"Traditional media, in its ever-increasing last-chick-standing-at-the-bar-at-TGI-Fridays desperation, certainly can't be blamed for grasping at whatever might look like a sure thing. Whether it's book publishers or movie studios or television networks, the words "built-in audience" are even sweeter to them than "will work on spec" ... But as crazy it seems to be saying this, more than 15 years into this whole Web thing, what works on the Net isn't necessarily meant for three cameras and a laugh track. And there's something arrogantly lazy about the vision of a pack of network executives sitting around asking, 'What are the kids into?'"
-- Mary Elizabeth Williams on CBS's plan to turn another Twitter sensation into a television show
Along the same lines, I said this way back in late 2006:
"Believe me when I tell you that there's nothing more sadly hilarious than sitting in a conference room with a guy who's never had a thought in his head that wasn't put there by a consultant, while he babbles with giddy hysteria about how the internet is the 'wave of the future' and we have to figure out a way to capitalize on it. It is, quite literally, like watching a Catskills comedian doing his best bits. 'This internet thing. It's BIG with the kids, I tell ya.'"
By the way, the best thing about Williams's piece is her implication that it might only be a matter of time before we see a TV version of Drunk Hulk.
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