Friday question of the week on Thursday

Since tomorrow is the 4th of July and no one reads blogs anyway on holidays I thought I’d do my Friday question on Thursday.

A reader asked about those pop up ads and ridiculous banners that now appear during programs. As a writer, does it drive me nuts?

YES! As a writer. As a director. As a viewer.

The pop ups are intrusive, they’re DESIGNED to divert your attention from the show you’re watching, they’re completely disrespectful to the creative team that mounted the show, and the audience resents them.

You want to say to the network geniuses who dreamed up these screen invaders, how would you like it if you were in the middle of a private conversation and I jumped in and started screaming for thirty seconds?

Or you’re driving on the freeway and I stick my hand in your face for thirty seconds?

Or you’re in the middle of sex and Universal tour bus drives through your bedroom?

Writers kill themselves to create compelling and entertaining stories that hold the audiences’ attention. If we wanted Kathy Griffin to suddenly appear in the corner of the screen we’d put it in the script. If we thought the viewer was so stupid he wouldn’t know he was watching FRASIER just by seeing Frasier on the screen, we wouldn’t be writing Cezanne jokes for the show.

I find it amusing that networks are so concerned about the program content that they note the writers and producers to death and then when the show is aired it’s obliterated by Brad Garrett or David Caruso (and nothing can kill a laugh faster than seeing that mug on TV).

I remember watcing an episode of SABRINA and as an experiment they employed that Pop Up Video device throughout the entire episode. A character would say a line and a box would blip on saying the cat in this scene died a week later. I felt sorrier for the writers than I did the cat.

I understand that people fast forward through commercials and promos and networks need alternative ways of getting their messages across but turning off viewers is not the way to attract them. I wish I could get some network brass to read this. Hey, is there any way I could put a widget on the bottom corner of their computer screens?