View Full Version : Hot Off The Press! The Latest Television News and Info
John Spencer
By Rich Heldenfels Akron Beacon Journal TV blog
Word reached me a little while ago that John Spencer of ''The West Wing'' has died. It's quite a blow. You can see my admiration of his work and his character in my recent ''Journey of Leo McGarry'' post.
(Note: See post #7778 above.)
I also had a chance to talk to John several times over the years, and not just about ''The West Wing,'' and he was one of the nicest guys in the world.
At the moment, I don't know what ''West Wing'' will do without Leo, and I pretty much don't care. Instead, I'm saddened by the loss of such a terrific actor, and glad I had the chance to know him a little.
http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/west_wing/index.html
TV Review
'Once Upon a Mattress'
The Affable Princess Is Back as Queen
By Alessandra Stanley The New York Times
Remakes are usually the coal in the stocking of Christmas television. For every classic like "Miracle on 34th Street," there is a grotesque adaptation that is irresistibly awful. It used to be that nothing could top "It Happened One Christmas," a 1977 remake of Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life," with Marlo Thomas in Jimmy Stewart's role. That was until Tori Spelling played a cold-hearted talk show diva in a 2003 twist on the Scrooge story called "A Carol Christmas."
"Once Upon a Mattress," starring Tracey Ullman as Princess Winnifred on ABC Sunday night (7 PM ET/PT), is the exception. It is just as delightful as the original 1964 television musical that starred Carol Burnett, and maybe even a little more so. This version, after all, offers both Ms. Ullman, a comedian ideally suited to the role that made Ms. Burnett a star, and Ms. Burnett herself as the scheming, son-smothering Queen Aggravain. In towering, bejeweled headdresses, vampy gowns and fake eyelashes that flutter like semaphores, she plays the part the way she once lampooned Norma Desmond and Scarlett O'Hara - hilariously.
And there is probably only one actress who could hold her own against all those smoldering head turns, crossed-eye glares and sudden bursts of basso profundo (Ms. Burnett drops her voice lower than Barry White's to hiss, "You didn't sleep?!!?"). Ms. Ullman, who revived the Carol Burnett-style comedy sketch show in 1987 with "The Tracey Ullman Show" on Fox, is wonderful the minute she climbs out of the moat, wet, brawny and beaming, and belts out, "I'm shy."
The music was composed by Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Richard Rodgers, and the show had its debut in 1959 at a small theater with Ms. Burnett in the lead and went on to a successful run on Broadway. Sarah Jessica Parker played Princess Winnifred in a 1996 revival, but Ms. Ullman would have been a better choice even then: Ms. Parker's looks are too delicate; Ms. Ullman can morph into any form, including that of a princess who can lift more weight than her prince, outwrestle him, and also dance him to death and drink him under the table.
The story is a fractured version of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea," about a queen who tests the blood lines of a girl seeking to marry the prince by putting a pea under her mattresses, figuring that a true princess would be too delicate and sensitive to sleep soundly. In the musical version, the jealous Queen prevents her love-starved son from marrying by putting prospective brides to insurmountable tests, and since in her kingdom there is a strict marriage law ("throughout the land/ no one may wed/ until Dauntless shares his marriage bed"), the entire court is waiting for Princess Right to come along. Queen Aggravain keeps all candidates at bay. "Blood will tell," she trillingly informs one reject. "And yours didn't tell us quite enough."
Ms. Burnett memorably starred in the 1964 television version, which she remade in color in 1972, with Ken Berry as the Oedipally-challenged Prince Dauntless. (Jane White, an African-American actress, played Queen Aggravain on the stage and in both television versions.) This time, Denis O'Hare plays Dauntless, and he is as dim and easily led as Steve Carell in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." Tom Smothers plays the mute, browbeaten King Sextimus, and that was an inspired choice: he brings a woeful sweetness to an otherwise small role. As Lady Larken, Zooey Deschanel is no Bernadette Peters, who almost - but not quite - stole the 1972 show away from Ms. Burnett. But she is lovely and surprisingly funny as the ingénue who is determined to see the prince wed so she can hurry up and marry the knight who knocked her up.
Musicals staged for television do not always live up to memory or legend. Last December, PBS showed for the first time in 47 years the original 1957 CBS broadcast of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella," starring a very young Julie Andrews. However interesting it might have been to musical-comedy buffs, the black-and-white production, a film of a live performance, was surprisingly, disappointingly slow and static.
It could be tough to coax today's young viewers to sit still and watch the black-and-white 1964 version of "Once Upon a Mattress," or even the 1972 one. The remake has everything that those earlier versions had and something more: Tracey Ullman and Carol Burnett together and at each other's throats.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/arts/television/16matt.html?pagewanted=print
The New York Times Obituary
John Spencer, 58, TV Actor Starring on 'The West Wing,' Dies
By Jennifer 8. Lee The New York Times December 17, 2005
John Spencer, the Emmy Award-winning actor who played the shrewd, craggy White House chief of staff on the NBC drama "The West Wing," died yesterday morning in Los Angeles, four days before his 59th birthday.
He had a heart attack Thursday night and was taken to Olympia Medical Center, where he was declared dead shortly after 10 a.m. yesterday, said Ron Hofmann, his publicist.
In an eerie parallel to life, his character on "The West Wing," Leo McGarry, suffered a heart attack last season that forced him to give up his job as chief of staff to President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen. McGarry recovered and, in the season finale, became the running mate of Matt Santos, the Democratic presidential nominee, played by Jimmy Smits. The campaign is a critical plotline for the show, which is in the middle of production for its seventh season. Mr. Spencer had received Emmy nominations for his role every year from 1999 to 2004, winning as a best supporting actor in 2002.
He made his breakthrough in the 1990 film "Presumed Innocent," playing the role of Detective Dan Lipranzer alongside Harrison Ford. "His name, all of a sudden, became at the tip of everyone's tongue," Mr. Hofmann said. Mr. Spencer then solidified his reputation as a character actor, playing a stream of lawyers and government officials, including the fiery New York transplant Tommy Mullaney on "L.A. Law."
By the late 1990's, Mr. Spencer had so deeply ensconced himself as a sharp-witted public servant that he was cited as a model for the chief of staff on "The West Wing." Aaron Sorkin, creator of the series, recalled last night: "I said to the casting director, 'We need someone like John Spencer.' And the casting director said, 'What about John Spencer?' And I said, 'We will never get John Spencer.' " But Mr. Spencer said yes.
Mr. Spencer was born on Dec. 20, 1946, in New York City to John and Mildred Speshock, a truck driver and a waitress, and grew up in Totowa, N.J. He saw acting as an escape from his lower-middle-class upbringing. At 16 he left home to attend the Professional Children's School in New York City, landing his first television role as Henry Anderson on "The Patty Duke Show." After high school, he attended Fairleigh Dickinson University but left without graduating.
In his early career, roles were scarce, and Mr. Spencer worked as a waiter to support himself in understudy and regional theater roles in the 1970's. "People don't know what to do with a character actor who is 20," he said in an interview with TV Guide in 2000.
In 1981 he won an Obie Award for his role as Mark in John Byrne's Off Broadway play "Still Life." He remained committed to live theater, appearing most recently as Martin Glimmer, a worn-out trumpeter in "Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine," in Los Angeles and New York.
Mr. Spencer, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, took solace in his lifelong hobby, gardening. As a child, he earned a blue ribbon from the local 4-H club for tending peas and beans in his family's vegetable garden. At his Bel-Air home, he continued to grow roses, hollyhocks, lilacs and other species common to the Northeast rather than to Southern California. He still thought of himself as a New Yorker, keeping the rental apartment he had lived in while a struggling actor until last year, when he bought an apartment.
Mr. Spencer was married and divorced in the 1970's. There are no immediate survivors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/17/arts/television/17spencer.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1134803642-76nxlol/58bs/3gYYNwefQ&pagewanted=print
TV Review
This 'Mattress' Suits Carol Burnett to a Pea
By Tom Shales Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, December 17, 2005; C01
Lighthearted romps are an endangered species. It's a pity -- especially in such heavy-hearted times. We could use a little more whimsy in the world, and we'll get a little tomorrow night on ABC with "Once Upon a Mattress," (7 PM ET/PT), a new version of a very rompy Broadway musical that has the weight and density of marshmallow mush.
The real glories of the production can be summed up in two words: Carol Burnett. The great comedy star -- who officially reached national-treasure status by receiving Kennedy Center Honors and, this year, the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- appeared in two previous TV productions of the musical, which is loosely based on the classic fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea."
In 1964 and again in 1972, Burnett played the pea-plagued princess. Now, she takes on the role of the cranky, crackpot queen -- Queen Aggravain by name, and mistress of her domain. Queenie doesn't want her simpleton son, Prince Dauntless, to marry and leave home, so she makes sure that every prospective bride fails some preposterous test that the queen herself concocts.
Then comes Fred. Or Princess Winnifred, as she is known to all but her bosom buddies. Fred is so determined to bag the prince that she swims the castle moat and arrives at court a dripping, sopping mess. Inheriting the role from Ms. Burnett, Tracey Ullman is fairly funny and sings the comic-romantic songs with gusto, but you still might find yourself imagining the crazy things that Burnett must have done with the role.
Denis O'Hare is lovably clueless as the prince, who still dresses as if going off to his first day of school. In a less-than-riveting subplot, Zooey Deschanel and Matthew Morrison play Lady Larken and Sir Harry, who long to marry each other but are stymied by "the marriage law," which forbids anyone in the kingdom from getting hitched until the prince does.
One of the quirkier surprises is casting Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers act and veteran of the great TV censorship wars of the 1960s and '70s, as the king. The Smothers Brothers had a clever and innovative "comedy hour" Sunday nights on CBS, right after "The Ed Sullivan Show," but network censors kept up a steady stream of objections to material written for the show. CBS was pulling the same kind of nonsense that the FCC is pulling today, suggesting we have regressed, not progressed, in this area.
Seeing little Tommy Smothers playing a sweet old man is both evocative and jarring, since he was always the more juvenile member of the act. He didn't have to learn much dialogue for this, because the henpecked king was rendered mute years earlier when a witch threw a curse at him. Smothers is funny in the part, even without speaking; he's the epitome of pixilated charm.
Burnett is magnificent. All roads lead to her. She stands out physically as well as every other way because her costumes -- and only hers -- were designed by Bob Mackie, who worked with the star for years on "The Carol Burnett Show," a classic that is fondly remembered by those of us older than, uhhh, 30. Okay, 40. All right, 41.
Together, Mackie and Burnett scored such triumphs as the dress made from drapes -- with the curtain rods still in them -- in a parody of "Gone With the Wind." Burnett, as Scarlett: "I saw it in the window and I just couldn't resist it." Her comic instincts have not dulled, her brightness of spirit has not dimmed. She alone is reason enough to tune in.
How nice it would be if TV Land could get hold of all those old hour-long Burnett shows and air them weekly, just as CBS used to do. But Scrooge-y old TV Land aims itself more at Gen-X and younger viewers than at baby boomers. Poor old boomers! They're the first real TV generation, and now TV doesn't want them because they're in their fifties and sixties. Talk about ingratitude.
