TMC
03-27-2014, 04:44 PM
http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2014/03/end-of-an-internet-era-television-without-pity-gets-shuttered/359733/
It was announced today that NBCUniversal would be closing down (http://recode.net/2014/03/27/nbcuniversal-owned-dailycandy-and-television-without-pity-will-be-shut-down/) two venerable digital properties next week: Daily Candy and Television Without Pity (http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/forum-488/announcement-91-twop-is-closing-so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish/).
In particular, Television Without Pity (http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/nbcuniversal-shuts-down-dailycandy-television-without-pity-websites-1201148723/#) — TWoP (https://twitter.com/TVWithoutPity) in the parlance of our times, and for brevity's sake, because if today's news has taught us anything, it's that time is fleeting and nothing lasts forever —had a huge impact on the internet landscape and in particular the way that television was covered. Beginning in the late '90s as Dawson's Wrap (making Dawson's Creek the unlikely mother of an entire movement in TV criticism) and later as Mighty Big TV, the TWoP stock in trade was the TV recap, impossibly detailed summaries of individual TV episodes of everything from ER to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Project Runway. Written not only for detail but for humor and fan engagement, they became, for a time, the way we talked about TV on the internet.
As time passed and appetites changed, in the TL;DR era, that kind of long-form recapping became the exception and not the rule, but the idea of experiencing TV as an unfolding experience, through the lens of a hybrid fan/critic/hater has certainly endured. NBCUniversal and Bravo acquired the site in 2007 and soon got to the business of turning it into just another entertainment portal. Site founders Sarah D. Bunting, Tara Ariano, and David T. Cole can all be found today writing about TV at the site Previously.TV, where that evolution of TV coverage is on full display.
The legacy of TWoP, a site that hasn't been at the forefront of TV coverage for quite a while, might seem silly to ponder at this late a date. But its influence is pretty apparent if you look around writers and critic-types on Twitter today.
It was announced today that NBCUniversal would be closing down (http://recode.net/2014/03/27/nbcuniversal-owned-dailycandy-and-television-without-pity-will-be-shut-down/) two venerable digital properties next week: Daily Candy and Television Without Pity (http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/forum-488/announcement-91-twop-is-closing-so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish/).
In particular, Television Without Pity (http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/nbcuniversal-shuts-down-dailycandy-television-without-pity-websites-1201148723/#) — TWoP (https://twitter.com/TVWithoutPity) in the parlance of our times, and for brevity's sake, because if today's news has taught us anything, it's that time is fleeting and nothing lasts forever —had a huge impact on the internet landscape and in particular the way that television was covered. Beginning in the late '90s as Dawson's Wrap (making Dawson's Creek the unlikely mother of an entire movement in TV criticism) and later as Mighty Big TV, the TWoP stock in trade was the TV recap, impossibly detailed summaries of individual TV episodes of everything from ER to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Project Runway. Written not only for detail but for humor and fan engagement, they became, for a time, the way we talked about TV on the internet.
As time passed and appetites changed, in the TL;DR era, that kind of long-form recapping became the exception and not the rule, but the idea of experiencing TV as an unfolding experience, through the lens of a hybrid fan/critic/hater has certainly endured. NBCUniversal and Bravo acquired the site in 2007 and soon got to the business of turning it into just another entertainment portal. Site founders Sarah D. Bunting, Tara Ariano, and David T. Cole can all be found today writing about TV at the site Previously.TV, where that evolution of TV coverage is on full display.
The legacy of TWoP, a site that hasn't been at the forefront of TV coverage for quite a while, might seem silly to ponder at this late a date. But its influence is pretty apparent if you look around writers and critic-types on Twitter today.