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Mindy Kaling ruins Scooby Doo


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9 minutes ago, alincoln said:

The volume of original TV programming right now is absurd (559 original scripted shows in 2021 compared to 182 in 2002).  That volume yields both outstanding shows and historically awful shows (such as Velma).  People are almost as interested in awful entertainment as they are with excellent.  The vast mediocre middle is generally ignored. I doubt Kaling and Co. intentionally set out to develop a pile of elephant shit but failing so dramatically may be a better career move than producing something forgettable like the hundreds of shows that are never mentioned in the cultural discourse.     

You consider reboots to be “original programming?”

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17 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

 

This popped up on the timeline today (Big Brother and all that). Cool rundown. Disney afterschool TV was on another level in the 90s. MIght be the only place Disney had their act together that decade.

I even forgot to mention Tailspin. Zzzzz

 

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We're discussing the show at work and have come to the conclusion that it's hilarious that:

- they made the stoner character a black guy with dreads

and

- they didn't make any changes to the whitest, most partiarchical character

It's like they aren't even good at being woke. 

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3 hours ago, Gene Parmesan said:

Isn't this whole thread about how much it sucks and nothing like the original?

Mindy Kaling didn’t invent the Scooby Doo franchise. She didn’t conceive the characters of Velma, Daphne, Fred, and Shaggy. She took an existing franchise and modified it. That’s not creative, that’s appropriative. You could do that by rolling dice.

I think the epidemic of sequels, prequels, and reboots these days is a sign of a lack of originality in the entertainment industry. There’s a dearth of new ideas. We get reboots of Scooby Doo and the Addams Family, of Roseanne, Frasier, Night Court, Magnum P.I, and Hawaii 5-0. None of those are original ideas. They’re just new arrangements of old songs. 

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2 hours ago, ztejas said:

 

- they didn't make any changes to the whitest, most partiarchical character

It's like they aren't even good at being woke. 

It looks like they made Fred into a piece of garbage and an idiot. 
The jokes I’ve seen is that he doesn’t see people who aren’t “hot” and there was a Hitler joke in there which makes me cringe.  Because he’s white I guess he’s gotta be a white supremacist.  It’s cheap and lazy.  I don’t remember any iteration of Fred from the various shows where he’s supposed to be a piece of crap.  

Edited by Lhorn
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21 minutes ago, Lhorn said:

It looks like they made Fred into a piece of garbage and an idiot. 
The jokes I’ve seen is that he doesn’t see people who aren’t “hot” and there was a Hitler joke in there which makes me cringe.  Because he’s white I guess he’s gotta be a white supremacist.  It’s cheap and lazy.  I don’t remember any iteration of Fred from the various shows where he’s supposed to be a piece of crap.  

Ah okay checks out I guess. I haven't watched any I was just going off of pictures I'd seen. 

Yeah he's usually just kind of a vanilla pretty-boy with some decent leadership qualities. 

Edited by ztejas
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Scrappy Doo can suck a dick.  But I did see them but many years ago.  What was Fred like in those shows? I saw some of the Mystery Incorporated episodes a few years ago and he was quirky such as his fetish about setting elaborate traps but he wasn’t portrayed as a bad person. 

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1 hour ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Mindy Kaling didn’t invent the Scooby Doo franchise. She didn’t conceive the characters of Velma, Daphne, Fred, and Shaggy. She took an existing franchise and modified it. That’s not creative, that’s appropriative. You could do that by rolling dice.

I think the epidemic of sequels, prequels, and reboots these days is a sign of a lack of originality in the entertainment industry. There’s a dearth of new ideas. We get reboots of Scooby Doo and the Addams Family, of Roseanne, Frasier, Night Court, Magnum P.I, and Hawaii 5-0. None of those are original ideas. They’re just new arrangements of old songs. 

Tell me you started watching TV towards the end of the century because none of the shows you cited were original (family sitcoms, workplace sitcoms, detective shows have been on air since they were only on radio). There's only 7 types of stories and they've been retold since the caveman days. Nothing has ever been fresh and new. 

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On 1/19/2023 at 4:52 PM, Herpa Derpa said:

Tell me you started watching TV towards the end of the century because none of the shows you cited were original (family sitcoms, workplace sitcoms, detective shows have been on air since they were only on radio). There's only 7 types of stories and they've been retold since the caveman days. Nothing has ever been fresh and new. 

Man versus man, man versus dog, dog versus zombie, James Bond, stories of kings and lords, women over 50 finding themselves after divorce, and car commercial.