Burnett is resplendent, grand and funny -- a legend full of mischief and mayhem. Strangely, her name is not "above the title" in the opening credits. It should be. She turns a lighthearted romp into a warmhearted hoot.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/AR2005121601905_pf.html
TV Review
'Mattress' springs eternal
By David Bianculli New York Daily News TV Editor
* * * (out of 4)
WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY: ONCE UPON A MATTRESS. Sunday night at 7 ET/PT, ABC
I didn't realize how much I missed Carol Burnett on television until I watched a preview of this Sunday's ABC "Wonderful World of Disney" special.
She co-stars in a new production of the family musical "Once Upon a Mattress" - and watching Burnett, cavorting in cartoonish costumes created by Bob Mackie, is like watching "The Carol Burnett Show: The Next Generation."
Young viewers, tuning in to "Mattress" at 7 p.m., won't know what they've been missing. But those who remember spending Saturday nights with Burnett and company will find this a double treat.
(There was a time, boys and girls, when Saturday-night TV not only mattered, but was the place to find the very best and many of the most popular. On CBS in 1973, the Saturday lineup was "All in the Family," "M*A*S*H," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Bob Newhart Show" and "The Carol Burnett Show." Take that, Must-See TV.)
There's even more ancient history associated with this Burnett vehicle, by the way. "Once Upon a Mattress," a musical retelling of "The Princess and the Pea," premiered Off-Broadway in 1959, and moved to Broadway the following year, with Burnett starring as the irrepressible Princess Winnifred. She repeated the part in TV specials in 1964 and 1972; Sarah Jessica Parker inherited the role in a 1996 Broadway revival.
In Sunday's show, Burnett plays the role of Queen Aggravain, the palace matriarch who concocts impossible tests for any princess foolish enough to ask for the hand of the Queen's beloved, pampered and sheltered son, Prince Dauntless (Denis O'Hare).
The Queen's husband, King Sextimus (Tom Smothers), wants his son to break free from his wife's clutches, and he wants the same for himself, but he's been stricken speechless.
Into this dysfunctional royal family steps Winnifred - played, in this new version, by Tracey Ullman, quite arguably the best female sketch comic since Burnett herself. The two women don't have many scenes together, and must by design stick to one character apiece. Yet whether Burnett's queen is singing about her stifling love for her son, or Ullman's princess is singing about her love for her homeland swamp, their showbiz swagger is entirely infectious.
The music (by Mary Rodgers) and lyrics (by Marshall Barer, with one new song, a Burnett solo, written by Ken and Mitzie Welch) aren't terrific - but as fairy-tale musicals go, the spell is maintained throughout. Tony-winning choreographer Kathleen Marshall directs, and certainly makes the most of the dance sequences. To her credit, though, she gets even more out of her actors when they aren't dancing or singing.
O'Hare, who was so great in Broadway's "Assassins," is impish as the prince, and Smothers, as king, gets lots of quiet laughs before he finally finds his voice. Burnett finds ways to milk laughs out of every line or lyric, and Ullman, during her fitful night atop 20 down mattresses and a pea, has a restless sleep that ought to make every viewer laugh, regardless of age.
That doesn't even take into account Zooey Deschanel as Lady Larken, who has an urgent need for a timely marriage to Matthew Morrison's Sir Harry, or Edward Hibbert as the Wizard (and the Nightingale) and Michael Boatman as the helpful Jester. He's the fool in this version, but parents will be the fools if they don't gather the family around for this one.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/col/dbianculli/
Woodrow
12-17-05, 02:57 AM
Sorry to hear about Mr. Spencer
Interesting about Novak>>FOX.
I had a chance to deal with John Spencer a few times, and as good an actor as he was, he was even more an intelligent, thoughtful, classy gentleman.
It is sad.
A couple of additional notes to the earlier John Spencer obits.
(These are from The Associated Press story by Lynn Elber.)
"...Actress Allison Janney, C.J. Cregg on the series, described Spencer as a consummate professional actor. 'Everyone adored him,' she said.
NBC and producer Warner Bros. Television praised Spencer's talent but did not address how his death would affect the Emmy Award-winning series, in production on its seventh season...."
DoubleDAZ
12-17-05, 08:26 AM
I started watching West Wing because I liked Martin Sheen, irrespective of actual politics, but quickly realized that it was John Spenser who would keep me tuned in no matter what. I thought he was leaving the show when Leo had his medical difficulites, but was happy that wasn't the case. Last week's episode put Leo right back in the center of things and I look forward to the remaining episodes he will appear in. RIP John!
I was delighted with last week's episode, too, Dave, thinking the show might really be on to something in its story arc.
How sad.
jim tressler
12-17-05, 12:23 PM
fred, you have met a lot of cool people.. what do you do for a living that puts you in contact with tv folks
jim
I had a chance to deal with John Spencer a few times, and as good an actor as he was, he was even more an intelligent, thoughtful, classy gentleman.
It is sad.
Friday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest Prime Time Ratings news which is the second post in this thread.
CPanther95
12-17-05, 12:45 PM
fred, you have met a lot of cool people.. what do you do for a living that puts you in contact with tv folks
jim
He used to work for Heidi Fleiss out in Hollywood. He might not have been the best, but he was the cheapest and really enjoyed his work. :D
Critic’s Notebook
Fox makes strong showing on season's best, worst list
By Dusty Saunders (Denver) Rocky Mountain News December 17, 2005
I've made a list.
And I've checked it twice. I can't believe it. Fox is there more than thrice.
This gift-oriented jingle is an introduction to my semiannual report about the good and bad on entertainment television.
Each June and December, the industry trade publication Television Week asks the nation's critics for their likes and dislikes, with the December list geared to the fall season.
In recent polls, Fox programs have made my top-10 list with one or two series - maximum. This time Fox claims half the list. A television revolution?
My top 10 from the fall season
1. Bones (Fox): A surprise, since relatively few viewers have seen this freshman series about murder mysteries and forensic anthropology. The writing is crisp and the budding romantic relationship between Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz breezy and sophisticated. Think Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn or Bruce Willis-Cybill Shepherd.
2. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO): Larry David is the most obnoxious, self-serving person on television. Yet his ego-centered misadventures in Beverly Hills provide classic caustic comedy. And there are no commercials to destroy the continuity of his meanderings.
3. Lost (ABC): What started last season as a wild adventure series has evolved into an entertaining psychological suspense show with a variety of provocative characters.
4. Arrested Development (Fox): If you believe Nielsen audience ratings, this "mockumentary" about the dysfunctional Bluth family has never found loyal viewers, despite its critical acclaim. That's a shame. In future years, AD will be considered a comedy classic.
5. My Name is Earl (NBC): White- trash characters and trailer-park humor have never been a hallmark on the peacock network's so-called sophisticated schedule. But this half-hour has an appeal for every comedy taste.
6. The West Wing (NBC): While some critics and numerous viewers have lost interest in this politically-oriented series, the hour remains one of the best-written (exceptional story continuity) and well-acted dramas on the schedule. The fictional politicians are more intriguing than those on Commander in Chief.
7. The Simpsons. (Fox): Every time I tune into this long-running (17 seasons) series I understand why it's always on my top-10 list. The "family values" exist with more than a pinch of sarcasm.
8. Grey's Anatomy (ABC): Anatomy is the key part of this hospital drama, since the romantic stories almost provide a peek at body parts. And viewers care about the characters.
9. House (Fox): What's this? Another hospital series on my favorite's list? Actually this drama is more about the activities of arrogant Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) who gives new meaning to the term idiosyncratic physician. The patients' are nearly always secondary.
10. Prison Break (Fox): I wondered last fall: Who's going to watch a preposterous story line about a man who becomes a convict in an effort to save his brother from death row for a murder he didn't commit? The answer: Millions of viewers (including me) who are caught up in this illogical but ingenious plotting.
Compiling the five-worst list is a difficult assignment, considering all the junk that shows up on a regular basis.
My five worst, with No. 1 being the worst
1. Killer Instinct (Fox): In a season where sexual assault, gruesome murders and carved-up corpses reign supreme, this copycat series (thankfully canceled) was the epitome of the gore that drenches television.
2. The War at Home (Fox): A carbon copy of the '80s series Married . . . With Children, War is predictable daddy-is-a-dope TV.
3. Fear Factor (NBC): The worst of all the network reality shows deserves all the unkind things written about it. Is NBC honcho Jeff Zucker concerned about Fear Factor being on his resume?
4. Head Cases (Fox): Did the network programmers really believe this awful concept about a pair of crazy, mismatched lawyers would find an audience? It was one of the first new fall series canceled.
5. Hot Properties (ABC): Subtitle this raunchy, unfunny comedy about four man-hungry New York real estate women, Bursting Bosoms. Sadly, Gail O'Grady, so elegant as the eloquent mother on American Dreams, got caught up in this humorless mess.
You've undoubtedly noticed Fox's contribution to this worst list. So I'll close with this refrain:.
I've made my list and checked it thrice.
Fox has three bad shows
That are anything but nice.
http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/spotlight_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23962_4320777,00.html
He used to work for Heidi Fleiss out in Hollywood. He might not have been the best, but he was the cheapest and really enjoyed his work. :D
Oh wow..I just about choked on my orange juice, actually sprayed some on the screen... :p :D :D :D
Geez, CP, I thought my secrets were safe with you.
Critic’s Notebook: Best of 2005
Finale stuns even Trump
By Richard Huff New York Daily News TV Editor Dec. 17, 2005
Moments after Randall Pinkett was selected by Donald Trump to be the "Apprentice," he made it clear he didn't want any company.
During the live broadcast, Trump, after hiring Pinkett, asked if he should hire Rebecca Jarvis, too.
"It's not 'The Apprenti,' it's 'The Apprentice,'" Pinkett said, shooting down Jarvis' shot at a gig with Trump.
Trump said yesterday he came up with the idea of hiring both during the telecast, which emanated from Lincoln Center and was watched by 14 million viewers.
"I felt Randall should at least have a say," Trump told the Daily News yesterday.
But then Pinkett shot off the "Apprenti" line.
"I was surprised, because I think most people would have said hire Rebecca, too," Trump said. "It shows he's certainly an independent thinker."
Anyone watching the telecast Thursday night could see Trump was leaning toward Pinkett, who has multiple degrees and a stint at Oxford. During the run of "The Apprentice," viewers also saw his teams win repeatedly. He was also well-liked by his teammates.
Still, the shot at Jarvis in the last final moments of the show was surprising.
"I'm not against what Randall did," Trump said. "He did a brave thing. His line was unbelievable."
Trump said he told Jarvis afterward he was surprised Pinkett didn't vote to hire her.
However, Jarvis won't be out of work long. The folks at Yahoo offered her a job yesterday.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/story/375408p-319039c.html
Xesdeeni
12-17-05, 05:16 PM
Under current regulations, television broadcasters are required to air three hours a week of educational programming for children 16 years and under between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.
...
That requirement broadens next month when broadcasters will have to supply three hours of children's programming on each of the up to five digital channels they can multicast using digital technology.Do I read this right? So my local stations that have a weather channel simulcast with their HD must put three hours of kids show on those? They don't schedule anything else on this, so how would I even find these shows to let my kids view them!?
