moving wallpaper/echo beach: UK TV eats itself, chokes on own vomit, dies lying in a stinking pool of its own excrement?

i'm intrigued

yeh, but i was intrigued by tubgirl. for a fraction of a second.

The comedy behind-the-scenes thing stars Ben Miller, which might mean it warrants an initial viewing, though I'm convinced it won't work. Mostly because I think they are hoping people will buy into the soap and stop it being a pisstake and start being an actual new soap, except with a gimmicky launch.

I really, really like Moving Wallpaper (I've seen the final 3 eps). Apparently ep 1 takes a while to get going but it quickly improves.

But Simon, nice kneejerk condemnation of an actual innovative idea you don't understand ;)

"innovative"? in what possible way? hellfire, i'd stop short at "idea". it's fucking "extras" split into two. as for "understand" ... if i'm missing something then it's only, as morrissey once put it, because it's gone completely under my head.

you like "moving wallpaper"; what about the actual soapy wank? because that's as big a part of the deal here.

so where is the essential elimination element of this show?

xpost

and, y'know, sorry if i'm traducing some of your clients here, mark, which i assume from your reaction i must be. but, umm ... no, ultimately life's too short.

so where is the essential elimination element of this show?

i think the whole idea was eliminated from someone's bowels.

why don't you give it a go and then report back. the worst that can happen is a smug sense of being right all along.

tsk tsk all this negativity on ilx

xpost

for pretty much the same reason i don't intend to give "putting my cock in a vice" a go. i'd add: "i have a TV reviewer to do that for me", but i realise he's not actually bothered to review it. which sorta says it all.

THAT SAID: i'm gonna have to now, am i not? me and my big mouth.

(watch it, i mean. not put my cock in a vice.)

the worst that can happen is a smug sense of being right all along

also: this is my default state ;)

yeh, but i was intrigued by tubgirl. for a fraction of a second.

-- grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 18:20

9.00 Grimly Fiendish
New ensemble comedy follows misadventures of internet addict. See Picks. (S) (AD) 6584

9.30 Tubgirl
Projectile diarrhea. See Picks. (S) (AD) 80381

SEE, MICHAEL GRADE? THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BE COMMISSIONING.

(although, y'know, that first half-hour ain't gonna be easy to fill.)

(not to turn this thread into a knob-off, but it's always funny seeing British people complain about their television when Aus and NZ television is almost worse than no television at all)

Italian TV is the worst in the world.

what? antoine de caunes and jean-paul gaultier said it was all scantily clad laydeez running round pouting. sounds ace to me.

It isn't. Dom otm. Not only terrible, but boring with it.

I mean who'd want to watch this woman...
http://www.myvintagetv.com/Italian%20TV/TV1.jpg

yeh ... terrible ... sorry, what? was miles away there.

The thing is though that somehow they manage to make her and every other pouting scantily clad lady really really dull. The programmes go on and on, the studios are huge empty spaces with flashing lights, the presenters are all teeth and no charisma and everything is interrupted every ten minutes with some bizarre singing and dancing. It's entertaining for about half an hour but after that you can just feel your brain cells dying off.

I mean I LOVE Italy but their TV is just unwatchable.

Unlike Echo beach which i'm sure will be unmissable.

Someone told me that the Italian Deal or No Deal has the banker in the corner dressed up as Death with a dark cloak and sickle and all that shit, so that's a winner right there.

bump, in vain bid to pique the interest of the UK bored-at-work crew ...

IS IT AS GOOD AS THE ST TRINIAN'S MOVIE THO?

Someone told me that the Italian Deal or No Deal has the banker in the corner dressed up as Death with a dark cloak and sickle and all that shit, so that's a winner right there.

Not only that, instead of boxes it has cariaature busts of famous people. The banker shuffles across to hand deliver the envelope with the offer in it to the clanging of a church bell.

my brothers and i once sat transfixed at late-night cypriot tv and then agreed between ourselves that we had glimpsed the inferno

I haven't seen Echo Beach, but then I don't watch any soaps these days so *shrug*

nice kneejerk condemnation

Will reserve judgement until I've actually seen the thing, but already I'm disappointed that they didn't do this with River City when it started. Then again they would have probably had to cast

Fred MacAulay
COMEDIAN

in the Ben Miller role.

