Hot Off The Press! The Latest Television News and Info [Text View] - Page 53

fredfa

07-10-06, 08:02 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

Wes Craven, Nick Nolte, Joan and Melissa Rivers and "The Black Carpet"
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine”

It's going to take more than Raven-Symone to get me motivated for "The Cheetah Girls 2," so I'm taking a pass, though I know that in some households with tweeners this is a very big deal indeed. I don't have tweeners and I'm working out some Wi-Fi glitches so if you wanted to know about Raven, I apologize in advance.

However, I'm going to see the Starz Entertainment Group hootenanny. I know, you probably don't know what Starz is other than they play most of the movies you watch on cable...but, they've got a documentary coming up called "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film," and Craven is on the panel. Immediately following that is "Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film," and narrator Nick Nolte is here, allegedly, so that might be very interesting indeed. And no, I'm not going to post his mug shot. Too easy.

Ugh. The TV Guide Channel has somehow been given its "first ever TCA event" and is hosting a party with Joan and Melissa Rivers, Tracey Gold, some industry people you don't care about, Kimberly Caldwell, an alleged "American Idol" finalist, Rosanna Tavarez, winner of "Popstars," Lisa Joyner, John Henson (he's funny, at least) and Madison Michele (she's hot, at least). Gotta say, that's not exactly the party magnet, but it's the only game in town unless we leave the hotel.

Later: BET is having a post-party and they are calling it "The BET Black Carpet Lounge." Here's the wording, verbatim: "Exclusive...engaging..and definitely for the "grown-and-sexy" set. Don't miss it." Yes, of course I'm going. I feel it's my duty to at least pop my head in there. And honestly, this item was just sitting there like a ball on a tee. I was tempted. I really was. But no, I'm taking the middle road. I'll let you know if the drapes match the carpet later tonight.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

fredfa

07-10-06, 08:16 PM

Cable TV Notebook
USA psyched about 'Psych' bow

By John Dempsey Variety.com Jul. 10, 2006

USA hopes Friday night will foretell a bright ratings future.

Net's "Psych" bowed Friday as the highest-rated debut episode of a basic-cable series so far this year.

In all, 6.1 million total viewers tuned in, scoring USA's best numbers since the two-hour "The 4400" debut harvested 7.4 million viewers in July 2004. (At that time, "4400" was a six-hour limited series that scored such big numbers USA commissioned it as a series.)

"Psych" is a tongue-in-cheek detective series starring James Rodayand Dule Hill as crime-fighting buddies.

With "Psych," USA also was bullish about the fact that 2.76 million people ages 25-54, the network's target demo, watched the special 90-minute premiere, which was close to the 2.9 million people over 50 who tuned in.

The older skew is the one drawback to USA's long-running hit series "Monk," which kicked off its fifth season as the 9 p.m. lead-in to "Psych" with 5.1 million viewers. While a strong rating, that's the lowest new-season premiere number for "Monk" since season one, when the episode drew 4.77 million.

And more than half of "Monk's" viewers, 2.92 million, were older than 50. But a USA spokeswoman said "Monk" was playing out of its usual 10 p.m. timeslot in order to provide a known commodity table setter for the new series. Original episodes of "Monk" will continue at 9 and "Psych" at 10 for the rest of the summer.

fredfa

07-10-06, 08:32 PM

"Fallen'' and ABC Family
Rather Signs with Mark Cuban's HDNet

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog Monday, July 10, 2006

Over the past year, ABC Family has been making big strides, going from a cable channel that has gone numerous changes in ownership and tone and dealt almost exclusively in repeats of such network fare as "Gilmore Girls'' to an aggressive producer of original series and films aimed at its 18-to-34 audience. The result: A big boost in viewership.

Its latest original -- "Kyle XY,'' a sci fi thriller about a teenage boy with extraordinary abilities but no memories -- racked up 2.8 million its first week on the channel and then drew another 5 million viewers when it was repeated on ABC, winning its time period for the night.

On The Tour today, though, it was pretty clear that the network's executives think they have a next-big-thing in yet another bit of TV fantasy: "Fallen,'' which makes its debut July 23 at 8 p.m. Based on the teen thriller books of veteran comic book writer Tom Sniegoski (Batman and Hellboy, among others), "Fallen'' involves a teenager who discovers he is a fallen angel and becomes involved in a war between angels both good and evil.

"Fallen'' airs as a two-hour movie but ABC Family is already confident it can build a franchise. It has committed to another four hours next summer and, to bridge the gap between segements, it will create an alternative reality game online. The game will be heavily promoted at the end of the two-hour film, including clues for how to play it. Paul Lee, the channel's president, didn't offer extensive details -- "I don't want to give too much away'' -- but said ABC Family hopes the online presence will keep viewers involved in the tales of fallen angels until next summer.

"It's an opportunity for 'Fallen' to live on our network, live on our dot-com and live on ITunes -- and live for a very long time,'' said Lee.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/charlie_mccollum/index.html

fredfa

07-10-06, 08:37 PM

June Allyson, 88

By BOB THOMAS Associated Press Writer July 10, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- June Allyson, the sunny, raspy-voiced "perfect wife" of James Stewart, Van Johnson and other movie heroes, has died, her daughter said Monday. She was 88.

Allyson died Saturday at her home in Ojai, with her husband of nearly 30 years, David Ashrow, at her side, Pamela Allyson Powell said. She died of pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis after a long illness.

During World War II, American GIs pinned up photos of Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable, but June Allyson was the girl they wanted to come home to. Petite, blond and alive with fresh-faced optimism, she seemed the ideal sweetheart and wife, supportive and unthreatening.

"I had the most wonderful last meeting with June at her house. ... We were such dear friends. I will miss her," said lifelong friend and fellow actress Esther Williams.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/sns-ap-obit-june-allyson,0,5278756,print.story?coll=cl-tv-features

fredfa

07-10-06, 08:38 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
"Fallen'' and ABC Family

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog Monday, July 10, 2006

Over the past year, ABC Family has been making big strides, going from a cable channel that has gone numerous changes in ownership and tone and dealt almost exclusively in repeats of such network fare as "Gilmore Girls'' to an aggressive producer of original series and films aimed at its 18-to-34 audience. The result: A big boost in viewership.

Its latest original -- "Kyle XY,'' a sci fi thriller about a teenage boy with extraordinary abilities but no memories -- racked up 2.8 million its first week on the channel and then drew another 5 million viewers when it was repeated on ABC, winning its time period for the night.

On The Tour today, though, it was pretty clear that the network's executives think they have a next-big-thing in yet another bit of TV fantasy: "Fallen,'' which makes its debut July 23 at 8 p.m. Based on the teen thriller books of veteran comic book writer Tom Sniegoski (Batman and Hellboy, among others), "Fallen'' involves a teenager who discovers he is a fallen angel and becomes involved in a war between angels both good and evil.

"Fallen'' airs as a two-hour movie but ABC Family is already confident it can build a franchise. It has committed to another four hours next summer and, to bridge the gap between segements, it will create an alternative reality game online. The game will be heavily promoted at the end of the two-hour film, including clues for how to play it. Paul Lee, the channel's president, didn't offer extensive details -- "I don't want to give too much away'' -- but said ABC Family hopes the online presence will keep viewers involved in the tales of fallen angels until next summer.

"It's an opportunity for 'Fallen' to live on our network, live on our dot-com and live on ITunes -- and live for a very long time,'' said Lee.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/charlie_mccollum/index.html

DoubleDAZ

07-10-06, 09:04 PM

FWIW, I enjoyed Psych. It was different and I can see it will probably not appeal to the masses, but different is sometimes good. :)

RIP to June Allyson! She is one of my all-time favorite actresses.

fredfa

07-10-06, 09:50 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
The Starz Come Out

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog July 10, 2006

Michael Ruggiero is vice president for programming and scheduling at Starz. He was been onstage while a clip was run from ''Going to Pieces,'' a new documentary about slasher films, which Starz will air in October. The clip had violence -- duh -- and nudity.

''Clearly the Disney Channel presentation has concluded,'' Ruggiero said.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

Inundated

07-10-06, 10:05 PM

Thanks for posting Rich Heldenfels, fred. I sometimes see him here before I get to the Beacon's website!

And notice his reference to one-named LeBron, otherwise known as NBA megastar LeBron James. He's a local, so we don't need that last name thing...and I'm not sure anyone else does at this point.

(I used to live basically a 1/4 mile from his mansion here in suburban Akron. Of course, there was a huge increase in housing values in that 1/4 mile from my place to LeBron's. :D)

fredfa

07-10-06, 10:09 PM

As you know, Inundated, Rich is one of my favorites. And he has turned into a blogging machine at the TCA Summer Tour.

So he'll be getting lots of play in this thread!

fredfa

07-10-06, 10:58 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
The Starz Come Out (Continued)

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog July 10, 2006

Ruggiero had a lot more to say, probably too much for an executive when the subject is horror and the panel also includes Wes Craven. But questions were eventually directed to Craven including one by me, which -- at Starz's request -- included identifying myself by name and publication.

''Akron, Ohio?'' Craven said with a big smile. He noted that he was from Cleveland. I knew that, of course, but it was nice to make a connection. And Craven was interesting -- making slasher films sound more important to the culture than they may seem -- both during the press conference and when we chatted briefly afterward.

I had hoped for more time with him. But, as sometimes happens at these things, he was taken out one door when I was waiting at another. Then, when a few of us caught up with him, after a couple of questions a publicist rather insistently took him away from another interview. In any case, from the press conference and the chat after, I got enough for a decent little column for tomorrow's Beacon Journal. (I'll post a link here later.)

Because I was chasin' Craven, I missed the first part of a press conference for a new Starz documentary about Hunter S. Thompson. I'm an old school Thompson fan, and the added attraction was the presence of Nick Nolte, who narrates the documentary and who knew Thompson.

Time and wear are evident on Nolte, visible even under a fedora and a white beard; rasp in the voice has gotten heavy, too. But he was -- is -- a pretty good actor, and attention was paid when he recited Thompson's suicide note. Nolte thought it was like poetry. He made it sound that way, too.

After that press conference, I went back to the room and wrote the Craven column around visits from hotel staffers trying to fix my air conditioning. Fortunately, they did so before the room became an even better imitation of a sauna.

I also wrestled with a few computer problems -- the joy of a new laptop on the road -- before finally managing to get the column sent. Then I went down to a gathering by the TV Guide Channel because I wanted a glimpse of Joan Rivers. Turned out she had come and gone, and in a message delivered by satellite at that.

