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dad1153

11-23-06, 09:54 PM

If you've been following the AVS thread about the mini-disastrous NFL Network debut game on Thanksgiving (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=755905) then the last two paragraphs in this article will give you something to think about.

The Business of TV
Blame It on Bornstein
From Steve Donohue Multichannel News' 'Voices' Column Nov. 22, 2006

If there’s one person responsible for pro football migrating from free TV to pay TV in the past 20 years, it’s former ESPN chairman and current NFL Network president Steve Bornstein.

If you’re one of the few consumers without a subscription cable or satellite package these days, Bornstein’s the guy to blame for missing those new Monday Night Football games on ESPN. Ditto if you’re a Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications or Cablevision Systems subscriber on Thanksgiving, when NFL Network will carry its first live NFL game -- your cable systems haven’t agreed to distribute the network.

But if you’re a pay TV provider, Bornstein is the guy to thank for putting ESPN on the map, which, in turn, helped drive the cable and satellite universe to more than 90 million subscribers.

Bornstein helped make ESPN the most profitable cable network when he first scored NFL games for the all-sports channel in 1987. ESPN only carried the first half of the NFL’s regular season during its first NFL contract, but 10 years later, it outbid TNT to acquire the full-season cable rights package -- a deal that eventually drove ESPN’s monthly license fees to more than $2 per subscriber.

Cable operators often rail on ESPN for its annual rate hikes, but at the same time, affiliates consistently cite the network as the most valuable in terms of attracting new customers and driving local ad sales.

“I think football on cable television has been a boon to the values and asset creations of cable MSOs, as well as ESPN,” Bornstein said Tuesday.

Bornstein’s biggest challenge these days is convincing Charter, Cablevision, Time Warner Cable and other holdouts to carry NFL Network. As a casual sports fan, I can understand the argument from some operators: If not all subscribers are football fans, why should they all be forced to pay for the network?

But then if you look at football’s performance on cable this year -- ESPN continues to set new ratings marks with Monday Night Football, pulling a 12.8 rating and 16 million viewers for the Oct. 23 New York Giants-Dallas Cowbows game, the best performance in history for a cable program -- you can see Bornstein’s argument that NFL Network should be considered a mainstream channel.

“We’re not talking about a niche network here. We’re talking about the most popular content on television,” Bornstein said. Ratings are up this year for all NFL rights holders, despite the growth of new cable networks and digital-video recorders.

But there’s no chance of NFL Network posting big numbers for its Denver Broncos-Kansas City Chiefs debut game Thanksgiving night. After all, only about 40 million cable and satellite subscribers will be able to watch the game, compared with the 92 million that receive ESPN today.

But if Bornstein gets his way, viewers who realize Thursday night that they can’t catch the third game on Thanksgiving will pressure their local operators to carry NFL Network. And before you know it, NFL Network will double its distribution by next season.

http://www.multichannel.com/blog/1790000179/post/150005615.html

dad1153

11-23-06, 09:58 PM

The New Season
NBC hopes history repeats with Identity
Zap2it.com November 22, 2006

NBC got an early Christmas present last year when Deal or No Deal became an instant success in mid-December. The network is hoping history will repeat itself this year.

On Dec. 18, NBC will unveil a new game show called Identity, in which players can win cash based on how well they're able to read people. Like the launch of Deal or No Deal, the new show will run for five consecutive nights at 7 p.m. Identity will be hosted by Penn Jillette.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/tv/4354704.html

dad1153

11-23-06, 10:03 PM

The Business of TV
Phone vs. Cable: Turf Wars Escalate
By Ken Belson & Vikas Bajaj The New York Times November 24, 2006

PHOENIX — Bees swarmed around Dennis Pappas as he pried open the door to a telephone equipment box belonging to Qwest Communications at an apartment building here recently. Inside, the insects had built a small but seemingly busy hive.

The bees called the box home because workers from Cox Communications, a local cable provider, did not properly plug a hole in it when they switched customers in the building over to Cox’s phone service, said Mr. Pappas, a public policy chief at Qwest, the local phone company. As a result, Qwest had to bring in a contractor to undertake the risky task of removing the hive.

It may sound like a small thing, but Qwest says the infested box is just one of many pieces of equipment that Cox has damaged or misused. It says Cox has left wires exposed and improperly grounded cables, hazards that could disrupt phone service or hurt customers and workers. Qwest even argues that the damage is part of a plan to make it harder to sign up customers it lost to Cox.

Technicians who came to Qwest from Cox said “that their instructions were to make it as tough for Qwest to win back the customer as possible,” Mr. Pappas said.

Cox says Qwest is exaggerating the scope of the damage, and it says there are many explanations for the problems — including improper maintenance by Qwest’s own workers. Cox also insists it fixes any damage brought to its attention.

There has been an outbreak of this kind of finger-pointing across the country lately, a product of the increasingly bitter turf war between phone and cable companies. After decades of relative peace and separation, friction is growing as cable providers sell more phone lines and phone companies get into the video business.

For the most part, the sparring has been limited to advertising campaigns and promotional offers. But here in Phoenix, where Cox has stolen nearly a third of the residential phone business from Qwest, the rancor has escalated. In January, Qwest filed complaints with state regulators over the equipment problems, leading to a protracted legal standoff and public backbiting.

Given the disputes over who did what, and the lack of any central records, it is hard to say how much these incidents are actually hurting the cable and phone industries, or their customers. But complaints by the companies are clearly on the rise.

AT&T has fought with Cox in Oklahoma and Time Warner Cable in Texas. In Maryland, Verizon has accused Comcast of shoddy work and vice versa. BellSouth says problems have cropped up with Cox in Louisiana. Cable companies have as many complaints about the Bells.

In some cases, cable and phone companies accuse one another of ripping out equipment. In others, wires were reportedly left exposed and ungrounded.

Elsewhere, Verizon asserts that dozens of times this year, Comcast and other cable providers ran their wires down phone company pipes instead of installing separate conduits. Verizon said that in one case it sent a letter to Comcast asking that the practice be stopped, but that the paperwork and repairs that followed not only cost hundreds of dollars, but delayed installations for its customers.

“As we enter a more competitive world with them, we see these occur more often,” said Chris Creager, who oversees Verizon’s phone network in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. “It’s kind of the Wild West some days.”

A Comcast spokeswoman, Beth Bacha, said that inadvertently using another company’s conduits was “a fairly common and easy-to-correct, non-customer-impacting mistake,” and that Comcast had immediately addressed Verizon’s complaints. She added that Verizon had made thousands of cuts in Comcast’s cables, generating $1.4 million in damages.

In Phoenix, one of the country’s fastest-growing and most hotly contested markets, Cox says the accusations by Qwest are evidence of Qwest’s desperation. It says Qwest is so worried about the loss of tens of thousands of customers that it is throwing up legal smokescreens and ignoring that Cox has corrected problems brought to its attention.

“Clearly, we’ve been in business and been successful; we’ve won our J. D. Power awards,” said Douglas Garrett, Cox’s vice president for regulatory issues. J. D. Power, which measures customer satisfaction, ranked Cox as the best phone company in the northeast, southwest and west this year. It has nearly 950,000 cable customers in Arizona.

“The way we win customers is to provide good service.” Mr. Garrett said. “You can’t win customers by damaging competitors’ equipment.”

Cox also argues that some of the damage Qwest says is caused by its workers is often indistinguishable from the harm caused to equipment by vandals, bad weather and regular wear and tear.

Not to be outdone, Cox has built up its own collection of photos of equipment that it says Qwest damaged or misused. The problems include 39 instances of Qwest installers tapping into the plastic conduit through which Cox threads its cable wires. The practice appears to be a way for Qwest to avoid the time and cost of installing its own conduit, said Mark A. DiNunzio, a director of regulatory affairs for Cox in Phoenix.

“But we don’t run to the Arizona Corporation Commission when we discover it,” he said, referring to the state’s utility regulator. “We try to resolve it on a business-to-business basis.”

Qwest acknowledges that some of its contractors have improperly used Cox conduits and says it has corrected those transgressions. But Qwest officials say the problem is far smaller than the damage it says Cox is responsible for.

These kinds of spats are hardly new. After the Telecommunications Act of 1996, upstart phone companies like Covad accused the Bells of blocking access to their switching stations, making it harder for rivals to sign up new customers. Decades earlier, phone and even telegraph companies butted heads over access to equipment and customers.

“This is an age-old problem,” said Richard Nespola, chief executive of the Management Network Group, a telecommunications consultant. “As long as people share facilities, the finger pointing will continue. It’s a competitive business and everyone accuses everyone.”

While workers certainly make mistakes, these are often isolated issues, and damage is rarely the result of malice, Mr. Nespola said. For most companies, equipment damage and misplaced wiring are often unavoidable in a market where rivals either share equipment or keep it side-by-side, he said. This is particularly true in apartment complexes and office towers that have hundreds if not thousands of phone lines.

What is different now is that the contest is a two-way slugfest between powerful and sophisticated companies with deep pockets and a lot more to lose. The start-ups that were born in the wake of regulatory changes have largely faded as a threat, particularly in the last year, as Bell companies bought their two biggest rivals, AT&T and MCI.

Now, the Bells’ chief competitors are Time Warner Cable, Comcast and other cable providers that have the technology, armies of installers and marketing budgets to lure away video and phone customers. By the end of the year, for instance, cable operators will have nearly nine million phone subscribers, up about 58 percent from 2005, said Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein.

Internet phone start-ups including Vonage and SunRocket have several million more customers, many of whom came from Verizon, AT&T and other Bell companies.

The Bell companies assert that their complaints are not just sour grapes. Instead, they are an effort to cut down on costly repairs and interruptions in customer service. In a filing with Arizona regulators in January, Qwest said that since 2004 its technicians had been dispatched more than 7,900 times to fix equipment damaged by Cox, repairs that cost nearly half a million dollars.

“Even though they’ve admitted to what they are doing, getting them to stop it and certify it has not been easy,” said R. Steven Davis, Qwest’s deputy general counsel. “When a company turns a blind eye to activity that is wrong, it becomes intentional.”

Qwest is also taking its case to the news media. Mr. Pappas spent two hours last month driving around Phoenix to show a reporter the damage to Qwest’s property. The telephone boxes he visited had a few exposed wires, small unsealed holes and what Mr. Pappas said was improper grounding of Cox electrical wires to Qwest equipment.

