Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

Lost in Translation 24 - Adaptations Are Painless

Over the past half-year, I've looked at many adapations, most of which weren't as popular as the original. However, it's possible to have a remake be better known than the original work. This week's column looks at one famous instance of the phenomenom.

M*A*S*H started out as a novel, MASH: A Novel of Three Army Doctors by Robert Hooker, featuring Doctors "Hawkeye" Pierce, Duke Forrest, and "Trapper John" McIntyre. In 1970, the first book of the series was adapted by Robert Altman as a motion picture, called MASH, and starred Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye and Sally Kellerman as Hot Lips. MASH used the base story in the books, then went its own direction as an anti-war movie, using the Korean War as subtext for the Vietnam War.

Naturally, a success in theatres means a television exec wants to cash in on the popularity. In 1972, the movie was adapted as a TV series, this time called M*A*S*H (with the asterisks). Still working the protest angle, production staff bent to the requirements of the network, CBS, while working out some concessions. One major concession was the use of a laugh track. Laugh tracks were used in comedies to let viewers know when something was funny, implying that there was a live audience during the filming of an episode. With M*A*S*H being filmed out on a set instead at a studio, production staff argued that no one would be fooled. After some negotiations, staff managed to get a concession that there would be no laugh track during scenes in the operating room; the idea being that business in the OR would be too heavy. Dramatic scenes in the early season took place often in the OR, whether or not surgery was involved.

M*A*S*H, the TV series lasted far longer than the Korean War did*, and paved the way for TV series that had both comedic and dramatic elements.** The tone of the series changed, subtly, but comparing an episode from the 1974-5 season with the 1979-80 season shows a huge difference in the approach.

The success of M*A*S*H took time at first. The early ratings weren't stellar, and in today's TV marketplace, the show would have been cancelled during its first season. However, CBS took a chance on the series, letting it gather an audience, culminating in the largest even TV audience for the show's last episode. The series let its characters evolve; the Hawkeye of the last season was a more aged version of the Hawkeye of the first, having gone through the war. Again, respect plays a part; respect for the soldiers and the people who died during the conflict, a respect for the intelligence of the viewers. At the time it first aired, M*A*S*H was different from the competition, and managed to maintain its respect for the viewers over its seasons.

Next time, if you can find it, maybe you can read the remake.

* Korean War, 1950-1953. M*A*S*H*, 1972-1983
** The term "dramedy" didn't exist prior to M*A*S*H

Lost in Translation 23 - Remakes Are Magic

The 80s saw a major change in how toys could be advertised. A regulation that prevented companies from making cartoons based on a toy line was dropped* by the Reagan administration. This opened the door to several lines, including Transformers, Jem and the Holograms, Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, and My Little Pony**. Hasbro created the My Little Pony toy line in 1981, releasing the ponies in 1982, with several cartoons based on the toy ponies. The cartoons were aimed at young girls, the same demographic the toys were. One little girl in particular, Lauren Faust, gave her My Little Ponies distinctive personalities as she played with them.

Ms Faust grew up to be a writer and creator, particularly of cartoons. She worked on such series as The Powerpuff Girls before helming one of the biggest cartoons of the 21st century - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. In creating that cartoon, she took the personalities her toy ponies had and gave it to the Mane 6 - Twilight Sparkle (a book smart but naive unicorn), Rarity (a fashionable but vain unicorn), Fluttershy (a kind but shy pegasus), Rainbow Dash (a brash tompony), Applejack (a down to earth but workaholic earth pony), and Pinkie Pie (a genre savvy party pony).

There are many keys to the success of MLP:FIS. The big one is that it has a broad appeal. While the show is aimed at young girls, who Hasbro wants to pressure parents into buying the toys, there's enough in the series to attract a large peripheral demographic***. Shout outs and homages abound, from Looney Tunes to Benny Hill; something for everypony. In addition, Hasbro itself has not bothered to take down episodes from various sites, including YouTube, in part because company officials have no idea how to react to the show's success. Since the series exists to sell ponies and ponies are selling, the officials have decided to let things stand.

Another key is how the show presents dilemmas for the Mane 6 to solve. In the 80s, typically there was one character who was designated as being always wrong, even if that character's idea made the most sense. In the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, Eric the Cavalier held that designation - he'd would always make a suggestion that the others would reject for the group's, even if his idea made more sense. In MLP:FIS, no pony has that designation. Conflict can come from any two characters, and the solution is to work together and use each others' strengths without making either pony feel bad, using the power of friendship.

A third reason for the success is the treatment of the fans. Fanon names for minor ponies, such as Derpy Hooves and Doctor Whooves, have become canon. This is unprecidented. Yet, it lets fans feel more included, something that goes with the message of the series. The names don't affect anything with the Mane 6, but some ponies, including Derpy Hooves, have made more appearances as a result. There is a synergy between the creative crew and the fans.

Over and over, the term "respect" has come up in respect to making a successful remake. In this case, the respect isn't necessarily towards the original material. Instead, it's respect towards the fans that has made My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic a success.****

Next time, an anti-war TV series.

