Full Hearts

The best show on TV is back on, and that is something considering that TV season has been more than impressive this Fall. Friday Night Lights started season four this past week (on DIRECTV) and it proved once again it's one of the best written shows. But the general consensus these days is that most television shows have come back stronger than ever this new season.

It's impressive but not surprising. The economic problems have cancelled many programs and cut the number of new bets in more than half, so naturally everyone that is still on the air knows the stakes are high. The good news for most of them is that ratings have been sky-high, and although advertising revenue still trails last year, the most important thing is that television is showing how strong of a medium it is. 

Yes, online viewership is also up. Movie box office is also up. Everything is up. But the economy is down. Simple math if you consider that watching television and going to the movies remain to be some of the cheapest things people can do in a time of crisis, but truth is that beyond the economic factors, quality has become important and overall it seems like the shows that have been successful are the ones that have proven to have improved creatively. 

This is not true entirely if you count that sport ratings are also up. NBA kick-off week had a huge ratings boost over last season and pretty much every season since Michael Jordan was still in uniform. Baseball is up, and NBC is thanking god for having Sunday Night Football save their ass. TV viewership is up in every category.

So if you are also interested in watching good TV, get on with Friday Night Lights. If you don't have DIRECTV, the fourth season will air on NBC in early 2010. In the meantime, you can probably get all the previous seasons on DVD for little money and catch up. Other shows that you should pay attention to are Dexter, Californication, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Big Bang Theory and 30 Rock. Enjoy!

Get Some Conan!

Conan O'Brien had a very good debut week for The (New) Tonight Show. Although the ratings were only slighty better than the average Jay Leno numbers, the most important thing is that Conan seems happy and comfortable with his new role. 

I've been a big fan of Conan for many years. I think that he is one of the few really funny and talented comedians in television, as opposite to many people who just say funny things every now and then. That is why the transition from Late Night to the Tonight Show has been so great.

I'm not sure that Andy Richter fits in perfectly well yet, but he is also a funny guy so I'm sure they will figure that out in the coming weeks. I think that having Andy on the show makes Conan interact less with Max Weinberg and the band, which I thought it was really funny before. 

On the flip side, I'm not sure that Jimmy Fallon is doing so great filling Conan's old shoes. He is not a terrible host, but his show reminds me a lot more of "Last Call with Carson Daly" than Conan.  It seems like a show that should be in MTV, and as clever as some of their ideas are, they just don't seem that funny to me. 

I wonder how Conan will be affected with the arrival of the Jay Leno show at 10PM. As interesting of a concept as it sounds, I'm not sure anybody wants to sit through three (or four including Carson Daly) back to back talk shows every night.

In the meantime, here is a funny image. Someone took Conan's new background and filled it in with Super Mario Bros. graphics. Originally they came out to say that Conan's background was based on the video game, but that of course was not true and someone with a lot of time and imagination decided to put together this little joke. 

Reinventing Television

If you have not seen one of Conan O'Brien's latest Tonight Show commercial, here it is. As much as I am an advocate of online content distribution, from music to movies and television, I always thought that the end of the road still has to do with reinventing traditional television and not taking it somewhere else. The answer is freedom of choice for viewers to have access to content they are interested in whenever they want it.

Conan talks about a new invention called Television, that allows you to watch the same shows you can watch in your computer and cellular phone with a much larger screen and sitting comfortable in your couch. 

As obvious as it sounds, I don't understand when people get so excited about watching a TV show on your tiny cell phone screen. It makes sense if you are in an airplane, or for kids in school (not so good for education though), but why would you choose to watch something sitting in your computer on Hulu if you can access it with your remote control and HDTV? And it's not about having a box that gives you access to Hulu, its about having these shows available On Demand. It's starting to happen...