The TV Zone

So here we go again. TCA! It begins today, this morning, in fact. A few hours from now. So what is "TCA" and why should you give a patooty? It's the Television Critics Association Press tour in Beverly Hills, where about 300 mostly smart and soon-to-be well-fed people congregate twice yearly to listen to TV producers pitch their new shows in a dark and very cold room. (Today, cable...) Most of these people work for newspapers, magazines, websites - increasingly the latter - work pretty hard during these two weeks and don't drink nearly as much as you may have been led to believe. (Unfortunately, the first day of TCA also serves as occasion to lament the sorry and diminished state of TV criticism. I've read at least two pieces since Monday bemoaning the profession, and, by association, the future of TCA, so...let's not get too excited. I'll be out there sometime this weekend, God and the U.S. aviation industry willing.)

But maybe some of you are wondering: What is TCA REALLY about? And so, I've posted a couple of clips from the '07 criticpalooza. This first is an "Ugly Betty" cast interview. These star encounters - just one facet of TCA - take place after the panel sessions, and yield more gales of ephemera, flotsam, and fabulously fatuous phooey than a single edition of "Rachael Ray:"

This next one's from Michael Jensen, a well-known presence at TCA who works for AfterElton.com, which posts "news, Reviews & Commentary on Gay and Bisexual Men in Entertainment and the Media." What's good about this clip is that it reveals yet another minor aspect of TCA - the junk that the networks dump on critics, usually outside the hotel room door. Here Jensen pulls out of a bag which contains something like fifteen HBO chotchkes. At TCA, swag still lives! Even if it's minor league swag...


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