Duchess Meghan, pregnant with her second child, is joining Oprah Winfrey for an "intimate conversation" in her first major broadcast interview since moving back to the U.S. CBS announced Monday that the 90 minute-long
Showing posts with label Television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Television. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 16
Friday, February 5
How Oprah picked the title for PBS documentary on the Black church in America
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Nick Cannon rejoins 'Wild 'N Out' as host after getting fired for anti-Semitism
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Wednesday, February 3
‘The Investigation’: The Battle to Convict a Sadistic Inventor Who Dismembered a Journalist
Few murder mysteries are dramatized quite as unconventionally as The Investigation, which over the course of six episodes doesn’t reveal the identity of its prime suspect; waits until its third installment to divulge the surname of its victim
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Monday, September 19
Mad Men
Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The episodes are premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each season has consisted of 13 episodes.
Mad Men is set in the 1960s, initially at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City, and later at the newly created firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. The focal point of the series is Don Draper (Jon Hamm), creative director at Sterling Cooper and a founding partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, as well as those in his life, both in and out of the office. As such, it regularly depicts the changing moods and social mores of 1960s America.
Mad Men has received critical acclaim, particularly for its historical authenticity and visual style, and has won multiple awards, including thirteen Emmys and four Golden Globes. It is the first basic cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, winning it in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.
Production
Conception
In 2000, while working as a staff writer for Becker, Matthew Weiner wrote the first draft for the pilot of what would later be called Mad Men as a spec script. Television producer David Chase recruited Weiner to work as a writer on his HBO series The Sopranos after reading the pilot script in 2002. "It was lively, and it had something new to say," Chase said. "Here was someone Weiner who had written a story about advertising in the 1960s, and was looking at recent American history through that prism. Weiner set the pilot script aside for the next seven years — during which time neither HBO nor Showtime expressed interest in the project—until The Sopranos was completing its final season and cable network AMC happened to be in the market for new programming. "The network was looking for distinction in launching its first original series," according to AMC Networks president Ed Carroll "and we took a bet that quality would win out over formulaic mass appeal.
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Pre-production
Tim Hunter, the director of a half-dozen episodes from the show's first two seasons, called Mad Men a "very well-run show". ‹The template Cquote is being considered for deletion.›
“ They have a lot of production meetings during pre-production. The day the script comes in we all meet for a first page turn, and Matt starts telling us how he envisions it. Then there's a "tone" meeting a few days later where Matt tells us how he envisions it. And then there's a final full crew production meeting.
Filming and production design
The pilot episode was shot at Silvercup Studios and various locations around New York City; subsequent episodes have been filmed at Los Angeles Center Studios. It is available in high definition for showing on AMC-HD and on video-on-demand services available from various cable affiliates. The writers, including Weiner, amassed volumes of research on the period in which Mad Men takes place so as to make most aspects of the series—including detailed set designs, costume design, and props—historically accurate, producing an authentic visual style that garnered critical praise. Each episode has a budget between $2–2.5 million, though the pilot episode's budget was over $3 million. On the scenes featuring smoking, Weiner stated: "Doing this show without smoking would've been a joke. It would've been sanitary and it would've been phony." Since the actors cannot, by California law, smoke tobacco cigarettes in their workplace, they instead smoke herbal cigarettes. Robert Morse was cast in the role of senior partner Bertram Cooper; Morse starred in two 1967 films about amoral businessmen, A Guide for the Married Man (1967), a source of inspiration for Weiner, and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (1967), in which Morse recreated his role from the 1961 Broadway play of the same name, (and which was itself based on a satiric novel by a former executive at the now-defunct New York ad agency, Benton & Bowles, Inc.).
Weiner collaborated with cinematographer Phil Abraham and production designers Robert Shaw (who worked on the pilot only) and Dan Bishop to develop a visual style that was "influenced more by cinema than television." Alan Taylor, a veteran director of The Sopranos, directed the pilot and also helped establish the series' visual tone. To convey an "air of mystery" around Don Draper, Taylor tended to shoot from behind him or would frame him partially obscured. Many scenes set at Sterling Cooper were shot lower-than-eyeline to incorporate the ceilings into the composition of frame; this reflects the photography, graphic design and architecture of the period. Alan felt that neither steadicam nor handheld camera work would be appropriate to the "visual grammar of that time, and that aesthetic didn’t mesh with their classic approach"—accordingly, the sets were designed to be practical for dolly work.
Finances
According to a 2011 Miller Tabak + Company estimate published in Barrons, Lions Gate Entertainment receives an estimated $2.71 million from AMC for each episode, a little less than the $2.84 million each episode costs to produce.
In March 2011, after negotiations between the network and the series' creator, AMC picked up Mad Men for a fifth season, which will premiere in early 2012. Weiner reportedly signed a $30 million contract which will keep him at the helm of the show for three more seasons. A couple of weeks later, a Marie Claire interview with January Jones was published, noting the limits to that financial success when it comes to the actors: "We don’t get paid very much on the show and that’s well-documented. On the other hand, when you do television you have a steady paycheck each week, so that’s nice."
Sales from home video and iTunes could amount to $100 million in revenue during the show's expected seven-year run, with international syndication sales bringing in an additional estimated $700,000 per episode. That does not include the $71 to $100 million estimated to come from a Netflix streaming video deal announced in April 2011.
