{"id":23676,"date":"2016-01-04T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T07:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technightowl.com\/?p=23676"},"modified":"2016-01-03T16:20:32","modified_gmt":"2016-01-03T23:20:32","slug":"newsletter-issue-840-the-2015-16-american-tv-season-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technightowl.live\/blog\/2016\/01\/newsletter-issue-840-the-2015-16-american-tv-season-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsletter Issue #840: The 2015-16 American TV Season So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former FCC chairman once referred to TV as a \u201cvast wasteland.\u201d In other words, lots of stuff to watch, but most of it not very good. Even when a show had greater pretensions, it was often saddled with less-than-stellar acting, poor production values and, when needed, laughable special effects.<\/p>\n<p>Some shows managed to rise above the morass of junk. Certainly the original \u201cStar Trek,\u201d despite its charms, such as its penchant for social commentary, had its problems. Special effects were cheesy mostly due to the lack of a budget big enough to set the creative teams exploring the frontiers of technology. Remember, this show arrived more than a decade before the first \u201cStar Wars\u201d film, \u201cEpisode IV: A New Hope,\u201d where director George Lucas had to reinvent the wheel to do what he could with a budget a fraction of what is now expected of a \u201cblockbuster\u201d film.<\/p>\n<p>That \u201cvast wasteland\u201d comment came before cable brought us 300 channels and more, often with little or nothing to watch. But it also meant that cable-only channels, including the \u201cpremium\u201d outlets that were ad-free, could expand on the creativity when they chose to do so. Nowadays, Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning performers, producers and directors often find a home on TV for their pet projects.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Wait! There's more than meets the eye!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.technightowl.live\/newsletter\/2016\/01\/newsletter-issue-840\/#far\"><strong>Continue Reading\u2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former FCC chairman once referred to TV as a \u201cvast wasteland.\u201d In other words, lots of stuff to watch, but most of it not very good. Even when a show had greater pretensions, it was often saddled with less-than-stellar acting, poor production values and, when needed, laughable special effects. Some shows managed to rise [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15295,3908],"class_list":["post-23676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-oscar","tag-star-trek"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Newsletter Issue #840: The 2015-16 American TV Season So Far - Gene Steinberg&#039;s Tech Night Owl<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.technightowl.live\/blog\/2016\/01\/newsletter-issue-840-the-2015-16-american-tv-season-so-far\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Newsletter Issue #840: The 2015-16 American TV Season So Far - Gene Steinberg&#039;s Tech Night Owl\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former FCC chairman once referred to TV as a \u201cvast wasteland.\u201d In other words, lots of stuff to watch, but most of it not very good. 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