TV Tuesday S01E01: Series Playlists

KIDS! Don't try this at home.

Welcome to yet another new feature here at HERC's Hideaway! This one's called TV Tuesday because it 1) is about all aspects of television shows past, present & future and b) it will be published on Tuesdays for the foreseeable future although "TV Thursday" has a nice ring to it and might be initiated if those other TV Tuesday bloggers (like the one HERC borrowed the image above from) make a stink about it. (For those of you hoping it was that other TV, sorry to disappoint you.) We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming, already in progress...

Is there anything sadder than an unemployed doctor?

...And in conclusion, that's why HERC will never EVER watch Grey's Anatomy unless they bring on Dr. Rizzo (above) from Animal Practice or Dr. John Dorian from Scrubs or Dr. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce from Crabapple Cove M*A*S*H as a regular cast member.  Network execs take heed - the main house here at The Hideaway is a Nielsen home, statistically representing a few hundred thousand viewers in your most desired and targeted demographic.

Not the site's official logo but you get the gist.

Other than the acting, the writing, the locations, the craft table, the comedy and the drama, HERC watches TV shows for the music.  There are even shows like Glee, Smash, Hart Of Dixie, Nashville and Sons Of Anarchy that HERC doesn't even watch anymore but he listens to the music.  Why?  How?

Via the following convoluted completely unnecessary complicated process:

• Mrs. HERC watches all of those shows via DVR or On Demand.  When a song comes on, she alerts HERC via carrier pigeon at which point HERC's super-hearing is engaged and he actively listens in an effort to identify the song which usually fails so
• HERC pets activates SoundHound on his iPhone and the app does the song identifying or if that doesn't work
• HERC enlists the assistance of  the world's largest collection of obsessive TV watchers, the denizens of the interwebtubes, particularly those music-minded minions over at Tune Find, who go to even more perilous lengths (like checking a shows official website!) to find out who sang that 15 seconds of music that was playing on the jukebox in that one scene at the diner.  Another clever tactic of Tune Find sleuths is to ask an already asked and answered question.

Then, once all the songs have been identified they are collated, stapled and assimilated into show specific Spotify playlists.  HERC leaves the Glee and Sons Of Anarchy playlists in more dedicated hands but he maintains wildly insanely somewhat almost popular playlists for these shows:

While HERC has not written a post about this recently cancelled show, he enjoys the occasional song - the cover of Blondie's "Call Me" from the very first episode remains a favorite - and created this playlist so Mrs. HERC could have all the songs in one place.  Giving credit where credit is due, the music supervisors are Jen Ross and Jojo Villanueva.

Unlike the rest of the TV themed playlists he curates, HERC opted not to be all inclusive with Hart Of Dixie but rather only feature the songs that sound good together.  To read HERC's post on the music featured on Hart Of Dixie go <<HERE>>.

Unlike other Nashville playlists you'll find on Spotify, HERC includes most of the songs heard in the series rather than just those performed by the cast.  For more on the music of Nashville, you can read HERC's post <<HERE>>.

By far the most followed Spotify playlist HERC curates is The Carrie Diaries.  He wrote about it <<HERE>> and since then more than a few Eighties music-lovers have followed it but there's always room for more.

So ends season one, episode one.  Hit HERC up in the comments with your thoughts and suggestions and join us here next week for another TV Tuesday.