Who are the very worst TV showrunners ever

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

It almost get a kick out of going through the old TWoP forums on Entertainment Tonight from the 2000s. It basically serves a perfect window into how that show became a complete shell of itself under Linda Bell Blue's watch. Pat O'Brien's memoir also has some nice little insight of what it was like working under LBB.



The bottom-line is that before Linda Bell Blue came along in 1995, Entertainment Tonight was an informative entertainment show about the latest movies, television, and music. But then, they switched the format to a more tabloid/gossip-styled show.

LANGUAGE WARNING

Tara Reid: The Linda Bell Blue Effect (sneak peek docu-mini)

A taste of what is to come. Content advisory: substance use, self harm, bonus "vocal fry" (see below)

When I posted the next video is "coming soon," two weeks of upper respiratory infection had progressed to laryngitis. Since I never wrote an intro, I had time to finish that much while I tried to recover. But after a week and a half, impatience won out and, ready or not, I pushed myself to croak out a voiceover. At some points it is more obvious than others. But, as former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once put it, "you go to war with the army you have, not the army you want."

This segment is the third out of six that will make up the main video. I am currently midway through finishing segment four, and each of these productions is a learning experience for me. This time around, I discovered a new migraine trigger: Carson Daly. We're jumping in at about the 40 minute mark, following Tara's big break in _American Pie_. It is by far the longest side tangent but by the end you will have a sense of how it ties back to Tara's story.

• Star Whackers #1: The Linda Bell Blue Effect

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Yong Fang

A guy named Kurtzman is basically the “show runner” for the new Trek series Discovery and Picard, which in my opinion and the opinion of the majority of Star Trek faithful are not good shows with terrible storylines and mostly terrible characters. Trek nation isn’t feeling the love but watch the dreck out of loyalty to the franchise and the hope that something better comes (and if we don’t watch it, Trek dies).

After a decade of going all in on activism, all of Hollywood’s biggest brands are but shadows of their former selves. As we’ve seen with Marvel, Avengers Doomsday is no longer about making money, that’s why they don’t mind it opening directly opposite Dune 3; because now, it’s a loss leader whose only job is to win back the hearts and minds of the fans they drove away.

Star Wars is in much worse shape and has no such loss leader in the works that we know of, and The Mandalorian and Grogu is tracking so poorly that the studio is now putting out news suggesting that Gina Carano might be in the movie. If that in turn would suggest any kind of new direction, is too early to say.

Then, somewhere between Marvel’s decisive corrective action and the apparent inaction over at Lucasfilm, there is Star Trek – where some corrective action obviously is taking place, but as far as anyone on the outside can ascertain, not even Paramount appears to know what to do next?

Or do they? Are they perhaps further along behind the scenes than they have let on to the rest of the world? According to our sources, as we are about to see here, the answer to that, is a resounding YES – and our sources have shared some more details with us, which we are about to relay to you …

[TMC]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

I never watched Boy Meets World, so I can't say.

Well, since I mentioned Michael Jacobs:
Girl Meets World stars Sabrina Carpenter and Rowan Blanchard cried at table read because the spinoff’s creator was “horrible” to them

Boy Meets World alums Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle and Rider Strong’s new documentary Doc Meets World, which premiered last weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival, reveals creator Michael Jacobs’ allegedly “horrible” behavior. According to Variety, producer Frank Pace recalls: “Michael was fun for me to work with because he was a challenge. He was a nightmare for me to work with because he was a challenge. Same reason.” Pace then recounts the “never to be forgotten table read” at the start of Girl Meets World. Fishel says she blocked it out, as Pace reminds her what allegedly happened: “You blocked it out because Michael was horrible. He just reamed all the young cast. He didn’t think they upheld the tradition of Boy Meets World and Rowan was crying, and Sabrina was crying.”

[icecream]

Gavin MacLeod is not someone who likes to badmouth people. But in some cases he will. In Gavin's autobiography he says the one director of McHale's Navy was the meanest man he ever worked with. Director was not named.

[icecream]

Originally Posted by icecream

Gavin MacLeod is not someone who likes to badmouth people. But in some cases he will. In Gavin's autobiography he says the one director of McHale's Navy was the meanest man he ever worked with. Director was not named.