Xesdeeni
Critic’s Notebook: Best of 2005
When You Ride With Jesus, Don't Tailgate
By Felicia R. Lee The New York Times December 18, 2005
It was a cold night in a quiet Staten Island neighborhood, but Christ Episcopal Church, a Gothic Revival marvel of gray limestone and stained glass, was full of people and light and singing. The lights were of the klieg variety, though, and many of the well-scrubbed people had been hired to fill the pews.
The occasion was a recent filming of "The Book of Daniel, " a new NBC drama scheduled to have its premiere on Jan. 6. The show stars Aidan Quinn as the Rev. Daniel Webster, a sometimes petulant, sometimes befuddled, Vicodin-addicted Episcopal minister, husband and father who wants to do right. Daniel not only prays to Jesus, but also talks to a flesh-and-blood, long-haired guy in a flowing robe, a kind of heavenly Dr. Phil no one else sees. Jesus pops up at Daniel's sprawling home (in a prosperous New York suburb) or sits beside him in his car, admonishing him not to tailgate or be so judgmental.
"Have I been chosen?" Daniel asks Jesus in the premiere episode. "No," Jesus replies. "So why do you talk to me, then?" the minister persists. "I talk to everybody," Jesus cheerfully answers.
When NBC announced "Daniel" last summer, there were the expected predictions of controversy in a country that takes its religion seriously. A priest with a monkey on his back who talks to Jesus? "Daniel May Face Lion's Den," said a Dallas Morning News headline.
"Some of the best shows on TV start with the perception of controversy, which is usually not an issue if it's backed by quality," said Kevin Reilly, the president of NBC Entertainment. "The intent with 'The Book of Daniel' is to make a high-quality show that is both highly entertaining and thought-provoking."
Television shows about ministers, angels and the like come and go (and WB's "Seventh Heaven" has lasted 10 seasons), but the right formula is tricky. ABC quickly canceled the critically acclaimed 1997 drama "Nothing Sacred," about an urbane, conflicted Roman Catholic priest, following low ratings and protests over its takes on topics like clerical corruption.
"Lately, a lot of people want to talk about religion," Jack Kenny, the creator and an executive producer of "Daniel" said, in a room away from the tangle of wires and frenetic people preparing the shoot. "I said, let's talk about it in a real way - a family that lives it. It started with Daniel, seeing the world through the eyes of a really faithful man who is flawed. I wanted to explore a family in that backdrop, in the way that 'Six Feet Under' explores a family in the funeral business or 'The Sopranos' explores a family in the Mafia."
A walking, talking Jesus, Mr. Kenny said, simply embodies Daniel's faith.
The Jesus character did not make an appearance the other night in New Brighton, a gracious residential area in Staten Island where the 1905 church stood in for the series' fictional St. Barnabas Church. But with every ornate chandelier lit amid the soaring, wood-beamed ceiling, Mr. Quinn walked to the pulpit, a fake choir bedecked in red and white behind him.
The crew expected to shoot late, wrapping up the seventh of eight episodes. At one point, everyone cleared the set for a flashback scene in which Daniel's 16-year-old daughter, Grace (Alison Pill), sang a melancholy and melodic "Time After Time."
Though Grace was singing in a church, the scene was written in such a way that the reason is unclear. The pilot episode, though, alludes to the death of one of the Webster family's twin sons several years earlier and sets up the swirl of issues in Daniel's world.
The series begins with the minister bailing Grace out of jail after her arrest for selling marijuana. Viewers later meet Adam (Ivan Shaw), an adopted Chinese son who is also 16 and who lovingly lobs racially tinged sarcasm at his family, and some good-natured, homophobic comments at his brother Peter (Christian Campbell), who is 23, gay and still dealing with his brother's death.
Daniel's wife, Judith (Susanna Thompson, from "Once and Again"), is a pretty, moneyed WASP who has nice chemistry with her husband and likes her martinis, too. Daniel also has to handle the simultaneous disappearances of his brother-in-law and his secretary, along with a lot of church money. A body turns up later in a motel room.
The cast includes the Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn as Bishop Beatrice Cosgrove, who in the pilot chides Daniel for preaching that everyone gives in to temptation, and Dylan Baker ("Happiness" and "Kinsey") as Roger Paxton, a senior warden of the parish. Garret Dillahunt (who plays a killer on the HBO series "Deadwood") is Jesus.
Clearly, "Daniel" owes more to "Six Feet Under" than it does to "Seventh Heaven," the earnest, 1950's-tinged WB drama about a minister, his wife and their seven children.
"It's edgier than most network TV shows," Flody Suarez, a "Daniel" executive producer, said with smooth understatement. Mr. Quinn and the producers (John Tinker of "The Practice" is the third executive producer) said they only ask that people watch "Daniel" before judging it.
"For me, it was the idea of the consequences, the strain and the passion with which Aidan's character pursues doing the right thing," said Mr. Suarez, who before "Daniel" was executive producer of the ABC comedy "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" and who as vice president of development at NBC oversaw the production of shows like "ER" and "Just Shoot Me."
Speaking of his character, Mr. Quinn said: "I just see him as a very human, down-to-earth man full of foibles, with a good heart, dealing with modern life. I like his sense of humor, I like his flaws. It allows me not to be some saccharine, unreal priest. I like that he's trying to evolve. He's aware that he has miles to go."
The show's production schedule has been tough, Mr. Quinn said, with 14-hour days not uncommon. A veteran of more than 25 feature films, including "Michael Collins" and "Legends of the Fall," this is Mr. Quinn's first regular television series and his first time playing a priest.
Mr. Quinn, 46, grew up as a Roman Catholic in Chicago and in Ireland (his family moved back and forth). His recent television appearances were on NBC as a police officer in "Third Watch" and as Paul Newman's son in the HBO mini-series "Empire Falls."
Mr. Quinn, with huge light blue eyes and a kindly manner, said he visited a number of Episcopal churches to prepare for his role. He was impressed, he said, with how the sermons always touched on social issues. Mr. Quinn said he imagined Daniel as the kind of guy who has always had a strong connection to Jesus, "that goose-bump kind of thing."
Mr. Kenny took the unusual step of writing "The Book of Daniel" before getting an agreement with a network. He said he was fascinated by organized religion, he said, and the idea of exploring religion through the prism of a family rattled around in his head for two years.
In coming episodes, Daniel will continue to battle his Vicodin problem, and there will be a budding interracial romance between Grace and the housekeeper's grandson.
"They're just struggling to get through life," Mr. Kenny said of the Webster family, insisting that the pills, the drug selling, the missing money - and that's just in the first episode - make them human. After all, Mr. Kenny said, people with problems need a guiding light more than saints do.
"If you have everything together," he said, "what do you need God for?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/18/arts/television/18lee.html?pagewanted=print
Commentary
Wright Aid
By J. Max Robins Broadcasting & Cable 12/19/2005
Just as soon as our story hit the Web last Thursday that NBC Universal Chairman Bob Wright had orchestrated a makeover of the executive suites, the industry tealeaf readers started analyzing what it all really meant beyond a press release touting a “newly integrated” operation.
Wright elevated Jeff Zucker to CEO of the NBC Universal Television Group. A handful of key executives who formerly answered to Wright now report to Zucker.
To some observers high up inside NBC headquarters at 30 Rock, the move had corporate parent General Electric Chairman Jeffrey Immelt's fingerprints all over it. Word was, Immelt believes that Wright, in the wake of spending $14 billion to acquire Vivendi Universal Entertainment properties, simply has too much on his plate, from integrating two disparate cultures to keeping peace between key lieutenants.
And Wright has more work to do. According to numbers GE shared with Wall Street, NBC Universal should post 10% revenue growth but zero profit growth in 2006. Not only does Wright face challenges with NBC, where GE warned the Street to expect a continued decline in prime time, he has hurdles at the film studio as well. The reorganization at the TV group came right on the heels of NBC Universal's losing out to Viacom in the strategic acquisition of DreamWorks.
Against this backdrop, the expanded role Zucker is getting clearly designates him as 62-year-old Wright's heir-apparent. Some in the business were incredulous when they learned of Zucker's ascent. There have been bright spots in areas that report to him: The profit machine known as Today seems to have righted itself (although co-host Katie Couric may leave for CBS), there was a smooth transition from Tom Brokaw to Brian Williams at NBC Nightly News, and such acquired outfits as the USA Network and Sci Fi Channel have shown significant post-merger growth.
There are also troubles, ranging from NBC's prominent prime time collapse to continued ratings challenges at CNBC, MSNBC and Bravo.
Still, Zucker, who has embraced GE's tough, disciplined management ethos, has earned the trust of Immelt. And Wright, his boss and longtime mentor, apparently thinks the woes in Zucker's empire are more part of the cyclical nature of the business than a case of mismanagement. Some NBC brass note that Zucker is an adroit internal politician, who managed to outmaneuver his main rival in the television group, Randy Falco, who for years has been in charge of operations and ad sales. With the reorganization, Falco, president and COO of the TV group, gets a little more turf but now reports to Zucker instead of to Wright. “Zucker is more articulate, the consummate showman,” says one longtime associate of both men. “Randy is an introvert, more of a thinker and doer.”
For Kremlinologists within the halls of NBC, one of the most interesting elements of the shake-up is the return of Beth Comstock to the executive suites, with the lengthy title of president of NBC Universal Digital Media and Market Development. In contrast to Falco, she will report to Wright. Formerly Wright's top public-relations executive, Comstock moved up to GE, first serving ex-chairman Jack Welch in that role and then becoming the company's chief marketing officer, working closely with Immelt. While she has Wright's trust, she's widely seen as Immelt's eyes and ears. (To see a complete listing of who reports to whom, see the NBC U scorecard, p. 30.)
In announcing the changes, Wright said he was looking for “maximum cooperation and effectiveness.” According to the NBC Universal chairman, it's all about making sure that all his “assets and people are completely aligned.”
Certainly, that is Wright's intent. But even without asking, a lot of the residents of 30 Rock will tell you there's a whole lotta shakin' going on.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6292299
Programming notes:
CNN's Novak will move to Fox News
Suspended since he stormed off a set in August, columnist ends 25 years with network
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer December 17, 2005
NEW YORK — Conservative pundit Robert Novak, whose 2003 column identifying a former CIA officer triggered an ongoing federal leak investigation, is leaving CNN at the end of the year, the network announced Friday.
Novak, who is departing at the end of his 25th year at the network, will be taking a job as a commentator for rival Fox News in the beginning of 2006, he said in an interview. Novak hasn't appeared on air since the summer, when he was suspended by CNN after he stormed off the set of a network show.
Novak said that he and CNN officials decided jointly that it was time for him to move on.
"I think there was a mutual agreement on both sides, a desire to terminate the relationship on friendly terms," he said.
"I have a great deal of sentiment for CNN," added the 74-year-old syndicated columnist. "They treated me very nicely and I worked very hard for them. All things come to an end and I have no grievances."
In a statement, CNN/U.S. President Jonathan Klein praised Novak for his "incisive analysis." "We appreciate his many contributions and wish him well in future endeavors," Klein said.
