Hot Off The Press! The Latest Television News and Info

[Xesdeeni]

Sports On TV
ESPN to Run Wide-Screen College Football

Channel Risks Irking Standard-Def Viewers to Promote HD Content Hooray!!

BUT--They need to feed the satellite viewers anamorphic versions (like DVDs) and let the boxes do the scaling for 4:3 viewers, while allowing 16:9 viewers at least good SD content. All of the satellite boxes have this capability! It may be spitting in the ocean, but I'm going to try to send this feedback to ESPN. Please do the same if you think this is a good idea.

Xesdeeni

[CPanther95]

It's probably a plan to protect the precious ticker. A lot of sports bars zoom, not stretch, the SD feed for their widescreen TV's and cut off the ticker.

[fredfa]

TV Notebook
NBC Gets Its Web On

By James Poniewozik Time Magazine television critic in Time’s Tuned In blog

NBC, the nowhere-to-go-but-up network, has a little bit of hope for the fall season. The broadcaster may be fourth in the ratings, but as of this moment, it is first in, um, "buzz." A report by Brandimensions, a branding and market research company, shows that it has three of the top five buzzed-about new fall shows, as measured by online discussion. (Which posts like this one are sure only to reinforce.) Leading the pack is Aaron Sorkin's superhyped Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, about a Saturday Night Live-type comedy show; in second is Heroes, a sci-fi drama about ordinary people who discover they have superpowers (which one presumes skews a smidgen toward the Internet-geek crowd); and in fourth is Tina Fey's 30 Rock, about another SNL-type comedy show. (In third and fifth, respectively, are Jericho, CBS's nuclear-apocalypse drama, and Six Degrees, an ABC relationship drama from J.J. Abrams of Lost.)

"Buzz" is one of those wonderful terms that sound positive whether they are or not. But is it really a sign of a hit? Yes. No. Both. Last year's Brandimensions report put My Name Is Earl in first place; a year later, it is a respectable but not runaway hit (the less-buzzworthy Criminal Minds and The Unit had better freshman years). Past preseason studies by other firms found early buzz for a little show by the name of Desperate Housewives--but also for a little show by the name of Joey.

In any case, if NBC's online bzz-bzz does translate into ratings, it can prrobably thank in part an aggressive campaign of advance "First Look" previews online at nbc.com. It hasn't slighted returning shows either: today it debuts the first two of ten summer "webisodes," or mini-online episodes, of The Office. The shorts feature supporting players, from the Dunder-Mifflin accounting department, sleuthing out a $3,000 discrepancy in the company books.

Are they are good as a honest-to-God-TV episode of The Office? Well, as good as a mediocre one, anyway, with typically strong performance from the sitcom's bench (The schoolmarmishness of Angela Kinsey, as prim bookkeeper Angela, comes over just as well in jerky Web video.) With our fall Office fix two months away, we'll take it. And if the sitcom comes back as strong or stronger in the fall, expect to see more shows doing summer school next year.

As for the rest of the NBC schedule: well, buzz is better than nothing. But if you don't back it up with quality, you still get stung.

http://time.blogs.com/tuned_in/

[fredfa]

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
My Wakeup Call Is Mr. T

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

I'm in the same meeting room where Ted Koppel's message came via satellite yesterday, only the messenger is a little different this morning.

It's Mr. T, and he is rolling as he talks about his new show, ''I Pity the Fool,'' which premieres in October on TV Land. The gold chains are gone (he thought they were just wrong after the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina), replaced by a suit and tie (and white sneakers). The Mohawk is still there, just a lot thinner.

I was a little weary when I came in here but you can't stay drowsy for long when that raspy growl of a voice is rapid-firing aphorisms -- ''You pity the fool because you don't want to beat up the fool'' -- and explaining how his show will be different from Dr. Phil's. (He'd tell the tearful folks on ''Dr. Phil'' that ''you're a fool, that's what's wrong with you!'') Not to mention his repeated references to his mother, or his description of watching ''The A-Team'' late at night: ''Look at me,'' he'll think, ''I was something!'' Or his fondness for the show generally: ''We shot a thousand bullets and didn't kill nobody.'' And I've lost track of how many different things T has said the T stands for: tender, tough, time, temperature (because he brings the heat)...

Of course, T has been giving inspirational speeches for a long time. But he seems to have changed from the ''A-Team'' days; I remember him being surly at a press conference touting a guest turn on the show by Culture Club. (Yes, I was in a room with Mr. T and Boy George.) T insists that some of that was him being in character. And some of it may also have been that he didn't like the questions reporters asked in the old days -- and surly was better than smacking. ''I might have saved the guy who asked the question by walking away.''

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

[fredfa]

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

MTV Networks: Bait & Switch
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine”

Network and channels on the press tour are forever trying to find ways to make their sessions attractive to reporters and critics who are filing stories, doing interviews and looking to cut fat from a pretty heavy schedule of sessions. So when MTV Networks scheduled "South Park" for 9 a.m., a certain segment who may have stayed up past bedtime garnering "information" from late night parties had to quit whining and get to the session for what promised to be, if nothing else, "blog gold."

But MTV Networks decided to pull a bait and switch. "South Park" would be last - TV Land first. You can imagine how well that went over, despite a general warm feeling for the nostalgia of TV Land. But things turned for the better when we learned that Mr. T is going to have a self-help motivational series called - take a wild guess - "I Pity the Fool." Mr. T came out on stage in a suit, tie, white sneakers and, just so we didn't forget the past, his mohawk. But the gold chains are gone. Forever.

Why? Because, in addition to finding God, Mr. T said that Hurricane Katrina convinced him to dump the gold when he wanted to go down there and help people. He realized it might seem - tacky perhaps? - to help people who don't have food, water are homes while wearing 8 lbs of gold chains. "The gold is in my heart," he said.

By the way, Mr. T hasn't lost anything. He's a great speaker and very funny as well as being deathly serious about this new self help thing. The first question he got was this:

"Mr. T? Why do you pity the fool?"

He took off running with it and never looked back. He talks a mile a minute, preaching peace and tolerance and love and self-help. He was like a cup of visual coffee, gravelly voiced and electric, telling everyone what "T" stands for - from time to tenderness to tough, to tolerant, etc. He's got a bunch of them.

He talks a lot about what his mother taught him and that will, presumably, be some of the advice he deals on the new show. There were no clips. Just Mr. T standing there very early in the morning and recycling his act, with a few new twists. He certainly looks older, but at least he's out of the "A-Team" garb now. He even said he's going to dump the mohawk soon. "I'm getting kind of old so the hair is falling out. I'll let nature do its course."

No, don't do it Mr. T. Don't ever change.

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

[fredfa]

Many of you have indicated your unhappiness with my postings on the “Rescue Me” rape controversy.
So I am listening to you and posting very little on it from the TCA tour.
But this Scott Collins piece seems better than most:

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Why FX Dodged Rape Issue

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in the Channel Island TV Industry blog July 13, 2006

My colleague Greg Braxton, along with Ed Martin at mediavillage.com, observed the strange dissonance at Wednesday's FX session at the press tour in Pasadena.

Network officials offered a session with the producers and cast of Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days." The discussion centered on illegal immigration, which the Spurlock episode covers in its season premiere.

Critics and reporters gamely went along, and listened politely while cast member Frank George filibustered on his harsh let's-deport-'em views. But what the journos really wanted to talk about was the recent flap over the rape scene in FX's "Rescue Me." The network set up nothing for that show, and FX president John Landgraf sat silently in the audience through the "30 Days" panel, though he was pelted by "Rescue Me" questions afterward. "I thought it was valid within the context of the entire season," Landgraf told reporters, according to Martin.

But he admitted that he did consider deleting the rape sequence at one point, relenting only after FX's female executives viewed the scene and apparently signed off. (Huh? That was the deciding factor? Why? Only women are qualified to judge the merits of this case?)

FX really blew it on this one.

This was an opportunity for the network to state its case in a public forum, and engage in a freewheeling debate over the emotions aroused by the show. Why hasn't Landgraf been front and center, defending the show and explaining the backstory, until now? And I realize "Rescue Me" is still in production, but couldn't star Denis Leary or the producers have spared a day to address the biggest controversy ever to hit this show?

From a purely mercenary standpoint, such a decision probably would have helped the show's marketing and ratings prospects as well.

What a waste.

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

[fredfa]

Obituary
Red Buttons, 87

By Dennis McLellan Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 13, 2006

Red Buttons, the impish former burlesque comic who became an early TV sensation and an Academy Award-winning character actor during a career that spanned more than seven decades, has died. He was 87.

Buttons died today at his Century City home after a long battle with vascular disease, publicist Warren Cowan said.

A product of New York's Lower East Side, Buttons had already performed in Minsky's Burlesque and in Broadway plays and musicals by the time he became an overnight hit on television in 1952 with the launch of "The Red Buttons Show" on CBS.

A comedy-variety show, it featured the likable Buttons' monologues, dance numbers and sketches with regulars and guests. Among the comic's recurring characters were a punch-drunk prizefighter named Rocky, a juvenile delinquent called Muggsy, and a dumb "dialect" German named Kleeglefarven.

The diminutive comic — 5 feet, 6 inches and 140 pounds — inspired children around the country to mimic him singing his signature "Ho Ho Song," in which he hopped around singing, "Ho Ho! Hee Hee! Ha Ha! Strange things are happening."

The Academy of Radio and Television Arts and Sciences named him Comedian of the Year in 1954.

But Buttons' time at the top on TV was short-lived.

The show, which moved to NBC when CBS canceled it after its second season, became a sitcom and was off the air a year later.

After his show was canceled in 1955, Buttons said years later, "I couldn't get arrested." Indeed, as he said at the time, "I found out how tough show business can be."

Over the next two years, he worked only 14 weeks, primarily in nightclubs, with only three guest shots on "The Perry Como Show" and a role in a "Studio One" production.

But in late 1957 he was unexpectedly back on top with his dramatic supporting role in the screen adaptation of the James Michener novel "Sayonara," starring Marlon Brando as an Army major who falls in love with a Japanese woman after he is assigned to an air base in Japan during the Korean War.

Buttons' role as the tragic Airman Joe Kelly, an enlisted man in Brando's company who marries his Japanese sweetheart despite a military policy forbidding interracial marriage, earned him an Oscar and a Golden Globe for best supporting actor

"I'm a little guy," Buttons said at the time, "and that's what I play all the time — a little guy and his troubles."

Buttons appeared in more than 30 movies, including "Hatari!," "The Longest Day," "Harlow," "Stagecoach" (the 1966 remake), "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?," "The Poseidon Adventure," "18 Again!" and "It Could Happen to You."

In 1966, he starred in the short-lived situation comedy "The Double Life of Henry Phyfe," in which he played a bookkeeper who is asked to pose as a secret agent.

Buttons never equaled his early TV success or the high of his Oscar win, but he also never again stopped working. He appeared in TV movies and specials and made frequent series guest shots. He had a stint on "Knots Landing" in the 1980s and recurring roles on "Roseanne" in the '90s and in the Showtime series "Street Time" in 2002.