Episode credit and title sequences
The opening title sequence features credits superimposed over a graphic animation of a businessman falling from a height, surrounded by skyscrapers with reflections of period advertising posters and billboards, accompanied by a short edit of the instrumental "A Beautiful Mine" by RJD2. The businessman appears as a black-and-white silhouette. The titles pay homage to graphic designer Saul Bass's skyscraper-filled opening titles for Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) and falling man movie poster for Vertigo (1958); Weiner has listed Hitchcock as a major influence on the visual style of the series. David Carbonara composes the original score for the series. Mad Men — Original Score Vol. 1 was released on January 13, 2009.
In a 2010 issue of TV Guide, the show’s opening title sequence ranked #9 on a list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.
At the end of almost all episodes, the show either fades to black or smash cut to black as period music or a theme by series composer, David Carbonara, plays during the ending credits; at least one episode ends with silence or ambient sounds. A few episodes have ended with more recent popular music, or with a diegetic song dissolving into the credits music.
Crew of Mad Men
In addition to having created the series, Matthew Weiner is the show runner, head writer, and an executive producer; he contributes to each episode—writing or co-writing the scripts, casting various roles, and approving costume and set designs.[5]He is notorious for being selective about all aspects of the series, and promotes a high level of secrecy around production details. Tom Palmer served as a co-executive producer and writer on the first season. Scott Hornbacher (who later became an executive producer), Todd London, Lisa Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, and Maria Jacquemetton were producers on the first season. Palmer, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, and Maria Jacquemetton were also writers on the first season. Bridget Bedard, Chris Provenzano, and writer's assistant Robin Veith complete the first season writing team.
Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, and Maria Jacquemetton returned as supervising producers for the second season. Veith also returned and was promoted to staff writer. Hornbacher replaced Palmer as co-executive producer for the second season. Consulting producers David Isaacs, Marti Noxon, Rick Cleveland, and Jane Anderson joined the crew for the second season. Weiner, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Veith, Noxon, Cleveland and Anderson were all writers for the second season. New writer's assistant Kater Gordon was the season's other writer. Isaacs, Cleveland and Anderson left the crew at the end of the second season.
Albert remained a supervising producer for the third season but Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton became consulting producers. Hornbacher was promoted again, this time to executive producer. Veith returned as a story editor and Gordon became a staff writer. Noxon remained a consulting producer and was joined by new consulting producer Frank Pierson. Dahvi Waller joined the crew as a co-producer. Weiner, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Veith, Noxon and Waller were all writers for the third season. New writer's assistant Erin Levy, executive story editor Cathryn Humphris, script co-ordinator Brett Johnson and freelance writer Andrew Colville complete the third season writing staff.
Tim Hunter, Phil Abraham, Alan Taylor, Jennifer Getzinger, and Lesli Linka Glatter are regular directors for the series. Matthew Weiner directs the season finales.
As of the third season, seven of the nine writers for the show are women, in contrast to Writers Guild of America 2006 statistics that show male writers outnumber female writers by 2 to 1. As Maria Jacquemetton notes:
We have a predominately female writing staff—women from their early 20s to their 50s—and plenty of female department heads and directors. [Show creator] Matt Weiner and executive producer Scott Hornbacher hire people they believe in, based on their talent and their experience. 'Can you capture this world? Can you bring great storytelling?'
Mad Men characters
Mad Men focuses mostly on Don Draper, although it features an ensemble cast representing several segments of society in 1960s New York. Mad Men places emphasis on recollective progression as a means of revealing the characters' past.
Lead characters
Don Draper (Jon Hamm): Creative director and junior partner of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency and, as of the fourth season, a partner of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, he is the series' main character. He is a hard-drinking, chain-smoking executive with a shadowy past who has achieved success in advertising. He was married to Elizabeth "Betty" Draper and has three children with her, but his history of infidelity, along with his revelations to her about his past led to their separation at the end of Season 3 and eventual divorce. Draper's real name is Richard (Dick) Whitman; he assumed the identity of Don Draper during the Korean War after the death of his lieutenant, who was due to return from the war, thereby avoiding further combat.
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Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss): Olson rises from being Draper's secretary to a copywriter with her own office. She becomes pregnant with Pete Campbell's child, a pregnancy that neither she nor her family or coworkers seem to notice, until she goes into labor alone and goes to the emergency room. Campbell is unaware of her pregnancy until the end of Season 2, when Peggy tells him that she gave the baby up for adoption. In Season 3, Peggy is approached by Duck Phillips to leave Sterling Cooper, but turns him down, despite the fact that his persistence leads to a romantic relationship. While he rarely acknowledges it, Don's appreciation of Peggy's abilities leads him to choose her to go with him to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. She is given more freedom to come up with her own creative advertising ideas, though Don continues to push her to be better.
Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser): A young, ambitious account executive from an old New York family with connections and a privileged background. Campbell tries to blackmail Don Draper with information from Draper's past. However, he and Don develop a grudging respect for each other, culminating in Don's approaching Pete over Ken Cosgrove when forming a new agency. Campbell and his wife, Trudy, had been unable to conceive a child earlier in their marriage, and he remained unaware of his child with Olson until the Season 2 finale. At the end of Season 3, dissatisfied with his treatment at Sterling Cooper regarding a promotion, he secretly plans to leave the firm. Unaware of this, Don Draper approaches Campbell with an offer to join his new firm as long as Pete brings accounts worth $8 million of cash flow. Campbell decides to join Draper, with the condition that he be made a partner, though his surname does not appear in the new firm's name (Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce). Campbell is one of the few characters in the show who does not smoke.