In many other cases, the companies resolve their differences on an ad hoc basis before they blow up into legal fights. In San Antonio, for instance, AT&T says it found instances where Time Warner Cable installers cut phone company wires when trying to install their own voice service.

AT&T technicians must repair the equipment, which costs about $200 a job, according to Randy Tomlin, senior vice president of network operations planning at AT&T.

“You’d have to have service in that house for multiple years to recover that money,” Mr. Tomlin said, adding that similar problems had cropped up in California, Illinois and Wisconsin. Though reports of damage are infrequent, “as competition continues, the opportunities for this to occur increase,” he said.

A spokesman for Time Warner Cable, Mark Harrad, confirmed that there had been problems with cut wires in San Antonio, but he said they had been fixed. He added that at times, AT&T had damaged its equipment when installing its new U-Verse television service.

In Phoenix, Qwest and Cox are now arguing in front of regulators about how to determine the scope of the reported damage and how to repair it. If an independent audit is performed, it could take about a year to complete, after which regulators would have to decide whether there was any wrongdoing and set any compensation.

In the meantime, Cox and Qwest continue to battle for each other’s customers in more conventional ways.

Cox is offering customers in Phoenix a discounted package of digital cable, phone and high-speed Internet service for $99.95 a month, while Qwest is selling a comparable package, with the help of DirecTV, for about $92.97 a month. Which package consumers choose will likely have little to do with the companies’ disputes in the field.

“If this is not competition, then I don’t know what it is,” said Scott Simanson, vice president and general manager for Qwest’s operation in Arizona.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/24/business/24damage.html?ref=business

dad1153

11-23-06, 10:06 PM

Confirmed it on my DVR... Saturday night is the Match Game marathon.

The other show is Sunday at 8e/5p

The "other show" ('Behind the Blank: The Match Game Story') airs twice this Sunday on GSN: 8PM and 11PM ET and PT.

BTW, at 3:30AM Sunday night/Monday morning GSN will air one of the few surviving B&W episodes from the original 60's 'Match Game' (the one with the whistling 'Safari' music composed by Henry Mancini). Set your VCR/DVR's! :)

123HDTV

11-23-06, 10:50 PM

Done! Thanks for the tip!

dad1153

11-24-06, 01:58 AM

Two-for-the-price-of-one posting time!

Critic's Notebook
Listen for the Music, Look for the Muscles
By Ginia Bellafante The New York Times November 24, 2006

Will Madonna ever get old? She may acquire more gravitas, continue to mature emotionally and find greater meaning in her work with kabbalah, but will she ever come to look arthritic, puffy, menopausal? This increasingly seems doubtful. Madonna no longer reinvents, she maintains.

It is the sheer spectacularity of her physical form, the near menacing force of it, and largely that alone, that sustains your attention in “Madonna: The Confessions Tour, Live From London,” the two-hour film of a concert she gave at the Wembley Arena in London this past summer, which was broadcast on NBC Wednesday night and will be shown on Bravo next week.

With each tour Madonna has embarked on in recent years, her deltoids appear to have grown more regally expansive, robust and winglike. Toward the end of the Wembley show, part of a worldwide tour pegged to her album “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” Madonna sings one of the hits from it, “Hung Up,” a song about a woman who migrates between boredom and agony as she waits for a man to call. But who could this man possibly be? Unless Madonna is expecting a call from Wladimir Klitschko about meeting him in the ring, the sight of her singing a song like this, in a leotard no less, leaves you feeling as you might if you were forced to watch Ethel Merman trying to impersonate Chet Baker.

The show pays tribute to Madonna’s current and former selves and does so with dizzying jump cuts and all the spectacle — the acrobatics, playground sets, endless costume changes — that have become the hallmark of her concerts.

Today, Madonna, who is 48, is a concerned citizen of the world. She has made African AIDS orphans one of her causes and wants to adopt a child from Malawi, causing some controversy. At one point in the concert, she sings “Live to Tell” against the backdrop of images of children in Africa and a speeding tally of the number who have been left parentless. But here again, her perfect musculature produces a kind of dissonance. Madonna doesn’t have an altruist’s body, she has a denier’s. What you’re tallying in your head when you watch her dance with the strength and agility of a 19-year-old are the number of hours she spends each day practicing Ashtanga yoga, running hills and bench-pressing the weight of a Regency table. You are tallying all the calories that Madonna is not eating.

In addition to keeping up her legendary physical regimen, Madonna now also rides horses on her country estate in England. Some critics have seen this as another aspect of her Anglophilic pretensions, but what is really surprising is that it took her so long to cotton to a sport so steeped in the dynamic of submission and control. Madonna the equestrian seems the most inevitable Madonna of all. Perhaps realizing that on some level, she opened her Wembley show looking as if she were about to ride in a reimagining of Ascot. She danced around, directing men on all fours before she rode an apparatus meant to look like an electric horse.

Madonna travels backward in the show to the beginning of her career, the time before she was encumbered with the need to do good. The documentary “I’m Going to Tell You a Secret,” which follows her on her 2004 world tour, reveals a Madonna who wants to learn all the time, who hugs her assistant and dancers, who wishes she’d been nicer to people when she was young. Perhaps she knows that many in her audience miss the Madonna of so many Madonnas ago, the one who refused refinement and probably thought Oxford was just an insurance company.

“The Confessions Tour” gets deeper and deeper into her early disco years as it progresses, with Madonna getting in and out of a “Saturday Night Fever” tuxedo and Jane Fonda-esque aerobics gear before it’s all over, as if to tell us that sometimes, yes, she misses herself too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/24/arts/television/24mado.html?ref=television
____________________________________________________________ _____
Critic's Notebook
A Girl, a War and a Bunch of Gentle Lessons
By Anita Gates The New York Times November 24, 2006

“Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front” is to sincere as “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is to camp. So it’s both odd and satisfying, while watching this sweet holiday television movie (Sunday night on the Disney Channel), to come upon a “Mommie Dearest” moment.

When little Molly McIntire (Maya Ritter) refuses to eat the turnips served at dinner, the neighbor looking after her and her siblings orders her to sit at the table until she has cleaned her plate. “Which means I’ll be here until I die,” Molly announces woefully.

But unlike Christina Crawford, Molly has a mother (played by Molly Ringwald) who is willing to compromise. When Mom comes home from her job at the airplane factory, she warms up the turnips, mixing in a little butter and sugar (to heck with the rations!), and Molly happily finishes her meal.

It is wartime — 1944 to be exact — and Molly is learning about sacrifice, hardship, doing her part and the preciousness of family. As she does, viewers may be concerned about manipulation on more than one front.

First there’s Molly’s provenance. She is one of the dolls-with-historically-significant-back-stories that make up the lucrative American Girl empire. (The Fifth Avenue store has its own restaurant and its own on-site theater production, as well as floors of dolls, doll clothing, doll books and other accessories.) Clearly, at least one of the reasons the movie exists is to sell merchandise.

Then there’s the war. Granted, this is World War II, the one that even protesters in the Vietnam era could see as “the good war,” totally justified and noble. But it may seem to some viewers that Molly’s lessons in the necessity of the ultimate sacrifice are meant to persuade young viewers to see the current war in Iraq as equally noble.

Parents can talk to their children about that issue and then safely allow them to enjoy “Molly” for what it mostly is, a heartwarming, dreamlike vision of American small-town life six decades ago, with universal lessons around every corner.

In addition to loving her parents and tolerating her brother and sister, Molly has a rich life. She and her best friends go to the movies and learn about the world from the newsreels (in which young Princess Elizabeth of Britain makes a reassuring speech to children around the globe). They idolize a pretty young teacher, Miss Campbell (Sarah Manninen), and fantasize about her romance with and coming marriage to a handsome young soldier.

Molly desperately wants to win the lead in the big tap-dancing finale of the school’s Christmas show. She acknowledges that she isn’t a very good dancer but is willing to do whatever it takes to become one.

“I’ll practice day and night,” she announces, although she hates to practice. Her father (David Aaron Baker) supports her completely. “Once my girl makes up her mind, there’s no stopping her,” he tells her with an approving smile.

Molly’s trials include dealing with a wartime shortage of ice cream, saying a tearful goodbye to her father as he leaves for Britain, watching her mother take a job (horrors!) and, most intrusive of all, being forced to share her bedroom with a total stranger.

That stranger is Emily Bennett (Tory Green), a young refugee from London who modestly talks about living in a manor house and having the royal family to tea. (“It was only once.”) Not surprisingly, Molly’s resentment of Emily diminishes, and they become friends, even before Emily apologetically reveals her terrible secret.

“Molly: An American Girl” is poignant but carefully avoids difficult choices and long-term disappointment. A spelling bee that pits two major characters against each other is interrupted and declared a tie. Telegrams from the War Department arrive regularly, but really bad things happen only to minor characters. Hard work and sacrifice always pay off in victory. (Molly isn’t that great a tap dancer, but what are the odds of her winning the starring role in the show?) That, come to think of it, may be the most subversive message of all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/24/arts/television/24moll.html?ref=television

dad1153

11-24-06, 02:01 AM

International TV
Italian court rules Berlusconi will stand trial
By Eric J. Layman The Hollywood Reporter November 24, 2006

ROME -- An Italian court ruled late Wednesday that controversial media kingpin and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will stand trial for corruption as planned, sparking a flurry of speculation in the Italian media about how the case might play out.

The case started Tuesday but was halted as Berlusconi's lawyers filed a motion to have judge Edoardo D'Avossa removed from the case on the grounds that he has presided over three previous trials related to Berlusconi's Mediaset network and that the judge could not be objective about the latest case.

The decision about whether or not to allow D'Avossa to continue was expected Monday, and the quicker-than-expected result was interpreted by the Italian media as meaning the courts were eager to pursue Berlusconi, who has been dogged by legal problems for years but never convicted.

Italian newspapers carried the story on their front pages Thursday, with the left wing daily L'Unita declaring, "This time it's real." Other newspapers ran similar stories, making reference to Berlusconi often escaping convictions in the past due to legal maneuverings that often delayed a verdict until the statute of limitations expired.

That is unlikely now. The case could restart as soon as Monday.

The trial is to look into charges that Berlusconi used the sale of two offshore television stations to illegally avoid paying millions in taxes and then paid witnesses to cover his tracks.