In the 1970s, he made frequent appearances on "The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast" shows, in which Buttons would begin his portion of the proceedings by noting, "Some of the most famous people in history never got a dinner!"

A popular guest at testimonial dinners over the years, Buttons offered up one-liners, including: "Alex the Great, who said on his wedding night, 'It's only a nickname'." and "George W. Bush, who said to Pope John Paul II, 'Give us a visit and bring the missus."

"You think you can reach a peak and stay there, but that's not what happens. I've been coming back continuously," Buttons said in a 1987 interview. "I've had a Humpty Dumpty career. It's been a roller coaster ride."

Born Aaron Chwat Öin New York City on Feb. 5, 1919, Buttons spent his early years in tenements on the Lower East Side, the same poor neighborhood that had spawned legendary figures including Eddie Cantor, George Burns, Jimmy Durante, Fannie Brice and George and Ira Gershwin.

"I don't know," Buttons once said. "It must have been something in the seltzer."

His father, a Polish immigrant who made hats for a living, sparked his early desire to get into show business.

"He was a clown who liked to sing and dance," Buttons told Newsday in 1995. "I picked that up from him. I noticed he made people happy, smiling, laughing, and that's what I wanted to do."

As a kid, Buttons sang for pennies on the street, encouraging donations by wearing a small sign that said, "I am an orphan."

"That was my gimmick," he recalled. "People were nice to orphans."

Buttons' family, which included his brother Joe and sister Ida, moved to the Bronx while he was still in grammar school.

At 12, billing himself as Little Skippy and singing "Sweet Jennie Lee," he won an amateur night contest at a local movie theater.

At 16 in 1935, he landed a job as a bellboy and singer at Dinty Moore's Tavern on City Island in the Bronx. Customers, eyeing his red hair and uniform festooned with brass buttons, gave him the nickname that became his professional moniker.

That summer, Buttons made his first appearance on the Borscht Circuit. In exchange for room and board, he entertained at Greenfield Park in New York's Catskill Mountains.

During a summertime stint at Loch Sheldrake in the Catskills after he graduated from high school in 1938, Button was spotted by a talent scout for burlesque impresario Harold Minsky. That led to a 17-week engagement at the Gaiety Theater in New York, followed by time on what was known as the Western Wheel circuit.

Buttons made his Broadway acting debut in a supporting role in "Vickie," a farce at the Plymouth Theatre starring Jose Ferrer and Uta Hagen. He followed that by joining the "Wine, Women and Song" vaudeville-burlesque company at the Ambassador Theater in 1942.

After being inducted into the Army in 1943, Buttons joined the cast of "Winged Victory," playwright Moss Hart's Army Air Forces play to benefit Army Emergency Relief.

After 212 performances in New York, he re-created the role in the 20th Century Fox film version. That was followed by a 28-week "Winged Victory" tour.

He also had a stint with another Army unit in Europe in 1945, and that year he performed and served as master of ceremonies in a show for President Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin at the Potsdam Conference.

Back in New York after his discharge, Buttons appeared on Broadway in George Abbott's musical "Barefoot Boy With Cheek" in 1947 and the 1948 musical "Hold It," in which he impressed New York World-Telegram critic William Hawkins, who wrote: "The best out and out performance of the evening is Red Buttons, who comes into his own He can dress up comedy lines."

Forty-seven years later, in 1995, a 76-year-old Buttons was still dressing up comedy lines with "Buttons on Broadway," a one-man show filled with old stories and old jokes.

"I love to make 'em laugh. I love to hear 'em laugh. I love to entertain," he told Back Stage magazine. "That's my life. It's always been my life."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-071306buttons,0,2944901,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[fredfa]

TV Notebook
To live and heal in L.A.

Jenelle Riley Back Stage West

Why do we love shows set in hospitals? Because they've long been breeding grounds for great actors. Before he was a dual Oscar winner, Denzel Washington cut his teeth as the charismatic Dr. Philip Chandler on "St. Elsewhere." Washington was in good company: His co-stars on the NBC series included character actors William Daniels and Ronny Cox, and then-rising stars Ed Begley Jr., Mark Harmon, and David Morse. Currently, there are three hit programs on network television shot in Los Angeles (though all are set elsewhere) that revolve around the chaotic lives of physicians. And while they may be very different in tone and style, they all have one common thread: supremely talented actors playing doctor.

When "ER" premiered in 1994, it was one of two highly touted hospital shows of the new season. On paper, "ER" didn't have the prestige of the David E. Kelley-created "Chicago Hope." It starred George Clooney, an actor with multiple failed series behind him, and Anthony Edwards, not seen in the limelight since 1986's "Top Gun." Of course, the program went on to become a pop culture phenomenon, rising to the top of the ratings and making megastars out of unknowns Julianna Margulies and Noah Wyle.

"ER" has continued for 12 seasons through its ability to cast charismatic performers who earn the audience's interest despite the fast pace of the show. When Clooney departed the series, producers tapped actor Goran Visnjic to join the cast as broody Dr. Luka Kovac. At first it felt like the show was simply replacing its resident heartthrob with a generic hunk who bore more than a passing resemblance to Clooney. But the classically trained Visnjic, who was playing Hamlet at age 21 in his native Croatia, soon came into his own, erasing any lingering memories of his predecessor.

Visnjic was well-aware of the pressure on him, as he told Back Stage in 2004, but his fears were allayed by none other than Clooney himself. "I remember meeting George when I was coming to my first day of work on 'ER,' " he recalled. "He walked by and introduced himself and was really nice. He said, 'Don't worry, it's going to be great, it's a great group of people, it's a great show. Just relax and do your job.' It was quite a big deal for me to be on the show. He'd just left, and I was one of five new cast members, and [English] was my second language, and it was a big medical show. So he actually made me feel much better after that."

Another smart move was snatching Maura Tierney to play nurse (now doctor) Abby Lockhart after the cancellation of Tierney's series "NewsRadio." Bringing an inherent realism to any part she plays, Tierney's natural, effortless acting style keeps the show grounded during the jumpy camera work and nonstop action. The same can be said of Laura Innes, who plays prickly Dr. Kerry Weaver, one of the most fascinating female characters on television today. In a medium in which many networks insist that their leads be likeable, Innes doesn't hesitate to play Weaver with all her rough edges intact.

Because of the nature of the program, with its frenetic pacing and reluctance to delve too deep into patients' lives, the acting styles on "ER" tend to blend together. It can be difficult to hold one's own or stand out in a large cast of people whose main job is to shout nonsensical medical dialogue while running down hallways. This could be why the cast doesn't garner the same attention it did when it premiered. But make no mistake, actors such as Linda Cardellini (as jaded nurse Samantha Taggart) and the compulsively watchable Mekhi Phifer (as overachieving Dr. Gregory Pratt) could hold their own against Margulies and Edwards any day.

On the other end of the spectrum from "ER's" "just the facts" style of storytelling is "Grey's Anatomy," the often soapy, sometimes silly ABC hit that has become the water-cooler show of the season. While it may resemble the early seasons of "ER" in ratings and magazine covers, "Grey's" isn't afraid to get personal, proudly detailing the hookups, breakups, and make-ups at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital.

Who would have guessed, 20 years ago, that Patrick Dempsey, star of the teen comedy "Can't Buy Me Love," would mature into a charismatic leading man as Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd? Or that Katherine Heigl, best-known as eye candy in the TV show "Roswell," would be such a revelation as model-turned-doctor Izzie Stevens? It's great to see established character actors Isaiah Washington and James Pickens Jr. shine alongside new discoveries such as Ellen Pompeo (as title character Meredith Grey) and T.R. Knight.

Perhaps no one has garnered more praise - including this year's Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards - than Sandra Oh, who tears into the role of difficult but brilliant Dr. Cristina Yang. While tough and outspoken - she says all the things we wish we could - Yang also reveals surprising moments of vulnerability.

And therein lies perhaps the show's greatest achievement: making the audience adore characters who frequently behave badly, who have very real flaws, and who can occasionally be downright unlikeable. As tough-as-nails Dr. Miranda Bailey, Chandra Wilson has quickly become a fan favorite even though she spends most of her time verbally dressing down her interns. And as resident lothario Alex Karev, Justin Chambers is rapidly becoming the guy we love to hate. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the sympathy and dignity Kate Walsh has brought to her role of Dr. Addison Shepherd, Derek's unfaithful wife, who has gone from resident bitch to the woman we root for to find happiness.

But there's another TV doctor whose audience's adoration seems to increase based on how inappropriately he behaves: Dr. Gregory House of Fox's drama "House." As played by established British comic Hugh Laurie, House's atrocities include purposely infecting one of his staff with a deadly contagion, torturing a teenage girl until she hallucinated, and stealing his ex-girlfriend's private records from her psychiatrist's office. And we savor every minute of it.

The character is inspired by Sherlock Holmes, but Holmes would be nothing without his Watson, a role that is ably filled by theatre vet Robert Sean Leonard as House's patient, co-dependent friend Dr. James Wilson. Woefully underused in the first season, Leonard is always a joy to watch interacting with Laurie, constantly finding new levels of disgust to play. As House's underlings, the trio of Omar Epps - who, interestingly, got his TV start on "ER" - Jesse Spencer, and Jennifer Morrison is an unqualified example of differing styles that jell into a flawless ensemble.

Most of all, it's a treat to see the always-sensational Lisa Edelstein butting heads with Laurie as hospital administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy. Edelstein has always stood out in supporting roles, whether as a Washington call girl on "The West Wing" or in the short-lived sitcom "Leap of Faith," and with Cuddy she at last has a permanent home on television. She landed "House" after another coveted role fell through: Edelstein tested for "Desperate Housewives," in the part that eventually went to Felicity Huffman. "Housewives" loss is "House's" gain, as Edelstein effortlessly embodies the no-nonsense boss, sharing terrific chemistry with Laurie as the two trade barbs like 1940s movie icons.

Edelstein also speaks to a situation any actor can relate to when playing a physician. "As for the advantages of being a doctor on TV, it has actually gotten in my usual know-it-all way," she told Back Stage. "I love medicine and have always been the one to try and diagnose my friends. Now, however, just as I'm getting into my groove regarding the presented symptoms, someone will inevitably say, 'What, do you think you're a real doctor? You just play one on TV. Ha, ha, ha.' Boy, does that joke get old."

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/tv/articles/0713tvdocs.html

[fredfa]

Washington Notebook
The Adelphia Fact Sheet

(source: F C C)

Adelphia/Comcast/Time Warner License Transfer Review Conditioned Approval Fact Sheet

Summary of Conditions (each lasting six years)

Affiliated Regional Sports Networks:

• A Regional Sports Network is defined as any non-broadcast video programming service that (1) provides live or same-day distribution of sporting events within a limited geographic region of a sports team that is a member team of Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, NASCAR, NCAA Division I Football, or NCAA Division I Basketball, and (2) in any year, carries a minimum of either 100 hours of programming that meets the criteria of subheading 1 or 10% if the regular season games of at least one sports team that meets the criteria of subheading 1.

