Dog Bites Man

[cine]

im destroying this TV forum as we know it. 

anyone been watching this at all? some of the funniest people in the world lumped into one show.. stacked line up: UCB's matt walsh, zach galifianakis, AD fuckin' Miles, andrea savage... how can you go wrong? it's a great show.

[MacGuffin]

how can you go wrong? 

'Dog Bites Man' seems to be barking up the wrong tree
The Comedy Central show targets real people in the name of fun. But not everyone's amused.
Source: Los Angeles Times

Comedy Central's new local news mockumentary, "Dog Bites Man," may have bitten off more than it can chew. The network finds itself juggling demands to drop footage from the partly scripted, partly improvisational, partly "Punk'd"-style reality show that premiered Wednesday.

The 10-episode series about the staff of a dysfunctional morning news show in Spokane, Wash., features segments in which the fictional news team interviews unsuspecting real people — not always to everyone's delight, as it turns out.

The Oregon attorney general's office last week fired off its second letter to the network reiterating its protest of the TV crew filming under the guise of making a documentary at a real-life media literacy class at Portland State University.

The first letter, sent May 30, saw no humor in the situation: "We represent the state of Oregon and Portland State University in the dispute involving the fake news crew that visited PSU under false pretenses on May 16, 2006," wrote Christine A. Chute with the office's government services and education section. "Please provide me with written assurances that none of the footage filmed at PSU will be aired for any purpose whatsoever."

The network was still considering the university's demand that the footage be yanked. Last month, the network agreed to kill a segment filmed in March in Tustin, at which Chapman University professor Fred Smoller was an unwitting panelist in what he thought was a discussion on media and politics also being filmed for a documentary.

Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox said filming for the show, which airs Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m., also drew protests from a third college professor. Though filming has ended for this season, he said, the network is considering lessons learned from the dust-up.

"We're certainly aware that the academic community doesn't want to play with us on this show," said Fox from Comedy Central's New York offices.

"We're creating rather ridiculous situations to get the reactions that are the basis of the humor," he said. "Some of the results are quite funny. When you get people in these situations, you don't know what you're going to get."

Portland State communications teacher Jil Freeman said in an e-mail to Smoller that one of the students in the media class recognized actor Matt Walsh, who plays KHBX anchor Kevin Beekin, from the Will Ferrell movie "Old School."

"The crew denied it and said that 'he gets that a lot,' " wrote Freeman, who declined comment and referred calls to the university's attorney. She learned of Smoller through news reports of his earlier battle with the network.

Rounding out the fake news crew were actors Zach Galifianakis, A.D. Miles and Andrea Savage. After the main session, the actors then met with smaller groups of unwitting students, who later reported to Freeman what they had learned about how to break into the news business: "Blindfolds are for the bedroom, not an interview session" and "You need to get someone in a turban if you are doing a story on gas prices."

Smoller said he's still steamed about the tactics being used to dupe unsuspecting people into being filmed for the show, especially college students. "We have to trust each other to talk to each other," he said. "They're doing much more damage than they realize, and it's all in the pursuit of public profit. The humor can be there, but not the deception."

Comedy Central has excused the ruses by saying that each participant is required to sign a general film release in advance. The release signed by Smoller listed only the production company, Central Productions, and said nothing about the comedy show or the network.

The film crews have used other real-life settings as well. Cheri Woods of Calabasas said she participated in May at what she thought was a focus group assembled in Encino to gather opinions about a newscaster — actually, Walsh in his persona as Beekin — shown to the group in several videos.

The presenter encouraged the reviewers to savage the newscaster, Woods said, then Walsh stormed unexpectedly into the room in a rage, attacking the group verbally for criticizing him while the cameras rolled.

"I thought I was in the 'Twilight Zone,' " Woods said. "Although amusing in retrospect, it was all quite disturbing at the time."

Fox said the network hasn't decided if it will change its methods should the series be renewed for another season. "I can't imagine that it wouldn't be addressed," he said.

[RegularKarate]

partly "Punk'd"-style reality show that premiered Wednesday.

It's NOTHING like Punk'd... it's not even really all that much like the Daily Show because it only uses the real life subjects for thier reaction to the situation.  The characters are mostly making fun of themselves, not the subjects.

Zach has said that he doesn't care too much for the "prank" aspect of the show and hopes it evolves past that.  I tend to agree... the funniest parts are where the characters are just improvising and saying stupid shit to eachother... the pranks seem more like filler or at least a vehicle for the plot.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Portland State communications teacher Jil Freeman said in an e-mail to Smoller that one of the students in the media class recognized actor Matt Walsh, who plays KHBX anchor Kevin Beekin, from the Will Ferrell movie "Old School."

"The crew denied it and said that 'he gets that a lot,' " wrote Freeman, who declined comment and referred calls to the university's attorney. She learned of Smoller through news reports of his earlier battle with the network.

That's awesome.

[polkablues]

I find it very hard to believe that Matt Walsh could go to any college anywhere and not be recognized from The Daily Show.

[Ravi]

Hasn't he also appeared in some Conan sketches?

[Ravi]

The second episode was an improvement over the first, which I felt showed potential but was lacking something.  I don't know what exactly.  I'd have to rewatch it.

Going into it I didn't know what to expect, but its a pretty interesting format combined with talented comedians.