Berlusconi has denied any wrongdoing in the case, saying that the charges against him were politically motivated moves from Italian Premier Romano Prodi, Berlusconi's chief political rival. Prodi has declined to comment on the case in recent weeks.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3iced79d02214d1926b31707ab4312b4d4

dad1153

11-24-06, 02:04 AM

TV Sports
Ailing Chiefs owner enjoys holiday win
By Doug Tucker Associated Press November 23, 2006

KANSAS CITY, Mo. ---- Lamar Hunt lobbied the NFL for 37 years to put a Thanksgiving game in Kansas City, but he had to listen to his Chiefs beat Denver on Thursday night over the phone in his hospital bed.

"Lamar, I hope you're feeling better," an emotional Trent Green said moments after the Chiefs wrapped up a 19-10 victory in a key AFC West showdown.

"This win," the Chiefs' quarterback added, "is for you."

The 74-year-old Hunt, who has missed only a handful of games since founding the franchise, was admitted to a Dallas-area hospital on Wednesday, bitterly disappointed he would not see Kansas City's inaugurating the NFL's new Thanksgiving tripleheader.

"He's doing much better," said his son, Clark Hunt, the chairman of the Chiefs. "He had a lung issue and needed to go to the hospital and let them take a look at it."

Having the Chiefs dedicate the game to him was certain to be a great tonic, the younger Hunt said.

"This game has been important to him really going back to the AFL days. He's worked since the merger to try to get the game back here."

Like most NFL fans, Hunt was unable to view the game. His hospital is not hooked into the NFL Network, which broadcast the game to about 40 million of the country's 111 million television homes. So his daughter held the phone near her television while he listened on the other end.

"He told me to call him at halftime," Chiefs president Carl Peterson said. "He said, 'I'm hearing it good, I'm hearing it good.' I told him, 'Well, we're doing good.' This night is his night as far as I'm concerned."

NFL rushing leader Larry Johnson gouged Denver's fifth-ranked run defense for 157 yards and Lawrence Tynes kicked four field goals for the Chiefs (7-4), who charged into a second-place tie with the Broncos (7-4) in the AFC West. The Broncos, tied for first only four days earlier, fell further behind the Chargers (8-2).

Johnson, raising his league-leading rushing total to 1,202 yards, consistently burned the Broncos with 8- and 10-yard gains, using his usual assortment of power moves and start-and-stop elusiveness. The Broncos came in giving up a shade better than 90 yards per game on the ground.

"I felt real good," Johnson said. "Overall, it's just your energy. You know that the whole nation is going to be watching you. It's the only game at night and it feels like a Monday night football game."

Johnson scored the Chiefs' only touchdown on a 1-yard vault late in the second quarter following a crucial mistake by the Broncos' Ebenezer Ekuban, who was called for roughing the passer on a failed third-and-4 play from the 9.

"There were a lot of crucial situations when we didn't step up and make the plays when we should," Denver cornerback Champ Bailey said. "One thing we've got to realize is we've got a lot of football left to play."

Tynes hit from 24, 34, 29 and 21 yards for the Chiefs, who have put themselves in a strong playoff position by shaking off a host of injuries and winning five of their last six.

Making the night even more festive was an in-house standing-room-only crowd of 80,866, the largest since 1972, the year the Chiefs opened the facility that many call the loudest outdoor stadium in the league.

"Our fans were awesome," Chiefs defensive end Jared Allen said. "We took energy from them all night."

The Broncos did not even snap the ball in Kansas City territory until after Jake Plummer hit Javon Walker with a 21-yard pass to the 47-yard line with 1:30 left in the half. Nine plays later, Jason Elam kicked a 31-yard field goal that made it 10-3 at halftime.

Plummer dropped to 0-6 in six starts in Kansas City and had his second pass intercepted when tight end Stephen Alexander tipped the ball into the hands of cornerback Ty Law, leading to KC's first field goal. He was 25-for-39 for 216 yards and no doubt speculation will pick up steam over whether rookie Jay Cutler is about to be promoted.

"We'll see what happens there," said safety John Lynch, a Torrey Pines High alumnus. "That is the other side of the ball. We've got to look at our side."

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11/24/sports/professional/19_26_9911_23_06.txt

dad1153

11-24-06, 02:13 AM

The New Season
Big Day
Bottom Line: Something bold, something new, something funny through and through
By Barry Garron The Hollywood Reporter November 27, 2006

9-9:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 28 - ABC

It's finally the big day for "Big Day." Originally scheduled to premiere with the bulk of the fall series, "Big Day" was delayed by the growing buzz surrounding "Ugly Betty." Responding to the good word-of-mouth, ABC switched "Betty" to Thursdays and bumped "Big Day" from the schedule, making it wait for another day.

"Big Day," a single-camera comedy about the hornet's nest of activity surrounding a large, formal wedding, is like "24" in that it parses the day into a season's worth of episodes. Unlike "24," though, you really don't need to know much about the previous episodes to enjoy the one you're watching.

And enjoy it you will. Husband-and-wife team Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa pack the half-hour with oddball characters, zany circumstances and loads of physical comedy, but it's all grounded in enough reality to be utterly believable and irrepressibly funny.

Marla Sokoloff stars as the bride, the sweet but anxious Alice. Josh Cooke plays Danny, the laid-back, childlike groom, who works year-round as a camp counselor. Steve, the disapproving dad, a well-heeled doctor, is played by Kurt Fuller. Wendie Malick plays Jane, his obsessive wife. Rounding out the cast are Skobo (Stephen Rannazzisi), Danny's best friend from camp; Becca (Miriam Shor), Alice's sister and maid of honor, and Lorna (Stephanie Weir), the put-upon wedding planner.

Unlike the accident-prone wedding day it depicts, "Big Day" has all of the various elements in place. The casting was superb and the script from Goldsmith and Yuspa is tight and smart. Even the less obvious parts, such as David Schwartz's festive music and scene segues that zoom for room to room, all contribute to the lively mood and the comic madness of each episode.

In the premiere, Alice's dad suggests that Danny needs to grow up more before he's ready to marry. Father might know best but no one is ready to listen. Alice and her mother have a last-minute fight over salad selection and the best man is busy being a jerk to the maid of honor, with whom he spent the previous night.

If "Big Day" wins ABC support (and, with "What About Brian" still on the schedule, how hard could that be?), Goldsmith and Yuspa said they would build new seasons around other big events, such as the birth of a child or a family cruise. These days, with funny and inventive sitcoms as scarce as $2-a-gallon gas, "Big Day" looks like a welcome addition to the TV landscape.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/television/reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=8442

dad1153

11-24-06, 02:32 AM

TV Notebook
Spader finds small screen a 'Legal' fix
By Erin Carlson Associated Press November 23, 2006

James Spader never really imagined he'd wind up with a steady gig on television. He'd always been in movies. In fact, he didn't even watch much of it. But he was willing to try it.

"I mean, I've never been much of a planner in terms of my business," Spader said. "I'm not very good at that, and I have not given tremendous thought to what to look for and what I would want to do, toward building a career.

"I wasn't particularly curious about it, and I really had no idea about what that would be like. ... I guess that's part of the reason why I did it, because I was so ignorant, you know? And ignorance really is bliss."

Spader plays the twisted yet goodhearted defense attorney Alan Shore on ABC's "Boston Legal," a David E. Kelley creation. Alan inhabits a world of weird and wacky Kelley characters, most notably the hilariously unhinged Denny Crane (William Shatner), senior partner of Crane, Poole & Schmidt.

Kelley introduced Alan in the final season of his legal drama "The Practice," which ended in 2004. That same year, Spader reprised the Emmy-winning character and got his own hit show, "Boston Legal," starring with such small-screen veterans as Shatner and Candice Bergen, who signed on last year.

"I realized how much I liked it and how sort of addictive it is," said Spader, who describes himself as "obsessive compulsive." "I have a very addictive personality, you know, so I've become rather intoxicated by it ... So I really look forward to getting the next script. I mean, I really look forward to that. That's something I think I would miss if I wasn't doing the show."

He would probably miss Shatner, too. The two have become pals - "odd sort of friends," said Spader, comparing their relationship to the male-bonding between conservative Denny and the more liberal Alan.

"Bill and I probably share more of the same views about certain issues than Denny and Alan do, but we are ... in many ways, opposing in personality," he said.

While Shatner has his side projects (host of the new ABC game show "Show Me the Money," among them), Spader prefers to concentrate on "Boston Legal" and is even staving off his movie career to do so.

If a script were good, would he look at it?

"I'm so busy on the show," he said. "I don't think I have time - I don't have time to pursue a movie career right now. I have time if something were to come along, and it were very minimal in terms of time and it were to just land on my lap and I were to quickly read it and then were able to quickly act it, then I could do something in film."

His extracurricular activities, he said, include "eating or sleeping or record-shopping or goofing around" with his teenage sons, Sebastian and Elijah, from his first marriage. He has a girlfriend and a dog.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/story/473886p-398668c.html

dad1153

11-24-06, 03:07 AM

Technology/Business
U.S. grants exemptions to copyright rules
Associated Press November 23, 2006

Cell phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules announced yesterday by the U.S. Copyright Office.

Other copyright exemptions the agency approved will let film professors copy snippets from DVDs for educational compilations and let blind people use software to read copy-protected electronic books.

The changes were among six exemptions approved by James H. Billington, the head of the Library Congress, which oversees the Copyright Office.

"I am very encouraged by the fact that the Copyright Office is willing to recognize exemptions for archivists, cell phone recyclers and computer security experts," said Fred von Lohmann, an attorney with the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Frankly, I'm surprised and pleased they were granted."

But von Lohmann said he was disappointed that the Copyright Office rejected a number of other exemptions that could have benefited consumers, including one that would have let owners of DVDs legally copy movies for use on Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod and other portable players. The new rules will take effect Monday and will expire in three years.

In granting the exemption for cell phone users, the Copyright Office determined that consumers aren't able to enjoy full legal use of their handsets because of software locks that wireless providers have been placing to control access to the underlying programs.

Providers of prepaid phone services have been trying to stop entrepreneurs from buying subsidized handsets to resell at a profit. But even customers of regular plans generally can't bring their phones to another carrier, even after their contracts expire.

Billington noted that at least one company has filed lawsuits claiming that breaking the software locks violates copyright law, which makes it illegal for people to circumvent copy-protection technologies without an exemption from the Copyright Office.

Billington said the locks appeared in place not to protect the developer of the cell phone software but for third-party interests.

Officials with the industry group CTIA-The Wireless Association did not return phone calls for comment yesterday.