Betty Francis (née Hofstadt, formerly Draper) (January Jones): Don Draper's ex-wife and mother of their three children, Sally, Bobby, and Eugene Scott. Raised in the tiny Philadelphia suburb of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, she met Don when she was a model in Manhattan and married him soon thereafter. At the start of the series, they have been married for seven years (1953–1960) and live in Ossining, New York. Over the course of the first two seasons, Betty gradually becomes aware of her husband's womanizing. After a brief separation, Betty allows Don to return home when she learns she is pregnant with their third child, but first has a one-night stand of her own.She leaves for Reno at the end of Season 3, in December 1963, with the intention of divorcing Don. At the start of Season 4, in November 1964, she has divorced Don and married Henry Francis. She, the children, and her new husband continue to live in the Drapers' old house, but by the end of the season decide to move to another house in Rye. Betty's relationship with her children is often strained, in particular with Sally.
Joan Harris (née Holloway) (Christina Hendricks): Office manager and head of the secretarial pool at Sterling Cooper. She had a long-term affair with Roger Sterling until his two heart attacks cause him to end the relationship. In Season 2, she becomes engaged to Dr. Greg Harris. By Season 3, they are married and at Greg's request Joan quits her job at Sterling Cooper. Their marriage becomes tested when Greg's difficulties securing work as a surgeon force Joan to return to work at a department store, prompting her to call Roger Sterling to ask for his help in finding an office job. Because of her invaluable managerial skills, she is later hired for the new agency formed by Don, Roger, Bert and Lane. Meanwhile, Greg's desire to assure his career as a surgeon leads him to obtain a commission in the Army, and early in Season 4 he is sent to basic training and then to Vietnam. While her husband is deployed, Joan and Roger have a brief sexual encounter, which results in her becoming pregnant. Joan initially decides to terminate the pregnancy, but at the end of Season 4 she is seen discussing her pregnancy with Greg, who is unaware that the child is not his.
Roger Sterling (John Slattery): One of the two senior partners of Sterling Cooper, and one-time mentor to Don Draper. His father founded the firm with Bertram Cooper, hence his name comes before Cooper's in the firm's title. A picture in Cooper's office shows Roger as a child alongside Cooper depicted as a young adult. In Season 2, Bertram Cooper mentions that "the late Mrs. Cooper" introduced Sterling to his wife, Mona, whom Sterling is in the process of divorcing in favor of Don's former secretary, 22-year-old Jane. Sterling served in the Navy during World War II and was a notorious womanizer (living like he was "on shore leave") until two heart attacks changed his perspective, although they did not affect his drinking or smoking habits, which remained excessive. Prior to his marriage to Jane, Roger had a longstanding affair with Joan Holloway. In Season 4, he and Joan have a brief romantic encounter, and Joan becomes pregnant. It was revealed in Season 3 that it was Roger who had hired Don Draper sometime in the mid- to late-1950s, when Don was a salesman at a furrier, and eager to break into advertising. Season 4 also has Roger less involved with the day-to-day activities at SCDP than he was at Sterling Cooper. His primary function is to manage the Lucky Strike account which is responsible for over half of SCDP's billings. However, in the "Chinese Wall" episode, it is revealed that Lucky Strike is moving its account to a rival agency, forcing a dramatic downsizing of the firm.
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Tuesday, November 9
Depictions of nudity
Since prehistoric time, representations of the nude body has been a major theme in art.
Many cultures tolerate nudity in art more than actual nudity, with a different set of standards of what is acceptable. For example, even in a museum depicting nudity, nudity of a visitor is typically not accepted. On the other hand, child pornography laws often restrict depictions even more than the depicted acts (photographs of legal acts and even simple nudity may be illegal).
Sometimes live nudity is more acceptable if the model does not move; see Windmill Theatre. In other cultures, like Japan, where nudity carried no negative connotation, erotic shunga art tended to feature partially clothed participants.
General depictions
The Moscophoros of the Acropolis, ca 570 BCE. A youth bearing a calf to sacrifice is depicted in full frontal nudity, yet he is partly clothed with a ceremonial cloth that covers his back, upper arms and front thighs.
Roman marble copy after a c. 3rd BC Greek original.
Philippe Magnier's copy for Versailles of the same pankratists.
A bronze smaller reproduction in Munich of the Roman marble.
As social attitudes about artistic nudity have changed, this has sometimes led to conflict over art that no longer conforms to prevailing standards. For example, some members of the Roman Catholic Church once organized the so-called "fig-leaf campaign" to cover nudity in art, starting from the works of Renaissance artist Michelangelo, but the Church has since removed such fig leaves and restored the works.[citation needed] In contrast, it was conventional in ancient Greek art, from the time of the Archaic period onwards, to represent deities and divinized humans (or "heroes") in a state of heroic nudity in paintings and sculpture, and it remained so throughout the classical and Roman periods.
The nude has become an enduring genre and theme of representational art, especially painting, sculpture and photography. It depicts people without clothes, usually with stylistic and staging conventions that distinguish the artistic elements (such as innocence, or similar theatrical/artistic elements) of being nude with the more provocative state of being naked. A nude figure is one, such as a goddess or a man in ancient Greece, for whom the lack of clothing is its usual condition, so that there is no sexual suggestiveness presumed. A naked figure is one, such as a contemporary prostitute or a businessman, who usually wears clothing, such that their lack of it in this scene implies sexual activity or suggestiveness (See also: nudity and sexuality). The latter were rare in European art from the Medieval period until the latter half of the 1800s; in the interim, a work featuring an unclothed woman would routinely identify her as "Venus" or another Greco-Roman goddess, to justify her nudity. There can be debate with regard to whether a figure in art is either nude or naked for example in some works of Francis Bacon.