Oh, well. Tomorrow will bring new adventures.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

fredfa

07-10-06, 11:02 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
TCA-Day One

By Anne Becker at Broadcasting & Cable’s blog bcbeat.com July 10, 2006

And thus it has begun. The semi-annual dog-and-pony show that is TCA, wherein network executives and talent (and copious handlers) commingle with the faithful corps of television critics from around the country. Ensconced in the Spanish villa-style surroundings of the Pasadena Ritz Carlton, the critics hunker down for up to three weeks of panels with actors from upcoming shows, banking interviews for future articles with often...demanding...questions. While you can find the event’s nuggets of news on our website at broadcastingcable.com, my L.A. colleagues and I will dish out some of the more fun/fluffy stuff for you here on our newly redesigned blog, BCBeat.

Today's first day of the tour, which ushered in a week of presentations from the cable networks, was quiet. Disney/ABC kicked things off with presentations for their new ABC Family and Disney Channel shows. All in attendance were well-behaved, with nary a contentious critic question asked or talent snafu made. ABC Family’s panel looked like things could have taken a turn for the ugly side when one critic started asking Tom Sniegoski, the author of the angel-themed The Fallen books that the network has turned into the original movie Fallen, if he meant for them have religious overtones. The questioner seemed appeased by the answer – that they were more religious than Michael Landon on Highway to Heaven, but not out of the bible or anything.

Disney’s panel was, like, so Raven, with the star and her Cheetah Girl friends on hand to push the upcoming sequel to their first musical movie. The very adult and VERY serious 20-year-old Raven walked the doting critics through why she mysteriously dropped her last name and then readopted it (something about not wanting to confuse the network’s younger viewers at first with two names?), whether being an executive producer on her recent work has changed her (no) and whether she still talks to Bill Cosby, her co-star from her toddler days on TV’s Cosby Show (“I heard through the grapevine he watches some of what I do, but I don’t talk to him as much as I should. We’re all very busy in this industry.”).

Other than that, smooth sailing, said the ABC Family team over some post-panel drinks. They were tickled that the biggest bump in the road was clothing-related: Sam Murphy, a compact actor from the channel’s original series Three Moons Over Milford (which premieres tonight), requested a suit from the show’s wardrobe department be sent to the Ritz for his panel, only to be sent one from avuncular-ly oafish Spin City alum Richard Kind, who had just taped a guest appearance on the show. A wardrobe malfunction that reminds me of the TV Guide party with fashionistas Joan and Melissa Rivers is going on now. Off to check it out.

http://broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138.html

fredfa

07-10-06, 11:08 PM

TV Notebook
Emmy Submissions

Pssst!

Wanna see some of the TV episodes which were submitted to the Emmy folks for award consideration?

The people who run the Los Angeles Times "The Envelope" (Award) forum have come up with a way for us civilians to do just that.

Here is the magic key:

http://goldderbyforums.latimes.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1106078764/m/9811005353

Enjoy!

fredfa

07-10-06, 11:17 PM

TV Notebook
USA 'Psych'-ed Over Ratings Record

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in the Channel Island TV Industry blog

Broadcasters might want to take another look at the assumption that no one watches TV on Friday nights anymore.

Last week, USA drew record numbers for the Friday premiere of "Psych," the light-hearted new drama with James Roday as a man who convinces cops he's a crime-solving psychic. An average of 6 million total viewers tuned in, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research, making "Psych" basic cable's biggest series debut so far this year.

Ad-supported cable series have been on a tear this summer. You may recall that last month, TNT's season two premiere of the cop drama "The Closer" with Kyra Sedgwick delivered a record-breaking 8.2 million total viewers. And earlier this month, AMC's miniseries "Broken Trail" roped in 9.8 million total viewers, although nearly three-quarters were over age 50 and thus of scant interest to advertisers.

Broadcasters aren't the only ones who should be worried. This ain't good news for HBO, either, is it?

http://hollywoodhotline.typepad.com/watcher/

fredfa

07-10-06, 11:21 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

A Party As Bad As It Sounded
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine”

I've never understood the purpose of the TV Guide Channel, or why anyone would watch it. Is there a point I'm not getting? It seems to me the channel is now one of those shallow wading pools that catch clowns who fall off tall ladders at the circus. I mean, that was a D-list party if there ever was one and instead of being curiously funny or sickly hilarious it was just sad. As in, "It must be awful to catch a whiff of fame and then spend the rest of your life sniffing around for it when it blows away."

Even Joan Rivers skipped out and she was, ostensibly, the big attraction. Her daughter was there. Hey kids, use sunscreen. A helpful reminder from your friendly TV critic.

I never saw Kimberly Caldwell when she was on "American Idol," so I went back and looked at some pictures. She looks pretty. And sweet. But now she's rocking this serious platinum job, has a lot of tattoos and seems hell-bent on either extending her alloted 15 or finding a way to fill the 13 she has left.

Unfortunately, when you end up on the TV Guide Channel, it's like falling asleep on BART and ending up out in Pittsburg-Baypoint.

That's the end of the line and you're a long way, metaphorically, from the Embarcadero. (Apologies to you people who don't live in the Bay Area. The point: These stars are not in Kansas anymore. Or Oz.)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

fredfa

07-10-06, 11:29 PM

TV Notebook
Sally Field tapped as matriarch in ABC drama

By Kimberly Nordyke The Hollywood Reporter July 11, 2006

Sally Field has joined the cast of ABC's upcoming drama series "Brothers & Sisters."

The Touchstone Television show is a family drama centering on five adult siblings, played by Calista Flockhart, Rachel Griffiths, Balthazar Getty, Dave Annable and Matthew Rhys. Field will play Nora, the mother of the siblings. The role has been recast as Betty Buckley portrayed the family matriarch in the pilot

The one-hour drama is set to air at 10 PM ET/PT. Sundays during the 2006-07 season.

Field has won two Oscars, for her performances in "Places in the Heart" and "Norma Rae." She also received an Emmy for the 1976 NBC miniseries "Sybil," playing the title role as a young woman with multiple personalities.

More recently, she reprised her Emmy-winning role on NBC's "ER," which earned her the award for guest actress in a drama series in 2001. She also recently appeared in "The Glass Menangerie" at the Kennedy Center and in the feature film "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde."

Her credits also include the films "Forrest Gump," "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Steel Magnolias," while her TV credits include appearances on CBS' "Murphy Brown" and Fox's "King of the Hill."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002802761

fredfa

07-10-06, 11:56 PM

TV Notebook
Ex-'Apprentice' Jennifer Murphy marries 'Extreme Makeover' dentist

By Steve Rogers realitytvworld.com 07/10/2006

Former The Apprentice candidate Jennifer Murphy has gotten married, wedding former Extreme Makeover dentist Dr. Bill Dorfman in a Friday evening ceremony.

According to People, the non-denominational ceremony took place at Donald Trump's recently opened Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles. Longtime The Apprentice viewers will remember the oceanside Rancho Palos Verdes, CA golf course as one of the two job opportunities that Trump offered original Apprentice winner Bill Rancic (Rancic chose to instead work on Trump International Hotel, Trump's Chicago project.)

In addition to Trump himself, Esther Williams and several of Murphy's fellow former Apprentice contestants were reportedly among the 300 guests who attended the ceremony. Murphy, a 27-year-old former Miss Oregon who appeared on The Apprentice's Fall 2005 fourth edition, wore a Samin Haute Couture gown and diamond drop earrings from XIV Karats, a Beverly Hills jeweler. XIV Karats also designed the couple's wedding bands.

The couple first met when the 47-year-old Dorfman attended the 2004 Miss USA pageant (which Trump owns) in which Murphy was competing. Despite their 2004 meeting, they reportedly only began dating a year later when Discus Dental, Dorfman's company, hired Murphy for a teeth whitening ad. The couple got engaged last Christmas when Dorfman proposed to Murphy with a 3-carat diamond ring.

Murphy -- who Trump once called "one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen" -- was eliminated from The Apprentice 4 when, following an Episode 6 loss that represented the most lopsided task defeat in show history, Trump fired four members of the losing team.

Murphy and Dorfman -- who shouldn't be confused with Garth Fisher, the former Extreme Makeover plastic surgeon that Rock Star hostess Brooke Burke recently divorced -- are honeymooning in Fiji.

http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/former-apprentice-jennifer-murphy-marries-extreme-makeover-dentist-4220.php

fredfa

07-11-06, 12:00 AM

The New York Times Obituary
Ross Tompkins, 68

'Tonight' Show Pianist, Is Dead

Ross Tompkins, a jazz pianist best known for his long tenure with Doc Severinsen's big band on the "Tonight" show, died on June 30 at his home in St. Augustine, Fla. He was 68.

His death was announced by his family, who did not specify the cause, although published reports said it was lung cancer.

He recorded several albums as a leader, but was best known as a sideman and did some of his most acclaimed work in support of other musicians.

Born in Detroit on May 13, 1938, he studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and began his career in 1960 in New York, where he worked with Benny Goodman, Wes Montgomery, Eric Dolphy, the Clark Terry & Bob Brookmeyer quintet and many others.

In 1971 he moved to Los Angeles, where he joined Mr. Severinsen's "Tonight" ensemble. He remained on the show until Johnny Carson retired as host in 1992, ending Mr. Severinsen's long run as its bandleader.

During his television years Mr. Tompkins also worked regularly in the Los Angeles area, in and out of the recording studios. His most notable and long-lasting association was with the drummer Louie Bellson's big band. In the mid-1980's he began working with the trumpeter and singer Jack Sheldon, and in recent years the two performed frequently as a duo.

He is survived by a brother, Rick; three daughters, Teri, Suzie and Janine; and five grandchildren.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/arts/09tompkins.html?pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-11-06, 12:03 AM

Obituary
June Allyson Dead at 88

Screen' s 'Perfect Wife'

By Claudia Luther, Special to the Los Angeles Times, July 10, 2006
(Times staff writer Dennis McLellan contributed to this report. )

Actress June Allyson, the perky blonde with the husky voice who was one of Hollywood's most beloved stars in the 1940s and 1950s, has died. She was 88.

Allyson died Saturday at her home in Ojai of pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis after a long illness, said her daughter, Pamela Powell, on Monday. David Ashrow, Allyson's husband of 29 years, was at her side.

"She was a joy to know," said actress Ann Rutherford, who first met Allyson in the 1940s. "She was a wonderful actress and just confronted her life with vast enthusiasm."

Aquatic star Esther Williams, another MGM colleague, said:"Junie and I were wonderful friends. It was a wonderful relationship. Whenever we did a movie, we'd trade scripts and talk about it and see if there was a way to make it more interesting. She was a very special little lady. Very strong; people didn't know that."

Rising from a teenage chorus girl on Broadway to a contract player for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Allyson began in Hollywood as a dancer and a singer in short films. She later co-starred with Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson and Dick Powell in a series of wifely and other supportive roles. Powell, who became her real-life husband in 1945, died in 1963.

Barely 5-foot-1 and weighing less than 100 pounds, she was everybody's sweetheart. As Ginger Rogers once said, "She's the girl every man wants to marry and the girl every woman wants as a friend."

