How does Fox keep scoring new TV shows from geniuses?

Caviar — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 06:57:15 -0800

How does Fox keep scoring new TV shows from geniuses? Series after series of wonderful shows with dedicated fan support... completely mistreated, and then usually canceled, by Fox. Episodes out of order, not shown at all, timeslots changed on a whim. You all know what I'm talking about.

Yet, Fox keeps landing new shows from the likes of Matt Groening, Seth MacFarlane, and Joss Whedon.

How and why? Continual promises that this time it will be different? Truckloads of cash? What's really going on here? Is there some offer that Fox can make that the other networks can't match?

Family Guy lyrics

sequential — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 22:47:26 -0800

"Laugh and cry" or "effin' cry" [mi] Apparently my partner and I aren't the only one to have this debate. Whenever the show comes on, I can't help but sing along with the theme music. Whenever Stewie sings, I always sing "effin' cry" . My partner found it endearing, so I kept singing it that way. When we rented the series three DVDs and watched it with captioning on, they said, "laugh and cry". I was crushed. I continued to sing "effin' cry" nonetheless.

The DVD commentary by Seth MacFarlane should be the definitive word. During a series one episode, he makes note of the debate and says it's "laugh and cry". The Brian's Bar FAQ mentions this very debate and that they changed the intro to make it abundantly clear he says "laugh and cry". There's no doubt listening to the provided sample of the theme song on "The Effin Cry Debate" page for the third season that he says "laugh and cry". There's also no doubt that the songs changed between season two and three.

I had lost hope and conceded that I don't use closed captioning to solve silly debates. (In fact, I always watch TV with CC on.) Tonight, I was merrily singing along while watching a rerun from TBS on Tivo. I was bouncing along, just about to render my best version of "effin' cry" when closed captioning revealed to me the line "effin' cry", exactly as it appears in the image on "The Effin Cry Debate" page. I became so overjoyed that I pointed it out to my not nearly as amused partner. We watched it many times. We could only conclude the obvious. That's what the caption said.

I'm curious to know what gives. I assume it's a closed captioning mistake given the official lyrics say "laugh and cry". Yet there's no indication that the captioning was in error in my search for an explanation. Does a third party provide the transcript? Is there someone with the sense of humor doing the closed captioning? Is there a reason Fox may have given Mr. MacFarlane a gag order regarding the use of the word "effin"? Can anyone confirm what the captions say on their copy of the same episode on the DVD PAL and NTSC releases?

I'm aware that the CC can contain mistakes, mostly looking like line noise though sometimes they are censor mistakes. I regularly see unedited transcripts featuring words that should garner a nice FCC fine if spoken.

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How does Fox keep scoring new TV shows from geniuses?

Family Guy lyrics