Well played with the stunt casting, Good Place
"50 gallons of man in a 10 gallon hat" is such a perfect description, I died a little.
I caught the pilot of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, which is high concept as network TV comedies go. To wit: the main character is a coder in a tech company, and *something* happens to her brain when an earthquake strikes while she's getting a brain MRI. As a result, she can now hear other people's thoughts and emotions in the form of a... SONG! (I KNOW). The pilot is a bit forced in bits but I still quite liked it. Peter Gallagher plays Zoey's father who is dying of a degenerative neurological disease and cannot talk/move much, and I legit cried for several minutes when he started singing, even though I was fully expecting it to happen.
It reminded me of Wonderfalls a bit. The pilot is streaming on Youtube if you wanna check it out: [link]
This article about the Good Place cameo is a delight:
[link]
Vonnie, I was disappointed when I saw the first commercials for Zoey's and realized that the music wasn't going to be original like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but then some people were comparing it to Eli Stone, which I loved. So, I might give it a chance. It's sitting on the DVR right now.
Music in the pilot were all pretty well known and older. I don't know how they are working around the music licensing fee issues -- I guess older songs may not require much? Or at all? Or maybe they don't cost if someone else is singing the songs? *scratches head*
I don't know if you have to pay for covers? I mean, there are cover bands everywhere and I can't imagine they have the money to pay. But I really have no idea.
I am intrigued by the Playlist show
Nice interview, I'm gonna have to check out the Culture article when I'm more awake. I remember watching Go and thinking "who is that guy", nice to be reminded of that
I don't think you have to pay permissions fees for covering songs in live performances, but anything that's going to appear on TV or in a movie should have royalties involved.
Good Place: Jason and the clicker - did something happen there I wonder? His trolley comments were about creating a distraction so something could happen.
I can't speak to the plot, but in the podcast they said that Manny Jacinto actually dropped it in one of the takes and it shattered: everyone stayed in character and started running around screaming about Jason destroying the Earth; Maya Rudolph started to slow clap and said "I'm a mom, I saw this coming". Mark Evan Jackson really hoped it wound up in a gag reel.