Allyson's simple blond pageboy, Peter Pan collars and no-nonsense manner stamped her as the All American girl next door, the woman whom millions of GIs wanted to come home to. She was consistently voted a top star by movie magazines and box-office surveys.

Among her well-known movies were her breakthrough film, "Two Girls and a Sailor," in which she co-starred with Johnson and Gloria DeHaven; the 1949 remake of "Little Women," playing tomboy Jo; and three movies with Stewart: "The Stratton Story," "The Glenn Miller Story" and "Strategic Air Command."

After she married Powell and had two children, Allyson made a few films and TV movies and also had her own TV show, an anthology series, from 1959-61.

Following Powell's death, she worked a little in movies and appeared on Broadway replacing Julie Harris in "40 Carats." She also appeared on television programs, including guest spots on CBS' "The Judy Garland Show" and several TV series.

But life was not easy for Allyson after Powell's death. . Talking to CNN's Larry King in 2001 of what she called her "tunnel years," Allyson said, "I just locked myself away and -- I found the bottle."

She married and divorced Powell's barber. Then she met Ashrow, a dentist-turned-actor whom she married in 1976 and credited with helping her to turn her life around.

Drinking and other troubles hardly represented the good-girl image of Allyson that was fostered throughout her career both by her own sunny personality and the Hollywood publicity machine.

Allyson wrote in her autobiography that she was using her real name, Eleanor, when a choreographer for "Sing Out the News," her first Broadway show, decided she needed a new name. She told King that "actually it was George Abbott," the famed Broadway director, who changed her name.

She said Abbott liked the name "June" because it was "kind of sunny" and she picked Allison, which was a family name; she changed the spelling slightly.

Once in Hollywood, the spunky Allyson was buoyed by her ability to form close friendships. Among those who befriended her were Lucille Ball, the star of the 1943 film version of "Best Foot Forward," and Mickey Rooney and Garland, the stars of "Girl Crazy," in which Allyson had a specialty number.

Getting a foothold in Hollywood was not easy for Allyson, whom MGM movie chief Louis B. Mayer considered not conventionally beautiful. Although she got into films as a singer and dancer, Allyson was the first to admit she was not good at either.

Ball, who also starred in the 1944 film, "Meet the People," in which Allyson had a role, counseled the discouraged Allyson not to give up on Hollywood.

"You're here now, and you're going to stay," Ball said, according to Allyson's biography. Allyson's next film was "Two Girls and a Sailor," a musical that made her a star.

Although Allyson gave various birth dates for herself, her daughter said she was born Oct. 7, 1917, exactly two years later than the most frequently referenced date of birth.

For 13 years, Allyson's studio biography also stated that she was born "Jan Allyson" to French-English parents. But her daughter said Allyson was born Eleanor Geisman in the Bronx to a French mother and a Dutch father -- and a rocky family situation.

At age 8, she was seriously injured when a tree fell on her when she was riding her bicycle. The cost of her medical care and physical therapy impoverished the family, which was already desperate after her father had left.

"Sometimes my mother would not eat dinner when I was eating, and I'd ask why," Allyson wrote in her 1982 biography, written with Frances Spatz Leighton. "She would say she wasn't hungry, but later I realized there was only enough food for one."

The two of them moved often, and sometimes young Ella was put in the care of her grandmother or another relative.

Eventually, Allyson could go without a cast and a brace. She wanted desperately to learn to dance and, not able to afford dance lessons, she picked it up by seeing Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies.

When she boasted that she could dance as well as Rogers, her friends dared her to try out for a Broadway musical comedy chorus line, and she got the part. She was in seventh grade.

After several years in many chorus lines, Allyson graduated to small parts, including a bit with Ethel Merman in Cole Porter's "Panama Hattie." In that same musical, Allyson was understudy to Betty Hutton and, in a classic Broadway fantasy, Allyson stepped in for Hutton when the star got the measles.

Allyson's performance caught the attention of Abbott, who needed "a funny little girl like you to ham up some scenes with Nancy Walker" in "Best Foot Forward." When the musical got picked up by MGM for a film, Allyson found herself a contract player in Hollywood.

She arrived in Los Angeles by train with $10 to her name and knowing only two people -- Powell, whom she had met once backstage on Broadway, and Johnson, whom she had dated in New York.

She and Johnson would later be cast together as a romantic couple in a number of films, including "Two Girls and a Sailor" (1944) and "The Bride Goes Wild" (1948). Movie fans "were panting for a marriage" between them, Allyson wrote. But they were always just friends.

As an actress, she had an appealing naturalness, and she had two valuable skills: She could memorize her lines almost instantly, and she could turn on the tears.

"They liked me because I was the only actress who not only cried on cue, I could also cry in key," Allyson told the Los Angeles Times in 1968. "That's very important in musicals."

During the filming of "Meet the People," which starred Powell, Allyson developed a crush on the actor, 15 years her senior. She had first met him in New York when he asked to be introduced after a performance of "Best Foot Forward." Powell advised her on roles, including telling her which of the two sisters she should play in "Two Girls and a Sailor." When Powell's marriage to actress Joan Blondell foundered, Powell's attentions turned to Allyson. Blondell accused Allyson of stealing her husband, which Allyson denied.

Allyson described her early years with Powell in fairy tale terms, but in their 18 years together, there were some hard times. They separated once when Allyson fell in love with actor Alan Ladd, who was also married. Later, Allyson filed for divorce from Powell, who had been working nonstop running Four Star Productions, which produced many series for CBS. They reconciled about a year before he was diagnosed with cancer.

Allyson wrote in her autobiography that once, when Powell asked her what her philosophy of life was, she replied, "If you see someone without a smile, give him yours."

"Richard almost fell off the chair laughing," Allyson wrote. He exclaimed, "Oh, God, don't let her change!"

In 1984, Allyson became the spokesperson for Depend, a product for people with incontinence. The June Allyson Foundation, formed in 1997, raises money for research and education about incontinence.

In addition to her husband and daughter, Allyson is survived by her son, Richard; a grandson; and her brother, Dr. Arthur Peters.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-allyson11jul11,1,7876157.story

fredfa

07-11-06, 12:08 AM

Cable Tv Notebook
MSNBC’s Star Carves Anti-Fox Niche

By Bill Carter The New York Times July 11, 2006

He is either the leading man of MSNBC or its leading agent provocateur, but Keith Olbermann has no problem embracing either role.

“You can’t spell momentum without Olbermann — or something like that,” he said in a telephone interview, with a typical sprinkle of wry in his voice.

The momentum reference related to MSNBC’s recent aggressive positioning of the program “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” as the centerpiece of this all-news cable network’s latest effort to become more competitive with Fox News Channel and CNN.

MSNBC revamped its prime-time schedule two weeks ago, shelving many of its prime-time hosts in favor of documentary-style programs but retaining “Countdown,” a program the network cites as its great growth story.

That growth, while coming from a base that Fox News would find disastrously puny, is demonstrable, especially among the group that is chiefly sold to news advertisers: people between the ages of 25 and 54. For the last quarter, Mr. Olbermann, who is 47, has seen his ratings in that group grow by more than 30 percent.

The growth has not been unfailingly steady, as competitors at Fox and CNN pointed out. They noted that Mr. Olbermann did better in February and March than he has since. Still, for the year, Mr. Olbermann has managed to climb past CNN into second place in the news channel competition at 8 p.m. among that 25-to-54 group. That qualifies as a feat for MSNBC, though Mr. Olbermann’s show remains little more than a dot in the rearview mirror of Fox News.

Even from that far back, he seems to have been able to honk his horn loud enough to raise hackles at Fox, which, Mr. Olbermann enthusiastically acknowledges, has been his precise intention as well as a useful marketing strategy.

He was especially able to redden the neck of the time period’s king, Bill O’Reilly, starting this winter, when the two men engaged in a widely discussed barb-filled feud.

Mr. Olbermann began frequently naming Mr. O’Reilly as the winner in a segment he calls “The Worst Person in the World,” tweaking cable news’s most popular host for such excesses (according to Mr. Olbermann) as his declaration last year (in jest, Mr. O’Reilly said) that a resolution passed in San Francisco to ban military recruitment in schools was so un-American that he was inviting Al Qaeda to blow up Coit Tower.

The worst-person citations eventually riled Mr. O’Reilly enough that he began a petition drive directed at Mr. Olbermann (though he did not mention him by name; he has apparently never mentioned Mr. Olbermann’s name), suggesting that he be replaced by a long-ago MSNBC host, Phil Donahue. Mr. Donahue’s ratings, Mr. O’Reilly said in February, eclipsed anything MSNBC had achieved since. By the next day, Mr. Olbermann was celebrating the petition and offering to sign it himself. Now he gleefully notes that Mr. O’Reilly (whose name he has no trouble uttering) only helped his cause by taking the bait and responding to the gibes.

“You don’t punch down,” Mr. Olbermann said. “If you’re in my position,” he added, referring to his initially microscopic ratings next to Mr. O’Reilly’s, “you punch upwards.”

Every time Mr. O’Reilly took umbrage at the slams, it seemed to add a bounce to Mr. Olbermann’s ratings — one reason, perhaps, that Mr. O’Reilly’s reactions seem to have tailed off more recently. Nobody at Fox News wants Mr. Olbermann to get any more of a draft from Mr. O’Reilly’s popularity.

Mr. Olbermann thinks he knows one reason behind his gains. He believes that Mr. O’Reilly’s audience, which is still huge, is aging. He noted that Mr. O’Reilly’s total viewer ratings are basically flat, while his numbers in the younger audience group have been dropping — down about 15 percent for the last quarter. “There is no other conclusion to draw than he is not adding younger viewers,” Mr. Olbermann said.

Of course, in terms of numbers of viewers in that younger age group, Mr. O’Reilly is still playing in another league, with about three times as many as Mr. Olbermann. But that does represent a small slice of the total audience for Mr. O’Reilly.

MSNBC’s research claims that the median age for Mr. O’Reilly’s audience is 71, while Mr. Olbermann’s is 59. (Fox and CNN both report that the only figures they get for median age of shows with older audiences is “65 plus,” and that Mr. O’Reilly’s audience falls into that category.)

The age discrepancy has led Mr. Olbermann to dish out even more mockery in his attacks. “It’s slipping away from you,” he said, addressing Mr. O’Reilly on a “Countdown” segment last month. “You don’t know what to do. You can’t even lie well any more. Seriously: I understand. It’s called panic.” He added, “You begin to see the audience dying off, and the creases deepening in your forehead.”

Lately Mr. O’Reilly has resisted giving Mr. Olbermann the satisfaction of more attention. Mr. O’Reilly was on vacation last week, so Fox responded through Irina Briganti, the spokeswoman for the channel. Her comments, matched with Mr. Olbermann’s biting remarks, reflected how corrosive the byplay has become.

