It seems that the top rated CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men will not be One and a Half Men or find itself canceled after all. Ashton Kutcher, well known for his role on That 70's Show, returns to television replacing Charlie Sheen. After Sheen was fired in February for his constant partying as well as his alcohol and drug use, and bashing of network executives, the show was put on hiatus with its future up in the air. The world has watched Sheen create a media fire storm since March, bringing back terms like "bitchin" and "gnarly" and claimed to be "Winning." He has even been on tour with his stage show "My Violent Torpedo of Truth," which has received mixed reviews.
So, it wasn't former Full House star John Stamos who replaced Sheen. The question is, how will the writers incorporate Kutcher into the show. In the past, shows have had to replace a key character who left for some different reason. One of the first was on the 1960's sitcom Bewitched. The character of Darrin saw Dick York replaced by Dick Sargant after York fell ill. The popular NBC sitcom Cheers saw Shelly Long who played Diane Chambers leave at the end of the fifth season. She was replaced by Kirstie Alley, who was written in as Rebeca Howe, the new owner of the bar after Sam (Ted Danson) sold it to a corporation. Sheen actually was a part of a character change on Spin City. Sheen replaced Michael J. Fox's character on the show for the final two seasons.
But in the case of replacing Charlie Sheen on the show, it could be a challenge. For those who have watched the show during its run, or those who have starting watching since his meltdown, it's obvious to see that the show was based around Charlie Sheen being himself. A womanizing, hard drinking jingle writer who took in his divorced brother and his underachieving son into his Malibu beach house. How will they write Sheen out and Kutcher in? As much as Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones have been a big part of the show, Sheen is the straw that stirs the drink. Without him in the mix, it will not be the same. I do know that when the show resumes in the Fall, millions will watch the first show back. Hopefully it can work, but then again, it could be a disaster.
With one of the most popular, raunchy shows on television, and another two show's on the FOX Network's Sunday lineup, you could say that the man behind Family Guy, American Dadand The Cleveland Show is taking over the animated sitcom lineup little by little, especially when competing with Matt Groening's legendary yellow-skinned family The Simpsons. For Seth MacFarlane, it's not enough that he developed the idea for Peter, a talking dog Brian and a diabolical, effeminate baby in Stewie to make one of the more raunchy, and controversial shows on television today. MacFarlane also voices a majority of the voices, which includes the all three of those characters, and if you ever wondered what his real voice sounds like, Brian's voice would be the one. MacFarlane is also voices several other citizens of Quahog, Rhode Island, which includes Quagmire, Tom Tucker, Dr. Hartman, and Carter, Peter's father-in-law who can't stand him.
MacFarlane also developed two other shows for FOX. One being American Dad. A show about a Husband and Father, Stan Smith who works for the CIA and can be as stupid as Peter Griffin's character on McFarlane's bigger hit show. The show takes shots at both sides of the political spectrum and often finds itself poking fun at the conservatives more often for laughs. Like Family Guy, MacFarlane voices Smith along with Roger, a fat, shut-in alien who drinks, smokes and watches TV all day and lives with the Smith's, and several other characters.
In the Fall of 2009, MacFarlane helped create a spin-off show based around Family Guy character Cleveland Brown. The Cleveland Show, created by him and fellow Family Guy writer Mike Henry, is the third of MacFarlane's show's that air in the five show lineup on FOX. The show is based around Brown's return to his hometown in fictional Stoolbend, Virginia and reuniting with a former who high school crush, who had just split from her husband. The two marry at the end of the pilot, and Cleveland and his overweight, awkward son, Cleveland Jr., move in with Donna and her two children. MacFarlane provides the voice of Ted, a talking Bear who works at the Cable company and has an accent. If you didn't notice, MacFarlane's show's always feature an obscure character that could only be in a cartoon.
OK, you're probably saying to yourselves, "So what, anyone could come up with these weird characters and story ideas," with some also adding that, "it's FOX, they'll take anything." Well, despite that low brow humor that comes along with Family Guy and his other shows, you have to commend MacFarland as a very talented person. Anybody who watches Family Guy can see that Seth enjoys referencing material from Star Wars, the 1980's and having episodes make references to a particular movie (most likely from the 80's). MacFarlane has also been known to have his characters break out into song during an episode, at times not showing any relevance to the show, but keeps the TV audience laughing and at time shaking their heads, wondering what they are watching. He and the cast even did an album called "Family Guy: Live in Las Vegas" back in 2005.
What makes it interesting is that MacFarlane introduces old types of music forms from the past to a young audience between the age of 14 and 30. Recently, Family Guy had an episode that referenced Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin with the song "Mr. Booze" from the movie "Robin and the Seven Hoods. What is so intriguing about MacFarlane's parody's of videos like "Mr. Booze" is that it sends fans looking for the song on You Tube and coming to realize that it had been done before, many leaving comments in the original that say "Like this if family guy brought you here :)" for example.
