I actually knew a few of the people involved. DigiPen (where the students who designed Portal went) was just up the road (and my second choice for a CGI school) from where I got my education in computer animation. I used to hang out with Ben Morris who built level design tools for Doom and Quake back in the day and went on to build the level design tool for Valve that they used on Halflife and Portal.

I also worked on Navy Seals, the project Gooseman did before Counter Strike.

Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and keep collaborating with some of those folks instead of finding a different path (animating for TV shows).

There are a lot of parallels between advertising and copyright. Buy wholeheartedly in to either, and you end up sort of failing to accept the reality of their flaws.

Advertisers think they have a big problem whenever someone circumvents their ads. They panicked when VCRs came around and allowed people to record shows and fast-forward through ads. They panicked when DVRs came out and let people digitally skip through ads. And they are panicking now, with more and more people getting fed up and putting ad-blocking software on their computers or devices.

Copyright holders think they have a big problem when someone tries to circumvent their system, too. They worried about libraries giving people free access to books; but at least a physical book is pretty much limited to one person at a time. They freaked out about cassette tapes being easily copied with a dual cassette deck. They freaked out about people sharing MP3 music over the internet. They freaked out when DVDs came out with CSS protection which was circumvented almost immediately. They continue to freak out by pushing for ever more and more drastic DRM schemes, that are generally circumvented quite rapidly.

The general theme in both advertising and copyright is escalation; a sort of arms race. The problem is that that solution doesn't actually improve things for anyone, in either case. Ads get more and more offensive and annoying, more and more people block/skip them. Copyright gets more and more locked-down, more and more people circumvent it. In both cases, as the "legitimate" side squeezes harder, it ends up making the user experience better for those who circumvent it "illegitimately". See, for example, this good old comic from The Oatmeal:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones

The web with adblock software is a massively better experience than the web without it. A pirated 1080p movie or TV show lets you skip the previews/commercials that are often unskippable on a DVD. And on and on.

This arms race doesn't have a good future. Creators and distributors must start wracking their brains to come up with whole new ideas, or at least variants of the old ones, that break that cycle and ensure that "illegitimate" users/viewers don't have a better experience than legitimate ones. I'm sure not holding my breath though.

You elect a gameshow host its in a twisted sense very logical that your country should be run like a bad reality TV show.

I wouldn't trust Trump to host a show on QVC if he were producing it as well... his incompetence is really beyond question anymore.

We all underestimated how stupid and gullible Americans are.

Yes, let's elect a reality TV show host, someone who lost a billion dollars (in the casino business no less!), someone who has no self-awareness, no intellectual curiosity, a 70-year-old child who fights with comedians on Twitter, to be the president of the most powerful nation on earth. Idiots.

I'm sure those manufacturing jobs will be back any minute now... Will check back in a year.

Trump was in a position to win because the media gave him airtime over his ridiculous birth certificate claims. If he had been relegated to merely a couple minutes a week on a reality tv show, I don't think he would have had the appeal to launch a campaign.

You are talking like the original TV show was some sort of sacred viewing, like M*A*S*H or something. =P

And it is less of a TV show then it is 3 movies with continuing elements released each year.

*relatedto=http://videosift.com/video/TV-show-invites-Japanese-to-try-to-Speak-English-with-Siri

*comedy *fail -- That blonde is attractive.

I'm revolted by the light-hearted way this story has been handled by this TV show and in the press, where I've seen it reported on the last few days. Sulking? I don't buy it. The husband's behaviour is bizarre and cruel and he doesn't change until he's called out on it. It's manipulative and abusive, not just to his wife, but to the whole family who've had to live with this hole in their family life for decades. It's not heartwarming or relatable, it's monstrous.

I'm compelled to ask if what you write comes from legal experience and study.

So many "Law and Order" TV show law grads on the Internet, it would be nice to read a learned opinion now and then.

Especially when you follow "Fun FACT" (my emphasis) with what looks to be hyperbole.

Yes, that's one of the reasons I held off posting it. It's the part that's stuck most strongly in my mind. I checked the posting rules carefully, and they say:

[...]not considered "snuff" if presented as a limited, incidental portion of a lengthy educational, informative news report or documentary that encompasses a much broader narrative

So I don't think I'm violating the spirit or letter of the rules. That also matches with my own judgement of what I would or wouldn't want to see, which was the other reason I wasn't sure about posting. It's also why I put an nsfw tag, a warning in the title, and used a full un-edited copy (there are several that are parts of tv shows that sensationalise it a bit much for my comfort).

In the end, I personally think the educational value far outweighs the disturbing elements, but I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking otherwise.

Can we abolish "reality TV" shows now?

What do you mean when you say 'hardcore SF'?
2001? Star Wars? Bodysnatchers? Flash Gordon?

I'm personally just glad that at least someone in Hollywood knows how to make fun superhero movies. Outside a handful of Batman and X-Men movies, most superstuff is seriously lacking. I'm looking at you, Warner Bros.
But I get the fatigue. I suffered from it as well. I watch most of the TV shows.

It's a funny line from 70's opening song for the Wonder Woman TV show.

Vancouver has played American cities in hundreds of movies and tv shows, even American political propaganda videos... so why not documentaries:) all-look-same.