From what little I've seen of Italian DOND, isn't it also heavily implied that The Banker is a mafioso?

Could be, don't remember. Another good thing on Italian TV - Antonella Clerici on La Prova del Cuoco, though I have no idea what's going on in it.

tsk tsk all this negativity on ilx

-- DG, Tuesday, January 8, 2008 7:03 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

^^^^

That would be a good idea for our DOND - instead of 1p, one of the boxes contains a round of ammunition which when opening the box is triggered to fire automatically into the contestant. It would certainly up the stakes a bit and encourage that "extra ounce of courage."

No, scotch that since theoretically that would mean every contestant would get shot at some point.

Get the box to fire ammunition into the presenter - that way we get rid of Noel and get a new loathsome presenter every day to despatch. Jimmy Carr, Phil and Kirstie, Sarah Beeny - the possibilities are endless!

<i>IS IT AS GOOD AS THE ST TRINIAN'S MOVIE THO?

-- Noodle Vague,
</i>

I enjoyed the St Trinians movie. Fuck the haters.

And fuck BBcode.

RTFM

I'm pretty sure Sarah Beeny's tits would soak up small arms fire.

I'm looking forward to the St Trinian's Field Trip To Kenya sequel. Shot on location, of course.

Ha. My brother auditioned for this, and I'm glad he didn't get a part.

really? for the soapy bit or the look-at-us-we're-so-fucking-clever bit? or did they not discriminate?

i'd fire my small arms at sarah beeny's tits alright

Look at us bit. He got the lead role in the film version of Awaydays instead.

It's a shame Laura Esposto doesn't wear outfits like that on Channel 5 (many x-posts)

i'd fire my small arms at sarah beeny's tits alright

-- DG, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 13:04 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

lol thalidomide

Radio Times says 'wtf'

Tom Warren - James Lance

Directed by: Dominic Brigstocke

Probably the most erratic britcom director ever.

New Soaps almost always get a critical booting. Which was the last new one to survive more than 12 months, Hollyoaks? This way, if everybody laughs at Echo Beach and points out how shit it is, the producers can just go "Naaaaaah, it was meant to be like that, you are too thick to understand our brilliant telly brains". Then axe it after 3 weeks.

Also, people don't like to like soaps "ironically", especially new ones.

Sitting through a half hour show (MP) where the auience is being routinely insulted, and then watching the 'nice' 'serious' soap, they won't go for it.

All very creative, I just anticipate it getting halfway into the run, no-one watching the soap and the MovingPictures doing mediocrely. and getting dropped.

Yeah, this has got "won't see out the series" written all over it.

Directed by: Dominic Brigstocke

Any relation? And who have they dug up to phone in a Martha and the Muffins cover in autotuned 08 styles?

French & Saunders - (1987-2004)
Smith and Jones - (1989-98)
Harry Enfield And Chums - (1994-97)
Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge - (1994-95)
The Mrs Merton Show - (1995-98)
It Happened Next Year - (1996)
I'm Alan Partridge - (1997-2002)
Smack the Pony (1999-2003)
The Morwenna Banks Specials (1999)
Tv To Go - (2000-02)
'Orrible - (2001)
Combat Sheep - (2001)
Daydream Believers - (2001)
The Kumars At No 42 - (2001-Present)
Matthew & Tone - (2002)
Spike Milligan I Told You I Was Ill A Live Tribute - (2002)
Swiss Toni - (2003-2004)
Green Wing - (2004-2007)

Erratic sure, but some genuine classics on there as well.

Throw enough shit at a wall etc etc

How long did Night And Day last? That could have been good but tried way too hard to be "weird."

Oh I vaguely recall that. Not long at all. Wasn't the "Night" part supposed to be weird and the "Day" part more conventional?

I think he's Marcus's brother, if I remember correctly.

