“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-18 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see and hear? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from the week of August 5, 2018
This Week’s Podcast
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
RIP Robert Hardy
With my roots in the theater, I am all too often saddened by the ways that actors are remembered. Not for their greatest roles, simply their highest profile. A career of depth and breadth and quality is reduced to a single, all too often, simple character.
Such is the case I fear of English actor Robert Hardy. When his obituary appeared over the weekend, it was usually headlined with “Robert Hardy, who played Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter movies…” It makes me want to slam my head into the wall.
Yes, he played the rather fussbudgety career bureaucrat in the Ministry of Magic. It was a relatively small role in the blockbuster series. And I am aware that most people under the age of 50 only know him from those movies.
And that’s really sad. So allow me a moment to note a few other items from his professional vitae.
Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy was born in 1925 in Cheltenham, England. He was the son of the headmaster at Cheltenham College. His first acting experience was Shakespeare, in no less a place than the Bard’s home of Stratford Upon Avon and opposite no lesser a castmate than Sir Laurence Olivier. As the years progressed he became a familiar figure on television and the movies. American audiences first glimpsed him as Albert, the Prince Consort in the BBC serial “Edward the King” in 1975.
The true Hardy fans are all but dancing in their seats right now, wondering when I will get to Siegfried Farnon. Farnon was one of the much beloved characters in the series “All Creatures Great and Small” which ran from 1978 to 1990. It was a long time staple on PBS stations and was the inspiration for every veterinary show that has come since. He has also played both Churchill and FDR in different productions. In 1981, Hardy was granted a CBE by Queen Elizabeth. On top of that, Hardy was known as an expert on the medieval English longbow. He published two books on the subject.
Hardy was wonderful as a poised member of the English upper crust. He had a wonderful way of being oh so polite while making it utterly clear how far out of your depth you were. It was the polished work of an experienced and skillful artist. Like so many English actors he had spent many years learning the craft.
Cornelius Fudge was fun, but Robert Hardy deserves to remembered for more.
Robert Hardy was 91 years old.
Facebook’s Tough Year, Redux
2018 continues to be an astoundingly awful year for the folks at Facebook. It began with the continuing concern about its role, passive or otherwise, in allowing outside forces to affect our national elections. The Cambridge Analytica scandal jumped on top of that. It revealed that a massive volume of user data had been handed over to a private firm. Almost all of it gathered without the users knowledge or permission. The European Union then added to the joy of the year by questioning how Facebook was handling personal information. The Europeans are MUCH more serious on that subject than we are. They demanded that CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg testify. He did so, but managed to escape without having to confront the hard questions.
Sadly, the Big Z may look back on that as the high point of his year. Just a couple weeks back, following an earnings report that was a little negative, the social media giant stock dropped. It was the largest amount by any single stock in a single day in the history of the stock market.
Yeah, it’s been a tough year.
And it’s not over yet. Zuckerberg recently got himself in hot water when it appeared that he was defending Holocaust deniers. The question was about why Facebook allows them to keep their pages up, to which he responded that some folks in that camp aren’t, quoting now, “…intentionally getting it wrong”. He walked those comments back almost immediately, noting that he, personally, found the point of view offensive. The company later added that they thought it was best to simply limit the distribution of misinformation, rather than remove it outright. Since then they have announced that they will be removing material that could lead to violence.* Plus last month the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a probe into Facebook warned investors about the information scandal in a timely fashion.
I have noted repeatedly the apparent naivete of Zuckerberg’s vision for his social media empire. What continues to amaze, and at times even astound, me is his apparent idea that this is still the Facebook of Harvard in 2004 or the worldwide Facebook of 2006. Today, Facebook is a behemoth, with the ability to change the world, almost at a whim.
There is increasing pressure around the world to regulate all social media. Zuckerberg is a leader in resisting that move. But if he can’t shake this foolish attitude toward what Facebook really is, next year might be even tougher than this one has been.
* (Editor’s note – The day after this program was recorded Facebook did just that by removing material by Alex Jones and InfoWars)
Calling It on MoviePass
In
the hospital movies and TV shows, there comes a moment after the team
has been doing everything in its power to save the life of the
patient that one of them looks up and says:
the hospital movies and TV shows, there comes a moment after the team
has been doing everything in its power to save the life of the
patient that one of them looks up and says:
“Call
it”.
it”.
It’s
the moment when everyone realizes that it’s over. Everything that
can be done has been done. The patient is gone. You call the time
of death and you go home.
the moment when everyone realizes that it’s over. Everything that
can be done has been done. The patient is gone. You call the time
of death and you go home.
For
the movie ticket subscription service MoviePass, I’m calling it.
The patient has been failing for months, but the final sign has
shown. They will be out of business or sold off before the end of
the year. It’s done.
the movie ticket subscription service MoviePass, I’m calling it.
The patient has been failing for months, but the final sign has
shown. They will be out of business or sold off before the end of
the year. It’s done.
Which
is funny given that just last week they tweeted a paraphrase of Mark
Twain, saying “Talk of our demise is greatly exaggerated”.
is funny given that just last week they tweeted a paraphrase of Mark
Twain, saying “Talk of our demise is greatly exaggerated”.
No,
not really.
not really.
The
service began with the promise of a-movie-a-day viewing for a low,
low price. Just ten dollars and all the movies in the theaters were
yours. It was obvious from the beginning that this wasn’t going to
work. MoviePass still had to pay full price to the theaters for the
tickets, so money poured out of the corporate coffers. The goal was
that the subscriber base would be so big that the major chains would
make a deal on prices. That largely never happened. Instead, those
folks decided to do the deal themselves. AMC is launching “The
A-List”. For $19.95 you get three movies a week. Since they are
playing with their own tickets, AMC should be able to make this fly.
service began with the promise of a-movie-a-day viewing for a low,
low price. Just ten dollars and all the movies in the theaters were
yours. It was obvious from the beginning that this wasn’t going to
work. MoviePass still had to pay full price to the theaters for the
tickets, so money poured out of the corporate coffers. The goal was
that the subscriber base would be so big that the major chains would
make a deal on prices. That largely never happened. Instead, those
folks decided to do the deal themselves. AMC is launching “The
A-List”. For $19.95 you get three movies a week. Since they are
playing with their own tickets, AMC should be able to make this fly.
Meanwhile,
the cost went up to 14.95, and surge pricing went into effect
(meaning that more popular movies required add-on fees). Unless you
opt for the new 9.95 price which gets you three movies a month.
There are plenty of other “small print” stipulations. And
competitors have begun to increase and circle. All of which are sure
signs of the inevitable death of the service.
the cost went up to 14.95, and surge pricing went into effect
(meaning that more popular movies required add-on fees). Unless you
opt for the new 9.95 price which gets you three movies a month.
There are plenty of other “small print” stipulations. And
competitors have begun to increase and circle. All of which are sure
signs of the inevitable death of the service.
Beyond
that is the report that they completely ran out of money at the end
of last month. There had been a hope that they could generate a
secondary income stream from collect and then monetize information on
its users. An analytics firm bought a majority stake in the company
to do just that.
that is the report that they completely ran out of money at the end
of last month. There had been a hope that they could generate a
secondary income stream from collect and then monetize information on
its users. An analytics firm bought a majority stake in the company
to do just that.
There’s
another phrase you hear in those medical programs. “The patient is
dead but the body doesn’t know it”.
another phrase you hear in those medical programs. “The patient is
dead but the body doesn’t know it”.
Time
to make the call. MoviePass has passed.
to make the call. MoviePass has passed.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2018
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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