"Fringe" reruns to have Twitter commentary from Cast and Producers

[Malcontent]

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/31/fox-livens-up-re-runs-with-twitter-commentaries/

The television network will be airing old episodes for two of its shows, Fringe and Glee, with Twitter commentary along the bottom of the screen. But no, sadly, not just anyone can tweet anything and have it be on national television, these will be moderated streams. And most of the it will be taken up by the tweets of the two shows’ casts and producers, apparently.

During the episodes, the cast members and producers will be watching and tweeting live. Fans be able to see their tweets on the bottom portion of their television screens or can follow along on Twitter itself by checking out the FRINGEonFOX and GLEEonFOX Twitter accounts. Select tweets from fans following along will be put on air.

[MikeMar]

POP UP VIDEOS!!!!

but w/ tweets :D

[nirisahn]

I wonder how that will work with closed captioning and the stuff they already put at the bottom of the screen that's annoying?

[Sherminator]

Well, I'm glad that I didn't wait for the re-runs and went with TVTorrents for my Fringe catchup instead.

[MickeS]

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[JLucPicard]

I was kind of looking forward to the "Fringe" reruns just to get back into things, but it looks like I can just skip that now. Oh well. :(

[Worf]

Where were the reruns of the first season of Fringe? My TiVo has apparently caught a rerun episode of Fringe just prior to season 2 opener...

[cheesesteak]

I will NOT be watching Fringe reruns.

[Steveknj]

I won't be watching them either. Twitter annoys me as pointless drivel. Because of twitter, Facebook is getting just as bad. I am hoping (but fear I am wrong) that this social networking stuff it a passing fad.

[gchance]

I won't be watching them either. Twitter annoys me as pointless drivel. Because of twitter, Facebook is getting just as bad. I am hoping (but fear I am wrong) that this social networking stuff it a passing fad.

How is Twitter comments from the actors & actresses any different than the commentary on the Lost reruns? The differences here are A) it's not by the some random person but the real people, B) you could follow along on Twitter IF YOU WANTED, but if not, you can see it on the screen with the show.

Viewers aren't posting the comments, the people in the show are.

All this, of course, beside the fact that being annoyed by Twitter and it going away have no bearing on your enjoyment of the show itself. If you don't participate, there's no need to be annoyed. You remind me of my 70-something uncle in the mid-90s, who would get pissed off because they said "www" on all the commercials. He wished www would go away, too.

Greg

[DevdogAZ]

The article doesn't say when this will be happening. I never saw the pilot for Glee and would like to see it before the season starts (I read something that made me think they're starting the fall season with the next episode).

Edit: Nevermind, I found the info elsewhere. Looks like the Fringe episode will be this Thursday and Glee will be on Friday. But the article I found (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090831/media_nm/us_twitter_4) said that they're showing a director's cut of the Glee pilot on Wednesday, so I'll just watch that one instead.

[Steveknj]

How is Twitter comments from the actors & actresses any different than the commentary on the Lost reruns? The differences here are A) it's not by the some random person but the real people, B) you could follow along on Twitter IF YOU WANTED, but if not, you can see it on the screen with the show.

Viewers aren't posting the comments, the people in the show are.

All this, of course, beside the fact that being annoyed by Twitter and it going away have no bearing on your enjoyment of the show itself. If you don't participate, there's no need to be annoyed. You remind me of my 70-something uncle in the mid-90s, who would get pissed off because they said "www" on all the commercials. He wished www would go away, too.

Greg

If they are scrolling random twitter comments on the screen, then yes, it's annoying if I cannot turn it off. The difference between the Lost Commentaries is that they are not some random comment, but well thought out information put on the bottom of the screen. The twitter stuff can potentially be a lot of nothing that will be a huge distraction.

[gchance]

If they are scrolling random twitter comments on the screen, then yes, it's annoying if I cannot turn it off. The difference between the Lost Commentaries is that they are not some random comment, but well thought out information put on the bottom of the screen. The twitter stuff can potentially be a lot of nothing that will be a huge distraction.

Except the whole point is a running commentary. Think of it as a written version of a verbal commentary, in realtime.

Greg

[MickeS]

Except the whole point is a running commentary. Think of it as a written version of a verbal commentary, in realtime.

Greg

Tying it to the Twitter brand is just an added annoyance. I am so tired of all things Twitter.

