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Post by BettyNewbie on Jan 30, 2017 14:05:26 GMT -5
Unless you've been living under a rock the last several years, you've probably heard of the internet reviewers associated with the site called Channel Awesome (known as That Guy With The Glasses from 2008-2014). A brief history taken from Wikipedia: Read More: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_AwesomeI've been a fan of the site since 2009 or so, even through all the ups and downs its had since then. The shutdown of Blip in 2015, of course, was a huge kick in the face to these reviewers. They turned to Blip in the first place to get away from YouTube and its copyright police, and once Blip was gone, they found themselves having to go back to YouTube and deal with its bullshit yet again. This eventually prompted Doug Walker's "Where's the Fair Use?" (aka. #WTFU) movement, as he got sick of seeing his reviews get flagged and taken down. Any thoughts on the site? Have any favorite reviewers?
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Post by Tim on Jan 30, 2017 18:41:55 GMT -5
I love these guys.
Doug Walker (the Nostalgia Critic), Brad Jones (the Cinema Snob), Sean Moore (the Smeghead) Chris Stuckman, and all the rest of them. These people are the movie reviewers of the future.
Sometimes they'll do crossovers, in which one will appear on another's show and such.
Doug has gotten around the YouTube Copyright Police. Instead of showing footage from the movies he's reviewing, he, his brother, Rob, and his friends, Malcolm and Tamara, reenact the movies themselves. Pretty funny.
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Post by BettyNewbie on Jan 30, 2017 20:02:46 GMT -5
My introduction to Channel Awesome was actually through the Nostalgia Chick, aka. Lindsay Ellis. She joined the site in 2008 and was initially hired on to act as a distaff counterpart to Doug's character, the Nostalgia Critic, reviewing nostalgic cartoons and movies that Doug deemed too "girly" for his show. However, it didn't take long for her to develop her own style and format, and she eventually became better known as a smarter, more analytical (and feminist) version of the Critic rather than just a female version of him. However, she still eventually grew tired of being the Nostalgia Chick, which resulted in her retiring the character and leaving Channel Awesome in 2015, as she explained in this post she made to her blog. Luckily, though, she's since created a new show called Loose Canon (which is basically more of her analyzing media, just as she was doing in the later Nostalgia Chick episodes), which she uploads to her YouTube channel. You can also find her old Nostalgia Chick videos there, although sadly not all of them. ... Another reviewer I've taken onto a lot is Todd in the Shadows (aka. Todd Nathanson/Ken Munson). I first got into him through the two crossover reviews he did with Lindsay ( Crossroads and From Justin to Kelly), and it didn't take long for me to become a fan. Most of what I know about contemporary pop music comes from his show, and watching his series has given me a newfound knowledge and appreciation for music, even stuff I would've otherwise dismissed. His big shtick is that you never see his face, and that he does all of his reviews as a shadowed figure in a dark hoodie playing piano (imagine Schroeder from Peanuts dressed up as A from PLL). Some may find that premise alienating, but it's a big part of his appeal to me. The focus is meant to be on his words and the music he's reviewing, and it works really well. Todd began his show on YouTube in 2009 before joining Channel Awesome in 2010. Now that Blip has shut down, he's gone back to where he started, and you can find his reviews right here. Since YouTube are still total jerks about copyright, he also has a backup Vimeo channel that contains some videos that are blocked/missing on his YouTube channel. ... One day, I watched another Todd crossover review, that of the awful Asylum ripoff known as Sunday School Musical, and I discovered another favorite reviewer, Film Brain (aka. Mathew Buck). He's a bit like the Nostalgia Critic, except that he's A) an adorable young British guy, and B) he reviews movies that are awful and not necessarily nostalgic. If you wanted to see someone tear into shlock like Asylum ripoffs, Seltzer and Friedberg parodies, formulaic Adam Sandler comedies, and paint-by-the-numbers action flicks, Mathew's done them all. His reviews are very well-researched and thought-out, and being a Brit, he has that dry, snarky sense of humor. He's also a friend to women's and LGBT rights, and he loves cats, so that automatically makes him cool. Most of his reviews are on Dailymotion, although he's also uploaded some of them to YouTube.
