Television Without Pity is about to shut down (April 4, 2014)

[TMC]

http://www.thewire.com/entertainment...ttered/359733/

It was announced today that NBCUniversal would be closing down two venerable digital properties next week: Daily Candy and Television Without Pity.

In particular, Television Without Pity — TWoP 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.

[TMC]

http://flavorwire.com/newswire/goodb...aily-candy-too

NBC Universal is shutting down the website whose forums once angered Aaron Sorkin.
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#v2oPc1Y5zppxjQYc.99

[RetroGuy2000]

I'll miss TWOP. Although they sometimes went overboard with their snark, it was a great site for recaps. I'm quite sorry to see it go the way of JumpTheShark.com: hugely successful as an independent website making light of the media, then bought by a major media company, and finally shut down a few years later. See a pattern...?

[Vahan]

I'm indifferent about the whole thing.

Now if the stupid Live Journal Community "Oh No They Didn't!" closed down for good, then that would be something worth celebrating.

[TMC]

http://www.trashtalktv.com/

http://previously.tv/shows/

[TVFactFan]

Same thing will probably happen to this site due to low activity.

Only 2 pages of activity all day and it's almost 6pm

[bmasters9]

Originally Posted by TMC

http://previously.tv/shows/

I've already registered on the boards there. I'm bmasters9, same as I was on TWoP Forums.

[Vahan]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Same thing will probably happen to this site due to low activity.

Only 2 pages of activity all day and it's almost 6pm

You're always worried about this site going to the Internet Graveyard.

I'm sure if you told Todd Fuller about this, he will tell you that he has no intention of selling this site to the dogs in a million years.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by Vahan

You're always worried about this site going to the Internet Graveyard.

I'm sure if you told Todd Fuller about this, he will tell you that he has no intention of selling this site to the dogs in a million years.

Low activity makes a message board pointless

[RetroGuy2000]

This site hasn't been bought by a major media company, has it? Unless it has, we're safe.

[TMC]

http://www.fanforum.com/

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/#~oA81zwMTiui4Wd

http://thesnarkening.forumotion.com/f3-television

The latter, clearly, is geared towards the U.K. and has a European slant. However, they discuss many American TV shows, movies, celebrities and some of the biggest American news and it's a different point of view.

http://www.lipstickalley.com/forumdisplay.php?f=46

The Lipstick Alley television forums. Discuss your favorite TV shows here.

The SuperHeroHype Forums > TV Series > Misc. TV Series

This place has a TV & movie section:
http://theotherop.proboards.com/

No recaps, but the Trek BBS has a decent TV forum.

For reality television, MJ's blog is an option: http://www.mjsbigblog.com/

Here's a place that has a lot of forums for true crime TV shows:
http://truecrime.boards.net

It's not always that active, but Gateworld (mainly a Stargate fan site) has one section of their forums (SciFi Stream) devoted to other sci-fi/fantasy shows. Quite a few of them have multi thread sections dedicated to a variety of shows. http://forum.gateworld.net/forum.php

Besides AV Club, Vulture has recaps/reviews. Also, there's TV Equals and TV Overmind.

[icecream]

I don't have any pity for this site.

[TMC]

Even though I didn't like the moderators too much on TWoP, one thing that will be sorely missed are the forums. Even SitcomsOnline isn't as deep w/ its analyze of TV shows of various genres (past and present) as TWoP was:
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http:/...thoutpity.com/

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by TMC

Even though I didn't like the moderators too much on TWoP, one thing that will be sorely missed are the forums. Even SitcomsOnline isn't as deep w/ its analyze of TV shows of various genres (past and present) as TWoP was:
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http:/...thoutpity.com/

Why did the message boards end?

[HauntedThunderman94]

I miss this site. As a substitute I use the previouslytv.com forums