Television Is No Longer Restricted to the Screen, Or Even Video

The story no longer ends when the screen turns black, as many of the best and most innovative television shows have found new ways to utilize alternative media to keep the narrative going. From “alternative reality games” like Heroes: Evolutions, to fictional character blogs by Dwight Schrute of The Office and online interactive experiences like Dunder Mifflin Infinity, to webisodes along the lines of Lost: Missing Pieces, to official new comic book seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, television is no longer limited to television. Coupled with the recent rise of academic and philosophical essay books on series ranging from Battlestar Galactica to Firefly to 24, fans of television have new, alternative ways to explore their favorite shows, and alterna-tv.com is committed to covering the medium’s expansion in this field.

—alterna-tv.com

 

Firefly/Serenity Fans Raise Money for Charity

Joss Whedon fans have a reputation for being ardent followers of the renowned television producer—from building thriving online communities around his shows to passionately voicing their support—while likewise demonstrating a flair for “giving back.” In 1998, for instance, fans from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Bronze Posting Board organized a get-together that turned into an annual event throughout the show’s seven-year run. Dubbed the PBP (Posting Board Party), the weekend extravaganza featured hundreds of Buffy aficionados mingling with the cast and crew of the series while also raising money for the Los Angeles Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In 2004, blood drives were organized as part of a campaign to save spin-off Angel from cancellation, and last year pizzas were delivered to the picket lines of striking members of the Writers Guild of America courtesy of the weblog whedonesque.

Arguably the most impressive example of this ongoing sense of “community, support and service,” however, centers around Whedon’s third television outing, the short-lived Firefly; for three straight years now fans from around the world have organized a series of Can’t Stop the Serenity (CSTS) fundraisers benefiting women’s rights advocacy organization Equality Now and featuring viewings of Serenity, the big-screen adaptation that Whedon wrote and directed in 2005.

JUNE 23, 2008 (READ MORE)

Serenity Still Soars Regardless of the Medium

“After the Earth was used up, we found a new solar system, and hundreds of new Earths were terra-formed and colonized. The central planets formed the Alliance and decided all the planets had to join under one rule. There was some disagreement on that point. After the War, many of the Independents who had fought and lost drifted to the edges of the system, far from Alliance control. Out here, people struggled to get by with the most basic technologies; a ship would bring you work, a gun would help you keep it. A captain’s goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying.”

Although the above is the narrative introduction to the Firefly universe, it could also serve as the modus operandi of the 2002 television drama created by Joss Whedon. Cancelled by the FOX network after only eleven episodes, Whedon—as well as the fans—fought to keep the series going, eventually paving the way for a big-screen adaptation, Serenity. Although hopes for additional motion pictures have yet to materialize, the story of a renegade “browncoat” (as the independents were known) and his rag-tag crew of “space-scavengers” continues to be told with the recently concluded three-part Dark Horse comic book, Better Days. With a plot co-conceived by Whedon and former Firefly writer Brett Matthews, who also penned the script, it is the second such venture into the world of comics for the television show that wouldn’t give up.

MAY 19, 2008 (READ MORE)

Philosophical Musings on a Comedic Masterpiece

Television has evolved over the past two decades from storytelling stepchild to arguably the premier dramatic medium of the Twenty-First Century. Academia, astonishingly enough, has likewise noticed this transition, as “television studies” courses—both in general and in regards to specific shows—are now being taught in colleges and universities along side the previous, more prestigious, “film studies.” Of equal significance, however, is the recent rise of “Television and Philosophy” books, as both Open Court and Blackwell Publishing continue to release numerous anthologies that tie these two distinct disciplines together.

No doubt this comes as no great surprise to fans of television shows along the likes The Sopranos, Battlestar Galactica and 24, as those series display a high level of both writing style and plotlines that continually examine the morals and ethics of our times. The ABC drama Lost goes even further by peppering the show with character names that reflect famous philosophers, including John Locke, David Hume, Edmund Burke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. What may come as a surprise, however, is Blackwell’s The Office and Philosophy: Scenes from the Unexamined Life, which explores both the American and British versions of the successful television sitcom from a philosophical viewpoint. Utilizing philosophers from Plato to Bertrand Russell, Soren Kierkegaard to Jean-Paul Sartre, and encompassing principles ranging from ethics to ignorance, utilitarianism to existentialism, Scenes from an Unexamined Life demonstrates how Dwight Schrute, Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly—as well as their BBC counterparts—relate to the many philosophical discourses from throughout the ages.