Nepotism in the media? Don't believe it.

I'm happy to jump to conclusions on this one without having seen it. What was the last good ITV sitcom again?

Coronation Street.

SHITV amirite

I liked St Trins too. I think this could go either way (how straight will the late night soap be?) but interested that ITV are moving out of the comfort zones and trying to innovate.

I fear that any "innovation" here will of the Johnny Vegas/Barcelona type.

I admire the way they are trying to innovate by launching a Soap starring heterosexual Jason Donovan and Martine McCutcheon.

Well, it's not been done before.

Is JD playing someone who does surfing and that?

I'm assuming Echo Beach is intended to outlast Moving Wallpaper?

Jason Donovan does not do "that" and he has won the court case to prove it.

I seriously think Moving Wallpaper is there as a face-saver if EB goes tits up, and the plan is for EB to establish itself as a proper soap.

'JD' and 'MM' were just on this morning not sounding too confident in what they'd been sent to promote

mind you they'd probably been thrown at the sight of carol vorderman pimping omega-3 crap while apparently dressed as ming the merciless

"Well, it's not been done before."

i guess not, though 'larry sanders' isn't too far off. or 'annually retentive'.

Prediction - the soap will be funnier than the sitcom. And I don't mean unintentionally funny either.

Are you saying the soap will be very funny or the sitcom painfully not?

So, my prediction:

1. Shows begin (fairly 100% on that one happening)
2. Shows get scheduled to run non-consecutively. Probably, soap gets earlier slot.
3. Comedy gets later slot.
4. One show dies.
5. Programme execs sit around and try to apportion blame.

Hang on, it's the dogs again, isn't it?

The Three Dogs scenario - A 'thinky' thing...

Well, whatever happens it can't be any worse than Bob Martin, if anyone else remembers that particular nail in the Barrymore coffin...

MOTM

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/1511/mbyt1.jpg

i guess not, though 'larry sanders' isn't too far off. or 'annually retentive'.

-- That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 10 January 2008 12:35 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

Someone's forgetting "The Show... with Bob Mills"

Of course Bob Martin was written by:

Bob Mills
COMEDIAN

- so its crapness was inbuilt.

Still think "In Bed With MeDinner" was one of the three best comedy shows of the 90s.

Now you've lost me

wish that RT reviewer had used the rest of my thread title in her intro, too.

right. i'm going to watch this. every last sorry second of both bits. I AM DOING THIS FOR YOU, ILX. (and also to give me carte blanche to slag it off again, right enough.)

You should LIVEBLOG it.

I'm joining grimly. Gotta be better than The Truth About Your Food and Make Your Child Brilliant.

JAMES LANCE IS IN UR TV, MAKING SOME QUIZZICAL FACES

lol ANGRY BOSS insults

"Is the Pope Polish?"
"No, he isn't"

You know what that is right there? That's LULZ.

This is the first time I've watched something that isn't football on the telly for about six months.

Ok, you're going back to being my xbox 360 monitor for another 6 months, Mr TV.

I got the timing wrong and thought the first part started at 9.30, and didn't see the point in watching Echo Beach on its own. Did I miss much?

That was great, Mark C OTM, that was like The Sopranos crossed with Chappelle's Show crossed with the elephant shitting on the floor on Blue Peter.

I dunno, I'm watching Spike Milligan on BBC4, "6-5 Special"

That was great, Mark C OTM, that was like The Sopranos crossed with Chappelle's Show crossed with the elephant shitting on the floor on Blue Peter

okay. that's the first time i've cracked a smile in the past 49 minutes. actually, no: i did make a snorting noise at one of the lines in MW. but i think that was beer going down the wrong way.

if it existed on its own, as a standalone ho-ho-wacky-world-of-TV thing, it would be just about okay. but it doesn't. it's tacked on to what, 10 minutes in, is yawnsome fucking early-twenties soap shite of the ... SORRY, I THINK I'VE JUST HEARD THE WORST LINE ON TV THIS DECADE:

HIM: "i'm not gay"
HER, coquettishly: "me neither"