Even though tastes changed significantly, semi-nude themes kept their attraction, even leading to copying of scenes from many centuries before.
Nudity in art, also publicly displayed, is rather common and more accepted than public nudity of real people. For example, a statue or painting representing a nude person may be displayed in public places where actual nudity is not allowed. However, there is also much art depicting a nude person with a piece of cloth or other object seemingly by chance covering the genitals. Some feel the selected focus of "Nude studies" lends itself to an impersonal, objectifying depiction of the human body; others say it can be as selectively depicted as a landscape.
A 1960s comedy sketch featuring English comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore admiring Cézanne's Les Grandes Baigneuses in the National Gallery humorously suggested that there must be hundreds of paintings that are not publicly displayed because the pieces of cloth did not fall in just the right places while the artist was painting them.
In modern media, images of partial and full nudity are used in advertising to draw additional attention. In the case of attractive models this attention is due to the visual pleasure the images provide; in other cases it is due to the relative rarity of images of nudity. The use of nudity in advertising tends to be carefully controlled to avoid the impression that the company whose product is being advertised is indecent or unrefined. There are also (self-imposed) limits on what advertising media such as magazines allow. The success of sexually provocative advertising is claimed in the truism "sex sells". However, responses to nudity in American advertisements have been more mixed; nudity in the advertisements of Calvin Klein, Benetton, and Abercrombie & Fitch, to name three companies, have provoked much negative as well as positive response. (See also: Sex in advertising).
Of images of nudity (not necessarily pornographic), the most extreme form is full frontal nudity, referring to the fact that the actor or model is presented from the front and with the genitals exposed. Frequently images of nude people do not go that far and photos are deliberately composed, and films edited, such that in particular no genitalia are seen, as if the camera failed to see them by chance. This is sometimes called "implied nudity" as opposed to "explicit nudity."
La maja desnuda. La maja vestida.
Goya's La maja desnuda and La maja vestida. Goya painted La maja vestida after outrage in Spanish society over the previous Desnuda. Without a pretense to allegorical or mythological meaning, the painting was "the first totally profane life-size female nude in Western art". He refused to paint clothes on her, and instead created a new painting.
Film and television
Nudity in film, nudity in American television, and nudity in music videos
The portrayal of nudity in motion pictures and television has long been controversial. Full nudity has gained much wider acceptance in European cinema and television, where in contrast to their US counterparts the audience perceive nudity and sexuality in general as less objectionable than the depiction of violence. Nudity in a sexual but non-pornographic context, however, has in many European countries remained on the fringe of what is socially acceptable for public shows, although this situation was liberalized during the later 20th century; in the 1970s Australian soap operas Number 96 and The Box regularly included nudity, and in the Netherlands nudity has been featured on talk shows such as Jensen! and Giel, starring Giel Beelen.
Broadcast television and most "basic cable" outlets in the United States have been more reluctant to display nudity in most cases, the exception being PBS. A few series in the 1990s, including NYPD Blue, have occasionally used partial nudity, both male and female. When broadcast on television, theatrically released films featuring nudity are usually presented with the nude scenes edited out, or the nudity is obscured in some fashion (for example digital imagery may be used to clothe nude actors). Several premium cable services such as HBO, Showtime, and more recently FX, have gained popularity for, among other things, presenting unedited films. In addition, they have produced series that do not shy away from nude scenes, including Oz, Sex and the City, The Sopranos and Queer as Folk (the British original was pioneering even in the more tolerant U.K.). Big Brother (TV series), which has shot in multiple countries, sometimes has nudity in the show, however, the scenes with nudity do not always air on TV.
Ethnographic nudity
Raoucha by Étienne Dinet 1901, Musée des Beaux Arts d'Alger. Example of ethnographic nudity.
This tentatively called "ethnographic" nudity has appeared both in serious research works on ethnography and anthropology, as well as in commercial documentaries and in the National Geographic magazine in the United States. In some cases, media outlets may show nudity which occurs in a "natural" or spontaneous setting in news programs or documentaries, while blurring out or censoring the nudity in a dramatic work.
The ethnographic focus provided an exceptional framework for painters and photographers to depict peoples whose nudity was, or still is, acceptable within the mores, or within certain specific settings, of their traditional culture.
Detractors of ethnographic nudity often dismiss it as mere colonial gaze preserved as "ethnographic" imagery. However, the works of some ethnographic painters and photographers, like Irving Penn, Casimir Zagourski, Hugo Bernatzik and Leni Riefenstahl, have received worldwide acclaim for preserving what is perceived as a documentation of the dying mores of "paradises" subjecty to the onslaught of average modernity.
Other depictions in vernacular culture
Nudity is occasionally presented in other media as well (often with attending controversy) such as on album covers featuring music by performers such as Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Nirvana, Blind Faith, Scorpions and Jane's Addiction. Several rock musicians have performed nude on stage, including members of Jane's Addiction, Rage Against the Machine, Green Day, Black Sabbath, Stone Temple Pilots, The Jesus Lizard, Blind Melon, Red Hot Chili Peppers, blink-182, Queens of the Stone Age, Of Montreal, and The Bravery.
