Out of Focus

I BLINK AND TWO WEEKS GO BY

It certainly wasn't intentional. And I by no means want to pop my head in here every now and then to talk about how busy I am. That wouldn't just bore you; it bores me too. Yet right now, it's the truth.

And it's hard, you know? Because I have all this crap hopping around in my head. I mean, there has been enough major film industry news in the past two weeks to cover many months. Take Bob Iger being named Michael Eisner's successor thereby heralding in the pending doom of Disney. No, I'm not kidding. You own Disney stock? I beg you to sell, and sell quickly. If you really examine things, you can basically blame Iger for the entire downward slide of ABC. He was its head when that slide started. And now? The people responsible for this current resurgent slate of programming? Oh they were fired last year because he's an idiot and didn't give any of his executives time to fix what he had personally broken. But failing up isn't new in this industry.

Then Gail Berman announces she's leaving Fox, and the rumors are she'll be joining Brad Grey at Paramount. And Peter Ligouri, the head of FX Network, is taking her place and has already started shuffling the decks. All of you are probably saying, "Who the hell cares?" Well this Arrested Development fan cares deeply, and I don't know how to react. Ligouri deserves major credit for taking FX from being yet another rerun network and creating some of the riskiest shows anywhere on TV. FX has often, justly, been called the HBO of basic cable, and with series like The Shield, Nip/Tuck and Rescue Me, it's easy to see why.

But Berman had, at least publicly, been a supporter of Arrested Development, and I had hope that she would give her Emmy winning best show some more time to grab an audience next season. Now with Ligouri, I'm not to sure. For one thing, I was disturbed by the end of the lede in a Variety story earlier today stating that he sent Fox staffers "an email over the weekend offering up kudos for the launch of laffer Life on a Stick." Uhm, has he seen the show? Life on a Stick may have received tons of promotion and received some promising premiere numbers, and I guess the marketing team does deserve some major props because this has to be one of the worst shows I've seen in a very long time. By far the worst of this television season. How it got to pilot, let alone to air, is beyond me. There wasn't one (uncanned) laugh in the entire show. It is the very worst example of everything that is wrong with television, especially the TV sitcom. I actually sat through the whole thing, even though it gave me a headache within its first 10 minutes. It is seriously, seriously, SERIOUSLY awful. Small Wonder awful.

In fact, how's this: it's as bad, maybe even worse, than The Benefactor, my previous nominee for worst new show of the year. Maybe that's why Ligouri is emailing out congrats! It sure as hell shouldn't have been to Fox's development staff.

And that's just some of the business news. Oy, what am I to do? Well, I'm going to try really hard to come and give brief spurts of content over the next couple days. Like, why is The Contender doing so bad when the show itself is pretty good, especially for non-boxing fans? (Although what exec producer did last week with the episode feature Najai Turpin who since taping but before the show premiered committed suicide was shameful. More on that later.) Or why you really must watch the season (hopefully not "series") finale of American Dreams this Wednesday.

And then there are the movies. Oh all the movies I haven't seen for the last month. There goes my New Year's Resolution, at least temporarily. And I was close to on-track through February! Personally, I am beyond excited for Sin City opening this weekend. I haven't been to a new movie in the theater since January -- tons of screenings in February is why -- but I will be somewhere watching Robert Rodriguez's and Frank Miller's extravaganza.

For now, though, it's time for bed. Please bear with me. I will be back with more regularity, and soon.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS AARON OUT OF FOCUS (A/K/A THE STORY OF ME)

Oy, a whole week between posts. I'm sorry. The fact is, I've been so busy for the past month, that I simply haven't had the time to write the usual drivel that often occupies this space. Even worse, I've had absolutely no time to read all the other great writers I like to spend time with every day.

What's the deal, you ask? I know I keep mentioning these big changes and a new job, and if you've actually been paying any sort of attention, you can probably put together the pieces. The short version involves leaving a major cable network for a local film festival; saying goodbye the stability of a corporate paycheck plus benefits for a short-term/seasonal gig and potentially a life of freelance .

The slightly longer story starts over a decade ago when UCLA and I decided to part ways with each other, just short of proof that our relationship had been consummated. I found myself working briefly as an entertainment journalist, writing and producing a daily entertainment news wire fax and show for radio stations around the country. The problem was, I didn't really want to be an entertainment journalist or a fixture on the junket circuit at the time.