“Because of his personal demons, Keith has imploded everywhere he’s worked,” Ms. Briganti said. “From lashing out at co-workers to personally attacking Bill O’Reilly and all things Fox, it’s obvious Keith is a train wreck waiting to happen. And like all train wrecks, people might tune in out of morbid curiosity, but they eventually tune out, as evidenced by Keith’s recent ratings decline. In the meantime, we hope he enjoys his paranoid view from the bottom of the ratings ladder and wish him well on his inevitable trip to oblivion.”

The references to personal demons and implosions touched on Mr. Olbermann’s résumé, which includes an array of positions over the last decade. At times he has been in public disputes with employers. More recently he landed in gossip columns after some nasty e-mail messages he sent were published. In one, he mocked the intelligence of the MSNBC host Rita Cosby; in others, he used vituperative language in responding to e-mail critics.

Mr. Olbermann apologized for the e-mail exchanges, saying he had been stupid and should have known better than to engage in such confrontations. He said he wouldn’t be e-mailing viewers again.

But the e-mail incidents offered an opening for critics like his antagonists at Fox to point to earlier evidence of a volatile nature. Certainly Mr. Olbermann has evoked a lot of strong reactions in his career.

He first came to the nation’s attention at ESPN, where his fast-paced commentary and sharp writing established a pattern: younger audiences liked Mr. Olbermann; traditionalists despised him.

Mr. Olbermann said, “People who didn’t like what I was doing would call and say: ‘Is this guy a jackass or what?’ You can tailor what you’re doing or saying to other people’s expectations, but you’re going to wind up acting.” He freely admitted, “The reaction of the audience has not been paramount with me.”

Still, Mr. Olbermann became a star at ESPN. His “Sports Center” work with his partner Dan Patrick became a trademark of the channel: sports delivered with irreverence and insouciance, like Mr. Olbermann’s home run call, “It’s deep, and I don’t think it’s playable.”

Mr. Olbermann acknowledged that his departure from ESPN in 1997 led to a “nuclear war.” The channel said he had abused the company’s rules; he said the company had a “corporate ‘all we have are the rules’ mentality.” At that point he began his first tenure at MSNBC, in a news show that mainly consisted of covering the Monica Lewinsky scandal during the Clinton administration.

“I did that for 218 straight days,” Mr. Olbermann said, recalling his rising frustration. From there it was back to sports for, of all organizations, Fox. When that ended after about two-and-a-half years, Mr. Olbermann landed at CNN briefly as an interim host.

Then, in 2003, MSNBC needed a temporary replacement for one of its hosts. “It was a three-day fill-in stint,” Mr. Olbermann said. “Thirty-nine days later I had a four-year contract.”

The “Countdown” show began as a prelude to the invasion of Iraq, but Mr. Olbermann decided it was an ideal format for him. He counted down the news stories of the day, in whatever order he pleased, adding his own spin and style.

Gradually, the show took on more of Mr. Olbermann’s persona, which meant stories were delivered with either mock outrage or ironic amusement. And unquestionably the chief target of the outrage was the Bush administration and its defenders.

Mr. Olbermann said he believed that the turn in public sentiment toward the administration clearly began to bring more viewers to his show. “We saw a certain cultural shift,” he said, adding that it was a “sea change, if that’s not too unfortunate a word, around the time of Hurricane Katrina.”

That a rabid audience can be built for a political discussion show from the left, as it has so effectively been done on talk radio and on some of Fox’s programs from the right, has not been demonstrated before, unless you count the fake news shows on Comedy Central. Mr. Olbermann said the administration had created enough disaffection to keep both his ratings and his outrage up.

“The country gave this president every imaginable benefit of the doubt,” he said, about the period following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. “He abused it. You know what Lincoln said: You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of time. But it looks like you can’t fool all of the viewers all of the time, endlessly.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/arts/television/11keit.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-11-06, 12:15 AM

Cable TV Notebook
Rather to host HDNet show

By Peter Johnson USA Today

Less than a month after parting ways with CBS News, Dan Rather has signed with cable's tiny high-definition HDNet to host a weekly news program he says will offer "news in depth that is accurate and fair," with a mix of interviews, field reports and investigative pieces.

"I want to do news that matters, and I'm going to have the freedom to do that," the former CBS Evening News anchor said Monday.

He'll formally announce his new three-year commitment to Dan Rather Reports (Tuesday) in Los Angeles at the Television Critics Association summer meeting.

Rather said he's not concerned that he may soon be broadcasting to a small fraction of the audience he once reached: HDNet is available in just 3 million homes. The network is growing rapidly, he said.

"It's not about the tonnage of eyeballs, it's about the quality of the work. I believe we can demonstrate that there is a voracious appetite for news that pulls no punches (and) plays no favorites."

Rather, 74, said HDNet founder Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has promised Rather full editorial control to do whatever stories and interviews he wants. "It's important that hard news have backers that don't back down," Rather said. "Mark is such a leader. He's not entangled in big conglomerate, corporate needs and wants. What he said to me is: 'I want you to do your best work and I'll back you to the hilt.' What reporter wouldn't respond to that?"

Such a commitment, Rather said, is a rarity in a modern media world that has been overtaken by "the corporatization of news."

Rather left CBS three weeks ago after bitterly complaining that the network that employed him since 1962 did not plan to give him enough airtime on 60 Minutes for "meaningful" reporting.

After a short fishing vacation, Rather popped up last week on CNN's 360 with Anderson Cooper, talking about North Korea, which he reported on for 60 Minutes last October. Wednesday he'll be on Larry King Live, and he's booked on Chris Matthews' Sunday NBC chatfest the next two weeks.

"What I hope is that I still have something to contribute," Rather said. "I've gone around making speeches saying journalists need more spine. I give myself that lecture just about every morning."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-07-10-rather-hdnet_x.htm

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:02 AM

The New York Times Obituary
June Allyson Is Dead at 88

Adoring Wife in MGM Films
By Aljean Harmetz The New York Times July 11, 2006

June Allyson, whose perky wholesomeness made her the perfect girlfriend in a series of MGM musicals during the 1940’s and the perfect screen wife during the 1950’s, died on Saturday at her home in Ojai, Calif. She was 88.

Her death was announced yesterday by her daughter, Pamela Allyson Powell. The cause was pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis, she told The Associated Press.

Cheerful, blonde and petite but with a husky voice, Miss Allyson turned from chorus girl into movie star when she melted into the arms of Van Johnson in “Two Girls and a Sailor” in 1944. For the next decade, Miss Allyson and Mr. Johnson were a romantic team, co-starring in “High Barbaree” (1947), “The Bride Goes Wild” (1948), “Too Young to Kiss” (1951), and “Remains to Be Seen” (1953).

She also starred twice opposite Robert Walker — in “Her Highness and the Bellboy” (1945) and “The Sailor Takes a Wife” (1946) — and played a bouncy Jo March in MGM’s glossy 1949 remake of “Little Women.”

By 1950, Miss Allyson had made the segue from adoring girlfriend to devoted wife. She was happy to leave musicals behind. Although she had started in the chorus on Broadway, she told an interviewer in 1951: “I couldn’t dance, and, Lord knows, I couldn’t sing, but I got by somehow. Richard Rodgers was always keeping them from firing me.”

She was the steadfast wife of James Stewart’s one-legged baseball player in “The Stratton Story” (1949); the widow left behind by Mr. Stewart’s bandleader in “The Glenn Miller Story” (1953); the worried wife of Mr. Stewart’s baseball player recalled to active duty in “Strategic Air Command” (1955); and the understanding wife who loses Alan Ladd’s jet pilot to honor and duty in “The McConnell Story ( 1955).

In “Executive Suite” (1954), she assured her husband, played by William Holden, who was vying for president of the Tredway Corporation, “Darling, if it’s something you really want, that’s all that’s important to either of us.”

Ms. Allyson was always modest about her star power. “Women identify with me,” she said in a 1986 intervew, “and while men desire Cyd Charisse, they’d take me home to meet Mom.”

When Miss Allyson tried to move beyond Peter Pan collars and sugary characters as the harsh and nasty woman who pushes her husband (José Ferrer) into a nervous breakdown in “The Shrike“ (1955), her acting was praised but audiences refused to accept her, and the movie was a box-office failure.

June Allyson was born Ella Geisman on Oct. 7, 1917, in the Bronx. Her alcoholic father skipped out when she was 6 months old. When she was 8, she was crushed by a falling tree limb while riding a bicycle. After four years in a back brace, she taught herself to dance by watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies.

The expensive therapy the injuries required tumbled the Geisman family out of genteel poverty into desperation. In her 1982 autobiography, “June Allyson,” written with Frances Spatz Leighton, Miss Allyson said she and her mother were forced to move countless times. The best months were when her mother had a job in a restaurant, she wrote, “because sometimes she could bring home food.”

Recovering from her injuries, she tried out for and won a chorus job in a 1938 Broadway revue, “Sing Out the News,” taking the name June (for the month) Allyson. Between 1938 and 1941, Miss Allyson sang and danced in several Broadway shows, including “Very Warm for May,” “Higher and Higher” and “Panama Hattie.” As understudy to Betty Hutton, who played the comedy lead in “Panama Hattie,” Miss Allyson took over the part for five performances when Miss Hutton came down with measles. In a plot development worthy of an MGM musical, the producer George Abbott saw her performance and offered her a small featured role in his next musical, “Best Foot Forward.” MGM bought the movie rights to the musical, and Miss Allyson was invited to Hollywood to play her role on screen. She stayed at MGM for 11 years and 25 movies.

“The only parental authority I had was the studio,” Miss Allyson said in 1972. “When I was a star, there was always somebody with me, to guard me. I was not allowed to be photographed with a cigarette, a drink, a cup of coffee or even a glass of water because someone might think it was liquor. When I left the studio I was already married and had two children, but I felt as sad as a child leaving home for the first time.”

A second-tier star at a studio that prided itself on owning “more stars than there are in heaven,“ Miss Allyson defied the studio boss Louis B. Mayer in only one thing. She fell in love with the married movie star Dick Powell. Mr. Powell divorced his wife, the actress Joan Blondell, and married Miss Allyson in 1945, despite Mr. Mayer’s opposition. Although the marriage was rocky at times — Miss Allyson once filed for divorce — it lasted until Mr. Powell’s death from cancer in 1963 at age 58. In her autobiography she touched on her struggle with alcoholism after Mr. Powell’s death.

Miss Allyson and Mr. Powell co-starred in two mediocre movies in 1950, “The Reformer and the Redhead” and “Right Cross.” Miss Allyson recalled being told that because of her childhood accident, she would never be able to have children, so she and Mr. Powell adopted a baby girl, Pamela, in 1948. Two years later, she gave birth to a son, Richard.

