3 things worth reading

I would advise you to check out these links when you get a chance:

1) Mark Evanier on "Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper": I watched this on Boomerang last weekend, and as soon as I saw the "Written by Mark Evanier" credit at the beginning, I thought, "I'll bet he has an interesting story about this on his blog." Well, 3 days later, he posted this (scroll a few items down). Turns out he had 2 1/2 DAYS to script it, and he explains why.

2) Pavan from Sitcoms Online posted two informative if brief interviews this week; each is a vital read for fans of classic television ON television. He elicited some interesting info from the subjects. First, he corresponded with Antenna TV exec Sean Compton. This promising digital subchannel service launches in a few weeks with some real rarities in its programming lineup, mostly Sony Pictures stuff, and it's cleared in my market. I just hope it doesn't take FIOS forever to add this one, as it did with RTV.

For me, the top tidbits in this interview are Compton promising no paid programming and responding to a question about edited shows like so:
We air the shows the way that the distributors supply us. We will do no editing on our end. We also will not be squeezing the end credits nor will we have an Antenna TV bug/logo on the screen during programming. Stations locally may decide to put theirs up, but nationally we will not display one. As far as ratings go, yes we will look at ratings but in the digital world it's driven a bit differently.

I'm really glad Pavan asked about that, and I guess we'll have to keep fingers crossed, as we all know how many shows are pre-butchered even before hacks like Hallmark and TV Land get their hands on them.

The next day, Neil Saban of ME-TV was up. Right off the bat, I learned that the so-called "national" launch of this awesome-sounding classic TV service really included only Chicago, Milwaukee, and South Bend. So I don't feel too bad about not getting it yet, though of course I'll be antsy until I do.

Saban says the network, which is heavily reliant on CBS/Paramount oldies now, will sprinkle in more shows as time goes on, specifically mentioning "The Millionaire" as something on the docket. "The Millionaire!"

He also states the goal is to make ME-TV the TCM of classic television, which is a great line that will excite a lot of people, but he didn't say all the programming would be uncut and shown as it was originally presented. Still, it sounds like this guy's heart is in the right place, and I know I'm looking forward to getting this eventually.

(Another interesting comment: Saban says "Webster" was a syndication disaster and that, "Dear John and many other shows from that vintage are caught up in the residual payment issue that plagues broadcast TV but not cable. Don't get me started." Hey, please, get started! I'm kind of curious what he means by that, though I'd much rather the network focus on much older programs, anyway).

Please head over to Sitcoms Online if you haven't lately and thank them for getting this information and putting it out there.