Novak was mostly recently co-host of "Crossfire" and a panelist on "The Capital Gang," both of which were canceled this summer. He continued to offer analysis on other CNN programs until August, when he blurted out an expletive and stormed off the set of "Inside Politics" after exchanging words with Democratic strategist James Carville.
Novak later apologized, but CNN called his behavior "unacceptable" and suspended his appearances.
"I'm sorry that was my last appearance on the network," he said Friday, adding that the incident was not related to his departure.
"All my programs have been canceled that I was part of and my contract was ending, so I had pretty well decided I was going to leave the network, and I think they wanted me to leave," Novak added.
While he plans to scale back his television work, Novak said he decided to take a position at Fox to have "some outlet on television."
"We've had discussions over the years, and I thought it would be a good fit," he said.
A Fox spokeswoman confirmed that Novak will be a general contributor at the network, starting the first week of January, but no specifics were given about what shows he might appear on or when.
Novak said he also plans to continue writing his syndicated column three times a week and finish his memoirs, which are scheduled to be published next fall. As to whether his autobiography will address the most pressing question — who leaked him the name of former CIA operative Valerie Plame — he would only say, "Who knows? It's a possibility."
"I don't think I will ever reveal the source, but somebody else might," he added.
Novak's column set off an investigation by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald that eventually resulted in the indictment of former vice presidential Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on perjury and other charges and the jailing of former New York Times reporter Judith Miller.
Novak backtracked from a statement he made this week during an address to a conservative think tank in Raleigh, N.C., when he said that he is "confident" President Bush knows who his source is. The White House dismissed his claim.
Novak said Friday that he had just been speculating and that he regretted the comment.
"I was very indiscreet and let my mind wander," he said. "It was really a stupid thing to say, because I don't know. I have no idea. I was acting like the last guy at the bar and just mouthing off."
http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-novak17dec17,0,3260589,print.story?coll=cl-home-more-channels
(I have been out of contact for most of the day, and apologize for playing catch up with some items I normally would have posted far earlier.)
Programming notes:
Novak to leave CNN as commentator
He will start with Fox News in January
By Nick Madigan Baltimore Sun Reporter December 17, 2005
Conservative columnist and commentator Robert Novak, one of the first journalists hired by CNN when it was launched 25 years ago, will not return to the news network after his contract expires Dec. 31.
Novak, a central figure in the Valerie Plame leak scandal, has agreed to contribute to the Fox News Channel starting in January.
CNN and Novak said the decision not to renew his contract had nothing to do with his involvement in the Plame case. Novak was the first to publish her identity as a CIA operative, in a Chicago Sun-Times column July 14, 2003.
"I'm going to be 75 years old in February, and I was working too damn hard," Novak, who will continue his Sun-Times column, said in a telephone interview yesterday. "I'm ready for a softer schedule. It won't be anything like what I was doing at CNN."
Novak said he regretted that several shows on which he appeared, among them Crossfire, The Capital Gang and Inside Politics, are no longer on the air.
"CNN canceled all the shows I was on," Novak said. "They're going in a different direction, but that's their privilege. They own the business."
In a statement issued by his office, Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S., said that through the years, "Bob has offered incisive analysis for much of CNN's programming" and been "a valued contributor to CNN's political coverage."
But Novak's final moments on the network, in August, were anything but cordial. During a discussion with James Carville, Novak's left-wing foil, he cursed and left the Inside Politics set after Carville said Novak had "to show these right-wingers that he's got a backbone."
Novak apologized but has been off the air since. CNN denied reports that he was suspended, saying that it was mutually agreed that Novak take some time off.
With Novak's contract expiring, said Edie Emery, a CNN spokeswoman, "it was a good time to take stock of things."
Novak's reluctance to reveal how he came to publish Plame's name - which prompted an investigation that led to the jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller and the indictment of I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff - was met with widespread criticism in journalism circles.
Bob Steele, a professor in journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., said Novak's silence "speaks loudly, in some respects, about his questionable ethical behavior in this unsavory story."
"At the least, I believe he owes the public an explanation for why he won't say more about his role, given how significant his actions were," Steele wrote in an e-mail.
Novak has said only that he will discuss the matter when the special prosecutor in the Plame case has completed his probe.
Novak said yesterday that he would have returned to the air on CNN shortly after the August incident had it not been for the Plame case.
"The problem was that it was very difficult to deal with the special prosecutor's investigation of the CIA leak," Novak said. "While it was going on we decided not to put me on the air. After the Libby indictment they extended the prosecutor's term, so I never went back on the air."
Novak said he would likely do a "wind-up" interview on CNN before the end of the year.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/bal-te.to.novak17dec17,1,6343487.story?coll=bal-artslife-tv
This is apparently from the Washington Post’s “Bah, Humbug” file…..
Holiday Viewing
Have Yourself A Maudlin Little Christmas
By Paul Farhi Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 18, 2005; N03
It's the most wonderful time of the year for holiday-themed, made-for-TV movies. Well, okay, of course it is. Does any holiday besides Christmas inspire holiday-themed, made-for-TV movies? Not Labor Day. Not the Fourth of July. Not even Thanksgiving. Not even close.
This year, 10 original Christmas-themed TV movies will air on various networks in a nearly month-long made-for marathon. The festivities kicked off with "Silver Bells" (CBS) Nov. 27 and will end on Christmas Day with "Finding John Christmas" (also CBS). Technically, "Finding John Christmas" isn't a new TV movie (it first aired in 2003), but it stars Valerie Bertinelli. Bertinelli is the Cal Ripken of made-for-TV movies. She has been starring in made-fors of all kinds almost annually since 1979. So we are required by law to mention her Christmas movie.
Unless you're a glutton for twinkly soundtrack music, you probably won't get to see all these holiday gems. So herewith we present an all-purpose Guide to Made-for-TV Christmas Movies, 2005 edition:
What They're About . It doesn't matter whether they're romantic comedies ("Recipe for a Perfect Christmas," Lifetime), plain old comedies ("Three Wise Guys," USA Network) or weepy melodramas ("The Christmas Blessing," tonight, on CBS again), all made-for-TV Christmas movies are about one thing: The True Meaning of Christmas (TMOC). Problem is, there's no consensus on what the TMOC is. It varies, which is a weird thing for a "true meaning" to do.
In "Three Wise Guys," the TMOC is about putting aside differences (such as kidnapping, extortion and the threat of murder) to celebrate the birth of a baby. In "Silver Bells," it's about putting aside differences (such as failing to disclose the whereabouts of your would-be paramour's missing teenage son for an entire year ) and learning to love again. In "Chasing Christmas" (ABC Family Channel), it's about learning to enjoy Christmas. In "The Christmas Blessing," it's about donating your liver.
What They're NOT About . Strangely enough, made-for-TV movies about Christmas aren't really about Christmas. Yes, they take place around the holiday. And, yes, they borrow much of the secular commercial imagery of the holiday -- shopping, colorful lights, trees, gift-wrapped presents, etc. But there's very little actual Christmas to be found. The movies never get around to talking about religion, spiritual faith or, um, the birth of Jesus -- which would seem to be the TMOC.
Who's in Them . Okay, so made-for-TV movies aren't the most expensive productions in the TV universe. When it comes to putting the dollars up on the screen, they rank somewhere behind Saturday-morning cartoon series and slightly ahead of infomercials. And when you're watching your budget, you can't afford big-name stars. But you can afford formerly big-name stars, or at least semi-well-known actors. This explains the existence of two TV movies starring Tom Arnold ("Three Wise Guys" and "Chasing Christmas"). Arnold could be turning into the Valerie Bertinelli of Christmas TV movies.
It also might explain the casting of Steve Guttenberg as the lead in "Meet the Santas" (Hallmark Channel), the sequel to last year's "Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus." Guttenberg, a star 20 years ago, plays the son of Santa Claus, who becomes Santa Claus. That Guttenberg, in real life, is Jewish may or may not make this casting problematic (on the other hand, Barbra Streisand put out two Christmas albums).
What They Do . Lead characters in Christmas TV movies tend to have glamorous and/or lucrative jobs. A magazine columnist and a restaurant owner ("Recipe for a Perfect Christmas"). A casino owner ("Three Wise Guys"). A museum curator ("Silver Bells"). A toy designer ("Christmas in Boston"). An advertising executive ("Meet the Santas"). A surgeon ("The Christmas Blessing"). Etc.
What You'll (Almost) Always See . At least one adorable blond child. Many adorable Caucasian people (African Americans and other minority actors play secondary roles, if they appear at all; talk about a white Christmas!). Many single, widowed people, leafing through scrapbooks of old family photos as sad music plays. A stock hardhearted business tycoon who learns charity and forgiveness (TMOC alert!).
And snow. It will always snow in TV movies about Christmas -- but only in the climactic, Christmas Eve scene as the lead characters are tearfully or romantically discovering their TMOC. (The ritual snow ploy is on display in a reviewer's copy of "Christmas in Boston," on ABC Family; during the final smoochy scene, a rough cut includes the on-screen production note "Add Snow to Shot.")
What They'll Say . Count on some character to spout a bah-humbuggish line early on. "Christmas is nothing but high expectations and great disappointment," says the spoiled yuppie daughter in "Recipe for a Perfect Christmas." This inspires a Gentle Rebuke, wherein another character reminds the doubter of the TMOC. "As we all know," says the lovely teacher (Rebecca Gayheart) in "The Christmas Blessing," "holidays are about family and friends."
Look, also, for the Pat Reassurance as a signal that the problems and conflicts raised in the movie are about to be resolved. "I've been around long enough to know these things always work themselves out," the kindly boardinghouse proprietor tells the widowed dad (Tate Donovan) as he anguishes about his missing son in "Silver Bells."
Finally, when all the problems have been set aside and smiles and good cheer abound, it's time for the Tidy Moral. After all, as Arnold, in "Chasing Christmas," reminds his teenage daughter, Christmas is "a time to be kind to strangers and celebrate life."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/AR2005121600378_pf.html
Critic’s Notebook: Best of 2005
Supporting roles, done well, elevate a TV show
By R.D. Heldenfels Akron Beacon Journal
They don't get their names above the title. Or in it. But don't try to make a show without them.
They're the supporting actors, the people who react to what the star is doing, who drive the B story while the leading man gets the A, who often get asked to move aside on the red carpet.
But they're also the performers who can take a show from good to great, who can urge less able actors to better work. They can even bring viewers to a show when the star may not.
I recently asked readers of my blog for suggestions of great team players on series -- narrowing the field to shows that premiered in 2005, or actors who joined an ongoing show in that year.
I then heard about Lara Flynn Boyle on Las Vegas and Lauren Holly of NCIS (both suggested by Richard Dervan), John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer on The Office (courtesy of ``JD'') and -- all from Fred Farrar -- Christine Ebersole (Related), Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds), Ryan Hurst (Wanted), G.W. Bailey (The Closer), Ever Carradine (Commander in Chief) and more besides.
But that leaves out still more people who deserve your holiday cheers. So here are some of my favorite back-benchers of 2005.
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Lost. Those of us who knew him from Oz felt a clear sense of terror when his Mr. Eko came on the Lost scene. But the writers have made him someone so mysterious and intriguing that you should wonder about him every week -- and he hit it out of the acting park in the storytelling scene.
