THE TV COLUMN : ABC Family offers full immersion in Harry Potter
Posted on Thursday, December 4, 2008
One of the enjoyable things about the holiday season of Thanksgiving and Christmas is that TV digs deep into its family-friendly stocking. That’s the case over the next several days on cable’s ABC Family.
TV programmers do the digging for a couple of reasons. First, viewers spend more time at home with days off and family frequently visiting.
Second, dusting off the vintage stuff from the storeroom allows networks and cable outfits to save money on producing original programming.
Regular viewing habits are disrupted during holidays, so why waste the cost of a new episode of something when a perfectly good rerun of any program that shows us “the true meaning of Christmas” will fill the bill ?
What could be more familyoriented than Harry Potter ?
Some of the spooky magic stuff and implied violence could send the small fry screaming as they dive under their beds. But for the most part, the entire family can watch. Harry Potter works on several levels.
There’s the universal coming-of-age tale of the gifted, but isolated, outsider. There’s magic. There’s mystery. There’s budding romance and brooding teen angst. There is the universal struggle of good versus evil. There are even giants and elves, thestrals and blast-ended skrewts that allow even adult viewers to feel like kids again.
It’s all good. And as the films came along over the years (the first one debuted in 2001 ), we got to watch as 11-year-old Daniel Radcliffe (Harry ) grew into a handsome young man. We also watched as Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley ) grew into a gawky young man, and pre-teen Emma Watson (Hermione Granger ) blossomed into an enchanting young woman certain to break hearts.
Starting Friday, ABC Family will air the first four of the five extant Harry Potter films and offer a sneak peak of the sixth, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which isn’t scheduled to open in theaters until July 17.
The first look will include “footage of love running rampant through Hogwarts, a look into Tom Riddle’s past and an introduction of Hogwarts ’ new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Horace Slughorn.”
As an added bonus, Radcliffe, Grint and Watson will be on hand throughout the three days to tease us about the film’s plots and drop tidbits of insider info.
True, it all amounts to minicommercials for the next film, but we don’t care. Here’s the schedule.
Friday: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 6: 30-10 p. m. Remember how I said airing the films allows the channel to kill holiday time ? Here’s proof. ABC Family is able to knock off an entire evening by using a 152-minute movie to fill three and a half hours (210 minutes ) of programming.
That’s 48 minutes (!) of commercials over the course of the evening. Before you complain too much, note that there are usually 20-22 minutes of commercials during an ordinary hour of prime-time drama. That means there normally would be about an hour or so of commercials in the course of a typical three-hour evening.
Using that measure, there will be relatively fewer commercials during the Sorcerer’s Stone. Still, movie action is put on hold while we hawk trucks and pitch pizza. It’s one argument for renting the film.
Just to remind you, in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Harry learns on his 11 th birthday that he is the orphaned son of two powerful wizards and possesses magical powers of his own.
Harry heads to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and his adventures begin.
Saturday: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone repeats from 12: 30-4 p. m. That’s followed by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from 4 to 8 p. m.
Note: A 161-minute film kills 240 minutes. That’ll be 79 minutes of commercials breaking up the film. That’s almost and hour and 20 minutes.
In Chamber of Secrets, Harry, Ron and Hermione try to uncover a mysterious dark force that is terrorizing the school.
If you’re still game, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban will round out Saturday from 8 to 11 p. m. That’s 180 minutes and a 141-minute film.
In this offering, Harry, Ron and Hermione “return for their third year at Hogwarts, where they’re forced to face escaped prisoner Sirius Black, who seemed to pose a great threat to Harry.”
Sunday: Harry Potter fans are in for a special treat. They can overdose on Chamber of Secrets at 11: 30 a. m., Prisoner of Azkaban at 3: 30 p. m. and the world television premiere of a special extended version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire from 6: 30 to 10 p. m.
The special version will contain deleted scenes not included in the original film.
In Goblet of Fire “Harry’s name mysteriously emerges from the Goblet of Fire and he becomes a competitor in a grueling battle for glory among three wizarding schools — the Triwizard Tournament.” Ready or not. The countdown continues to the switch from analog TV to digital on Feb. 17. According to Nielsen Media, which counts noses, only 7. 4 percent of U. S. households are not ready for the transition. That means those folks are sitting there with an old analog TV that uses an antenna or rabbit ears. They don’t have a new TV with a built-in digital tuner. They don’t have cable or satellite service, which takes care of the switch for you.
If the transition happened today, their TVs would go blank. These folks need a converter box, which evidently isn’t the carefree panacea that the government and Oprah would have us believe. Some viewers are finding it’s not just a simple matter of plugging in the box and flipping a switch. There are glitches. Some are finding their old rabbit ears are not adequate to pick up existing digital signals (which may not yet be at full strength ). Outdoor or UHF antennas could be required. The TV column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail:
mstorey@arkansasonline. com
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