Pamela Allyson Powell now lives in Santa Monica, Calif. Richard, of Los Angeles, also survives Miss Allyson, as does her husband, David Ashrow, a dentist whom she married in 1976. A previous marriage, to Mr. Powell’s hairdresser, Glenn Maxwell, in 1963, the year Mr. Powell died, ended in divorce.

Miss Allyson’s film career had petered out in the late 1950’s with a remake of “My Man Godfrey “ (1957) opposite David Niven, and a sudsy Ross Hunter melodrama “A Stranger in My Arms” (1959). From 1959 to 1961, she was host of and occasionally starred in “The DuPont Show With June Allyson,” a dramatic anthology on CBS. After replacing Julie Harris as the star of “40 Carats” on Broadway and touring for a year in a revival of “No, No Nanette,” she returned to the screen and to MGM in 1972 as a lesbian murderess in “They Only Kill Their Masters.” She also appeared on “Love Boat,” “Murder, She Wrote” and other television shows.

In 1985 she became the national spokeswoman for Depend, a diaper for adults with incontinence. Still wearing her trademark pageboy hairdo, she broke one of the last taboos by bringing this uncomfortable subject into the nation’s living rooms by way of television commercials.

Writing about Miss Allyson’s autobiography in The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote: “Miss Allyson presents herself as the same sunny, tomboyish figure she played on screen. Even the tough parts of her life — the death of her husband Dick Powell and her subsequent bout with alcoholism — are described in a relatively blithe manner.” Ms. Maslin added that Miss Allyson sounded “like someone who has come to inhabit the very myths she helped to create on the screen.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/movies/11allyson.html?pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:12 AM

TV Notebook
"American Idol" tryouts begin Aug. 8

By Gary LevinUSA Today

Here we go again.

American Idol will seek a fresh crop of singing stars when TV's top series starts its sixth-season audition tour Aug. 8 in Los Angeles.

Producers will visit seven cities, starting about a week earlier than last year, trekking from The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., to San Antonio, East Rutherford, N.J. (near New York City), Birmingham, Ala., Memphis and Minneapolis before winding up in Seattle on Sept. 19.

Three of those cities get their first visits from the Idol crowd: Memphis (which was dropped at the last minute last summer because of Hurricane Katrina), Minneapolis and Birmingham, the prolific hometown of previous winners Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks and runner-up Bo Bice.

"Because that's where so many of our Idols have come from, that's a must," says executive producer Nigel Lythgoe. "If they paid us a visit, we must pay them."

All of the auditions will shift indoors, to protect against the rain that soaked tryouts in Chicago, Boston and San Francisco last year and the stifling 105-degree heat that plagued Austin.

Otherwise, the song remains the same: Auditions are open to most anyone ages 16 to 28 as of Aug. 6 who's eligible to work in the USA. (Rules at americanidol.com).

Lythgoe expects 12 producers to see as many as 100,000 candidates in those cities during early rounds. About 1,000 will make it to a second round, where Lythgoe and executive producer Ken Warwick will cull the list to 250 — both good and bad — who will be visited this fall by Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul.

Idol, fresh off its highest-rated season yet, returns with audition segments in mid-January; live competition among 12 finalists is due in March. Lythgoe hopes to enlist Andrew Lloyd Webber and Carole King as guest stars.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-07-10-idol-auditions_x.htm

"IDOL" AUDITIONS

City and location Date

Los Angeles: The Forum Aug. 8

San Antonio: Alamodome Aug. 11

East Rutherford, N.J.: Continental Airlines Arena Aug. 14

Birmingham, Ala.: Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex Aug. 21

Memphis: FedEx Forum Sept. 3

Minneapolis: Target Center Sept. 8

Seattle: Key Arena Sept. 19

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:16 AM

Sports On TV
Fox and MLB To Renew Contract

By Richard Sandomir The New York Times July 11,2006

Major League Baseball and Fox Sports will announce (Tuesday) a seven-year renewal of their contract, which would have Fox retain the Saturday game of the week, the All-Star Game and the World Series.

But Fox is likely to keep the rights to only one League Championship Series, according to executives who are familiar with the terms of the negotiations but were granted anonymity because the contracts had not been signed.

TBS is expected to get a new game-of-the-week package and the rights to all division series games that had been shared by Fox and ESPN.

TBS also hopes to buy the rights to the other L.C.S., which ESPN is interested in.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/sports/sportsspecial/11sportsbriefs.html?pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:19 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
I Have a Cool Job

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

You will probably get some whining here during the press tour. I am away from home, and yesterday I was away while my wife and younger son had to deal with megastorms, a power outage and water in the basement.

But even before I got here, I knew there would be times when I realized I have a cool job. Take last night. I am sitting and talking with colleagues who have also been friends for many years.

Then, nearby, we see Mark Cuban. Yes, the Dallas Mavericks guy. The billionaire.

He's here because HDNet, which he owns, is having a press conference tomorrow with Dan Rather, who since leaving CBS has made a deal with Cuban's operation. But at this point Cuban was just walking through the hotel.

We wave. Cuban waves back. Led by the TV critic from Dallas, we go over to say hello. Cuban is polite, even cheerful; he's had dinner with Rather and is now waiting for word about a possible basketball deal. But he's talking about Rather, he's talking basketball -- and not only his team's. (All right, a lot of it is about Dallas. And he hasn't forgiven the refs yet.) When other people draw near, he pauses, extends his hand to them and says, ''Hi, I'm Mark.''

Believe what you want about him. I think he's a good guy, a very basic sort of person. I thought so when I first met him a couple of years ago and I think it still. Also, as cool as my job is (since it gives me a chance to do things like stand around with Cuban), he has a much cooler one.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:29 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
What's in a name?

By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor in his blog “Tuned In” Tuesday, July 11, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. -- Actor Paul Wasilewski may not be a household name, but you'd recognize his face from guest stints on "Smallville," "Everwood," "Wolf Lake" and "American Dreams," but now he's starring in ABC Family's "Fallen" (based on the book series by author Tom Sniegoski) and he's going by the name Paul Wesley.

It's not unusual for actors to change their names at the outset of their careers, but the 23-year-old Wesley has been acting professionally since 1999.

Wesley said the name change was something he'd long contemplated and he finally "pulled the trigger" on it two years ago.

"People weren't capable of pronouncing my name correctly," he said.

http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/tunedin/

GeorgeLV

07-11-06, 02:40 AM

"...Fox is likely to keep the rights to only one League Championship Series..."

Let me guess...they only want the American League. These days, the National League has been relegated to something slightly above AAA.

fredfa

07-11-06, 03:03 AM

If Fox pays the right $$$, I am sure it would prefer to have its pick of LCS each year.

Sure the Yankees do a great rating, but a Cubs-Mets or Cubs-Dodgers NLCS might do really well, and if the Yankees weren't even in the ALCS......

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:11 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Back

By James Hibberd TVWeek.com in the “Critical Eye” TV Press Tour blog July 10th, 2006

Disney ABC Television Group drew the presentation short straw, presenting ABC Family Channel and The Disney Channel as the first panels during TCA’s opening half day. Most critics are still en route to the Ritz Carlton or encamped in their rooms, only about 70 grace the ballroom.

Among the ones who are here, a few wonder how a network lands the dreaded opening slot.The way it works is part money, part popularity, part luck. CTAM, which recently took over management of TCA from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, rotates the network schedule each Tour. But the opening slots in the smaller ballrooms are also less expensive, sources said. Also, critics complain if heavy hitting networks such as HBO are presented during fringe periods.

Thus, ABC Family and Disney Channel are joined by Starz and TV Guide Channel as the first networks to storm the TCA beachhead. For the panels, ABC Family presented “Fallen” and “Kyle XY.” One common form of celebrity Q&A was on display: Questions that ask — and ask hopefully — if an actor is just like their character. So panelists for “Fallen” (about fallen angels living among us) are asked if they have “ever had an experience where you truly felt you had an angel looking out for you.”

Actors Paul Wesley and Rick Worthy gave straight-faced accounts of surviving car accidents and armed robbery, respectively, and said they survived only through divine intervention. Sort of.

“I would have died — 110 percent — if I had not buckled up,” Wesley said

http://blogs.tvweek.com/

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:14 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Angels in the Auditorium

By James Hibberd TVWeek.com in the “Critical Eye” TV Press Tour blog July 10th, 2006

“Oh my God, you’ve only been here for 10 minutes and you’re bitching already!“ exclaimed one critic to another at the Television Critics Association Press Tour check-in table. The complaining critic, who merely asked the TCA staff for power strips to plug in their laptop, laughed. TCA, after all, is famous for critical bitching—as well as for critics sparring with celebrity panelists, lavish parties and the occasional nugget of breaking news.

To paraphrase Jon Stewart’s line about the White House correspondents dinner, TCA is where critics and TV networks consummate their unholy marriage. For the next couple weeks, 180 reporters are sealed in a five-star hotel and, at every opportunity, networks will try to sell them on their brands and programming—from the sponsored breakfasts in the morning through the daily celebrity-packed panels to the net-branded chocolates waiting on hotel room pillows at night.

It’s a carefully scripted and mind-melting sales marathon, like a time-share presentation that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, whose mental/emotional impact is only marginally offset by the TCA’s swank accommodations. So when a reporter from the Orlando Sentinel standing next to Courteney Cox at FX’s party at Spago is angrily cursing the meager portions of his parmesan-encrusted shrimp cocktail, it’s a tough call whether to feel derision or pity.

But right now, a few minutes before the start of the debut panel, critics are in high spirits. Unlike many prior Press Tours, cable networks will present their program first. So the critics are still fresh, all smiles, chatting about the roster for the next five days. The cable portion panelists include Shannen Doherty, Ted Koppel, Spike Lee, the cast of “Entourage,“ Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Mr. T, David Cross, Gene Simmons, Damon Wayans, Andre Benjamin and more.

The parties, too, have potential. To promote the acquisition of the hit documentary “March of the Penguins,“ Hallmark Channel is having a pool party complete with real penguins. Consider that for a moment: A couple hundred TV critics poolside with an open bar and live penguins.

Can’t wait.

http://blogs.tvweek.com/

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:19 AM

Sports On TV
World Cup final scores for ABC, Univision

By Paul J. Gough The Hollywood Reporter July 11, 2006

NEW YORK -- The down-to-the-wire World Cup final was a hit on this side of the Atlantic too, with both ABC and Univision reporting strong viewership Sunday.

Almost 12 million people watched on ABC as Italy beat France in a 3 1/2-hour game that featured double overtime and a round of penalty kicks, according to preliminary data released late Monday by Nielsen Media Research. Final numbers won't be in until Thursday.

That's a huge win for ABC, which said it was the third-highest rated men's soccer game and the third-most watched since 1994.

