A Fool's Utopia 11.19.09: The Mutant Enemy Tree

Posted by Ron Martin on 11.19.2009

This week in one man's utopia we take an overview look of the Mutant Enemy writer's influence on the TV landscape today, question the NFL's choice of a halftime show and openly wonder about missing SyFy shows. Also, guns with disappearing ink and Smurf cereal.

If you have watched any NFL football games this season, then you've heard some reference to someone's coaching tree. Bill Parcells has a coaching tree as does Andy Reid, Tony Dungy and Mike Holmgren. These coaches are the trunks and the students they mentor become the branches before branching students of their own. When I heard the news of a Fright Night remake and who would be writing it, it got me to thinking – what about trees of TV writers? Certainly there are a few. For example, the team that brought us The Cosby Show and Seinfeld produced great TV for years. The writing tree I'm going to focus on today is one of my favorites, and a favorite of many on the staff No one produces more cult hits than the Mutant Enemy writing tree. I know I didn't throw much of a curveball at you, but the fact of the matter is that writers will always appreciate good writing. Mutant Enemy was full of that. Joss Whedon compiled a group of writers that brought us TV that we had never seen before. They're still a force in the business today.



First, the big cheese, Whedon. Before being given his own show, Whedon proved himself writing for Roseanne and selling the screenplay Buffy the Vampire Slayer, giving him a reputation for being able to write for strong females. A few screenplays for Disney (including work on Toy Story) and he was granted with his own version of Buffy. While never scoring huge numbers, Buffy was a critical hit that pretty much paved the way for cult, lower rated shows like a Mad Men today. Since then, he has carved a niche for quirky, well written shows whether they be Buffy spinoffs, space adventures or whatever the hell Dollhouse was. Whedon has a solid reputation, can pick and choose projects and has been rumored to have picked up and dropped just about every major project since Buffy went off the air.



Joss is easy. Everyone knows what he's doing. What about the branches springing from the trunk? Perhaps the next most recognizable is Marti Noxon. Marti, who wrote some of the more relationship centric episodes of Buffy, put her hands into some major hits like Grey's Anatomy and its spinoff Private Practice. Going back to her cult TV roots, Marti has helped writer critical darling, Mad Men. It was the news that she was involved with the Fright Night remake that both got me on this train of thought and put my mind at ease about said remake (I am still anti-remake, but if they're going to happen, at least get good writers behind them).



Next up on the Mutant Enemy tree is Jane Espenson. Jane was responsible for a lot of more fantastical, alternate dimension type episodes and parlayed that into a successful run on another perennial writer's favorite, Battlestar Galactica. After being plucked up again for a few episodes of Dollhouse by Whedon, Espenson went on to co-create what I believe to be on the best new shows on TV, Warehouse 13. Comparing your show to The X-Files seems to be the cool thing to do these day. Warehouse 13, however, can compare with confidence. In fact, it brings the compelling story of X-Files and mixes them with the language/playfulness of Buffy. No wonder it's one of the highest rated shows on Syfy.

On our next branch, David Fury split his time between Buffy and Angel before breaking away from the tree. Using the experience he gained from these two shows, he found a home with two other major hits/critical successes, 24 and Lost. Douglas Petrie finishes off the majority of Buffy episodes for Mutant Enemy. He brings to table the most mainstream show of the group, CSI but was also one of the creative forces behind the very much underrated Pushing Daisies, a show too smart for the networks.




You can see where the Mutant Enemy team has branched out and made their mark on TV (and to a lesser extent, the movies). If there is a quirky, fun show on TV that mixes good writing with action, comedy and unique characters, chances are there is someone from this tree behind it. The best part may be yet to come as these writers have likely influenced new and upcoming writers. There may be hope for Hollywood yet.



-- I realize the NFL has been playing it supersafe even since the "costume malfunction" incident with Janet Jackson, but booking The Who for halftime at the Super Bowl is beyond ridiculous. I understand they have been going with older, classical acts. There is certain timelessness to Prince, Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney. The Who, as great as they may have been, do not share that timeless quality. Most of the players in the game will have no clue who these people are, let alone that only two of the original four members are even still alive. Way to hit that ever important 18-35 age group, NFL.

-- I am liking Disney's 4-Disc releases. They're a tad bit more expensive if bought in the store (though you can get the prices that are similar if not the same as regular Blu Ray/DVD releases if you buy online), I am keen to the idea of having Blu-Ray, DVD and digital copies of all the movies. At first, it may seem like a bit of overkill, but it makes perfect sense when you think about it. Your family only has one blu-ray player and someone is using it? No problem. Grab the DVD version and head to the TV in the back room. Grab the digital version for your media player. I don't know if Disney is pioneering this packaging bonanza, but it's the first I've seen of it. I am sure this will become an industry norm in the near future.

-- For the first time in my adult life, I am not scheduled to work on Black Friday. I am half looking forward to this and half dreading this. I want to go out and experience the madness, but at the same time people looking for Christmas bargains frighten me. At the very least I will spend the entire weekend perusing several stores $3 DVD selections. I've picked up some good movies the last couple of years. Hopefully with any luck, I won't walk into Wal-Mart at midnight this year covered in fake blood. Such is life.



-- A year has come and gone since the debut of two new games shows on the Syfy Channel (then Sci-Fi). Around this time last year, we saw Cha$e and Estate of Panic both hit our screens for six episodes. Both were entertaining and new (at last in the States) concepts.