The exemption granted to film professors authorizes the breaking of the CSS copy-protection technology found in most DVDs. Programs to do that circulate widely on the Internet, though until now it has been illegal to use or distribute them.

The professors said they need the ability to create compilations of DVD snippets to teach their classes - for example, taking portions of old and new cartoons to study how animation has evolved. Such compilations are generally permitted under "fair use" provisions of copyright law, but breaking the locks to make the compilations has been illegal.

Hollywood studios have argued that educators could turn to videotapes and other versions without the copy protections. But the professors argued that DVDs are of higher quality and may preserve the original colors or dimensions that videotapes lack.

"The record did not reveal any alternative means to meet the pedagogical needs of the professors," Billington wrote.

The Copyright Office also authorized the breaking of locks on electronic books so that blind people can use them with read-aloud software and similar aides.

It also granted two exemptions dealing with computer obsolescence. For computer software and video games that require machines no longer available, copy-protection controls may be circumvented for archival purposes. Locks on computer programs also may be broken if they require dongles - small computer attachments - that are damaged and can't be replaced.

The final exemption lets researchers test CD copy-protection technologies for security flaws or vulnerabilities. Researchers had noted Sony BMG Music Entertainment's use of copy-protection systems that installed themselves on personal computers to limit copying.

In doing so, critics say, Sony BMG exposed the computers to hacking, and the company has acknowledged problems with one of the technologies used on some 5.7 million CDs.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.copyright23nov23,0,6825101.story?coll=bal-business-headlines

dad1153

11-24-06, 08:24 AM

TV Notebook
L&Onely Girl
Abducted Web Mystery Gal
By Michael Starr The New York Post November 24, 2006

'Law & Order" has built a franchise on its "ripped from the headlines" approach.

But this Tuesday's episode of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" goes one step further in its depiction of a cyber-kidnapping (believed to be a TV first).

"This is 'pre-ripping' from the headlines," says "CI" executive producer/head writer Warren Leight.

The episode, entitled "Weeping Willow," stars Michelle Trachtenberg ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") as "Willow," a popular online video blogger whose violent kidnapping is streamed in real time on the Internet.

She and her boyfriend are held hostage by two hooded assailants demanding ransom in the form of downloads from "Willow" fans (at $1.99 a pop).

It's up to "CI" detectives Logan (Chris Noth) and Wheeler (Julianne Nicholson) to figure out if the kidnapping is real - or an elaborate online hoax.

"Forget about 15 minutes of fame - there are hundreds of people who get their 15 inches of bandwidth, people making names for themselves on Youtube and others," Leight says, alluding to post-it-yourself video sites.

(The video site used in "Weeping Willow" is called "YouLenz.")

"This blogging phenomenon has created a certain kind of 'cyberfame,' people who don't have to do anything more than put themselves on the Web and catch a cyberwave," Leight says.

"We now have a spate of very strange celebrities."

Leight says the twentysomething "Willow" is modeled after "lonelygirl15," a video blogger who became an online sensation earlier this year on Youtube.com.

"Lonelygirl," ostensibly a 15-year-old girl, was later exposed as a fictitious character played by an actress and created by two filmmakers.

"At this moment in time, people will do anything to be famous, and this is about the nature of fame at the moment," Leight says of the episode.

"It's fun to play with the detectives' expectations.

"Their biggest frustration is trying to understand what's real and what isn't," Leight says. "Does this woman, Willow, really exist, and has something happened to her?

"Is she playing a character and a game that's gotten out of hand? And how do you locate someone in cyberspace?"

Wheeler, Logan's younger partner, immediately suspects a hoax - while Logan isn't so sure, especially when real blood is found at the crime scene.

"When we were preparing the episode, I talked to several DAs and asked them what the charge would be [for cyber-kidnapping]," Leight says. "They told me that this is a real problem, that there's a lag between what's on the books now and what's happening out there.

"They said that we're starting to see this type of stuff, and they have no idea on how to [legally] handle it."

The episode, which also features cameos from actor Wallace Shawn and CNN's Larry King, airs Tuesday (9 p.m./Ch. 4).

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11242006/tv/lonely_girl_tv_michael_starr.htm

dad1153

11-24-06, 08:28 AM

Critic's Notebook
Music's the grace note of U2 gab
BONO AND THE EDGE: OFF THE RECORD. Friday, 11 p.m., HBO
By David Hinckley The New York Daily News November 24, 2006

THREE STARS (OUT OF FOUR):

At this point, getting U2's Bono to talk - about anything - is no harder than getting a dog to wag its tail at a fistful of fresh bones.

But he seems to keep finding new audiences, or at least old ones that don't mind hearing a few greatest hits.

People who have followed U2 over the years won't hear radically new material when Bono and U2 guitarist The Edge sit down for this hour-long "Off the Record" session with interviewer Dave Stewart.

Neither will they be bored.

When The Edge talks about playing guitar on mathematical principles, that's turf he's covered before. And yes, the predictable sound- wave patterns of feedback may be a discussion in which the average music fan has only passing interest.

But he gets away with it because U2 some time ago transcended "average" in the rock world and therefore has so much recognizable music as reference points. Familiar songs and a large, devoted core of listeners win them considerable latitude in an interview like this.

On the other hand, they're smart enough to realize they should focus on matters to which the listener relates.

Stewart holds up a Patti Smith album, for instance, and Bono immediately says she is the reason he bares his soul in his lyrics.

Edge, real name David Evans, talks about how Bryan Ferry's experimentation gave U2 the kind of creative inspiration that the Beatles or the Who gave to an earlier generation of rockers.

Edge also notes, not for the first time, how U2 came out of the punk movement, where the lasting mantra was simplicity.

Of less interest, perhaps, are passages where Bono goes political. While there are no speeches here on Third World debt, he does declare that at one time he may have been naive about the oppression of communism.

That sort of rumination doubtless reflects Bono's absorption of lessons and thoughts from the non-rock 'n' roll people with whom he has hung out. Since he shows no signs of shedding that part of his life, most fans have either embraced or tolerated it.

For purposes of this program, though, the more interesting Bono remains the one who recounts - again, not for the first time - that U2's first gig as a band was surprisingly good, "and the next 25 were awful."

That's interesting because out of it, somehow, these two guys plus Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. formed a remarkably solid band that has produced years of solid music.

Hearing The Edge talk about how Clayton's bass is in some ways a lead instrument in U2 while his own guitar often falls back into the rhythm section with Mullen, is the reason to tune in to this good-natured hour of patter.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/story/474150p-398851c.html

dad1153

11-24-06, 08:34 AM

TV Notebook
Shop at home, couched in comfort
L.A. Daily News Staff and Wire Services November 23, 2006

Those who lack the fortitude to hit the stores today on Black Friday can do a little preview shopping from the couch instead, courtesy of HGTV. At 8 p.m. today, "Gift Show 2006" has all sorts of unusual present ideas, while the "Toy Fair 2006" special at 9 p.m. is all about the latest for children from more than 1,500 companies. Big kids may want to stay up late for the 11 p.m. holiday-themed "I Want That! Tech Toys," from earmuff headphones to a universal remote with a relatively foolproof downloadable set-up. Remember: Batteries not included.

LUCKY `BREAK': "Prison Break" has its fall season finale Monday. And Fox has announced that it's bringing the show back on Jan. 22, when the second-year series returns with an hour-long clip show recapping the events of the first 13 episodes.

The winter's first new episode of "Prison Break" will show the following Monday and the rest of the season will run without repeats through to the finale.

"Prison Break" will return to its standard 8 p.m. time period the week after the two-night, four-hour sixth-season premiere of the network's Emmy-winning "24."

GAY RADAR: Lifetime is taking Fox show "Playing It Straight" one step further with "Gay, Straight or Taken?" which is scheduled to premiere on the cable network Jan. 8.

As you might expect, each episode will follow a woman on a series of dates with three different guys - one gay, one in a relationship, and one single and heterosexual. She'll try to figure out which guy is which, then pick one for herself.

If she chooses the straight guy, she and the guy win "an exotic trip for two." If not, the man she picks gets to take his significant other on the vacation.

The premiere features a 27-year-old Realtor, choosing among Chris, a personal trainer; Luciano, a bartender; and Mike, a club promoter.

MATCH GAME: On Dec. 18, NBC will unveil a new game show called "Identity," in which players can win cash based on how well they're able to read people. Like the launch of "Deal or No Deal," the new show will run for five consecutive nights at 8 p.m.

Host Penn Jillette will introduce players to 12 people and give them a list of 12 pieces of identifying information. The players then have to match each trait - which could range from profession to shoe size, NBC says - to the person they think has that trait. Getting all 12 matches right brings a prize of half a million dollars.

'TREE,' `VERONICA': The "One Tree Hill" gang will continue to sleep with inappropriate people, and "Veronica Mars" will have more time to close in on the campus rapist now that The CW has ordered additional episodes of the two dramas.

The new network ordered eight more episodes of "Hill," while "Veronica" got seven more, making a total of 21 and 20 episodes, respectively, report trade sources. Each show was picked up for 13 episodes this past spring.

In its third season, "Veronica" has increased its viewership by 7 percent among adults 18-34 and 5 percent among women 18-34 compared to last year when it was on UPN. It's averaged a 1.6 rating/4 share among the 18-34 demo and a 2.2/6 among women 18-34. This year, "Veronica" followed "Gilmore Girls" and also marks the titular protagonist's (Kristen Bell) first year of college.

"One Tree Hill" is currently in its fourth season and also has increased from its WB run last year, with a 5 percent increase among adults 18-34 and 4 percent among women 18-34. It has averaged a 2.0/5 among adults and a 2.8/7 among adult women, retaining a large percentage of its lead-in, "America's Next Top Model."

http://www.dailynews.com/tv/ci_4711106

dad1153

11-24-06, 08:42 AM

TV Notebook
Santa's TV bag is stuffed with seasonal treats
By Cindy Clark USA Today November 23, 2006

The season is festooned with TV programming of all sorts, from classic films to new specials to helpful how-tos. USA TODAY assembles a sampler of the holiday's many offerings:

•Decorating Cents: Home for the Holidays, Sunday, 9 p.m. ET/PT, HGTV: Designing a holiday for deserving families: the Hunts, who'll see husband and father Tim off to duty in Afghanistan, and the Schnacky family, dealing with medical treatments for son Tyler.

•A Charlie Brown Christmas, Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET/PT, ABC: Charlie struggles to direct his school's annual Christmas pageant in the digitally remastered special.