Television soap operas have rarely shown any risqué nudity, the exception being the Procter & Gamble soap operas As the World Turns and Guiding Light which in 2005 went as far as featuring rear male nudity during lovemaking scenes. After the Janet Jackson Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy in February 2004, U.S. Federal Communications Commission commissioner Michael J. Copps stated that it was time for a crackdown on daytime television and indicated that he was reviewing whether soap operas were violating the agency's indecency prohibitions. Following this news, Guiding Light edited out nudity from an episode that had already been taped. A week later, the show's executive producer John Conboy was fired and replaced by Ellen Wheeler. All nine American network soaps began to impose an unwritten rule of avoiding any sort of risqué adult scenes.
An example of an advertisement featuring male full frontal nudity is one for M7 fragrance. Many magazines refused to place the ad, so there was also a version with a more modest photograph of the same model.
On the Internet, especially on websites featuring images of well known people, the terms nude and nudity have often been used (some would say misused) to signify indecent exposure; for example, a photo of an otherwise fully clothed woman with a nipple exposed. See also: Nude celebrities on the Internet.
In the early 1990s, Demi Moore became a pop culture icon in part because of two nude photos that she posed for in Vanity Fair: More Demi Moore and Demi's Birthday Suit.
Children as subjects
Henry Scott Tuke, Swimming.
During the Italian Renaissance, nude young boys were featured in many paintings, especially those with a Christian theme. Raphael, for example, made paintings of nude putti, incorrectly, mistakenly and (sometimes offensively) also known as (or called) cherubs. Other famous examples are Amor Vincit Omnia by Caravaggio and various portraits of Jesus as a baby. Centuries later, many painters created images of nude children that carried no religious significance. For instance, Henry Scott Tuke painted nude adolescent boys doing everyday activities; his images were not overtly erotic, nor did they usually show their genitals. Otto Lohmüller became controversial for his nude paintings of young males, which often depicted genitals. Balthus and William-Adolphe Bouguereau included nude girls in many of their paintings.
Some sculptures depict nude child figures. A particularly famous one is Manneken Pis in Brussels showing a nude young boy urinating into the fountain below. Jeune nymphe descendant dans l'eau (1824) by Georges Jacquot shows a seated nude prepubescent girl.
Professional photographers such as Jock Sturges, Sally Mann, David Hamilton, Jacques Bourboulon, Garo Aida, and Bill Henson have made photographs of nude children and adolescents for publication in books and magazines and for public exhibition in art galleries. According to one school of thought, photographs such as these are acceptable and should be (or remain) legal since they represent the unclothed form of the children in an artistic manner, the children were not sexually abused, and the photographers obtained written permission from the parents or guardians. Opponents suggest that such works should be (or remain) banned and represent a form of child pornography involving subjects who may have experienced psychological harm during or after their creation.
Pueblo girl holding small child, New Mexico
The provocative photo of a nude prepubescent girl on the original cover of the Virgin Killer album by the Scorpions also brought controversy. By contrast, most would consider the naked male baby shown on the cover of the Nevermind album by Nirvana to have no sexual connotation.
There have been incidents in which snapshots taken by parents of their infant or toddler children bathing or otherwise naked were destroyed or turned over to law enforcement as child pornography.
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Tuesday, October 12
Sony’s Google TV To Be Released And At A Cheaper Price
New York is a place where big dreams come to life and today, October 12, another big dream will be realized as Sony’s Google TV will officially be launched! Sony and Google are known to be two of the most influential and credible companies in the whole world. And for their first venture, the two choose to sum up the characteristics of their brainchild in three sentences
1. An HDTV that searches
2. An HDTV that’s smart
3. An HDTV that’s powerful
With the kind of introduction like that, it looks like television will be taken into a whole new level thus reinventing the meaning of what entertainment is all about. The television has met the internet and the doors of the future have been wide open.
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Although Sony’s Google TV has been in the spotlight as early as the time of its conception, there is one piece of information that was missed, or rather mistakenly reported. According to SonyInsider, there was a mistake in the pricing of the 46 – inch SKU, instead of selling it at $1,899 (like what was first announced) it will be introduced at $1,399. That is $500 less, a definite attraction for those who have been thinking of reinventing their living room or their entertainment habits or even the over – all look of their professional life. Who says that business can’t be mixed wit pleasure? With Sony’s Google TV, you can check your email, chat, watch your favorite TV series all in one screen.
(source:topnewsbuzz.com)
Friday, September 17
Top Chef
The show has produced two spin-offs: Top Chef: Masters, featuring established, award-winning chefs, and Top Chef: Just Desserts, featuring pastry chefs. Two more spin-offs are planned: Top Chef Junior, featuring contestants in their early teens, and Top Chef Canada, produced by Food Network Canada.
Read More: Top Chef Masters
Show format
Basic format
Each episode of Top Chef, save for the finale, has had two challenges.
In the Quickfire Challenge, each chef is asked to cook a dish with certain requirements (for example, using specific ingredients or to inspire a certain taste) or participate in a culinary-related challenge (for example, a mise en place relay or a taste test). They are usually given an hour or less to complete these tasks. A guest judge selects one or more chefs as the best in the challenge. Early in the season the winning chef(s) are granted immunity from the following Elimination Challenge. As the number of contestants dwindle no one receives immunity and instead the winner gets another "reward" (such as being team captain for a team challenge).
