The next time someone asks me if I have a “guilty pleasure,” I’ll tell them it was laughing hysterically at jokes about cancer, abortion, hookers, Jesus and Lazarus at the “Family Guy” table read, as well as a few topics too touchy even to mention in print.
LOS ANGELES | The end of the 17-day summer TV critics’ tour finds me once again in the odd position of wanting to flee a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills. I want to stop drinking hotel coffee to fend off the relentless air conditioning and start drinking my homemade iced coffee to beat the heat.
In short, I share the desire of many people who wind up leaving L.A. -- I want my normal life back.
First, though, I need to empty out these items from my notebook. I like to travel light.
One of the singular events of the press tour was witnessing a live "table read" of the 100th episode of "Family Guy," the raunchy, ADD-friendly cartoon sitcom that has been airing on Fox, off and on, since 1999.
The next time someone asks me if I have a "guilty pleasure," I’ll tell them it was laughing hysterically at jokes about cancer, abortion, hookers, Jesus and Lazarus at the "Family Guy" table read, as well as a few topics too touchy even to mention in print.
Seth MacFarlane, the comedy prodigy who was just 25 when he was hired to create "Family Guy," supplies voices for half the members of the show’s Griffin family -- fat, clueless dad Peter, talking dog Brian and evil spawn Stewie -- as well as a quarter of the 40 additional characters dropped into the episode, including Ringo Starr and the Kool-Aid Guy from the commercials of my (and his) youth.
After the reading ended and I caught my breath, I asked MacFarlane whether the federal government had ever gone after his show.
"We did have a letter of inquiry from the FCC regarding the FCC episode," MacFarlane said.
If you want a guilty laugh, Google the video of the "FCC Song" from that show. Later, though, he heard back that lawyers at the FCC "actually thought it was funny, which surprised the hell out of me and gives me a little bit of hope."
Speaking of audience reaction, the subject of laugh tracks seemed to keep coming up, even though the number of sitcoms on TV today has never been lower.
Just so you know, "It’s not a laugh track. Those shows are filmed in front of a live audience." That was Fox entertainment chairman Peter Liguori.
"We actually film in front of the audience. For what it’s worth, they think it’s funny. They laugh into the microphones." That was David Guarascio, producer of "Just Shoot Me" and the new CW comedy "Aliens in America."
A voice from TV’s past even chimed in.
"We didn’t have a laugh track in those days, so if you didn’t get a laugh, you heard the air conditioner," said Tim Conway, who’s appearing in one of those PBS nostalgia-fests, "Pioneers of Television."
Another subject that kept coming up was the proliferation of British actors donning American accents to win roles on our TV shows: Hugh Laurie of "House," Lennie James of "Jericho," Joely Richardson of "Nip/Tuck" and Lena Headey of Fox’s "Sarah Connor Chronicles" are just a handful of the émigrés being paid in dollars instead of pounds this fall.
Even seasoned critics can find it jarring to see TV stars on stage and hear unfamiliar voices coming out of their mouths.
"What’s going on? Did Hugh Laurie call all you guys up and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a sweet gig, come on over?’ " asked Charlie McCollum of the San Jose Mercury News.
"I think with the advent of BBC and HBO shows that are actually showing these wonderful actors from abroad, they’re getting more notice," said "Sarah Connor" director David Nutter.
A word must be said about the TCA effect. Much like the Sundance effect, where a film that dazzles the crowd in Park City later fizzles at the box office, the TCA effect occurs when the writers and stars of an obviously flawed or doomed TV show put on an entertaining Q-and-A panel for journalists covering the Television Critics Association tour.
The critics generously quote from the press conference and, in general, convey the notion that the people making the show are funny, talented folks -- even though the result stinks.
My ranking of the top three TCA-effect shows this fall: the aforementioned "Pioneers of Television," which will probably raise a pile of money for PBS but won’t approach the hilarity of having Conway, Betty White and Dick Cavett interrupting one another on stage; "The Return of Jezebel James" on Fox, whose writer-producer, Amy Sherman-Palladino, is 10 times funnier than this show; and ABC’s "Cavemen," which is about what you’d expect from a 22-minute sitcom based on characters from a 15-second insurance ad. But it’s written by some guys who are quick on their feet, as seen in this exchange:
Critic: I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but ...
Writer 1: Oh, that’s Episode 2.
Writer 2: And then they eat it.
Environmental groups have begun calling out Hollywood for the huge carbon footprint its film and TV crews leave around California. Inevitably, this resulted in a huge "green" PR campaign by several networks at press tour.
Bravo president Lauren Zalaznick showed up in a lime-green suit to promote NBC Universal’s eco-initiative, which will include an entire week of green-themed very special TV programming Nov. 4-11.
ABC announced it would begin sending preview episodes over the Internet to cut down on the number of DVD screeners it mailed out (and, not coincidentally, cut down on DVD piracy).
The CW and Sundance Channel have switched to recycled-cardboard DVD mailers.
And Fox went the extra hybrid-fueled mile for its series "24," which was singled out earlier this year as an environmental offender. For the upcoming season, "24’s" crew will switch to biodiesel and purchase only renewable energy.
Meanwhile, the producers will work global warming into the story line, put Kiefer Sutherland into public service announcements and recycle plot twists from the first six seasons into upcoming scripts.
OK, I made the last one up.
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