MarkTreitel.com

Putting the "Me" in the Media

To those of you loyal viewers who've felt that Bravo left them out in the cold without announcing that "Situation: Comedy" had moved from the Tuesday 8 PM "Happy Days" spot to the Friday 7 PM "Early Bird Special" spot, in my quest to find answers, I found this Bravo press release:

NEW YORK -- August 10, 2005 -- Bravo's "Situation: Comedy" moves to its new timeslot on Friday, August 12 at 7:00 pm ET/PT. Emmy Award winner Sean Hayes (NBC's "Will & Grace") and producing partner Todd Milliner continue to follow neophyte writers as they earn the opportunity to produce and sell the "next great sitcom." The eavesdropping audience will give the final thumbs-up by choosing the winning entry that will be broadcast on Bravo.

Granted, August 10th, was a Wednesday, a day AFTER Situation: Comedy was supposed to air (plus all those millions of TV Guides that had the wrong time slot) but the schedule change was released... at least on one webpage.

Also, according to Bravo, the finale is now set to air on Friday, September 9th at 7 PM, (THANKS ESTHER & ANABEL LEE) but, of course that might change, once again, so keep checking back here. Here's a list of upcoming episodes or see below.

If you missed Episode 104, you're SOL. However, if you pay me $100, I'll come to your house and re-enact the episode. If you pay me $200, I'll bring my housekeeper, do it in Spanish and clean your house.

The situation of situation comedy

Here's a great article I found from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the new slate of sitcoms (and the dire predicament of this year's crop).

Now, the good news: Desperation seems to have forced producers and the networks who hire them to dream a bit. If shows as eccentric as "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" captured viewers' fancy last fall, the thinking may have gone, why not break out of the comedy box as well?

CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE.

Have no fear... the blogosphere is here!

Since all of you don't have time to check every post that comes out of blogosphere, I Icerocket myself every day (when my wife's not looking) and find all sorts of great things...

Today we have a post by Whine & Cheese who has some interesting observations about our friendly show.

Shallow Like Us discusses Bravo's abrupt scheduling move.

And Today in Alternate History, (a great blog if you like Robert Anton Wilson and his "Illuminati" series.) Talks about his own script he submitted.

Of course if I go Technorati on your ass...

You get Let's Shalla Blog talking about Shoe... Dancing Bear ranting about the many shows entitled "Situation" and one of my favorite blog names of all time Wang Wang Me, who compares Stan to a certain owner of Oompa-Loompas.

Poll Land

Here's the link to AOL's poll about Situation: Comedy. Why don't you fill it out and tell the powers that be how you watch "Situation: Comedy" and love "Sperm Donor." As we know, if it wasn't for polls, 4 out of 5 dentists wouldn't recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum.

Add a Situation: Comedy Ringtone

This is totally crazy but you can download bits of audio from "Situation: Comedy" from DeliciousAudio.com. Go to the search page and enter "Any date" and click "TV" and use the search name "Situation: Comedy" with the colon to get the nine choices.

Results below:

Medialife praises Treitel & Schuster

Medialife has this to say about Treitel & Schuster:

Of the two teams, Mark Treitel and Jason “Shoe” Schuster at least have an appealing charm, especially when Schuster warbles the imaginary theme-song lyrics to their entry about a missing father who meets his unknown daughter, “The Sperm Donor”: “The sperm donor gets a 20 percent commission…for his emission.” The “Sperm Donor” casting scenes light up, by the way, when a firecracker of a young actress, Lauren Schaffel, reads as that daughter.

... It could be worse... (UPDATED)

According to the stellar TV site, thefutoncritic.com, NBC has pulled the David E. Kelley legal reality show, The Law Firm, after two weeks and five million(!) viewers. Damn! Maybe Friday night ain't so bad.   I also really liked the show and wanted to see what happened to one of the contestants, Chris, who I saw do a trial as a Public Defender when I was a city attorney in Inglewood. He was damn good. It's a real shame.

You know what this means. Less "Law Firm". More "Joey"! Hooray for NBC!

UPDATED: It seems that Bravo has come to the rescue. You can see The Law Firm's new schedule here. You really need Tivo, because it airs at odd times like 3 AM in the morning. As well as 6 PM. (Perhaps lead in to Situation: Comedy).

The post from futon critic is below.

Wayback Machine - Mark's Episode One Blog

For all of you who didn't read my Episode One blog on Bravo's site. Here it is in it's entirety.

DO YOU WANT TO DO THIS?

What a difference a year makes. Last August, I was on my honeymoon in Italy with my beautiful wife Mindy, (whom, the reality crew said on repeated occasions, deserved her own show), when I got an email from Shoe. He sent an application from Situation: Comedy, asking me "Do you want to do this?"

Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a television writer. (Apologies to "Goodfellas"). Back in elementary school, every day, under my desk, I'd write a comedy cantata, (or as I called it, The Piñata Cantata) entitled: "The Eighth Grade Sails The Love Boat" where my classmates boarded the Pacific Princess and set sail with Captain Stubing, Doc, Isaac the Bartender and Gopher. (In my scripted adventure, the Pacific Princess ended up in revolutionary Cuba - don't ask.) In my summers off from Tufts University, as a camp counselor, I'd written, directed and performed a play "TV or Not TV", where I parodied such classics as "Brady Bunch", "Gilligan's Island", "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood" and "America's Most Wanted." It was surreal, because a killer clown bumped off our beloved characters and the play was written in Hebrew. At Cardozo Law School in New York City, I wrote numerous Law Revue shows, parodying classic Broadway shows -- "Lawyer on the Roof", "West Side Statutory" and "Law Misérables" (which I co-wrote with Jeff Marx, of Broadway's "Avenue Q" fame.)

SITUATION: COMEDY DIFFERENT BATTIME -- MOVED TO FRIDAY 7 - 8 PM; Now you better damn well get Tivo!

To all my family, friends and viewers, you have to switch your VCR as Bravo has moved airing to Situation: Comedy to that coveted Friday Night 7 PM - 8 PM. Yes, you read right. 7 PM. Prime viewing hour. Yes, I know, this will conflict with your daily airings of Full House, but alas, such is life.

See below for the entire updated schedule from Bravo. But knowing Bravo, you better check back daily, because they might switch it once again to make room for more Bobby Brown. *Watch Bravo right now and you can see Bobby Brown saying something outrageous*. Omigod!

Note: If you had Tivo, Bravo futzing with the scheduling wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. Tivo owners of the world unite!!!

See below for schedule:

Sperm Donor & Wolf Blitzer

The Detroit Free Press advises its readers on the difference between:

The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer

The Situation with Tucker Carlson

and

Situation: Comedy.

I'll tell you the difference. Ours has more laughs and less bow ties. Sometimes.