determined by this month's numbers. Maybe they should have thought about that before letting the strike drag on for three months.

WGA & AMPTP back at the table today

After informal talks yesterday, the WGA and AMPTP are meeting officially today to discuss whether there is reason to return to the table for formal negotiations. The last formal talks broke down December 7, so let’s all keep our fingers crossed that things work out this time. Both sides are planning to refrain from making public statements during the talks. For more information, check out what The Hollywood Insider has to say.