Saturday, April 23, 2011

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY O'LAUGHING PRESS!

Click on the photo to read Louie's greeting.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

McGarrett's Uninterrupted Break: the real "cast" in Hawaii Five-0

By Pam

Hawaii Five-0 doesn’t always get it right, but the viewers are so caught up in the action or the story that they miss the little mistakes. Call them goofs or mistakes, but they are actually called continuity errors. We've all noticed the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, mistakes we think the editor makes in the splicing of a TV show. Sometimes we think, how could that be if...? It’s up to the writer to pay attention to what has happened in previous episodes, and the job of the Continuity Script Supervisor to make sure that there are no errors (that can't be edited out) that affect the logical progression of the story. Continuity largely contributes to its believability.  It’s the flow, progression, logical sequence and uninterrupted succession of a story.

In the Hawaii Five-0 episode, Ma Ke Kahakai (1.20), Steve McGarrett breaks his arm in a repelling accident. He goes to the hospital, gets a cast put on the arm and leaves the hospital with a sling. Logical sequence, right?
By the end of the episode, Steve has ditched the sling and it's business as usual. Just attribute that to Steve being a "Super Seal."  

In the next episode, Ho'opa'i (1.21), Steve still has the cast on his arm. In this case they got it right. Broken arms take several weeks to heal. It makes sense that in at least for one more episode Steve would have the cast on. 

As a result of this continuity UN-error, a very large number of fans thought Alex really did break his arm. To clear this up, during the recent CBS Tweet Week Daniel Dae Kim tweeted, "A2Q Did Alex really break his arm? No, but he wanted to. That's DEDICATION."

Here are a few examples of continuity errors in television. 

- Charlie on Lost claims that he cannot swim in the season one episode "White Rabbit". But in season three we see a flashback of his dad teaching him to swim and later on the island he claims to have been a Junior Swim Champion of Northern England and takes on the dangerous job of swimming down to the underwater station the Looking Glass.

- In one episode of Monk, Lieutenant Disher mentions that he doesn't have any uncles. A few seasons later, an episode revolves around him inheriting his uncle's farm.

- The story of How I Met Your Mother is told through flashbacks, the writers have to be careful to avoid continuity errors. Fortunately, the fans are happy enough to dismiss any continuity errors as future Ted having a bad memory.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The status of H50's hiatus

by carol

On April 15 at 2:45 am, executive producer Pete Lenkov tweeted that filming for the first season of Hawaii Five-0 was completed and they were on hiatus. However, the finale won’t air until May 16th, so perhaps that is when they’re really really on hiatus.

Dictionaries define hiatus as a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc. (See also: recess, gap, vacation, interlude, furlough)

In television scheduling, a hiatus refers to a break of at least several weeks in the normal schedule of a television program. It can occur during a season of a television program, or can be between television seasons.

A hiatus can be used to split up a program’s season and there can be several reasons for that. Some programs go on hiatus so that networks can reserve original episodes for airing during ratings sweeps (viewer tracking from which networks compute their advertising fees). Programs "return from hiatus" in time for the sweeps period to generate high ratings, and usually include special content such as guest stars, controversial and unexpected plots or topics, extended episodes and finales. For example, South Park usually airs seven new episodes during the spring sweeps, and seven more new episodes during the fall sweeps.

Being told by the network that your favorite show is “just on hiatus” is not necessarily a reassuring statement. A network may put a show on hiatus before canceling it. This temporary hiatus allows the network front office to:
  • re-evaluate the series quality in terms of actors, writing or production and make changes.
  • act as a warning to the producers to turn out a more profitable product.
  • air a different show in that timeslot to compare ratings.
There can also be, let’s say, “unique” reasons a show goes on hiatus.

In August 2009, VH1 put the reality series Megan Wants a Millionaire on indefinite hiatus. Contestant Ryan Alexander Jenkins was sought for questioning as a "person of interest" in the murder of Jasmine Fiore. The show was canceled when Jenkins' was charged with her murder.

Moonlight fans will never forget the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike which forced several television series to go on hiatus and deferred the scheduled returns of other series such as 24 for an extended period.

The television series 8 Simple Rules was put on a hiatus because of the death of main cast star John Ritter but eventually returned to the air.

The television series Two and a Half Men was/is on hiatus because of Charlie Sheen's rehab entry/exit while CBS decides whether to rehire/replace/retire the star.

The consensus is that H50 will be renewed for season two but network confirmation has not yet been given to anxious fans. The fact that CBS has sold syndication rights to TNT is the best evidence of renewal. At $2 million per episode (that's $48 million per season!), you can bet that CBS will pump out as many seasons of the tropical procedural as they can. 

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Does Hawaii Five-0 Have a Case of D.E.S.?


by carol


Is Hawaii Five-0 suffering from Dwindling Episode Syndrome (D.E.S.)? 

In a recent radio interview with Hawaii Five-0 producers Peter Lenkov and Paul Zbyszewski, they addressed fan concerns about the large number of episode repeats being aired. Their response focused on network scheduling decisions. But the complaint of “too many repeats” isn’t limited to this one show.

I propose that part of this issue involves viewer perception. In the olden days, there were three networks who tacitly agreed to premiere all their programs the same week. Season finales were also synchronized.

Competition has fostered an entirely different marketplace. There are hundreds of channels available on our tv’s now, all with programming they hope will lure audiences to watch them (and their lucrative commercials). 


Although the major networks still promote the idea of a tv season with a Fall start date and a Spring end date, that is not the reality. The month of April used to be season finale time. No more. April 2011 sees the premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones and SyFy’s Sanctuary. June has the season premieres of USA’s White Collar, HBO’s True Blood, and TNT’s Leverage.

The public has already accepted the concepts of a mid-season and a summer season. Seemingly A.D.D. audiences want “new” entertainment all the time and that’s what is driving the year-round programming scramble.

And then there are the “facts” about the higher number of repeats. The original Hawaii Five-O season had 24 episodes; the new Hawaii Five-0 has 24 episodes. Other seasons ranged from 19 to 25 episodes. The original Hawaii Five-O season premieres occurred during September. Season finales usually aired during March (one was as early as February 26). The first season finale of the new Hawaii Five-0 is scheduled for May 16.

Who recognizes the guy with the hat?
Perception can control comprehension. The good old days are the good old days because that’s the way we choose to remember them. It may be hard not to compare, but let's try to stay in the now and enjoy what is in front of us.