Monday, January 25, 2010

There is a new blog logo. Discuss.

Another week, another blog logo. This is one where I had a really hard time narrowing it down to just four people once I picked the theme.

As a reminder, this post contains links to, and explanations for, all the previous logos, including last week's mullet-astic one.

29 comments:

Andrew said...

Mayors!

Tony said...

The Mayor is the best of the mayors.

chrisis said...

As long as Mayor Randall Winston is there, everything is perfect.

Kate said...

Political Daddies

Doug S said...

Nice, but Quimby's absence is distracting.

Alan Sepinwall said...

Quimby was the hardest cut. In the end, I decided he was just such an obvious choice - and that there had been too many other logos where I filled out the hard-to-find fourth entry with a "Simpsons" character - that I should leave him out and go with the honorable Randall Winston.

Dave said...

Tommy Carcetti on a Monday morning brightens my day.

dez said...

Crap, another one I got that I'm too late to be first on :-) Love the choices, though!

Grunt said...

So everyone got that it was Mayors, I knew it instantly, except I only know two of them (Barry Bostwick from Spin City and Harry Groener from Buffy...Yeay Mayor Wilkins!), can someone let me into who the other Mayors are. I don't recall Larry (of Larry, Darrell & Darrell) ever being the Mayor on Newheart and the other guy is a frikkin' mystery.

Don Amidon said...

Grunt - William Sanderson played E.B. Farnum - the Mayor of Deadwood.

Unknown said...

Grunt,

E.B. Farnunm, Mayor of Deadwood, from Deadwood.

Thomas Carcetti, Mayor of Baltimore, from The Wire

Grunt said...

And now we know which shows Alan watches which I don't. :)

Ted Kerwin said...

The Buffy Mayor was such a great character. He played the transformation story perfectly and his feelings for Faith came across very genuine.

Doug S said...

Seeing this logo reminded me of something. I have enjoyed re-watching Buffy episodes recently on Logo and rediscovering what an amazing show it was (even though Logo seems to have no interest in running them in any kind of chronological order). Alan's logo made me think of how unfortunate it is that two other all-time classics, Deadwood and The Wire, can't be enjoyed this way, other than on pay-tv or expensive dvd's. I wonder how this will effect those shows' long-term profile for people outside of those who already know them.

I guess what I mean is that I hope new people discover Buffy via re-runs every day, but wonder how the same can/will ever happen for Deadwood and The Wire? You can't just accidentally stumble across rerun episodes of these HBO gems.

CrazyCris said...

Evil Mayors? ;o)

with the evilest being THE Mayor (snake-guy!)

Fernando said...

Carcetti is nice but I would have prefered Royce. He makes US proud!!!

dez said...

@CrazyCris, the only one who's evil is Mayor Wilkins. The others range from incompetent to overly idealistic, IMHO, but not evil.

medrawt said...

As far as I can think, The Mayor is unique, or at least close to it, for being a villain who actually gets to serve as a mouthpiece for the writer's deepest sentiments about his own show, its themes and its resonance, and deliver a (heartfelt) speech that is in part a valedictory for Our Heroes, and a message to the audience. And then he Ascends.

The Mayor is my favorite mayor.

Hatfield said...

Oh, E.B., back in his glory days as a character. "You just can't help yourself, can you?"

pgillan said...

The Buffy Mayor was such a great character.

I must agree. I recently re-watched season 3, and I still find it remarkable what a fascinating character Mayor Wilkins was. He was pure evil, and yet I totally believed his paternal, protective relationship with Faith. Groener could turn on a dime and make a scene horrifying and funny at the same time.

Also, it seems pretty obvious that Carcetti was planning to ascend as well. What is Baltimore if not a city built for vampires to feed on?

Andrew said...

What is Baltimore if not a city built for vampires to feed on?

If not for the presence of Omar, the Vampire Slayer?

BET ran syndicated episodes of The Wire. But they wouldn't fit into a 1 hour slot without cutting a LOT of time for commercials, and either had to be run in longer than hour long timeslots or cut up so much that entire storylines were eliminated. And in a show where it's all connected like in The Wire, it's going to lose a lot of the impact. (Same for Deadwood-- it's just not going to work in an hour slot on commercial TV)

Alan Sepinwall said...

or cut up so much that entire storylines were eliminated

I've heard anecdotally, but have no actual evidence of this, that season 2 on BET eliminated virtually the entire port storyline, figuring their audience didn't/wouldn't care.

Chip said...

Man seeing the Mayor made me miss Buffy

Karen said...

Harry Groener made the Mayor the best Big Bad that Buffy ever faced and, by transitive power, season 3 the best season of Buffy ever.

At least I always thought so.

I've never seen Deadwood, so I didn't get Farnum, but the mayors theme was pretty clear from the rest. The absence of Quimby IS tragic, though. Alan, can't you make room for 5 images??

Alan Sepinwall said...

Not with the logo as designed, no. (Though I can get away with it on occasion when there are two people in a square image, like Jeffster! in the Chuck logo.

And I couldn't ignore Farnum, or else I'd fulfill the title of this "Deadwood" episode.

Bryan Murray said...

I saw Harry Groener play King Arthur in Spamalot on Broadway by the way. He was great in that show and really funny on Buffy - great logo!

Hatfield said...

Damn, Alan, that was the Deadwood reference I should have made! I blame my vertigo.

Kate said...

E.B. was left IN! E.B was left IN!

The Mayor was definitely the best of the Buffy Big Bads. No contest. And he was always so CHEERFUL!

Harry Groener's singing & dancing guest role is one of my favorite memories from (original) Cupid.

Great logo.

Matt S. said...

I'm glad you included Barry Bostwick. Never mind the fact that Spin City is rerun for eternity on FX on weekday afternoons---that show was and is way underrated today---sure it turned into kind of an ehhh kinda show later in its run (tho they tried to keep it goin with charlie sheen) but the years with Michael J can't be beat....and it had an eternally underrated supporting cast to die for! (Barry Bostwick first among them!)