MASKED FAVES FOR 2023 - TV AND JAZZ

It's time for my annual list of recommended television shows and Jazz albums. As always, these are not the best and who can listen to everything that came out in 2023. These are the shows I enjoyed and would recommend you check out; and the albums that caught my ear as I shuffled through my collection of new titles.

Here are the 14 shows that I would recommend to you. As always the list is dominated by FX/HULU with a smattering of HBO thrown in. We said goodby to a real masterpiece in Reservation Dogs, welcomed back Justified and happy to know that Somebody Somewhere and Dark Winds will still be around. Season two of The Bear took a significant leap and Poker Face was a pleasant surprise and an homage to 60's 70's detective shows. We watch a lot of international crime so for something to jump out was fun and that was Criminal Code on NETFLIX. Looks like there will be another iteration.

Poker Face - Peacock

Succession - HBO

Perry Mason - HBO

Somebody Somewhere - HBO

Happy Valley - Sundance

The Bear - HULU

What We Do in the Shadows - FX

Justified:City Primeval - FX

Dark Winds  - AMC

Reservation Dogs -FX

Unforgotten - PBS

Fargo - FX

Criminal Code - NETFLIX

A Murder at the End of the World - FX

Here are 22 Jazz albums that I would recommend you check out. It's a mix of reliables like Chris Potter, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Christian McBride and JD Allen. Artemis delivered an excellent sophomore outing. One pleasant surprise was Veronica Swift's new album which I didn't want to like but came around to quite quickly. Lakecia Benjamin, Alex Weiss and Nicky Schrire were new to my ears. We lost Jamie Branch way too soon. She left us with possibly my favorite album of the year. Please support live Jazz and these artists.

Lakecia Benjamin - Phoenix

Ben Wolfe - Unjust

Chris Potter - Got the Keys to the Kingdom:Live at the Village Vanguard 

Cécile McLorin Salvant - Mélusine 

Christian McBride’s New Jawn - PRIDE

Billy Childs - The Winds of Change

David Larsen - The Peplowski Project

Artemis - In Real Time

Alex Weiss - Most Don’t Have Enough

Gretchen Parlato & Lionel Loueke - Lean In

The Composers Collective Big Band - The Toronto Project

Michael Formanek Elusion Quartet - As Things Go

Linda May Han Oh - The Glass Hours

Joe Farnsworth - In What Direction Are You Headed?

Nicky Schrire - Nowhere Girl

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society - Dynamic Maximum Tension

Jaimie Branch - Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))

This - JD Allen

Veronica Swift - Veronica Swift

Plumb - David Murray, Questove &Ray Angry

Geri Allen & Kurt Rosenwinkel - A Lovesome Thing 

James Brandon Lewis & Red Lily Quintet - For Mahalia With Love

Andre Braugher RIP

Over the years I have, on occasion,, been asked what is the scheduling move that I am most proud of and people are often surprised at my answer.

Sometime in the winter of 1994 we premiered “Homicide: Life on the Streets” and gave it a short run on Thursday night. Today this would have been called a “prestige” show. Back then it was a very dark, arty cop drama that was not pulling in the audience that we were accustomed to in the 10PM Thursday time slot. Whenever it came up in our current meeting some of our marketing execs would put a finger in their mouth and cock their thumbs. For them is was a show impossible to promote. They were just doing their job and being honest.

For me, I loved it. I brought home all the episodes over the Christmas holiday and Bunny and I stayed up late and “binged” them all on New Yers Eve. I was especially drawn to Frank Pembleton played by Andre Braugher. To this day, for me, he is the most memorable character I ever experienced in a TV show.

Well when we were setting the 1994-95 Fall schedule there was a little show called ER which rightfully earned the 10PM Thursday slot. I believed we had renewed Homicide but given the lack of support and no obvious time period I was concerned that this show would quickly be gone from our schedule.

As I was thinking about the sked I suddenly had an epiphany. If there’s one time period noone especially marketing gives a shit about it’s Friday at 10PM. So I built o night of Unsolved Mysteries at 8PM, a Dateline at 9PM and ended the night with Homicide. I figured the only promos HLOTS would get would be in the two shows leading into it and that might be an audience that would hang around.

THAT SCHEDULE STAYED TOGETHER FOR ALMOST 5 YEARS!!!!

It was the most consistant night on our lineup and Homicide had a glorious 5 year run in that timeslot. By the way, that's the same timeslot that BlueBloods owned for over a decade at CBS.

Selfishly it allowed me to enjoy one of the finest television actors for over half a decade. When he was nominated for an Emmy I worked up the nerve to go over to him and introduce myself. I’m sure I made a fool of myself but he was a total gentleman.

I was jolted at the news tonight and I wish him peace as he begins his journey beyond and my sympathies to his loved ones.

RIP Mr. Braugher

LONG LIVE THE SCHEDULER

There have been some articles of late about the irrelevance of scheduling and those who have devoted their lives to the art.....and it is an art. My pal Lynette Rice at DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD asked for my opinion on all this. Here's what I told her.

