Marble Madness - TVG: Game Break #7

Marble Madness is the classic game where you race to the goal line, avoiding obstacles along the way. There's also some background into its creator, Mark Cerny, the innovative hardware and its little-known, never-released sequel. 

2016 Eternal Con Cosplayers Part 2

Check out some of the styling cosplayers at the 2016 Eternal Con at the Cradle of Aviation in Garden City, NY.

2016 Eternal Con Cosplayers Part 1

The embedded video seems to be malfunctioning.  So just click the link and watch it on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/BiVfFmhCq-c 



Check out some of the styling cosplayers at the 2016 Eternal Con at the Cradle of Aviation in Garden City, NY.

Odyssey² - TeeVee Games: Episode 30

The Odyssey², Magnavox's follow-up to the very first video game console, was an unusual piece of hardware and not as well-remembered. We take a look at what's inside this large box and sample some of its unique 

Odyssey² - TeeVee Games: Episode 30

The Odyssey², Magnavox's follow-up to the very first video game console, was an unusual piece of hardware and not as well-remembered. We take a look at what's inside this large box and sample some of its unique 

Movie Pitch - Hungry Hungry Hippos: The Movie

With all the excitement surrounding 80s pop-culture it’s only natural to make a Hungry Hungry Hippos film.  The target demographic is males and females ages 25-46 as well as males ages 14-19.  It will cash in on the 80s nostalgia crowd as well as the teen horror fan crowd. 

The film will take place in the 1980s and revolves around Hippos that are genetically manipulated to be 4 times larger than the average hippo. The nearly indestructible hippos will escape from a secret corporate lab in the Midwest and wreak havoc in a small American town.  A defect in their genetic make-up will be discovered.  The only way to defeat the hippos is to feed them stone-marble which when ingested causes their DNA sequence to breakdown and they eventually implode. 

Characters

Our Hero - The bad boy teen, much like Steve McQueen in The Blob. 

The Town Sheriff – He’s tough but fair, he clashes with our local hero on many occasions but will learn to work together to defeat the mutant hippos.

The Sherriff’s Daughter – She’s smart and figures out how to destroy the hippos.  She’s also secretly dating our hero which will cause nice dramatic tension.

The Mayor – An inept politician that will get eaten by the hippos.  He’s in league with the evil corporation that made the hippos.

The School Principal – Our first public hippo victim.  He’ll get eaten while lecturing the school about something lame.  It’ll be a funny death scene.

The Crazy Old Man – He’s the local nut with a large gun supply that is used to fight the hippos.  He’s the Michael Gross from Tremors of this film. He can live or die at the end, doesn’t matter.

The Town Drunk – He’s our comic relief. He’s like a funny version of Dennis Hopper in Hoosiers.  He’s also our hero’s dad.  He will die saving everyone just as his son agrees to love him again or some crap like that.

The Compassionate Corporate Scientist – He made the Hippos to advance science in a positive direction.  He’s upset about how his invention has been perverted.  He will give positive scientific mumbo jumbo to save the say but will ultimately die in a grizzly hippo mauling.

The Dumbass that Causes the Hippo Escape – I’m open to suggestions on what to do with this guy.

The Evil Corporate Guy – He’s our main antagonist.  His greed causes the hippo fiasco and its escalation.  He’ll be the last to die at the hands of the hippos.  He’ll show his cowardness and moral corruptibility multiple times in the film.  The audience should applaud when he finally meets his demise.  

With an estimated budget of $50 million this film should garner a box office intake of $140 million.  Please reference the film Goosebumps for box office totals if you have doubts. 

Written by

Joseph Ammendolea

Owner/President

“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®

ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

1970's Board Games - TVG Xtra 02

Dave goes bit of an off-topic detour since no TV's needed for these games. Nonetheless, he takes a look at "(This Game Is) Bonkers", "Payday" and "Masterpiece" - all from the 1970's and all still quite fun even today.

1970's Board Games - TVG Xtra 02

Dave goes bit of an off-topic detour since no TV's needed for these games. Nonetheless, he takes a look at "(This Game Is) Bonkers", "Payday" and "Masterpiece" - all from the 1970's and all still quite fun even today.

Firefly Would Have Dominated in 90s Syndication

In 2002 Joss Whedon created one of the best Sci-Fi series ever.  It was then canceled after 14 episodes. The reason for this was poor ratings. The poor ratings were due to what fans believe was network interference.  In actuality Firefly failed because of its broadcasting format. 

Firefly should have been a syndicated TV show much like Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princes.  Of course the name would have changed to Firefly (colon) catchy tagline.

If it worked for The Hoff it can work for anyone. 

Back when Firefly aired, primetime TV wasn’t ready for serialized sci-fi show.  While Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel were chugging away on the smaller WB and UPN networks, ratings were low compare to the big “4.” Thus, if Buffy and Angel were on Fox, NBC, CBS, or ABC it would have been canceled midseason much like Firefly was. 