MacFarlane has also made songs that had been lost popular again. In the show's fourth episode in it's return from cancellation, Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" was featured in an episode and soon became popular once again, especially with young adults/college students. Another episode featured Rick Astlety's "Never Gonna Give You Up," or as many know it as getting Rick Rolled on You Tube, when the music video appears instead of the video you thought you were watching. Others include the Music Man's "Shipoopi," which is featured in an episode where Peter joins the New England Patriots and celebrates the songs by singing and dancing to the song. What makes it even funnier is that the Family Guy parody will appear before the original in a You Tube search.
While doing parodies of the songs, MacFarlane has been able to bring his Family Guy character's into old films when doing parodies. One that sticks out is the Gene Kelly dance scene in "Anchors Aweigh" a film from the mid 1940's, where Kelly dance with an animated mouse. Stewie was inserted into the scene in the place of the mouse and performed the exact dance in the episode "Road to Rupert." It was also done with the music video from A-Ha's "Take on Me" from the 80's.
With so many of these different ideas that MacFarlane has developed, it requires a talented person to perform these musical numbers. MacFarlane sings in all of his characters voices, which shows talent. But MacFarland himself has showed a glimpse of the old Rat Pack days of Sinatra and Dean Martin. More recently, while watching Conan, MacFarlane was a guest, and was talking about Family Guy and about a future film that he is developing. At the end of the interview, MacFarlane tells O'Brien that he has an album coming out later this year. MacFarlane performed "Sadder But Wiser Girl" from the Music Man, which which he parodied in an episode. MacFarlane has also performed songs from great crooners like Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin. In a way bringing back a genre of music that disappeared over the last 30 years.
I enjoy Sinatra once in a while and it nice to see someone like Seth MacFarlane introduce his younger Family Guy audience to this classic music style. If McFarlane had not become an animator, I bet he would have tried to become a singer, which has become a reality since his name is slowly become more known to public through his success with Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show. So I guess no matter how low Family Guy goes for laughs or offends a certain group, you have to remember that there is a lot of talent coming from Seth MacFarlene, otherwise a talent for his character Peter is winning a fart contest with Michael Moore.
It's obvious to see that technology has changed the way that people in the media function. We have gone from the early days of pen and paper, to the typewriter to the computer, making almost a Darwin-life Evolution when it comes to media. Of course, it doesn't evolve like we humans have over the years, but it's interesting to think about how much technology has changed since the 21st Century began. Back in 2001, technology was ready to take off with the launch of the iPod, the cell phone was going through its adolescent stage, on track to becoming the smartphones of today, and computers became a normal part of family homes, along with laptops which gave people a chance to be connected online, especially after wi-fi was introduced.
All of these items ten years ago did not have the capabilities that they have today. They couldn't shoot video, record audio and they couldn't get the funny e-mails that your co-workers send you on a slow work day nor could they give you the same ability to access the internet, which required you to sit in front of an actual PC or Mac with, GASP, a dial-up connection. These hand-held devices offer people the ability to record events happening, text information to the news media, and in a way, become famous for doing it.
Around the year 2001, blogs were still very foreign to the average person. For me, I always saw blogs as a way for celebrities, and other important people to post their thoughts and other garbage. But when programs like this and Wordpress for example came around, they were easy enough for anyone who had an idea and a computer with an internet connection to create and express their own interest. Video Blogs have shown us just how many people would be terrible in front of a news camera (which Conan O'Brien lampoons here:Conan's Video Blog, but it does give reporters an ability to give news stories via Skype or a convenient web cam connected with the news station. Podcasts are another way to connect to people, especially if there is a topic or story that somebody missed and can get it at any time. I myself have the entire 3rd period of the Penguins-Red Wings Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals on my iTunes and iPod Touch.
Social Networking Sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter have changed the way we receive and send information. Of course, we know that MySpace was the first real social network and we know Facebook put half of its staff on the street recently. Anyone who joined Facebook or Twitter before 2009 knows that these sites have changed from their original intentions. Facebook was meant to give college students a chance to keep in touch with old high school friends and meet new people at their college. Since I joined the site in 2008, there have been many changes, both positive and negative. One that includes the mainstream media joining in on the new social revolution. I have seen CNN on Facebook, along with Fox News and MSNBC and local stations like FOX 43 in Harrisburg and NBC 8 have used Facebook to deliver news stories to younger people, who don't bother to turn on the 11pm news every night. Twitter has also expanded our access to news. Celebrities, Politicians and other public figures have expressed themselves and have broken news stories on the watered-down version of Facebook. ESPN's Sportscenter has a twitter update from a certain athlete at times, sometimes it makes their jobs a lot easier, especially when looking for filler time.
When it comes to News Channels using these new technologies, they were used a lot in the past two elections. In 2008, more young people voted in the election than ever before, especially after both candidates used Facebook to reach voters, both doing it in a different way, along with the 2010 elections. Several put breaking news stories on their pages, which leaves followers to post comments back and forth at one another, sometimes very harsh or vulgar ones.
I can go on and on about how the media has changed over the last ten years, and it will continue to evolve. I will be sitting back at 31 years-old reflecting on the amazing technology that develops over these next ten years, and wondering how it has changed the media. Will newspapers become extinct, will Facebook become our only news media, will the Apple products have an app for everything in our lives? One can only imagine and wonder, heck, that's how we developed these products.