Cha$e was to be a live action video game were players collected items to use while solving puzzles and running from the eerie hunters until either a single person was left or the first person crossed the finish line in the last ten minutes of the game. Estate of Panic had contestants collecting money in the freakiest, scariest, grossest rooms while eliminating two each room with the final contestant chained down in a safety box room, trying to escape. Both shows were exciting compelling and well done. Each only has the six episode run and was never spoken of again. I don't know if the costs associated with each show was just too high or what, but I guess we'll never find out. Both shows still have pages/forums up at Syfy.com. What up, Syfy? Maybe on my recap of tonight's Ghost Hunters show, they'll find the ghosts of Syfy shows past.


FIVE COMPLETELY UNRELATED THOUGHTS



1. Rainn, I love Dwight Schrute, but Donal Logue's Jimmy from the early 90s will always be the quintessential greasy, crazy cab driver with a big mouth and bigger accent. The current NBA commercials playing now reek of cheap ripoff. The Wisconsin doppelganger is a bit too clean for my taste. There's just something a little bit off about the character. Maybe it's the really, really bad wig.

2. Even though I say this every single year, this will be the year I finally watch It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street. I'm getting closer! Last year I took in White Christmas and Elf for the first time. I am sure that I will get lambasted for this, but Elf? Wasn't that great. This probably has something to do with the fact that I saw the movie long after the Will Ferrell formula was played out. That, and I am still bitter at Zooey Deschanel for Tin Man.

3. I love that the Colts vanquished the much hated Patriots Sunday night. I like even more that they won because of a bad call on Belichick's part. I love even more than that, that in the overexamination of the call all week, those who know Belichick (but, to be fair, not those who played for him) have called him the most arrogant, hateful person they've met. This makes me happy.

4. I subscribe to Comcast for both my cable and internet needs. I have been pretty happy with these guys over the years with but one complaint – the NFL Network. We all know the big to do these two entities had over the summer because Comcast refused to add the NFL Network for free like some other cable companies. I thought they had worked the whole ordeal out, but apparently I still have to pay for some low end sports package to get the NFL network. No thanks. At first, I was bummed about missing the Bears/49ers last week, but as the night went on, it was kind of cool. It reminded me of the days when you couldn't watch every game or even follow them on the computer. If you didn't like the local team, you had to wait for a late night sports program for recaps. From the highlights I saw, I didn't miss much anyways.

5. I don't really care about Carrie Prejean's politics or what she has to say, but I wouldn't mind seeing her naked.

-- Have you ever had to get off the couch and push a dial across a box for your cable TV? Have you ever made a TV dinner…in the oven? Have you used a microwave that had a dial? If you have, then I think it's time you got a little RETRO in your life.

Today, I take you back not to ancient microwaves or cable boxes, but to cereal. Back when cereal had no nutritional value and companies made no bones about letting you know that all this sugar will surely doom your children to a premature death, it was all about branding. Got a popular movie or cartoon series? Let's make a cereal. Need an example?



For those who may be wondering Smurfberry Crunch was basically Captain Crunch with crunchberries. There were minor differences, I mean Post didn't want a lawsuit on their hands or anything. The crunchy blander parts of the cereal were read instead of grain colored. And the smurfberries, themselves? Blue, of course! They were closer to purple, but I think they were supposed to be blue.

All that being said, I have some major issues with this commercial. Who did Hefty Smurf piss off to get a background cameo while that prancing little bitch, Vanity gets a prime gig? At least Hefty barely made the commercial, my favorite Smurf is nowhere to be seen. There's no room for Jokey now? I know he was a B-grade Smurf, but so was Painter Smurf and yet there he is painting the damn boxes. Couldn't one of the boxes explode for a one off two second joke? Really?

And come on, there's like 1000 Smurfs and they're going with Clumsy Smurf to make the big breakfast in bed delivery? No wonder Papa easily bosses these chumps around.

From red and blue cereal to red and blue ink, I bring to you the ever-popular Zap It! guns of our youth…



I know Zap It! guns were more of a summer spectacle, but honestly, they just popped into my head. After and during the entire Lazer Tag deal, those of use who wanted more irrefutable proof than a blinking red light that we would have totally shot our buddies down like dogs in the street, there was Zap It! Now, I'm not up on my guns, but I am pretty sure Zap It! was some sort of semi-automatic weapon of mass water destruction.

In reality, it was a water gun with different colors of disappearing ink. The death water came conveniently in red and blue so you could divvy up teams, hand out the correct chambers and if you got hit, you'd know by which team. The beautiful thing is that the wound would allegedly disappear in two minutes or less. I say allegedly, because well know how well disappearing ink works – about as well as pen erasers.

Either way, it gave really annoying kids something to do for the summer. The commercial basically promotes the "annoying kid" angle.



Forgotten Music Video



You don't remember this one? Can't say I blame you. This is a 1989 soap opera star Michael Damien version of David Essex's Rock On. While it was released on his own album, the song (as you can tell from the video) was used for the Coreys odd Dream A Little Dream. You got to admit, this was a weird movie with a strange concept even for the 80s. For an actor/musician, this is a pretty good version of the song. While I hate to admit it, I lived it so I know that Michael Damien's look in the video was actually cool back then as we were winding down in transition from hair metal to eventually grunge. This is the look that we thought Corey Haim would have as he got older. We were wrong.

Random Shot from Random SNES game I owned

23 YEARS AGO TODAY

November 19, 1986

#1 Song



"Amanda" by Boston

#1 Album



Third Stage by Boston

#1 Movie



Crocodile Dundee

I must leave you now.