Summer Lovin’: Who Needs the Beach When I’ve Got TV?
Back in the day, television was a dead zone after Memorial Day. All the good shows had wrapped up their new episodes for the season, and there was nothing left to do but read books, go to the beach or – heaven forbid – talk to your family.
If you wanted new TV in the summer, forget it, unless you really got excited about “Shields and Yarnell.” (Okay, actually, I do remember getting really excited about “Shields and Yarnell.” But I was a very strange child.)
Today is a different story. Cable and broadcast networks know we’d all rather be indoors enjoying the air conditioning, rather than getting bug bites and sunshine, so they cheerfully grind out new programming to get us through the dog days.
And if you don’t like the summer shows, you can always obsess about the fall schedule. Years ago, unless you worked in advertising or television you had no clue about the upfronts. Now, you can go online and read blow by blow accounts of what the networks will trot out, thanks to critics like TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello.
The networks also aren’t wasting any early buzz, posting clips online to generate momentum. For example, NBC already has a nifty little page going for “Bionic Woman,” which looks very promising.
The National Broadcasting Company knows a lot about the power of the Web. “The Office” got a lot of steam out of people downloading episodes off iTunes, and logging on to read things like the demented blogs of characters like Dwight and Creed (http://blog.nbc.com/CreedThoughts). The network also created Webisodes of the show to carry fans through the summer, giving the spotlight to secondary characters.
“Heroes” is the NBC show for which the network has been the most…um, heroic in its online creativity. Not only are there full episodes and an ongoing comic on nbc.com, but spin-off sites like http://www.primatechpaper.com, the online home of the fictional cover identity of the shadowy organization out to get the heroes.
Visitors who signed up at the site were contacted regularly by e-mail with updates from the company and an opposing vigilante group on the side of the angels.
The e-mails were effective, to the point of being a little scary. After reading one or two, I started deleting them, as I was getting a little paranoid that Primatech might come in the night and kidnap me, even though the only superpower I possess is the ability to drink an unhealthy amount of Diet Coke.
Still, viva summer television. Keep your sunscreen and pass the remote.
