So, I've already rated last night's LOST finale a 10 emotionally and a 5 narratively ... and the 5 was perhaps being generous.
Now here's the billion-dollar question: Did last night's finale do permanent damage to the LOST brand, or was it (to invoke Jack Shepard's time-dimension-crossing case of stigmata and write a caption to the above screen grab) merely a flesh wound?
In an interview with THR's James Hibberd in January, LOST co-creator Carlton Cuse said the following:
The Walt Disney Co. owns "Lost." It's a franchise that's conservatively worth billions of dollars. It's hard to imagine "Lost" will rest on the shelves and nothing will ever be made with "Lost." Eventually somebody will make something under the moniker of "Lost" -- whether we do it or not. We just made a commitment to this group of characters whose stories are coming to a conclusion this May.
Cuse talks a good game — and it's hard to imagine that some of that future value, if realized, won't find its way into his bank account.
The reality, however, is that almost no television show enjoys much of an afterlife, certainly not one that can be quantified in the "billions of dollars." Perhaps, perhaps, the "Star Trek" franchise has achieved that kind of value in 2010 dollars. But it's hard to think of anything else that comes close — "Sex and the City," "Battlestar Galactica," "The X-Files" ...
Even if "Lost" had had a stellar landing, it would've been tough to keep the love going through replay of past episodes and creation of future storylines with presumably new characters.
Last night's episode left more questions unanswered than answered — and that wasn't a good thing. Scroll to the bottom of this story and look at the LOST questions my colleagues came up with prior to the finale. How many were addressed last night? How many, given the gauzy, "Six Feet Under"-style ending of the show, can ever be answered? And how many of us, given the roller coaster of the last six years, can trust anyone connected to this show to ever give us straight answers?
The German film company which produced "Downfall," the movie about the last days of Adolf Hitler now made famous by a zillion Web parodies, has ordered a DMCA (Digital Media Copyright Act) takedown of all such parody videos from YouTube.
Many observers on the way are reacting as though this is a sad but inevitable development, the next-door neighbor calling the cops to break up the kids' house party, and what can do you do about it, that's the way of the world.
Actually, it's not the way of the world. I have been reporting on fair use in video mashups for some time, and when I heard of the Hitler meme takedown, my first reaction was that the copyright owner had absolutely no cause to take down the video, and that someone should demand that Google reinstate all videos immediately.
But just to be sure, I shot an email to Patricia Aufderheide, the distinguished media critic and director of the Center for Social Media at American University. In 2007, Pat and a blue-ribbon team of intellectual property lawyers issued a breakthrough document called Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Online Video -- and it addresses exactly the kind of parody that the producer of "Downfall" just ordered taken down.
Or at least that was my first impression. As I say, I asked Pat Aufderheide for her response. It is as follows:
"they can all use fair use and do a counter takedown, without fear, if they choose, and get them all reinstated."
A "counter takedown" is also known as a counter-notification. Google even has a help page on YouTube showing you how to write you, though the tone of the help page is needlessly intimidating and makes it sound like you haven't got a hoot in hell of having your video put back online. That's not true. Read the Center's 2007 mixer/mashup document and you will see that the parodists are right and the film studio is wrong.
So get cracking. And as for the rest of you, surely there's someone creative enough to put up a funny "Hitler Reacts to the Takedown of Hitler Reacts Videos" video.
Look no further than Stephen Colbert — a man whose late-night comedy-talk program attracts barely 1 million viewers per weeknight, and only airs Mondays through Thursdays — for evidence that there's nothing like lowered expectations to make you feel like a huge success.
Jon Stewart graces magazine covers and hosts big-time award programs, all for hosting a program that airs half an hour four nights a week to an average audience of 1.7 million — or about what Conan O'Brien was averaging in 1994 when NBC was thisclose to firing his ass.
That is why Team Coco's decision to walk away from network television and sign with cable powerhouse TBS is the latest brilliant strategic reaction to what has been one of the least predictable, careers in the history of late night TV. Conan O'Brien has been delivered enough setbacks to sink lesser stars.
Once again, he has responded by choosing exactly the right option, accepting that every move has its tradeoffs. This one means accepting that your future is as a cable star. But as Comedy Central and Adult Swim prove every single late night, that's not so bad.
Conan O'Brien will air a show for one hour Monday through Thursdays at 11 p.m. beginning in November, it was announced this morning.
His lead-out will now be George Lopez. But don't expect that arrangement to last forever. THR's James Hibberd reported earlier today that Fox had wanted Conan to be on contract, rather than own his own show. Even so, 100 percent clearance on Fox affiliates was not guaranteed.
Now look at him. I can guarantee you not only is Conaco (his company) given full ownership of the TBS show, but he's got an option to produce the lead-out (midnight) show when/if "Lopez Tonight" fails. TBS will have first look at all Conaco series; this will be huge for TBS, which is looking for niche comedies; and it will be huge for Conaco, which has seen niche ideas like "Andy Barker, P.I." flop on network TV.
He will get a huge swell of publicity and, with his viewing base of 2.5 million likely to grow — because he'll be on at 11 instead of 11:35 or 12:35 — will instantly host one of the biggest shows in cable.
Yes, bigger than "The Daily Show."
Audio: I talked about the upside of Conan going to TBS on WTOP Radio in Washington, D.C., tonight.
Reactions
Peter writes: "I do have the Internet and would love to see Conan's show streamed live on the TBS site. That would give him the best of both world's because he can reach the whole planet with the Web but his ratings will only be judged in the context of cable."
"Helen" writes: "Basic cable is on the way out, as millions of us don't have the little black wire but do have internet access. We can't watch George Lopez and apparently we won't be able to watch Conan O'Brien, because TBS programming isn't available on-line -- which means Stewart, Colbert, and Comedy Central have little to fear."
The reader is misinformed. TBS is in more than 100 million homes, and the percentage of people with basic cable is at all time highs.
The night after the House passed the President's sweeping health-care reform bill, I interviewed Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of the popular "Dr. Oz" show. Earlier this year he had focused on some three dozen Kansas Citians for his 60-day weight loss challenge. I wrote about that earlier, and in today's paper, page one, I wrote about one of the more remarkable turnarounds from that group, a social worker named Amanda Davis.
That was the jumping off point for our interview, which covered the nation's obesity epidemic, that mysterious RealAge system Dr. Oz uses on his show, and what Oz would add that currently isn't in the health care reform law.
It's nice to hear radio funnyman Randy Miller again — even if it is on Internet radio.
In yet another one of his clever marketing ideas (remember "Bucks Bus"?), the former morning menace is doing a midday show 9 am to noon weekdays for the Power & Light District at its new information station, kcplradio.com.
I paid Randy a visit last week to shill for Tasteland. We had a good time. Listen in:
There were a couple of inspired moments in last night's return episode of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," and I talked about those this morning with KNX Newsradio in Hollywood. Dick Helton and Vicki Moore also asked for my insty-reaction to these celebrities being picked for the next round of "Dancing with The Stars": Buzz Aldrin, Kate Gosselin, Chad Ochocinco, Evan Lysacek, Betty White ... no, I made up Betty.