• Neither Comcast nor Time Warner may offer an affiliated Regional Sport Network on an exclusive basis to any MVPD.

• Neither Comcast nor Time Warner may unduly or improperly influence (i) the decision of any affiliated Regional Sports Network to sell programming to an unaffiliated MVPD; or (ii) the prices, terms, and conditions of sale of programming by a affiliated Regional Sport Network to an unaffiliated MVPD.

• If an MVPD and an affiliated Regional Sports Network cannot reach an agreement on the terms and conditions of carriage, the MVPD may elect commercial arbitration of the dispute.

• The above conditions apply regardless of the means of delivery. Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, however, is not subject to the conditions, except to the extent that the service is already being carried by MVPDs other than Comcast.

Independent Programming:

• If an unaffiliated Regional Sports Network is unable to reach a carriage agreement with Comcast or Time Warner, it may elect commercial arbitration of the dispute.

• If an unaffiliated programming network is unable to reach an agreement pursuant to the Commission’s commercial leased access rules with Comcast or Time Warner, it may elect commercial arbitration of the dispute, where the arbitrator would be directed to resolve the dispute using the rate formula specified in the Commission’s rules.

http://www.fcc.gov/

[fredfa]

The New York Times Obituary
Comedian Red Buttons Dies at 87

By Mervyn Rothstein The New York Times July 13, 2006

Red Buttons, a Borscht Belt comic who rose to instant television stardom on his own variety show in 1952, descended to obscurity three years later after his program was canceled, and then rebounded to win the Academy Award as best supporting actor in 1958 for his dramatic performance in “Sayonara,” died today at his home in Los Angeles. He was 87.

The cause was vascular disease, his publicist Warren Cown told The Associated Press.

Mr. Buttons took the Oscar for his portrayal of Sgt. Joe Kelly, an American serviceman in Japan after World War II who is ostracized by the military for marrying a Japanese woman. Miyoshi Umeki, the actress who played his wife, was also awarded an Academy Award for her role in the movie, which starred Marlon Brando, was directed by Josh Logan and was based on the James Michener novel about prejudice and interracial marriage.

Six years earlier, CBS executives, looking for a program to compete with Milton Berle’s “Texaco Star Theater” on NBC on Tuesdays at 8 p.m., turned to Mr. Buttons. At the time he was a 33-year-old comedian who had gained nationwide notice in October 1951 on an episode of the “Suspense” television program about Joe E. Lewis, a nightclub star whose throat had been cut by gangsters during Prohibition.

They gave Mr. Buttons, who had also made several guest appearances on the Berle show, his own half-hour variety program, which began Oct. 14, 1952. Later that evening, switchboard operators at CBS reported one of the biggest and most enthusiastic responses to a single program they had ever received. Critics praised him, too; Jack Gould, in The New York Times, declared that Mr. Buttons was “easy to like.”

The next week, though, just before air time (programs were live in those days) Mr. Buttons collapsed from the exhaustion of strenuous rehearsals, and that evening’s show was canceled at the last minute. He quickly recovered, and in the ensuing weeks ratings soared.

Audiences were amused by Mr. Buttons’s comedy routines and his characters. He was Rocky Buttons, a punch-drunk prizefighter with a heart of gold; Muggsy Buttons, a juvenile delinquent with a core of kindness; Keeglefarven, a German military officer presented in dialect; and the Kupke Kid, a child laborer who aroused in others a compulsion to pick him up after first knocking him down. For the role Mr. Buttons wore a kupke (Yiddish for stocking cap), a prop he had brought with him from his burlesque days.

“I’m a little guy, and that’s what I play — a little guy with a little guy’s troubles,” said Mr. Buttons, who stood 5 feet 6 and, in his prime, weighed 140 pounds.

Between bits this puckish, almost elflike comedian would cup his ears and sing, “Hey-hey, ho-ho, strange things are happening,” providing different strange things each week. Soon “strange things are happening” became a catch-phrase among the nation’s teenagers.

At the end of the first year, Mr. Buttons told an interviewer: “Friends have been asking me what my future plans are now that the TV show has been going so well. You know what? I don’t have any other plans. I’ll be plenty happy just to see this thing last. I’m a guy who never uncrosses his fingers.”

It didn’t last. As the second season began, television audiences suddenly and inexplicably lost interest in Mr. Buttons, and a strange thing began to happen: his ratings dropped.

Frantically seeking to rediscover a winning format, he hired and fired writers almost every week — among them Larry Gelbart and Neil Simon.

“I kept firing writers one after the other,” Mr. Buttons recalled. “I never could get quite what I wanted. When a guy does a TV show every week, he is only as good as his scripts.” The revolving door for writers — 163 of them over two years — became a standing joke in show business. But nothing helped. The ratings kept plummeting, and his CBS show was canceled.

NBC, however, picked him up, and in the third year a situation-comedy format was tried in a new time slot. But the ratings failed to reach anything like their first-year levels, and in May 1955, his sponsor, Pontiac, canceled the program.

For the next two years, Mr. Buttons appeared primarily in nightclubs, and although he would make an occasional television guest appearance, he was essentially a nonentity on the small screen. He was 36 and rich, but newspaper profiles at the time called him a “has-been.”

But then Josh Logan, after some initial misgivings about using a comedian in a dramatic role, asked him to join the cast of “Sayonara.” An eager Mr. Buttons went off to Japan. While on location, he sent his agent a postcard of Kyoto’s snow-covered hills. On the front, he harked back to his early days playing stand-up dates in the Catskill, writing, “Hey, look, you’ve got me working in the mountains again.”

Red Buttons was born Aaron Chwatt on Feb. 5, 1919, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He was the son of Michael Chwatt, a millinery worker, and Sophie Chwatt, a housewife. Aaron and his family — an older brother, Joe, and a younger sister, Ida — lived in a tenement apartment on Third Street between Avenues A and B. It was a tough neighborhood, and Mr. Buttons said that he would get into a fight every day.

“On my block you either grew up to be a judge or you went to the electric chair,” he often said.

He first attended P.S. 104 on East Fourth Street, but then his family moved to 176th Street and Marmion Avenue in the Bronx. He made his first stage appearance at age 12 under the name “Little Skippy,” dressed in a sailor suit and singing “Sweet Jennie Lee” in an amateur contest at the old Fox Corona Theater. He won.

While attending Evander Childs High School, Aaron got a job as a bellhop and singer at Ryan’s, a bar on City Island in the Bronx. It was there that he got the name Red Buttons: since he wore a bellhop uniform, he was naturally called “Buttons,” and at the time his hair was red. The name stuck, even though for some unknown reason his hair turned dark brown as he got older. (Josh Logan had him dye it red for “Sayonara.”)

His first job in the Catskills was in the summer of 1935, as a singer at Greenfield Park. “My voice cracked, so they made me a comedian,” he recalled. He began working in burlesque, at Minsky’s, at the Gaiety on Broadway and 46th Street, and in Western Wheel, the Midwest burlesque circuit, doing comic numbers like “Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long.” In 1940 he married a stripper known as Roxanne, but the marriage was annulled two years later.

In 1941, Jose Ferrer discovered him and cast him in a Broadway-bound comedy called “The Admiral Takes a Wife.” The play received good out-of-town reviews, came into New York on a Sunday in December and was scheduled to open the following day. The comedy, however, was a satire on life at a naval base in Hawaii — Pearl Harbor; the Sunday it arrived was Dec. 7, 1941, and the show never opened.

Mr. Buttons joined the Army in 1943 and spent the rest of World War II in its entertainment unit, appearing in a hit show called “Winged Victory,” which was written and directed by Moss Hart and was turned into a movie in 1944. Other future stars in the show included Mario Lanza, Karl Malden, Barry Nelson, Louis Nye, Peter Lind Hayes, John Forsythe and Gary Merrill. They were recruited by Irving Lazar, who would acquire the nickname “Swifty” and become one of Broadway and Hollywood’s leading agents.

After the war, Mr. Buttons returned to nightclubs and appeared in an occasional Broadway turkey. Then came the “Suspense” episode, stardom, his descent, and the Oscar.

In 1966, he starred on a short-lived television series, “The Double Life of Henry Phyfe,” as a meek accountant-turned-spy. His other movies included “Imitation General” (1958), “Hatari!” with John Wayne (1962), “The Longest Day” (1962), “A Ticklish Affair” (1963), “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” (1969), “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972), “Gable and Lombard” (1976) and “It Could Happen to You” (1994).

In the mid-1970’s he was a regular on the NBC comic tribute series “Dean Martin’s Celebrity Roast”; he portrayed the White Rabbit in the 1985 musical miniseries “Alice in Wonderland,” and in 1987 he played the recurring role of Al Baker on “Knots Landing.” He also made guest appearances on “Roseanne” and “E.R.”

In 1995, he celebrated his 60th year in show business by presenting a one-man show, “Buttons on Broadway,” at the Ambassador Theater. Ben Brantley in The Times wrote that Mr. Buttons, “trim and agile at 76,” was “able to command a stage for nearly two hours with a medley of Borscht Belt and burlesque shtick, songs and impersonations.”

As a stand-up comic, he was known primarily for his contributions to Friar’s Roasts. For several years, he was perhaps seen most often as the spokesman in an advertising campaign for the Century Village retirement communities in South Florida.

“I’ve been a performer all my life,” Mr. Buttons once said. “It’s a very satisfactory profession. You get paid off on the spot. When they cheer, that’s payment.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/13/arts/13cnd-buttons.html?ei=5094&en=06af70757eb13f59&hp=&ex=1152849600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all

[VisionOn]

Many of you have indicated your unhappiness with my postings on the “Rescue Me” rape controversy.
So I am listening to you and posting very little on it from the TCA tour.

I hope I wasn't one of them. I was referring to the media coverage being over the top, not your news items. In my opinion just keep on doing the usual great job, no matter what the subject matter.

[fredfa]

Thanks VisionOn.

[123HDTV]

A separate thread warranted perhaps?

I'd like to know what's coming out of TCA about it. I'd like to know how they thought it fit into the series. I realize it'll probably become crystal clear why in the last episode but there could be tidbits coming out.

[fredfa]

OK, OK, I surrender.

And as they are posted I'll add some more posts regarding the "Rescue Me" controversy.

[fredfa]

A Remembrance
Red Buttons

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog July 13, 2006

There's an obit for Red Buttons on www.tvtattle.com, and it pains me to see it.

Buttons was a genuinely funny man, fast on his feet, abrasive and all-around cool.

And he gave TV critics who weren't even born during his heyday a reason to recognize that just a year ago.

PBS was touting a special about TV legends, and Mickey Rooney had all but hijacked a press conference tied to the show.

Buttons was also there. He took over. (You can read a longer account from my blog then in ''Hail, Red'')

He proved that his comedy was still sharp -- and basically timeless.

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

[fredfa]

A Remembrance
Hail, Red

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog July 13, 2005 (exactly a year ago today)

Before I tell you why Red Buttons is so great, I have to talk about Mickey Rooney.