[exeunt HIM and HER on a motorbike]

anyway, where was i? yeh, soapy gunk that gets stuck to the pubes of misery and blocks up the plughole of life.

i mean. ROFFLE ROFFLE look they're doing up the surf shack because the "producer" blew the design budget on his wet room! ROFFLE ROFFLE it's suzy amy! (i'm surprised they didn't have her with a fucking great cum stain down her top.) ROFFLE ROFFLE it's an asian girl behind the bar! ROFFLE RO ... hang on, this is shit.

i really, really want to know more about the genesis of this thing. did they come up with the soap first, realise it blew, and decide to write something "clever" to try to impress people ...

... oh, HOO HOO HOO, there's just been a line about a wet room ...

because i really can't think of any other way this could be so bad.

in fairness to mark: MV was passable; i can quite believe it might get better. but it can't be divorced from the rest of it.

HER: "gayboy!"
HIM: "minger!"

OH THE WIT. OH THE REPARTEE.

bottom line: ITV1 obviously think we are all fucking idiots.

ecHOOS beach

aka the papermover

i'd watch that.

anyway. i'm gonna watch that stephen mangan thing on BBC2 now. i haven't watched this much telly in a night since ... er, a week or so ago.

glutton for punishment over here

IMDB is shit. whence do i recognise script-editor lass in MV?

I liked the soap more than the other programme which seemed terribly perdictable.

Minus points for Echo Beach - Jason Donovan's accent and daughter are quite irritating. The son and his leery mate are terrible - Skins rejects. MM is just dull. The property developer bit part (maybe developed later?) was awful.

Plus points - the headmistress from Grange Hill! The scenery! Unintentional lols (like the line grimly mentions above).

ho, this stephen mangan thing has kate ashfield and her beautiful eyes in it. rock.

I must be getting old and soft but I didn't hate it half as much as they did on the guardian liveblogging thing.... The bile poured on it makes me want to watch it tomorrow.

i watched star trek instead :D

Some of the acting in the soap part of this was absolutely appalling.

Has anyone ever liveblogged a liveblog?

how is mangan thing I did not bother

What a mess the soap was - everybody wandering about totally lost (including a barely recognisable Mike Baldwin). At least things like Falcon Beach are honest trash.

Ben Miller did very well with atrocious material in MW but the obstacles are the same; Larry David, Garry Shandling etc. can get away with media in-jokes because they are international names and have established characters, whereas MW would only have been funny if Echo Beach had actually been good, but as it turned out the soap was as bad as they said it was. The British just can't do this sort of thing.

Yeah, it took me about 3 minutes to realise it was Mike Baldwin. Recognised Mrs McLusky straight away though.

mangan thing v average: lol man who happens to be recovering alcoholic (no dark humour at all, sadly) puts foot in it repeatedly. better than MV/EB, but then -- on balance -- leaving the TV switched off would have been better than MV/EB.

I only caught the ending, with the fight on the beach. It reminded me of the first ever episode of OC where Ryan is not like by the popular kids and fights on the beach. Was the rest of it anything like the OC?

I'll probly never watch it again, I only flicked it on because of this thread anyway.

xxp Mike Baldwin was in this ?? In that case, I might just check out another episode.

Was it as good as St Trinian's, though?

It was like the cast of Crackerjack doing The O.C.

Erm, isn't it the point that the soap is shit?

FSVO 'point', obviously.

Erm, isn't it the point that the soap is shit?

no! i don't think so at all. i think they thought it was a total postmodern ratings winner (actors from three other major soaps; english beaches; post-watershed screening, etc). but then someone, somewhere got cold feet so they tacked on this appalling meta-nonsense in order to try to brainwash us into thinking it's enormously clever, too.

but no: i don't think there's any so-bad-it's-good intention here at all.

'English beaches'- "Yeah, well who the fuck wants to see em"

Erm, isn't it the point that the soap is shit?

-- Matt DC, Friday, 11 January 2008 21:42 (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

It's too long. Wallpaper needs to be longer and Echo Beach needs to be shorter. As it stands, you've got way too much exposition jammed into the first half hour and bugger-all spread across the second.

