Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, November 15th, 2024

Hollywood can't dodge the upcoming culture wars

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, November 15th, 2024:

HOLLYWOOD CAN'T DODGE THE UPCOMING CULTURE WARS
Early last year, I wrote a piece arguing that despite their best efforts, Hollywood's media companies would not be able to skirt around the ongoing culture wars in America. I wrote that there was likely to be continued pressure by conservative groups hoping to dial back diversity programs and efforts to increase cast and character diversity: 

The problem with cowering to this mob is that recent American history has shown us that winning a battle isn't enough. Like hostage-takers everywhere, the cultural purists of the conservative movement see this as a literal do-or-die cultural war. And once you win one battle, you don't celebrate. You move on to your next target....

I agree that media companies don't need to go out of their way to provoke conservatives. They should be as politically neutral as possible. But neutrality only works in an environment where diversity is possible. When one side starts arguing that merely mentioning same sex relationships is wrong, then lines have already been drawn.

But unfortunately, the response by media companies has tended to be to edit and withdraw what executives consider to be problematical content before anyone has complained. The problem with that approach is that it not only doesn't help tamp down criticism from conservatives, it also provokes criticism from those seeking to increase diversity.

The latest example of that trend comes from the Disney animated series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, which has apparently been canceled even though season two of the show is scheduled to premiere in 2025.

An unaired episode of the show entitled "The Gatekeeper" features a transgender character named Brooklyn (Indya Moore). Brooklyn is a member of the girl's volleyball team and faces discrimination from a "narrow-minded coach" who wants to have her removed from the game.

According to some of the show's staff, the episode was pulled from the upcoming season release after some executives expressed concern over the subject matter following the results of the Presidential election. Although given the long timeline for animated shows, deciding to pull a complete episode feels a bit reactionary. And the topic of the episode shouldn't have come as a surprise, given that one of the co-creators of the comic is a trans woman.

Of course, it didn't take long for someone to leak the episode and while Disney has been filing copyright complaints on YouTube all day to get the episode pulled down, fan sites have started posting it and the full episode is also available on the Internet Archive.

This preemptive editing is going to be one of the biggest challenges for Hollywood creatives in the coming years. If you have a story about this or any other similar issue you've encountered, you can contact me via email at rick@allyourscreens.com or securely via Signal at 612-207-2108. Everything will be off-the-record or on background unless you say otherwise.

ALL HAIL THE ENGAGEMENT CLICKBAIT
The entertainment loves a good controversy. Even if the "outrage" is primarily driven by a few random social media posts and web sites happy to aggregate the whining in a way that makes the issue feel legitimate. 

The most recent example of this trend was the "outrage" over Michael Strahan's failure to put his right hand over his heart during the National Anthem at a live broadcast of Fox NFL Sunday. In the closing segment, all of the panelists, except Strahan, are shown with their right hand across their heart. Strahan has his arms in a resting position in front of his body, right hand over left.

Conservative media quickly jumped on the story and there was a confrontation between Strahan and a Daily Mail reporter after he was cornered outside his house and asked about the "controversy."

But as this piece in The Athletic notes, other members of the Fox NFL Sunday panel quickly leapt to his defense, noting that Strahan not only grew up in the military family, but is well-known for his support of the military:

“Let me tell you this, I don’t know if I have a friend who is more proud of his military roots than Michael, growing up on an army base constantly talking about what he learned from his dad Major Gene Strahan and how his time there shaped him,” Glazer wrote.  “I heard it CONSTANTLY, still do!

“But also, with no fanfare I personally saw him donate thousands of dollars of clothes to veterans, including many homeless veterans as well clothes for veterans to go on job interviews."

I have truly come to hate these ginned-up engagement bait stories. Or coverage like the recent story in conservative outlet The Daily Caller (I'm not going to link to it), with the headline "Michael Strahan Apologizes For National Anthem Moment." Which is not at all what happened. But hey, engagement.

ODDS AND SODS
* I look forward to the day when a piece arguing that Hollywood needs to create programming for the Heartland doesn't just focus on Yellowstone, country music and faith-based movies. Sadly, today is not that day.

* While I agree that I wish it was easier to easily track which shows and movies were available for streaming on the platforms I subscribe to, I'm not sure that tying the efforts into Apple's ecosystem is a better solution.

* The owner/publisher of The Los Angeles Times went on Fox News to complain the newspaper had conflated news and opinion and that he wanted to include both sides of the political spectrum moving forward. To be fair, his complaints don't sound all that different than those of John Malone, who lobbed similar complaints about CNN. Which might be why both men are big fans of ultra-conservative CNN contributor Scott Jennings.

* The CEO of The Onion explains why the company decided to buy what's left of InfoWars.

* If you asked AI to create a story about streaming that is guaranteed to annoy me, it would look just like this piece in the LA Times.

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND THIS WEEKEND

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH, 2024:
An Almost Christmas Story (Disney+)
Back In Action (Netflix)
Christmas With The Singhs (Hallmark)
Cobra Kai Season Five B Premiere (Netflix)
Cold Case Files Season Premiere (A&E)
It's All Country Series Premiere (Hulu)
Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson (Netflix)
Killer Cases Season Premiere (A&E)
La Maison Season Finale (Apple TV+)
Silo Season Two Premiere (Apple TV+) 
The Creep Tapes Series Premiere (Shudder)
The Last Woodsmen Series Premiere (Discovery)
The Night Before Christmas In Wonderland (Hulu/Prime Video)
The UnBelievable With Dan Aykroyd Season Premiere (History)
Three Women Season Finale (Starz)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16TH:
A Christmas Less Traveled (Great American Family)
Christmas At Plumhill Manor (Lifetime)
Jingle Bell Run (Hallmark)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH:
A Christmas Quilt (Great American Family)
A Very English Christmas (UP tv)
Confessions Of A Christmas Letter (Hallmark)
Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: Is Ozempic Right For You? (CNN)
Dune: Prophecy Series Premiere (HBO)
Holiday In Happy Hollow (Lifetime)
Landman Series Premiere (Paramount+)

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18TH:
Jingle Bell Love (The Roku Channel)
Leonardo Di Vinci (PBS)
Love & Hip Hop Miami Season Premiere (VH1)
The Honorable Shyne (Hulu)
The Making Of Gladiator II (CBS)
Wonderoos (Netflix)

SEE YOU ON MONDAY!