On Tuesday, there was a press conference for a PBS show called ''Pioneers of Primetime.'' It airs in November, and seems ripe for pledge breaks, but that's another story.

To promote the show, PBS had a press conference that included Mickey Rooney, Rose Marie, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Red Buttons and longtime director William Asher.

Combined age: About 500. Every one of them is over 80. Rose Marie and Asher arrived in wheelchairs, and a frail-looking Caesar carried a cane.

Now, Rooney was an enormously talented actor.

But he also loves to talk about himself, even when he is not the subject being discussed.

Years ago, I saw him turn a press conference into a pitch session for himself and for projects he would like to do.

On Tuesday -- with his wife loudly applauding almost every time he spoke -- Rooney pontificated, reminisced and generally tried to steal the show from the other show-biz veterans.

At one point, when a reporter asked about Milton Berle and Fred Allen, Rooney said, ''Can I answer that?''

"I would be amazed if you didn't,'' a weary Reiner interjected.

Which brings me to Red Buttons.

At 86, Buttons was the oldest person onstage. He was also the funniest and the most entertaining.

He not only imitated James Cagney, he stood up and imitated Cagney dancing like George M. Cohan. And, as a smart performer, he read the room -- and quickly sensed the impatience with Rooney.

He began needling Rooney for laughs, with Reiner joining in.

A lot of the lines have a you-had-to-be-there quality on the page, and they don't include Buttons' facial expressions.

But it was astounding, as well as mean. When Rooney introduced his wife from the stage, Buttons said, ''Introduce your mistress, too.''

Some of Buttons's jokes were ancient.

(Recalling wartime service with Rooney, Buttons said, ''One day, he saved our entire outfit. He killed a cook.'')

But he did not really need Rooney as a foil. He also had jokes about his days in burlesque (''I was the youngest comedian in the history of burlesque. ... I billed myself as the only comedian with teeth.'') and other topics.

Most importantly, he had a sense of what worked at that press conference, with that crowd. Didn't matter if the jokes wouldn't work on the printed page, or even in the retelling by someone without Buttons's timing.

That wasn't where Buttons was playing.

He was working the room. And he knew how to work it.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/2005/07/hail_red.html

[AFH]

Many of you have indicated your unhappiness with my postings on the “Rescue Me” rape controversy.
So I am listening to you and posting very little on it from the TCA tour.
But this Scott Collins piece seems better than most:

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Why FX Dodged Rape Issue

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in the Channel Island TV Industry blog July 13, 2006

FX really blew it on this one.

This was an opportunity for the network to state its case in a public forum, and engage in a freewheeling debate over the emotions aroused by the show. Why hasn't Landgraf been front and center, defending the show and explaining the backstory, until now? And I realize "Rescue Me" is still in production, but couldn't star Denis Leary or the producers have spared a day to address the biggest controversy ever to hit this show?

From a purely mercenary standpoint, such a decision probably would have helped the show's marketing and ratings prospects as well.

What a waste.

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

I thought that Leary and the director or producer already addressed the issue at hand. I guess they didn't address it to the satisfaction of some in the media. Obviously, Leary's previous explanations didn't help the show from a marketing standpoint. It probably made things worse. I guess it was a waste b/c Scott Collins couldn't have his time to sink his teeth in Leary.

I don't blame Landgraf one bit for not bringing the cast. The discussion would have mainly focused on that rape episode and why this and that was done or said and so on and so on. It has been discussed ad nuasem and all of the critics that cared have given their opinions. What else is there left to say? I guess Landgraf just wanted to focus on other things that FX has going on. Maybe some of the critics there had their own agenda when it came to wanting to question FX at the presentation. Just let it die already. This thing is like the ex-girlfriend who won't go away. She's always showing up even though you guys broke up months ago.

[fredfa]

Given the nature of the topic, Antonio, I might have chosen a slightly different analogy for your final two sentences! :)

[fredfa]

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Truckers 'n' Chomsky 'n' such

From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher”

The surprise of Thursday’s session was how darn hilarious Comedy Central’s “Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show” session was. Much of the point TCA, for television networks anyway, is to build buzz for shows no one has heard of or even seen yet. In the case of “Naked Trucker,” which stars Second City veteran David Koechner (one of the stars of “Talledega Nights”) and Dave “Gruber” Allen, not a single person in the room, I’m willing to guess, had even heard of the show. In any case, it’s one of the fall shows I’m most excited about now.

It’s nearly to impossible to convey why a naked guy (Allen) playing guitar while a guy with a greasy comb-over (Koechner) sings country-fried tunes that reference everything from John Negroponte to Noam Chomsky to the drug crank is funny, but trust me, Koechner and Allen killed at TCA.

“Don’t mistake us for hillbillies,” Koechner said (in character as T-Bone) during a panel discussion on the show. “We’re just ne’er do wells. Dandies about town.” Who like to reference Chaucer and whose politics, in the words of T-Bone, are “left of Hegel, right of Marx.”

And he took mock offense at an obvious question, regarding their thoughts on the movie “Deliverance.” “If you’re asking straight out if we like to have sex with men tied to trees…” T-Bone/Koechner answered. He would have finished his room, but the room was in an uproar of laughter.

Comedy Central also unveiled an online-only show that’s basically about, well, the adventures of man parts. There are two of them. I will not say more. But you know what? My mom reads this stuff, and I’m just not going there.

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

[fredfa]

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
"South Park'' celebrates, Mr T offers philosophy

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog July 13, 2006

• On the eve of the 10th season of "South Park,'' show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are still feisty, unrepentent and willing to take risk no one else will take. Talking to reporters today to promote the milestone -- the season starts Oct. 4 -- the bad boys of 'toon world lobbed grenades all over the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pasadena, gleefully slicing and dicing everything from Tom Cruise to "Family Guy'' to their own cable channel, Comedy Central.

As a sample, Stone and Parker gleefully announced that their infamous "Trapped In the Closet'' episode (above) -- which roasted Cruise and Scientology -- will be back on the "South Park'' repeat schedule next Wednesday. After the episode aired once, it was pulled from the air by Comedy Central, reportedly because Cruise was threatening not to promote "Mission: Impossible III,'' made by Paramount which is part of the same Viacom empire as Comedy Central. (Although everyone denies it publicly, Parker and Stone both believe the story to be true.)

One reason the episode is back: It was nominated last week for an Emmy. In fact, it was the only episode Parker and Stone submitted to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for consideration.

Said Parker: "I don't think it was our best show of last year by any means, but it was certainly the most controversial." And Stone quickly added, "We just did it to be dicks."

Doesn't sound like the pair has lost any of their subversive edge going into Season 10.

• Also on stage this morning: the immortal Mr. T who will have a new reality show on TV Land in which he will dispense personal advice to those in need. It may take a while for you to get your brain around the T as a self-help guru but the ex-"A Team'' star was full of wit and wisdom while answering reporters' questions.

Asked at one point, "Why do you pity the fool,'' he replied:

"You pity the fool because you don't want to beat up the fool. You see, pity is between sorrow and mercy. See, if you pity them, you don't have to beat them up. With fools, you've got to give them another chance because they don't know no better. That's why I pity 'em."

Class dismissed.

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

[fredfa]

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
MI-5

By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor in his blog “Tuned In”

PASADENA, Calif. -- For all the fans who have e-mailed me about "MI-5" on A&E, mark your calendars: A&E will finally air the next season of "MI-5" at 11 p.m. Fridays beginning Sept. 15.

Doesn't seem like a great time slot and makes me wonder if the network's interest in the series is waning. It's been a long time since new episodes aired on A&E (more than a year, I think), and the entire season (No. 4 in the United Kingdom) has played out in its entirety with No. 5 on the way later this year across the pond. A&E has not yet picked up the rights for that additional season.

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

[fredfa]

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Matt, Trey, Tom Cruise and 'South Park'

From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” July 13, 2006

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of "South Park," view their recent rift with Comedy Central as "water under the bridge," but they’re still disappointed in the network’s recent decisions regarding the show’s inability to depict the image of Muhammed.

Regarding another "South Park" controversy, the pair had threatened to end their relationship with Viacom, the corporation that owns Comedy Central, over the cable network’s decision in the spring to pull a repeat of “Trapped in the Closet,” the November 2005 episode that mocked Tom Cruise and Scientology. Recently Comedy Central scheduled a re-airing of the episode for July 19.

“Getting that episode on the air [in the fall], the Scientology one, was no problem at all,” Stone said. “It wasn’t a big deal. It was kind of after it aired the [poop] hit the fan.”

Still, though the pair remain convinced that Cruise, who was in the midst of promoting Viacom’s “Mission Impossible 3” during the spring, was responsible for the yanking of the repeat, they said they’ve had no fallout from any Scientologists.

“We haven’t had any contact at all,” Stone said. “I’m sure they’re not happy with us.”

As for wading into subjects that are controversial – in addition to having an episode involving the attempted visual depiction of Muhammed, there was the infamous one exploring the beliefs of Scientologists, which also showed Tom Cruise and John Travolta trapped in a closet together, and another controversial recent outing was called “Bloody Mary” and angered some Catholics – Parker and Stone said that they don’t sweat taking on those issues.

Doing shows on those topics doesn’t cause stress in and of itself, they said. Their main worry every week, they said, is getting the show done on time.

“Almost every single week, we think we’re not going to make it,” just due to time constraints, Parker said. Their other worry, they noted, was whether or not the fans would like the particular show in question. The worry isn’t “random psychos” or threats to their safety, but whether or not fans are going to understand what they were going for.

Still, the decision to yank the image of Muhammed from a recent episode, they said, was very disappointing. And they said that they realize the decision didn’t really come from Comedy Central head Doug Herzog, but from “really high levels of Viacom,” Stone said.

“We thought we could do something really important,” Stone noted, adding that Harpers magazine not only recently reprinted the controversial Muhammed cartoons that caused rioting in various parts of the world. (Harpers also asked the “South Park” creators if the magazine could run the image of the prophet that the pair had wanted to put on the air, but Comedy Central said no.)

“Harpers is in every Barnes and Noble, every Borders in the country, and nothing happened. The risks were totally overestimated,” Stone said.

“Did we overreact? …. History might show that we overreacted,” said Herzog, who wasn’t on stage with Parker and Stone but was seated at the back of the auditorium with other executives and public relations staff. “It’s a judgment call made on behalf of a big media company. … In a perfect world, we would have liked to have done it.”

“It was like we were witnessing… a new taboo being creating out of almost nothing,” said Stone, who noted that an old episode of “South Park” which depicts Muhammed is still airing on Comedy Central and in syndication. “It was so opposite of the way it’s supposed to work.”

In the hourlong interview with journalists, the pair talked about a wide range of topics, including the reaction to their episodes that mercilessly mocked “Family Guy.” The two said that they didn’t hear from “Family Guy” creator Seth McFarlane, but they did get flowers from the “Simpsons” staff and heard from the “King of the Hill staff that they were “doing God’s work,” Stone said.