In the Elimination Challenge, the chefs have to prepare one or more dishes to meet the challenge requirements. Many of these are individual challenges and may require several courses, although some instances require teams to complete the challenge. Teams may be selected by the remaining contestants among themselves, but more often are selected by the random process of "drawing knives" from a butcher's block, with the team identification revealed on the blade of the knife. The chefs may have from a few hours to a few days to complete this challenge. Ingredients for Elimination Challenges are generally limited to what is present in the "Top Chef" pantry and what the chefs purchase at a food store, with a possibly limited budget. However, certain challenges may provide specific ingredients or limit the type or number of ingredients that can be used, while others require non-traditional methods of obtaining ingredients (such as asking people door-to-door). After shopping, the contestants will cook for four judges, usually including at least one guest judge. In most cases, the contestants cook for the four judges and a group of guests or customers (for example, the cowboys in Colorado). The judges and the guests sample the food and rate the individuals or teams.
After the Elimination Challenge ends, the chefs are taken to Judges' Table, where the four judges consider the guests' comments and deliberate on the best and worst dishes. The top individuals or teams are called in, and may be asked questions of their meals before they are notified of their placement. One individual is named the winner of the challenge and may be awarded an additional prize by the guest judge. Then, the bottom individuals or teams are brought to the judges, and similar discussion of their courses is played out. From this group, one chef or team is determined to be the worst, and then the host asks one chef to "pack [their] knives and go." This is usually followed by a knife packing sequence for the eliminated chef, and a clip of his or her exit video, to close out the episode. According to the credits, some elimination decisions (e.g., Cliff Crooks's disqualification in Season 2) are made in consultation with the show's producers.
The show continues in this format for 10–13 episodes, until the Finale.
Special formats
Midway through each season, the contestants participate in a "Restaurant Wars" (or similarly named) Elimination Challenge. They are split into two teams, created by the winner of the previous Quickfire Challenge, or by "drawing knives". In these teams, the chefs must transform an empty space into a restaurant within a set time limit and budget, selecting and creating the name, theme, decor, and menu. According to Dale Levitski, a Season Three finalist, this is one of the contestants' most anticipated challenges. Season Four had not only "Restaurant Wars", but also "Wedding Wars".
In the final challenge, the two (or three) remaining chefs prepare a multiple course dinner with the help of other chefs. These other chefs could be previously eliminated chefs or celebrity chefs (for example, Rocco DiSpirito). The winning chef is selected based on several factors including food quality, their ability to lead their selected chefs, and general performance during the show. There is no Quickfire Challenge in this episode.
Guest judges
There have been 61 guest judges so far on all 5 seasons. Of these, 20 have won the Food and Wine Best New Chef award, including Head Judge Tom Colicchio. Of these 61 guests, 12 have appeared multiple times. Anthony Bourdain and Rocco DiSpirito* lead with 5 appearances, Hubert Keller* and Eric Ripert have 4 (Ripert appeared a fifth time on the Top Chef Holiday Special, see below), Michelle Bernstein and Wylie Dufresne* have 3, and the rest tie with two: Daniel Boulud*, Dan Barber*, Ming Tsai, Scott Conant*, Mike Yakura and Ted Allen (Allen later became a permanent judge in Seasons 3 and 4). Of these 12, 6 were winners of Food and Wine Best New Chef. Actresses Natasha Richardson and Natalie Portman also appeared as judges.
(*--Denotes a Food and Wine Best New Chef Winner.)
Prizes and sponsors
Editorial feature in Food & Wine Magazine
Appearance at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colorado
$125,000 prize money ($100,000 was awarded in Seasons One through Five, underwritten by Glad beginning with Season Two. Starting with Season Six, the prize money was increased to the current amount.)
Suite of Sears Kenmore kitchen appliances (Seasons One and Two)
Culinary tour of the French Alps (furnished by Evian; Seasons Three and Four)
$100,000 in merchandise provided by Macy's (Season Six)
Sears had been a series sponsor since Season One, along with Calphalon and Toyota. Top Chef began using GE appliances in Season Three. Other sponsors have included Kingsford Charcoal, Wild Oats, Bertolli, Cold Stone Creamery, Kraft Foods, Nestlé, Quaker Oats, Baileys Irish Cream, T.G.I. Friday's, Red Robin, Continental Airlines, Breville, and Bombay Sapphire.
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Seasons
Top Chef (season 1)
First aired March 8 – May 24, 2006
Top Chef (season 1) was filmed in San Francisco, California. The host was Katie Lee Joel and the judges were Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons, along with several guest judges throughout the season. Harold Dieterle and Tiffani Faison competed in the final showdown in Las Vegas, with Harold emerging as the first Top Chef.
Top Chef (season 2)
First aired October 18, 2006 – January 31, 2007
Top Chef (season 2) was filmed in Los Angeles, California. Padma Lakshmi took over for Katie Lee Joel as host. There were several guest judges throughout the season, as in the first season. At the finale in Waikoloa Village, Hawaii, Ilan Hall battled Marcel Vigneron for the title of Top Chef with Ilan winning. For the first time, a "Fan Favorite" was named based on online and phone voting. Sam Talbot, who finished in third place, was voted the Fan Favorite.
Top Chef (season 3)
First aired June 13 – October 13, 2007
Top Chef (season 3) was filmed in Miami, Florida — the first season to take place outside of California. Padma Lakshmi returned as host, while the judging panel remained the same; celebrity guest judges joined the panel in each episode. In the end, Hung Huynh beat out Dale Levitski and Casey Thompson in the show's first ever final three finale; the finale took place in Aspen, Colorado. Casey Thompson, the season's runner-up, was voted Fan Favorite.
Top Chef (season 4)
First aired March 12 – June 11, 2008
Top Chef (season 4) was filmed in Chicago, Illinois. Padma Lakshmi returned as host with Tom Colicchio returning as head judge. Gail Simmons and Ted Allen alternated in the third permanent judging position with celebrity guest judges also appearing in each episode. At the finale in Puerto Rico, Stephanie Izard became the show's first female Top Chef, beating out Lisa Fernandes and Richard Blais. Stephanie was also voted Fan Favorite.