* Although ads for the toys still could not air during the show
** Please hold your squees until after you've read the column. :)
*** The last time I saw such a peripheral demographic was in 1995 with /Sailor Moon/. The general reaction from the older male periphery then was, "What did I watch and why am I still watching?", a reaction seen today with new bronies.
**** You may now squee. :)

Netflix Is Back?

OK they may be still playing juggle-the-rights, but Netflix did pretty well for Q4 (beating expectations), and numbers suggest they might be over that hump of sort of annoying everyone.

They're also abandoning their video game rental plans, which makes total sense.

Frankly this is a bit better than I expected, but as a Netflix booster who got disappointed in some of their activities, I'm not sure I can say "they're back," even though I love the service.  It's a positive sign definitely - and it looks like they're aware that Amazon is coming for them.

Oh, and again, where's OnLive in all of this . . .

- Steven Savage

Why You Shouldn’t Keep Your Projects A Secret

As someone who works with intellectual properties, and someone who knows a lot of people who also work with intellectual properties, I can safely say that a lot of us like to keep our ideas to ourselves.  There is a fear that if your idea is leaked, then there’s a team of coordinated and efficient coding enthusiasts that will take your idea and do it faster than you.  Probably better than you too.  And they all wear sunglasses and matching black leather uniforms with lightning bolts...

Where was I?  Oh, right, the fear of being copied.  This fear has a less-paranoid-but-still-paralyzing twin: the fear of someone coincidentally doing the same thing as you, making you look like the copycat nonetheless.

My advice to you is to fight that fear and show off (or at least talk about) your works in progress.  There are several reasons why this will help you rather than hurt you.

Steve's Kill Your Cable Adventure #5: Finding The Off Switch

Been awhile since I posted one of these columns, though at least you know I haven't been busy watching cable.

Essentially in the month since the last column, no one in my home has watched cable.  In fact, only recently did we go "hey, wait, we should cancel this."

The shift happened that quickly.

So now this week I've got to go get rid of Cable and TiVO.  Both have their own challenges, but it's also going to mean about $80 or so we don't spend a month.  So, yeah, if you've got a deluxe cable package, you're spending more, and that adds up.

Getting away from cable, after a short time, was pretty easy:

• Hulu and Netflix of course made it easier to get old and new shows.
• Some companies put their shows online anyway (though I expect there's some odd battles coming).
• There are companies that put specific content online, such as anime.
• If you really want it, get the DVD from Netflix, or buy one, or buy one and sell it to a  used media store. 

So pretty much if I want television of some kind, I can probably get it.  In other words, yes, you don't need cable.  Also you probably have Netflix anyway.

I also noticed definite psychological shifts:

• We all know a lot of television is crap.  When you're not watching it, the crap becomes more, painfully, apparent.
• Having cable is like having a ticket to a buffer of mediocrity.  You'll use it because it's there, but in actuality, you're not getting much out of it.
• Having to decide on my entertainment and video viewing as opposed to flipping on the TV has gotten me exploring a wider variety of content.  Cable, in some ways, is also limiting.
• My interest in different media extended to other areas of my life - such as webcomics.
• I feel even more social.  Television doesn't become a tool of socialization so much as a tool for shared experiences.

The shift in mindset is still something I'm analyzing, and there will doubtlessly be more analysis to come.  In the end I came to the following conclusions:

• You probably don't need cable and it might be good to get away from it.
• It's easy to get away from it.
• Cable companies are going to need to change radically to deal with the changes in the world - and I think they could, but I'm not sure they will (essentially becoming "internet providers plus").  Hint - potential career opportunity.

So probably one more column to come on how I turned it all off . . . then silence.

Followed by me watching Netflix.

- Steven Savage

 

Lost in Translation 22 - It's Time to Play the Reboot

The Muppets have a long history. First created by Jim Henson in 1955 for Sam and Friends, a five minute live show for WRC-TV in Washington, DC, the Muppets have gone on to enchant the young and old alike, from Sesame Street to the big screen. The Muppet Show hit the airwaves in 1976, featuring a different cast of Muppets from Sesame Street and was aimed at an inclusive family audience. Younger viewers could watch for the brightly coloured characters, teens could get the puns and enjoy some of the guest stars, and adults could catch the multiple levels and enjoy some of the more bizarre sketches and numbers.

At the height of Muppet mania, the Muppets moved to the big screen with The Muppet Movie in 1979. The story was an origins of sorts, showing how The Muppet Show came to be. The movie was filled with running gags, bad puns, slapstick, and cameos, very much like The Muppet Show itself. The only thing missing, really, was the fourth wall. Kermit the Frog set out from his swamp home to get to Hollywood to become a major star, and picked up friends along the way.

In 1990, Jim Henson died suddenly after an illness, leaving the world the emptier with his passing. Henson Studios remained in the family, though, and went to his son, Brian. Muppet movies continued to be made, though, with the same levels of zaniness.