Tuesday night my wife and I were enjoying one last diner with our son before flying back to La La from NYC when suddenly the "Bat Signal" went off on my phone. Several people I know who are still in the biz asked if I had seen a Deadline article about on article. My pal Lynette Rice summarized a piece written by a broadcast executive turned academic entitled “Scheduling a TV Memoriam: An RIP Of Sorts for a Once-In-Demand Television Industry.” He posits the death of scheduling.

I had read the piece a few days prior. I was inspired by the departure of long time scheduling executive Kevin Lev from the CW. I chuckled when I read it because he had reduced scheduling to moving squares on a board....the sexy part. Us schedulers know it is far more than that.

He posits the demise of the scheduling role in the streaming era. Us skedders know it will become even more important (more on that in a while). He seems to see scheduling as a stagnant gig when us guys and gals have been well aware of scheduling's evolution.

Here's an example: When I started my scheduling career at NBC in 1991 my title was SVP Program Planning and Scheduling. When I moved over to FOX in 2000 I asked Sandy Grushow to change my title to EVP Strategic Program Planning....scheduling went away and "strategy" replaced it. In 2012, when Peter Rice asked me to hang around for another tour of duty I again changed my title to Senior Strategist FOX Networks Group.....strategy to the forefront and an ecosystem was introduced. You see I knew scheduling was not dead, it was evolving and I'm not alone in this. 

The essence of what a scheduler does remains vital. Sara Burns who programmed and scheduled several Discovery channels over her career posted this on LinkedIn. With her permission I want to share this passionate response to the notion that scheduling is irrelevant.

First rule of “scheduling” – don’t call a “scheduler” a “scheduler!”

I started to write a rant about the recent slew of articles and podcasts asking if “scheduling” was still relevant in media. Then I deleted it (as you do). Deep breaths!

I am going to take those think pieces for what the are – a celebration of the history, nostalgia and magic of the business of entertainment (links in comments). I also truly appreciate all the players at the broadcast table and many of them have become recent mentors to me as I figure out my next chapter.

Nonetheless, I am still feeling fired up and absolutely have a point of view (shocking!).

I’m taking this convo out of my texts and DMs to let LinkedIn know that “scheduling” is here to stay… we are just in the midst of a rebranding in the streaming world.

✨ We are the SPARK that get all teams moving in the same direction. No one likes working from a blank page – especially creatives. We don’t write the outline of the shows, we write the outlines of the networks and the very brands themselves. Then we shop the plan around to all the departments to build on it.
📺 We are the ADVOCATES for the viewers. They are the customers. From my seat at the table, I prioritized building their loyalty in a variety of ways – the schedule is just one tool. We use whatever was at our hands from stunts to show titles to metadata and merchandising to help the audiences find what they want.
🛑 We are the BAD GUYS. Yes, sometimes we have to cancel shows because they don’t hit ROI targets. But if we are good at our job we can balance out the long range plan with content that both exceeds ROI and content that is on the bubble (and deserves another chance). We can be the HEROES too.
📊 We are the TRANSLATORS. Look this is the business of entertainment. We are able to take MBA speak and data to creatives and vice versa to ensure everyone understands how and why the tough calls need to be made.

Soon you will see we have infiltrated business planning at so many different orgs and capacities – just with new titles.

This is just the beginning of my pitch to companies out there who are looking for someone with the vision to see the future and drive their business forward.

Are there really more executive scheduling jobs out there, well no! I accept that. But this is certainly not the end of me or folks with my background. We have so many more tricks up our sleeves.

Who's a BELIEVER? Drop me a comment.

This is still a rant, haha! Happy Wednesday!

Pretty much sums it up.

Sara is being humble. Schedulers are always the smartest people in the room.

They have the best grasp of how a decision ripples through the system and who needs to be on board.

They are excellent communicators.

Schedulers have no personal agenda unlike many of the players they interact.

They do not hold back and are willing to take the heat. They have less brown on their nose than anyone else in the room.

The issue moving forward are the goofballs who are running this business into the ground because they worship the streaming gods.

I'm no rocket scientist but if you followed me on the hellsite, or now on Mastadon, you know my mantra is "all television regresses to the mean". By that I mean that everything that the streamers rejected about conventional television is now becoming part of the streaming world.

I was on a panel about six or seven years ago where I predicted that ads will play a larger role on the streamers. I was laughed at.

Several years ago my good friend Melva Benoit and I met with marketing execs at NETFLIX. We pitched them linear channels (fast channels) as part of their service.....ummmmm

As a scheduler I was often lambasted for cancelling shows too quickly.....errrrrrrrrr

Streaming was going to service the niche audience. Now you hear more and more about broad and inclusive.....and then there's Suits. Virgin River, The Lincoln Lawyer.....network shows.

Chord cutting was cool......now streaming is becoming more expensive than the legacy delivery systems.

It's all regressing to the mean.

Some streamers are starting to understand how the scheduling skill set applies to their endeavors.

Andy Kubitz has made the transition moving from head of program planning and scheduling to a strategic position at NETFLIX. I was approached about a "strategic scheduling" at a streamer. Rather than scheduling on its last legs it's due for a renaissance. The titles will change but the people who have the skill set, the brains and the temperament will help to make sense of the current insanity.

Imagine a room full of baboons throwing their shit against the wall hoping some sticks. Now multiply that by about six. If you introduce a scheduler to the rooms  I guarantee you....far more shit will stick.