Neda Ulaby

An 'Adventure' For Kids, And Maybe For Their Parents Too

Neda Ulaby — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 06:54:00 +0000

Count plenty of grown-ups among the millions of fans of Adventure Time, a kids' show on Cartoon Network. Some are surely Emmy voters. (It's won three.) Others are very possibly stoners. Still others are intellectuals. Lev Grossman falls in the last category. He wrote two best-selling novels, The Magicians and The Magician King, and he's Time's senior book critic.

Grossman's critique of Adventure Time? "It's soooo smart! It's sooo intelligent!"

Hang on. He's just getting started.

"I am a little bit obsessed with it," Grossman continues.

A Lannister Always Pays His Debts — But Do Too Many Of His Fans Watch For Free?

Neda Ulaby — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 20:31:00 +0000

For today's All Things Considered story about people sharing their Netflix or Hulu Plus passwords, producer Sami Yenigun latched on to what could've been an ordinary entertainment-business story and front-loaded it with snippets of sound from Game of Thrones — attacking dragons, evil kings, treacherous harlots.

Foster Families Take Center Stage

Neda Ulaby — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 20:14:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlTGYq-sTwI

'Arrested Development' Leads The Charge For Old Brands In New Media

Neda Ulaby — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:44:00 +0000

Arrested Development returning via Netflix? Just another old-media brand reviving itself on new media.

The TV show, which originally ran on Fox from 2003 to 2006 and unveils new episodes on Netflix next weekend, finds itself in splendid company. Radiohead, Louis C.K., Veronica Mars — all found their audiences with promotion and distribution from big studios and networks. Radiohead was signed to a major music label. Louis C.K. enjoyed HBO specials and TV shows.

Working Women On Television: A Mixed Bag At Best

Neda Ulaby — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:13:00 +0000

When actress Geena Davis was watching children's shows with her daughter a few years ago, she became so troubled by the lack of female representation, she started a think tank on gender in the media. The Geena Davis Institute recently partnered with University of Southern California professors to conduct a study analyzing gender roles and jobs on screen.

The good news?

As Audiences Shift To Cable, TV Programming Changes, Too

Neda Ulaby — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:18:00 +0000

Mad Men comes back for its sixth season Sunday at an opportune moment for basic cable. Last weekend, 25 million viewers combined watched The Bible and The Walking Dead on basic cable channels. That's more than triple the audience for The Good Wife on CBS that same night.

So are we looking at a convergence between scripted shows on broadcast and cable? It's hard not to wonder, when you see broadcast networks rushing to replicate gruesome death scenes like the ones relished by The Walking Dead's enviably sizable audience.

Why Are TV Remotes So Terrible?

Neda Ulaby — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 07:23:00 +0000

Let's call it the baby sitter's dilemma.

If you go to someone's house and pick up the TV remote, chances are, you won't know how it works. You know the situation's bad when even a tech writer who also majored in physics at an Ivy League school is confused by her own TV remote.

"It's unbearable to me," moans Ars Technica writer Casey Johnston, of her remote's many cryptic buttons. "Sub.code? Comp/mix?

2013 Pritzker Winner Toyo Ito Finds Inspiration In Air, Wind And Water

Neda Ulaby — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 19:19:00 +0000

Toyo Ito, a 71-year-old architect based in Japan, is the winner of the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize. The jury honored Ito for his more than four-decade career, in which he has created architecture that "projects an air of optimism, lightness and joy ... infused with both a sense of uniqueness and universality."

On the phone from his offices in Tokyo — the most densely populated city in the world — Ito says "air and wind and water," are the forces that drive him aesthetically.

From Louisiana To Versailles, Funding 'Vital Stories, Artfully Told'

Neda Ulaby — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:34:00 +0000

The movie Beasts of the Southern Wild is a fairy tale of a film. It might not seem to have much in common with documentaries about evangelical Christians in Uganda or the billionaire Koch brothers. But these films were all funded by a not-for-profit group called Cinereach. It was started by a couple of film school graduates who are still in their 20s.

Toy Fair: Markers That Don't Blot Walls, Sand Without The Mess

Neda Ulaby — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Toy Fair 2013 in New York started Sunday and runs until Wednesday. NPR's Neda Ulaby had the tough assignment of sizing up the acres of fun offerings. She brings us this report:

The venerable industry convention Toy Fair celebrates its 110^th anniversary this week. But it might as well be the 1970s or '80s within the great glassy expanse of New York City's Javits Center.

Vast acres of displays baldly appeal to the nostalgia of today's 30-to 40-something parents.