This day in Trinity Universe history

[aberrantangels]

2003
[Aberrant] Geoffrey Gold [sic], N!'s vice-president of programming, sends a memo to Anne Binghamton, president of programming, requesting more action-oriented material.

(Actually, Binghamton is listed as director of programming. My bad.)

The "sic" after Gold's surname is because, only two pages of the Aberrant Storytellers Companion later, there's a reference to a "Geoffrey Glass" holding that post in a memo from the fall of 2004 (which I'll be getting to in October). In other words, yet another demonstration that White Wolf could have benefitted from careful copy-editing, maybe by an Aspie.

Gold, or Glass or whatever his name is, complains about the sort of programming he has been given. "You're giving me chick shows. You're giving me touchy-feely, getting-in-touch-with-your-inner-nova, nova recipes, nova horoscopes crap every night of the week. Chick shows are great during the day [...]. They sell soap, diapers and feminine-hygiene products very effectively. But at night, when we need to sell beer and cars and video games, we have to have data and death: numbers and trends for the accountants, stockbrokers and lawyers; and slashing, bleeding and carnage for the lowest-common-denominator boys..." Among other ways of bringing in that demographic, he proposes a nova wrestling show and a "Nova Cop" show. (Presumably, he's at least dimly aware of the nova pitfights that've been going on in Southeast Asia for the last few years.) He wants Binghamton to get the sexed-up proposal to him by week's end (remember, March 5 was a Wednesday last year).

I already mentioned Jon Hickman's observation about the media as starving piranhas, and that being the only real difference (in his assessment) between the Aberrant Era and your typical mainstream superhero universe. Gold's memo makes that point nicely, I think.