There are some great ideas here (and a really ballsy risk on the part of ITV1), but so far the problems outweight the potential. I'm hoping it improves but I don't know who'll be around to see it.

The Telegraph liked it!

Rather more original was ITV1’s new back-to-back combo Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach. In fact, it’s hard to believe there will be a more intriguing piece of programming in the whole of 2008. Moving Wallpaper is a snappy, knowing, tongue-in-cheek comedy set behind-the-scenes on a TV soap called... well, Echo Beach, actually. The opener centred on a producer-from-hell (Ben Miller), as he took a dull, dated soap-series idea, shook it by the neck until the cast, crew and writers fell about screaming, then reformed it as a glamorous OC-style soap set in the idyllic, sun-washed, surf paradise that is, er, Cornwall.

The ultimate media in-joke, Moving Wallpaper was a tart little dish of puffed up egos, knowing nods and rampant ratings-related amorality (and far funnier than either Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip or 30 Rock). Yet, just as we were getting over the news that soaps are jokes played on viewers by cynical TV execs and advertisers, we got Echo Beach itself. It featured Jason Donovan, Martine McCutcheon and a legion of pretty beach boys and girls, complete with all the bells, whistles and outrageous little tricks we’d seen planned and perpetrated in Moving Wallpaper. But played absolutely straight and, actually, not half badly.

So what’s the big idea? Will the two shows eventually merge? Diverge? Collapse into each other and form the first televisual black hole? All I can say is, I’m genuinely dying to find out. I mean, what a novel idea: putting something on the telly that’s so intriguing you can hardly bear to wait for the next couple of episodes (tonight), and maybe even the next again (next Friday). And what the hell is all this doing on ITV1, anyway?

who the bloody hell wrote that? mind: given that the telegraph (like all UK newspapers) is pretty much entirely staffed by 21-year-old work-experiencers these days, i guess it's not a surprising review.

tediously written and devoid of any wit or insight, but not *surprising*.

Did Mark C write that? xp

Someone called Gerard O'Donovan...made up name, surely.

The Mirror says of tonights instalment...

the second episode is as brilliant as the first

OK, maybe that's damning with faint praise...

And according to The Guardian...Echo Beach resonates with viewers

Cornwall is never going to look like Bondi.

the second episode is 'of the same quality' as the first

hmm, my mistake: he's been around a bit. i am surprised, now: that had "written by a 21-year-old" all over it.

Gerard O’Donovan has worked as a journalist and critic for many UK newspapers and magazines over the past 15 years, mostly on the subject of television for the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. He is a founder member of the Criminal Classes writers’ group. Despite an ongoing love affair with Suffolk, he currently lives in Bristol.

</stalker>

Many reviewers gave the thumbs up to Eldorado when that started.

Echo Beach resonates with viewers

hahahhah! see what the sub did there? hahahahahaha!

sorry: i don't think the first night's viewing figures are particularly reliable for this. i mean, i watched it -- and i'll never do so again. i want to see the curve for this one.

Yep. Second night ratings will tell a story.

I don't see any BBC2 figures there.

There was shite all on any of the other channels anyway, I started to watch Phone Booth on itv4 but Sutherlands grating voice just started to, um, grate.

I can't understand the antagonism vs. cornish beaches, they're beautiful and looked great. I'd go there on holiday. In fact I have.

The Sun's in-depth look...the problem is you're all not sophisticated enough...

I LOVE Moving Wallpaper and now have a crush on Ben Miller who plays a producer in the TV drama that started last night.

But even though it captures the hysteria behind filming a show — I’m not so sure about Echo Beach, the linked soap screened afterwards. It’s like a lacklustre OC.

It is a brave idea from Life On Mars, co-creator Tony Jordan and has taken 12 years to make.

But it could be too sophisticated for viewers. Maybe ITV should have just stuck with Moving Wallpaper — THEN they would have a hit on their hands.

12 years!!!

12 YEARS!

bad luck, son.

