End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
03-27-14, 01:23 PM
#1
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
Loved this place for many of their TV recaps.
Originally started visiting when it was Mighty Big TV
http://www.thewire.com/entertainment...ttered/359733/
Originally started visiting when it was Mighty Big TV
http://www.thewire.com/entertainment...ttered/359733/
It was announced today that NBCUniversal would be closing down two venerable digital properties next week: Daily Candy and Television Without Pity.
In particular, Television Without Pity — TWoP in the parlance of our times, and for brevity's sake, because if today's news has taught us anything, it's that time is fleeting and nothing lasts forever —had a huge impact on the internet landscape and in particular the way that television was covered. Beginning in the late '90s as Dawson's Wrap (making Dawson's Creek the unlikely mother of an entire movement in TV criticism) and later as Mighty Big TV, the TWoP stock in trade was the TV recap, impossibly detailed summaries of individual TV episodes of everything from ER to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Project Runway. Written not only for detail but for humor and fan engagement, they became, for a time, the way we talked about TV on the internet.
In particular, Television Without Pity — TWoP in the parlance of our times, and for brevity's sake, because if today's news has taught us anything, it's that time is fleeting and nothing lasts forever —had a huge impact on the internet landscape and in particular the way that television was covered. Beginning in the late '90s as Dawson's Wrap (making Dawson's Creek the unlikely mother of an entire movement in TV criticism) and later as Mighty Big TV, the TWoP stock in trade was the TV recap, impossibly detailed summaries of individual TV episodes of everything from ER to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Project Runway. Written not only for detail but for humor and fan engagement, they became, for a time, the way we talked about TV on the internet.
03-27-14, 01:41 PM
#2
03-27-14, 01:48 PM
#4
DVD Talk Hero
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
This is big news in television circles. I never really visited the site very much but knew of it by reputation, probably the biggest site where one could discuss current television episodes.
03-27-14, 02:10 PM
#5
Moderator
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
I never posted there because their episode threads were just too big to read. I thought the forums were still very popular?
03-27-14, 02:12 PM
#6
DVD Talk Legend
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Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
03-27-14, 03:43 PM
#7
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Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
That sucks. I will miss them. I've spent way more time than I should have reading their recaps. Even the ones I disagreed with were usually at least amusing.
03-27-14, 04:46 PM
#8
DVD Talk Legend
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
Yeah, I've spent plenty of time on their recaps and also in their forums, for shows that didn't generate much talk here or on other boards i frequent. I'm very sorry to hear they're shutting down.
03-27-14, 05:23 PM
#9
DVD Talk Hero
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
My guess is that the site was probably doing well enough to support itself but a corporation the size of Universal/Comcast/etc. has much greater ROI demands than simply breaking even. They probably got squeezed due to corporate demands.
03-27-14, 06:27 PM
#10
DVD Talk Hero
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
I spent a ton of time there back in the day but I got too tired of the overly critical nature of the recaps (and especially the forums). Some great insight for a few of the shows and we had one of the writers on the talk show I produce a few times and he was great (M. Giant) but I watch TV shows because I like them, not because I want to tear them apart. So I stopped visiting the site years ago.
03-27-14, 06:58 PM
#11
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
After here, televisionwithoutpity is my favorite on-line community. Bummed out to hear this. I hope the content stays on-line for awhile, as I enjoy going back and reading threads on older shows I'm just starting to watch now.
03-27-14, 07:00 PM
#12
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Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
That part in and of itself makes me think somebody up in the corporate hierarchy hates the site the way Don Ohlmeyer hated Norm Macdonald.
03-27-14, 10:34 PM
#14
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
03-27-14, 10:48 PM
#16
DVD Talk Hero
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
I never even knew that place even existed. So... 
?
?
04-02-14, 09:27 AM
#17
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
So TWOP is still closing, but just saw some promising news:
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
We have bad news for the producers of the past decade and a half's worst TV shows, but good news for our fans: TWoP's archives will stay up.
We have bad news for the producers of the past decade and a half's worst TV shows, but good news for our fans: TWoP's archives will stay up.
04-02-14, 09:35 AM
#19
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
There are a couple of places like Fanforum and Mediablvd. But they don't/didn't have the pull that TWOP has.
04-02-14, 02:59 PM
#22
DVD Talk Hero
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
I believe that social media sites like Twitter probably killed off television discussion sites. Notice how little new blood shows up around here? People under 25 simply go on Twitter and post a dumb hashtag for their favorite shows.
04-02-14, 04:13 PM
#23
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
Now all of those bitter, often times downright nasty people that post in the forums will have to go elsewhere.
04-02-14, 04:15 PM
#24
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
I tried to participate in their forums. The few times I did moderators kept messaging me to say I was violating rules. Still not sure how that one works. Contributing to a discussion in an open forum is counter to the rules?? 
Anyway, deleted the bookmark and never visited again. Been using DVDTALK exclusively since.
Anyway, deleted the bookmark and never visited again. Been using DVDTALK exclusively since.
04-02-14, 05:18 PM
#25
DVD Talk Legend
Re: End of an Era: Television Without Pity to close
A lot of the TWoP community are migrating over to previously.tv -- a site created by some former TWoP recappers and mods.