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Tuesday, May 15, 2007
May is Foster Child Awareness Month - by TBP staff
12:41 pm PST - All children deserve and benefit from enduring, positive relationships with caring adults. The same is true for the 513,000 American youth in foster care. These young people have a special need to make connections with nurturing adults because their own families are in crisis. Many require secure, stable places to call home until they can either safely reunite with their parent or establish other lifelong family relationships. You can change a lifetime.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Hi Joseph, TheBIGPictureDVD.com Is In Limbo - by Jeff McNeal A few months ago, I received an inquiry from a TBP visitor that went something like this: "Hello, I had a question regarding the thebigpicturedvd.com website, why does it seem like nothing is updated? has the website been abandoned? Your last news update was in November of 2005, yet your last review was in 2003. Please explain. Thank you. Joseph." To which I replied: Hi Joseph, Which in itself is part of the problem. Bob Banka came aboard shortly after I launched the site, and together, he and I began writing reviews. Lots of them. The site grew in popularity, but then when the dotcom crash happened in 2000, it all started to fall apart. Advertisers disappeared as with so many other dotcoms. Bob Banka burned out and left for personal reasons in '01 or '02, and I was stuck writing all the reviews and maintaining the entire site, by myself. The income from the site completely vanished, almost overnight, and by 2003, I was developing carpel tunnel problems from all the writing. I turned back to doing voice overs, where I have made some incredible inroads in the last three years, which also might be considered a conflict with writing reviews, since I am voicing trailers and TV commercials for movies in addition to a myriad of other VO assignments. So that's it. Whether or not it will ever be a viable site again is anybody's guess, but at this point I find it unlikely. That said I put too many years and hard work into the site to simply shut it down. So for the foreseeable future, it shall remain what it is, a repository. So there you have it. At one time, during the peak of it's popularity, The BIG Picture was drawing over 3.5 million page views per month. Not bad. We were also very proud of the small part we played in killing DIVX, which at the time was a failed attempt by Circuit City to turn all your DVD's into disposable items with self-destructing expiration dates. These days, DIVX is known by many only as a video compression scheme. Heh. I've only had sporadic contact with Bob Banka over the past several years, but wish him and his family only the very best. For a brief, shining moment in home theater history, TheBIGPictureDVD.com was a relevant, vibrant, exciting destination for home theater enthusiasts. But as the format improved, advertising revenue disappeared and the burden to continue a site this massive fell upon just one person's shoulders to maintain, the weight became too great, the rewards too few, and the site struggled to remain a relevant voice in an increasingly complex medium. The burgeoning format wars with HD DVD and Blue Ray were also something I personally had no interest in negotiating. So while I continue to pursue my dream of finding voice over success in Los Angeles, finding myself still connected to the film industry that I love so well, but in a far more viable capacity that takes advantage of my quarter century of training as a voice actor, this site shall remain available to any who want to peruse it's pages and take in an interesting review or interview while you're here. God bless and thank you to our loyal readers who made all the toil worthwhile. It has been our pleasure and honor to serve you.
11:36 pm PST - Dear Reader,
Fair question and I'll give you a straight answer. The site has not been abandoned, but it's definitely dormant for the time being. Believe it it not, in two years, you're the first person to even ask about it.
Here's the story: I started the web site in 1998, just as DVD's were beginning to hit the market. Within a few months, DVD was gaining momentum, advertisers were clamoring for advertising banners, and the site began generating both interest and income.
Finally, with the general acceptance of DVD, the studios basically pulled all their support from the site, and without studio support or advertising income, and my growing disability with the carpel, I had to rearrange priorities, make some tough choices, and ultimately concentrate my efforts in other areas in order to feed my family.
The site remains what it is. A repository of 1,300 or so great DVD reviews, and forums that readers summarily abandoned years ago. It's a ghost ship.
I hope that answers your question.
Thanks for writing.
Jeff McNeal
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
The Beaver Comes To DVD - by TBP staff Finally, one of the most beloved series from television’s Golden Age comes to DVD for the first time ever! Join the Cleavers, America’s quintessential family, in all 39 digitally remastered, unforgettable episodes from the complete first season of Leave it to Beaver! Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) can’t seem to avoid trouble, and his older brother Wally (Tony Dow), and mischievous pal Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond), aren’t any help. But with some wise advice from his father Ward (Hugh Beaumont) and mom’s (Barbara Billingsley) home-cooked meals, Beaver learns that all’s well that ends well. Complete with the original pilot, brought out of the studio archives, this must-have DVD collection will have you declaring, “Gee, that Beaver sure is a swell guy!” Includes a bonus pilot episode : It’s a Small World with different actors portraying Ward and Wally! Check out The LEAVE IT TO BEAVER: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON Official Website: http://www.leaveittobeaverdvd.com
10:49 am PST - LEAVE IT TO BEAVER: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON is coming to DVD on November 22nd.
Need more news? To see the rest of this week's news stories, read our standard edition, or search our archives.
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