Check out all our lists for BuddyTV‘s Top 7 of ‘07 to relive the best and the worst of the year in television.How did FOX‘s On the Lot go so horribly wrong? I love the behind-the-scenes struggles inherent in the filmmaking process, and when you throw a bunch of crazy directors into a reality show produced by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett, you should have television gold. Instead we got this boring, uninspired, seemingly endless reality series that left me longing for the glory days of

On the Lot felt like a slam dunk prior to its premiere.  The concept (competitive reality show for up and coming filmmakers) was rock solid.  The creative team behind the show (Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg, along with Carrie Fischer and Garry Marshall) was more than formidable.  When it was announced that FOX was producing

FOX is so damn shameless, it hurts sometimes.  Tonight, we got an hour of On the Lot that contained only three seconds of footage that anyone really cares about: who won the whole thing.  There were no new films to be screened.  So, then, what did FOX fill up the hour with?  Montages and recaps.  It was reported that Steven Spielberg would be appearing tonight‘s finale and, while technically true, he didn‘t make an in-studio appearance as I assumed he would.  He merely welcomed the winner to the Dreamworks lot at the end of the episode in a pre-taped bit.  Oh, yeah, that‘s another thing.  Tonight‘s episode wasn‘t live.  First clue: it was dark outside and it‘s not dark in LA at 5PM.  Anyway, here‘s what went down.

All right.  This is it, everybody.  Steven Spielberg will be in the house tonight to preside over the final episode of On the Lot.  In fact, there‘s a better than likely chance that this will be the last

The finale for On The Lot begins with the elimination of one contestant, bringing us down to three potential auteurs.   The selection is

The best film of the night was a 30-second Mountain Dew commercial featuring a killer ferret brandishing a chainsaw.  Now, you may think such a statement is a slam against the remaining

Tonight‘s On the Lot was a bad night for the ladies.  As viewers know, two of the five filmmakers who screened their films last week would be sent home, just like two of the five filmmakers who screened their films tonight will be going home next week.  Adrianna Costa, in a pre-taped bit from earlier in the week, shows up to give the bad news: Hilary Graham and Shalini Kantayya received the fewest votes from America and have therefore been eliminated.  Those were probably the right choices, although I do think Shalini has potential as a filmmaker.

“When two worlds collide...”That is the premise of the five films that were screened on tonight‘s episode of On the Lot.  Before we get to the films, however, Adrianna sends us straight to the taped footage of this week‘s elimination.  Based on last week, I thought

Tonight on On the Lot, six filmmakers showed us horror films that they made over the last week.  This might sound pretty good in theory, but let‘s take a moment to think about it for a second.  A two-minute horror film?  Can that even work?  Isn‘t the horror genre based on audience anticipation?  Does two minutes allow the filmmakers enough set-up to make something truly scary?  I would venture to guess no, and the filmmakers tonight seem to back me up on this.  None of the films were particularly scary and everyone had a difficult time with the genre.  

That was better.  After last week‘s more or less craptastic batch of films, this week‘s crop of On the Lot films was significantly improved, although not as much as the judges would like you to believe.  There is such a discrepancy between the upper-echelon of talent and the lower on the show that it‘s unnerving.