DARK SHADOWS FORUMS

General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '24 I => Current Talk '03 I => Topic started by: Josette on April 12, 2003, 08:05:38 AM

Title: Grrrrr!
Post by: Josette on April 12, 2003, 08:05:38 AM
Those of you who just watch the tapes won't have the slightest idea of what I'm talking about.

First all of the networks starting putting rather large and obvious names or logos in the corner of the screen throughout most programs.  Supposedly with the advent of cable and all the channels, they figured one couldn't necessarily tell what was on and they had to make sure one saw their name.

Recently, it's become a thing to advertise upcoming shows.  So, when one returns from a commercial, watching one show, there's a big name announcing the show that follows or something.  It gets quite annoying.

But, SciFi has really gone too far lately.  Their moving SciFi logos were bad enough.  Their upcoming show promos are much too large and stay on much too long.  But, recently they've added the promo for one show where they have about 4 moving white and red figures running around while the other show (in this case, DS) is playing.

I cannot see any justification for networks to mess up one show to advertise another, but this one with those moving figures is beyond tolerance.  I get SOOOO AGGRAVATED!!
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: Connie on April 12, 2003, 09:24:36 AM
But, recently they've added the promo for one show where they have about 4 moving white and red figures running around while the other show (in this case, DS) is playing.

....this one with those moving figures is beyond tolerance.  I get SOOOO AGGRAVATED!!

You're not the only one!  It's extremely annoying.
Plus, for those of us who do screen grabs it's a nightmare.  Sometimes during the beginning of a scene, there's a specific shot you want to get, or a certain expression on someone's face you want to capture and it is impossible with that garbage all over the screen!

If it's not some huge logo on Quentin's cheek, it's little men running around on Barnabas' tummy!  LOL    NOT FUNNY.

[uzi]
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: dom on April 12, 2003, 10:44:29 AM
...it's little men running around on Barnabas' tummy!  LOL    NOT FUNNY.

Sorry, Con, I find the (mental) image of little men running around on Barn's tummy absolutely hysterical!!! [lol2] ;)

In jest,
dom

PS - And I'm sure you could come up with an hysterical storyboard with that capture!

You know, Connie, you should create a DS comical storyboard website. It would certainly be a unique (and popular) DS website.
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: Gerard on April 12, 2003, 01:19:17 PM
I think we, the viewers, are suffering from a now much wider field of cable TV, where sponsors can choose more easily where they want to advertise.  Since there is such an abudance of channels and networks, advertising revenue has come down, so it must be made up in volume.  That's why we're assaulted at every opportunity to see more commercials and promotions.  Old programs being rerun have had scenes cut from them to slam in more ads.  End credits are shoved to the side so the screen can be filled with commercials.  And because ratings are necessary to sell a program to sponsors, shows - especially new ones - are constantly being promoted to the viewers (hence those stupid running shadow figures advertising "Scare Tactics" on the bottom of DS and other programs, and there ain't a show on E! that one can watch anymore without that annoying Anna Nicole promo with the cartoon barking dog popping up every two seconds).  We - and our favorite shows - are the victims of free enterprise.

Gerard
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: Carol on April 12, 2003, 01:24:50 PM
Sorry, Con, I find the (mental) image of little men running around on Barn's tummy absolutely hysterical!!! [lol2] ;) In jest, dom
PS - And I'm sure you could come up with an hysterical storyboard with that capture!
You know, Connie, you should create a DS comical storyboard website. It would certainly be a unique (and popular) DS website.
Dom, I've been trying to get her to put her storyboards together for a long time into a book to sell at DS Fests but a website might be more her thing.

"Overhead" would like to hear a response from "Useless waste" (private joke, folks)
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: TERRY308 on April 12, 2003, 02:34:29 PM
Well, I for one have watched "Scare Tactics"...and for one, I don't think it THAT funny.  More be they're (SciFi) desperate, you know, they want everyone to see the "commercial" and tune in to "Scare Tactics".
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: Patti Feinberg on April 12, 2003, 05:46:32 PM
This week, TNN was airing Star Trek movies; they too had all the 'stuff' on bottom (but, if for nothing else, at least I knew each night the following night had another ST movie).

Yeah, the 'Scare Tactics' is waaayyy too much (though I watched about 5 minutes of it, & it wasn't half bad).

Did anyone notice? I believe yesterday's (Fri) 2nd ep...the actually showed the credits!!!!!

Funny...I'm not that used to watching Soap Network; but the other day I watched OLTL on it & there were credits...I've never seen credits for OLTL (at least in this decade), so I wasn't sure what I was looking for.

I really think, in general, all crew and actors deserve to have their names....this is on broadcast stations as well.

