The other night I drove into the city for an acting audition stopping at a favorite Chinese food haunt and proceeded to close out the meal consuming a traditional Fortune Cookie and in my zealousness half the fortune as well…From what I could make out (the uneaten half) read something like “A project you’re (missing bitten half) … (next line) will receive (missing bitten half)… Having just come from an audition I saw this not as the indiscriminate digestion of mere wood pulp but a sign from the heavens. Yes, the universal consciousness, smiles down upon me this night. I guess that’s a good way of seeing the glass half full.
In this land of youth driven culture that celebrates the 20 something mind and often the 20 something mind coupled with sex, there is a movement neath the covers toward really celebrating our elder statesmen, as audiences grow in age and more importantly as audiences grow in tolerance of all ages.
Overnights for the latest NCIS episode show 17.6 million viewers, numbers which should put the show in second for the night. However, NCIS appears in third place for the night due to a 3.4 share in 18-49 year old viewers while Lost which only garnered 8.8 million total viewers claimed that second position for the night ringing up a 3.8 share in 18-49 year old viewers. Years past the 18-49 year old share would have almost always mirrored overall viewers for most shows. Television audience demographics as a whole are skewing older as niche programming and viewing habits also take hold.
While working at ABC Television, I once had a conversation with the late Vic Mizzy (composer of both the Adams Family and Munsters television themes among many others). Some 20 odd years ago this movie music great complained that he couldn’t get interest from any studio or production company to compose anything, even with his very successful track record…Mizzy felt he had such creativity to share but the system didn’t even want to hear it because he was too old. For what it’s worth I told him I’d have hired him if I could have…
Flash forward to 2010. A Betty White fan in Texas starts a fan page suggesting Betty White should be given a chance at hosting Saturday Night Live. The fan page takes off virally garnering over 500,000 fans nudging the Producers of the NBC stalwart series to take note. Now sometime in May of this year, Betty White has been booked to host Saturday Night Live. At 88 years old, Ms. White is somewhat of an anomaly. The point is that the world today is instantaneous. With the advent of real time social networking the collective consciousness takes on a whole new urgency. It appears we’re speeding toward on demand programming customized to our individual needs by us and for us…
So what does this all mean for the here and now? Definitely change for one and that for the time being we’ll all have to peddle a little faster to keep up!
Greg is appearing as Tony Abbott in Heaven Can Wait at the Conejo Players Theater in Thousand Oaks from April 23rd – May 15th Thursday – Sunday. Call theater for showtimes and ticket availability or just write me direct Greg@firesofaugust.com.
