Your look into what’s new at
The Grapefruit Network

May 2024

It’s good to have you all back - let’s take a swing around The Network and tell ya what’s new!

Jump around to the stuff you want

• Story Behind the New Logo

  • So some of you might have seen the new and improve …

• Calm Down Cody

  • It has been a year. Make “Star Trek: Legacy” you c …

• What’s new at TGN?

  • D&L

  • Big Red Button

  • Potter Plus

Story Behind the New Logo

So some of you might have seen the new and improved TGN logo!!

Made by our very-own, very talented William Murphy! 👏

But let’s get the story behind it.

AI “artwork” is a fickle mistress. She can be inspiring, she can help those with no artistic ability create the foundations of something decent.

Take my attempt here:

Things working in this attempt’s advantage:
• It is a grapefruit
• It is slightly radio tower-y
• It does convey the combination of radio networks and grapefruit

Things working AGAINST this attempt:
• It is AI generated (yuck)
And, most unfortunately,
• It looks a lot like a butthole…

Now, as a self-proclaimed AI-Artisté, I couldn’t see that at first glance…
I was BLINDED by the magnificent creation that Google Gemini had provided me.

But everyone else could see this unfortunate trypophobic-nightmare 🤣

But fret not, with a TRUE graphic designer in our midst, some ideas started popping up in the wake of this idea!

First concept was a Cup Head/Rubber Hose/Max Fleischer cartoon inspired cartoon grapefruit.

Now, while fun as a mascot, that’s not necessarily the best move for a logo. Which we learned almost instantaneously, as the soulless eyes of Gus peered into our deepest being…

So this rendition of “Gus the Grapefruit” was D.O.A.

Another attempt was a decent stop-gap (and might inspire other creations) but he also was not long for this world.

So we were quite literally back to the drawing board.

Next up was an attempt at a “Corporate, Software-as-a-Service Startup” rendition of a logo.

Now, while this logo was moving in the right direction, it really didn’t encapsulate the whimsy or fun of who we are as a team. Nor did it give off the aspirational growth goals we really have as a network.

Which brought us full circle back to the butthole.

Ok, not really.
But the idea behind “tower + radio waves + grapefruit” was coming back.

Except, this was too sterile. Almost even pizza-ish.

We all know the expression: “Those who cannot ‘do’, ‘teach.’”
Thus, I (Alex) began the teaching of a lifetime.

William scribbled down these (surprisingly-somewhat-valid) notes betwixt the incredibly detailed ways he imagined killing me.

[Side note: Between the sarcasm here, this is what I love about the four of us goobers (yes, I’m continuing to self-title us the “goobers” and there’s nothing the other three can do about it.)

The brainstorming, the creativity, the division of skillsets, the ownership and empowerment we each feel. That’s friendship. That’s iron sharpening iron right there.

Am I a good artist? No, but I have an eye for it. Is William an incredible artist? Absolutely! But would he also tell you he gets bogged down in designing things for himself? Yes again. So being able to bounce ideas off each other in a constructive manner is so validating, and I’m proud to call them my friends.]

Side tangent over. Back to the butthole. (No, not “Alex”, you jerk…)

We’d solved the problem of the grapefruit looking too anatomical, but now we’d overcorrected into lifeless territory. With those quick (were they that quick, William?) tweaks, it was pretty clear we had the makings of a winner on our hands, and it was shaping up nicely.

So let me present the finished, glorious TGN logo suite.

WHOOOO-WEEE MOMMA - did William knock this out of the duck-quackin’ park or WHAT?!

Oh man, but then watch how he takes these same design elements and created our secondary logo and word-marks 👀

Brilliant. Brilliant.

William. I mean, c’mon dude. 👏👏👏👏👏

So that’s how I accidentally created a butthole using AI, and it became our logo.
(that should be the clickbait title for this newsletter!)

E. Pluribus Anus.

-Alex

Calm Down Cody

“Calm Down Cody” is Cody’s monthly Blog (which you can find on our website as well!)

_{Editor’s Note: There is extreme irony in this being the topic Cody chose to write about and be published on “May The Fourth [be With You]” but hey, that’s Cody for you. Live Long and Prosper!}

It has been a year. Make “Star Trek: Legacy” you cowards.

I have not been as thrilled with any Geek-Based Franchise as I was with “Picard" Season 3 since Luke Skywalker went down that hallway in “The Mandalorian.” It is hard to believe that it has already been a year since the Cast of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” went on one last ride, but I recently rewatched the finale, and dang…

It still holds up.

We live in the age of Franchise Storytelling.
So many of the financial underpinnings of TV and film have been under attack thanks to the streaming revolution, and traditional studios are increasingly reluctant to greenlight any projects that do not have a built-in audience. It is why two of the tentpoles of Disney+ are Marvel and Star Wars. Max is recommitting to the Harry Potter Franchise. Paramount has put effort into the Star Trek Franchise, and "the Kevin Costner is an Angry Cowboy TV Universe" (Yellowstone, if you do not get the joke).

Look, as much as we complain that it degrades the art of cinema and TV.... at the end of the day, these companies are businesses. They are there to make money, and if something works, then why not? I think too many people forget the hard reality that those who steward our favorite stories have a fiduciary duty to make a profit first and foremost. It is not “bad” or “good”; it just “is.”

With that comes dangers. A danger that Star Trek was one of the first to learn back in 2005: Franchise fatigue.

