Languatron is a special kind of crazy...

[Mustex]

mjm800 said:

Yeah I just love those boards: All TNS fans are welcome however, do not write anything inflamortory against TOS and when someone writes an inflamortory remark about TNS do not defend it because that would be considered inflamortory against TOS…whatever, they can have the 1970's they were not that great anyway.

Of course Kingfish is free to come here and post against TNS all he wants.

[bluegreenturtle]

so really, what's the deal with this guy. Just insane, or is he some sort of sci-fi channel employee who got fired, or jilted lover of a universal executive or what? Cause even somebody who's just plain old crackers, I can't see spending this much time being like this unless there was some perceived reason (even if it's just in their own wacky heads.)

[mjm800]

There is this other guy who is a failed TV writer and he has a web site where he rails against Berman and Braga and Enterprise.

Of course, the reason why none of his ideas or scripts are considered is because there is a corporate conspiracy against his and not because his ideas suck.

It was here: www.firsttvdrama.com/index.php3 but it is gone now. *EDIT it was gone and now it is back*

I think that Lang is the same sort of guy he has been trying to break into the TV and film industry for years and has met with no success; therefore, now all he can do is vent his frustrations on the net.

[Mustex]

mjm800 said:

There is this other guy who is a failed TV writer and he has a web site where he rails against Berman and Braga and Enterprise.

Of course, the reason why none of his ideas or scripts are considered is because there is a corporate conspiracy against his and not because his ideas suck.

It was here: www.firsttvdrama.com/index.php3 but it is gone now.

I think that Lang is the same sort of guy he has been trying to break into the TV and film industry for years and has met with no success; therefore, now all he can do is vent his frustrations on the net.

The problem with the other guy is that he has no idea how to go about his ideas. He could go to film school to give himself more credibility, write books instead of a show, or make the dang thing as an independent film with a low budget (I think 5yearmission.com is proof that genre films will soon be dominated by free-ware made by fans).

[bluegreenturtle]

wow. I looked at that.

Not that this means anything in terms of my ability to judge good ideas, but I do understand the industry - I do have a film degree (in screenwriting) and have worked in the film and television industry since 1996. I am just prefacing my comment with that - understand that I don't believe that means a lot to anybody.

1) The guy has terrible writing skills.

2) He clearly has NO concept of what television is looking for or the way the industry works.

I recently submitted submitted a spec to a currently running show (actually one filming in vancouver) via one of the actors who is a friend. He said, as he took it "you do understand what you're trying to do is essentially impossible" and I said yes. And he's right, I just had banged out the script and thought I would give it a shot. Getting a spec, as an unknown, accepted on a running show is probably one of the hardest things possible in the television industry. Starting a new series (which this guys is trying to do) without major backing is much much harder. It happens, but the odds are about a million to one, and that's if you know what you're doing and have good contacts. The person that is in the link that you posted has ZERO chance of ever seeing anything produced. Looking at his "pitches" I can only surmise that he might be retarded.

[Daliden]

bluegreenturtle said:

wow. I looked at that.

...

2) He clearly has NO concept of what television is looking for or the way the industry works.

I looked at it as well.

"All the main characters are humans. The show will feature the largest cast ever for a Television Series. Everyone onboard is identified, meaning there are no "Nameless Crewmembers"."

For frak's sake, doesn't he realize that that's abso-frakking-lutely impossible? He would have to sign every single one of his actors for season-long contracts to ensure their availability.

"I can't put much detailed information here about the Science-Fiction Series until after we're further along financially for legal protection such as Copyrights and Trademarks. And until that happens, specific details about the series can not be revealed."

HUH? Since when do you need money to have your stuff copyrighted? And how can you get something trademarked if you are not, you know, in a trade? Actually he is shooting himself in the foot; if he _did_ publish details, his ideas would be safe, because there is no way in hell any studio would try to steal them. But as long as he keeps them secret, anybody can come up with similar ideas and freely use them.

Not that his pitch seems terribly original; his twist seems to be that it's not a ship or a space station -- so clearly it's different from both Star Trek _and_ Babylon 5. Excellent!