Leslie David Baker (Stanley), Angela Kinsey (Angela) and Brian Baumgartner (Kevin), The Office. I thought about Krasinski and Fischer, and about Rainn Wilson, who plays Dwight. They're all good. But these actors are essential to the show, because they show you how back-breaking and mind-bending an awful workplace can be. And they're funny doing it.
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Alumni Society. Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother), Nicholas Brendon (Kitchen Confidential), Charisma Carpenter (Veronica Mars) and David Boreanaz (Bones) are all improving the shows they now work on. (And yes, Boreanaz is promoted as almost a co-lead on Bones. Let me cast my net wide anyway.)
They also collectively remind viewers how important humor was to Buffy, since they all know how to bring laughs to their current roles. One of the season's best moments was Carpenter dueling with Hannigan when the latter guest-starred on Veronica.
Terry Crews, Everybody Hates Chris. While this show is nominally about the young Chris Rock, ably played by Tyler James Williams, it has given considerable life to Arnold's parents, Rochelle and Julius, played by Tichina Arnold and Crews.
Arnold is very funny. But it's Crews' portrayal of a soft-spoken, hard-working, minding-every-penny dad that makes me laugh as hard as anything on the show. In a prime time loaded with bumbling fathers, Crews is a refreshing alternative.
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother. The former Doogie Howser did a major image makeover in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, and it continues on this show, where his philosophical womanizer has become so entertaining that he has his own show promos.
On the down side, Harris and others in the cast demonstrate what Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger has called ``Herskozwickitis.'' The name comes from producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz (thirtysomething, My So-Called Life and Once & Again.) They made shows where the supporting cast was more interesting than the star, and series like How I Met Your Mother fall into the same trap.
Erinn Hayes, Kitchen Confidential. Sadly, the showwas yanked from the schedule before you got to see Hayes as Becky, a new chef in Confidential's kitchen. Tough, smart and more than ready to tangle with the men around her, she would have been a vivid new presence in prime time.
Jaime Pressly, My Name Is Earl. Another terrific ensemble, and I almost put Ethan Suplee on this list. But Pressly's performance is more interesting because it seems to play directly on her Maxim-cover-girl image while showing what can happen to selfish party girls. And Pressly gets the joke.
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy. As you can tell by now, there are a lot of shows where I wanted to name the entire ensemble, and this is one of them. But Wilson, as the dour ``Nazi,'' is someone whom viewers keep talking about. I especially like that her seemingly constant irritation is balanced by tremendous skill at her job. And that recent scene with her and T.R. Knight (as O'Malley) confronting an obnoxious family played beautifully.
I could name more actors and shows, of course. [B]Michaela Conlin, Eric Millegan and T.J. Thyne from Bones come to mind, and all the supporting players on [B]The Closer. But the overall message is still the same. No matter where they are in the credits, supporting actors are often as important as the show's stars.
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/13429648.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
News Notes:
“Reunion” Finale, “The Apprentice”
by Matt Webb Mitovich TVGuide.com Sunday, December 18, 2005
UNHAPPY REUNION: Fox's Reunion, which was canceled a few weeks ago but wasn't scheduled to actually bow out until Feb. 2, aired its final episode on Dec. 15. "Yes, it was [the last episode], unfortunately," a rep for the series tells TVGuide.com. Reunion execs recently issued a statement saying that the central murder mystery could not possibly be wrapped up on a truncated timetable. So whodunit? My buddy Michelle thinks it was either Craig or "the crazy girl he had the affair with." (Now stop bugging me, Shell. Because I. Don't. Know.)
ALL FIRED UP: The Apprentice champ Randal Pinkett stands by his decision not to back Trump on the idea of also giving runner-up Rebecca Jarvis a job during Thursday night's live finale. As he tells TVGuide.com, "[Season 1 finalist] Kwame Jackson was an extremely strong candidate, but Bill Rancic was not offered the opportunity to hire Kwame. [U]ltimately, this was not my decision; this was Mr. Trump's decision. All he did was solicit my opinion." In other words, no second thoughts here. "I firmly stand by the fact that the premise was to hire the Apprentice, not the 'apprenti.'"
http://tvguide.com/news/entertainment/
Saturday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest Prime Time Ratings news which is the second post in this thread.
Critic’s Notebook: Best of 2005
Supporting roles, done well, elevate a TV show
By R.D. Heldenfels Akron Beacon Journal
Fred, I see you and your picks made the column. :)
I did my best to get everyone here involved!
For your post-Holiday planning......
Upcoming TV on DVD Releases
December 20
Amazing Race 7, The The 7th Season
Battlestar Galactica Season 2.0
ER The Complete 4th Season
Party of Five Season 2
December 26
Nowhere Man The Complete Series
SeaQuest DSV Season 1
Shield, The Season 4
Tracey Takes On... The Complete 1st Season
Twilight Zone, The Season 5: Definitive Edition
December 27
America's Funniest Home Videos Best of Kids and Animals
Criss Angel Mindfreak The Complete Season 1
January 3
1st & Ten Season 1
1st & Ten Season 2
Alien Nation The Complete Series
All in the Family The Complete 5th Season
Gunsmoke 50th Anniversary Edition - Volume 1
Gunsmoke 50th Anniversary Edition - Volume 2
Gunsmoke 50th Anniversary Edition Giftset
Have Gun Will Travel Season 3
Hunter Season 3
Merv Griffin Show, The 40 of the Most Interesting People of Our Time
Silk Stalkings Season 4
January 10
Andromeda Vol 5.3
Black Books The Complete 1st Series
Flash, The The Complete Series
Hee Haw Collection Vol 5
House of Eliott, The Series 2
Men Behaving Badly (UK) The Complete Series 3
Men Behaving Badly (UK) The Complete Series 4
Nighty Night The Complete 1st Series
Red Dwarf Series 7
Rising Damp Series 1
Strong Medicine The Complete 1st Season
Urban Gothic Season 1
Viva la Bam The Complete 4th And 5th Seasons
Wild Kingdom Hunters Of The Sky
Wild Kingdom The African Wild 2
January 17
Adventures of Superman The Complete 2nd Season
Doogie Howser, M.D. Season 3
Fraggle Rock Vol 5: Down In Fraggle Rock
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman The Complete 2nd Season
Mary Tyler Moore Show, The The Complete 3rd Season
Old Grey Whistle Test, The Volume 2
Titus Season 3
January 24
1-800-Missing Season 2
Allo 'Allo! The Complete Series 4
Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 1: Water, Volume 1
Dallas The Complete 4th Season
Saturday Night Live Best Of Alec Baldwin
Saturday Night Live Best Of David Spade
Time Tunnel, The Volume 1
Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, The The Cat's Home But Not Alone
January 31
All-American Girl Complete Series
Archie Bunker's Place The Complete 1st Season
A-Team, The Season 3
Benny Hill Show, The Benny Hill, Complete And Unadulterated: The Hill's Angels Years - Set 4
Dark Shadows DVD Collection 22
Diff'rent Strokes The Complete 2nd Season
Gastineau Girls The Complete 1st Season
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates The Complete 3rd Series
Hill Street Blues The Complete 1st Season
Inked The Best of Season 1
Knight Rider Season 3
Magnum, P.I. The Complete 3rd Season
MI-5 Volume 3
Pink Panther Show, The Classic Cartoon Collection
Rat Patrol, The The Complete 1st Season
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 20: Turtles Against H.A.T.E.
Two's Company Series 4
X-Files, The Season 1 (New)
X-Files, The Season 2 (New)
X-Files, The Season 3 (New)
February 7
Alleyn Mysteries Set 2
Batman, The The Complete 1st Season
Blue Collar TV Season 1, Volume 2
Electric Company, The Best Of
Emergency! Season 2
Grounded for Life Season 1
Growing Pains The Complete 1st Season
Lost World, The Vol 01
Lost World, The Vol 02
One Step Beyond One Step Beyond Collection
Pet Alien Vol 4: Spaced Out
Poltergeist: The Legacy The Complete 1st Season
Sex and the City Sex And The City Essentials: Breakups
Sex and the City Sex And The City Essentials: Lust
Sex and the City Sex And The City Essentials: Mr. Big
Sex and the City Sex And The City Essentials: Romance
Simpsons, The Kiss & Tell
Survivor: Pearl Islands The Complete Season
Teen Titans The Complete 1st Season
Touched by an Angel The 3rd Season - Volume 1
Wire in the Blood The Complete 3rd Season
February 14
Andy Griffith Show, The The Complete 5th Season
Ballykissangel Complete Series 4
Charles in Charge The Complete 1st Season
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The The Complete 3rd Season
Gimme a Break! Season 1
Golden Girls, The Season 4
Grey's Anatomy Season 1
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Season 1, Volume 2
Living Single The Complete 1st Season
Overhaulin The Complete 2nd Season
Pretender, The Season 3
Shaquille Complete Series
Significant Others Season 1
February 21
3rd Rock from the Sun Season 3
Action The Complete Series
Dick Cavett Show, The Comic Legends
Goof Troop Volume 1
Irish R.M., The Series 3
NYPD Blue The Complete 3rd Season
Quack Pack Volume 1
SpongeBob SquarePants Lost In Time
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Season 1, Vol 1
What's New Scooby-Doo? Vol 8: Zoinks, Camera, Action!
February 28
Avengers, The Emma Peel Collector's Edition
Beast Machines: Transformers The Complete Series
Bleak House Bleak House
C.O.P.S. Volume 1
Charmed The Complete 4th Season
Ellen The Complete Season 3
Rumpole of the Bailey Megaset
March 7
Baby Looney Tunes Volume 1: Playday Pals
Baby Looney Tunes Volume 2: Let's Play Pretend
Brady Bunch, The The Complete 5th Season
Cosby Show, The Season 2
Flintstones, The Season 5
Hogan's Heroes The Complete 3rd Season
Lily the Witch Volume 1
Lily the Witch Volume 2
Multiple Shows Star Trek Fan Collective: Borg
Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour, The The Complete Series
White Shadow, The The Complete 2nd Season
Wild 'N Out Season 1
March 14
Babylon 5 The Legend Of The Rangers
Columbo The Complete 4th Season
MacGyver Season 5
Murder, She Wrote The Complete 3rd Season
Naked City Set 3
Simple Life 3: Interns, The Complete Season
Sleeper Cell The Complete 1st Season
March 21
Batman Beyond Season 1
Ed, Edd n' Eddy Volume 2: Fools' Par-Ed-Ise
Justice League Season 1
Mind of Mencia The Complete 1st Season Uncensored
Over There Season 1
South Park The Complete 7th Season
March 28
Dark Shadows DVD Collection 23
Invisible Man, The Season 1
Knots Landing The Complete 1st Season
Northern Exposure The Complete 4th Season
Quantum Leap The Complete 4th Season
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/releasesmonth.cfm
I've considered whether to run this or not. But finally decided to include it because Jack Anderson was an important part of the first decade of "Good Morning America", especially in the early 1980s, when the show routinely trounced "The Today Show" in the ratings.
