Waiting for Some More Originaltiy

Column for October 28, 2008. I know this is a lazy excuse for a blog post, but it is my material. © 2008

It is deja vu all over again. Or at least the lack of originality in Hollywood makes me feel that way. Movies are created from popular books, TV shows are dragged on until the 20th season or producers "reinvent" a classic TV show. As I surf through my 74 channels of television, I think that nothing new is being produced these days.

I seldom get to watch television anymore, but when I do, a monotony of programming is available - endless hours of unoriginal material. I wouldn't say that all of it is crap, but my favorite example is Jerry Bruckheimer's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." I have to admit that I liked the first version of this show, but became slowly annoyed with blatant spin offs of the show. "Same idea, different city" must have been their production motto.

Another example of this lack of effort from the screenwriters is "Law & Order." Again I am a fan of one of the particular versions, but how many different sub-series can you make Mr. Dick Wolf? What is next? "Law & Order: Animal Cruelty Victims Unit"?

But it is not just the endlessly continuing series that are adding to this bleak existence known as television programming. We can also blame the brains behind revitalizing older TV shows. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to bring back "Knight Rider" without David Hasselhoff was severely mistaken.

Sadly, the sampling of content doesn't end with TV. When I look back at the last 10 years of movies, I can't think of more popular movies than the "Lord of the Rings" and the "Harry Potter" series, both of which are interpretations of now well-known books.

Yes, these movies were made because of their popularity, but can a guy ask for some original thinking? The last good movie I saw in theaters was "Eagle Eye," but to be honest, it felt like a more mobile version of the theatrical disaster "Phone Booth."

I understand that there was a writers strike last year and that some things are created solely based on their popularity, but I think the world can do without "High School Musical 3." If anything, it makes me feel like we are all just a gullible group of movie-going idiots, taking whatever the movie producers throw at us just because the flick has a new title.

But we are partially to blame for the existence of big-screen blunders. Bruckheimer's trilogy, "Pirates of the Caribbean" is now being extended with a fourth and possibly fifth and sixth version. Why? It could be because Jerry found a new aspect of the popular Disney ride that he hasn't explained yet, but probably because it is making him a boat load of booty.

The sad part is that it doesn't end with movies. Producers of video games are beating the proverbial dead horse by re-releasing titles with yearly changes. The most notable being the Madden series, coming out with a new game each year with the allure that each team has all the correct players and up-to-date statistics. Is that why they have Brett Favre on the cover of Madden '09 in a Packers jersey?

I know you might question if I have a point, and I do. I will not go to the theater or turn on the TV until there is something compelling to watch. If people keep making movies from books I have read and TV shows from the ones my grandmother used to watch, I am not going to go to the theater or turn on the TV. If the creativity doesn't start flowing from Hollywood, I have a feeling that writers will start killing their audiences if they keep "stickin'" to their guns.