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Post by Tim on Jan 31, 2017 0:24:56 GMT -5
I'm familiar with this fellow. I agree, he's pretty good. He's appeared on Doug's reviews a few times, either in a crossover or a funny cameo.
One video I liked was Doug's tribute to Siskel and Ebert. Of course, Doug is a Chicagoan, just like they were.
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Post by BettyNewbie on Jan 31, 2017 1:22:31 GMT -5
I guess I need to bring up my own thoughts on Doug and his show... which are complicated. I liked him a lot back in the old days, circa 2008-2011. It was fun to see him take bad old movies and cartoons I remember from my childhood (ie. Rock-a-Doodle, Space Jam, and Captain Planet, among many others) and MST3K them to shreds. I highly recommend Doug's earlier reviews, especially if you're a 90s kid like me. Then in 2012, Doug decided to retire the Nostalgia Critic in favor of doing a sketch show called Demo Reel: Demo Reel was VERY poorly received and got canned after only 6 episodes. After his new show flopped, that left Doug no choice but to bring back the Nostalgia Critic. However, this "new and improved" Nostalgia Critic ultimately just ended up being Demo Reel under a different name. He brought in Rachel (later replaced by Tamara Chambers) and Malcolm as costars, and his reviews started to have a lot more sketches shoehorned into them. He also started reviewing more movies from the 00s and later instead of the cheesy old 80s/90s stuff that defined his original show. When he first brought back the Nostalgia Critic, he promised to never review any movies that were still in theaters. That promise was completely broken in 2015 when he reviewed Jurassic World, which also happened to be his first clipless review, finally completing the transformation of the Nostalgia Critic into Demo Reel. Ever since then, most of reviews have been in the vein of Jurassic World, a far cry from the Nostalgia Critic I first watched back in 2008. He's also started to have a habit of doing reviews of movies that other Channel Awesome reviewers already covered (and did a better job of reviewing) years ago. One of his most recent reviews was of Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, a movie that Mathew and Todd already did a great review of back in 2012: And, one of his worst received reviews ever was his 2015 clipless review of Hocus Pocus, a movie that Lindsay did a proper review of way back in 2008: Yet, in his review of Jack & Jill, Mathew mentioned that he wanted to review Master of Disguise but couldn't because Doug had already done it. Why is Doug allowed to review movies that Mathew already did, but Mathew can't do the reverse? And, of course, do I even need to get into the fact that by branching away from 80s/90s classics into newer fare, Doug is essentially stealing the niche that Mathew already played on the site? There was never any need for the Nostalgia Critic to cover 00s and 10s movies, as we already had Film Brain for that. Why even continue to call the show the "Nostalgia Critic" when very few of the movies he reviews are even nostalgic?Like I said, my thoughts about Doug are complicated. For the most part, he's a great guy, and I fully support his #WTFU movement. And, I loved his original pre-Demo Reel run as the Nostalgia Critic. But, I just can't get into his newer stuff at all. It's the "Nostalgia Critic" in name only, IMO.
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Post by Tim on Jan 31, 2017 12:22:04 GMT -5
I never knew that. Of course, I discovered him more recently than you did.
I always thought that he'd stopped using clips because the Copyright Nazis were getting on his back.
Perhaps he should go back to reviewing old movies. Of course, Brad Jones AKA the Cinema Snob is doing a good job with that.
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Post by BettyNewbie on Jan 31, 2017 12:43:33 GMT -5
You should check out Doug's older reviews, Tim. He actually has most of them uploaded to his YouTube, although you have to dig pretty deep to find them. Here's an episode guide to help you. Everything from 2012 and earlier is his original, pre-Demo Reel show.
