9/27/08 Selection Time- I have chosen "It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia" season 4. This show is a very amusing comedy with one of my favorite actors of all time Danny Devito. Because my schedule is so busy and with our newborn the availability of this show is flexible as the episodes are available online on FX's website. I tend to watch at night which is the calmest part of my day.

10/11/08 Viewing/Consuming Update: Narrative Structure

The show is a series with multiple protagonists which contains five main characters:

Danny DeVito, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson.

Multiple protagonists- Each show focuses on on or two characters and builds a storyline around them. In "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis", it is discovered that Charlie is utilizing gas to fuel generators to provide electricity for the Pub. Nelson and Mac lecture Charlie about how high the gas prices are. They come up with an idea to buy gas now and resell later for profit. Meanwhile a second storyline is developing where Frank and Dee discuss their disagreement with Dee's mother leaving all her money with her stepfather and none for she and Frank. The two storyline cross when Franks van is stolen by Neson, Charlie and Mac. They ust the van to transport trashcans filled with gas in order to resell and recoup their money after their failed attempt to take business away from a gas station who gave them heartache for fueling trashcans instead of a vehicle.

Exposition- There is a focus on one or two characters in each show. What's familiar in the show for example, is that the character's personal history is consistently shared with the audience in each episode to identify the characters. For instance, Glen Howerton, who plays Dennis, is an aspiring model and identifies himself as being charming and handsome. In one episode he attempts to seduce a banker by unbuttoning his shirt and woozing her. In another episode he auditions to be a "beefcake" and displayed on the Pub's billboard which promotes his identity. In the "Solving the Gas Crisis" episode, two storylines run side by side, one with two of the cast members and the other with three.

Motivation- "Mac's Banging the Waitress" episode is about Mac sleeping with a waitress who is Charlie's love interest. Meanwhile, Dennis is upset when Charlie refers to Mac as his best friend and asks for his help to find out who is sleeping with the waitress. Dennis knows that Mac is the one sleeping with the waitress but doesn't tell Charlie and instead plots to setup a situation where Charlie can discover it for himself and realize that Dennis is his best friend not Mac.

Narrative problematic- In "The Worst Bar in Philedelphia" the cast kidnaps a columnist who write a foul article on Paddy's Pub. Next, Dee and Dennis attempt to set-up the columnist's apartment as if he went on vacation.They realize that they are in the neighbor's apartment instead when an Indian guy appears before them. They end up having to kidnap the neighbor to cover up. Then the neighbor further complicates things when he pleads to be released so that he can care for his diabetic cat. Charlie then decides to bring the cat to his owner, unfortunately, it was the wrong cat.

Cause-effect chain- In "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis" the episode begins with Charlie pouring gas into a generator and gets lectured about the high prices of gas and that it's even more expensive than regular electricity. Moments later Mac comes up with what seems to be a great idea to solve the gas crisis and then the show is interupted and begins as usual with the streets of Philedelphia as the background and the names of the cast and production crew.

Climax- At the end of "The Worst Bar in Philedelphia" episode, the group decides they will return the columnist, his neighbor and the cat and will bribe them so they keep quiet about being kidnapped . Dennis holds his breath as the other group members eye his new Digital TV, Blueray player and surround sound. The entertainment equipment that was purchased to counter the negative comments made in the article regarding the Pub as being ghetto. At the very end the group reads the newest aricle written by this same columnist and he tells the story of how each of them deserve to rot in the hell that is the bar, thus giving Dennis, Charlie, Dee and Mack another reason to go visit this influental writer.

Genre: Comedy

Actors:

Charlie Day

Glenn Howerton

Rob McElhenney

Kaitlin Olson

Danny Devito

10/18/08: Embracing Your Show....

How/Where/When?????

I watch the show in the lying down position on the couch and at the computer, but as far as comfort goes I prefer my couch instead of my desk chair. In addition my television screen in my front room is also much larger than my monitor at my desk. I watch the show every Thursday night by myself or with my wife, and if I miss an episode I go to the fxnetworks.com/sunny home page. Like I said if I miss one I usally get the chance to get to my desk and watch and the episode I've missed. Taking care of my children really hasn't affected my viewing habits, because 3 of my children are in school during the day and my baby and 4 year old still take naps so I can catch up if needed.

10/25/08: Contextual Analysis:

Other shows on FX:
Sons of Anarchy
Testees
Nip/Tuck
Rescue Me
30 Days
Damages
Dirt
King of the Hill
Spin City
That 70'S Show
The Practice
The Riches
The Shield
and a variety of movies are also screened on this network. Many advertisements are ran on the internet and television, such as the new Axe deodorant commercial and other shows or movies that will be premiering on the network. The commercials are mostly network based as far as hyping the networks ability to have great programming schedules. For instance they provide not only serial programming but movies made for tv as well.