Obituary
Investigative Columnist Jack Anderson Dies
By Patricia Sullivan Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 18, 2005; C08
Jack N. Anderson, 83, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who for years was America's most widely read newspaper columnist, died Dec. 17 at his Bethesda home. He had Parkinson's disease.
A crusader in the mold of muckrakers from a century ago, unbounded by contemporary notions of objectivity, Mr. Anderson was highly successful during the 1950s and 1960s, when few reporters actively sought to uncover government wrongdoing. At one point, his column appeared in about 1,000 newspapers with 45 million daily readers.
His influence flagged in recent years, but for decades he had the investigative field virtually to himself. The number of scoops that he had a hand in was amazing: the Keating Five congressional ethics scandal; revelations in the Iran-contra scandal; the U.S. government's tilt away from India toward Pakistan, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1972; the ITT-Dita Beard affair, which linked the settlement of a federal antitrust suit against International Telephone & Telegraph to a $400,000 pledge to underwrite the 1972 Republican National Convention; the CIA-Mafia plot to kill Fidel Castro; the final days of Howard Hughes; U.S. attempts to undermine the government of Chilean President Salvador Allende; allegations about a possible Bulgarian connection to the shooting of the pope; an Iranian connection to the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
"He had such huge strengths and huge weaknesses," said Mark Feldstein, director of the journalism program at George Washington University, who is writing Mr. Anderson's biography. "He practiced journalism like a blue-collar craftsman with a populist point of view. He was practicing a crusading craft rather than a profession, and [investigative reporting] has lost some of its juice, its verve, its gusto, in trying to be objective. Anderson didn't try to hide his politics or his agenda."
Mr. Anderson and Drew Pearson, his predecessor on the "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column, were among the few investigative reporters working in the mass media after the Great Depression until the technique came back into style during the Vietnam War and Watergate era.
Mr. Anderson was an investigator from the start, when he went to work in 1947 as a "legman" for Pearson's column, which began in 1932. In 1969, Pearson died and left the column to him. Mr. Anderson ran it -- with an ever-changing cast of interns -- until he unofficially retired in 2001, when Douglas Cohn, his writing partner since 1999, and Eleanor Clift of Newsweek took over. The column ran until July 30, 2004, when United Feature Syndicate announced its end.
"Part circus huckster, part guerrilla fighter, part righteous rogue, Anderson waged a one-man journalistic resistance when it was exceedingly unpopular to do so," Feldstein said in a July 2004 article in The Washington Post.
Mr. Anderson's work enraged those in power. President Richard M. Nixon tried to smear him as a homosexual, the CIA was ordered to spy on him, and, according to the Watergate tapes, a Nixon aide ordered two cohorts to try to kill the journalist by poisoning.
"Contrary to popular theology," Mr. Anderson wrote for a journalism history project, "there is nothing that produces as much exhilaration and zest for living as an ugly, protracted, bitter-end vendetta that rages for years and comes close to ruining both sides."
He explained in a Parade magazine article what drove him: "I have tried to break down the walls of secrecy in Washington. But today the walls are thicker than ever. More and more of our policymakers hide behind those walls. Only the press can stand as a true bulwark against an executive branch with a monopoly on foreign policy information. It has all the authority it needs in the First Amendment."
Despite all his scoops and his high profile in Middle America, Mr. Anderson was never the celebrated Washington journalist of the kind found at Georgetown dinner parties or Gridiron Club soirees. The power elite saw him as an uncouth gossipmonger and shameless self-promoter.
Mr. Anderson, a Mormon who eschewed smoking, drinking, cursing and caffeine, was cast from the dissenter mold of journalism. He called himself a muckraker, a term from the turn of the 20th century.
He launched scores of journalists on their careers, employing them as uncredited interns and underpaid associates and teaching them the craft. They included Brit Hume of Fox News, Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg News Service, Howard Kurtz and Jonathan Krim of The Post, Roll Call columnist Ed Henry and novelist Les Whitten. His column ran in The Post until 1997.
Mr. Anderson himself grew into a multimedia personality, penning not only the column but also more than a dozen books and subscription newsletters. He was Washington bureau chief for Parade magazine. He broadcast a syndicated radio show, had a years-long gig on ABC's "Good Morning America" and had his own TV show, "Truth," which featured public figures hooked up to a lie detector.
With his marble gray hair, tranquil blue eyes and rich waterfall of a voice, Mr. Anderson was active on the lecture circuit, and those fees kept the newspaper column afloat.
In addition to the Pulitzer, he won the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Service to Journalism award in 1987 for his role in breaking the Iran-contra story and later was inducted into its Journalism Hall of Fame. He was at the founding meeting in 1975 of Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc.
"I have to do daily what Woodward and Bernstein did once," Mr. Anderson told The Post's Tony Kornheiser in 1983. Kornheiser called Anderson's "a column of tweaks, leaks and piques, born of idealism, stoked by cynicism, a brazen, high-risk, righteously indignant antiwaste, anticorruption, anticommunist watchdog of a column that has been called everything from 'gold' to 'garbage.' Sometimes on the same day. Sometimes in the same sentence."
Born in Long Beach, Calif., but raised in a small town outside Salt Lake City, Anderson was interested in newspaper work from an early age. At 12, he edited the Boy Scout page of the Deseret News in Utah and soon advanced to a $7-a-week job with the Murray (Utah) Eagle.
In high school, he was president of the student body, and upon graduation, he joined the staff of the Salt Lake Tribune. He briefly attended the University of Utah, and on Dec. 7, 1941, he became a missionary, a typical rite of passage for devout Mormons, working in the South. Two years later, he enrolled in the merchant marine officer training school. After about seven months, he persuaded the Deseret News to accredit him as a foreign correspondent in China. He was supposed to report hometown, local-hero news, but he soon found that assignment dull.
So Mr. Anderson hitched a plane ride to a secret, behind-the-lines base operated by the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA. Alarmed to find a civilian reporter at their base, the OSS brass sent him to contact a band of Chinese nationalist guerrillas. From them, he found that a Chinese civil war was still raging, but he could not interest any U.S. paper in the news.
His draft board had been looking for him for some time and finally caught up with him in 1945. He was inducted into the Army in the Chinese city then known as Chungking and served with the Quartermaster Corps until 1947, working on military newspapers and Armed Forces Radio.
Upon his discharge, he came to Washington and applied to work for Pearson, who had been exposing government corruption for more than a decade. He was hired immediately, thus starting the column's tradition of employing ambitious, hardworking underlings. In his off hours, Mr. Anderson attended Georgetown University and took a course in libel law at George Washington University, but he did not receive a degree from either school.
His anonymous labor for Pearson finally irked Mr. Anderson enough that in 1957, he threatened to quit. Pearson promised him more bylines and pledged to leave the column to him.
In 1958, a federal investigator invited Mr. Anderson to accompany him while he was spying on Bernard Goldfine, a wealthy industrialist who had given a vicuna coat to presidential assistant Sherman A. Adams. The episode triggered a major scandal in the Eisenhower administration. Mr. Anderson, in violation of traditional journalistic practices, testified before congressional panels and lobbied senators about the issue. The uproar over those actions prepared him for being named, years later, to Nixon's enemies list, for being followed by the CIA, for the FBI's arrest of his partner Whitten for receiving stolen government documents and for numerous IRS audits of his tax returns.
In 1965, he finally achieved full partnership in the column, sharing a byline with Pearson, although he was paid a paltry sum -- about $15,000 in 1969 -- for his work on the most popular column in the nation. Upon Pearson's death, he inherited the column and split the proceeds with Pearson's widow.
Mr. Anderson's columns on misappropriations of campaign donations by Sen. Thomas J. Dodd (D-Conn.) were recommended for the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1967, but the Pulitzer board selected another entry.
Mr. Anderson was considered significantly more accurate than his predecessor, although he was not error-free. He admitted he wrongly charged Donald H. Rumsfeld with lavishly decorating his office while cutting expenses on programs of the Office of Economic Opportunity. He also admitted giving covert aid to Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin in the early days of his anti-communist crusade, although he later turned on McCarthy. He also regretted not publishing a scoop about President Ronald Reagan's arms-for-hostages swap.
He was not above flamboyant "Front Page"-style tactics. During Watergate, when the FBI sought copies of grand jury transcripts that Mr. Anderson had obtained, he and Whitten decided to bar their office door and throw the papers out their window. Interns waiting below were supposed to scoop up the falling documents.
"We didn't have to do it because we got an agreement with Judge [John] Sirica," Whitten said. "He said if we'd return the papers and let him get rid of them, he would not pursue contempt of court against Jack. Jack agreed to that, and we took them out of a [hidden] panel in a desk. Jack took them home, what do you think he did? Xeroxed them and buried them in his back yard before he gave them back to Sirica. They're probably still back there."
Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Olivia Farley Anderson of Bethesda; nine children, Laurie Anderson-Bruch of Washington, Cheri Loveless of Provo, Utah, Lance F. Anderson of Germantown, Tina Carmichael of Warrenton, Kevin N. Anderson of Sandy, Utah, Randy N. Anderson and Tanya A. Neider, both of Bethesda, Rodney V. Anderson of Severna Park and Bryan W. Anderson of St. George, Utah; 41 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/17/AR2005121701112_pf.html
Inundated
12-18-05, 08:22 PM
I did my best to get everyone here involved!
That was a surreal moment for me...my hometown newspaper's TV columnist references a guy I talk to on the Internet. :D
You should have contributed!
And I have noted before, you are really, really lucky to have Rich Heldenfels.
It is so refreshing to read a critic who enjoys TV, understands its limitations, and doesn't expect great "art" to come flowing out of every channel.
I look forward to his blog notes and his columns about as much as any of the five dozen or so TV writers I try to keep up with.
On the other hand, the two pretentious doofs from the Los Angeles Times whose year-end "conversation" about TV I posted earlier are the kind of world-weary "sophisticates" much of the nation is subjected to. They know their art, and they are really, really intelligent. But it is so obvious that most of network TV is so far beneath their standards that they can hardly be bothered to watch.
The 2005-2006 Season
super leap for WB's timing
The shift of 'Smallville' to Thursday nights has turned out to be a boon for the network, lifting the show's ratings 28% in an otherwise dismal season
By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer December 19, 2005
When the creators of "Smallville" heard that the WB Network was planning to move their series at the start of this season, they regarded the new time slot much like Superman would a barrel of kryptonite.
"Any time you move a show, it's always dangerous," writer-producer Al Gough said over lunch in Burbank recently. Gough and his longtime creative partner, Miles Millar, co-created the drama, a free-wheeling prequel to the Superman comic series that envisions Clark Kent as a small-town youth with a busy social life and some eye-popping abilities that couldn't be addressed in your typical gifted-student program.
The producers already had had a bad experience with a schedule switch. Ratings for "Smallville" sank after a previous regime at the WB pushed the series from Tuesday to Wednesday, which a still-simmering Millar dismissed as "the dumbest move."
Now WB executives wanted the series to open their lineup on Thursday, opposite CBS' durable hit "Survivor" and two other youth-skewing series, ABC's "Alias" and Fox's hot soap "The O.C." Even UPN was getting pre-season buzz for its new Chris Rock comedy, "Everybody Hates Chris."
It looked like curtains for young Clark.