[Frylock]

"But no, sadly, not just anyone can tweet anything and have it be on national television..."

Wow, THAT would be annoying to have random tweats along the bottom of the show. The cast would be annoying enough.

[JLucPicard]

Think of it as a written version of a verbal commentary, in realtime.

Greg
The difference being, when the 'accompanying commentary' is provided on a DVD, for instance, I can choose to watch the programming WITHOUT the commentary, which I do. If they are going to scroll comments on the national television broadcast, I can't choose to watch the program without the commentary - my only choice would be to not watch the program. :down:

[Worf]

Hrm. Given how bad Twitter's security and uptime is... might be a tempting target to hack and really start random twits scrolling across the screen.

(Sorry, I refuse to refer to those idiotic things by what the site wants to call them. It's TWITter. Not TWEETer. Thus, twits. Aptly describes the people I see doing it, too.)

[cheesesteak]

99% of Twitter is just useless spam.

They can tweet to their heart's content as long as it's restricted to reruns.

[Steveknj]

Hrm. Given how bad Twitter's security and uptime is... might be a tempting target to hack and really start random twits scrolling across the screen.

(Sorry, I refuse to refer to those idiotic things by what the site wants to call them. It's TWITter. Not TWEETer. Thus, twits. Aptly describes the people I see doing it, too.)

LOL, I always laugh at how it became TWEETS, because TWITS are the people creating the TWEETS.

Twitter to me, is a reflection of our Me First society. Seriously, who gaves a darn about what even someone I know is doing now? They seem to think I care. But really I don't.

[Steveknj]

99% of Twitter is just useless spam.

They can tweet to their heart's content as long as it's restricted to reruns.

I think you are generous calling it 99%.

[ovr8ted]

My pet rock is starting to Tweet now :rolleyes:

I fail to see the difference between pre-typed commentary and "Tweets" other than branding. In this technology age, we should be able to choose "subtitle 2" or some such thing to see the Twittering should we choose.

I'm certain FOX is making some big money on this somehow, or, as I suspect most other "also rans" fears not being in the NOW moment.

Gotta go, here comes the band wagon.

[gchance]

LOL, I always laugh at how it became TWEETS, because TWITS are the people creating the TWEETS.

Twitter to me, is a reflection of our Me First society. Seriously, who gaves a darn about what even someone I know is doing now? They seem to think I care. But really I don't.

I think you are generous calling it 99%.

Out of curiosity, have you used it? Not just looked at it for a few minutes, but actually used it? Like, followed people, had them follow back, gotten connected with people of similar interests, had real conversations?

In other words, have you ever used Twitter similarly to how you use TCF, rather than how celebrities use it?

Just curious.

Greg

[Steveknj]

Out of curiosity, have you used it? Not just looked at it for a few minutes, but actually used it? Like, followed people, had them follow back, gotten connected with people of similar interests, had real conversations?

In other words, have you ever used Twitter similarly to how you use TCF, rather than how celebrities use it?

Just curious.

Greg

Yes, I've used it, and I do have a fairly active FB account as well, but get bored with people pulling the same crap there as well.

At least here, we have fairly intelligent discussions about various topics we all care about. On Twitter, I have no interest, friend or otherwise in some trivial thing that someone is doing at that moment. Now if someone actually used it to discuss movies, TV, politics and so forth, I might get involved in the discussion, but whenever I've been there, it's usually posts like:

"I'm eating blueberry pie right now, anyone want a piece?"

or

"I saw a deer in the woods on my drive to work"

Seriously, people have to find something better to do with their time than post things like that. Realize nobody really cares. I actually posted on my FB page to make a point

"I'm taking a crap now. Do you really care?"

The only value I have found with FB is that I've caught up with some old friends, and then we take our conversation off FB to some other medium, like IM or heaven forbid, an actual PHONE CALL or FTF Meeting!!

[Steveknj]

My pet rock is starting to Tweet now :rolleyes:

I fail to see the difference between pre-typed commentary and "Tweets" other than branding. In this technology age, we should be able to choose "subtitle 2" or some such thing to see the Twittering should we choose.

I'm certain FOX is making some big money on this somehow, or, as I suspect most other "also rans" fears not being in the NOW moment.

Gotta go, here comes the band wagon.