Someone got paid for that 'review'.

Well I didn't like Life On Mars either, so there you go.

hmm: i don't mind the sun review, actually. i think it's a damn sight more telling than the telegraph's.

It is a brave idea from Life On Mars, co-creator Tony Jordan and has taken 12 years to convince someone it would be a good idea make.

I can't understand the antagonism vs. cornish beaches, they're beautiful and looked great. I'd go there on holiday. In fact I have.

-- Ned Trifle II, Friday, 11 January 2008 22:33 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

The Home & Away look is a bit incongruous though.

Perhaps I'm just being harsh.

yeah most of the time sunny scenes on telly just look like dull days, assuming because of camera technology filtering out glareness.

i'm making up my own topics now aren't i

Watergate Bay is very nice even in cloudy weather. And of course Jamie Oliver's cafe is there so you can get a nice plate of cod'n'chips too. Here endeth the advertisement from the Cornish Tourist Board.

Okay, so why do they not have Cornish accents? Is this normal for Cornwall?

Yes, all Posh londoners innit. Like North Norfolk.

Brilliant.

Mrs McClusky's character had a cornish accent. Anyway, the rest of the cast not having accents is fair enough since we already know that the new producer has cut out pretty much everything cornish and is only interested in sexiness.

Dom I think that's the third time you've referenced me in the last 2 days? Did I hit a nerve or something? It's usually harder than that to get under your skin.

Mike Baldwin had a terrible Cornish accent as well. I quite liked it, and will give it another go tonight, but would never have watched Echo Beach without Moving Wallpaper. The worst thing is trying to buy Martine McCutcheon as a frumpy frustrated housewife in, presumably, her late 30s/early 40s (given age of her kids and memories of her fling with Donovan's character 20 years ago).

but would never have watched Echo Beach without Moving Wallpaper

exactly. the whole thing is a nasty little exercise in trying to combine demographics.

It's like Transformers: crap sitcom and crap soap combine to form... a bunch of shite no-one cares about

I was probably the only one - but I watched ep2. MW actually quite funny this time.

IMDB is shit. whence do i recognise script-editor lass in MV?

She was in the Bourne Ultimatum

aye, she was also in that rob newman thing (qv rob newman thread!); that's what i was thinking of.

anyone seen any more of this?

Echo Beach is only running for 12 episodes apparently. I still don't believe they were seriously intending on running it as a straight soap.

One of the great things about on-demand internet TV is it allows you to watch much-debated new programmes and actually form a proper opinion but I got 5mins into this and realised it really was going to be as awful as everyone said and stopped. Life's too short.

I watched the Friday episodes (look, it was that or Jamie Oliver gassing chickens or New Tricks starring Amanda Redman as a feisty matriarch who wants her boys to go straight). It's getting a bit like those Michael Medved Bad Movies seasons on C4 back in the early eighties in that MV programmes you to look out for the bad bits/referenced bits in EB.

It might possibly work if they can do some astute feeding back in the EB segments but since the EB cast are clearly now playing it for laughs - when the humour would only work if they were playing it dead straight - I'm not sure they've left themselves much room for manoeuvre.

Dom I think that's the third time you've referenced me in the last 2 days? Did I hit a nerve or something? It's usually harder than that to get under your skin.

-- Mark C, Friday, 11 January 2008 15:33 (3 days ago) Link

It's the new ILX meme, "lol mark c approaches things with an open mind and no preconceptions"

I saw 15 minutes of this in the takeaway while I was waiting for 1/cantonese style sweet & sour chicken 2/vegetable chow mein. The dialog was very poor and unconvincing, I thought. One of the actresses was good, but the rest of the cast was pretty bad. It didn't sound like real people talking, and the words didn't sound like the sort of thing real people would say.

The ultimate media in-joke, Moving Wallpaper was a tart little dish of puffed up egos, knowing nods and rampant ratings-related amorality (and far funnier than either Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip or 30 Rock)

RONG

^^^

F'real, this is up there with that Ceri Thomas dude in the London free press saying that "Lead Balloon is like Curb Your Enthusiasm, except with one vital difference: it's funny".

only 12 episodes? not even worth watching anyway then, American sitcom seasons last longer than this.