Instead, in a twist that has surprised the producers and challenged the conventional wisdom of the TV industry, "Smallville" has, in its fifth season, become a standout hit for the WB. The series is having its best season, up 28% compared with last year, with an average of 5.5 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.
It's also given the WB what it never had before in its 11-year history: a solid presence on Thursdays, the most lucrative night of the week in terms of TV advertising revenue.
"It kind of bucked the odds," Shari Anne Brill, an analyst at New York ad firm Carat USA, said of "Smallville." "Usually in the fifth season, you'd start to see declines" in the ratings.
"It feels to me like arguably our best move of the year," said David Janollari, president of WB entertainment, which otherwise has had a dismal TV season. Previously, the network "didn't really have an identity on Thursday," he added; last year, for instance, the network was running "Blue Collar TV" and "Drew Carey's Green Screen Show."
Despite all the talk of TiVo and other devices that allow viewers to bypass network lineups, scheduling can still be the Hollywood equivalent of no-limit poker. Millar is hardly the first producer to complain of "dumb" time-slot maneuvers; such battles make up a time-honored tug-of-war between series overseers and network "suits."
This season, both Mark Burnett of "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" and Dick Wolf of "Law & Order" have lamented the supposed effect of schedule shuffles on their shows. In recent weeks, industry attention was riveted to whether Fox would move its smash "American Idol" to Thursday nights. NBC executives waited until Fox announced "Idol" would stay on Tuesdays and Wednesdays before revealing their own midseason changes.
The Thursday move seems to have energized "Smallville." This season's debut found Clark transported to the "Fortress of Solitude," an ice palace where he confronts his father, Jor-El, as a meteor shower threatens Earth. The episode required a number of costly special effects, as well as shooting Clark's Tom Welling on an actual glacier.
"Every episode is like this big, great action movie," Janollari said.
The schedule change came about during meetings last spring, when Janollari and his executives were puzzling over a chart for the fall lineup. "As I was staring at the schedule, I just, like, looked at the 'Smallville' card and ... picked it up and moved it to Thursday at 8, and I said, 'What does everyone else think of this?,' " Janollari recalled. "The thinking was, 'Well, let's bring our loyal audience to Thursday nights.' "
Moving the show would rescue it from fierce competition on Wednesdays, where ABC's smash hit "Lost" was attracting many sci-fi fans and UPN's reality hit "America's Next Top Model" was scoring with young women. "Those two shows cut so deeply into the 'Smallville' core audience that it was sort of held down for the last two years," said Peter Roth, president of Warner Bros. Television, which produces the show.
Thursday had long been the domain of NBC, which had a string of top-rated comedies that night including "The Cosby Show" and "Friends." But NBC's streak ended with such flops as the "Friends" spinoff "Joey," leaving room for other shows such as "The O.C." to find an audience.
Still, the schedule transplant carried enormous risks: If "Smallville" faltered, Janollari might have been accused of killing a profitable asset for the network and Warner Bros., its main studio supplier. (The WB is jointly owned by Tribune Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times, and Time Warner.)
As it has turned out, "Smallville" is giving WB executives a ray of hope in an otherwise brutal season. Despite heavy publicity and some favorable reviews, the new drama "Just Legal," starring Don Johnson, tanked in the ratings and was quickly pulled; two other premieres, "Supernatural" and "Related," have generated better numbers but failed to emerge as breakout hits. Overall, the WB has slipped 12% this season in its key adults ages 18-34 demographic, and lost ground to longtime rival UPN.
The results may call into question the network's recent push to lure more 30-something viewers instead of the teenagers who turned out for past hits such as "Felicity" and "Dawson's Creek."
"They're definitely in a transition mode right now," Gough said of the network. The same could be said for Gough and Millar, who seem surprised and grateful that "Smallville" has done so well for so long but also are eager to move to their next challenge. The pair, who met in the mid-'90s at USC film school, seem unlikely partners. Maryland native Gough is the sort of amiable, rumpled guy at home in a baseball cap and sweatshirt; the British-born Millar is intense and more reserved, the one whose fingers are on the keyboard during their scriptwriting sessions. (In addition to "Smallville," the duo worked on scripts for the features "Spider-Man 2" and "Herbie: Fully Loaded.")
Neither was a comic-book fan before "Smallville." After the series premiered in 2001, they attended their first Comic-Con, the massive comic-book trade show in San Diego. Gough was worried that they'd be viciously set upon by Superman purists, who might disapprove of such story touches as making young Clark friends with young Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), Superman's longtime nemesis.
Instead, fans swarmed the "Smallville" creators seeking autographs — probably to "sell on EBay," Gough said with a laugh.
Millar would prefer to focus on features. "We've been reluctant to do any more TV," he said. "The failure rate is so high. You put all that work into it, and [the series] doesn't work out."
But "Smallville" isn't letting its creators slip away from the medium that easily. In this season's fourth episode, the writers introduced Arthur "A.C." Curry, who saved Clark's friend Lana Lang from drowning.
As comic fans know, Curry is actually the superhero Aquaman, who'll be at the center of a still-untitled spinoff that Gough and Millar are writing, with an eye toward fall 2006. The writers already know their character will have a much more practical bent than the teenage Clark Kent.
"He's got a very real-world agenda: the environment," Gough said of Aquaman.
http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-smallville19dec19,0,1001487,print.story?coll=cl-tv-top-right
The 2005-2006 Season
Scribes face challenge in 'West Wing' star's death
LOS ANGELES The Hollywood Reporter—The death on Friday of actor John Spencer, a cornerstone of the ensemble on "The West Wing" since its 1999 debut, is sure to send the show's writing team back to the drawing board for the second half of what could be the show's final season.
Spencer's character, former Bartlet administration chief of staff turned vice presidential candidate Leo McGarry, has played a key role in the election-year story line of the Emmy-winning White House drama this season as McGarry became the running mate of fiery liberal Democratic congressman Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits, vying to succeed Martin Sheen's President Josiah Bartlet in the fictional Oval Office.
Another complication for "West Wing" writers in dealing with the real-life drama of Spencer's death from a heart attack at age 58 is the fact that his character was seen in a flash-forward sequence set three years in the future in the sixth season "West Wing" opener that aired in September. (In an eerie life-meets-art parallel, Spencer's character suffered a heart attack last season but recovered quickly enough to take on a bruising presidential campaign.)
"West Wing" was on a scheduled production hiatus for the holidays at the time of Spencer's death -- the actor died less than a day after he checked into a Los Angeles hospital with a bad cold, according to his publicist. Writers and producers for the series are expected to gather this week to decide how to handle the remainder of the season, a studio spokeswoman said.
Spencer appeared in seven of the 14 episodes of "West Wing" has completed for its sixth season as of last week, according to "West Wing" producer Warner Bros. Television. Nine of those 14 episodes have already aired; "West Wing" isn't scheduled to air a new episode until January.
At its peak, "The West Wing" ranked among primetime's most-watched series, but the much-praised drama has struggled ratings-wise during the past few seasons. This fall, the show relocated from its longtime home on Wednesday to the Sunday 8 p.m. slot, where it has ranked 50th among network primetime series with an average of 8.2 million viewers and a 2.3 rating/5 share in the adults 18-49 demographic. As such, "West Wing" was already seen as a long shot to be renewed for a seventh year next fall.
The challenge now facing the "West Wing's" creative team recalls the situation producers of "The Sopranos" dealt with in 2000 following the death of Nancy Marchand, who played the pivotal, villainous mob matriarch Livia Soprano. To wrap up her story line, "Sopranos" producers used old pieces of dialogue and CGI techniques to briefly insert Marchand's face on a body double.
In late December 2004, "Law & Order" veteran Jerry Orbach died shortly before the premiere of the NBC spin-off "Law & Order: Trial by Jury." Producers and the network decided to air the episodes in which Orbach was featured, though the show ultimately proved short-lived.
Actor John Ritter died in September 2003 on the eve of the sophomore-season debut of his promising ABC comedy "8 Simple Rules." Producers decided to reflect real life by writing the lead character's shocking death into the story line. "8 Simple Rules" continued for two more seasons but never regained the ratings momentum it lost along with its star.
http://channels.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?id=2005121822360002913948&dt=20051218223600&w=RTR&coview=
Hard Digital Transition date compromise
The Hollywood Reporter late Sunday wrote that a compromise digital transition date has been worked out between House and Senate confrerees.
The new date was expected to be approved by a House vote early Monday morning and a Senate vote later in the day.
According to THR:
“…The votes were expected after House and Senate negotiators reportedly struck a deal over the measure, which includes $40 billion in savings over five years including cutbacks in Medicaid, Medicare, student loans and other programs.
As part of the deal, broadcasters will be required to abandon their analog signals by Feb. 17, 2009, according to industry sources. The budget legislation also includes a $1.5 billion subsidy for digital set-top boxes so people with low income who do not subscribe to cable or satellite will not go without TV when the date occurs…”
Best of the 2005-2006 Season
The perfect 10: The shows weren't all winners, but these episodes were keepers
By Matthew Zoller Seitz Newark Star-Ledger Sunday, December 18, 2005
While scratching out an early draft of my yearly 10 best list (which will appear next wwek), I realized there's no such thing as a TV show that hits a home run each week, or even a triple. In fact, most of TV slides along the spectrum of excellent to competent to awful more freely than critics care to admit. This is surely a byproduct of having to crank out 12 to 24 episodes a season. Under such circumstances, getting it perfect takes a backseat to getting it done.
With that fact in mind, I wrote an alternative list of the year's 10 best individual episodes. It comprises installments of sitcoms or dramas that brushed against perfection in every aesthetic department (writing, direction, acting, photography, editing) while simultaneously reminding us of what makes the series tick.
These criteria had a couple of surprising effects. They forced me to rule out certain shows I adore in spite of recurring flaws and built-in quality control issues (for instance, "Lost" and "Arrested Development," which swing for the fences every other minute, and often miss.) And they forced me to grudgingly honor episodes of series I usually slag.
Drum roll please:
1. "Deadwood: Boy the Earth Talks To." (HBO) Written by Ted Mann. Directed by Ed Bianchi.
The second season finale of HBO's down-and-dirty western underlined the show's central theme: society is built upon alliances. Widow-turned-powerbroker Alma Garret married her good right hand, Ellsworth, and the town piled into the street to celebrate. Alma's adulterous lover, Marshal Seth Bullock, made peace with his long-suffering wife, who decided to stay in town and open a school in a former house of ill-repute. Saloon owner and gangster Al Swearengen forged an alliance with Chinatown boss Wu. Gold mining scout and mass murderer Francis Wolcott met his eternal reward. Swearengen's vicious rival, Cy Tolliver, got knifed in the gut by a man he wronged. We even got to see alcoholic loner Calamity Jane don a dress and mingle with the townsfolk.
This episode was great for so many reasons. There was the joy of seeing so many vivid characters packed into the same frame, and the pleasure of realizing that series creator David Milch and company are patient artists who plant narrative seeds at the start of a season, tend them for weeks, then harvest them at the end. Every five minutes there was a moment so odd yet life-affirming that you wanted to cheer: Doc Cochran showing recovering gunshot victim Mose Manuel how to stretch; Wu slicing off his ponytail, raising it aloft and yelling to Swearengen: "Wu America!" How can such a nasty show be so beautiful?