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I think the biggest problem is that the show doesn’t work as a serialized drama or dramedy or whatever.  It just doesn’t.  Nobody gives a fuck about the characters’ daily lives.  We want the monster of the week.  There’s only so many times that Daphne and Velma can make out before it’s  just dumb writers that can’t get out themselves out of the corner they painted themselves into.  

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15 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

I think the biggest problem is that the show doesn’t work as a serialized drama or dramedy or whatever.  It just doesn’t.  Nobody gives a fuck about the characters’ daily lives.  We want the monster of the week.  There’s only so many times that Daphne and Velma can make out before it’s  just dumb writers that can’t get out themselves out of the corner they painted themselves into.  

I really do think it's a combination of a truly crappy writers room and learning ALL the wrong lessons from the new Harley Quinn show. Turns out you need more than edgy lesbians to make a show work lol

Edited by Captainant
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On 1/19/2023 at 5:52 PM, Herpa Derpa said:

Tell me you started watching TV towards the end of the century because none of the shows you cited were original (family sitcoms, workplace sitcoms, detective shows have been on air since they were only on radio). There's only 7 types of stories and they've been retold since the caveman days. Nothing has ever been fresh and new. 

I was talking about reboots of existing franchises. I never claimed that Magnum P.I. was the first detective show or that Hawaii 5-0 was the first cop show, etc. That’s silly and misses the point. I’m not sure how arguing that the genres of detective show and cop show already existed before Magnum P.I. and Hawaii 5-0 were created so rebooting those series is really just the same as creating all new franchises with new characters in different settings and with different premises.

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2 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I was talking about reboots of existing franchises. I never claimed that Magnum P.I. was the first detective show or that Hawaii 5-0 was the first cop show, etc. That’s silly and misses the point. I’m not sure how arguing that the genres of detective show and cop show already existed before Magnum P.I. and Hawaii 5-0 were created so rebooting those series is really just the same as creating all new franchises with new characters in different settings and with different premises.

get used to it.  shit is really expensive now and decision makers are very risk-averse.

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On 1/19/2023 at 8:51 AM, Sawbonz said:

In the 70’s if you were a performer of color you had to be exceptional to make it on to a TV show. To get a show greenlit that was predominantly or totally about people of color you had to be amazing. So the shows that actually made it to pilot and got picked up had a much higher hit rate than shows full of white characters. 
 

Nowadays people of color are getting more chances. It stands to reason more people w mediocre talent will make it big, and those with great talent will have a higher percentage of failures

A great example of this is Wanda Sykes, who just happens to be on this show. And that says quite a bit. Yeah, she works a lot and has had some funny moments(mostly on Curb) but overall her body of work is like that toothache that makes your eye hurt. 

 

Finished episode 3 this morning and it's still way too much try hard and very little entertainment. Seems the show is more interested in checking boxes with the right memes and targets than doing what it is supposed to do.

 

Also, I'm glad they didn't drag Scooby in to this mess. We're talking about one of the greatest cartoon characters in American history. He deserves better.

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2 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

get used to it.  shit is really expensive now and decision makers are very risk-averse.

I think this is spot-on and read that big budget movies and the cinema experience is going to be these derivative, spin-off, re-boot, tried-and-true IP stories and that the film that would be break-out hits or create new IP are increasingly being developed and distributed via streaming. The thinking being, why try and make this a 2.5 hour journey when I can really add all the detail and color and artistic journey I want and do it over 8 episodes.

I don't know, you are in the business of Hollywood somehow I think, and I'm not, but that seems to be the trend and where the money is going. I follow the streamers and content creators from a business perspective and find it all very fascinating, especially Netflix (and the news that Reed Hastings has stepped down from CEO).

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3 hours ago, Brothahorn said:

A great example of this is Wanda Sykes, who just happens to be on this show. And that says quite a bit. Yeah, she works a lot and has had some funny moments(mostly on Curb) but overall her body of work is like that toothache that makes your eye hurt. 

She'll always be Biggie Shorty to me... 

wanda-sykes-hooking.gif

Edited by NWBuck
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22 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

get used to it.  shit is really expensive now and decision makers are very risk-averse.

Yep. Reboots come with a built-in audience who will tune in just because it’s a recognizable name. A truly original idea is more of a risk.

But speaking of reboots, I can’t believe they bailed on The Muppets after just one season. I thought that was pretty good and showed real promise. I don’t know what kind of ratings it got and I doubt I was their target demographic. But there were some funny bits and I figure if they’d given it more time then they would’ve gotten bigger name guest stars. I was surprised when they canceled it because I thought it was going to be successful.

And yet as shitty as the Roseanne reboot was, and even after Roseanne got shitcanned, The Connors rolls on. Who’s watching that? I guess if just a fraction of the original audience is still hanging on then that’s worth it. I don’t see it. 