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

[fredfa]

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
The Stench of Tom Cruise

By Susan Young Oakland Tribune in her “Unscripted” blog July 13th, 2006

“We didn’t do any press when all the things were going down with Tom Cruise, because you didn’t want to be in a headline with him and start getting that Tom Cruise stink on you,” says Matt Stone.

He’s referring of course to the controversial Emmy-nominated episode of “South Park,” “Trapped in the Closet,” that slaps around Cruise and his beliefs on Scientology. The episode will air again July 19.

Stone and “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker took the stage at the TV critics press tour today to talk about the 10th anniversary of the show.

Of course, all we wanted to talk about was the Cruise episode.

Despite the jeopardy of getting some Cruise stink on them, we wanted to know if it was true that Isaac Hayes gave up his role as Chef because they took aim at his religion of Scientology.

Parker says Hayes asked that they not do the episode. They did the episode. They heard he was going to quit over it. They weren’t surprised when he did. But he was surprised when Hayes started attacking them

“Chef hasn’t been a big part of the show for years, ” Parker said. “So we thought he quit, that’s the end of it. Then he called us bigots and we thought, wow, you thought the show was fine until now and suddenly we are bigots?

“So, game on mother (word they can’t even say on ‘South Park’).”

And the boys are really tweaked about the Mohammed episode last season. The network refused to let them show Mohammed after the uproar with the Dutch cartoon lead to threats of violence.

“Four years ago, we showed Mohammed could turn himself into Superbeaver, and that episode has rerun on Comedy Central and in syndication, but now we can’t?” Parker said. “So a new taboo was created out of nothing.”

And Stone pointed out that “South Park” could show Jesus defecating on President Bush, and any number of outrageous things, but not show a picture of Mohammed.

“It’s open season on Jesus,” Parker says sarcastically. “You can do anything to Jesus on TV.”

http://www.ibabuzz.com/unscripted/

[fredfa]

TV Notebook
USA Will Open Dead Man’s Chest

By Jim Benson Broadcasting & Cable 7/13/2006

In a 4 1/2-year deal valued at $20 million-$25 million, USA Network has acquired the debut fall 2008 television window for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which opened this past weekend with the highest-grossing three-day box office total in history at more than $135 million.

The NBC Universal network is expected to wind up paying about 12% of the domestic box office gross for the cable rights to the sequel. USA had been considered the front-runner since it has the cable rights to the first Pirates movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, which debuts at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Once Buena Vista Television hammers out the broadcast-network component of the deal, the duration of the various cable windows will be determined.

In announcing the acquisition at today’s Television Critics Assn. press tour in Pasadena, Calif., Jane Blaney, USA’s senior VP, programming, says “no film fits our brand better than Pirates.”

The latest Pirates movie from Jerry Bruckheimer Films, which reunites Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, surpassed the previous three-day record-holder, Spider-Man, by almost $21 million.

It also smashed more box office records than any other movie in recent history, including biggest single-day haul and opening day ($55.5 million on Friday). Pirates is the first film to rake in $100 million in two days.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6352974

[fredfa]

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
'South Park' at 10: Respectable?

By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic in his “TV Eye” blog

“South Park” reaches its 10th anniversary in the fall, which surprises its creators most of all.

“We were surprised it made it after the first seven,” said Trey Parker, appearing with co-creator Matt Stone at the TV Critics Association’s summer press tour Thursday.

By now the crude cartoon on Comedy Central has earned enough respect to get it an Emmy last year, and another nomination this year.

“That was like our worst nightmare, winning the Emmy,” Stone says.

“It’s like you are the punk rock kid at school and suddenly you’re the Student of the Month,” Parker says.

Losing edge is “a constant fear,” Stone says. “It’s hard to be the old guy at the club after a while. And you worry about it. But in the last year we had some good shows to compensate for it.”

The two have been preparing a DVD release of their favorite episodes due out this fall; most of the episode came from the most recent years.

“South Park” showed it still had an edge this year by doing a Scientology episode its network pulled – though after being nominated for an Emmy, it will be rerun for the first time next week.

When riots broke out over cartoons depicting Mohammad in Denmark, the two could rest on their laurels. “We did Mohammad three years ago,” Parker says.

Accompanying the 10th anniversary this fall will be a travel sweepstakes, games, merchandise and ringtones. The new season begins Oct. 4.

http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/

[fredfa]

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Simmons Family Values

The Kiss bassist follows in Ozzy's footsteps with "Gene Simmons Family Jewels."
By Maria Elena FernandezLos Angeles Times Staff Writer July 13, 2006

It took Gene Simmons and his family to explain what celebrities mean when they say that something happens to them when they come on stage--and they just light up.

Simmons and his family--Shannon Tweed, the woman he's been "happily unmarried" to for 23 years, and their children Nick, 17, and Sophie, 14--were backstage at the TV industry's press tour being held at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena Thursday. They were waiting their turn to promote their new A&E reality show, "Gene Simmons Family Jewels" when the proud poppa introduced his children. Sophie smiled politely and Nick asked what a press conference was. Nice kids, created by the union of the KISS Rock God and Ex-Playboy Bunny.
An hour or so later, a different personality seemed to inhabit Nick, who exclaimed on stage about his parents:" He doesn't cheat on her. He just goes out and squeezes breasts. He doesn't cheat on her. He's just too chicken." The son later added about his father: "Outside, he's a God among insects."

Thank you, Ozzie Osbourne and familia for starting the trend of supreme family exposure for supreme financial gain. (The Simmons clan isn't the only one. The Carters--as in Nick and Aaron and their siblings--will have their own reality series on E!)

The entertainment press was treated to much insight about the Tweed-Simmons: Simmons showed us his KISS VISA, peddled his wife's new book, "Kiss and Tell," etc. But as wacky and wild as Dad may present himself, they actually came across as a stable and cohesive family.

At one point when Simmons was going on and on and on about how marriages end in divorce and while he and Tweed have never been married, they've also never been divorced, his sweet daughter said: "She's obviously not after your money. She loves you very much."

Simmons credits the "delectable Canadian Miss Shannon Tweed" for his children turning out the way they have. He said they both focus on protecting them and making sure their needs are met. She said she doesn't worry about the small stuff--like making them pick up clothes or comb their hair.

Asked why, after spending so many years not letting anyone see him without his KISS make-up, he would let reality television cameras into his home to follow his family for a year, Simmons replied: "You get past a certain point, there's nothing left to prove to anyone. It's OK to say this is who I am off stage and who I am on stage."

"Also, the fans got older," his son noted, without missing a beat.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-simmons13jul13,0,5682465.story

[fredfa]

Remembering Red Buttons
Chaos Agent

By Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger in his TV blog “What’s Alan Watching”
(first posted July 13, 2005)

Mickey Rooney once was, as he will eagerly tell you, the No. 1 box of fice attraction in the world. To that, he can add another distinction: centerpiece of the most surreal news conference in the history of the Television Critics Association press tour.

Rooney, 84, was on stage to discuss PBS’ "Pioneers of Primetime," a documentary about the early days of television, scheduled to run in November. Since Rooney appeared so infrequently on television back then that he’s not even in the documentary, no one could quite understand what he was doing on the panel — not even the Pioneers producer could explain it — but he proceeded to do his best to take over the joint.

For more than an hour, Rooney interrupted other panelists — including genuine TV pioneers like Sid Caesar, 82, and Rose Marie, 81 — answered questions not directed toward him, and randomly digressed into stories about people he had worked with in the movies and on stage.

All that stood between the critics and total conversa tional Armageddon were Carl Reiner, 83, and Red Buttons, 86, who alternately tried to get the discussion back on track or take Rooney down a few pegs.

The trouble began early, when a question about changing standards of taste in TV comedy led Rooney to get philosophical.

"I think everybody in the entertainment world is special," he said, "because God gave them that talent to move forward and to go with the good, the mediocrity of things and the good things. And people who say that they never made mistakes, dont you believe it. Everybody makes mistakes and they’re nothing to be ashamed of. But, in entertainment, you try your best not to make any mistakes. Sometimes, it’s good. Sometimes, it’s fair. Sometimes, it’s not even worth going. But all of these people on this venue today have worked with good taste, good taste, and thats what we’re all proud of."

A startled Buttons asked, "What the hell did Mickey (just) say?"

"I don’t know," Reiner replied. "I was about to ask if somebody had written it down because I want to make a sampler out of that. I want to have that on my couch."

After a Rooney anecdote about the legendary producer and director Cecil B. DeMille that only Caesar seemed to understand, Buttons asked, "By the way, Mickey, was Lincoln a nice guy?"

This didn’t have the desired effect, as Rooney started discussing Civil War generals whose last names also belonged to his own relatives. As the reporters and other panelists broke down in astonished giggles, Rooney insisted, "I don’t know why you’re laughing. It’s true!"

When Rooney began to answer a question asked of Caesar, Reiner said, "You’re not Sid Caesar," and tossed the question back to his old boss from "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar’s Hour."

Later, Rooney began listing all the actors with whom he’d worked at MGM, and likely would have kept going for several minutes if Buttons hadn’t interrupted to start talking about his love of Rooney’s Andy Hardy movies, inventing new ones like "Andy Hardy and the Hasidic Housewife." Rooney then took this as a cue to explain to the audience that Lionel Barrymore had played Judge Hardy in the first Hardy picture.

"I’m so glad I came!" Reiner dryly exclaimed. "I would not have known that!"

"Pioneers of Primetime" deals at length with the vaudeville backgrounds of many early TV stars, and Rooney made sure everyone understood that vaudeville was pre-dated by burlesque, going so far as to dust off old burlesque jokes like "Why did the chicken cross the road?" and "That was no lady, that was my wife!" as Buttons groaned, "Oh, my God."

When Rooney interrupted Buttons’ story about being on stage during the moment of the infamous 1942 police raid of Minsky’s, Buttons griped, "Mickey, I’m on."

"I’ve never seen you get off," Rooney retorted.

"It’s hard to work in stereo," said Buttons. "It really is."

A few minutes after, Buttons was listing TV stars with a background in sketch comedy, such as Caesar, Jackie Gleason and Phil Silvers, when Rooney non-sequitur’ed into an appreciation of movie immortal Jimmy Cagney. Buttons, unable to resist, launched into his Cagney impression, and all of a sudden both Buttons and Rooney were on their feet, shadowboxing in a way that only seemed half-playful. (You can guess which half was which.) To defuse the tension, Reiner launched the room into a sing-along of the title number from the Cagney musical "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

Rooney sat down, but his Cagney discussion went on for several more minutes — including him reciting lines from the 1935 version of "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" where Rooney played Puck and Cagney played Bottom — until "Pioneers" producer Steve Boettcher begged the reporters, "Jump in, jump in. Don’t be shy."

"I was a young girl when this panel was started," cracked Rose Marie.

A reporter wondered if anyone on the panel had a theory about why Milton Berle became a big TV star while his vaudeville contemporary Fred Allen didn’t.

"Can I answer that?" Rooney asked.

"I would be amazed if you didn’t!" said Reiner.