You know, I actually could see some value in this if done right, but FORCING someone to watch this drivel who's a fan of the show is bad. And I'm sure some people feel the same way about the popups on Lost as well. To me, twittering while the show is going on is a lot like the person sitting next to you in the movie theater making snide comments about the movie. Annoying!!

[allan]

Ackk! When I was getting ready for work this morning, I heard an ad for the Tweeting during the reruns. They called the upcoming repeat a "Tweetpeat"! Barf!

[JLucPicard]

So what percentage of these 'tweets' do you suppose are going to be advertisements? Good grief, leave that Twitter crap off of my TV!

Don't most people who indulge in Twitter-like activity probably have laptops that they can just as easily look at while watching and leave those who choose to actually watch the PROGRAM alone to watch the program???

[Peter000]

You know, I actually could see some value in this if done right, but FORCING someone to watch this drivel who's a fan of the show is bad. And I'm sure some people feel the same way about the popups on Lost as well. To me, twittering while the show is going on is a lot like the person sitting next to you in the movie theater making snide comments about the movie. Annoying!!

Nobody's forcing you to watch that particular rerun. If you don't want to watch it, don't watch it.

It's not like they're doing it during all of the airings, particularly the first one.

[Steveknj]

Nobody's forcing you to watch that particular rerun. If you don't want to watch it, don't watch it.

It's not like they're doing it during all of the airings, particularly the first one.

I think you are reading too much into being "FORCED" So, lets say I missed this episode and I DECIDED to watch this when it's being re-aired. I am being FORCED to watch these twits type in "Hey, that was a funny scene" or "I think I'm hungry, going to get something to eat", rather than having the opportunity to turn off the twitter captions as if they are closed captions. I think a better way to do something like this for those who want it, wouldbe something similar to wht Directv does with their optional scoreboard. Click a button on your remote and you can see the twitter posts. Click it off, and you don't have to.

Anyway, I suppose this is a worthy experiment by Fox, I just won't be participating as I find little value in most of what Twitter has to offer.

[Peter000]

I'm just reading what you wrote.

My point is, you're not forced to watch anything you don't want to. If you don't want to watch it that way, download it from iTunes or where ever. Or make sure you TIVO the recording that's not the twitterrun, or tweetrun, or whatever they're calling it.

People are getting up in arms over nuthin'. As far as i can tell, these repeats wouldn't even be there if not for the gimmick, so you wouldn't even have an opportunity for a repeat otherwise.

[DevdogAZ]

I think you are reading too much into being "FORCED" So, lets say I missed this episode and I DECIDED to watch this when it's being re-aired. I am being FORCED to watch these twits type in "Hey, that was a funny scene" or "I think I'm hungry, going to get something to eat", rather than having the opportunity to turn off the twitter captions as if they are closed captions. I think a better way to do something like this for those who want it, wouldbe something similar to wht Directv does with their optional scoreboard. Click a button on your remote and you can see the twitter posts. Click it off, and you don't have to.

Anyway, I suppose this is a worthy experiment by Fox, I just won't be participating as I find little value in most of what Twitter has to offer.
I think you're missing the point of this exercise. It's not going to be that type of commentary about what the people are doing. I expect it's going to be stuff like "In order to film this scene, we had to use 8.7 million candlepower of light behind the barn to create that effect," or "We had to do 33 takes on this scene because John Noble blew a snot bubble and Anna Torv couldn't stop laughing."

It's still largely useless, but it should at least be of interest to people who are interested in the show.

[Steveknj]

I think you're missing the point of this exercise. It's not going to be that type of commentary about what the people are doing. I expect it's going to be stuff like "In order to film this scene, we had to use 8.7 million candlepower of light behind the barn to create that effect," or "We had to do 33 takes on this scene because John Noble blew a snot bubble and Anna Torv couldn't stop laughing."

It's still largely useless, but it should at least be of interest to people who are interested in the show.

Well I hope you are right, that they actually WILL give us some interesting information.

[gchance]

"This is the scene John Noble had trouble with because he said 'get naked' which on TV translated to underwear."

Greg

[MickeS]

Well I hope you are right, that they actually WILL give us some interesting information.

I couldn't stand more than 3 minutes of this monstrosity. Was there any interesting info? What I watched was complete inanity. And horribly annoying.

I watched a few of the pop-up video style "Lost" reruns, and they were kinda fun. This was just awful.