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1.3 on IMDB. No way it’s that bad.

c054f46a6b9a642dba75a48a83c9690a.jpg
I feel so many just hopped on the bandwagon and are just killing the show because it's the in thing to do. I've also heard HBO intentionally did all this to get the people riled up and drives more people to talk about it and go check it out themselves to see how bad it really is (or isn't). That they purposely changed every single thing about the original story to get a rise out of people.

I just don't get how people give a shit about an already terrible show to begin with when it aired. This can't be any worse than the original Scooby Doo.
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32 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

I feel so many just hopped on the bandwagon and are just killing the show because it's the in thing to do.

Duh. Review bombing something you haven’t seen is how you get big internet karma points 

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1 hour ago, Vic Mackey said:

I've also heard HBO intentionally did all this to get the people riled up and drives more people to talk about it and go check it out themselves to see how bad it really is (or isn't). That they purposely changed every single thing about the original story to get a rise out of people.

Reminiscent of the female reboot for Ghostbusters marketing plan.  Talk about the casting as a wedge issue instead of any entertainment value. 

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3 hours ago, Vic Mackey said:


I just don't get how people give a shit about an already terrible show to begin with when it aired. This can't be any worse than the original Scooby Doo.

53 Memes ideas | funny, memes, hilarious

best Saturday morning cartoon and you are wrong and should feel bad. It's your opinion and I understand that but you are..

Wrong Drumpf GIF - Wrong Drumpf Trump - Discover & Share GIFs

 

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1 hour ago, longhornmatt said:

You can just literally copy the old show instead of trying to put a new spin on it, and you’ll probably make the audience happier than anything new would.  If they didn’t already learn that lesson from The Force Awakens vs. other Star Wars sequels, surely they are about to get it now after Top Gun.  

In the case of The Force Awakens, Abrams completely destroyed the happy ending of ROTJ.  Not a good way to try and revive the series.

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21 hours ago, Vic Mackey said:

I feel so many just hopped on the bandwagon and are just killing the show because it's the in thing to do. I've also heard HBO intentionally did all this to get the people riled up and drives more people to talk about it and go check it out themselves to see how bad it really is (or isn't). That they purposely changed every single thing about the original story to get a rise out of people.

I just don't get how people give a shit about an already terrible show to begin with when it aired. This can't be any worse than the original Scooby Doo.

 

tumblr_39d4a05f0a20370a195b4f32ba7ed374_123de8ef_500.gif

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On 1/28/2023 at 9:25 PM, longhornmatt said:

The highest grossing and most critically acclaimed movie of the last year (few years?) was a sequel to Top Gun which copied its beginning directly from the original Top Gun and copied its ending directly from the ending to Star Wars.   And it was received as a refreshing departure from modern formulaic Hollywood simply because it used practical effects, real locations, and told a story unironically (and it was pretty awesome, to be fair).  

If anything, I expect the studios to lean even harder into old IP for a while.  The bar for making money with established IP is lower and easier to clear than it’s ever been.  You can just literally copy the old show instead of trying to put a new spin on it, and you’ll probably make the audience happier than anything new would.  If they didn’t already learn that lesson from The Force Awakens vs. other Star Wars sequels, surely they are about to get it now after Top Gun.  

That’s what makes this show and reinventing Scooby Doo without Scooby Doo so weird.  Read the room.  

I am fascinated by the economics of the industry and movies and I think we've all read famous case studies of movies that completely bomb (Too many to name) or nearly bankrupt studios (Fantasia) and maybe even have heard of the ones that come out of nowhere and make a ton of money (Blair Witch Project). More recently Cameron was quoted as saying Avatar 2 needed to make $2bn globally to make a profit, which is absurd (and it did).

I was reading a blurb about this small budget film.

Quote

 

Skinamarink (2022) 

Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished.

 

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt21307994/

Filmed for $15,000 budget I think I read and it's at a $1.8mm box office. 1200x return. Amazing story. I love to see it. 

But the reality is that with streaming, studios aren't going to greenlight as many films as they will movies, as Scorsese would say.

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My wife had it on and I saw a few minutes of an episode. It just seemed like a lot of millennial humor targeted specifically to a female audience. It didn't strike me as bad, just targeted to a narrow audience. Scooby Doo has been rebooted and interpreted a bunch of different ways, it's not some sacred cow that someone "messed" with, just a unique version. Someone said it earlier, but it really does feel like a bandwagon effect. Someone influential outside the target audience said it sucked and everyone decided to pile on. Just my two cents. 

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