Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 38: 'My Generation,' 'Outsourced,' '$#*! My Dad Says' and more new shows
A day later than expected, Dan and Alan conclude their fall preview
The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast fall preview concludes, a day later than planned (thanks to Internet problems on my end; sorry, folks), with Dan and I taking a belated look at last night's premieres, yesterday's "American Idol" news and some early ratings before looking ahead to the four new shows debuting tonight and tomorrow.
The run-down:
As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. Or you can always follow our RSS Feed, download the MP3 file or stream it on Dan's blog.
We likely won't have time to answer questions on the next few shows, but just in case, you can always reach us at sepinwall@hitfix.com and/or dan@hitfix.com
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupCalRulz25
September 23, 2010 at 3:52PM EST Reply to CommentLove your podcast. I started listening to your podcast and I have one major issue with what you guys were saying about LoneStar. So far every critic seems to be surprised why Lone Star failed, I on the other hand am not surprised at all. I am a 24 year old guy who loves both sports and television. I say this because I think that Lone Star, a show about a con man who has two good looking wives, would appeal mainly to men from about ages 18-50. Now on Monday night at 9 oclock what are most men from this age group watching? The answer is Monday Night Football and September baseball (specifically Rays-Yankees battle for first place in the AL East). How as a network do you expect a show to succeed when its target audience is most likely watching a sporting event?
Second question. Do tv people think about competition such as Monday Night Football and September baseball when slotting television shows?
Your podcast is awesome. Thanks.
dan CalRulz25 - I would just ask why "The Event" and "Hawaii Five-0," both marketed strongly at male viewers, drew more than twice as many viewers going up against the same "MNF" audience. And I'd add that FOX, at the very least, thought "Lone Star" was a soap opera of sorts and attempt to target women. *That* may have been the biggest mistake, not going after male viewers...
September 23, 2010 at 3:59PM ESTAnd ideally, yeah, networks definitely try to think of MNF and baseball and all possible competition when it comes to programming, but I think that if you look at the total audience watching TV on Monday at 9, there were plenty of *available* male viewers who weren't watching football, they just chose to watch different things.
Just my opinion... The reasons for the show's failure are obviously myriad!
-Dan
CalRulz25 Here's my answer to why shows like "The Event" and "Hawaii Five-O" did better than Lone Star. I think that "The Event" was very heavily promoted and seemed very interesting and intriguing. Hawaii Five-O to me at least was not a show I felt like people were taking a risk by watching. Hawaii Five-O is going to be a fun cop show that you can watch for an hour. Lone Star seemed to me like a good show that would work on another night when young people didn't have to chose between Monday Night Football and Lone Star. I think it would work much better on say Tuesday night or Wednesday night competing against other tv shows and not a live football game. That's just my opinion however. Lone Star feels to me a lot like Friday Night Lights. It does seem like a male soap opera and James Wolk looks very similar to a young Kyle Chandler, just saying.
September 23, 2010 at 4:09PM ESTThanks for answering my question and keep up the good work on the podcast.
M
September 23, 2010 at 4:29PM EST Reply to CommentI agree with Dan that I don't think Lone Star's failure will have any effect on next year's development. Plenty of out of the box shows (Lost, Glee) have been hits and plenty of "inside the box" shows (like The Whole Truth) have been bombs. As for this year's development, Glee may not have been an easy show to duplicate, but Modern Family was and there wasn't a single family comedy on this season's fall schedule. I just don't think one show's success or failure is that critical to development anymore.
Also, I'm a little amazed at how much critics were rallying behind Lone Star. It was perfectly fine, but I don't think there was anything remotely outstanding about it. In fact, had it premiered in a better season (Like say 2001 when we had 24, Alias, Scrubs, Smallville, and Undeclared. Or 2004 when we had Lost, Desperate Housewives, Veronica Mars, and House) I don't think it would have been on any critics' best lists.
chuckie I did not watch Lone Star because I had no interest in watching a show about a con man. I don't know how Fox promoted the show, but every review I saw described it as a show about a con man.
September 23, 2010 at 5:13PM ESTFrankly, if its iminent demise means I don't have to hear or read the phrase "long con" ever again, I will be happy.
Angela @Chuckie, I'm with you on the con man angle. But I watched this because of Alan's review, and I'm glad I did. It was about so much more than a con.
September 25, 2010 at 4:39PM ESTCal suggested Wolk looks like a young Kyle Chandler and I think he/she is spot on. Wolk is extremely charismatic
and his acting is very strong.
I want to describe one scene. At night, inside a shell gas-station store, we see a texas high-school kid trying to do his job, except his father, a man who would win an award for jerk-a** father of the year, steals armfuls of stuff right off the shelves, and the only thing his son can do is watch. You don't dare argue with this type of man, especially when he's your father. I thought I was watching a scene right out of Friday Night Lights.
There were a few scenes that turned me off due to rich oil men/family stereotypes but I was even intrigued by a couple of those characters, and looked forward to seeing more of them.
If you were an FNL fan, I'm thinking you might have enjoyed this. You might still be able to catch the first episode on Hulu.
Caleb
September 23, 2010 at 5:19PM EST Reply to CommentSepinwall! Sry to post this in an unrelated post, but I don't Twitter and you have to see this: Parks & Rec methadone:
Feel Free to re-tweet
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/09/becoming_ron_swanson.html#
DAG
September 23, 2010 at 7:18PM EST Reply to CommentSad about Lone Star. I saw the pilot on a plane a couple of weeks ago and loved it. (Surely the plane viewing didn't hurt the ratings that much)
Sadie
September 23, 2010 at 11:36PM EST Reply to CommentI think that Lone Star was absolutely terrific, and all the debate about whether or not it could have sustained as a series is, sadly, a moot point. All this discussion about why it failed is interesting, as I am certain that there is truth in all of the arguments. So what about it going against 'Dancing with the Stars'? That surely kept a zillion viewers from watching. What I agree with most is that there were just too many darn shows premiering this week and someone was going to get hurt. It is too bad it was a fantastic show. I assume we will see James Wolk again.
Ed W
September 26, 2010 at 9:42PM EST Reply to CommentI'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you guys about the advertising for Lone Star. In the podcast you say it wasn't advertised as a con man cheating on two women, but in the ads I saw it definitely was.