GIVE A LITTLE BIT

OK, look, I'm never going to criticize anybody for going to the movies, even bad ones, but if people are willing to spend $30-Million on tickets to The Pacifier, they have way too much free time on their hands. First of all, we've seen this movie before. It was called Suburban Commando. Talk about recycling. I have (unfortunate) vivid memories of this movie (or at least its existence) because I was writing for the UCLA Daily Bruin at the time, and the studios could make us interview whomever they wished. Hence, somewhere, I have my tape of my little chat with Hulk Hogan, whereing the bald, blonde, bronze, buff one told me who much he looked forward to his new career doing this action-comedy thing.

Anyway, that was a tangent, and not too important of one. I previously announced two volunteer events for this year's Tribeca Film Festival, and they both went really well. Tonight at 6:30 is (I believe) what will be the last get-some-info event before this year's festival. This year's festival is the biggest one yet, running from April 19-May 1 (with the bulk of the screenings starting on 4/22), and the fest needs more volunteers. Tonight from 6:30-8 PM at Tribeca Cinemas (54 Varick St @ Laight, just south of Canal) is a little meet-and-greet for prospective volunteers with festival staff. If you have any questions or want more information about volunteering, you can just show up. This one is a little less formal than the previous two info session. It will take place in the bar area (cash bar will be open.)

You don't need to attend tonight to volunteer, however. All you need to do is visit the TFF Volunteers web page and download the application. The contact info for the volunteer coordinators is on that page too.

There is a special volunteer position that film lovers might appreciate; it's called a CORE volunteer. These are volunteers who sit in the theaters during the films with a headset so that if anything goes wrong with the actual screening, they can contact the booth and/or house managers. These are very important positions that require a lot of availability and dedication. There aren't that many of them, so the festival is very selective. But if you have a lot of availability and would like to be considered, you should mention that on your application.

Even if you don't have a ton of availability but would like to help at the festival as much as you can, come on down tonight or submit an application. You'll meet a ton of great people, have the chance to see some good films, and hopefully have a really good time.

WHEN THEATER AND FILM BECOME ONE

So I've been missing for a couple days, for reasons due to this big life/career/job change thing I've been alluding to for a few months. Hopefully, at some point in the next week or two I can find time to actually talk about it, but right now I'm working 12-15 hour days (20 hours on Tuesday: left Wednesday at 5:10 AM, returned at 9:45 AM), and there just isn't time.

But I did want to bring everyone's attention to some fantastic programming this weekend on the cable network Trio. You've heard of Trio, right? Come on, Trio!!! Hmmm, no? Well, maybe that's why it doesn't have too many viewers and NBC is considering shutting it down. But they shouldn't because it's actually a great channel, which I happened to be watching Tuesday night while putting together this big scheduling board at work. I was watching this documentary about how "New Coke" was the biggest marketing mistake ever, and suddenly I see this commercial saying that this weekend Trio will be running a marathon of films from "The American Film Theatre."

What is The American Film Theatre? Or rather, what was it? The Walter Reade ran a retrospective a couple years ago, which is when I first heard of it. Trio has been running the films since January.

Oh yeah, but what is it? Well, in 1973, producer Ely Landau thought it would be a good idea to take some of the great works in the history of theater and film them. He wasn't looking to just record theater performances with cameras facing a proscenium stage, but he also wasn't looking to make traditional movie out of these plays either. He wanted to give the audience a sense of seeing the play and not necessarily as movie adaptation of the play. Basically, these films were shot on theater-style sets, but because the camera isn't simply shooting a stage, it's as if the audience is constantly moving through the action.

These films utilized top directors and actors of the time. Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, for instance, was directed by John Frankenheimer and starred Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Frederic March and a very young Jeff Bridges, and Tony Richardson directed a version of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance with Katharine Hepburn.

Starting at 8 AM tomorrow morning with a pre-official American Film Theatre production of Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters and running through a Sunday night/Monday morning 1 AM showing of Lost in the Stars, Trio will show 14 Ely Landau/American Film Theatere movies. The films are also on DVD -- you can buy them in three box set collections. Whether this weekend on Trio (sigh -- with commercial interruptions) or on DVD, give some of these films a try. I'm sure they're not all great, (but Iceman Cometh definitely is), but they're an interesting approach to adapting theatre to the screen; a simple and relatively inexpensive way that I wish someone would consider returning to.