The record is still held by the 14.5 million who turned out to watch Brazil's defeat of Italy in the 1994 World Cup. It beat the 2002 final handily; 3.9 million people tuned in to see Brazil beat Germany, 5-0.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002802725

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:26 AM

Sports On TV
Cup Ratings Are Up, but Fans Deserve Better

By Richard Sandomir The New York Times July 11, 2006

The quadrennial visit of the World Cup must be viewed as a television success story. The final on Sunday attracted 16.9 million American viewers, and the star of stars, Zinédine Zidane of France, morphed from magician to the soccer equivalent of Mike Tyson with his overtime head butt of Marco Materazzi.

Those 16.9 million viewers included 11.9 million on ABC and 5 million on Univision, and they represented a 152 percent leap from 2002, when the game in Japan was shown in the morning. The audience was 31 percent better than eight years ago from France, and it was on par with 1994 from Pasadena, Calif.

This year’s viewership — tough to achieve at 2 p.m. on a Sunday — exceeded by about four million the average audience last month for the N.B.A. finals between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks. It also came close to the 17.5 million for Florida’s victory over U.C.L.A. in the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball championship game and the 17.1 million average for the Chicago White Sox’ sweep of the Houston Astros in the World Series last October.

Still, the 16.9 million was one million short of the viewership, only on ABC, for the United States’ penalty-kick shootout win over China in the 1999 Women’s World Cup final at the Rose Bowl.

Nothing matches Super Bowl viewership; when Pittsburgh defeated Seattle in February, 91 million people tuned in.

But around the world, the World Cup makes the Super Bowl look tiny. Depending on two estimates, anywhere from 300 million to more than one billion people watched Italy win its fourth World Cup on Sunday.

“The World Cup final has the single largest global audience in sports,” Kevin Alavy, a senior analyst for the media agency Initiative Futures Worldwide, said from London. “It doubles the audience for the Olympic opening ceremony in Athens and triples the Super Bowl.”

Initiative and Sponsorship Intelligence, the agency hired by FIFA’s marketer, Infront Sports, view the World Cup’s world in different ways. Initiative estimates that 300 million watched the final and 5.9 billion watched the World Cup. Sponsorship Intelligence expects at least one billion for the final and more than 30 billion over all — nearly five times the total number of earthlings.

Initiative counts only the live World Cup coverage; Sponsorship Intelligence counts the live coverage and replays and highlights shown in news and magazine shows. Both count the same people over and over, leading to the big numbers for the full event.

Some games preceding the final had a world audience exceeding 200 million, said Andy Kowalczyk, deputy managing director of Sponsorship.

Alavy said 84 percent of the televisions in use in Italy, and 80 percent of those being viewed in France, were watching the game Sunday.

ESPN and ESPN2, which averaged viewership of 2.3 million and 1.1 million, far exceeded the expectations of Major League Soccer, whose marketing arm bought the television rights, sold the advertising and paid ESPN’s production costs. “We outdelivered our guarantees by 100 percent,” said Don Garber, the M.L.S. commissioner.

ABC’s average viewership, before the final, had already swelled by 125 percent, to 1.7 million, from 2002.

Granted, four years ago, viewing in the United States was hampered by the Asian time zone. But Artie Bulgrin, ESPN’s senior vice president for research, said ESPN did much better than during the 1998 World Cup in France.

“This year, we had 20 telecasts on ESPN, and 17 did a rating of 1.0 or better, and in 1998, only 7 out of 27 did a 1.0 or better,” he said. “Only one match in 1998 did a 2.0 or better, and this year, seven did.”

• Garber must now determine how to capitalize, whether through bettering the broadcasts or investing heavily in luring major international stars to M.L.S. “The market’s there,” he said. “We didn’t build this. We put on the games, and 17 million watched.”

But as ESPN looks to the next World Cup, in South Africa in 2010, it must change a few tactics:

1. Sure, there are no in-game stoppages for commercials, but larding the pregame and halftime shows with ads creates disjointed jumbles. On Sunday, some segments lasted as little as 10, 20, and 41 seconds.

2. Revel in the festivities. Univision, not ABC, carried the pregame show by Wyclef Jean and Shakira and the halftime singing of Placido Domingo. And ABC sinned by joining the Italian national anthem in progress.

3. Don’t lead into any match, let alone the third-place game, with a rerun of the 2005 All-Star Game home run derby, as ESPN did Saturday. The host country’s last game wasn’t worth a nice little pregame auf wiedersehen?

4. Restrain the visuals. Curb the drop-down graphics that block the field. Cut out urgent alerts like Sunday’s telling ABC viewers to watch the Western Open on ESPN. The government’s terrorism warnings are more subtle.

5. Nurture a new generation of announcers. Naming a fine baseball announcer like Dave O’Brien to be the lead soccer voice only put a target on his back from the chattering bloggers. Teach analysts to explain nuances and tell stories better. And hand them a 21st-century Telestrator.

6. Follow up stories. When Zidane was red-carded, ABC’s Marcelo Balboa said he believed the referee wrongly made the call after watching the stadium replay. Where was Jeremy Schaap when we needed him?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/sports/soccer/11sandomir.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:33 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Guantanamo’s Influence

By James Hibberd TVWeek.com in the “Critical Eye” TV Press Tour blog July 10th, 2006

It’s apparently not too early in the day for naked breasts. The clip reel for Starz’s documentary, “Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film,” includes several shots of topless women being brutally disemboweled and axe-hacked, but critics seem nonplussed.

“Clearly the Disney Channel presentation has concluded,” jokes Michael Ruggiero, executive producer and VP, programming and scheduling at Starz.

During the panel, “Scream” director Wes Craven speaks thoughtfully about why moviegoers enjoy horror films and notes a recent disturbing trend in popular films: torture. Many current horror movies such as “Hostel,” “Hard Candy” and “Saw” contain sequences of trapped victims being sadistically tormented.

“Torture has entered [horror movies] in a big way,” Craven said. “And it’s no coincidence with [U.S. detainment facilities accused of torture at] Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Whatever is in the news that’s deeply disturbing will turn up in a horror film.”

http://blogs.tvweek.com/

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:43 AM

Critic’s Notebook
Early word on 'Betty': It can get pretty ugly

The ABC show, with Salma Hayek as executive producer, won't air for a while, but the debate has begun
By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 11, 2006

The first of the new fall shows don't roll out until next month, but already ABC's "Betty the Ugly," executive produced by Salma Hayek, is turning into a critical battleground.

Based on a popular Colombian telenovela, "Betty" concerns one Betty Suarez (America Ferrera), a young working-class woman with the fashion sense of a cloistered 12-year-old — she wears braces and hideous printed ponchos — who gets a job at a snooty fashion magazine. In the pilot, Betty learns to reform her doormat ways after she is humiliated at a photo shoot.

The early reaction on the Internet is sharply divided. "You know how every year there's one show that makes you wonder 'How … did this get made?' Well, this is that show," wrote Brian Ford Sullivan at thefutoncritic .com. But over at mediavillage .com, Ed Martin loved it: " 'Betty' is an hour-long comedy brimming with heart, humor, humanity, compassion and the possibility of dizzying romance. There is nothing quite like it on broadcast television. It presents a uniquely fascinating mix of richly detailed characters, some recognizable from everyday life, others seemingly pulled from someone's very vivid imagination, all of them compelling."

Count me in the Sullivan camp. I watched the pilot — or roughly three-quarters of it, which is about all I could take. Clearly we're supposed to appreciate Betty as a scrappy underdog (pardon the expression), but I didn't find the episode nearly funny or engaging enough to win me over.

Call me Scotty the Bored. Both Betty's bickering family and catty co-workers feel recycled from countless other TV shows and movies, starting with "Working Girl." Worse, I don't know (or care) how the series can be sustained over the long term. If Betty remains a clueless naif, then the premise seems cruel. But if she grows worldly — or at least stops wearing ponchos — will there still be a show?

And what's up with that title? Ferrera's ugly not even by the unforgiving standards of Rodeo Drive. Beneath her ridiculous makeup and costumes, she's actually pleasant-looking, even striking.

The epithet's meant to be ironic, I guess, but shouldn't we have to view the heroine that way at least initially? Any producers who think this Betty lives up to her dubious billing should get out in the world and learn what ugly really looks like.

CBS receives a reality check

For the first time, CBS put its two key summer reality shows, "Big Brother: All-Stars" and "Rock Star: Supernova," back-to-back Thursday. (Well, the departed "Tuesday Night Book Club" was supposed to be a key reality show, but we know how that turned out.) It was a weak night, but CBS won in viewers and eked out a victory among 18- to 49-year-olds, a key demographic.

The regular time slot premiere of "Big Brother" notched a 2.8 rating/10 share in the demo (7.7 million total viewers), according to early data from Nielsen Media Research. Hardly a barnburner, but enough to win the slot against lame rivals like ABC's "Master of Champions" (1.5 rating/5 share in the demographic; 5.2 million overall).

"Rock Star," meanwhile, is looking like a thoroughly mediocre performer. Thursday's special edition did a 2.6 rating/ 8 share in the demographic (6 million total viewers), or up 18% in young adults compared with Wednesday's premiere.

Despite all the hype surrounding the addition of Tommy Lee's new band to the festivities, this year's "Rock Star" is unlikely to finish big.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-channel11jul11,0,6101734,print.story?coll=cl-tv-features

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:49 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Critics get first whiff of fall projects

By Terry Morrow Knoxville News Sentinel July 11, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. - Ground Zero for critical acclaim is here.

Beginning today, stars such as James Woods and Andre Benjamin (of the duo OutKast) are turning their attention to the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pasadena, Calif., to tout their fall projects in front of hundreds of television critics.

For the stars, it's important to get the ear of the members of Television Critics Association, which is mainly made up of print journalists from across the country and Canada. If the stars can find favor with critics, it can translate into plenty of free ink and good word-of-mouth for what they are promoting.

Woods will be around to push his new CBS drama, in which he plays a conflict lawyer, while Benjamin will shine a spotlight on his new Cartoon Network series about a class of musically gifted students.

FX drama "The Shield" will open its set to critics and have its stars available.

The TCA summer tour continues for three weeks. Among the events:

• Joan Rivers talked up the TV Guide Channel at a party sponsored by the cable outlet on Monday night.

• Raven-Symone has "The Cheetah Girls 2," a sequel to the highly successful Disney Channel movie. Its soundtrack was also a best seller two years ago.

• Wes Craven, the horror movie director ("Nightmare on Elm Street"), will focus on "The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film" for Starz.

• Danny Bonaduce returns with a new show - "Chain Reaction" for the Game Show Network.

• Jay Bakker, a former Gatlinburg resident, introduces his new documentary about his love of punk rock music and his spiritual life. It's set for the Sundance Channel.

