The [Your Name Here] Show
Apr. 16th, 2004 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maradyddI'm not much for the memes, but since I'm just hanging around at work waiting on some code to finish running, I swiped this from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
batyatoon. Besides, it's cool.
If your life were The Truman Show...
Which characters are in the opening credits?
Depends on whether you're talking about the early seasons when the show was set in Houston, or after it moved to Iowa ("The Grad School Years"). Since it's my show and it's an opening-credits montage, the Houston version is fast and frenetic, but viewers can catch glimpses ofmadandrew (The Mad Scientist), deifire (The Goth Chick), sunpup (He's Just That Guy, You Know?), shkspr13 (The Gay Roommate), halax (The Best Friend), tall_man (The Partner in Crime), Dr. Boertien (The Friendly Advisor), Mitchell Shields (The Once and Future Boss), and John (The Off-Again, On-Again Boyfriend). (Viewer response to Leo was pretty lousy; reruns have had the opening credits sequence edited to leave him out.)
The Iowa opening is far more sedate, and named actors includemartian_bob, ti94, prysmicdork, CryptoGeekBoi, Mike and Heather, Teo, and Default. There are also a lot of classroom and lab shots with random undergrads, and my boss, Andy, shows up toward the end of the sequence with "Also Starring" just above his name.
Which companies have paid for product placement?
AMD, Microsoft (slowly being shoehorned out by the FSF), various coffee manufacturers, the Terrapin (a coffeeshop here in IC), the Coca-Cola Corporation, O'Reilly, Livejournal. There are probably others, but those come to mind first.
Who's the famous actor/actress that drops in once in a while as a Special Guest Star?
I have no idea who'd play him, but it'd be the affably geeky German who turns up about once every six, nine months or so asoralelk. He was introduced back during the Houston seasons, but made his first on-screen appearance during the first season of the Iowa show and produced a huge ratings spike. Now he comes back every once in a while to provide a huge boost to the main character's spirits, valuable career advice, and mild romantic tension that doesn't go anywhere.
When have you done something that was so unexpected that the directors were forced to scramble for a plot?
Most recently, it'd have to be the sudden England trip this past summer. I can't think of a better explanation for the Horrible Airline Incident.
When did the directors plan something for you that went off perfectly, without a hitch?
That would probably be the part in Season 24 when I was angsting about getting into my PhD program and getting funding for it. It had plenty of tension and uncertainty -- the perfect sweeps week plot, now that I think about it -- and wrapped with a somewhat bittersweet but ultimately happy ending which launched a completely new direction for the show. Couldn't have planned it better myself.
Who is your target demographic?
Teenaged and early-to-mid-twenties male geeks (they watch it for the racy bits), and women in their late twenties and early thirties, who feel a wistful kinship with the main character in her quest for greatness.
Which former major character is the biggest focus of a "Bring back _____!" letter-writing campaign?
For a long time it was John, but the actor has resolutely refused to even consider a return to the show, so only the most die-hard fans still hold out any hope. Fans of the high school years hope to see a surprise reappearance of wacky character actor Mr. Doolittle (the physics teacher). The college-years fans are mainly centered around Mad Andrew, though Mitch has his staunch supporters among older viewers.
batyatoon. Besides, it's cool.If your life were The Truman Show...
Which characters are in the opening credits?
Depends on whether you're talking about the early seasons when the show was set in Houston, or after it moved to Iowa ("The Grad School Years"). Since it's my show and it's an opening-credits montage, the Houston version is fast and frenetic, but viewers can catch glimpses of
madandrew (The Mad Scientist), deifire (The Goth Chick), sunpup (He's Just That Guy, You Know?), shkspr13 (The Gay Roommate), halax (The Best Friend), tall_man (The Partner in Crime), Dr. Boertien (The Friendly Advisor), Mitchell Shields (The Once and Future Boss), and John (The Off-Again, On-Again Boyfriend). (Viewer response to Leo was pretty lousy; reruns have had the opening credits sequence edited to leave him out.)The Iowa opening is far more sedate, and named actors include
martian_bob, ti94, prysmicdork, CryptoGeekBoi, Mike and Heather, Teo, and Default. There are also a lot of classroom and lab shots with random undergrads, and my boss, Andy, shows up toward the end of the sequence with "Also Starring" just above his name.Which companies have paid for product placement?
AMD, Microsoft (slowly being shoehorned out by the FSF), various coffee manufacturers, the Terrapin (a coffeeshop here in IC), the Coca-Cola Corporation, O'Reilly, Livejournal. There are probably others, but those come to mind first.
Who's the famous actor/actress that drops in once in a while as a Special Guest Star?
I have no idea who'd play him, but it'd be the affably geeky German who turns up about once every six, nine months or so as
oralelk. He was introduced back during the Houston seasons, but made his first on-screen appearance during the first season of the Iowa show and produced a huge ratings spike. Now he comes back every once in a while to provide a huge boost to the main character's spirits, valuable career advice, and mild romantic tension that doesn't go anywhere.When have you done something that was so unexpected that the directors were forced to scramble for a plot?
Most recently, it'd have to be the sudden England trip this past summer. I can't think of a better explanation for the Horrible Airline Incident.
When did the directors plan something for you that went off perfectly, without a hitch?
That would probably be the part in Season 24 when I was angsting about getting into my PhD program and getting funding for it. It had plenty of tension and uncertainty -- the perfect sweeps week plot, now that I think about it -- and wrapped with a somewhat bittersweet but ultimately happy ending which launched a completely new direction for the show. Couldn't have planned it better myself.
Who is your target demographic?
Teenaged and early-to-mid-twenties male geeks (they watch it for the racy bits), and women in their late twenties and early thirties, who feel a wistful kinship with the main character in her quest for greatness.
Which former major character is the biggest focus of a "Bring back _____!" letter-writing campaign?
For a long time it was John, but the actor has resolutely refused to even consider a return to the show, so only the most die-hard fans still hold out any hope. Fans of the high school years hope to see a surprise reappearance of wacky character actor Mr. Doolittle (the physics teacher). The college-years fans are mainly centered around Mad Andrew, though Mitch has his staunch supporters among older viewers.