Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2012 February 26

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

February 26

Ideas or what?

Back in the 1990s, Wonder Woman plush dolls were offered by the now closed WB Studio Stores. But I feel there should be plush dolls in the likeness of Donna Troy. One could depict her in red. One could depict her in black. One could depict her as Wonder Girl. Who should I contact about these ideas?24.90.204.234 (talk) 07:25, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Well, Wonder Woman and other DC characters are still sold through WB. You could try contacting the company here. They're just the store, of course, but they might be able to direct you to the best person. An alternate route might be to try building up fan interest by writing to fanzines like Wizard (now just online as Wizard World). The website is here; I don't see any way to email them directly, but there are links on that page to their Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. accounts and also links to related sites. Matt Deres (talk) 13:44, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

I did contact WB about that idea. I also contacted Wizard World via YouTube regarding that idea. Oh, by the way, what do the red costume and the black costume depict Donna Troy as? I'm familiar with her 1960s Wonder Girl costume.24.90.204.234 (talk) 14:52, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Martha Madison

Is Martha Madison related to Reese Witherspoon ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.93.154.205 (talk) 17:41, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

I don't think so, and I don't think they look alike either. 109.97.167.221 (talk) 17:48, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

This is a reference desk, not an opinion desk. -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 19:27, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

In contrast, the writer of this item[1] says, "Martha Madison Totally Looks Like Reese Witherspoon." I wouldn't go that far, and I had never heard of soap opera actress Martha Madison, but I would certainly agree that they look kind of similar. Similar looks don't imply related, and dissimilar looks don't imply unrelated. As to whether they actually are related, googling "Is martha madison related to reese witherspoon?" turns up this question on the ref desk, but nothing I'm seeing that looks useful for answering it. I think that if they were related, someone somewhere would have made something of it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:44, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Placing ads in movies on TV and TV shows

How exactly do they decide when to interrupt a movie to place an ad ? I've noticed 2 opposing strategies:

1) The lull strategy: By far the most common, this is where they place ads at the end of a day, scene, etc., so as to minimize the disruption in the flow of the program.

2) The cliffhanger strategy: This is where they place ads right at the height of the action, to get people to stay tuned. I seem to recall the original Batman series doing this, for example, right when Batman and Robin were about to be turned into sausage, etc.

There also is the occasional case where ads seem to be placed at random, even mid-sentence. I doubt if this is intentional, but either because they made a mistake or just don't care.

But, when using either strategy, somebody has to go through every program and identify the time index for either lulls or cliffhangers. Who does this and how is this info stored ? That is, do the original producers provide this info, is it added when a film is "modified for television viewing", or does each network or individual TV station have to do this ? StuRat (talk) 19:32, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

TV screen portion reserved for ads

A related question is: What percentage of the screen is considered fair game for those ads that are pasted on top of and partially obscure the existing program? 20%? 25%? Where will it end - 95%? Just what is it they want us to be focussing on - the latest plot development in this "must-see unmissable" program, or an ad for the next "must-see unmissable" program? -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 21:17, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

I broke your Q off as a new Q. StuRat (talk) 23:15, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

I've noticed that they've backed off on this, at least in the US. They were adding motion and sound to those ads, which got very annoying when trying to watch a program. I actually complained to my local station, as did many others, I assume. When they were at their height there was a Simpson's episode (which runs on Fox, one of the worst offenders with this type of ad), where Marge got so annoyed she used bug spray to kill all the annoying characters running around at the bottom of the screen. One of the funniest things was when they interrupted the current program with such an ad, which was advertising the very program they were interrupting. StuRat (talk) 23:19, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

It isn't done at all in the UK. TV channels experimented with a logo in the corner of the screen (a DOG) but the reaction was so negative that it has been dropped by the main ones. Alansplodge (talk) 17:41, 1 March 2012 (UTC)