•Christmas at Rockefeller Center, Wednesday, 8 p.m. ET/PT, NBC: Today's Al Roker and Ann Curry host the annual lighting of the Christmas tree. With Christina Aguilera, Sting, Bette Midler and Sarah McLachlan.

•The Polar Express, Dec. 1, 8 p.m. ET/PT, ABC: Based on the classic story of a skeptical boy on a Christmas Eve journey via train to the North Pole.

•The Christmas Card, Dec. 2, 9 p.m., Hallmark: A soldier in Afghanistan falls in love with a woman he does not know who sends him a holiday greeting.

•Holiday Open House, Dec. 3, 7 p.m. ET/PT, DIY: Creative and original ideas to decorate the house.

•Holiday Windows 2006, Dec. 3, 9 p.m. ET/PT, HGTV: Legendary department-store window displays, including Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Barneys.

•Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, Dec. 5, 8 p.m. ET/PT, ABC: Fred Astaire narrates the 1970 tale of a young Kris Kringle who must overcome the evil ruler Burgermeister, who has banned toys from the land.

•White House Christmas 2006, Dec. 6, 8 p.m. ET/PT, HGTV: A look inside the White House preparations.

•Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Dec. 8, 8 p.m. ET/PT, CBS: Digitally remastered version of the classic Christmas special of "the most famous reindeer of all."

•Frosty the Snowman, Dec. 8, 9 p.m. ET/PT, CBS: Classic musical special narrated by Jimmy Durante. Followed at 9:30 by Frosty Returns.

•Nigella Bites: Christmas Holiday, Dec. 9, 9 p.m. ET/PT, Food: "Domestic Goddess" Nigella Lawson gives tips on festive treats for Christmas to New Year's.

•Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dec. 9, 9 p.m. ET/PT, ABC: Jim Carrey stars as the Grinch in the 2000 film based on the classic book.

•Santa Baby, Dec. 10, 8 p.m. ET/PT, ABC Family: Santa's estranged daughter, a business executive, returns to the North Pole to help after Santa falls ill.

•The Year Without a Santa Claus, Dec. 11, 9 p.m. ET/PT, NBC: Santa (John Goodman) has decided to take the year off.

•Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Dec. 12, 8 p.m. ET/PT, ABC: The 1966 animated holiday story celebrates its 40th anniversary.

•Christmas With the Dickinsons, Dec. 13, 10 p.m. ET/PT, Oxygen: Model-turned-mogul Janice Dickinson's take on The Twelve Days of Christmas.

•Christmas in Washington, Dec. 13, 10 p.m. ET/PT, TNT: Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw host Taylor Hicks, Il Divo, Gretchen Wilson, Chris Brown and Bianca Ryan in a D.C. benefit.

•Christmas Do-Over, Dec. 16, 8 p.m. ET/PT, ABC Family: A man gets the chance to do things differently after he is forced to relive a terrible Christmas.

•It's a Wonderful Life, Dec. 16, 8 p.m. ET/PT, NBC: Frank Capra's 1946 classic is also described for the visually impaired by former president George Bush.

•National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Dec. 17, 8 p.m. ET/PT, TBS: Chevy Chase stars as the patriarch of the Griswolds as they try to make the best of a disastrous holiday.

•A Perfect Day, Dec. 18, 8 p.m. ET/PT, TNT: Rob Lowe plays a first-time author who hits it big with a best seller but loses sight of what's truly important.

•A Christmas Carol, Dec. 20, 8 p.m. ET/PT, TNT: Patrick Stewart stars in TNT's adaptation of Charles Dickens' perennial tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and his visitation by the ghosts of Christmas.

•A Christmas Story marathon, Dec. 24, 8 p.m. ET/PT, TBS: 24 hours of the nostalgic comedy based on the stories of Jean Shepherd, who narrates. Ralphie wants a BB gun; mom worries he'll shoot his eye out.

•A Very Married Christmas, Dec. 24, 9 p.m. ET/PT, CBS: A man's orderly life begins to fall apart when he learns shortly before Christmas that his wife is having an affair and wants a divorce.

•Yule Log, Dec. 25, 7 a.m. ET/PT, INHD: Perfect for your new high-definition TV, this image of a crackling fire burns for 24 hours.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-11-23-holiday-TV-guide_x.htm

dad1153

11-24-06, 09:04 AM

TV Q&A
TV Q&A with Rob Owen
By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's TV Critic Nov. 24, 2006

Question: Just my final comment on "Studio 60." I tried through two more episodes to like this show. I fell asleep both times. I miss "West Wing," and this show ain't no "West Wing," but somehow NBC renews it for next year? -- Rob, Sarver

Rob Owen: NBC has not renewed "Studio 60" for 2007-2008. The network has only ordered the balance of episodes on the 2006-2007 season, extending its run into 2007. Unless ratings perk up when it moves to a new time slot (not yet announced), I don't expect it will live to see a second season.

Question: "Brothers and Sisters" is fast becoming one of my favorites -- tape-worthy, as Elaine in "Seinfeld" would say. I enjoy all of the characters, and the latest episode was hilarious, I thought. Sally Field does a bang-up job of holding the whole thing together. Now for the question: As the Dearly Departed Dad ("Dexter" influence here) toppled into the pool I thought I heard him say, "Saul, what have you done?" Which leads me to believe that Saul and not Dad was the culprit. Did you hear this, too, or are my ears joining the rest of me in going south? -- Betty, Cranberry

Rob Owen: I did not, but I checked with the show's ABC publicist to be sure, since she has a copy of the script. "William Walker did not say this in the pool," she reports. "Sarah [played by Rachel Griffiths] said, 'What have you done?' when she was able to tap into her father's accounts."

Question: I've looked all over online, and I can't find the soundtrack music to "Heroes." I'm specifically looking for the music in Sanskrit. Can you tell me what this music is and how to find it? -- Justin, Squirrel Hill

Rob Owen: The music isn't currently available on NBC.com. A soundtrack is under discussion, but the network has nothing to announce on that yet. The show's credits say the music is by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, "with the voice of Shenkar." I tried to find information online about a single-named recording artist named Shenkar but had no luck.

Question: I was watching a recent episode of "House" and saw Pruitt Taylor Vince as a 600-pound man. Was that a fat suit he had on? He looked so realistic. I remember him from "Murder One." Also, is there any chance that the late great "Nothing Sacred" will be released on DVD? -- David, Johnstown

Rob Owen: The actor, who is a large guy without any special effects, did have prosthetics on in the "House" episode. Nothing listed for "Nothing Sacred" at www.tvshowsondvd.com, so that means no plans for a release yet.

Question: What happened to the good old-fashioned family half-hour sitcoms? Shows like "The Cosby Show," "Full House," "Home Improvement," "Family Ties," "The Wonder Years," etc. The stuff on TV now is horrible. I'm not into the one-hour drama shows at all. I like comedies -- you know, the ones that make you laugh with your family. It's all going away, sadly enough. I try to find the reruns of all of these classic shows on other channels because the "reality" stuff on TV is getting old. Bring back the fun! -- Nick, Homer City

Rob Owen: What happened is that time marches on. Right now TV is in a cycle where family sitcoms are not in fashion. Maybe they'll come back, maybe not. That said, "Everybody Hates Chris" (8 p.m. Monday, The CW) keeps the family sitcom alive and kicking.

Question: I know you mentioned in your column that Richard Karn was being replaced on "Family Feud" by John O'Hurley, but I'm curious as to why. I loved Richard as host. I loved his laid-back style and his off-the-cuff remarks. I've tried the new host, and I hate the show. He tries so hard to be funny, and he's not! I get so tired of him making the same goofy face when the buzzer is sounded in the final round! Did Richard leave by his own choice? What's he doing now? Any chance of bringing him back? -- Dorothy, Donora

Rob Owen: It's interesting how personally some viewers take it when changes are made to their favorite programs. The reality is, these are business decisions that have nothing to do with viewers' feelings. The only goal is to generate higher ratings and, in that, make more money. For that reason, when a distributor changes the host of a syndicated game show, they don't usually give their reasons for making the change. That said, reading between the lines of an April story in Variety about the host change, it appears they brought in O'Hurley, best known for playing J. Peterman on "Seinfeld," to try to boost the ratings of "Feud."

Question: This being sweeps month: How do they gather the ratings data in this day and age? They don't still use those viewer "Diaries" I remember from years ago, do they? With technology today (i.e., TiVo, etc.), is it taken into account that viewers tape shows while watching something else? -- Brad, Palm Springs, Calif.

Rob Owen: There has always been a place in the Nielsen diaries to record programs you tape, and now Nielsen is also getting into measuring programs timed-delayed on a DVR or TiVo. Diaries are still used on a local level during sweeps, but in Pittsburgh, meters give stations a report on how many people are watching their programs 365 days a year. The diaries add in demographic information. At some point in the future, Pittsburgh will get meters that measure demos, too.

Question: Is Kristine Sorensen of KDKA pregnant? -- Elaine, Mt. Lebanon

Rob Owen: Good eye, Elaine (I never notice these things). According to KDKA-TV news director John Verrilli, Sorensen is pregnant with her second child. She's due March 31st.

Question: Do you know if any local stations are planning to switch to HD for local news? -- Anthony, Brookline

Rob Owen: That seems like a simple question, but none of the news directors in town wanted to answer it directly. WPXI's Corrie Harding said the date to switch to HD in local news "is a bit of a moving target" with no concrete time table set. WTAE's Bob Longo called the answer to your question "information of a competitive nature, and we're not willing to divulge our plans." KDKA news director John Verrilli did not respond to your question.

Question: Would you please explain to me why it is I am liable to find the Steelers playing almost anywhere but the Cartoon Network? They're sometimes on Channel 2, Channel 4, Channel 11, and, like this coming Sunday, Channel 53. -- Russ, McCandless

Rob Owen: It's not really all that mysterious: CBS and Fox have rights to the NFL Sunday afternoon games (that covers Channels 2 and 53) and NBC has the rights to Sunday night NFL games (Channel 11). Until this fall, ABC aired "Monday Night Football," which has since shifted to ESPN, but Channel 4 can still get local rights to that broadcast, just as they did when ESPN carried Sunday night games. Of course, you never know what the future holds. Given how the Steelers have performed this season, the team might be more suited for a slot on Cartoon Network.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06328/740241-238.stm

dad1153

11-24-06, 09:55 AM

(International) TV Notebook
Numbers don’t lie — CBC barely alive in the ratings department
By Bill Brioux Toronto Sun November 24, 2006

Despite all the carping, criticism and finger-pointing, CBC brass keeps saying its shows are doing just fine, thanks.