As the session was coming to an end, Reiner declared, "I want to say one thing in defense of Mickey," and as the audience cackled, Reiner went on at length about Rooney’s many talents.

"What I’m saying," he concluded, "is that Mickey Rooney should be forgiven for all his madness up here today because he is a genius. He’s a genius performer."

Buttons, not quite as sincerely, also tried to defend Rooney, pointing out they served in the Army together during World War II.

"One day, he saved our entire outfit. He killed a cook."

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2005/11/oh-mickey-youre-so-fun.html

[fredfa]

TV Review
Angela's Eyes

(Lifetime, Sun. July 16, 10 PM ET)
By Brian Lowry Variety.com

Everyone is so eager to develop their own crime procedural (and hear that lovely "ka-ching!" sound) that they continue to trot out variations with the most dubious of twists -- in this case, an attractive young FBI agent (aren't they all?) who, for reasons the pilot opts not to disclose, can immediately discern when people are lying. Silly, poorly cast and full of clunky dialogue, "Angela's Eyes" is even burdened with a peculiar title, though to be fair, "The Closer" and "Psych" were taken, and "The Human Lie Detector" probably didn't clear legal.

Soap star Abigail Spencer plays Angela Henson, whose troubled history has led her to an FBI surveillance unit, where she employs her "gift" but also takes perilous chances, as her partner (Lyriq Bent) and boss (Rick Roberts) huffily remind her.

In the premiere, Angela is tapped to investigate a missing-woman case, although given her unique abilities, it's confusing why she simply doesn't haul all the suspects in for questioning, interview the witnesses and solve this damn thing in 10 minutes.

Ah, but then who would stay put through the commercial breaks? So Angela is outfitted with a sordid past -- her parents having been convicted for spying against the U.S. government, while a screwed-up brother is alluded to but not shown in the opener. In addition, she's in the early stages of a relationship, allowing writers Scott Shepherd and Dan McDermott to have some fun with the amusing notion that romance and the ability to see through lies are basically incompatible.

Spencer is pretty enough but wholly unconvincing as a hardened, daredevil FBI agent. It's OK when our TV cops look like shampoo models but not when they sound like them, too.

Indeed, the show delivers occasional moments that almost feel like a spoof of '70s detective shows. In the third episode, for example, Angela snaps at her brother that their mother is "in federal prison serving life for treason," to which he emotionally replies, "She's still mom!"

The introduction does leave a few narrative doors ajar thanks to the ashes of Angela's hard-to-bury past and her family issues. But initially, anyway, nothing here seems fresh enough to distinguish the series from a crowded (and generally better) pack.

"You've been watching too much bad TV, honey," one suspect tells Angela during interrogation.

And that, at least, is no lie.

[fredfa]

Satire
Jon Stewart on Sen. Ted Stevens

If you haven’t seen this, it is priceless.

Jon Stewart of Comedy Central takes on the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee on the new telecommunications act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DClkE64nFDY&search=daily%20show%20stevens

[fredfa]

Top 20 most TiVo-ed TV shows (Week Ending July 9)

# Show Title Network % TiVo'd
1. "So You Think You Can Dance" Wed. FOX 10.75
2. "Big Brother 7" Thu. CBS 8.81
3. "America's Got Talent" Wed. 9 p.m. NBC 8.19
4. "So You Think..." Thu. FOX 7.96
5. "Windfall" Thu. NBC 6.05
6. "Grey's Anatomy," Thu. ABC 5.70
7. "Rock Star" Wed. CBS 5.43
8. "Grey's Anatomy" Thu. CBS 5.28
9. "CSI: Miami" Wed. NBC 4.60
10. "CSI" Thu. CBS 4.12
11. "The Office" Thu. NBC 3.86
12. "My Name Is Earl" Thu. NBC 3.84
13. "Law & Order" Wed. NBC 3.83
14. "...Got Talent" Wed. 8 p.m. NBC 3.80
15. "House" Tue. 8 p.m. FOX 3.73
16. "House" Tue. 9 p.m. FOX 3.60
17. "Rock Star" Thu. CBS 3.51
18. "Saturday Night Live" Sat. NBC 3.48
19. "Treasure Hunters" Mon. NBC 3.45
20. "Dateline NBC" Fri. NBC 3.38

Source: TiVo

[fredfa]

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Breathing a little easier

By ED BARK The Dallas Morning News

PASADENA, Calif. – The cast of Entourage, without any entourage, filed unceremoniously toward a hotel ballroom stage Wednesday evening when they had every reason to strut.

HBO's hottest show continues its cool cruise through a third season, with its characters straddling the no-longer-great divide between pop fiction and fact. So much so that a TV critic wondered how their Hollywood-dwelling characters might prepare for a meeting with the nation's TV critics.

"I hate to say it, but I'd probably be smokin' a joint," said Jerry Ferrara, who plays horn dog Turtle.

"Did you smoke a joint today?" the critic pressed.

"Absolutely not."

Actually it was a pretty fair question. On Monday, CNBC anchor Joe Kernen told his viewers that Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean sequel had broken Aquaman's three-day box-office record with a take of $132 million. He also reported that Aquaman had just claimed the record from Spider-Man, which had held it for four years.

Fact check: Aquaman is the fake box-office blockbuster that isn't really directed by James Cameron but does star Entourage dreamboat Vincent Chase (played by Adrian Grenier). That completes our Pirates of the Caribbean Disneyland ride through a funhouse mirror. But HBO is still very much enjoying this ride; its press materials included a 12-page "Entourage Guide to Los Angeles" that listed actual hot spots where the show's four unattached bachelors have dined, shopped, clubbed, etc.

In real life – here we go again – Mr. Ferrara and Kevin Connolly (Eric Murphy) both have steady girlfriends while Kevin Dillon (Johnny Drama) is married with a small child. Only Mr. Grenier is available at the moment. But he had a ready one-liner when asked about that.

"I live vicariously through Vince," he said. "By the end of the day I'm pooped. I just go to bed."

Sorry, but that's just not believable.

Press clippings

• Filmmaker Spike Lee preceded the Entourage ensemble to talk about his four-hour HBO documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Aug. 21-22).

Premiering a year after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Requiem is a "living, breathing story" intended to deliver a punch to the gut.

"When people are mad, they curse," Mr. Lee said. "They're profane. And I don't want to censor in any way the things people want to say. We wanted to record the raw feelings of those people."

The director and a small crew began filming in New Orleans late last November and have made seven trips since.

"Many people have Katrina fatigue, but we must remember that this could happen to anybody," he said. "Right here in California, you guys can go anytime."

The film will revisit early but widely discredited suspicions that the levees in New Orleans intentionally were blown up, unleashing lethal floodwaters into some of the city's poorest neighborhoods.

"We touch upon it, but it's not four hours of that," Mr. Lee said. "But if you're an African-American, you don't put anything past the U.S. government."

Close to 100 people were interviewed, many of them everyday citizens. Notables include Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien, activist Al Sharpton, actor Harry Belafonte and rapper Kanye West, who chose a nationally televised benefit for Katrina victims to say, "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

Not surprisingly, Mr. Lee is inclined to agree.

"What America does a very good job of is disguising poverty," he said. "Hiding it. Putting it in the background."

• And now for something completely different – at least for Larry Hagman.

The former Dallas star who made J.R. Ewing an internationally famous double-dealer will play a wealthy man in search of testicular implants on the fourth-season premiere of FX's Nip/Tuck.

Instead, he buys the cosmetic-surgery clinic run by Drs. Christian Troy and Sean McNamara (Julian McMahon, Dylan Walsh). It's 70-year-old Burt Landau's (Mr. Hagman) gift to his much younger African-American wife, Michelle (Sanaa Lathan), who becomes the surgeons' new boss.

Scott Seomin, FX's vice president of media relations, confirmed Wednesday that Mr. Hagman will be featured in at least the first four episodes of Nip/Tuck, which is scheduled to resume in September. Other guest stars in future episodes include Kathleen Turner and Brooke Shields.

http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/columnists/ebark/stories/DN-presstour_0713gl.ART.State.Edition2.24c5bf9.html

[fredfa]

TV Q&A
Ask Matt

(from the Ask (TV Critic) Matt (Roush) column at TVGuide.com
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com TV Critic

Question: Six of one, half dozen of the other, huh? So much for the "improved" Emmy nomination process. It seems that just as many glaring omissions were made this time around as before, just different ones. Now, rather than the overlooked performers from small shows getting shafted, the respected stars from equally respected shows got the pie in the face. How any panel of humans viewing televised programming could find five more deserving fellow Homo sapiens than Hugh Laurie in the best-lead-actor category boggles the mind. Yes, Denis Leary, Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart got welcome nods, but the rest? Sheesh! No James Gandolfini or Edie Falco, but Martin Sheen and Geena Davis? No Jason Bateman or Lauren Graham, but Kevin James and Stockard Channing (for Out of Practice, no less!)? Just when you think Channing's rote nomination days for The West Wing were over, the Emmys find another way. (Maybe we should get those people on the alternative-fuel issue, pronto.)

I mean, just look at TV Guide's Dream Ballot choices. Fourteen out of 50 became reality, from my estimation, and just one per category in seven of the eight acting categories. Since the ballot was rightfully deemed a dream, were the nominations a nightmare? Save for a few minor aberrations, nothing really changed all that much in the "new" Emmys. Not surprising, but disappointing nonetheless. — Todd S.

Matt Roush: "Nightmare" is a pretty good word for it. Inexplicable nightmare, more like. For my own analysis of the Emmy nominations, check out my Dispatch from last week. Todd sums it up pretty well when he describes a flawed process that didn't exactly improve itself under a new system. It's true: They just made different mistakes this time, affecting some of the players that we would have thought inviolable. I can say with confidence that on the day of the announcements, I didn't get a single piece of mail praising what had transpired on Thursday morning.

________________________________________

Question: I just need to vent to someone who understands. As I watched you Thursday morning on Good Morning America, I was so glad they had an expert to analyze the noms. After they announced the names, and I stopped screaming at the TV (never more so than at Lost's omission), I was trying to read on your face all the things I was feeling. It seems like what was supposed to be an experiment for good (the new voting system) was a catastrophe. It was finally going to give the Lauren Grahams and Kristen Bells a real shot.

In the end, not only did they not benefit, but Lost, James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Hugh Laurie and a host of others that would surely have been nominated under the old system were excluded. It seems ridiculous that a show that won last year's Emmy for best drama, and was generally just as well-received by critics in its sophomore year, was totally snubbed. I was already nervous the night before when Tom O'Neill predicted that Lost would not be nominated because that panel didn't "get" the episode that was submitted. It seems really unfair that out of up to 24 hours of compelling television, a show can submit only one episode for judging by a jaded panel that is not really familiar with the show. I really think it should be up to people like yourself, Robert Bianco and others who watch and discuss TV all year long. Thanks for listening. — Marc H.

