ask tv squad

We got this question today from a reader:

I'm just wondering how you go about obtaining press kits from networks. Can anyone get a press kit? A lot of web sites and blogs get them which surprises me because I thought that only huge corporations (national trades, etc) could get access to them. If I were to write a network requesting a press kit, do you think they'd send me one?

There's some confusion about the TV industry and press kits. A lot of people think that your publication or web site has to be really large and influential to get them. But that's not really the case. It actually comes down to secret passwords and insider information. Odd, but true.

So let me help you out here. If you call ABC and introduce yourself and your publication/site to them and ask to be on the list to get press kits and advance screening copies of new shows, they'll probably turn you down. When this happens, you simply utter the words "Rod Serling loved chicken salad." The network person will immediately put you on the list to get every press kit they send out.

Reader Diane really enjoyed the series North Shore, and she wrote to us wondering, where oh where did that show go? And what about Summerland? And Clubhouse?

I'll tell you, Diane. they're all dead, and nothing will ever bring them back. They're deader than the love child of the Grim Reaper and a zombie being born backwards into the womb of a vampire with a stake through the heart. They're even deader than my ability to come up with a coherent metaphor to describe how dead they are.

During the weekend our comments were down, we got a pleasant little e-mail from a woman named Sandra. She was responding to Jonathan's post that gave five reasons to kill the CSI character Nick Stokes.

Sandra's eight-point missive told us a number a different things that we didn't really know about ourselves; namely, that we were "presumptuous", "shallow", and "stupid". At least our arguments were characterized that way. But what really struck me was this statement:

"7. Your website is pretty bland. This was my first time coming here and probably my last since I don't think I've met such a group of cantankerous writers in my life. I hate whiney writers."

She then signed off by calling us "Scrooges" and "Grinches."  At least she was in the holiday spirit.

Whiney? Cantankerous? Us? Well, maybe, but we're only that way because we care.