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Post by Tim on Jan 31, 2017 18:18:42 GMT -5
I have seen a few of them. They're pretty good. He should go back to those old movies and let Mathew handle the modern ones. I was planning on making a post about the online critics, but you beat me to it, Betty. As I said, these critics are the wave of the future. They're all of the Millennial generation and thus grew up with the Internet. Allison Pregler AKA Obscurus Lupa is one of these critics. Last night I watched the Cinema Snob go after the movie Glen Or Glenda, one of Ed Wood's "classics". I would love to see Brad get a hold of Plan 9 From Outer Space
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Post by BettyNewbie on Jan 31, 2017 22:18:42 GMT -5
Allison was actually fired from Channel Awesome back in 2015 (and for a pretty shitty reason, at that). She posted about it here at her Tumblr: Okay, so by now you’ve probably heard that Phelan, Lindsay, Andrew, and I are the most recent folks to exit TGWTG/CA. If you haven’t, well, you have now. But I’ve gotten a lot of questions about it, so here’s a long post explaining what happened as far as I’m concerned.
(EDIT: Clarifying none of the exits outside of Phelan had anything to do with me, and even then Phelan and I had been planning on leaving for quite some time.)
(EDIT 2: I didn’t think this would be an issue, but let me also clear up who Mike is. Mike Michaud is CEO of Channel Awesome; Mike Jeavons is the video producer and has nothing to do with any of the events listed here.)
So was I fired? Well, yes and no. I was let go, but calling it being “fired” implies I worked for CA, and I did not. The only people with contracts/a payroll are those who work directly for them in Chicago. No producer has ever been paid by CA, and that includes the anniversaries. All profits from those, including the DVD sales, go directly to CA, and we were paid in “exposure” and “a free trip with our friends.” The only contracts we ever had to sign were for the anniversaries, mostly to sign over to them any crossovers we filmed (to pay for our trips there). So in actuality we were not on a “free trip” with our friends; we were working off our trip while also acting in a film we would have no profit from (the exception being commentaries, which we could keep). If we questioned this, we would be told we didn’t have to go and that was that. We did get a free copy of the movie for ourselves, if they remembered to send it to us. If you didn’t get a copy of To Boldly Flee, don’t worry, neither did I. One of Mike’s favorite things to tell us was how great it was that they hosted our stuff and never asked for a cut of our profits.
ANYWHO, my exit starts with the midrolls and Patreon. I’d been struggling for awhile to pay the bills, and ad revenue was down, and one of the things keeping me afloat was extra midrolls, which weren’t extremely popular. But I also had to do that to make barely enough to live, as this is my job. So while I’m in Chicago, Mike corners me while I’m alone and proceeds to tell me my midrolls are screwing everyone else by making people turn on adblock. It was very hostile, unprofessional, and uncomfortable. I told him I needed to do that to make enough money to live, he didn’t care (and also told me they left up comments about the midrolls as a hint to me, apparently), and it ended with me crying in a bathroom over how I was going to pay my bills. This was followed shortly after with a call from him and Doug mandating how many midrolls we were able to use, among other insulting things. Doug suggested I simply make more videos, like his TV show vlogs, because that was just his “work ethic.” I, of course, wouldn’t know about a work ethic. Mike was also unaware that I’d been posting on Sundays for 3 years, and implied that videos that weren’t OLPs didn’t count.
Anyway, I’m looking for alternative ways to make money, and Patreon is starting to do well for some folks. I decide why not? It wouldn’t hurt to try it out. So I start one up, and ask if Mike can put a link up to it under my next video. Mike and company do not know what Patreon is, and have not checked, because they’ve decided in their heads what it is. So he tells me I’m not allowed to promote it. I explain that it’s like an ongoing Kickstarter, and he tells me they won’t promote those either. This is despite them having already promoted Nerdquest stuff and their own Indiegogo, which you might remember was given $90,000 for something they have yet to produce.
