Television Without Pity

Television Without Pity
URL	http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Online collection of television series recaps and related discussion forums
Registration	Optional
Owner	NBC Universal
Created by	David T. Cole, Tara Ariano, Sarah D. Bunting, various contributors

Television Without Pity (often abbreviated TWoP) is a website that provides detailed recaps of select television dramas, situation comedies and reality TV shows, often by mocking them. There are also forums in which members can discuss myriad television related topics. In 2007 the site was acquired by the Bravo unit of NBC Universal.^[1][2] The site began by recapping the television show Dawson's Creek and was originally called Dawson's Wrap; later it broadened its scope and changed names to Mighty Big TV before settling on the current moniker. The site is notable for its wide usage of the word "snark" to describe its typical style of sarcastic review. Their official motto is "Spare the snark, spoil the networks," a takeoff on "spare the rod, spoil the child."

The site's mascot is Tubeelzebub (a portmanteau of tube and Beelzebub - "Tubey" for short), a demonic television set replete with horns and a pointed tail. Questions can be asked of Tubey and are sometimes answered in the Ask Tubey section of the site.

The recaps and forums have their own jargon, detailed in the site's FAQ.^[3] Recappers also commonly coin nicknames for show characters, based on inside jokes or an actor's previous work.

Famous visitors

Some actors and producers have been known to visit the website. The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin posted in the forums, but his relationship with the site eventually turned sour. His experience is believed to have inspired the episode "The U.S. Poet Laureate". In this episode, a character posts on his fansite and is vehemently attacked by members of the forum for his beliefs and his violation of the forum rules.^[4] In contrast, Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas has more fully embraced the TWoP message board community, with a discussion thread in his show's forum^[5] open to directly communicate with viewers. In addition, on the January 18, 2007 episode of My Name Is Earl, a character using the screen name WhoJackie was shown typing a post on the site's forums. As it turns out, a user by that same name had written the same post several days before the episode first aired.^[6]

For the past few years, posters at the site have organized "TARCon" in New York City which is a viewing party for the season finale of the Amazing Race. The party has been attended by many of the show's contestants from current and past seasons.

Show recaps and forums

Recaps differ in styles: some of the recappers write shorter, more concise recaps while others write more comically, inserting references to their personal life, for example. Naturally, each style attracts different readers, with some preferring to use the site as information for episodes that they have missed, and others preferring the more humorous ones, which can be equally (or more) enjoyable to those who also watched the episode.

Shows canceled by the network (or deemed to be unpopular with the readers of TWoP) are considered to be in permanent hiatus, a status which is rarely reversed. Big Brother is one such exception, having been included as of June 2006 among active shows for the first time since its third season. By April 2007, Real World/Road Rules Challenge also returned to the active list, with its recapping format switched to a shorter, real-time commentary. Readers are encouraged to chat in their forums about current and past shows. As of now, the 2005 remake of Night Stalker holds the record for the shortest run on TWoP having been PH'd after only one recap, although the 2005 series Sex, Love & Secrets was expunged before even one recap, due to incredibly low viewer response in the forums. The shows covered are almost exclusively American, with the exceptions of the new series of Doctor Who, which is a British import to US television, and the original UK version of Queer as Folk, which was a British import to Canadian television. Both shows are Russell T. Davies productions and were eventually put on permanent hiatus.

The forum for each active show include threads for each episode of a show, a speculation thread, spoiler information, media references to the show, character/contestant-specific threads, and a general "meet market" for forum users. The forums are heavily moderated by the recappers to avoid significant off-topic discussion, unprotected spoiler information, and flame wars, but some see this as a point of contention of the site and claims that TWoP may be elitist (as described in "Criticism" below). The site forums also include catch-all areas for other television shows not presently covered by TWoP, divided by show classification (such as "Competitive Reality", "Soap Opera", and "Kids Shows").

At times, the site may offer a charity auction for "Tubey's Kids",^[7] whereby the person with the largest donation can request a recap of a specific episode or show (no longer than one hour) by any specific recapper. The results of these recaps are posted as "Mondo Extras" on the site.

Beginning in 2007, TWoP introduced "weecaps" — initially presented as single-page television series reviews written in real time. The abbreviated recap style — first used for coverage of The Real World/Road Rules Challenge and Dancing with the Stars during the spring — was later employed for a larger slate of summer replacement series, with eventual reconfiguring into multi-page entries. Shows with weecaps also gain dedicated forums with topic areas as with regularly recapped shows. Among the most recent series to be included in weecap coverage is the American version of The Office, marking the first situation comedy to be regularly recapped since the site covered the HBO series Entourage.

Staff

• Sars (Sarah D. Bunting), Wing Chun (Tara Ariano), and Glark (David T. Cole) are the founders of the site, and also serve as "Heads of Programming" at TWoP. Joe R. and Miss Alli, both regular contributors to the site, also share this title.^[8]
• Glark was the first official member of the TWoP site and is mainly in charge of its organization and maintenance.

Recappers

TWoP's writers and the shows they currently review:

Permanent hiatus

Permanent hiatus (often abbreviated PH) is a term used on the TWoP site to describe shows that will no longer be recapped on the site. Shows usually get PH'd due to low interest from the site's readers, a network canceling the show, or the recapper disliking the show so much that they ask to not recap it any longer. The former two are more common than the latter seeing how some of the most maligned shows have become staples at TWoP (for instance the long-running WB hit Charmed is routinely slammed by its recapper, "Demian", and patrons of the corresponding forum). Shows placed into permanent hiatus will generally have their forum threads readable but locked, and given a single dedicated thread in the appropriate miscellaneous forum categories; the recaps remain available on the site, though in the "Permanent hiatus" section. There are some exceptions; Doctor Who coverage was put into permanent hiatus after the 2nd season despite the popularity of the show on the site's boards and of Jacob's recaps for the show; Glark commented on the action of moving the show to permanent hiatus that "If you want to know what Bit Torrent is, ask a Doctor Who fan".^[9] The full Doctor Who threaded forum was retained though moved into the Sci-Fi show category, and remains fully active with moderation.

Now or Never t-shirts and related merchandise

Every month, in conjunction with clothing vendor Glarkware, Television Without Pity prints a set of limited edition t-shirts with an obscure reference to one of the shows covered by their reviewers. The company also produces accessories relating to TWoP, including buttons and magnets (collectively referred to as thingees) as well as messenger bags.

References

External links

• Television Without Pity
• TWoP Crit

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