Well then, let’s look at the most recent national numbers:

October 1970 (Thursday, Nov. 16): 56,000 viewers.

Rumours (Monday of this week): 94,000.

The Hour (Monday of this week): 82,000.

Intelligence (Tuesday of this week): 247,000.

Dragon’s Den finale (Wednesday of this week): 381,000.

See, still horribly low.

That hasn’t stopped the Corpse from ordering a second edition of its entrepreneurial reality show Dragon’s Den based on a series high of 547,000 viewers three weeks ago. That’s when they called it “CBC’s fastest-growing series.”

There was no release a week later when it was CBC’s fastest-falling series.

HEROES SOARS:

How do those ratings compare to shows on other networks, you ask? Here’s why Intelligence gets stomped on Tuesdays. Global owns the night, with House drawing 2.3 million viewers this past Tuesday. That Rumour wipeout on Mondays? Hey, you take on Global’s Prison Break (1.7 million) and Canada’s top rookie series, Heroes (1.5 million).

HEROES’ NEW HIRO:

George Takei, Star Trek’s Capt. Sulu, will play Hiro Nakamura’s father on Heroes. Look for him to beam aboard in January.

GUIDE, TV (Canadian):

Passed away in its sleep this week at 53. Leaves about a dozen subscribers; back in January 1977, when this U.S. publication became Canadian owned, the circulation stood at 1,046,579 — by far the biggest-selling weekly in Canada.

At its peak, the U.S. TV Guide was the biggest-selling magazine in the world, racking up weekly sales close to 25 million copies. Founder Walter Annenberg sold TV Guide to O.J.-yanker Rupert Murdoch in 1988 for more than $3 billion.

I worked there for about a dozen years in the ’80s and ’90s. I still remember getting quick callbacks from people such as Tom Selleck, Michael J. Fox and Stephen Bochco. That little red logo had clout.

What happened? As TV exploded, TV Guide shrank. Even the once mighty U.S. edition has been hammered down to 3 million copies a week.

Anyone who has struggled through its sorry listings lately could see it coming. Faced with covering 500 channels in four time zones and dozens of cable and satellite services, the listings — always TV Guide’s bread and butter — just couldn’t keep up, Heck, the way networks are yanking and re-scheduling shows these days, even on-screen listings are often inaccurate.

So like antennas, test patterns and the CBC, TV Guide is a thing of the past. Hold onto those classic copies, they’re only going to go up on eBay.

SLAMMER TIME:

Already bugged that Prison Break is taking a break after Monday’s fall finale? Good news: The Fox/Global drama is returning earlier than first reported (or even than it did last season, when it returned in March). Fox is bringing Wentworth Miller and the gang back Jan. 29 (a recap episode airs Jan. 22). New episodes will run through April.

MORE WEB WINDOWS:

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip and cancelled CBS drama Smith are joining The O.C. as the first U.S. dramas available on CTV’s broadband website. You can find The O.C. and Studio 60 episodes now at CTV.ca (click on the Broadband Network). Those four “lost” Smith episodes should show up there soon. Canadians are “geo-blocked” from accessing most U.S. network websites for broadband streaming.

MORE MARS:

Veronica Mars, one of those cool little dramas you’re probably missing (it airs Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. on SUN TV), has been given a full season renewal at originating U.S. network The CW. The fledgling U.S. broadcaster has also ordered a full season of One Tree Hill.

30 ROCK ON:

Good news for Tina Fey — NBC has ordered three more 30 Rock scripts. Still, they haven’t given the green light to produce any episodes past the original 13-episode order. It’s almost as if they’ve seen the series. Last week’s super-sized episode drew only 5.2 million viewers.

CITY GOES ELECTRIC:

Remember Electric Circus? The retro dance show returns for a special one time only holiday edition, airing Dec. 30 at 9 p.m. on MuchMusic. If you’re 18-26 and wanna make the scene, glitter up and get your booty down to the CHUM/City building at 299 Queen St. West tomorrow between 1 and 4 p.m. for an open audition for dancers. Check out casting@muchmusic.com for more information.

http://torontosun.com/Entertainment/Columnists/Brioux_Bill/2006/11/24/2474069.html

dad1153

11-24-06, 09:56 AM

Fans of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip should read this story about what Jamie Tarses (the ABC programming chief that inspired the Jordan McDeere character in Aaron Sorkin's latest) is up to since her departure from ABC a few years back. We've also included early reviews of the project Tarses is working on with Betty Thomas (mentioned in the Times article below) and its companion sitcom on TBS in this same posting. Also click above and on the previous pages (#609 & 610) for a slew of articles added in the past 24 or so hours.

Who loves you baby? :)

TV Notebook
Back in the game
Former ABC exec Jamie Tarses tests the waters again with "My Boys."
By Lynn Smith The Los Angeles Times November 24, 2006

Jamie Tarses and Betsy Thomas, uncharacteristically made up for a photographer and relieved that the session had finished, sat in the bar of the Four Seasons Hotel and philosophized about a topic they know well: television comedy.

"Everybody begins at that point of 'I want to do something that is of very good quality, I want people to enjoy it, learn from it, be inspired from it,' " said Tarses, the former head of ABC Entertainment, in a rare interview. A show like "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," featuring a character partly based on Tarses herself, demonstrates how it's not always possible to take the high road due to commercial demands, she said. "But always aspiring to do that is certainly admirable and what everyone would like to be able to do every day of their lives."

It's been especially tough for sitcoms lately, but the two women had reason to celebrate. "My Boys," a show written by Thomas four years ago and co-executive produced by Tarses, will launch Tuesday on TBS. Along with "Ten Items or Less," the show represents the cable network's first venture into original programming planned to complement its syndicated comedy block — "Sex and the City," "Friends," "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "Seinfeld."

Tarses and Thomas have known each other since the days when networks still loved sitcoms and women executives and comedy writers were rare in Hollywood. Eight years ago, Thomas sold her first pilot script, a comedy based on her own life in Hollywood ("Then Came You") to ABC.

Then, after Tarses resigned under difficult circumstances from her high-profile job, the two often met informally to talk over Thomas' latest projects. One, also loosely based on Thomas' own experiences, followed a young female sportswriter and her weekly poker games with her male friends. ABC and NBC passed but Tarses liked it and remembered it.

Last November, just after she signed on as a partner with Pariah Productions, Tarses asked Thomas what had happened to that script. When she heard it was collecting dust, Tarses knew it would be perfect for TBS.

Michael Wright, senior vice president of original programming for TBS and sister network TNT, said "My Boys" was just what the channel had been seeking: a romantic "buddy" comedy, with a smart, contemporary tone that avoided silliness or sentimentality. The lead character of P.J., a sweet tomboy on a steep learning curve about life, love and occasionally career, was perfect. "She's very attractive, the girl that guys want to go out with and women want to hang out with," he said.

He said P.J. (played by Jordana Spiro) is a well-written version of Thomas herself. "The characters are all plucked from her world," Wright said. "She's writing from what she knows."

Thomas agreed that she tends to write about women like herself — "not particularly girly, not particularly [aggressive], just professional, sensitive, intelligent women who can both drink a guy under the table, and yet are sensitive and vulnerable and a little crazy."

In the '90s, Tarses made news as the first female entertainment chief at any of the big three networks. She became the entertainment president at ABC after a successful run at NBC as a development executive, during which she was responsible for "Friends." Since leaving ABC, Tarses has shied away from the press.

Though many women now populate writing rooms and executive suites in Hollywood, it wasn't the case when Tarses and Thomas first met. "Now the composition of those rooms has changed dramatically," Tarses said, ticking off women-led comedy staffs at CBS and ABC.

As a consultant on "Studio 60," Tarses helps shape the character of Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet), the president of the fictional National Broadcasting System who oversees a troubled comedy show and is the only female executive in sight. The show is accurate in the limited view it describes, she said.

In a production studio, she said, "certain areas going to be mainly men and only one woman. You also haven't seen her other staff. In terms of who she's working with, only her dynamic with two men, they're accurate with that. I don't think you've been exposed to enough of the world in which she's working to know if they're getting it right or not."

Thomas said she always had fun in the male-dominated writing rooms. "The truth is, [the culture of the writing rooms] has less to do with gender and more to do with the pace and the stress and the frenetic nature of television production. Fourteen-hour days. Working crazy hours. You're under a lot of stress. You have to toughen up. You have to develop a thick skin or a great sense of humor. You've got to let a lot run off your back.

"There's a lot of rejection in this business. You have to get used to that. Just like in sports."

"My Boys" is replete with baseball metaphors, delivered through P.J.'s voice-over narration, and Thomas says she has plenty more where they came from. In Hollywood, she said, "there are people who are respectful of others in general. And know how to play rough without getting someone hurt. There are people who don't know how to roughhouse whether they're a comedy writer or stockbroker.

"I've been really lucky. I've always been treated with complete respect."

One reason Thomas wrote "My Boys" four years ago, she said, is that she could not identify with women on television, portrayed mostly through gender stereotypes.

"We have a lot of female friends who work in the biz one way or another," Thomas said of herself and Tarses. "We talk about work and politics, things that are typical male. We go to dinner, and we can talk about work and then shift right over to earring talk just like that," she snapped her fingers.

"There are TV shows where women do nothing but talk about sex and shoes," Thomas said. She quickly added that "Sex and the City" is a terrific show "and they're on TBS, so we love them."

The premise of "My Boys," the weekly poker game, is a seven-year tradition in Thomas' home, which she shares with her husband, actor-writer Adrian Wenner. One of the regulars is actor Michael Bunin ("Scrubs") who was cast in "My Boys" as Kenny, a sports memorabilia store owner also coping with dating dilemmas.

Tarses has joined the group a few times. She lives a few miles away in the Hollywood Hills with musician Paddy Aubrey and their 14-month-old child, Wyatt.

Though both are beyond their 20s now, the women said they don't write or produce for a target audience.

"You write what you know," Tarses said. "If they want it, they feel it will appeal to the target audience," which at TBS is the usual 18-to-49 demographic.

TBS shaped "My Boys" by insisting on a single-camera format without a live audience, which Wright said allowed more focus on the characters and their relationships. He also said he relied on the women's extensive experience in television comedy.

Tarses said television comedy is in a "transitional phase," noting that lately the breakout shows have been dramas.