The popularity of the World Wide Web was not ignored by the Muppets. In 2009, Muppets Studios appeared on YouTube. Many videos were made and uploaded to the channel and quickly went viral. Bohemian Rhapsody earned a Webby. With the resurging popularity, was it time for a new Muppet movie? With Jim Henson gone and Frank Oz retiring, several big shoes had to be filled. Could the new staff treat the characters and past material respectfully without rehashing old gags?

The Muppets was released November 2011. The story picked up thirty years after The Muppet Movie, with the old gang gone their separate ways and Muppet Theater, the home of The Muppet Show in disrepair (even more than during The Muppet Show) and in danger of being torn down to be replaced by an oil rig. A faithful fan, one who never really felt really at home except around his twin brother, got to go on tour and discovered the plot. The fan decides the right thing is to try to pull the Muppets back together to stop a proper heritage site from becoming an environmental disaster.

The movie was everything a Muppet fan could ask for, even without the talent of many Muppeteers like Jim Henson and Frank Oz. The characters clicked, from Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Gonzo to new characters like Walter and the 1980s Robot. The characters were well aware that they were in a movie and broke the fourth wall like it wasn't even there. And, the ending broke the stereotype, at least before the deus ex brick Chekov's gun*. The Muppets managed to get attention from unusual directions, including being the target of the ire of a Fox News talking head.**

The selling point, at least for me, though, came while Kermit reminisced about The Muppet Show. As the Frog walked past a number of photos of him and celebrities who had been on the show, he stops at one of him and Jim Henson, letting the camera linger. The crew respected what Henson created, and, as seen time and again in this column, that is the singular key item in making a reboot a success.

Next time, a modern phenomenom***.

* A deus ex machina combined with a brick joke and a Checkov's gun.
** Apparently, working together to fight a corrupt corporate exec is too much.
*** Do do dee do do!

Scary Logos, and the Importance of Hitting Your Target Audience

Let me tell you a story about . . . TV corporate logos. You know, those short little bursts of sight and sound at the end of a television show, telling you what studio produced them? Short, forgettable little things, right?

Wrong. From the '60s to the '90s, a bunch of TV logos were produced, and in wide circulation, that literally scared children. To this day, people tremble in fear at the memory of them. They were an example of something with good intentions that went horribly wrong.

They also provide a valuable lesson to all of us in the importance of knowing and catering to your target audience - say, for instance, a potential employer looking at your resume.

The TV Recycling Bin

Entertainment Weekly has released its list of Hottest TV Projects of 2012. And they look familiar. Very familiar. It's because most of them are remakes of classic TV. From the already-discussed-here remake of The Munsters - which sounds like a head-on collision between Tim Burton and Twilight - to Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane's reboot of The Flintstones, everything old is new again.

Which begs the question - why do they think all this unoriginality can work?

Tamara's Predictions for 2012

Most of my predictions for the future are long-term.  This means going beyond 2012, but over the next few years I expect:

- Greater austerity measures in the US.  Now that the war's over, they'll be tallying up the cost and it might be a wake-up call that money's not free.  This will be bad in the short term, because it's the people who will be bearing the brunt of the cutbacks, but in the long run it might help if it gets those in power to take money seriously.

Tales from the Ashcan: Proof Identity Design is Important

Merry Christmas!  Right now, you're probably drinking egg nog, cozying around the TV station playing the picture of the fireplace and beating that cousin you don't like and haven't seen in a while at Call of Duty, so you can ignore this.  For the rest of you who aren't, however (read: me), I've got a new Tales from the Ashcan for you.  This month, we're talking about identity design.

As a graphic designer and typographer, one thing that I've really noticed since my great wide entry into the world of comic publishing is exactly how horrifically bad some of the identity design (aka logos) some people have.  Seriously.  Granted, horrific logo design is something you see on a regular basis - it's everywhere.  But I've noticed that it's exceptionally bad in the realm of comic logos.  Without pointing fingers (because that's bad), I can find you within ten minutes some of the most afterthought (if even that much) series logos out there.  Likewise, aside from our own, I can point out what I think are some of the most incredible ones.  While the former are afterthoughts, the latter have clearly been thought out in terms with the scheme of the story, or are intentionally aping a particular style.  The difference between a monstrosity (you can find one within five minutes by looking at any webcomics aggregator) and something as beautiful as the logos for Woody After Hours or Powernap or Delve into Fantasy are immense.

But as a professional, it's even more important to have the proper identity for your business, regardless of whether or not your business is a comic artist, bookseller, travel agenty or coffee shop.  Why?  Well, it can really hit you hard, and I'll give two examples; the first one now, the second after the jump.

Take, for example, a conversation I had one day with an individual who handed me his business card. It was a simple affair, with black and blue ink and looked very sleek and stylish for a technology company. There was just one problem: the gentleman was in the food services industry, something that the average person would not have known by looking at the card. While his logo and branding needed work, the colors and fonts chosen did even more to confuse potential customers, thus making a simple food producer look like a great tech company (which was not even close to his intent.)  I ended up doing a much warmer and more accessible logo for their business, and their business is doing swimmingly.

But I had another customer who had an even bigger issue, and his I'd like to share with you.