(Side note: how many times does it take to film a game show pilot? As it turns out, at least 17, most with the same questions and guests. The other shows don’t even have a title, much less any start on production.)
Incidentally, the reason I don’t use as many midrolls now? Patreon. If they’d had their way, I’d still be broke, and people would still be using the same archaic system.
Rob then messages me and tells me adding Patreon to midrolls is a “slap to the face” and that their Indiegogo was “executive authority."
Suede had made a video about the pros and cons of Patreon, and they told him he could not post it on the site. We weren’t allowed to put up any links, and only after the news about Suede got out and they looked bad did they tell us we could do a promotion at the end of our videos. After many of us had filmed them, they randomly told us they could only be 30 seconds long. I don’t know why.
Fast forward to now, and I see that they’ve posted Brad’s Patreon video on the new site. I ask Mike why it’s okay now, and quote the previous conversation with Rob. He tells me there was no reason to bring that up again because they’d said it while they were "still on the fence” with Patreon (“slap to the face” = “on the fence”). I told him, yes, there was reason to bring it up, because they never told us any of that was okay now. About 50% of the site’s problems could be fixed by them simply telling us things. I told him they were being hypocrites and should apologize, he deflects me, and I told him they’re always making excuses why things aren’t their fault.
So he asks me if I have time for quick call. I tell him no.
2 hours later, I’m away from the computer and Mike creates a new convo with me, him, and Doug. He asks if I can talk now. I don’t answer because, again, I am away from the computer. He waits approximately 15 minutes, and then tells me because I’m ignoring them they’re taking my stuff off of the site and letting me go. My stuff is immediately removed, which, coincidentally, is the only thing they’ve updated since the new site has gone up. Keep in mind, when the Noah incident happened, they never let him go, they simply kept extending his suspension. I was never even put on suspension. And he got a nice farewell post!
(Edited to add that Mike has been known to stop contact for weeks at a time and, to think he’d be available within 15 minutes of any contact is laughable.)
They’re getting a lot of bad PR right now, which probably could be fixed if they hadn’t fired their PR person the day after her surgery.
The site has had many, MANY behind the scenes issues, and ANYONE who has said anything has been labeled a troublemaker. Also, anyone who has said anything is gone now. It is a site fueled by yes men and denial, and many broken promises. They’ve referred to the other producers as “children” on more than one occasion, which is as patronizing as it sounds. The site has ALWAYS been about Doug, and they don’t care about anyone else there.
But what does this mean for videos? Nothing, actually. Us former CA members are still making videos on our own sites, you can find me, Phelan, and Andrew on Phelous.com, Lindsay on Chez Apocalypse, and I encourage you to continue to support folks who have or will leave the site. The producers are still friends, we will still work together, and we still love what we do.
tldr; I was let go for being away from the computer for 15 minutes.
UPDATE: Relevant links, if you’d care to read the convos yourself:
imgur.com/a/K8Xe4 Luckily, her show isn't dead and lives on through Phelous.com. She's another reviewer I recommend checking out.
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Post by Tim on Apr 18, 2018 11:16:50 GMT -5
Looks like Channel Awesome is done. Doug Walker has apparently left, and with him gone, what's left? Almost everyone else is gone. Way to go, Mike Michaud, well done
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Post by BettyNewbie on Apr 18, 2018 14:28:04 GMT -5
Looks like Channel Awesome is done. Doug Walker has apparently left, and with him gone, what's left? Almost everyone else is gone. Way to go, Mike Michaud, well done Tell me about it. It depresses me to learn just how poorly the site treated its talent all these years. This Tumblr post lays it all out in full detail. They were forced to work for no pay or any other compensation, and some were fired for the most ridiculous reasons. Female reviewers faced constant misogyny and sexual harassment, and the site willingly employed a sexual predator (and deified him after his suicide). Michaud may have been the ringleader, but the Walkers aren't off the hook either. They knew what was happening the entire time and had the power to do something about it, and yet they turned the other way and let it go on. My image of Doug Walker is forever tainted, and it's the final nail in the coffin for whatever enjoyment I still had for his reviews (which has already been very low ever since the post-Demo Reel reboot).