[Xenu]

Holy crap...I just check out that FirstTv guy's site & he almost makes Lang look sane....almost. He does seem to be mentally challenged in some way (no pun intended)...but it makes for good reading ;D

This reminds me of another crackpot I found on the web a few years back; the site is gone now, but there was a webpage ran by a guy named Steve Lucky from Snellville, Georgia whose thing was claiming that he had "worked on" or "inspired" various television shows in some nebulous capacity but was unable to prove it.

He claimed that he was the inspiration for projects as varied as Sophie's Choice (made when he was about 9), several Brady Bunch episodes, the cartoon Sailor Moon and Nightmare on Elm Street III, just to name a few...he was constantly visiting newsgroups and posting requests for help from people in the industry to help him 'find' the lost credits with his name on them that never seemed to appear in any of the projects he 'inspired'. Oh...and he used to make really wierd, vague references to the anti-abortion movement in every post and claimed to work at Target as a cart-boy ;D

His old website is down, but if you Google the newsgroups for "Steve Lucky", you can find a lot about him...this guy was so nuts it amazed me that he could even design a website.

[mjm800]

Xenu said:

Holy crap...I just check out that FirstTv guy's site & he almost makes Lang look sane....almost. He does seem to be mentally challenged in some way (no pun intended)...but it makes for good reading ;D

Have you seen his Enterprise reviews, some of them are very funny, but it gets old after awhile...just like Enterprise. ;D

I once thought he and Lang were the same guy, they should really get together I am sure they would become fast friends.

[Callipygian]

mjm800 said:

I once thought he and Lang were the same guy, they should really get together I am sure they would become fast friends.

No way. Two such deluded individuals would never work together, and as far as I know, Lang has always flown solo. They would simply argue over who was the more persecuted. They would probably also see the delusion in the other, even if they can't see it in themselves.

[Mustex]

Callipygian said:

No way. Two such deluded individuals would never work together, and as far as I know, Lang has always flown solo. They would simply argue over who was the more persecuted. They would probably also see the delusion in the other, even if they can't see it in themselves.

Lang has recently proven this theory by declaring Spider987 a "Stealth Marketer" (ironically he stole that term from Spider to replace "Universal Executive").

[Blade Runner]

Mustex said:

"Stealth Marketer".

I always think it should be 'Stealth Marketeer'

[mjm800]

Callipygian said:

I don't think he's really nuts or that he actually buys into his act. He has carefully cultivated the Languatron personality, and the result is, he's a bit of a celebrity in BSG fandom. I find him occasionally amusing, and some people in this fandom follow him all over the boards.

I think that you are correct, so much lore has been built into the Lang mystique that to be anything other than a raving nut would somehow be disappointing. He now has an image to live up to and occasionally out perform and raise the bar. He must be nuts to even do that, but I do not think that he is nearly as crazy as he wants us to believe.

[Big Brother]

Blade said:

I always think it should be 'Stealth Marketeer'

But that brings to mind the mental image of Annette Funicello wearing a black beanie with the wings of an F-117 sticking out like ears as someone sings out "Marketeer roll call, sound off please!"

o/~ Oh, who's the leader of the club that's made for TNG /
R-O-N, A-L-D, M-O-O-R-E /
Ronald Moore! (David Eick!) Ronald Moore (David Eick!) o/~

[Callipygian]

Big said:

But that brings to mind the mental image of Annette Funicello wearing a black beanie with the wings of an F-117 sticking out like ears as someone sings out "Marketeer roll call, sound off please!"

Oooh. That's a creepy visual!

o/~ Oh, who's the leader of the club that's made for TNG /
R-O-N, A-L-D, M-O-O-R-E /
Ronald Moore! (David Eick!) Ronald Moore (David Eick!) o/~

And that's very clever and funny!

[Big Brother]

And I just realized that, due to posting when really, really tired, I confused "TNG" with "TNS" because it rhymed better. I should have used "BSG", which also works.

/me suddenly has the urge to write a whole parody script about "The Mooreketeers" starring regular RA posters and mods. Great, now not only am I a fanboy, but now I've been sucked into the deep, dark underworld of Filking...