Top Chef (season 5)
First aired November 12, 2008 – March 4, 2009
Top Chef (season 5) was filmed in New York City. The judges remained the same as in season 4, except with Toby Young filling in for Gail Simmons for half the season. Celebrity guest judges appeared in every episode. Hosea Rosenberg became the Top Chef, beating Stefan Richter and Carla Hall in the finale in New Orleans. The Fan Favorite was Fabio Viviani, who took fourth place for the season.
Top Chef (season 6)
First aired August 19 – December 16, 2009
Top Chef (season 6) was filmed in Las Vegas, Nevada. The judges remained the same as in Season 5. The finale took place in Napa, California. Kevin Gillespie and brothers Bryan Voltaggio and Michael Voltaggio were finalists, with Michael winning the title of Top Chef. Kevin, who finished third overall in the competition, was voted Fan Favorite, with Bryan receiving the next highest number of votes for the title.
Top Chef (season 7)
First aired June 16 - September 15, 2010
Shooting for Top Chef (season 7) began in early April, 2010, in Washington, DC The season included 17 contestants with Eric Ripert replacing Toby Young the judging panel. Kevin Sbraga won the competition, with Ed Cotton and Angelo Sosa runners up. The finale took place in Singapore, the first time Top Chef has traveled outside North America.
Season 8
In September 2010, rumors began circulating that season 8 of Top Chef will be an all-star season. The rumors were based on reports that the show was filming in Manhattan and that past contestants were seen in the area.
Special episodes
4 Star All Star (Season One vs. Season Two)
On June 6, 2007, as part of the buildup for Season 3, Bravo aired a special charity episode called "4 Star All Star," which awarded $20,000 to the charity of the winning team's choice. The show brought together Season 1 contestants Stephen, Harold, Dave, and Tiffani, and pitted them against Season 2 contestants Ilan, Elia, Marcel, and Sam. The show format was kept the same, with a Quickfire Challenge to start, followed by an Elimination Challenge. The show was filmed in Miami Beach at the kitchen and hotel used for Season 3. Padma Lakshmi hosted.
Quickfire Challenge: Create a two-egg breakfast dish in 10 minutes, using only one hand. Prize: An extra $100 for the overall winner's team to spend on groceries for the Elimination Challenge.
SEASON 1 TEAM WINNER: Stephen.
SEASON 2 TEAM WINNER: Marcel.
OVERALL WINNER: Season 1
Elimination Challenge: Prepare a four-course meal for the Season 3 contestants consisting of scallops, lobster, duck, and Kobe beef. Teams were given 30 minutes of shopping time, with Season 1 able to spend $300 and Season 2 able to spend $200. Teams were given two hours of cooking time. Courses were served head to head, with the team that wins the most courses winning the challenge.
SCALLOPS: Dave made cold smoked scallops & triple olive tapenade with lemon vinaigrette. Elia made a scallop duo with citrus marmalade and endive salad. Elia won.
LOBSTER: Stephen made lobster poached in beurre blanc with cauliflower crème anglaise. Marcel made a lobster duo with vanilla gelée and lobster foam. Stephen won.
DUCK: Harold made spicy duck meatballs with minted gnocchi. Ilan made almond stuffed duck breast with wild rice, white asparagus & raw egg yolk. Harold won.
KOBE BEEF: Tiffani made Kobe beef two ways served with creamy polenta. Sam made seared Kobe beef with mushroom confit & onion relish. Tiffani won.
OVERALL WINNER: Season 1, with three wins.
Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and Ted Allen.
Stephen, as winner of the Season 1 team in the Quickfire, became team captain for the Elimination and got to choose his team's charity. He chose Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
Marcel, as winner of the Season 2 team in the Quickfire, became team captain for his team. He chose Share Our Strength for his charity.
Prior to the Quickfire Challenge, Season 1 contestant Lee Anne Wong was introduced as having been hired as a food consultant for Top Chef. This also explained Lee Anne's absence from the competition, as she was the fourth-place contestant in the first season of the show.
Top Chef Holiday Special
The December 24, 2007 special brought selected chefs from all three seasons back with a prize of $20,000 for the winner. Padma Lakshmi presided as host, with regulars Ted Allen, Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons among the judges. The following Chefs participated: Tiffani Faison and Stephen (Season 1); Josie, Marcel Vigneron, and Betty (Season 2); CJ, Tre, and Sandee (Season 3). It was shot in Chicago, Illinois.
Quickfire Challenge: Chefs drew knives to determine the order in which they would choose gifts—ingredients—from under the tree. Upon their turn, the chef could either choose to 'steal' an already opened gift of another chef, or take a new gift from under the tree.
Winner: CJ (Roasted walnuts sauteéd with apples & shrimp)
Guest Judge: Eric Ripert
Prize: One free pass to the next round during the Elimination Challenge. (The pass could not be used to advance to the final round.)
Elimination Challenge: Create a three-course meal for a party of nine. After each course, two chefs will be eliminated.
Course 1: Stephen and Sandee eliminated.
Course 2: Josie and Betty eliminated.
Course 3: Marcel and CJ eliminated.
Surprise Challenge: After the three courses, Tiffani and Tre were given a surprise challenge to create an additional dish, utilizing anything left in the kitchen, in 30 minutes.