11/05/08: Mise-en-scene
Title: Sweet Dee Has A Heart Attack, Season 4: Ep 10 Brief Summary: At 7: PM on a Monday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the Pub Bar, Dee has a heart attack. The crew is with Dee in the hospital as the Doctor questions Dee about health insurance. Dee is under the impression that she and her brother are insured under their father, Frank’s health plan. Frank informs them that they haven’t been covered since Dee was nine. Each of the characters handle this incident in their own way. Dee and her brother Dennis decide that they need to improve their health by going to the gym, taking supplements and using collagen. Mac and Charlie decide that they need health insurance in case something happens so they search for employment with health benefits. Frank is the x-factor in this episode and serves as extra entertainment that is totally unrelated to the topic. He is prescribed several anti-anxiety medications and ends up in an institution after he is found wandering the streets and disoriented from abusing his meds in an attempt to expedite his recovery. Sets: The show usually begins with the typical “bar” setting then goes into the intro of driving through Philadelphia passing by familiar buildings and landmarks during the day and night. This episode contains scenes in several different settings: bar, hospital room, streets of Philly, mailroom, institution, gym, and Frank and Charlie’s apartment. The bar setting contains a bar with stools with an array of alcohol, a dartboard, green-hanging ceiling fixtures, lots of pictures and neon lights in the background. In the hospital room you can see at least two beds with green bedding that matched the drapes along with instruments hanging from the walls, laminated cabinets, soap dispenser and a sink. In the streets of Philly scene, the screen shot reveals Frank walking around disoriented from his anti-anxiety mix of meds in the middle of the morning rat race. The mailroom set displayed scattered piles of mail on long tables coming out of several chutes and distributed into various bins and mail boxes. With the institution set, there are white, metal beds and white furniture along with tile half way down the walls. At the gym, where Dennis and Dee spend their time in this episode, you can see weight benches, treadmills, stationary bikes, lots of mirrors and several other types of equipment along with one TV and one poster. In frank and Charlie’s apartment, Charlie, Mac and Frank sit on an ugly, striped sofa with dull-looking pictures in the background and a coffee table with an ashtray, beer and newspapers on it. Costumes: In the gym scenes, Dennis and Dee started out with jeans and t-shirts and ended up with conventional “workout” attire, bike shorts and stretchy-workout shirts. When Charlie and Mac were skimming the newspaper for a job with benefits, they wore t-shirts and jeans and Charlie wore an unbuttoned green shirt over his. Both had at least a few weeks worth of beard. During an interview for the job and the rest of the episode they both wore buttoned up dress shirts while Charlie wore a green vest over his. The rest of them remained the same. Frank wore a revealing hospital gown throughout the whole episode. Lighting: High Key lighting was used for most of the scenes. However, the scenes that contained Mac and Charlie as with the ”mailroom” scenes and the scene in Frank and Charlie’s apartment contained some fill lighting with no backlighting which was apparent as the pictures on the walls were not easily visible. One of the “gym” scenes where Dennis attempts to change the music but is obstructed by one of the trainers, contains mostly key light as you see deeper shadows on some parts of the face. Aside from the trainer’s verbal reaction to Dennis, the deeper shadows imply impending aggression or anger.

11/8/08: Video/Cinematography:
Mac and Charlie Die Part I
Mac and Charlie tell a judge they were threatened by his dad. Unfortunately, parole was granted and now they are afraid for their lives so they decide to fake their own deaths. Mac and Charlie get into Dee’s car and at the last minute Charlie gets out. A telephoto lens is used during this scene to capture both the car and Charlie so that the audience can see that Mac is still in the car. Just before Mac revs the engine and hits the accelerator driving the car into a wall, the camera lens turns into a wide-angle focal length to emphasize depth for the appearance of a longer distance traveled by the car. Charlie then over emphasizes his run to make it look like he’s scared and he’s running further than he actually is. The only visual carnage of the wreck is the trunk popping up and a close-up view of the front end, impact damage.


11/15/08: Editing:
So, to further examine the scene from above, the camera establishes the space in the scene by shooting far enough to view the car and buildings at a high angle. The camera then skips to a medium-close-up of Mac and Charlie in Dee’s car discussing how they are going to ram the car into the wall. The camera toggles between two angles one of a front-view and a second of the driver’s side-view to emphasize Charlie, abandoning ship or opening the car door. The camera then establishes a 180 degrees arc by panning to Charlie as he exit’s the car and runs around the back side of it. Once again the camera re-establishes the space by shooting from behind Charlie’s back with a view of the car and the wall then alternating to medium close-ups of Charlie giving a thumbs up and then to Mac revving the engine. Finally, the camera focuses and follows Charlie, who screams in disbelief and runs towards the wreckage. Just before Charlie reaches Mac the shot dissolves and re-continues just as Charlie reaches Mac’s side.
11/22/08: Sound:
Most of the sounds from season 4 are synched post-production, this was not true for earlier seasons. The sound is recorded and synched in the scenes. The Production Sound Mixer selects and operates the microphones, and recording equipment used on the set. The sound mixer, also directs the boom operator and combines the sound of multiple microphones used to capture the dialog and effects on the set, recording sound ambiance and room tone for all scenes, and other track that will aid the sound mixer with corresponding the different sound takes in a scene for even sound transitions.
The music used on the show is mostly classical and easy listening, to contrast with the show's chaotic nature. Some episodes include songs from the "Orange Marsupials".
The show's theme song is a piece of production music called "Temptation Sensation" by Heinz Kiessling. All other music on the show is also public domain. The show used public domain music, originally, because of it’s low budget but has since become This was originally because of the show's extremely low budget but has since become it‘s.

12/6/08: Dig Deeper: Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney shot the pilot called “It’s Always Sunny on TV” on a digital camcorder. After the pilot viewing, the FX Network executives ran the first season in 2005. They claim it cost $85 to make because of the video tapes. The show was renewed for a second season. Danny DeVito joined the cast in the second season, playing the father of Dennis (Howerton) and Dee (Kaitlin Olson). Fox Broadcasting, the parent network of FX, began playing the edited first season episodes in 2006. In early 2006, Bravo broadcast the first season in the UK and Ireland and the second season on Virgin 1 in late 2007. The show was also on Showcase in Israel and Canada and on channel 6 in Ireland . The show starred in Australia in 2007 on the Seven Network. In the Arab world, the first season show began on Showtime with Arabia’s Paramount Comedy Channel in November of 2006. In July of 2008, FX order 39 additional episodes, which according to IGN, meant that the show should run until season 6. All of the five cast members were secured for the run.