She and Thomas partly blamed the press for a "backlash" against comedy. "They've been reviewing the form more than the content," Tarses said. "The multi-camera comedies that have come on in the last couple of years have perhaps been unfairly evaluated based on the fact that they are of a certain form."

"The word 'sitcom' has become a dirty word," Thomas said. "It's even to the point where somebody says about 'My Boys,' 'So this is a sitcom,' I bristle. But then I think, well actually, technically it is."

Undoubtedly, the popularity of reality shows and mockumentaries has also contributed to the dearth of traditional comedies.

"There is an adrenaline rush people get from watching reality television because it's really happening and people are made to look uncomfortable and you want to see conflict," Tarses said. "That's what in a lot of reality shows drives them and brings people back to watch more."

What's more, she said, "there's a correlation to reality television in this evolution with the idea that anybody can be on television."

Thomas called the situation "depressing. You used to win money on game shows by answering trivia questions. Now you point to a suitcase. You used to have to guess whether this window cleaner is more or less than $1.59, and show some amount of knowledge."

Still, Tarses said, they are both "genuine fans of the medium. TiVo has ruined my life basically. But I love television, I really do, and there's some great stuff on television." Some promising midseason comedies she said she's looking forward to include ABC's "Knights of Prosperity" and "In Case of Emergency."

"When will the next big hit be a comedy?" Tarses asked. "That hasn't been true in a long time. Will it ever be true again? That's what people are trying to figure out."

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-myboys24nov24,0,7662783.story?coll=cl-tv-features
____________________________________________________________ _____
Critic's Notebook
My Boys
Bottom Line: A baseball-themed sitcom with only limited punch
By Barry Garron The Hollywood Reporter November 27, 2006

10:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 28 - TBS

TBS steps up to the plate with a sitcom about a young, perky baseball writer who covers the Chicago Cubs for the Sun-Times and her pals, mostly guys who also cover sports. Let's call it a base hit, or maybe it can be stretched to a double, but it's definitely not going out of the park.

I'll drop the baseball metaphors here. Mostly, I wanted to demonstrate how they can be used, with little effort, to describe just about anything in life, which is just what creator-writer Betsy Thomas does. Voice-overs at the beginning and end of each episode are brimming with baseball comparisons, even though the stories don't have much to do with sports or journalism except in the most general way.

Mostly, this is a vehicle for up-and-comer Jordana Spiro, who stars as P.J., arguably the youngest and most attractive writer to cover the major leagues for a major newspaper. No matter. If it's realistic sportswriter stuff you're looking for, dial over to ESPN.

TBS wanted a companion to "Sex and the City," which has been running on Tuesday nights. While "My Boys" also consists mainly of discussions about relationships and dates, it more closely resembles "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" on FX. Both have ensembles dominated by dating-challenged guys who spend a lot of their time at the favorite watering hole while they joke about one another.

Thomas earns high marks for coming up with appealing characters who are as comfortable as old cardigans. Her dialogue is full of breezy, witty patter, and the time flies. Helming the first couple of episodes is veteran sitcom director Barnet Kellman, who knows how to get the most out of every line. What is missing, at least in the five episodes sent for review, are stories with surprise twists, unexpected endings or eventful occurrences. Additionally, there are no big jokes here, nothing that sticks with you after final credits roll.

P.J.'s gang consists of fellow scribes Kenny (Michael Bunin), who can't get beyond coffee with a prospective date, and Mike (Jamie Kaler), the commitment-phobic ladies' man. There also is Brendan (Reid Scott), P.J.'s best friend from college, who is stuck in an on-again, off-again relationship, and Andy (Jim Gaffigan), P.J.'s henpecked older brother.

P.J. has a girlfriend, too. Kellee Stewart plays Stephanie, her friend from journalism school who is always ready with tips on how to use feminine wiles, a sort of female equivalent of wingman Barney on "How I Met Your Mother." In the opener, P.J. meets Bobby (Kyle Howard), her counterpart on the Chicago Tribune, a fairly normal guy who will supply the love interest, at least for the time being.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/television/reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=8443
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Critic's Notebook
10 Items or Less
Bottom Line: Grocery store humor that should have you laughing in the aisles
By Barry Garron The Hollywood Reporter November 27, 2006

11-11:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 27 - TBS

Maybe TBS has the right idea. Maybe the best place for improv comedy -- even when it's well done like it is in "10 Items or Less" -- is late at night when viewers are more open to shows that deviate from the setup-joke-setup-joke rhythm of traditional sitcoms.

Not that improv comedy can't succeed in primetime. It's just going to take a while. It took viewers a year or so to get in sync with the "The Office" which, while scripted, has a unique comic pace, modeled after a documentary. Viewer preferences and habits change slowly and late-night can be a good incubator for the offbeat. Baby steps.

Consider "10 Items" part of the process. Exec producers and writers Robert Hickey, Nancy Hower and John Lehr prepare detailed outlines for each episode, which the cast (except for Lehr, who also stars in the show) never sees. Instead, the actors are given situations and told to wing it, over and over, doing enough takes to knit together a good show.
In "10 Items," ne'er-do-well Leslie Pool (Lehr) has returned to Ohio and the family grocery store, Greens & Grains, which he inherited when his much-admired father died. Employees at the struggling independent store are produce boss Yolanda (Roberta Valderrama), butcher Todd (Chris Payne Gilbert), stock boy Carl (Robert Clendenin), customer service rep Ingrid (Kirsten Gronfield), bagger Buck (Greg Davis Jr.) and cashier Richard (Christopher Liam Moore). Jennifer Elise Cox, a regular on Lifetime's improv comedy, "Lovespring International," plays Amy, the manager of the large grocery store across the street whose corporate bosses want to turn Greens & Grains into a parking lot.

The premiere mainly introduces the characters and the premise. Lehr gets most of the face time, establishing his character as more clueless but also more sensitive than "The Office" boss Michael Scott. At the same time, Valderrama quickly creates an appealingly complex character with attitude. You'll have to wait until the second episode, in which Leslie turns a stain on the wall into a religious attraction, to get a good feel for the other cast members, but it's worth the wait.

There are no deep belly laughs here but you can count on a steady stream of chuckles, more from the characters than the situations. The series is filmed in a real grocery store with real customers, though they don't contribute much to the humor in the first couple of outings.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/television/reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=8445

fredfa

11-24-06, 12:31 PM

Thurday’s updated fast national over night prime-time ratings have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

dad1153

11-24-06, 12:59 PM

Wow, a new 'Ugly Betty' came in third behind 'Survivor' and the first hour of a horrible, horrible 'Deal Or No Deal' two-hour special (zero tension since all the contestants eliminated the big money early and were playing for chump change). Can 'Betty' be on its way to becoming the next 'Commander In Chief'? At the very least the media's pronouncement that 'Ugly Betty' and 'Heroes' are the only breakout hits of the season should be modified. While 'Heroes'' ratings continue to hold steady or rise 'Betty's' lose viewers with every new episode (though not as badly as 'Commander in Chief').

fredfa

11-24-06, 06:00 PM

The "Ugly Betty" numbers were surely down. But so was everything else.

Heavily promoted "Grey's Anatomy" and "CSI" (with Roger Daltrey) were also far off their season averages.

Nonetheless, I agree with Marc Berman that "UB" is facing a major problem: the story line just becomes less than compelling. (How long can she face down all those adversaries week after week?)

fredfa

11-24-06, 09:24 PM

TV Notebook
Filling in the once-bawdy blank
“Match Game” players recall its mix of urbanity and naughtiness — and the lunchtime vodka
By Richard Rushfield Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 25, 2006

Decades before "The Osbournes" gave the American public a peek into the family life of a rock legend, before "Chaotic" detailed pop princess Britney Spears' unraveling, before "Being Bobby Brown" captured celebrity dysfunction in its fullest flower, one little daytime quiz show brought the unguarded moments of television's biggest stars into American homes every afternoon. And it captured the lifestyle of swinging 1970s California more vividly than any Joan Didion novel or Robert Altman film.

After a brief stint in a staid, buttoned-up, black-and-white incarnation in the '60s, "Match Game" relaunched in 1973 and immediately became the grooviest celeb hangout on the airwaves. Ostensibly a straightforward word game, the format served as a sometimes thin-seeming excuse for the era's TV icons to joke around in a split-level celebrity panel led by definitional 1970s "personalities" Charles Nelson Reilly, Brett Somers and Richard Dawson.

The rules were simple. Host Gene Rayburn read a phrase in which one word was left out and read as a "blank." (For instance: "The bank guard said to Bertha the stripper, 'Lady, I don't care how valuable you think they are. You can't keep your 'blanks' in our safety deposit vault.' "). Contestants then guessed what word should fill in the blank followed by the rotating panel of six celebrities. For each celebrity whose answer they "matched," the contestant received a point.

Minutes into the show, however, the rules were often thrown out the window as the party commenced on a glittering, shag-carpeted set that seemed the embodiment of the era's foppish excess — like a Las Vegas showroom, a suburban conversation pit and the hospitality lounge of a Concorde jet had been melded together.

Twenty-four years after its cancellation in 1982, "Match Game" continues to inspire a cult following, with a host of tribute sites on the Internet and an enduring following on the Game Show Network, which runs episodes daily, and Sunday will air "The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank," an hourlong special on the show's history. According to Rich Cronin, GSN's president and chief executive, " 'Match Game' debuted on GSN when the network launched in 1994 and has consistently been one of our top-rated classics."

"God it was fun," gushed regular Marcia Wallace on Wednesday. "We knew at the time that it was a great gig."

Brought together for a two-hour lunch conversation at Santa Monica's Casa del Mar hotel, Wallace's and fellow regular Jimmie Walker's affection for the show brimmed over.

"It was a show of euphemisms and it was wildly hilarious," remembered Wallace, who these days is heard as the voice of Bart's teacher on "The Simpsons" and has just written her memoir, "Don't Look Back, We're Not Going That Way."

The show's comedy flourished with the thrill of first acknowledgment of forbidden fruit but retained an air of refinement and innocence that TV would quickly lose once the floodgates to the bacchanal were hurled open. "Naughty is not in now," Walker reflected, adding that nowadays the innuendo goes further.

Life on the "Match Game" set, Wallace and Walker report, was indeed borderline out of control. Wallace recalled meeting regular Somers her first day on the show. "Brett said, 'Oh, hello darling, you must forgive me, I'm not myself. I just separated from my husband,' and I said, 'I wouldn't notice. I just got out of the loony bin.' From then on we were best friends."

