Moving violation?

You might have seen this on the side of taxis driving around the city: a new logo. While the pattern on the side of the trunk is a nice nod to checkered cabs of the past, you have to wonder what's going on with that type. (What's a t-axi? What's with the superbold heavy treatment on the NYC?) Admittedly, what used to be on the doors was a mishmash of stencils and decals. But you can't help but wonder if a really, really great opportunity was squandered. Just imagine the t-shirt sales. Even the old logo for the TV show Taxi had some style.

Designing with multiple partners is never easy. Like they say, a camel is a horse designed by committee. The boldfaced NYC logo comes from Wolff Olins, the firm that also designed the symbol for London's 2012 Olympic games. Smart Design led a team that included Antenna Design and Birsel + Seck to create the decals for the Taxi & Limousine Commission. To be fair, the project also included some changes inside the cab. Still one can't help but wonder what the logo would have looked like if Pentagram or Milton Glaser had gotten their hands on it. Unbeige weighs in with some criticism here.

And if you recently noticed some flowers on the tops of taxis, they're part of a projects called "Gardens in Transit" which runs through December. Kids from schools, youth programs and hospitals painted the stained-glass looking flowers on decals as a creative and/or therapeutic outlet.

Mr. Murdoch, tear down this wall.

Will Rupert Murdoch remove the subscription firewall in front of most of the stories on the Wall Street Journal’s site? At a Goldman Sachs conference last week, the mogul explained that "it's certainly on the front burner to decide what to do there." Last year wsj.com pulled in about $50 million in subscriptions.

No decision has been made but a free site "looks like the way we are going," Murdoch said. "Would you lose $50 million in revenue? I don't think so…But you'd lose some tens of millions to start with. Then, if the site is good, I think you'd get much more than that back just in textual search. And I think you'd get not one million paying customers, but, around the world, you'd get 10 to 15 million regular daily hits on it, and that would be the most affluent, the most influential people in the world...And I think that could grow."

Just last week The New York Times dropped its TimesSelect subscription service for some of its online content. The feature produced less revenue than wsj.com, pulling in about $10 million annually, although The Times said that number met its expectations.














“What wasn’t anticipated was the explosion in how much of our traffic would be generated by Google, by Yahoo and some others,” said Vivian L. Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of nytimes.com. According to an article in the paper, “These indirect readers, unable to get access to articles behind the pay wall and less likely to pay subscription fees than the more loyal direct users, were seen as opportunities for more page views and increased advertising revenue.” Get the story from Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and CNN. (Graphic courtesy of wsj.com.)

The Emmys on Fox

Lost amid all the hullabaloo about the expletives and clumsy, censoring cutaways on Sunday’s Emmy telecast was Stewie & Brian’s salute to TV. And by salute, they mean a song about the “wide selection of trash” on the tube today.

Not surprisingly, Fox made it through unscathed. The section about that network was limited to a few lines about Sanjaya’s performance on American Idol. The other networks got a poke in the eye. Here’s the rundown of insults.

NBC
Scrubs “reminds us that a sitcom doesn’t have to make you laugh.”
“So I hear they’re bringing Seinfeld back to save a little face…And I hear Isaiah Washington is taking Kramer’s place.”

ABC
“They’re always brewing up some brand-new primetime swill…like the Geico cavemen.”
“…With its hits like Desperate Housewives continuing to thrive…And those women look sensational for being 65.”

CBS
“Today they’ve got some shows that are remarkably obscene. Like the show about the little boy who lives with Charlie Sheen.”

Probably the best bit of the song was for HBO. “The Sopranos is a show I’d recommend. Because you never know just how it’s gonna…” Then the audio drops out and they cut to black. Even James Gandolfini laughed at that one.

Interestingly, the song – with different lyrics – appeared on the Family Guy as a rant against the FCC. The same party that made Fox so jittery about all those four-letter words.

And what a nice surprise it was when 30 Rock won for best comedy. Finally, a decent speech from someone. Thank you, Tina Fey.

Pushing Daisies

If you like TV, the new fall season is always a bit like Christmas morning. There are things you’ve been counting down the days for. And things that are just taking up space under the tree like gift-wrapped socks and underwear. Here’s to the new ABC/Warner Bros. show Pushing Daisies being a big, red, shiny new Schwinn.

This past Saturday, the New York Television Festival had a special sneak preview of the show, followed by even more special Q&A with the show’s creator/executive producer Bryan Fuller, director/executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld and one of the leads, Lee Pace. Fuller, who wrote for Heroes last year, explained that the idea came from a story arc he’d considered on another show he’d created: Dead Like Me.

The show delivers so well on so many levels. It’s part fairy tale, part science fiction, part romantic comedy, part criminal procedural. Sonnenfeld and his DP have dialed up the colors to a candy-coated goodness for a story that’s actually quite dark. And he has the cast move through Fuller's smart dialogue at a good clip (like a screwball comedy from the 30's.)

The pilot covers a lot of ground and sets up a unique framework exceptionally well. And Jim Dale – yes, he of the Harry Potter audiobooks – has a great turn as the show’s narrator. Ellen Greene – yes, she of the original Little Shop of Horrors – plays one half of the retired synchronized swimming act, the Darling Sisters. Swoosie Kurtz is the other half. Anna Friel & Lee Pace actually have chemistry. And much of it takes place in a bakery/café that's the shape of a pie. If all of this keeps this up, it looks like every Wednesday at 8 will be like a very good Christmas present. Like a Snoopy Snow Cone Machine.

Pushing Daisies makes its broadcast debut on ABC October 3. Watch it. TiVO it. DVR it.