When you play in the same sandbox for so long, you start churning material for contractual obligation, not for the passion that initially animated the creators. Trek first experienced that at the tail end of “Voyager” and certainly through “Enterprise.” We are seeing that again and again in the industry. Star Wars seems to be sputtering; Marvel is directionless; Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts fizzled out when the magic chicken-deer bowed before Dumbledore (more on that on Potter+).

When Trek came back in 2009 with the JJ Abrams films and then to TV with “Star Trek: Discovery,” they were met with mixed results among the fandom. 2009's Star Trek was basically JJ's Demo Tape for “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens,” and all the Trekkies saw right through that. (I loved it for that reason, but I am a “Wars” guy above all). Generally well received with mass audiences, panned by the hardcore fans.

2017 gave us the return of Star Trek to the small screen with “Discovery,” and well... there is a reason my first post was geared towards encouraging you to avoid social media. Regardless of what you think about “Discovery,” that cast does not deserve the abuse they receive online. I got back into Star Trek with “Picard” Season 1 and kept with it through Season 2 because I love seeing Patrick Stewart do his thing. But my throughline with those seasons is this: they were great movies unnecessarily stretched to ten episodes. Star Trek had only been back for 3-4 years by then, and even then, they felt rudderless.

It was not until Anson Mount captained a Pre-Kirk Enterprise armed with a winning smile and amazing hair that the Paramount+ era of Star Trek started to "feel" like Star Trek. Watching “Strange New Worlds,” I started to understand what was missing from this new era of Star Trek.

It had been decades since we had seen Trek do some trekking in a way that actually moved the story forward.

So long that the original recipe, if you will, feels fresh.

Since “The Next Generation” went off the air in 1994, we had “Deep Space Nine,” which is notable because it DID NOT do trekking. “Voyager” was Star Trek, where instead of boldly going out, they were boldly going home. “Enterprise” was a prequel that unfortunately suffered the curse of prequel writing (see Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Hobbit for further examples).

“Picard” Seasons 1 and 2 was notable because it was the first Star Trek story since 2002 that moved the timeline forward. But it was an experimental story where they were NOT trying to make “TNG” Season 8; frankly... did not work. There was good stuff to be had (the death of Q 😭😭😭😭😭😭), but it was frankly a muddled mess that a lot of these streaming shows fall victim to. Season 3 has been accused of being fanservice. 

Sure, but as a fan... I did not care 🤷🏻‍♂️

Seeing the Enterprise D again, the crew around a conference room, the gorgeous theme from Jerry Goldsmith, and seeing that old crew go on one last ride together after being denied the proper send-off in Star Trek Nemesis was exquisite.

[This might be another post in the making, but Season 3 did what Star Wars episodes 7-9 should have done. It no longer tried to "deconstruct" the heroes; it let them be heroes one last time and pass the baton to the "NEXT Next Generation." What deconstruction there was (cough Crusher cough) was successfully rebuilt because when that crew is together, they become the best versions of themselves.]

How Star Trek Picard ended, with the son of Picard boarding the Enterprise-G ready to go boldly like his father before him, is the PERFECT way to move the Star Trek story forward.

For those of you who do not know, “Star Trek: Legacy” is the proposed spin-off of Picard that would follow many of the children of the TNG crew (as well as new characters) under Captain "Seven of Nine" from Star Trek Voyager on the USS Enterprise-G. Terry Matalas - Picard's showrunner - ended “Picard” Season 3 by begging Paramount to let them make it.

It gives us the tentpole Enterprise story - Star Trek's bread and butter - which has not been seen since 1994.

It is looking forward instead of looking backward, like Strange New Worlds, while still paying respect to the past.

If Star Trek is going to survive, it needs to move forward with the timeline instead of trying to fill in unnecessary gaps. “Strange New Worlds” only has a limited runway. Eventually, we have to get to the original series timeline. “Legacy” is the most obvious story to tell in the streaming era of Star Trek, which has all of it at our fingertips. The fact that it was not greenlit the day “Picard” Season 3 ended is absurd.

With “Legacy,” the universe is open to us once more, and I think it is time to boldly go where no one has gone before once more.

-Cody, calmer.

What’s new at TGN?

D&L

Since our last issue we played two great bar games. William introduced the gang to “What’s That Sound?” [Episode 108] which was HILARIOUS. We will definitely need to bring that back soon! And “Don’t Get Me Started!” [Episode 109] made its triumphant return as Cody and Dallas squared off on sales and medical topics to amazing results. They’ll have you rethinking classic children’s poems from here on out.

Step on into The Pub and listen in!

Big Red Button

Ok, so you’re caught up now. Jake, Gotfree, and Houston have gotten themselves into quite the pickle. North, South, East, or West - didn’t matter which way they went. The cannibals were hot on their trail, and they looked like a tasty snack (well, some of The Stragglers did…)

Episode 6 left us on a cliffhanger, Episode 7 brought us a bit of catharsis, but we also introduced new “Pressing The Button” episodes that cover the events of the Fallout TV Show on Amazon Prime! So if you want to hear our thoughts on the show too, we’ve got you covered in addition to the action!

Catch up on the journey so far!

Potter Plus

Potter Plus Episode Two dropped this month! William & Cody chat Legacy Actors from the original Potter Franchise, and fan-cast them into new roles for the upcoming HBO show! You won’t want to miss this one.

Get in on the magic here!