2. "House: Three Stories." (Fox) Written by David Shore. Directed by Paris Barclay.
Forever to be known as "The one where we find out how House got his limp," this Emmy-winning episode was a high point for a two-season-old series that already seems to have settled into predictable rhythms. This one was actually a mini-anthology in which House lectured to medical students on three fictional cases where patients had similar symptoms. In flashback, we saw House undergo treatment for leg pain and endure the same dehumanizing treatment he dishes out in the present. We came to understand that House's defining trait was not his disability, but his righteous stubbornness, and that the former was in some sense a visible manifestation of the latter. The episode ended with the year's most startling TV image: House tossing a pain pill in the air while the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" played on the soundtrack, catching the pill in his mouth, then breaking the fourth wall by looking right into the camera, as if daring us to pass judgment.
3. "Battlestar Galactica: Pegasus." (Sci-Fi) Written by Anne Cofell Saunders; Directed by Michael Rymer.
The midpoint of the show's second season saw the ragtag, fugitive fleet learning that a second battlestar, the Pegasus, survived the Cylon genocide, only to develop a darker facsimile of civilization than the Galactica's. Because the Pegasus had no civilian fleet to protect, its values were built on the hardest aspects of warrior culture. Discipline and loyalty were bound up with intimidation and paranoia; order was maintained through shockingly casual "interrogations" of suspected enemies that were basically legalized beat-downs and gang rapes. Alternately chilling and inspirational, this episode recontextualized the Galactica fleet's existence and gave its civilian and military members a reason to put aside their differences and reaffirm the values that bind them.
4. "Curb Your Enthusiasm: The End." (HBO) Directed by Larry Charles.
Amazingly, the acclaimed sitcom's depressingly cruddy fifth season ended with a great episode that plunged its hero to new depths of casual selfishness. Larry hectored his wife on the proper system of DVD storage, refused to sit near the emergency exit on a plane, wheedled his way out of donating a kidney to ailing pal Richard Lewis and finally met the people he believed were his birth parents, a clan of polite Arizona Christians. (Line of the year: "Oh, my God ... I'm gentile!") Oh, yeah -- he also died, went to Heaven (where he had a full head of hair) and explained his DVD storage system to a couple of angels played by Dustin Hoffman and Ali G. What's not to like?
5. "Deadwood: Something Very Expensive." (HBO) Written and directed by Steve Shill.
A master class in spiral-of-doom storytelling. Doc Cochran let the long-incapacitated Swearengen re-enter a town whose power structure changed while he recuperated from a bout with kidney stones. Miss Isringhausen, a tutor secretly working for the Pinkerton detective agency, took up with Swearengen's henchman Silas; the prostitute Trixie urged Ellsworth to marry the pregnant widow Garret and raise lawman Bullock's illegitimate baby; Bullock worked through personal issues by beating the tar out of a lynch mob leader. The episode's hellish heart was the sociopath Wolcott's cold-blooded murder of three prostitutes, a rampage sparked not by anything the women said or did, but by an insult against Wolcott by one of the town's most powerful men, Cy Tolliver. More than any other hour of TV this year, "Something Very Expensive" illustrated the trickle-down nature of violence. On "Deadwood," as in life, those who feel they've been wronged by their social equals or betters swallow their rage, then displace it onto people many rungs lower on the ladder.
6. "Everybody Loves Raymond: Finale." (CBS) Written by Phil Rosenthal, et al. Directed by Gary Halvorson.
"Raymond" always prided itself on being modest and uneventful. It truly was the only great sitcom of the last few years you knew you could skip without kicking yourself. This sign-off brilliantly summed up the show's anti-dramatic philosophy, gently spoofing decades' worth of bloated, melodramatic, very special episodes by having Ray go to the hospital to get his adenoids taken out. The episode's emotional peak, if you could call it that, found a doctor gravely inform the Barones that Ray had not awakened from his anesthesia then return 30 seconds later to say everything was fine. The closing image -- the Barones gathered around the kitchen table, eating and arguing as always -- evoked the similarly relaxed "Cheers" finale, which ended with Sam Malone turning out the lights at his bar, signaling the end of just another day.
7. "The Comeback: Valerie Shines Under Stress." (HBO) Written by Heather Morgan. Directed by David Steinberg.
In which aging sitcom starlet Valerie Cherish pushed for a big comic moment on "Room and Bored" that she could use to promote her side project, a reality series about her life as an actress. Star Lisa Kudrow made like a 21st century Lucille Ball, warbling "I Will Survive" as her reality show theme song, pestering her hostile sitcom bosses to write her a spectacular pratfall involving a cupcake outfit even though she's got a rod in her spine, and then ...well, I won't describe the culmination of this gag, because you might be eating. Mixing rude wit, crazed slapstick and genuine empathy for our beleaguered heroine, this episode represented the year's most misunderstood series at the peak of its creative power.
8. "Weeds: The Punishment Light." (Showtime) Written by Rolin Jones. Directed by Robert Berlinger.
In which widowed pot dealer heroine Nancy Botwin turned down the advances of a sweet, divorced dad because she's wasn't ready to get involved again, then had a business-related tryst with a rival drug dealer who she hoped would protect her from competitors. Meanwhile, Nancy's brother-in-law Andy and accountant and client Doug made like anti-drug poster boys, sampling Nancy's stash and then ravaging her house while trying to kill a rat. A comedy that sometimes errs on the side of cutesiness opted for droll precision instead; it called its deluded characters on their hypocrisy and silliness, yet resisted the urge to preen or preach.
9. "Veronica Mars: A Trip to the Dentist." (UPN) Written by Diane Ruggiero. Directed by Marcos Siega.
In which our high school gumshoe heroine pieced together the chain of events the night she was drugged and raped at a party. Arguably the series' best and most representative episode (albeit incomprehensible if you weren't watching from the start), "Dentist" merged the show's foreground and background narratives, and blended dread, mystery, sarcasm and sadness into one irresistible hour.
10. "Desperate Housewives: The Sun Won't Set." (ABC) Written by Jenna Bans. Directed by Stephen Cragg.
As regular readers know, I don't like this show very much; I think it's too slick, shallow and pleased with itself. But this episode -- in which Wisteria Lane formed a neighborhood watch committee, Susan learned the identity of her biological father, and Bree confronted the ugly truth about her suitor/stalker George -- showed me what the series could be, and what fans say it already is. The electrifying blowup in the restaurant -- with George interrupting Bree's dance with an old college chum and trying to force an engagement ring onto her finger -- felt both dreamlike and real. Just thinking about it makes me wince, and I mean that as the highest praise.
http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/zollerseitz/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1134886176232600.xml&coll=1
John Spencer, 1946-2005
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic
It was a shock to hear of the death of the classy and gutty actor John Spencer, who has been a lynch pin to the success of “The West Wing,” as Leo McGarry, who after serving President Bartlet’s as chief of staff most of his two terms, had to step down from the post in a macabre foreshadowing last season because of a heart attack. C.J. Cregg stepped up to the chief of staff post and McGarry was unexpectedly tapped to be vice presidential running mate for Jimmy Smits’ charismatic character Matt Santos.
That team imitated life, with a former Washington insider with a heart condition picked as vice president. Friday, he imitated the role: Like McGarry, Spencer suffered a heart attack. He would have turned 59 Tuesday
Of all the celebrities networks allow reporters to meet at parties and events, Spencer stood out as one of the most genuine people, grateful and humble in taking compliments for his Emmy-winning work, enthusiastic to talk about his craft.
He had been a standout on TV even before the McGarry role, though, on “L.A. Law” and whatever short-lived series or cameos he scrounged up. A long absence in his resume between the days when he played Cathy’s love interest on “The Patty Duke Show” and the late 80s was due to alcoholism. The challenges of his recovery also informed his acting and McGarry became one of the more real characters in a medium filled with fakes.
Now that the actor is gone, it’s up to “The West Wing” and producer John Wells to step up and culminate a series that probably would have ended after this season anyway, on a high note that honors the memory of one of its strongest cast members.
http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/2005/12/john_spencer_19.html
The 2005-2006 TV Season
Ask Matt
(from the Ask (TV Critic) Matt (Roush) column at TVGuide.com
Question: I'd like to know why there isn't a sign of life for Arrested Development on another network. Over the past several years, FX and BBC America have made names for themselves with The Shield and The Office purely because of their critical acclaim and, especially, their appearance at the Emmys. Why would a network such as FX not wish to invest in a series that would almost certainly bring them Emmy nominations and critical acclaim while boosting their popularity? After all, Fox's low ratings are highs for basic cable, and I think three years has proven that AD has enough of a dedicated audience to follow it to cable. I've rarely if ever watched FX, Bravo, Trio, etc., but I'd definitely tune in if they resurrected the best sitcom of the decade. What gives? — Shaun L.
Matt Roush: Before anyone starts pounding on Shaun for being behind the curve, let me just say that this question came in long before news started to surface last week that Showtime is mulling over a rescue of Arrested Development once Fox officially cancels it. (ABC is also considering the show, but that seems much less likely to me.) One of the sticking points, according to the trade reports, is the show's hefty price tag, which is why FX in particular would be ill-equipped to pick it up. The reason Showtime is the most logical suitor is the pay cabler's hunger for buzzworthy programming, especially when it comes to launching a hit comedy. Saving Arrested Development and pairing it with the equally cultish suburban satire Weeds would be a PR bonanza, even if the numbers still left a lot to be desired. In the world of cable, it's often all about establishing a brand, and how better than to give a new lease on life to one of the industry's most-worshiped, least-watched masterpieces? Even so, I'm not entirely convinced (until the ink is dry on the contract) that this will come to pass. But how cool if it does.
________________________________________
Question: In light of the recent news of Alias' impending cancellation, I was wondering how you feel the show will be written about in future television-history books. For me, Alias was love at first sight and I have been a loyal follower since the days of double agency and SD-6. While the show has had a glitch creatively in recent years (and I think you would agree), it is still safe to say that Alias is one of my all-time great TV love affairs, if for nothing else than the first two seasons alone. I will be a devoted viewer until the very end. — Jill
Matt Roush: I'm with it from start to finish as well, out of loyalty if nothing else, but here's an idea: Let's start referring to Alias' departure as a "retirement," not a "cancellation," OK? Five years is more than most cult shows get, especially on a major network. The fact that the producers are getting the opportunity to plot out an actual series finale is something to celebrate, not mourn. But to address the larger issue: When we look back on Alias, it will be with fondness and admiration for its creativity, its style (the wigs and creative cinematography convinced us that these characters were literally all over the place), and most especially for the way it threaded emotional subtext about family and loyalty into a rip-roaring spy thriller. J.J. Abrams is one of the top TV auteurs of our time, and Alias (along with Felicity and Lost) is a vivid example of his inexhaustibly passionate love for the medium.
________________________________________
Question: [Quoting from my Dec. 12 column]: "Pasadena's quick fade means that it probably had little to do with the genesis of Housewives, but watching it now, it clearly was ahead of its time. If it were being pitched and produced today, chances are it might actually have succeeded." So why not recast it (or keep as much as the orig