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Apple Wants to Produce Comedies and Dramas That Are Viewer Friendly Enough for Apple Stores

Wednesday October 25, 2017 9:29 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's reported $1 billion push into original content will include comedies and emotional dramas with broad appeal, according to Bloomberg.


The report claims Apple wants every show it produces to be suitable enough for an Apple Store, as opposed to content with nudity, raw language, and violence. Hollywood producers that have pitched edgier content, such as an eight-part series produced by filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, have allegedly been turned away.

Apple wants to have a small slate of shows ready for release in 2019, a timeframe previously reported. Unlike Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke: The Series, however, its new shows will supposedly no longer be placed on Apple Music, which in turn will be limited to music-related videos and documentaries.

Carpool Karaoke itself was supposed to launch in April, but its debut was delayed until August due to some coarse content.
Days before Apple Inc. planned to celebrate the release of its first TV show last spring at a Hollywood hotel, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook told his deputies the fun had to wait. Foul language and references to vaginal hygiene had to be cut from some episodes of Carpool Karaoke, a show featuring celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba, Blake Shelton, and Chelsea Handler cracking jokes while driving around Los Angeles.

While the delay of Carpool Karaoke was widely reported last April, the reasons never were. Edits were made, additional episodes were shot, and Apple shifted resources to another show. When Carpool Karaoke was released in August, it didn’t make much of a splash.
Apple has aggressively hired as it pushes into the content arena. In June, the company hired Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, two Sony Pictures Television executives, to lead its video programming efforts. Apple has also hired Matt Cherniss, Morgan Wandell, Jay Hunt, and several other industry executives.

Tags: bloomberg.com, Apple's Hollywood ambitions
[ 166 comments ]


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DTphonehome
9 months ago
Oh good, everyone loves bland, inoffensive shows.
Rating: 22 Votes
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nwcs
9 months ago
Well, I’m glad they realize all “original content” doesn’t have to be explicit TV-MA all the time. Besides, family friendly always outsells the rest when done well.
Rating: 18 Votes
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Crosscreek
9 months ago
Apple Disney
Rating: 14 Votes
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ouimetnick
9 months ago
Basically the movies have to be suitable for people using the Apple Store as their safe space?
Rating: 13 Votes
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goobot
9 months ago
This will make Apple the dominate force in the 5-10 year old demographic for sure. Genius move.
Rating: 10 Votes
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JRobinsonJr
9 months ago

Well, I’m glad they realize all “original content” doesn’t have to be explicit TV-MA all the time. Besides, family friendly always outsells the rest when done well.


Agreed!

While I understand both sides of this debate, the world has many production companies making content that is not kid/family friendly. Not sure I agree with the "we're ONLY going to produce..." mindset, but am fully supportive of the "we're also going to produce..." approach. The world needs less violence, bad language, nudity, etc. and more stories of character, morals and family values.
Rating: 8 Votes
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redking31591
9 months ago
Doesn't bug me. Too many shows have started using violence, sex, and nudity purely because they can. Think of how many episodes of Game of Thrones have characters delivering exposition with sex in the back ground or while having sex, purely because they could. It adds almost nothing to the actual show aside from saying it's there.

Having to work around nudity, sex, and gore has resulted in loads of endlessly creative solutions that have for now been abandoned on TV just because they can.
Rating: 7 Votes
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jdillings
9 months ago
This is why it will be a flop. People want stuff like Game of Thrones.
Rating: 6 Votes
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nutriousmitten
9 months ago
Coarse content on the carpool show that delayed it months? Saying "****" couldn't be edited out?

Apple is pretty cognizant of trying to be the most sensitive and PC company in the world, so it doesn't suprise me that any shows they produce will be sanitized down to ridiculous levels, making sure no one may be offended in the slightest by any of the content.

So why bother producing stuff like Disney and any number of outlets do? Money sure, but really, ego, that's why. Cue and other Apple higher ups have unlimited cash and want to rub shoulders with Hollywood actors and execs at parties, and this is the way in.
Rating: 6 Votes
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jettredmont
9 months ago
Ugh. Hopefully this is only a "let's make sure the introduction of Apple TV Studios is not a T&A show" and after they make their introduction they branch out into more interesting content.

IMHO, Netflix does a great job with this. Yes, it includes shows with nudity, with coarse language, with violence. But generally all of those go towards advancing the plot (not that gratuitous all-of-the-above hurt Game of Thrones at all for HBO). And there are a LOT of Netflix shows which I would absolutely feel comfortable with our pre-teens watching and are yet entertaining for the young adults as well as us old-fogie parents.

Apple needs to decide if the TV studio is there to reflect their "brand", or if it is there to make good content. By and large, good content has to have conflict, and like it or not when there is conflict happening people tend to, for example, curse. As a result, I don't think Apple can be successful at both, so it need to decide which it wants. I for one am far less interested in a vanity-project TV studio.
Rating: 5 Votes

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