Lead Balloon isn't too bad as long as you approach it from the "unfunny" angle.

It didn't sound like real people talking, and the words didn't sound like the sort of thing real people would say

Pash the current vogue in television drama is for everything to be "heightened". The idea (as it was explained to a room full of people by the guy who made Life on Mars) is that these shows allow their characters to actually do and say the things that in real life would only imagined or fantasized about. I haven't seen this show/shows but this might be what's happening here. i.e the secretary starts flirting with your husband and instead of just fantasizing about tripping her as she walks over to the water cooler youa ctually do. The challenge for the writers then apparently is that this mode of drama "eats up story" -- if everyone's always doing what they want, with no repression of their desires, then you're contantly reaching the end of an arc and needing to find a new one. The writers end up having to write quadruple the amount of plot in a "heightened" drama than for something like Eastenders.

good god. that explains a lot, yes.

He mentioned Footballer's Wives and 24 as being sort of the paragons of that style of show. I think you could make a case for Ally McBeal being the kind of forerunner of the phenomenon.

The ultimate media in-joke, Moving Wallpaper was a tart little dish of puffed up egos, knowing nods and rampant ratings-related amorality (and far funnier than either Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip or 30 Rock)

RONG

-- stevie, Monday, 14 January 2008 20:55 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

You'd never get American press saying '30 Rock is up there with Moving Wallpaper,' even if it were true.

Anyone still watching this? I sort of quite like it, in a no-brainer easy-roffles bottle-of-wine-in-front-of-the-telly Friday night kind of a way. A brief glance at Digital Spy shows that people exist who only watch the soap (which would be terrible in its own right, surely) without watching Moving Wallpaper AND QUITE LIKE IT. People are odd.

I only watch the soap now, I watched 1 1/2 episodes of MW - that was enough.

So, basically it seems Echo Beach is a flop, while Moving Wallpaper is doing OK.

It would be better if there were more interaction between the two, but I have the feeling that by the end of the run most of EB will happen within MW and vice versa.

I'm quite getting into it now - MW tickles my funny bone but my wife doesn't understand it, whilst my wife thinks EB is great and I just laugh at the references from MW. So we're both happy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7568616.stm

IT WILL NOT DIE BUT REGENERATE LIKE DOCTOR WHO!!!!

moving wallpaper/Rennaisance: UK TV fucks itself, produces baby, lives on advert infinitum?

or not.

Can't imagine I'll be going out of my way to watch.

Same with the general ennui surrounding Big Brother 2008, X-Factor 2008 and Dragons' Den 2008. The whole thing's played itself out and it's not even car crash TV any more; just ten-mile logjam between High Wycombe and Stokenchurch on a rainy Friday teatime in November TV.

Dragon's Den was less 'strange' yesterday, more actual business ideas and Dragons not going for things out of their immediate comfort zone.

The kids were both debating the sale possibilities of food websites and Wii music packages, and three year sales projection tables. Whether or not this is a good thing, I cannot say.

actually, should go on den of drags thread, ...

Renaissance features Dale as a family man flying home from a holiday when the plane is attacked by zombies.

er, wow

dae forty two in the big zombie plane...

Despite the end of Echo Beach, a clause in Pope's contract means ITV must now offer him a pilot to produce - and that show is Renaissance.

This made me laugh because presumably it's quite accurate.
This needs Ross Kemp to save them from the zombies.

oh for fuck's sake.

"I suggest you stay dead, alright?"

Never actually saw any of these..

Looking at the detail, seems crazy to put the 'back-stage' thing before the 'pseudo-soap'..

Anyway, I did see the DVD for £1 in the Poundland..

what the fuck, ITV? the line between "clever" and "really fucking shit" is nowhere near as fine as you think.

― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, January 8, 2008 6:18 PM (5 years ago)

Shame that five years later ITV are way over on the 'really fucking shit' side of that line.