Saturday, November 12th, 2005

Any fans of Arrested Development already have heard the bad news: the show’s season 3 order has been cut from 22 episodes to 13 - effectively signaling the end of the show after this shortened season.

Arrested Development is easily my favorite TV show right now, and quite possibly my favorite of all time - even eclipsing Seinfeld. However, this show really has been doomed for failure from the start - really for the same reasons that it is such a great show to begin with. AD relies on self-refernces and heavy plot development that makes it hard for a casual viewer to ‘jump into’. I can attest to this personally as I’ve tried to get many of my friends to sit down and watch the show, and most did not really enjoy the episode they saw with me. However, I usually offered to let them borrow the season 1 dvd and after they had watched it, were hooked. While this is great for fans - it makes the show a blast to watch - it’s what is leading to it’s demise. New fans just aren’t tuning in now that the story and characters are as deep as they are now. Too bad.

Anyhow, I believe there are 8 episodes left in the abbreviated Season 3, so it’s going to be interesting how they try to wrap everything up. I’ve read a lot of crazy ideas and rumors that the show may find new life on another network, but I highly doubt it. Most estimates I have read have the show costing around 1.5 million per episode, thus making it tough for a smaller network (FX, UPN, etc) from trying to pick up the show (although I’m sure THEY would like the 4-5 millions viewers a night that AD would bring). My guess is the show will simply wrap up season 3 and hit the dusty trail.

However, there is always hope that FOX will pick up the show for another season and perhaps move the time slot or something along those lines. If you’re a fan of the show like I am, take a few minutes and write one (or both) of these executives at FOX Broadcasting - they are in charge of the scheduling of the content on the network. A nice, professionally written letter from tons of fans may help bring the show back for another season.

(from http://saveourbluths.com/):

Peter Liguori
President of Entertainment
FOX Broadcasting
10201 West Pico Blvd.
Building 100, Room 4450
Los Angeles CA 90035

Marcy Ross
Senior Vice President of Current Programming
FOX Broadcasting
10201 West Pico Blvd
Building 100, Room 4150
Los Angeles, CA 90035

In any event, be sure to catch the rest of season 3 Mondays on FOX.

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Posted on November 12th, 2005 | 4 Comments »

Wednesday, November 9th, 2005

A great article from ALA about design choices and how they can kill or save a web site. One of the main points hit on is actually pretty common sense - white space on a site. All too many pages try to fit everything into the initially viewable area of a page, thus killing any chance for the eyes to rest and figure out what’s going on. Too many headlines, columns, and busy images can ultimately reduce the effectiveness of a design you may have spent hours, days, or weeks on.

Go take a look - it’s always nice to be reminded (or taught) some good design tips for the web.

Posted on November 9th, 2005 | 2 Comments »

Sunday, November 6th, 2005

Let’s see:

Work is going really well. I enjoy what I do and who I work with. Sometimes the work is rather mind-numbing, but I have honestly learned a ton already about subtle design nuances and techniques just by being around a number of projects. Also, having someone with lots of experiencing critiquing my every move helps you pay better attention to detail. As time goes on, I feel I’m going to be focusing more on code (php and actionscript), but I will be doing lots of design too. I can’t believe it’s already been a month there.

I’ve been really busy with freelance work on top of working, which has lead to me being kind of a shut-in lately. I hope that changes, as I only have 1 (2 if you count me working on a skin for a website that’s being put together right now) project coming up. I may press to land something else soon as well though, as xmas is approaching quickly.

I went to see Copeland Saturday night @ the Masquerade. A couple of things I noticed:

• Copeland’s lead singer (aaron marsh) is one of the best live singers in the business. The guy is amazing.
• Something about certain shows make me feel old. I don’t know what the average age of the crowd there was, but I was certainly above the mean. It was still an awesome show.

Speaking of concerts, I’m going to see Ben Folds in a week or so, which will be really exciting. I haven’t seen him play in quite some time now, and he’s very good live … if not one of the best. He puts on an amazing show.

Posted on November 6th, 2005 | 3 Comments »