Watching last night’s Bob’s Burgers, which takes place on Saint Patric’s day in a now quaint alternate universe, I wondered which scripted shows (meaning not talk shows live comedy shows like SNL, or reality/game shows) will be first to work the crisis and quarantine into the script. Any guesses? And comedies or dramas?
WWE? They are a “scripted” show so to speak. And they have already worked it in because their the main shows—RAW and Smackdown–had to forgo being taped at an arena to to be taped at the WWE Perfomance Center without an audience.
It will almost certainly be South Park. The show has been completely CG since very very early in its run and they can churn out episodes remarkably quickly, even quicker than a live-action show could.
I didn’t even realize that South Park was still running.
Most shows, I imagine, won’t address it at all, because the lead time is long enough that by the time the episodes written now would be airing, the quarantines would be (mostly) over.
Jersey Shore.
My first thought was South Park, as well. 20 years ago they were able to turn out a parody of the Florida vote count less than a week after the election.
South Park is currently in between seasons. There’s no date announced for the season 24 premiere, but new seasons typically start in September. It would be interesting to set how they handle it, though. Cartman would probably claim that it is a Jewish conspiracy and make Kyle the target of his wrath.
Our Cartoon President on Showtime did it last night. A scene from Youtube.
Obviously The West Wing won’t be addressing the current coronavirus crisis. But back in 2001, after the terrorists attacks on September 11, they were able to write and record an episode addressing it and broadcast it on October 3.
Shows like, for example, Newsroom, would address ‘current events’ about a year later. They would change it enough that it wouldn’t see irrelevant, but the story would be similar.
I started watching Tommy recently. The had an episode that was sorta kinda based on the Fyre Festival.
Come to think of it, no matter how long the quarantine is, live-action shows won’t be able to address it until afterwards, because the actors themselves will be quarantined.
I’m also kind of wondering about newspaper comics. They have a significant lead time, too, but it’s possible to push out new ones to replace the ones currently in the queue, much quicker.
Though, I’m still seeing political strips talking about how it looks like Sanders is going to be the Democratic nominee.
Today’s Lockhorns (as pointed out by the Comics Crudmiffin) has a totally different meaning than it did when it was created.
It’s a real shame that MONK is off the air, since he now looks like the guy who isn’t actually taking this seriously enough. “Uh, hey, it’s great that you’d use a wipe after shaking my hand, but I’d of course rather we just didn’t shake hands in the first place. What’s that? Spray down some rental shoes before having ourselves a fun night at the bowling alley? Knock yourself out, pal, but I ain’t that brave.”
Bull had an awkward moment.
Derailing my own thread, the German Big Brother contestants have just now been told about this.
German Julie Chen: “Nice job so far guys! Oh, BTW, it’s the Zombie Apocalypse out here.”
I haven’t watched Big Brother US in many years, but I was watching Season 2 when they were the last people on Earth to hear about 9/11. (They had already noticed the weird absence of air traffic.)
Every time I read this thread title, I think it’s about The Situation.
This weeks Bull, by an unfortunate coincidence happened to be about an anthrax scare. So they tacked on a PSA at the beginning saying basically that.
I have to assume it will be a Dick Wolfe show. Ripping stories from the headlines seems to be what they do.
Not a show, but there’s a new commercial from Hotels.com.
“This is Captain Obvious. He’s going to be social distancing for a while. And you should, too. Just stay home.”
Very responsible and practical advice.
Can’t wait for them to bring back the Newsroom to tackle this issue.
“So are we going to call it the Wuhan Flu or the Coronavirus on-air, we need an answer now!”
“… let’s call it the coronavirus”
<Triumphant music>