WINNER: Tiffani
Winning Menu:
First Course: Bacon-Wrapped Apples with Brussels Sprout Salad & Apple Chicken Jus
Second Course: Roasted Duck Breast on Spaetzle with Wine & Orange Jus
Third Course: Salted Butterscotch Pudding with Whipped Cream
Surprise Course: Braised Veal on Puff Pastry with Truffle Butter.
Guest Judges: Eric Ripert, Elizabeth Falkner, Norman van Aken, Alan Wong, Alfred Portale
Top Chef Reunion Dinner
On November 4, 2009, Fabio Viviani from season five has invited contestants from his season and those in the past for what is supposed to be a convivial gathering of chefs cooking, eating and talking. Chefs who attended were: Harold and Tiffani from season one; Ilan and Marcel from season two; Casey, Dale and Hung from season three; Richard and Lisa from season four and Carla, Fabio and Stefan from season five.
Spin-offs
Top Chef University
Top Chef University is a comprehensive online culinary school involving 12 courses and over 220 in-depth video-lessons. The program at www.topchefuniversity.com takes you through a structured program from the basics (knife skills, kitchen set-up, ingredients) through to advanced culinary techniques (sous vide, molecular gastronomy). Instructors at Top Chef University are some of the show's most successful and popular former chef'testants. Enrollment costs 199.95 for an annual membership and 24.95 for a monthly membership.
Top Chef Junior
Top Chef Junior is a tentatively-titled upcoming American reality competition show that will air on the cable television network Bravo. It is expected that teenage chefs will compete against each other in weekly challenges. Following the Top Chef format, they will be judged by a panel of professional chefs and other notables from the culinary world, with Bravo stating that one or more contestants will be eliminated each week. The show is produced by Magical Elves Productions, the same company that created and produces Top Chef.
Bravo has ordered eight episodes; currently no air date has been set,
Top Chef Masters
Top Chef Masters features established, award-winning chefs—a contrast from Top Chef, which features chefs that have been called relative "culinary amateurs". Food journalist Kelly Choi hosts the show, and restaurant critic Gael Greene, culinary expert and Saveur Editor-in-Chief James Oseland and food critic Jay Rayner serve as judges.
The show debuted in 2009 with contestants including Rick Bayless, John Besh, Michael Chiarello, Wylie Dufresne, and Hubert Keller. As of 2010, two seasons have been produced and aired.
Top Chef: Just Desserts
Top Chef: Just Desserts is a spin-off featuring pastry chefs. The show is hosted by Top Chef judge Gail Simmons. The head judge is Johnny Iuzzini award-winning pastry chef at Jean-Georges. Hubert Keller, owner of world-renowned restaurant Fleur de Lys and Top Chef Masters finalist, and Dannielle Kyrillos, "an entertaining expert and Editor-at-Large of DailyCandy" are regularly featured judges.
The show debuted on Bravo on September 15, 2010, after the seventh season finale of Top Chef.
Top Chef Canada
On April 21, 2010 Food Network Canada announced that they had come to an agreement with NBC Universal to produce a Canadian version of the program called Top Chef Canada which will be airing in spring 2011.
No host for the series has been announced, but the head judge role held by Tom Colicchio on the original version will be filled by Mark McEwan, chef/owner of several restaurants in Toronto and host of the Food Network Canada program The Heat with Mark McEwan.
Top Chef: The Game
Top Chef: The Game is a computer game released by Brighter Minds for the PC. It challenges players to create the best dish from items in a virtual pantry. Games magazine gave the game an unfavorable review, calling it a "quick cash-in... for an undiscriminating audience."
Top Chef: TV Dinners
In efforts to make certain dishes available to viewers who watch Top Chef but don't have time to try preparing those dishes themselves, Schwan's Home Service started offering Top Chef—branded frozen meals in late 2009.
Top Chef: The Magazine
In June 2009, news broke that Top Chef is working with Food & Wine magazine on a Top Chef print magazine.
Top Chef: The Cookbook (series)
Top Chef: The Cookbook
On March 20, 2008, Chronicle Books released Top Chef: The Cookbook, with a foreward by Tom Colicchio.
Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook
On September 30, 2009, Chronicle Books released Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook, with a foreward by Padma Lakshmi.
How To Cook Like A Top Chef
On July 14, 2010, Chronicle Books released How To Cook Like A Top Chef, with a foreward by Rick Bayless.
International adaptations
Greece - Greek broadcaster ANT1 has announced its own version of Top Chef to be aired in the 2010-2011 television season.
France - French adaptation of Top Chef was broadcast on M6 (TV channel) in 2010. Season 2 is scheduled for 2011.
The Netherlands - A Dutch version of Top Chef has aired since January 2009. The competitors are amateur chefs, to the professional chefs in the original American version. After a celebrity series called Topchef VIPS, the second regular season will be broadcast in the fall of 2010. At the same time the first season of the similar British format MasterChef will air on NET5.
DVD release
Season 5 was released on DVD in Region 1 by A&E Home Video on October 20, 2009. A Season 6 DVD set has been announced for release August 24, 2010. Season 4 DVD Set has been released exclusively at Target stores.
Reception and Awards
Awards
Top Chef was nominated at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Cinematography for Reality Programming and Outstanding Reality-Competition Program for its second season.Top Chef won the award for Outstanding Editing in a Reality Series at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. Top Chef won the award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, defeating The Amazing Race which has won the award since the category's inception in 2003.
Time magazine's James Poniewozik named it one of the Top 10 Returning Series of 2007, ranking it at #10.
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(source:wikipedia)
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