“Venice Beach Freakshow” Heads to TV

“Venice Beach Freakshow” Heads to TV

AMC, the home of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead, has picked up “Venice Beach Freakshow“, a new reality based drama “that centers on former music producer Todd Ray as he pursues his dream to own and operate his own ‘Freakshow’ on the famed boardwalk in Venice Beach, CA”.

The Ray Family of Venice Beach

Ray had a long career in the music industry producing and working with such artists as Jack Johnson, Nas, Mick Jagger, House of Pain, The Beastie Boys, G. Love & Special Sauce, Cypress Hill, Santana, 311, Audioslave and Korn before pursuing his true love, the Venice Freakshow. Most days of the week he is outside the Freakshow greeting guests.

Thanks to Dateline Hollywood and Justin T. for the heads up!

Santa Monica's Newest Tenant?

Santa Monica's Newest Tenant?

Add online video-streamer Hulu to the growing list of big-name companies leasing office space in Santa Monica.

Hulu's residency in Santa Monica was rumored in June when the Hollywood Reporter published a story about creative office space being in demand on the Westside. It was confirmed this week by the city's Economic Development division in an interview with the Santa Monica LookOut.

"We're delighted by it because [Hulu is] bringing lots of jobs into the City," Santa Monica's Economic Development Administrator Jennifer Taylor told the online news source.

At the northern tip of Silicon Beach, Santa Monica already boasts an impressive roster of technology and Internet companies that include Yahoo!, Demand Media and AOL (Patch's parent company), and arguably lesser-known names such as Realtime and Digiboo. This list of entertainment companies with offices and headquarters here is equally formidable: MTV, Lionsgate and CBS Television Distribution, for example.

SEE ALSO: SILICON BEACH FEST: CONSIDER ALT-CELEB POWER; SILICON BEACH STARTUP EARNS INNOVATION HONORS

According to the LookOut, Hulu is moving into a nearly 100,000-square-foot office space in the Colorado Center, formerly called the Yahoo! Center. In 2011, the Internet company reportedly made $420 million in revenue and boasted 1.5 million paying subscribers.

Dance Moms and the broken promise of reality television

TV: For Our Consideration: Dance Moms and the broken promise of reality television



Lifetime’s reality series Dance Moms draws more than 2 million viewers a week, making it one of the most-watched shows of its kind on basic cable. Here’s what happens in a typical episode: Brash dance coach Abby Lee Miller yells at a bunch of teary-eyed preteen and teenage girls; the girls’ parents snipe and gossip behind each other’s backs; the dance routines border on the inappropriate; and the audience gets the sense that all of these people’s priorities are out of whack. Like so many other cable reality shows right now, Dance Moms is steeped in schadenfreude, allowing viewers the opportunity to spend an hour cackling at colorful characters who’ve made some weird choices. And there’s nothing wrong with this, necessarily. That particular kind of emotional response to a piece of entertainment—feeling morally superior to jerks and nimrods—can be cathartic, not unlike ...

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