On Nov. 5, 2007, the same day the TV writers in Hollywood decided to go on strike, the website TV WORTH WATCHING was launched. The strike didn't last, but, so far, TVWW has. It's gone from one writer (me) on Day One to more than 15 writers four years later. And we have big plans, which we hope won't exceed our grasp, for 2012...
The picture above captures about half the current TVWW family, gathered together in August 2011 at Trader Vic's poolside restaurant in Beverly Hills. It was during the Television Critics Association press tour, and we gathered for drinks and dinner so I could thank as many as could show up for the work they had done or will do for TV WORTH WATCHING.
Clockwise from bottom left, the revelers visible in this photo are managing editor Diane Werts, Ed Martin, Theresa Corigliano, Ed Bark, me (wearing the loud purple Hawaiian shirt, and not in honor of Trader Vic's), Eric Kohanik (a respected Canadian TV critic who's just about to join our merry band), Bill Brioux -- and, at the far right, Dean Norris, who plays Hank Schrader, Walter White's inquisitive brother-in-law on AMC's Breaking Bad.
Norris doesn't write for us, though he's welcome to, any time. He was meeting and visiting Diane, because they're both alumni of the same local TV satirical sketch show (Beyond Our Control, a long-running production of NBC affiliate WNDU in South Bend, Indiana) -- and was gracious enough to hang around and chat with us critical types.
Another of our writers, Eric Gould, took the photo at the top of this column, but Norris himself took the shot at right of the TVWW writers at poolside.
(In this photo at right, it's Ed Bark on the ground, and, from left, Eric Gould, Ed Martin, Theresa Corigliano, Eric Kohanik, Diane Werts, Bill Brioux, and David Bianculli as the Beaver.)
I wonder: How many times, since making it big on Breaking Bad, has Norris been asked to take a picture rather than be in one? But part of being a critic is playing it cool enough so you don't act like a fan, even though, if you love quality TV, you are. And Dean was a real pleasure to spend time with. We all laughed a lot -- and as laughs go, this is a very tough crowd.
How tough? Well, we all gave our individual drink orders without paying attention to what anyone else was ordering from Trader Vic's ridiculously colorful and varied menu -- and when the drinks arrived, almost half of us had ordered the same drink. Its name? Suffering Bastard.
Which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about TV critics.
But at four years and counting, TV WORTH WATCHING is still a happy place -- well, most days, anyway. Lots of it is due to the writers, including the ones who didn't down drinks at Vic's, and to the behind-the-scenes designers and computer geniuses who have turned our nebulous plans into concrete web pages from the start. (At right is an early pre-launch mockup, by none other than Eric Gould.)
It's hard not to get excited about both the quality and quantity of the writing here, and the packaging. Our next redesign -- threatened often, and now planned for early 2012 -- will showcase both the contributors and you readers even more, so please, as they say, stay tuned.
Our mission, though, remains the same as it did when we first launched. Here's what I wrote in the inaugural blog, the day TV WORTH WATCHING came into existence:
Welcome to the official launch of TV WORTH WATCHING, a website devoted to the discovery, discussion and dissemination of quality television. The fact that it comes into existence at midnight on November 5 - the very moment the writers in Hollywood threatened to strike - is pure, goofy coincidence. TV, it is the firm position of this website, is better when it's written.
Please take a minute or two to press some navigation bar buttons and roam around the site. If you care about good television - watching it, collecting it, reading or hearing about it, even discussing it - chances are you'll find something useful, entertaining, maybe even surprising.
Theodore Sturgeon once posited what he called Sturgeon's Law, which says that "90 percent of everything is crap." (In some citations, the wording is even stronger.) Certainly, that's true of television - but that remaining 10 percent still leaves a lot of room for enjoyment, education and inspiration. That's the focus of this website: Instead of TV's 90 percent problem, we'll be devoting our attentions and energies to the 10 percent solution.
Then and now, that holds true. Thanks for being here -- and thousands of you have been here virtually from the start, which is the greatest compliment you could give us.
They say that everybody's a critic -- but, to paraphrase Animal Farm, some are more critical than others.
And here we are. We writers, you readers... and Dean Norris. Thanks for making it a very happy birthday for TV WORTH WATCHING.
Gratefully,
David Bianculli
a.k.a. Suffering Bastard #1