Showbiz Sandbox 69: The Emmys Shine In Google TV’s Shadow

August 30, 2010

Host Jimmy Fallon helped pump some energy into this year’s Emmy Awards where a lot of new names and shows walked away with trophies.  Rick Porter, staff editor at Zap2it, provides some details about who won and who lost.  And the Emmy telecast received rave reviews.  One of the shows writers was David Wild, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, and he gives us all the dirt on what went on behind-the-scenes.

In the future, the shows that win Emmys may not air on television, but instead be found online.  Alex Ben Block, a senior editor for the Hollywood Reporter and author of “George Lucas’s Blockbusting” fills us in on how we’ll be watching television in the future. . . that is if Google and Apple have their way.

As always, we review the week’s top entertainment headlines during Big Deal or Big Whoop.  Our Inside Baseball topic focuses on the news that video retailer Blockbuster may soon file for bankruptcy.

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Showbiz Sandbox 26: Hollywood Struggles With New Business Models

October 26, 2009

Freelance entertainment journalist Todd Gilchrist joins us this week to talk about movies, music, and journalism. (But he recused himself from discussing TV because he doesn’t watch a lot of it. [gasp!]) Fine. We’ll start with movies then.

“Paranormal Activity” took over the box office this week. The film has been so well received that Paramount, which distributed the film, may produce a sequel. If a film is this successful, is a studio almost obligated to make a sequel? (And will it be as bad as “Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows”?)

In other news involving Paramount , the studio has angered members of the National Association of Theatre Owners by releasing “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” on DVD only 88 days after its theatrical run. It also set the Jeremy Piven comedy “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” for DVD-rental release 88 days from its theatrical bow, not that anyone wants to see it. “We don’t know what Paramount is up to,” NATO president John Fithian said. “But it’s highly objectionable.”  Read more