It wasn’t really until ABC aired Lost that sci-fi found a home on a major network.  Lost wasn’t even advertised as a sci-fi show.  It was just a “stranded on an island show” and when everyone tuned into the first episode and realized how awesome it was they just kept watching.  Then you got Breaking Bad which took serialized TV drama to another stratosphere. 

The very pretty people helped too.

This all started as early as Star Trek: The Original Series.  While each Star Trek episode was a standalone they maintained a consistency that fans appreciated and still holds up rather nicely after 50 years.  More modern story telling such as Buffy and Angel really focused on story arcs in conjunction with standalone episodes.  Major network primetime TV wasn’t ready for it though. 

It’s difficult for a mainstream audience to get behind a sci-fi show, then add a story arc and you only appeal to hardcore nerds. Syndicated TV on the other hand was doing story arcs all along.  Toward the end of Hercules and Xena series’ they had diversified the story telling and slightly shifted away from standalone episodes.  They were appealing to the loyal fans that tuned in each week. 

What other reason did people watch Xena for?

This is where Firefly would have shined. It had a super loyal fan base.  The problem was that it was small.  Most people of he present day Firefly fans did so after the fact.  I personally didn’t watch the show until after I saw the film.  Firefly needed a first run syndication that would constantly replay the episode, giving the audience time to discover it. 

Fox never advertised Firefly as a western in outer space.  It was advertised as this glammy over hyped saccharin that would be lucky to last half a season.  It didn’t advertise how interesting or funny characters were.  It was as annoying as the ads hyping House after episodes of America Idol. 

It's a wonder anyone watch the show after this shit commercial. 

Meanwhile in syndication land Firefly would have found audiences that appreciated the sci-fi and western genre.  Firefly’s pop culture success really didn’t take off until DVD made the show more accessible.  Star Trek, Hercules, and Xena dominated the 90s with accessibility.  You could find replays of the shows at anytime.  Firefly needed that exposure to help sell the show.  Married With Children did abysmal in the ratings in early seasons.  Fox kept it running because they had no other shows.  Because of that enough time passed that the show found an audience who appreciated its anti 90s PC message. 

Firefly was at the tale end of traditional TV broadcasting methods and the beginning of the DVR age. DVR dominates how TV is watched now.  People need to be considerate of spoilers weeks after a show’s finale has aired.  People can live their lives and watch TV on their own time.  When Firefly aired most people still had to reserve an hour of their life to regularly scheduled programming.  Sometimes tough choices had to be made on what to watch like deciding between The Drew Carey Show and Melrose Place.  Now with the latest DVR tech, Sunday night programming allows for viewers to watch Family Guy, The Walking Dead, and Game of Thrones all at the same time. 

Firefly lacked that convenience and a network patient enough to let a show build in the ratings.  Then there were the subpar episodes that were produced.  Granted they were unaired and the entire cast and crew knew the show was being canceled but they were still rather crappy episodes with hints of funness.  These episodes include Heart of Gold about a pregnant woman who lives in a whore house and is being harassed by her abusive baby’s daddy, The Message about the organ harvesting friend who screws over the people he agreed to smuggle organs for, and Trash the third time in 14 episodes about a scheme to steal something from a rich person.  The latter being the most watchable.  That’s right, Firefly was delving into some lazy formula plots with the most painful being the entire gang in a shoot out during the last act.  In 14 episodes there were at least 4 shootouts to solve the problems.  Imagine 7 seasons of that.  It would have grown tiring.  I have faith that the think tanks behind Buffy/Angel would have steered away from those simple solution endings and the film all but confirms it.  There was a genuine repetition that could work and be forgiven in syndication and is certainly allowed with most primetime shows.  But for a sci-fi western on primetime TV, it was just not going to fly. 

River Tam turned audiences off.  Most people do not say nice things about her character when remembering Firefly.  Her crazyness was too much for the general audience and it was fucking confusing.  Having the benefit of Serenity to explain her character issues helps ease the understanding but her nonsense is definitely fast forwardable on rewatch.   Which is sad since she is the driving plot point in the show and film.  The most important character other than Mal is the most annoying.  That hurts a show.  In syndication land annoying characters were not only tolerated they were loved.  We had Nelix from Voyager, Joxer from Xena, and Sarah Powell from Charles in Charge.  All horribly annoying characters but they all have their own fan base. 

No one else knows either.

Thus we conclude that if Firefly aired today on The CW or SyFy or if it was originally broadcasted as a syndicated TV show without an affiliation to any network it would have gone 5-7 seasons.  The best example of this is a show called Dark Matter which is a complete Firefly rip off with lamer hackneyed characters but since Firefly was so great Dark Matter is still a really good sci-fi show and the characters are likable   And since it aired on cable it got renewed for a second damn season. 

It's the same damn show.

It's the same damn show.

Written by

Joseph Ammendolea

Owner/President

“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®

ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com