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Post by Tim on Apr 18, 2018 18:03:32 GMT -5
Yeah, I feel the same way. It's a shame, because Doug does seem like a nice guy.
However, he, and his brother, Rob, should have called Michaud out over his treatment of the staff. Why they didn't, I don't know.
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Post by BettyNewbie on Apr 18, 2018 21:19:18 GMT -5
Yeah, I feel the same way. It's a shame, because Doug does seem like a nice guy. However, he, and his brother, Rob, should have called Michaud out over his treatment of the staff. Why they didn't, I don't know. The sense I get is that Doug is a nice guy, but he also isn't very smart and is fairly self-centered. He acts without thinking and looks out for numero uno before anyone else. Case in point -- the debacle that was his retiring of the Nostalgia Critic back in 2012. He made the boneheaded decision to kill off the character without telling anyone else beforehand, knowing very well that the Critic was the face of the site and was putting the site's viewership not just for him, but everyone else there, at risk. Well, lo and behold, viewership dropped, his new show flopped, and he was forced to revive the character. Of course, the grand irony of it all is that Doug doesn't even own the rights to the Critic anymore -- Mike does. So, unless he buys back the rights to the character, then he can't make any Nostalgia Critic videos anymore. His career is effectively over. (And, sadly, the careers of Malcolm and Tamara will probably get dragged down with his. I wasn't a fan of them and everything else about post-Demo Reel Nostalgia Critic, but it's very unfair that they'll have to suffer the fallout from shit that happened years before they even joined the site. Yet again, Doug acted without thinking of others. Rachel was wise to jump ship when she did.)
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Post by Tim on Apr 19, 2018 11:15:58 GMT -5
I wonder if that is the reason Doug kept quiet. Michaud was essentially holding his character hostage. Perhaps Doug should have spoken up anyway, but didn't want to be out of a job. Ironically, that's happened to him anyway now.
That's too bad, because I do like them, especially Tamara. I find her very bubbly and outgoing.
Hopefully, both will be able to land on their feet.
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Post by BettyNewbie on Apr 19, 2018 13:22:55 GMT -5
I wonder if that is the reason Doug kept quiet. Michaud was essentially holding his character hostage. Perhaps Doug should have spoken up anyway, but didn't want to be out of a job. Ironically, that's happened to him anyway now. If that's the case, then Doug only dug his own grave by handing over the rights to his character to Michaud. He let his career fall into the hands of a scummy businessman, and now he's paying the price for it. Just one boneheaded decision after another. I have little sympathy for him. I hope Malcolm and Tamara are able to cut Doug loose and start their own series on YouTube. As I said, they don't deserve to suffer for the mistakes Doug & Co. made years before they even entered the picture. ------------------------ The darkest things to come out of this blowup are the revelations involving now deceased reviewer Justin Carmical (aka. JewWario). Back in 2013, he was fired from the site (then known as That Guy With The Glasses) for unknown reasons, and just a few months later, he shot himself in his bathroom. Doug made a heartfelt tribute to him, and both the site and its fans deified him into being this poor troubled soul who couldn't defeat his inner demons and only wanted to make people happy. And, then the Not So Awesome document happened, and the truth came out -- he was a full-blown sexual predator. www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sqgisdIt's now hard to shake the feeling that Justin killed himself as a way to skirt responsibility for his actions. Instead of being publicly shamed and thrown in jail like he deserved, he was instead glorified as a hero, and his wrongdoings were completely brushed under the rug. Even now that the truth has come out, him being dead still means that he won't have to suffer any consequences. Very disgusting that the site allowed a man of this character to stick around as long as he did, and it's equally disgusting that they never cracked down on his behavior and revealed the truth when he was still alive.
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