IMHO,
Patti
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: jennifer on April 12, 2003, 06:18:31 PM
i agree they are quite annoying but probaly little we can do about it! if we compalin they'll probaly yank the show! i keep forgetting that the show is on at 8am when i take my children to school and forget to tape! oh well!

jennifer
Patti OT/ glad Nat's hair is back to red! (OLTL)

LOVE my surprize What a cutie! :-*

 
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: VictoriaWintersRox on April 12, 2003, 07:13:55 PM
Yuck. I hate those advertisements during the show. Like Connie said, it's hard to take screen captures after DS comes back from commercials. And I hate how they cut scenes out of shows. Some of the shows being rerun on TV Land, Nick-at-Nite, and other channels have two to three minutes cut out of them.

The worst offender to me is TNN, because of the evil black bar of death and destruction (that's what I call it anyway) at the bottem of the screen. It's not like they have to have it, because whenever they show The Godfather they get rid of it. *Throws hands in the air* I don't know where the TNN's exec's brains are.
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: dom on April 12, 2003, 10:22:08 PM
...I don't know where the TNN's exec's brains are.

[a144] <---

 ;D
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: Luciaphile on April 12, 2003, 10:39:52 PM
I find it extremely annoying. Moreover, I hate, hate with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns the cropping of credits so that TV stations can try and hawk some other product that I so don't need.

There was an attempt a year or so ago to get permission to eliminate credits altogether on the part of the networks, but thankfully that was stymied.
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: Midnite on April 12, 2003, 10:54:20 PM
The last 2 storylines in my tape collection are from the '97 SciFi broadcast and I thought it was intrusive enough to have the logo in the corner.  But I'm glad I made them when I did cuz the following run had the animated logo, and now we get ads for other shows too.  At this rate, it would be scary to think what they'd add if they purchased the broadcast rights again-- maybe product placement?  Quentin drinking a Pepsi instead of brandy?  :o

The rest of my tapes are from MPI, but I'm still missing most of Leviathans and all of the summer of 1970, yet now that there are those other distractions on the screen I think I'll wait to purchase them on DVD instead of bothering to tape them.
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: Gothick on April 13, 2003, 02:40:41 AM
These commercials are why I'm really glad I own tapes of most of the episodes.  It is a treat sometimes, though, to turn on the set when I'm getting for work in the morning and watch Grayson chewing the scenery.

As for Scare Tactics, this morning I read that Shannon Doherty and some chick named Paris something or other (Hanson?) who has a rival series on Fox had a big drunken catfight in a bar over their respective shows.  Apparently it turned into an ugly, hairpulling mess.  Two bratty females who desperately want to be divas and sooo lack the pizzazz for the role.

That's about the funniest thing I have heard about these shows lately.

Gothick
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: Raineypark on April 13, 2003, 03:44:16 AM
As for Scare Tactics, this morning I read that Shannon Doherty and some chick named Paris something or other (Hanson?)
Gothick

Ummm....would that be Paris Hilton, the Socialite?  ::)
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: Cassandra on April 13, 2003, 07:56:59 AM
As for Scare Tactics, this morning I read that Shannon Doherty and some chick named Paris something or other (Hanson?) who has a rival series on Fox had a big drunken catfight in a bar over their respective shows.  Apparently it turned into an ugly, hairpulling mess.  Two bratty females who desperately want to be divas and sooo lack the pizzazz for the role.

LOL!!  Gothick, that's the same one who just got into a bar room brawl with Lisa Marie Presley!!  Apparently, it was over Nickolas Cage.  Her name is Paris Hilton. I guess she likes to sock it to them.[90d4]


As for those annoying little red men that keep running across the screen during DS, I can't stand them!  At first I thought it was part of the show. They just jump out right at you!! [pissd]


Cassandra[/font]

Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: victoriawinters on April 17, 2003, 04:20:55 AM
I cannot stand the little red and white men from Scare Tactics.  Also, the blinking Sci-Fi logo is quite annoying.  It is such a huge interruption.

Now my rant for the day, is trying to watch the news with the dang scroll at the bottom.  YUCK!

I'm so sick of this bombardment from the TV set. 
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: Rydell on April 27, 2003, 06:52:29 AM
It really bugs me how the credits are all mashed to one side at the end of the show.  The other day they didn't even wait for the show to be over before the squishing began.  There was Paul Stoddard, all squished, with a terrified look on his face.
I wanted to know if the guy from the antique shop was the same guy who played on Guiding Light.  It took about a week of watching for me to catch his name.  It was always too squished to read.  Grrrrr!
Re:Shannen Dougherty... she sounds scary enough to have her own show.
Title: Re:Grrrrr!
Post by: Debra on April 29, 2003, 06:20:45 AM
Well, I for one have watched "Scare Tactics"...and for one, I don't think it THAT funny.  More be they're (SciFi) desperate, you know, they want everyone to see the "commercial" and tune in to "Scare Tactics".


Is this show still on?  From the looks of it I wouldn't be suprised if it's been booted off the air already.
I also dont think theres anything funny about this show and I keep wondering if heaven forbid someone who happens to be the unlucky victim of this scare tactic happens to have a heart condition or something worse, this cant be too good for them!
Deb