The most likely director to fit this description could be Sidney Lanfield. He directed 54 episodes in the first two seasons. The man who directed 46 episodes came mostly after Gavin MacLeod had requested to be released from his contract.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055689/fullcredits/

[TMC]

Paul Fusco:


I think that most people are aware by now that ALF was an extremely stressful, expensive, logistically challenging, and grueling show to shoot and produce. A lot the production problems goes back to Fusco's rigid, autocratic, perfectionism and his insistence at all costs, to maintain "kayfabe" at the expense of practicality.

He simply put, didn't want people to see the ALF character as what it was, a puppet, but an actual alien actor named Gordon Shumway. Because of this, it became a huge challenge for the human cast members to do interviews and publicity for the show because they had to be super careful about what could say about production. In Paul Fusco's mind, it if you revealed too much about the logistics behind shooting the ALF sitcom and how the ALF puppet worked, then it would be like a magician revealing how he does his tricks. Also, Fusco was extremely stubborn and small-minded in the sense that he wouldn't compromise to network suggestions in hope of freshening up the show.

Also, by the looks of it, the guy was a huge douche and creep behind the scenes.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

I've briefly mentioned him once before, but this time I go further in discussing Dan Schneider, who created/executive produced All That, The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, Zoey 101, iCarly, Victorious, Sam & Cat, Henry Danger, and Game Shakers for Nickelodeon. I don't know where else to begin except to say that with all due respect, Schneider's brand of comedy is in my estimation, an acquired taste.

He has this extremely bizarre sense of humor that could often show a dark and mean-spirited edge. Schneider seems to love putting random non-sequiturs throughout his shows, where his characters do or say something just because and the randomness of it is supposed to be funny. I'm guessing that his shows were so successful with teens, adults, and children because of all of the crazy, loud, childish, and weird characters being showcased.

I must add however, that the dialogue and writing in these shows are occasionally, laced with sexual innuendos and double entendres. Not only that, but he also litters his shows with what could be considered unpleasant stereotypes about minorities (especially black women). He also likes to incorporate his obvious foot fetish in his shows.

Maybe it's really just a coincidence, but Schneider also always seemed to pit the girls on his shows against each other. This even extends to his non-Nickelodeon shows like What I Like About You with Amanda Bynes and Jennie Garth.

Don't take my word for it, but there's a "blind item" online that suggests that Nickelodeon wanted to get rid of Victorious (despite its popularity) as fast as possible before the proverbial "stuff hit the fan". There was allegedly a lot of sex and drugs going on behind the scenes that would've been extremely bad for Nickelodeon's image.

What we do know for sure however, is the behind the scenes mess that was Sam & Cat:

• The problems seemed to start when, instead of being renewed for a second season, the series had its first season episode order doubled from 20 to 40. This is an unheard-of number for a scripted show; most American series don't exceed 24 episodes a season, with cable shows often having far less. (Even in the 1950s, when it was not uncommon for series to have upwards of 30 episodes per season, this would have been unheard of.) This meant that the cast and crew didn't get a break from their schedule and also didn't get to possibly renegotiate contracts between seasons.
• This grueling schedule put a strain on everybody, with McCurdy and Grande both reportedly ready to move on. Both stars began showing up late on set, and McCurdy did not appear at the Kids Choice Awards in 2014, saying point-blank on Twitter the reason was the way she was treated by Nickelodeon. There was also the Contractual Purity of being young adults working at the kid-friendly Nickelodeon; Grande's music career has taken off, and McCurdy was struggling with personal problems, including her mother's death in late 2013 and the leak of several racy (though not explicit) photos.
• Amidst all of this, the show wasn't renewed for a second season and instead was placed on "permanent hiatus", with all crew members let go apart from post-production to finish the episodes already filmed. Nick then officially cancelled the show.

In today’s video, we’ll be going over the stereotypical way that Dan Schneider shows write their black characters.

For research I watched Henry Danger to learn more about Charlotte, I watched Zoey 101 to learn more about Michael Barrett, I watched Victorious to learn more about André Harris, Charlotte Harris, Hope, Jade West, and Shery, and I watched iCarly to learn more about T-Bo.