The Amazing Screw-On Head
So that's probably not the most enticing title in the world but I promise you, stay with me on this one and you will not have wasted your time.
The Amazing Screw-On Head is a new TV show premering next week on the Sci-Fi Channel. It's a half-hour dark comedy based on the Mike Mignola (of Hellboy fame) comic book of the same name. He didn't have anything to do with the production of the show, but that's probably all for the best, as the show runner is one Mister Bryan Fuller. Fuller is famous for the critically acclaimed but short-lived series Dead Like Me, as well as the charming, imaginative, and all around tremendous series Wonderfalls (currently available mega cheap on DVD). The Head himself is voiced by Paul "I will not drink any fucking Merlot" Giamatti, with supporting characters voiced by David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, and Patton Oswald.
Oh, you actually want to know what the show is about? Fine. The main premise is that there are actually two histories of the United States - the one we've been fed, and the real version of history, which this series is here to fill in. Screw-On Head is in fact, a head with a screw for a neck who can jump into a variety of robot bodies. He serves as a secret agent of sorts for Presidents throughout history, battling all sorts of bizzare monsters and forces that are better kept safe from the public. The pilot shows the head serving Abraham Lincoln, battling against his zombie ex-butler and his vampire ex-girlfriend. Tell me you aren't going to tune in.
What really makes this show worth blogging about is the way that Sci-Fi has gone about promoting the series. The full pilot episode is available for viewing, right now, online, for free. It'll stay that way until two weeks after the show actually premeres on television. This is such a brilliant way to get people to watch your show, particularly a show like this which I would imagine is quite difficult to advertise. Watching the premere certainly has me hooked, and to be honest I don't think there's any chance I would have made a point to sit in front of my TV at a specific time to watch it blind. It takes a lot to get me, and I think most people, to invest their time in a new TV show. Like most things, I probably would have not watched it, wait for it to get cancelled, hear good things about it, then pick it up on DVD. Now, Sci-Fi has picked up at least one viewer. I hope to see more networks impliment this strategy for all of the new pilots premering this fall.
TANGENTALLY RELATED: Speaking of major networks, last week was the lowest rated week for the four major networks in recorded Neilson history. Sure it's summer, and ratings are always low in August and July, but still, the networks can't be happy about that. There's no standout new reality show that usually seems to come along once a summer (think of Survivor and American Idol in years' past), and there are a lot more things to occupy people's time. With more content online, as well as TV on DVD, there's no need to suffer through another Will and Grace rerun. This is good news for you and me, and bad news for networks, who, as I have said before, I hope continue to rethink their broadcast strategy.
The Amazing Screw-On Head is a new TV show premering next week on the Sci-Fi Channel. It's a half-hour dark comedy based on the Mike Mignola (of Hellboy fame) comic book of the same name. He didn't have anything to do with the production of the show, but that's probably all for the best, as the show runner is one Mister Bryan Fuller. Fuller is famous for the critically acclaimed but short-lived series Dead Like Me, as well as the charming, imaginative, and all around tremendous series Wonderfalls (currently available mega cheap on DVD). The Head himself is voiced by Paul "I will not drink any fucking Merlot" Giamatti, with supporting characters voiced by David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, and Patton Oswald.
Oh, you actually want to know what the show is about? Fine. The main premise is that there are actually two histories of the United States - the one we've been fed, and the real version of history, which this series is here to fill in. Screw-On Head is in fact, a head with a screw for a neck who can jump into a variety of robot bodies. He serves as a secret agent of sorts for Presidents throughout history, battling all sorts of bizzare monsters and forces that are better kept safe from the public. The pilot shows the head serving Abraham Lincoln, battling against his zombie ex-butler and his vampire ex-girlfriend. Tell me you aren't going to tune in.What really makes this show worth blogging about is the way that Sci-Fi has gone about promoting the series. The full pilot episode is available for viewing, right now, online, for free. It'll stay that way until two weeks after the show actually premeres on television. This is such a brilliant way to get people to watch your show, particularly a show like this which I would imagine is quite difficult to advertise. Watching the premere certainly has me hooked, and to be honest I don't think there's any chance I would have made a point to sit in front of my TV at a specific time to watch it blind. It takes a lot to get me, and I think most people, to invest their time in a new TV show. Like most things, I probably would have not watched it, wait for it to get cancelled, hear good things about it, then pick it up on DVD. Now, Sci-Fi has picked up at least one viewer. I hope to see more networks impliment this strategy for all of the new pilots premering this fall.
TANGENTALLY RELATED: Speaking of major networks, last week was the lowest rated week for the four major networks in recorded Neilson history. Sure it's summer, and ratings are always low in August and July, but still, the networks can't be happy about that. There's no standout new reality show that usually seems to come along once a summer (think of Survivor and American Idol in years' past), and there are a lot more things to occupy people's time. With more content online, as well as TV on DVD, there's no need to suffer through another Will and Grace rerun. This is good news for you and me, and bad news for networks, who, as I have said before, I hope continue to rethink their broadcast strategy.
posted by J at 2:34 PM
2 Comments:
Your blog is way cool. Even though television has gotten so great over the years, it's still rare to find someone who's a real TV enthusiast - you're the only one I know - and this is cool because now I can find new worlds of quality entertainment in a medium I used to pretty much ignore just by checking out yo' site. I mean, I guess my brother is a 'TV enthusiast' too, but he's the old-style type that just lies on the couch all day half sucking on cheetos cycling through 200 channels over and over agian without ever stopping on anything just because he is a lazy bum. I would not ask him for televsion advice about anything outside of NASCAR. But thanks to you I now have like 5 series on my to-watch list.
And your non-TV posts are cool too!
BUT YOU LET ME DOWN MAN. I watched the Screw-On Head pilot and all I could think was "J... what's going on..." But I really love the art style. Maybe if they dropped all the corny jokes I'd give it another chance.
KEEP ON BLOGGIN
I am definetely the first person to admit that Amazing Screw-On Head is not for everyone. It's bizarre, unconventional, corny (on purpose I think), and pretty out there in terms of plot. For a show like this I do not find it difficult at all to understand why someone wouldn't like it.
BUT! Here is why I reccomended it. I like to watch shows (and read books, watch movies, play video games, etc...), where it is evident that the people behind the show really care about what they are putting out there. I really liked Screw-On Head, despite its problems (uneven pacing immediately comes to mind), because I can feel the artists, writers, and actors really putting their heart into what's going on. I used to watch Ally McBeal back when it was still on the air, and as a viewer you could just feel the moment where the creators stopped caring. The series went from a smart and bizarrely funny show to a conventional one hour law drama. They started bringing in great looking women, musical guests every other episode, and I believe fired all of the writers. The show went, for me at least, from brilliant and unique to total crap.
I enjoy the medium of television. More than that, I enjoy people who care about the medium and are interested in doing new things. Screw-On Head isn't perfect, but it's certainly different, unpredictable, and let's be honest, you've got to care about a show this bizarre to even go to the effort of putting it out. It's cool that you didn't like it, but it's even cooler that you tried it out. Had it not been on the internet, you probably wouldn't have even heard of it at all (I know I probably wouldn't). Hopefully I will do you right in future reccomendations.
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