• Shannen Doherty has a new reality show called "Breaking Up" for Oxygen.

• Nick Carter, the former pop star, plans to talk up his new reality show, called "House of Carter," for E! His brother, Aaron, will also be on hand.

• Ted Koppel will plug his news program for the Discovery Channel. The show will focus heavily on life after Sept. 11, 2001, and issues of security and the military stemming from that event.

• Mr. T, who still pities the fool, wants to transform into Dr. Phil with his new reality show for TV Land called "I Pity the Fool," debuting Oct. 4.

• Matthew Perry's "Friends" days are over, but he's back on NBC for the drama "Studio 60."

• Donnie Wahlberg bounces back to weekly television, this time with "Runaway" for the newly formed CW network. The story is a little like "The Fugitive" meets "7th Heaven."

• Jason Ritter, son of the late John Ritter, has landed his first sitcom, on CBS. It's about reunited classmates trying to make it as young adults.

• Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey join forces for the NBC sitcom "30 Rock," about the backstage happenings at a successful late-night network show. Fey is the head writer for "Saturday Night Live."

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/entertainment_columnists/article/0,1406,KNS_360_4834237,00.html

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:53 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Not the copycats' meow

By Diane Werts Newsday Staff Writer July 11, 2006

What hath "Lost" wrought? A 2006 fall season crammed with copycats, that's what - serialized shows that shift back and forth in time to tell their conspiratorial tales, populated by characters thrown together by the happenstance of harrowing events.

Besides which, many new series - which were previewed ahead of the three-week TV critics' press tour, which starts today - are designed as continuing sagas. They require what my husband has taken to describing as being "shackled" to your TV, seeking some kind/any kind of plot resolution.

Really. Who wants to spend an entire TV season enduring somebody else's nightmare wedding day?

This is the "high" concept behind "Big Day," which may be fall's worst new series, the one that brought me closest to contemplations of suicide as I spent last week shackled to my sofa in a marathon viewing of two dozen fall-season pilots prior to leaving for the press tour. "Big Day" is the big bomb, and I don't mean "da bomb." Its half-hour single-camera absurdity - pleeeeease, bring back the studio audience so I can hear laughter again! - finds the young couple facing down the bride's squabbling parents and wussy wedding planner as calamities befall them. And ABC's pilot only gets us through the first half-hour of their "big" day.

At least that series' action stays put; other comedies are all over the map. ABC's "Help Me Help You" buries Ted Danson as it hopscotches around Manhattan with his creepy group-therapy patients, while CBS' somewhat less annoying "The Class" tracks the 20-year reunion of schoolmates who since third grade have devolved into neurotic cliches.

Too many folks in fall shows are instantly grating, idiotic or drippy - more scriptwriters' puppets than recognizable people. Directors emphasize their characters' "edgy" aspects in choppy scenes, delivering pushy, phony portraits.

Dramas are equally in need of a major dose of Ritalin. ABC's "Six Degrees" from J.J. Abrams plays connect-the-dots as it weaves the intersecting tales of a bunch of dreary young New Yorkers who, like their too-slick show, mistake the glib for the profound. NBC's "Heroes" broadens beyond that one (overexposed) city to interlace the awakenings of people in America, Japan and India who begin tapping into dormant superpowers "that will take the species to the next evolutionary rung." (At least this daring concept tries to take flight.)

Several newbies busily shift through varied perspectives radiating from one connecting event. ABC's "The Nine" kicks off with a bank robbery throwing together strangers including troubled cop Tim Daly. NBC's "Kidnapped" and Fox's "Vanished" each begin with an abduction that gets murkier. While it's all Taye Diggs' viewpoint in ABC's "Daybreak," it's also a time trip where his cop goes "Groundhog Day" in being framed for murder by some apparently time-controlling conspiracy. After CBS' heist suspenser "Smith" kicks off with squealing tires and speeding getaway boats, the story jumps back 60 minutes, then three weeks, to show us how the caper comes apart.

But this one isn't just a thriller. "Smith" producer John Wells ("The West Wing," "ER") allots his fine actors (Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen) enough settle-down time to breathe emotional life into their gang's conflicted characters. That's refreshing. It also makes us wonder about a season when the most flesh-and-blood people we see are essentially the bad guys.

Or, less troublingly, the everyday folks. While high-concept characters play terminally cute - Anne Heche's advice author in ABC's daffy Alaska-set "Men in Trees," or the bickering-lovebird hostage negotiators of Fox's "Standoff" - ordinary wallflowers manage to ring true. Their less flashy shows take a cue from the mundane landscapes rendered fresh in "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office," understanding the key is not what you say or do, it's the consequent human fallout. This fall's most satisfying pilots build from an underlying warmth at a less frenzied pace, leaving room for authentic emotion to resonate.

The unlikely gem of the bunch is ABC's "Betty the Ugly" - an American rendering of the hit telenovela "Betty la Fea" - in which a homely Queens klutz goes to work at a high-fashion magazine for a rich-kid editor. It's fairy tale all the way (Vanessa Williams makes a great evil queen), yet told humbly, with straightforward spunk and not a little gusto, like "Desperate Housewives" in its stride. But with real heart. (Plus a star-to-be in gutsy young America Ferrera.)

Close behind is CBS' "Jericho," another thankfully linear tale, about a small Kansas town coping with a nuclear aftermath. There's nothing fancy here, just Gerald McRaney as the plain-talking mayor and Skeet Ulrich as his prodigal son, hitting town just in time for the mushroom cloud. Add the mystery behind what happened, and you've got a wide, unmannered canvas on which to sketch human behavior (and simple courage) at its most elemental.

Likable characters who bear a passing resemblance to emotional reality - wow! How inventive can TV get?

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:58 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Day One of Gloom

By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic in the Sentinel’s TV Guy blog Jul 10, 2006

Is this any way to celebrate television? The television critics' fall preview started Monday -- the first of 18 days -- with rampant gloom and doom in Pasadena, Calif. Programmers previewed an apocalyptic comedy, a slasher retrospective and a profile of an acclaimed writer who committed suicide.

Oh, and Disney Channel was here, too. But it came in for ribbing.

"The Disney Channel presentation has concluded," Starz programmer Michael Ruggiero said after blood flowed in clips from "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film." It premieres Friday, Oct. 13.

Wes Craven, director of the "Scream" trilogy, helped promote "Going to Pieces" by playing up the slasher trend's importance. "Whatever's in the news that's deeply troubling will turn up in horror films," he said. "They're dealing with torture now."

Craven described the typical horror filmmakers as "sweet people" who are deeply troubled by violence in society.

"Horror films are like boot camps of the psyche," Craven said.

Nick Nolte appeared to promote the documentary "Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film." That program will premiere in November on Starz, and it features William F. Buckley, John Cusack, Johnny Depp and former Sen. George McGovern.

"You never had a dull conversation with Hunter," McGovern says in the film.

Nolte, who narrates the film, said he knew Thompson mainly through phone conversations they had between midnight and 4 a.m. Nolte reads Thompson's suicide note in the film. In a breathtaking moment, Nolte recited it for critics.

The film stresses that Thomspon was an outspoken free spirit -- and filmmakers hope that theme will resonate with the audience. "This time is not about free spirits," Nolte said.

Thompson's gonzo journalism made him an influential figure. But it also could explain his downfall. "He felt trapped by his creation," director-writer Tom Thurman said.

"Three Moons Over Milford" from ABC Family offers an outlandish premise. The comedy-drama follows residents of a small town who muddle through or flip out when they realize their lives could end at any moment. A meteor has hit the moon, splintering it into three big chunks. If one portion falls to Earth, it's curtains for humanity. The series, starring Elizabeth McGovern, debuts Aug. 6.

If that seems improbable family entertainment, the producers say the setup frees them to tell moving, everyday stories. Are you ready for an apocalyptic comedy?

Disney Channel previewed its "Cheetah Girls 2" movie, which debuts Aug. 25. Star Raven-Symone has graduated to executive producer on this sequel.

As for the sequel to "High School Musical," Disney Channel honcho Gary Marsh says he's waiting for the script to come in. He hopes to premiere the film in August 2007.

The day concluded with TV Guide Channel saluting Joan and Melissa Rivers for their work on the red carpet. "It's good to spend quality time with you," Joan told TV critics. She appeared by tape -- not in person.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2006/07/day_one_of_gloo.html

fredfa

07-11-06, 10:05 AM

Sports On TV
Advertisers also won at the World Cup

By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer July 11, 2006

Since the World Cup began, there have been murmurs that advertising for what some call the world’s largest sporting event would not live up to high expectations.

A forecast released yesterday by Zenith Optimedia predicted that the quadrennial soccer tournament won’t give the worldwide boost to the ad economy that many had expected, with sluggish results in soccer-mad England and host Germany particularly disappointing. Actually, countries like South Korea and Malaysia, and not the usual soccer behemoths, are seeing the most advertising stimulated by the World Cup.

Indeed, the Cup has been a huge success in the U.S., thanks to better-than-expected audiences on ESPN and ABC, as well as Spanish-language broadcaster Univision. Ratings doubled the 2002 Cup in demographics such as adults 18-49, and advertisers came away more convinced that American fans will tune into soccer’s main event, even if they continue to bypass Major League Soccer games.

David Joyce, media analyst for Miller Tabak + Co., talks to Media Life about World Cup ratings, worldwide advertising, and what this means for soccer’s future in the U.S.

Ratings for the World Cup were way up over 2002 on English-language broadcasters. Does this mean that the game is starting to take off in the U.S., or does it just reflect how low ratings were the last time?

There were two main reasons for the better ratings. The time of day of the live broadcasts this time was more advantageous from the advertising perspective, with the daytime Germany games, so viewers would be less likely just to search news outlets for score updates, as they did for those late-night 2002 Korea games.

Second, there is increasing interest throughout the U.S. in soccer, though it has taken time to build, and it is being aided from both the male and female soccer games. Remember Mia Hamm? Tied to this is the trend of continued immigration, which brings natural interest in soccer to these shores.

Did U.S. World Cup advertisers get more or less exposure than they thought they would?

Official advertisers got better-than-expected exposure, and they should be happy. The interesting clamp down on FIFA-only sponsorships resulted in novel approaches for non-official ad sponsors to get notice.

On the Spanish-language networks, which positively affected Univision and Entravision, they had record ratings as well, with even the first Mexican game surpassing the 2002 final. Univision and Entravision and their advertisers would have done better, of course, had Mexico gone further in the Cup.

We've heard rumblings that Univision did not convert all of its booked ads to orders for the World Cup. If that’s true, will that make the Cup a bust for them, or is it still a success?

I cannot help you with those rumblings, but I think the Cup would still be considered a success even if that were true. There is a halo effect surrounding ownership of World Cup rights (and Copa America next year) that helps Univision sell ads in other parts of the year. It helps them fill in dayparts that are less in demand.

