Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 74: Upfront Week, part 2: CBS & the CW

Dan and Alan also review HBO's 'Too Big to Fail'

By Alan Sepinwall Friday, May 20, 2011 5:40 PM

Welcome to the second of our two different Upfront Week editions of the Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, in which Dan and I talk about CBS and the CW's new schedules, in addition to offering a review of HBO's "Too Big to Fail." The run-down:

CBS's Upfront -- 01:00 - 28:20

The CW's Upfront -- 28:25 - 39:30

Listener Mail -- 42:30 - 50:45

"Too Big to Fail" -- 51:00 - 01:00:00

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.

And as always, feel free to e-mail us at sepinwall@hitfix.com and/or dan@hitfix.com if you have questions you want answered on the show. Please put the word "podcast" in your subject line to make it easy to track them down amid the hundreds of random press releases we get every day.

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Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

Related Searches: Firewall & Iceberg, Alan Sepinwall, 2011 Upfronts, Too Big to Fail

Neeek

Alan's just podcasting like crazy today. I just got consecutive tweets announcing this and Sports Guy's.
May 20, 2011 at 5:55PM EST Reply to Comment
JamesTown

Has the creator of Fables(Bill Willingham) commented on ABC's Once Upon A Time show yet? It's blatant. Legal, but blatant.
May 20, 2011 at 7:21PM EST Reply to Comment
- I've heard the creators of Once upon a time have a draft that predates fables. So apparently nothing can be said?
  May 20, 2011 at 9:29PM EST
- JamesTown Cool. Just wondering since ABC were considering a FABLE show at one point.
  May 20, 2011 at 9:40PM EST
- dan As Jamestown notes, "legal." The fairy tales themselves are public domain, presumably, and merely transposing fairy tale characters with a modern world context is never going to be trademarkable/copyrightable/intellectual-property-able. So unless there are MANY points of commonality, Willingham wouldn't be able to do anything anyway.
  
  As for the creators having a draft that predates 2002? Hey, whatever they say. Who knows? If it's not actionable, I don't know why they'd care to protest...
  
  -Daniel
  May 20, 2011 at 9:41PM EST
- dan ABC and NBC have *both* attempted to develop "Fables" in the past five years. And now ABC and NBC *both* have fairy-tale-in-modern-context shows. Funny old world.
  
  -Daniel
  May 20, 2011 at 9:43PM EST
- Jamestown Yeah, I figured ABC isn't stupid enough to leave themselves open to any type of litigation. I was just wondering if Willingham had made comment/statement about the similarities of some of these upcoming modern fairy-tales shows to his work. Anyway, it might be for the best. At least now it still leaves open the "It could work on HBO!" pipe dream nerds-like-me have for every popular book adaptation.
  May 20, 2011 at 10:15PM EST
- Consider this just a revamp of THE CHARMINGS, which was also on ABC.
  
  Other than WIllingham getting a paycheck, I'm happy to not see Fables on TV
  May 20, 2011 at 11:07PM EST
Hannah Lee

RE: Too Big to Fail: It's not Bernanke fighting zombies, but here's Robert Reich fighting crime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWliylnxSrA&playnext=1&list=PL3E7107F5711B31DB
May 20, 2011 at 10:08PM EST Reply to Comment
south

Does Tobolowsky have the same condition as Marilu Henner? He should get checked out.
May 21, 2011 at 12:19AM EST Reply to Comment
Karen

Have either of you seen Inside Man,the documentary about the financial collapse? Still worth whatching Too Big to Fail if I've already seen that (excellent, angering) documentary?
May 21, 2011 at 10:06AM EST Reply to Comment
SA Mac

"A well-intended Bar Mitzvah could be a hit on the CW." - Dan Fienberg. Love it!

"You love Vampire Diaries. You think it is the bee's knees." Alan... You guys have been on a roll lately...the fatigue and snark of Upfronts looks good on you..
May 21, 2011 at 11:28PM EST Reply to Comment
- SA Mac Well-attended...not intended. Whoops!
  May 21, 2011 at 11:30PM EST
Kujo

To those that don't know, a lot of the same pilots that get sent to TV critics get leaked to the interwebz weeks/months before their air date.
May 22, 2011 at 10:55AM EST Reply to Comment

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Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 74: Upfront Week, part 2: CBS & the CW

Send to your friends

Direct link: http://tinyurl.com/3ubnz7a

Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 74: Upfront Week, part 2: CBS & the CW

Comments

Neeek

Alan's just podcasting like crazy today. I just got consecutive tweets announcing this and Sports Guy's.

JamesTown

Has the creator of Fables(Bill Willingham) commented on ABC's Once Upon A Time show yet? It's blatant. Legal, but blatant.

I've heard the creators of Once upon a time have a draft that predates fables. So apparently nothing can be said?

JamesTown Cool. Just wondering since ABC were considering a FABLE show at one point.

dan ABC and NBC have both attempted to develop "Fables" in the past five years. And now ABC and NBC both have fairy-tale-in-modern-context shows. Funny old world.