MARCH 31, 2008 (READ MORE)

Lost Succeeds by Tapping Into Our Collective Psyche

Lost is a cultural phenomenon. Not only do approximately fourteen million viewers tune in each week for new installments, but online viewers on both the ABC.com website as well as iTunes regularly make it one of the most watched shows on the Internet. More significantly, a mixture of water cooler conversations, online message board debates and audio podcast discussions make the ABC drama one of the hottest topics in both the real and virtual worlds we now inhabit.

How—and why—did this come to pass? Author J. Wood, in his book Living Lost: Why We’re All Stuck on the Island (Garrett County Press, 2007), speculates that it is because of the show’s ability to symbolically reflect life in post-9/11 America. “Lost draws on a specific 21st century isolation and distress,” he writes. “It taps into some here-and-now concerns, and speaks to the audience’s deeper lizard-brain psyche as it weaves its sophisticated tales.”

Because Wood’s thesis is primarily based on an anti-Bush Administration bias, the exact extent of influence that real world events have on Lost Island more than likely varies depending on one’s own political viewpoints. There is, however, a more subtle correlation in Living Lost between what we see on the screen and what we experience in our lives that equally, if not more so, makes us all “stuck on the island”: Lost’s ability to tap into our collective consciousness and shared experiences, not on a political level but strictly cultural, especially in regards to those born between 1961 and 1981 and who are more commonly referred to as Generation X.

MARCH 10, 2008 (READ MORE)

Online Communities Prepare for the Return of Jericho

The Jericho online community is the stuff of legends. When the CBS drama was cancelled last May after one ratings-deprived season, fans of the series immediately mobilized in protest. But while fans have united to “save” cancelled television shows in the past, ultimately to no avail, the fans of Jericho succeeded by bombarding CBS with forty-thousand pounds of peanuts in homage to the one-word response U.S. Army General Anthony McAuliffe issued to a German surrender ultimatum during World War II, and that actor Skeet Ulrich likewise uttered in Jericho’s season finale: “Nuts!”

CBS Entertainment president Nina Tasser released a statement at the time acknowledging the campaign’s success in swaying the network to bring Jericho back for an abbreviated seven-episode season that begins Tuesday, February 12, 2008. “Over the past few weeks you have put forth an impressive and probably unprecedented display of passion in support of a prime time television series. You got our attention; your emails and collective voice have been heard,” the statement read. “On behalf of everyone at CBS, thank you for expressing your support of Jericho in such an extraordinary manner. Your protest was creative, sustained and very thoughtful and respectful in tone. You made a difference.”

FEBRUARY 11, 2008 (READ MORE)

ADDITIONAL ALTERNA-TV.COM ALTERNATIVE MEDIA ARTICLES:

Office Website Perfect Companion for NBC Comedy Article exploring the online world of the NBC hit comedy The Office, including character blogs, web-based games and Dunder Mifflin Infinity (January 7, 2008).

'Evolutions' Worthy Digital Extension of the Heroes Universe Article exploring the online world of the NBC hit drama Heroes, including its fictitious websites and webcomics (December 31, 2007).

Christmas Gift Ideas for the Television Enthusiast Article offering Christmas present suggestions for those on your shopping list that can’t stop watching their TV (December 10, 2007).

'Missing Pieces' Adds to the Groundbreaking Legacy of Lost Article spotlighting the recently released Lost: Missing Pieces webisodes and how they compliment the groundbreaking efforts of the ABC drama (December 3, 2007).

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Review of the latest Buffy comic book series (Flak Magazine: July 26, 2007).

Summer Reading for Television Fans Reading list of some of the more interesting television essays available at your local Barnes & Noble (Flak Magazine: July 11, 2007).

Sing Along With Buffy Feature on the Buffy Sing-Along phenomenon and its sell-out performance in Pittsburgh on September 23, 2006 (PopMatters: December 1, 2006).