Matt Roush: Thanks for writing. And for watching. (I admit I was in complete shock and panic during the live GMA broadcast. As they handed us slips of paper with the various nominees on them, I kept thinking, "Surely this is a misprint. This can't be right.") One of the flaws of the Emmy process, as we've often said, is that the people doing the judging are the people who watch less TV than almost anyone else in the country, because they're all too busy making TV. If it's true that an episode of Lost was judged as too dense and baffling to be appreciated, then woe to all shows that step outside the box and into the genre of the weird and fantastic.

________________________________________

Question: I really need to voice my complete disgust at this year's Emmy nods. As a huge fan of Lost, you must also be repulsed by the fact that the show isn't nominated. The series experienced no real decline in quality, and it's as much favored by audiences and critics as ever. What is the motivation behind snubbing it this way? Also, I know your opinion of Desperate Housewives has soured this season, but even at its worse, its quality is far greater than the completely mediocre Two and a Half Men, yet for some reason Men got the nomination.

Marcia Cross did the best work of her career this season. In fact, toward the end of the season, she was basically carrying the show on her shoulders, yet the nod went to Alfre Woodard! Woodard is a fine actress, but this is a mere sympathy vote. She barely had any Emmy-worthy moments during her run, and her performance wasn't even comedic! I'm sure you share my pain. — Adam

Matt Roush: Do I ever. There's some feeling that Lost may be getting punished because of a sense that it's not moving forward fast enough or maybe even going anywhere in particular. That's probably overstating the case, but of course it isn't true.

It's a shocking snub, as is Marcia Cross being left out of the running for best comedy actress. She's not in the same category as Woodard, but even so, Woodard's nomination is a joke. The character was so dreadfully conceived not even Meryl Streep could have salvaged it, and at times it looked like Woodard wasn't even trying. I'm actually OK with Housewives not making the best-comedy list, but shows like Entourage and especially My Name Is Earl should have taken that slot instead of Men. I actually like Men, just not enough to give it an award.

________________________________________

Question: After the Emmy nominations were announced, I was angrier than I've been any other year. The new voting system and the greatness of some shows gave me hope to see some new faces on this year's list. I can overlook the mistake of no Kristen Bell. I can see why Lauren Graham and Kelly Bishop didn't make the cut. And I could have predicted that no Lost stars were going to be nominated.

But what I can't stand is the fact that Marcia Cross wasn't on the comedy-actress list. In a year when Housewives was terrible, Cross' Bree was the only thing that kept me watching. She delivered the most amazing performance on the show, carrying the torch of a once-hilarious dramedy. The fact that Stockard Channing, Lisa Kudrow or even Debra Messing earned a spot over Cross is the biggest insult the Emmys made this year. And Hugh Laurie was overlooked in place of Christopher Meloni. I am sorry, but this makes no sense to me. For the first time in several years, I won't be watching this awards show, because I am tired of such unfair nominations. — Marvin

Matt Roush: Given that the Emmys will be airing August 27 (it's early because NBC is carrying the show and has no Sundays free in September, thanks to football), I imagine a lot of folks will be ignoring the broadcast this year. Certainly the bizarre nature of the nominations makes it easy to dismiss, I agree. Going through the mail, I'd have to say that the Marcia Cross and Hugh Laurie snubs lead the pack where outrage is concerned.

________________________________________

Question: Wow. What a disaster. Way too much Will & Grace and The West Wing (and I am a big fan of The West Wing). No Lost? No Battlestar Galactica? But to me the big kicker is the lack of Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee. Did no one watch My Name Is Earl? I'm happy for Jaime Pressly, but Lee and Suplee are the reasons that show should have been nominated for best comedy. — Erin

Matt Roush: The omission of Earl and its hilarious male stars was one of the bigger and unhappier shocks to me as well. I thought it was a shoo-in.

________________________________________

Question: As we have all heard, the Emmys were screaming to the world that they had changed their selection process this year, and after seeing the nominees this year, I have to ask: What changed? — Gregg G.

Matt Roush: An excellent question. It's like they tried to fix something that was broken and, if they didn't make it worse, they exposed new and possibly even more damaging flaws. We've been screaming for new blood in the nominations for years, but now we've traded one set of gripes for another. Given the number of deserving nominees that were excluded this year, I'm wondering if another trip to the drawing board isn't called for. (Not that anything can truly fix this system.) Now moving on to a few more select topics, to appease those who are over the Emmy madness (and who can blame them?)....

________________________________________

Question: Not a question, just an "attaboy" for getting it exactly right regarding Rescue Me. This is the best show on television, and the only thing I watch regularly. You said, "Leary has so much charisma that he keeps you (or at least me) glued to his story, alternately amused and appalled. If he were any less horrible, he and the show would probably be a lot less interesting." Exactly. I don't think the rape scene with Tommy and Janet was meant to glorify spousal rape. I think the writers wanted to show just how dysfunctional this couple is, and that she will never really be his redemption.

Sure, there's still love there, and plenty of lust and history, but too much hurt and too much anger to ever work (sorry, Dr. Phil). Every week I watch this show and there comes a moment when I think, "That line or that moment could not be any truer or more real than it is, no matter who played it." There are also several moments when I say little "please god, let this stay on the air" prayers. Great acting, great writing, great directing, funny and dark. It doesn't get any better than this. — Jana

Matt Roush: Couldn't agree more, but thanks for the backup. And here's this from Michael S.: "Matt, I'd like to use your column as a makeshift patent office. I'm going to start calling Rescue Me by the name 'NYFD Blue.' When that catches on and everyone starts using it, I'll at least have your column to prove I said it first. Deal?" Deal. And an excellent point to boot. I've often likened Tommy Gavin to Andy Sipowicz, and it's a fact that this firehouse is just as volatile a workplace as the 15th Precinct.

________________________________________

Question: I was just wondering if you have any reaction to the shocking, sad and truly tragic death of Aaron Spelling, who I believe to be one of the most important figures in pop culture in the last 60 years. How do you think this will affect the future of television? — M.C.

Matt Roush: For my tribute to Aaron Spelling, check out my recent Dispatch. His pop-culture legacy is tremendous, to be sure, but I'm not sure how his passing affects TV. He'd already pretty much slowed down, though he never truly retired. I just hope there are others out there with his indefatigable love of TV. We can never have too many guilty pleasures, and that's where Spelling was truly a master of his craft. He will be missed, there's no doubt.

________________________________________

Question: Have you heard anything about the new show Caprica, set in the Battlestar Galactica universe? (I won't call it a spin-off, since none of the characters will be the same.) I've heard the basic plot, and I know Ron Moore and David Eick are involved once again, but that's about it. Has a pilot been filmed? Are any actors attached? Any time frame for this show to be seen? I can only hope for a day when the end of my week is filled with Battlestars. — Chip

Matt Roush: You and me both. When I conducted a BSG panel in early June at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York, the producers said the script for this prequel series was still being finished and hadn't yet been turned in, though it wouldn't be long. Since then I've heard nothing. (But it's been a busy summer.) Once, or if, it gets the actual green light for production, and casting gets underway, I'm sure it won't be kept a secret. But certainly there's no projected airdate yet.

________________________________________

Question: I heard that Kim Raver will be getting her own show this coming season and will not be on 24 any longer. Is this true? — Rosanne

Matt Roush: It's true that Kim Raver is in the cast of the excellent new ABC drama The Nine. How that affects her role as Audrey Raines on 24 remains to be seen. If, in fact, Jack Bauer leaves L.A. for the coming season, maybe geography can explain her absence (and maybe she can do some cut-ins by phone, since cell batteries never die on 24, unlike some characters).

http://tvguide.com/tv/roush/askmatt/

[jabbathespud]

Isn't that a repost of #13000 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7973066&&#post7973066)?

[fredfa]

You are correct, jabba.
I'll try to replace it with Friday's in the morning.
Usually the new Ask Matt appears about midnight ET.
I thought this one sounded a bit familiar!
Thanks for noticing.

[fredfa]

News clips for sale on custom-made DVDs

By Gary Levin USA Today

Have a favorite 60 Minutes segment you just can't get enough of?

A new division of Internet retail giant Amazon.com is selling customized, 90-minute DVDs to viewers. It was launched Thursday, and initial choices are limited to archived material from TV's top newsmagazine and the CBS Evening News.

But Amazon's Sean Sundwall says the company expects to broaden its menu: "While CBS is kind of our launch partner, we're looking to expand the content available in the make-your-own format," he says. "We're confident ... this model will work long-term."

CustomFlix, an Amazon division, allows customers to select from "thousands" of clips dating as far back as 1990, from one-minute Evening News reports to 16-minute 60 segments, sorted by topic area (amazon.com/60minutes). Once ordered, up to 10 clips, or 90 minutes of footage, is burned to the DVD and mailed to customers for $24.95 ($2.99 shipping).

The footage has little value elsewhere —60 Minutes segments were featured earlier on CBS' now-defunct Eye on People cable channel — so the experiment is a low-risk proposition. But the project eventually could expand with others to make-your-own DVDs of entertainment programming if rights issues can be settled; many shows already are sold in syndication, on DVDs and online. "It's extra-sticky with some situations, but not others," Sullivan said, declining to elaborate.

CBS spokesman Dana McClintock called the arrangement "strictly a CBS News deal."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-07-13-cbs-news-dvds_x.htm

[fredfa]

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Pity the Fool

By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer in her blog “Moraes On TV”

Critics didn't seem much like partying on the fourth night of Summer TV Press Tour 2006.

Maybe it's because, while they expect to suffer though a certain amount of TV suit blah, blah, blah-ing as the price of the drink and food, this party -- thrown by NBC Universal to celebrate the 10th anniversary and 200th episode of Sci Fi's "Stargate SG-1" series -- seemed unusually Academy- Awards-Acceptance-Speech-from-Hell.

"Celebrating the 200th episode is like celebrating a 200th birthday," show producer Brad Wright said, standing on fake stone stairs with members of the cast and Sci Fi suits in the garden of Pasadena's Ritz Carlton Huntington hotel.

"Except the 200th episode is harder. When people turn 200, they don't get cancelled if not enough people are watching."

And though there are 14 remaining days of press tour, which means 14 more party speech opportunities it's going to be very hard to top that one for sheer badtastic-ness.

But the mood wasn't all Brad's fault. Today had been the semi-annual TV Press Tour Bait and Switch Day, and critics were pretty sore.

Every six months, usually during one of the cable days at the tour, critics are fooled into rushing to the first session of a media conglomerate's two or three-hour block of presentations, having seen on the schedule that things are kicking off with a very hot Q&A session.

This time, MTV Networks had said "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker would kick things off at 9 a.m. today. "South Park" has had a particularly controversial year, what with Comedy Central yanking the rerun of the Scientology episode that savaged Tom Cruise -- an episode that received an Emmy nomination just one week ago -- and censoring an image of Muhammad from another episode.

So critics who'd stayed too long at WE's late night "Dirty Dancing" party the day before to oggle leggy women in very tight, very short dresses, dragged themselves out of bed and raced to the morning's first Q&A so as not to miss one quote-worthy second. Only when they settled in they learned the truth, and they felt like fools. Driving home the joke, MTV had scheduled as the first Q&A of the day "I Pity the Fool" -- Mr. T's new series for TV Land.