A forecast out from ZenithOptimedia says that the World Cup did not stimulate worldwide advertising as many had hoped. Why not, and is that a big problem?

That would probably be a question for the forecaster. If I were to speculate on their potential reasoning, I would say that it could be that some of the more traditional soccer powerhouses did not last as long as their relevant advertisers expected and/or, at least as the U.S. is concerned, that the timing of the live games is still, and probably always will be, an issue.

Separately, perhaps internet streaming and news updates could be taking some share away from regular TV viewing.

How can an event like the World Cup stimulate advertising in other areas?

Again, it’s the Univision halo effect. Additionally, there can be product or campaign tie-ins outside of television viewing, so there could be benefits to outdoor advertising owners, new campaigns that are kicked off with the World Cup, etc.

How does the World Cup compare to other major sporting events (the Olympics, for example) in ad spending?

Olympic ad spending is still bigger, despite it being shorter in length (unless you add together the Winter and the Summer Olympics, even though they are now two years apart) in part because it is still more important in the U.S.

Also, the Olympics are more universal in their range of sports and therefore viewership appeal and sponsor relationships.

Would you say overall that this was a successful World Cup in the U.S.? How about worldwide?

Yes for both. It gained viewership, advertising, and sponsor traction in the U.S.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_5874.asp

fredfa

07-11-06, 10:06 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Weird celebrity encounter No. 1

By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic in the Sentinel’s TV Guy blog Jul 11, 2006

It was just a harmless question. I wanted to know: Does Raven-Symone ever hear from former co-star Bill Cosby?

"We are talking about Disney," she said, drawing critics' laughter on the first day of the 18-day fall preview.

"That's NBC," Raven-Symone added, referring to "The Cosby Show." "No, I'm just playing. No, no, no. I hear through the grapevine that he watches some of my work, but I don't talk to him as much as I should. We're all very busy in this industry."

Raven-Symone is busy promoting "The Cheetah Girls 2," which premieres Aug. 25 on Disney Channel. The first film was a major success three years ago. Will there be a third film in the franchise?

"At the moment, there is no 'Cheetah Girls 3' in development," said Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2006/07/weird_celebrity.html

fredfa

07-11-06, 10:10 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Back on the Television Critics Association tour

By Scott D. Pierce Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News Tuesday, July 11, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. — As the summer Television Critics Association press tour kicks off, those of us who write about TV for a living are about to come face-to-face with the people who run networks for a living.

It's always fun to go back and look at what they had to say six months ago. Mind you, they're all trying not to say something silly, and to couch their answers so they don't come back to haunt them. CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler, for example, used the phrase "never say never" in her answers five times.

The only real surprise is, combing through the transcript of ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson's press conference, I couldn't find anything worth mocking. It is, perhaps, a testament to his cautiousness and ABC's current success, but my hat's off to him.

Six months ago there was a bit of an anomaly, given that there were six broadcast networks then and there are only five now. (The WB and UPN are merging into The CW.) And, with 20-20 hindsight, it's quite obvious that then-UPN Entertainment president, now-CW Entertainment president Dawn Ostroff knew what was about to happen and her counterparts at the WB were not clued in.

• WB chairman Garth Ancier said the network was "important to Warner Bros. as an outlet. . . . In terms of the viability, it's just too important to the studio and too important to the stations to not go forward."

Well, not so much.

• "We have momentum," said WB Entertainment president David Janollari. "The new shows we're presenting will help keep that momentum going through the second half of the season."

The shows bombed. And the network itself is no more.

• "My theme for you this morning is going to be that stability is the first step toward recovery," said NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly.

In May, he unveiled one fall schedule and, a few days later, announced another with changes on five nights.

• "We're going to make a bold move Wednesdays at (8 p.m.) where 'Law & Order' . . . will shift out of its time period to create a platform for another new drama, 'Heist,' at (9) p.m.," Reilly said.

Bold? Sure. Stupid? Yes. The move lasted two weeks.

• NBC's Reilly said "The Apprentice" "will definitely be on in the fall."

No, it won't. It's scheduled to return in January.

• "We have a very patient attitude with the show," UPN's Ostroff said of "South Beach."

It was seven episodes and out.

• At the last minute, UPN canceled an interview session for "South Beach," claiming it was because of a death in Vanessa Williams' family. "It was partially out of respect and partially because we just felt that the panel would not be the same without her," Ostroff said.

And mostly because the show was about to get axed.

• In regard to the "investigation" into the allegations that Paula Abdul had a sexual relationship with an "American Idol" contestant, Fox's Peter Liguori said, "We went out, got an outside counsel, did an extremely thorough investigation, and the investigation is geared toward the sanctity of the competition."

He actually used the word "sanctity" in regard to "American Idol"!

• Ligouri said "Bernie Mac" has "a loyal audience following it. Creatively, the show is incredibly strong."

So he canceled it.

• CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler acknowledged that her network has been "very successful with the procedurals. We know that. But that's enabled us to experiment with different forms of programming."

Still, two of CBS's three new dramas this fall are crime-related, bringing the total to 11 crime shows.

• "In 'Four Kings,' I think we found . . . an excellent companion to 'Will & Grace,"' Reilly said.

Well, maybe. "Kings" won't be back next season, either.

•
"Teachers," a new sitcom, "stars Justin Bartha, and I think this guy is going to be a breakout star."

Not in this show, which was quickly canceled.

http://www.desnews.com/dn/print/1,1442,640193701,00.html

fredfa

07-11-06, 10:16 AM

TV Notebook
“MediaLife” Readers: Networks must take chances

They grouse that summer is wasted on reality
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Jul 11, 2006

For several years now, the broadcast networks’ summer strategy has been to roll out a string of reality series once the regular season ends, hoping a few stick with viewers, in their effort to stem the flow of eyeballs to cable.

Media Life readers think that's a dumb tactic.

Instead, they believe the networks should be using the summer off-season as a testing ground for the fall, rolling out original, offbeat dramas and comedies, as well as miniseries, in a direct challenge to cable.

That’s the sentiment of media buyers and planners surveyed by Media Life in a recent poll about the summer TV season.

They see the networks' reliance on reality television as playing it safe and conservative, and they think it is the entirely wrong approach.

Media Life asked readers to answer this question: “If you could advise the broadcast networks on programming strategy for summer, what would you tell them?”

Readers offered an earful.

“Use the time to take risks,” urged one respondent. “Thought-out programming will be watched no matter the season of the year. A break-out hit will then do well in the fall also, e.g. ‘Dancing with the Stars.’”

“Bring back the miniseries! Give the viewers something to follow with a real conclusion,” suggested one reader.

Responded another, “If you insist on treating the audience like it is stupid, what with programming ‘throwaway’ shows, then the audience will leave you. It is now a year-round game. Play all four quarters. The first network to truly acknowledge this and program intelligent drama & comedy (NOT REALI-CRAP) during the summer will break through and become the next dominant force in television.”

“Take a cue from cable and run more scripted shows with an edge to them,” advises yet another.

Fox, which has been the most aggressive with its summer programming in recent years, has also been the most impressive this summer, in the view of media planners and buyers.

Media Life asked: “Of the two broadcast networks showing rating gains this summer, which has impressed you more?”

Nearly two-thirds, 64 percent, chose Fox, which has summer’s No. 2 new show with “So You Think You Can Dance.” Thirty-six percent chose NBC, which has top-rated “America’s Got Talent.”

Media Life also wanted to know how this summer has differed from last summer.

Nearly half, 46.3 percent, chose this answer: “Not one breakout hit like ‘Dancing With the Stars.’” Another 40.6 percent picked “More returning shows that have been solid performers” and 8.6 percent agree there are fewer flat-out bombs.

Nearly everyone agreed on what the biggest bomb of the summer has been: 72.7 percent chose CBS’s canceled “Tuesday Night Book Club,” followed by 13.6 percent for ABC’s recently yanked “How to Get the Guy” and 9.7 percent for NBC’s low-rated Stanley Cup finals.

As for the summer’s biggest success, media people were evenly divided.

AMC’s miniseries “Broken Trail,” which averaged nearly 10 million viewers, and TNT’s “The Closer,” which set a basic cable record in its premiere, both got 24 percent of the vote. Fox’s “Dance” trailed with 21.7 percent, followed by NBC’s “Talent” at 13.7 percent and ABC’s NBA playoffs at 8 percent.

Media Life wanted to know what media people are watching on cable and broadcast this summer. It turns out few are even paying attention to the latter; 27.1 percent of respondents said they don’t watch broadcast during the summer. More than a fifth said they considered Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen” the best show on broadcast while 26.7 percent voted HBO’s “Entourage” the best bet on cable, followed by TNT’s “Closer.”

Finally, Media Life asked how the all-star edition of “Big Brother” would fare, and readers pegged it. More than 54 percent said it would do worse than last year, and the show’s Thursday debut was down nearly 20 percent.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_5869.asp

fredfa

07-11-06, 11:04 AM

(From Marc Berman’s Tuesday, July 11, 2006, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )
Ratings Box: What’s Hot/What’s Not

Psych Scores on USA:

New crime solving drama Psych got off to a strong start on USA Network, debuting on Friday, July 7 at 10 p.m. as the highest-rated premiere for a new basic cable series this year with 6.1 million viewers. Lead-in Monk opened its new season with 5.1 million viewers, delivering a larger audience than any scripted hour in basic cable ever in the Friday 9 p.m. hour.

TeleFutura Network Delivers on July 4:

Reventon del 4 de Julio, The TeleFutura Network’s 4th of July holiday special, delivered an audience of approximately 700,000 viewers, building over the year-ago time period by double-digit percentages. According to the Nielsen Hispanic Television Index, that was an increase of as much as 91 percent among Hispanic Men 18-49.

TV Tidbits: Notes of Interest

Sally Field Heads to ABC’s Brothers & Sisters:
Two-time Academy Award winner Sally Field will join the cast of upcoming ABC drama Brothers & Sisters, which will air Sunday at 10 p.m. out of Desperate Housewives, as Calista Flockhart’s mother. Former Eight Is Enough/Oz star Betty Buckley was originally cast in the role. Field, who appears periodically on NBC’s ER, most recently headlined short-lived ABC legal drama The Court in 2002.

Disney Channel Summer Press Tour Update:
Disney Channel will introduce a new action/adventure/comedy series on Monday, Sept. 4 called Yin Yang Yo!, which will air weeknights at 7:30 p.m. during Jetix. Effective today, viewers can log onto the Jetix website and watch a preview of the series. In addition, production has begun on new animated comedy series Phineas and Ferb, which chronicles two step-brothers who attempt to build the world’s largest popsicle and a backyard roller coaster, among other things, during their summer vacation. The series will premiere next year.

Disney Channel has also ordered a second season of Playhouse Disney’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and will introd