Category: News

Channel Awesome: Epilogue

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I haven’t really written anything about the whole Channel Awesome debacle (post 1, post 2, post 3) since the most recent revelations. I guess that was kind of because I was so “burnt out” on the subject. This was one of the biggest “fandom scandals” I had seen in quite some time, with an enormous amount of vlogs covering the subject in every excruciating detail.

But lately a rumor started that Channel Awesome figurehead, and star of The Nostalgia Critic, Doug Walker had quietly left the site. According to the story, Doug’s brother Rob accompanied him, and they “lawyered up” to eventually take the Nostalgia Critic IP back from CEO Mike Michaud.

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The Channel Awesome Controversy Intensifies Even More

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“I tried to think of the most harmless thing. Something I loved from my childhood. Something that could never ever possibly destroy us.”
–Ray Stanz, “Ghostbusters”

I really have been putting off writing this post because just contemplating all this makes me really fucking mad. And it’s as triggering as FUCK and it makes me wish I never went down this rabbit hole, much less ever heard of any of the entities involved. It’s dredged up shit for me personally regarding a different fandom/industry—comics—and I’ve just had to process a lot of shit the last couple weeks.

But I felt like I couldn’t “end” the coverage of the Channel Awesome implosion without at least briefly (and fuck it, it won’t be briefly; how could it?) addressing this topic.

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Lucasfilm Digitally Scans All Their Actors’ Faces So They Can Live Forever

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“Carrie Fisher” in Rogue One

Haha, I’m just joking of course.

No, Star Wars: The Last Jedi VFX supervisor Ben Morris recently explained to Inverse how Lucasfilm does a digital scan on ALL actors in their movies…you know, “just in case”:

“We will always [digitally] scan all the lead actors in the film…We don’t know if we’re going to need them. We don’t intentionally scan them as an archive process. It’s for reference later.”

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The Channel Awesome Dumpster Fire Continues

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So like less than like a week ago, there was a big controversy about the critic aggregation site/YouTube channel Channel Awesome…a bunch of ex-contributors/employees listing grievances against the channel/site in a 70+ page Google document that was passed around the Internet. Channel Awesome had initially posted a “non-apology” that seemed to upset people even more…and apparently yesterday night they published a longer “statement” which is like…bananas.

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My Expanded Thoughts On The Channel Awesome Controversy

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OK, I’ve had a couple of days to absorb the full brouhaha surrounding the “Not So Awesome” document—a nearly 70-page whistleblowing document on the business practices of Channel Awesome penned by around 20 of their former contributors & employees—and I just want to get down a few final thoughts on the matter before I stick a pin in this and move on to other schadenfreudey stuff.

For those who don’t know, Channel Awesome is a website and YouTube channel that hosts/features a number of video review critics—of whom, Nostalgia Critic (Doug Walker) is the most prominent. Originally seen as a sort of collective, it has been plagued with a number of contributor exoduses (exodi, if you will) over the years, and rumblings of various alleged malfeasances.

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YouTube’s Channel Awesome Rocked By “Not So Awesome” Document

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The Nostalgia Critic

Good Lord! The Geekosphere is like in this constant state of drama. As soon as one drama ebbs, another flows in. (I have a theory about why this is all especially happening now, which I will espouse in time).

I’ve been following the movie review show Nostalgia Critic—hosted by Doug Walker—since 2014 (it’s been around for about a decade now). It is the “anchor” series for a whole channel of related shows on YouTube, called Channel Awesome. Over the years, a number of really interesting pop-culture review shows have been hosted/featured on Channel Awesome—and the different reviewers formed a vibrant community. Everyone even collaborated in “all-star” movies celebrating the anniversary of the channel.

It was, as they say, one big happy family.

Only, according to this 69-page Google document written by 20 (twenty) ex-contributors & employees of Channel Awesome—called, “Not So Awesome”—it was not one big happy family.

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