TV's Aaron Spelling Dead at 83

Big loss this weekend for the entertainment industry. If you've watched television anytime in the past 40 years, you have no doubt seen at least one of the 3,000 (that's right, three THOUSAND) television programs produced by the prolific Aaron Spelling.

His most famous hit series include Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Dynasty, Charlie's Angels, Starsky and Hutch, Hart to Hart, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, and more recently, Seventh Heaven.

If that weren't enough (and that is just a small sampling of the successful programs he produced), Spelling also produced 140 made-for-TV movies, including 1976's The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, starring a very young John Travolta.

Now, I am not particularly a fan of Mr. Spelling's work, though I certainly have seen many of his programs over the years. But I have to give credit to a guy who was born into poverty from immigrant parents and found success in the cut-throat entertainment industry. I'd say he did pretty well for himself.

Also, I have something of a personal connection to the Spellings since I often drive by their huge estate in Holmby Hills on my way home from UCLA. If the traffic on Sunset Blvd. is bad, I often cut through the neighborhood (which also includes the Playboy Mansion on the same street). Every time I pass the gigantic Spelling mansion (over 50,000 sq. ft.) I'm tempted to ring the bell at the gate and ask if Tori can come out to play!

We're not likely to see a media mogul quite like Mr. Spelling again. In today's multinational corporate comglomerate culture, individuals rarely have the clout and sheer creative force demonstrated by Aaron Spelling. TV programs today are produced by committees that conduct extensive focus group marketing tests and are overseen by large corporate entities endebted to advertisers and shareholders. It's hard to think of big television networks and movie studios as "middle management", but that's basically what they are.

Aaron Spelling died yesterday of a stroke at his home in Los Angeles. He was 83 years old. Rest well Mr. Spelling. You've earned it!

Read the CNN article.

"The Widescreen Scam"

Came across an interesting article written by Guy Wright about the history of film and TV aspect ratios, the widescreen vs. full-frame debate. His thesis is that the widescreen format is simply a marketing gimmick that studios started in the 1950s to compete with television (true), even though most filmmakers and audience members prefer the full-frame 4:3 ratio (debatable).

Personally, I much prefer a widescreen aspect ratio because it is closer to recreating actual human vision. Because our eyes are placed horizontally across our face, we can see a wider range of vision horizontally than vertically.

Mr. Wright's article is very informative and entertaining, if you are interested in such things.