Show after show, presentation after dreary presentation, critics waited for the "South Park" guys to show. By the time David Cross and H. Jon Benjamin came on stage to take questions about their new animated series "Freak Show," critics were in a foul mood. Fortunately, Cross and Benjamin were real jerks so there's no need to pity them.

When Cross asked one guy to wake up the critic sitting next to him, misinterpreting a glower for a nap, the glowering critic snapped back that he'd been waiting for a long time to see the "South Park" guys.

"Oh yeah -- that's a shock" Benjamin said.

"There's a distinct split schism in what I am seeing, by people who kind of are humored by us, find us somewhat sort of likable, charming, and then people who really do not like us at all, really don't are for us. We are wasting [their] time," Cross said.

"He hates us more than the people that dislike us," Benjamin added.

It's hard to believe, but things could and did go downhill from there. Until finally, Cross decided to throw in the towel.

"You know, let's do everybody a favor -- Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the creators of 'South Park'," he said.

And out they came.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/

[fredfa]

The TV Column
“South Park' Plug Goes a Little Haywire

By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 14, 2006; C01

PASADENA, Calif., July 13--Viacom suits want to promote the upcoming DVD of the creators' favorite 10 episodes to coincide with the 10th anniversary of "South Park." Viacom wants to make sure it sells like gangbusters.

So Viacom's Comedy Central cable network schedules "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker to plug the 10th anniversary and DVD before a couple hundred TV critics and reporters at Summer TV Press Tour 2006 here on Thursday.

Only, Stone and Parker are still angry that Comedy Central in May yanked a repeat of the "Trapped in the Closet" episode lampooning Scientology and its most famous member, Tom Cruise.

At the time they were told it was being pulled because suits at Viacom, which also owns Paramount, thought it could turn people off Cruise and his upcoming Paramount flick "Mission: Impossible 3." (Turns out Tom was quite capable of doing that all by himself without Matt and Trey's help.)

Fortunately, what with "M:I3" come and gone, the episode is no longer such a corporate issue. So, the day before Stone and Parker appear at the press tour, Viacom announces through trade paper Variety that Comedy Central finally will rerun the "Trapped" episode next week.

Quel coincidence! And no, there is no way to be too cynical when covering the super-vertically-integrated entertainment industry.

"First of all, we can't take any questions about Tom Cruise or Scientology or 'South Park,' " Stone cracked right off the bat at the Q&A.

"How much did you wrestle with the Scientology episode?" was the first question.

"Since that pertains to 'South Park' we can't answer," Stone responded.

Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox, who was also up on stage, told the reporters the episode was pulled so that they could instead air an episode paying tribute to Chef, played by Isaac Hayes.

(Hayes, who is a Scientologist, quit the show on which he had not been much of a presence the past five years, in May. He said he was quitting because Matt and Trey were disrespectful of religion and spirituality. Did I mention that the episode had already aired multiple times?)

"That's our story and we're sticking with it," Fox said -- a sort of "we all know what's really going on here" wink -- after tossing that mountain of horseradish all over the reporters in the room.

"Nicely done," Matt or Trey sneered from his seat onstage. The two applauded Fox; the reporters giggled.

Stone said they dodged the news media back in May when the "Trapped" episode was scrubbed because "you didn't want to be in a headline with him and start getting that Tom Cruise stink on you," even though they were on the other side of the argument.

Then, he said, when the network asked them to decide which episode they'd like to submit for Emmy consideration this year, they chose that episode only.

"We just did it to be [male prides], really," Stone said.

As it turns out, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences liked the idea, and the episode is among this year's animated series nominees.

Parker said they're not that surprised. "You can't pick anything where people are more on your side. This entire city, except Scientology, were like 'Yeah! Go get em!' "

"It's that Tom Cruise stink," Stone added.

Afterward, Comedy Central chief Doug Herzog told The TV Column that the episode was pulled to pay tribute to Chef and that it's running now because "it's its time." He added something about the normal cycle-through of episodes, and that "we reserve the right to air them when and where we see fit." Very scary corporate stuff.

Stone and Parker also admitted they were stunned when, right around the same time, Comedy Central refused to let them show an image of Muhammad in an episode lampooning the so-called "cartoon wars" -- the violence that broke out in Europe and several Muslim countries over Danish cartoons that protesters said were blasphemous because they depicted the prophet.

Stone and Parker were particularly surprised since, a few years earlier, the network had run an episode in which Muhammad was portrayed as a superhero who could turn himself into a beaver.

In the newer episode, instead of Muhammad's image, viewers saw a black screen with the words "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Muhammad on their network."

At the time the network said, "In light of recent world events we feel we made the right decision."

"A new taboo was created out of nothing," Parker said Thursday.

During the Q&A, Herzog told the TV critics that it had been a tough situation and a "judgment made on behalf of a big media company" and that "history might show we overreacted and we're willing to live with that." Then he noted that the image of Muhammad was there -- "it's underneath the black screen."

No kidding -- he really did. He added, "We're looking forward to the day when we can uncover it."

Stone noted that last month Harper's magazine ran the Danish cartoons and nothing bad happened.

After the Q&A, Herzog insisted there was "a difference between a journalistic endeavor" and the satire of "South Park."

But, the "South Park" creators noted, Harper's had asked for the censored frame of Muhammad from "South Park" to include in its "journalistic endeavor."

Comedy Central wouldn't let the magazine have it, they said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/13/AR2006071301849_pf.html

[fredfa]

Sports Media and Business
MLB Postseason Potluck May Return

By Richard Sandomir The New York Times July 14, 2006

The possibility that TBS or ESPN will get the rights to show a League Championship Series from 2007 to 2013 is a reminder of the television setup 11 years ago when the major leagues’ divisional playoff and L.C.S. games were regionalized.

Yes, regionalizing two league championship or four divisional games is different from shifting games to a cable network from a broadcaster. But each creates deprivation.

In the 1995 misadventure that went under the name of the Baseball Network, no viewer witnessed a postseason game nationally until the World Series, a first in the sport’s TV history.

Few fans complained when that arrangement was first announced, but as they focused on the postseason, many turned irate. The division series was a brand-new curiosity, but instead of getting access to all games, states were chopped up; parts of Ohio saw the Reds play, other parts saw the Indians.

The L.C.S. had been seen nationally since 1969, but it was divvied up in that infamous October like college football on any given Saturday.

If baseball fulfills its financial destiny by moving the L.C.S. to a cable network, some fans will be disenfranchised. Cable networks are not seen in as many homes as broadcasters. Between cable and satellite distribution, TBS and ESPN are in about 90 percent of 110 million TV households, but that is 10 percent less than the reach of Fox, CBS, NBC or ABC.

It is inevitable that people whose buildings do not receive cable and those who cannot afford cable or satellite will not be unable to see the L.C.S. on TBS or ESPN. That may be a negligible number of sports viewers in the vast TV universe — and maybe they are lower-income or older viewers that advertisers care little about. But when fans lose what they have depended on getting, such a dislocation should not be ignored.

The shift by the N.B.A. of nearly all conference finals games — the equivalent of baseball’s L.C.S. — to ESPN and TNT from NBC Sports in 2002 shows the broadcast-to-cable risk. The league gladly took the risk because ESPN, with gobs of subscriber and advertiser cash, paid far more than would NBC. The league has since felt that even with its smaller TV universe, ESPN offers a roster of media platforms that serve its fans more deeply than NBC could. But research to prove that assertion, or whether ESPN is creating new viewers, is still in the embryonic stage.

The N.B.A. simply could not avoid losing some viewers as it increased its reliance on cable. In the four years since ESPN and ABC joined TNT to carry the N.B.A., the most widely viewed conference final on cable was a Timberwolves-Lakers game in 2004 on TNT that drew 9.4 million.

In the four years leading up to NBC’s departure — all after Michael Jordan’s retirement from the Bulls — its most widely viewed game was in 2002 when a Lakers-Kings conference final lured 23.8 million.

From 2003 to 2006, with ABC, as the N.B.A’s broadcaster, showing many fewer conference finals games than NBC did, the network had its highest viewership, 8.2 million, for a Detroit-Miami game almost two months ago.

So the pattern is set for a viewership decline for a cable-carried league championship series. Had the classic 2004 A.L.C.S. been carried on ESPN (which has a huge commitment to baseball), who knows how many fewer viewers would have watched the Red Sox storm back to beat the Yankees?

Game 7 of that series on Fox drew an astonishing 31.5 million viewers, a figure that is alien to a cable network.

Fox will retain the other L.C.S. and it remains possible that the network will play a role in the one that is destined for cable. But Fox’s entertainment division would prefer that its sports division stick with one of the series to maintain continuity in the network’s prime-time schedule, which will get additional freedom from baseball pre-emptions next year thanks to TBS’s acquisition of the rights to all division series games.

TBS or ESPN may be baseball’s only options to buy the second L.C.S.

NBC did not pursue a baseball deal with any ardor, and CBS Sports coveted only the World Series but made only a modest offer for it. It is conceivable that ABC Sports might enter the mix if its commanding officer within the Walt Disney empire, ESPN, outbids TBS for the dangling L.C.S. But right now, it appears that TBS wants it more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/14/sports/baseball/14sandomir.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

[fredfa]

(Over the next few days a few critics, whose papers were looking to save some money, will arrive late at the TCA tour and have to play catchup with their peers.)

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Riding the TV preview assembly line

By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic Friday, July 14, 2006

Entering a pool area encrusted with fake blue glaciers, 11-year-old Pete and his 4-year-old pal Penny were honored guests at the Hallmark Channel party. Short as the pair was, they became the evening's biggest stars, outshining the likes of Mrs. Partridge (Shirley Jones), Mrs. Cunningham (Marion Ross), John Boy (Richard Thomas) and Woody the Child-Diddling Mayor from "Veronica Mars" (Steve Guttenberg).

By the way, did I mention that those youngsters were, in fact, Magellanic penguins? Tuxedoed and plump, they slowly weaved their way down the blue carpet, no doubt disoriented by the strains of Robbie Van Winkle's "Ice Ice Baby" blaring over the loud speakers. A tasteful choice. The creatures showed up in celebration of Hallmark scoring the television premiere of "March of the Penguins," waddling our way during the holiday season.

Real penguins poolside, on a summer night in Southern California.

Hello again from Pasadena, Calif., one plant in the dream-factory chain. Yeah, I realize the "dream factory" idea is beyond cliche, but it's oddly accurate when you're talking about the Television Critics Association's fall preview sessions, which we call the "summer press tour."

The shows you'll see in the coming months on cable and network TV will be finished products, all the ugly bits housed in gleaming casings, begging viewers to welcome them into their homes. Most of them will be shunned, a few unjustly.

Odds are that if you're reading this, though, you care enough to know what those innards look like. That's why the 200-plus critics from the U.S. and Canada have come here. We're examining the gears, pulleys and wires within every net