-Daniel

Consider this just a revamp of THE CHARMINGS, which was also on ABC.

Other than WIllingham getting a paycheck, I'm happy to not see Fables on TV

Hannah Lee

RE: Too Big to Fail: It's not Bernanke fighting zombies, but here's Robert Reich fighting crime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWliylnxSrA&playnext=1&list=PL3E7107F5711B31DB

south

Does Tobolowsky have the same condition as Marilu Henner? He should get checked out.

Karen

Have either of you seen Inside Man,the documentary about the financial collapse? Still worth whatching Too Big to Fail if I've already seen that (excellent, angering) documentary?

SA Mac

"A well-intended Bar Mitzvah could be a hit on the CW." - Dan Fienberg. Love it!

"You love Vampire Diaries. You think it is the bee's knees." Alan... You guys have been on a roll lately...the fatigue and snark of Upfronts looks good on you..

SA Mac Well-attended...not intended. Whoops!

Kujo

To those that don't know, a lot of the same pilots that get sent to TV critics get leaked to the interwebz weeks/months before their air date.

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Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 74: Upfront Week, part 2: CBS & the CW

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Direct link: http://tinyurl.com/3ubnz7a

Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 74: Upfront Week, part 2: CBS & the CW

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Direct link: http://tinyurl.com/3ubnz7a

Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 74: Upfront Week, part 2: CBS & the CW

Comments

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Neeek Alan's just podcasting like crazy today. I just got consecutive tweets announcing this and Sports Guy's.

JamesTown Has the creator of Fables(Bill Willingham) commented on ABC's Once Upon A Time show yet? It's blatant. Legal, but blatant.

I've heard the creators of Once upon a time have a draft that predates fables. So apparently nothing can be said?

JamesTown Cool. Just wondering since ABC were considering a FABLE show at one point.

dan ABC and NBC have *both* attempted to develop "Fables" in the past five years. And now ABC and NBC *both* have fairy-tale-in-modern-context shows. Funny old world.-Daniel

Consider this just a revamp of THE CHARMINGS, which was also on ABC.Other than WIllingham getting a paycheck, I'm happy to not see Fables on TV

Hannah Lee RE: Too Big to Fail: It's not Bernanke fighting zombies, but here's Robert Reich fighting crime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWliylnxSrA&playnext=1&list=PL3E7107F5711B31DB

south Does Tobolowsky have the same condition as Marilu Henner? He should get checked out.

Karen Have either of you seen Inside Man,the documentary about the financial collapse? Still worth whatching Too Big to Fail if I've already seen that (excellent, angering) documentary?

SA Mac "A well-intended Bar Mitzvah could be a hit on the CW." - Dan Fienberg. Love it! "You love Vampire Diaries. You think it is the bee's knees." Alan... You guys have been on a roll lately...the fatigue and snark of Upfronts looks good on you..

SA Mac Well-attended...not intended. Whoops!

Kujo To those that don't know, a lot of the same pilots that get sent to TV critics get leaked to the interwebz weeks/months before their air date.

News From Our Partners

Never miss a post - sign up now to get an e-mail alert whenever What's Alan Watching is updated

Latest Posts

Recent Activity on Facebook

Most Popular on Facebook

About HitFix

Advertise on HitFix

Subscribe to HitFix

Popular Topics

Neeek

Alan's just podcasting like crazy today. I just got consecutive tweets announcing this and Sports Guy's.

JamesTown

Has the creator of Fables(Bill Willingham) commented on ABC's Once Upon A Time show yet? It's blatant. Legal, but blatant.

dan ABC and NBC have both attempted to develop "Fables" in the past five years. And now ABC and NBC both have fairy-tale-in-modern-context shows. Funny old world.

-Daniel

Consider this just a revamp of THE CHARMINGS, which was also on ABC.

Other than WIllingham getting a paycheck, I'm happy to not see Fables on TV

Hannah Lee

RE: Too Big to Fail: It's not Bernanke fighting zombies, but here's Robert Reich fighting crime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWliylnxSrA&playnext=1&list=PL3E7107F5711B31DB

south

Does Tobolowsky have the same condition as Marilu Henner? He should get checked out.

Karen

Have either of you seen Inside Man,the documentary about the financial collapse? Still worth whatching Too Big to Fail if I've already seen that (excellent, angering) documentary?

SA Mac

"A well-intended Bar Mitzvah could be a hit on the CW." - Dan Fienberg. Love it!

"You love Vampire Diaries. You think it is the bee's knees." Alan... You guys have been on a roll lately...the fatigue and snark of Upfronts looks good on you..

Kujo

To those that don't know, a lot of the same pilots that get sent to TV critics get leaked to the interwebz weeks/months before their air date.

Never miss a post - sign up now to get an e-mail alert whenever
What's Alan Watching is updated