FAREWELL BLUE, HELLO TAR: THE MOST IMPORTANT NIGHT OF TV THIS YEAR ... OR AT LEAST THIS WEEK

Tonight from 9-11 PM, television brings us all a perfect example of out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new. One of the most important series in TV history will go off the air after a one hour retrospective at 9 followed by its series finale at 10, while on a competing network, the best show of its genre starts its seventh go-round with a special two hour premiere.

I'm talking, of course, of NYPD Blue and The Amazing Race. 12 years ago, producers Stephen Bochco and David Milch changed the face of the nighttime drama with NYPD Blue, at the time, the grittiest and most adult drama on the air. Certain previously unlawful words and plenty of bare-ass started appearing on ABC after 10 PM. And to top it off, the show was good!

Still, after its first year, David Caruso decided that he was a big movie star and left the show, a stupid move that eventually led him to one failed TV series before bringing his bright red hair and whispering cocked-head acting style to a CSI show. After catching stride with Jimmy Smits, he too decided to leave, and then suddenly the series became a rehab center for former child TV stars. Shockingly enough, both Rick Schroeder and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, of Silver Spoons and Saved By the Bell, respectively, proved to be not just capable but really pretty damn good in their roles.

But this show was never as good as during the Smits years, and it was never really about anybody else other than Dennis Franz's Andy Sipowicz. I'm pretty sure that I've seen every episode of NYPD Blue. I probably stopped really liking it a couple seasons ago, and since then it's been up and down. But my stupid loyalty (and the lack of anything else worthwhile Tuesdays at 10) kept me watching. NYPD Blue is a perfect example of a show simply running out of steam, even when the actual quality doesn't necessarily diminish. ER is suffering from the same old-age disease right now, but sadly its final episode is nowhere in sight (and I believe at least two seasons away).

Maybe it's not such a bad thing to put some sort of limit on how long a show can stay on the air. With the exception of the original Law & Order, which places its characters and stories second to its format and because of that is basically the same show now it was when it first started, I can't think of any series that has lasted more than probably seven or eight years and remained half as interesting or exciting in its last seasons as it was in its first ones. That's not really surprising. It's hard to keep thinking of interesting stories and new directions for characters. When you have a character like Sipowicz, who's been there since the beginning, how many different things can you do to him? How many different stories can you write before you repeat yourself not once or even twice, but three, four, even five times. The Sipowicz of NYPD Blue in 2005 is a completely different person than the one who first appeared in 1993. He's undergone a complete transformation; one that may not even be believable (especially considering the attractiveness and youth factor of the two women – played by Sharon Lawrence and Charlotte Ross -- who became his wives). But where could he go from here? They've taken him to really the only place left – to lead the squad, and after that, who really cares. Sipowicz has been redeemed. 12 seasons and over 250 episodes later, the story is complete. It just took longer to get there than necessary.

Meanwhile, over on CBS, a new edition of The Amazing Race begins. Thank you DiVo: two tuners means recording both programs is a possibility, and it's no surprise that I'm very excited for the new season of the best reality show to ever be on television. I know some people were disappointed with last season, the race that just ended a few weeks ago. I wasn't, even though it included a character who was so annoying it was actually more painful than entertaining to watch him.

This time around, the execs at CBS who don't have faith in their best shows succeeding without stupid stunts that simply hurt the actual quality of the series seem to have forced Survivor's own little love-couple, Rob and Amber, and TAR. Here's hoping they make an early exit. The last thing I want to see is the two of them, especially Rob, strutting around about their reality-superiority. They've each had far more than 15 minutes in the sun, and I know I'm tired of them. I really can't imagine that they're popular enough to actually attract an audience that doesn't already watch the show.

Regardless of their annoying presence, I encourage anyone who hasn't watched the show to give it a shot. I only push because I love, and TAR makes me happy, so I want it to stay on the air. While it has been successful recently, it is by no means a huge hit, and no matter how critically acclaimed it remains, if the audience doesn't grow a little bit, it probably won't stick around for that much longer. Come on, the theme music itself should get you just a little jazzed, and go with it from there. You won't be sorry. BOMP!