On-air, the show managed to capture, in the most static of TV formats, the feeling of a loose and friendly, very grown-up cocktail party, complete with drinks and cigarettes. Five shows would be filmed in one day and, Walker said, "After the second show we went to lunch, and there was this big flask and there would be people who would imbibe."

"It was a vodka group," concurred Wallace, who said few were actually drunk, merely loosened up. It is noted in GSN's documentary that when watching a week's worth of shows, the episodes filmed later in the day have a decidedly more buoyant tone.

The pair also credit much of the game's success to host Rayburn, notable for his Cheshire cat grin, three-piece suits with a pocket square, conspicuous flirtations with the panelist in the "dumb blond seat" and his legendary 12-inch wand microphone.

"Gene was our handler," Walker said. "He knew the personalities on the show and he put you in a position where you would have a chance to do whatever you wanted to do. He would never leave you hanging."

But what truly gave the show its tone of mischievous adult wit was its reliance on a class of celebrity that is all but extinct today: "the TV personality," as personified by two of the permanent panelists around whose chemistry the show revolved: Somers and Nelson Reilly (neither of whom was available for lunch). Somers, the show's den mother in huge tinted glasses and with a perpetual cigarette in hand, kept the set alive with a constant flow of chatter. "I don't think Brett ever stopped talking," said Walker. "I loved her stories about the stuff she did in theater. She was the best."

Nelson Reilly, reclining in Foster Grant glasses, pipe in mouth, brightly colored scarf around his neck, supplied the show's driest but most outrageous wit.

To viewers, it might have seemed like the most fun place for grown-ups to be on Earth. And perhaps it was.

"What we had," remembered Walker, "was a chemistry where nobody felt beyond anything. What we thought was, this was fun! And you're with friends! And you're rooting for everybody!"

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-match25nov25,0,6209728,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

dad1153

11-24-06, 10:17 PM

Thanks for the 'Match Game' article Fred, although that picture of Wallace and Walker on the L.A. Times website gave me the creeps. Time's not been kind to these folks. :eek:

A reminder that, after the 'Match Game' special airs on GSN in primetime this Sunday, a rare airing of one of the few surviving B&W kinescopes of the original 60's 'Match Game' will also air on GSN at 3:30AM ET/PT (Sunday night/Monday morning). Set your VCR's... or TiVO's... or DVR's... whatever! :rolleyes:

cocoon

11-24-06, 11:55 PM

Inundated

11-25-06, 01:51 AM

A reminder that, after the 'Match Game' special airs on GSN in primetime this Sunday, a rare airing of one of the few surviving B&W kinescopes of the original 60's 'Match Game' will also air on GSN at 3:30AM ET/PT (Sunday night/Monday morning). Set your VCR's... or TiVO's... or DVR's... whatever! :rolleyes:

I'm regularly TiVoing the regular 70's run of the show, if only to catch three appearances by a friend on "MG '78".

Unfortunately, at the rate they're going, I'll be 78 years old before GSN airs her shows.

:D

dad1153

11-25-06, 03:55 AM

TV Notebook
Real game begins on 'Survivor'
Associated Press November 24, 2006

NEW YORK - Now the chess game begins.

The exquisitely organized competition that has made "Survivor" so popular is starting to kick in with the number of players dropping, and it forced writer Jonathan into an agonizing decision on Thursday's episode.

The former Aitu and Raro tribes merged into a single tribe with nine members called Aitutong. At the merge, there were five Raro members still in the game, and four from Aitu, and each tribe's members have been fiercely loyal to one another.

Raro member Jonathan, who has switched loyalties more than once, was the key in deciding which former tribe would dominate the next few weeks, with the numbers to pick off the others.

Aitu members were courting him to knock off a Raro member. Since Jonathan had pulled a mutiny and left Aitu for Raro a few weeks ago, he figured he was in a lose-lose situation. No matter which way he went, pretty much everyone else in the game would figure he had betrayed them.

Jonathan was already starting to get annoyed with some lazy Raro members who wouldn't do chores while he was out fishing.

"I'm not going to lose because you kids can't get out of bed," he said in an aside.

The choices were between Raro's Nate and Aitu's Yul. Nate was considered untrustworthy. Yul was a target because other players considered the management consultant too smart.

"You don't want that clock tickin' there, homey," Nate said of his rival.

Yul, however, had a hidden immunity idol that he could use to save himself after a vote. It made the tribal council — tied 4-4 between Nate and Yul before the final vote was revealed — moot. However, that last vote would tell everyone where Jonathan's loyalty was.

He chose to get rid of Nate.

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/tv/articles/1124survivorgame-CR.html

dad1153

11-25-06, 04:01 AM

TV Sports
Digesting some leftover tidbits on Theoharis, ABC, Musburger
Ray Frager's Baltimore Sun 'Medium Well' Column Nov. 24, 2006

Yesterday, you carved up your turkey. Today, it's a sliced-up column.

• Amber Theoharis will be leaving Channel 45 at the end of the year. Theoharis, who joined WBFF in September 2004 as No. 2 sports anchor/reporter behind Bruce Cunningham, doesn't have a new full-time gig lined up yet, she said.

She has appeared on CBS Radio's stations here, which include all-sports WJFK (1300 AM), and has been hosting a couple of shows on Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. Perhaps she could surface in a bigger role with MASN, which will be adding baseball programming for its Orioles and Washington Nationals coverage next year.

Theoharis said WBFF asked her to continue -- "I love Fox. I love the people there," she said -- but she wanted "to explore other options." Theoharis, a native Marylander, didn't rule out the possibility of going to another market.

• Man, those players in Saturday's Michigan-Ohio State game were fast. Several times, they would run off screen before ABC's cameras could catch them.

• Speaking of that game, it might be anathema to say anything nice about Brent Musburger, but few play-by-play men would bring strong -- and spot-on -- commentary as he did when Wolverines coach Lloyd Carr was protesting a Michigan touchdown called back on replay.

"What Lloyd should do is forget the controversy and call the play," Musburger said. "He's wasting time."

• On the other hand, Musburger offered this at the end of a terrific game: "Only in America, only today, until the stars align again." Which means what, exactly?

• Good move by CBS to protect the Indianapolis Colts-Dallas Cowboys from being moved to NBC Sunday. It drew a 14.7 national rating, the highest of the season. The game got a 17.6 in Baltimore.

• Speaking of ratings, Baltimore has a way to go to match the television devotion of the Steelers fans in Pittsburgh. On Sunday, the Steelers-Cleveland Browns game rated a 43.7 in Pittsburgh, compared with the Ravens-Atlanta Falcons' 25.6 in Baltimore. Even more impressive, the Steelers had a 73 share, meaning that nearly three-quarters of the TVs in use at the time were tuned to the football game. The Ravens had a 49 share here. (Yes, the Steelers were on the road, while the Ravens were home, meaning none of the fans at M&T Bank Stadium could be counted as TV viewers.)

• Is it the absence of Jillian Barberie? CBS' NFL Today has out-rated Fox NFL Sunday three times this season. Going into 2006, CBS' pre-game show had beaten Fox once since 1998.

• Flexible scheduling can only go so far. When NBC picked the Colts-Philadelphia Eagles game for Sunday night, the network pictured a Peyton Manning-Donovan McNabb matchup. But McNabb suffered a knee injury last weekend, so it's Manning vs. Jeff Garcia. Not exactly ratings gold.

• Phil Mushnick of the New York Post on the way "perspective" is an ephemeral part of football telecasts: "Every time a player gets laid out, motionless, we're told in voices suddenly switched to 'funeral home' that 'this puts everything into perspective.' Oh, and it does. For about two, three plays. By halftime, ESPN's back with its 'He Got Jacked Up!' segment."

• Maybe no one takes seriously anything Michael Irvin says. Or maybe hardly anyone listens to Dan Patrick's ESPN Radio show. In any case, this story has gotten little mention outside of a brief newspaper item and a few Web sites.

On Monday, while discussing Dallas quarterback Tony Romo's athleticism, Irvin, who is black, offered the explanation that Romo, who is white, might have had some African-American ancestry.

According to ProFoot- ballTalk.com, here is some of what Irvin said, though he was laughing through it: "He doesn't look like he's that type of an athlete. But he is. He is, man. I don't know ... some brother down in that line somewhere ... if great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandma pulled one of them studs up out of the barn [and said], 'Come on in here for a second.'"

Michael Irvin, heir to Jimmy the Greek.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/bal-sp.frager24nov24,0,768310.column?coll=bal-artslife-tv

dad1153

11-25-06, 04:08 AM

TV Notebook
WGN fills up on Canadian 'Corner Gas'
By Etan Vlessin The Hollywood Reporter November 25, 2006

TORONTO -- Canadian broadcaster CTV Inc. on Friday cracked the U.S. market by selling "Corner Gas," Canada's top homegrown sitcom, to Superstation WGN.

The two-year deal, brokered by Arthur Hasson's Multi-Platform Distribution Company, will see Tribune Broadcasting's Superstation WGN air four seasons of "Corner Gas," totalling 88 episodes, to around 70 million homes via cable or satellite beginning in 2007.

"This sitcom is very well written and the ensemble cast is very funny," Bill Shaw vp and president of Superstation WGN, said in a statement, adding "Corner Gas" would fit well with his channel's other program offerings.

The deal marks a coup for CTV, which fully financed the first two seasons of the ensemble comedy set in the fictional prairie town of Dog River, Saskatchewan, with no government subsidies. CTV then bank-rolled the third and fourth seasons of "Corner Gas" with The Comedy Network.

Terms of the deal with Superstation WGN were not disclosed, but CTV will split the proceeds of the U.S. distribution deal with the series' producers, Prairie Pants Productions.

"Corner Gas" is also available in 26 international markets, including Australia, Finland, Morocco and throughout the Middle East, as part of deals brokered on behalf of CTV by UK-based Minotaur International Ltd.

"Corner Gas" has consistently been the top-rated comedy on Canadian TV, beating out American competition and pulling in an average of around 1.5 million viewers weekly.

The series was created by Canadian comic Brent Butt, David Storey and Virginia Thompson. The ensemble cast includes Butt, veteran Canadian actors Eric Peterson Janet Wright, Cavan Cunningham, Gabrielle Miller and Fred Ewanuick.

Canadian-originated dramas have long aired in the U.S. market on cable channels. But homegrown sitcoms breaking through south of the border has been a rarity, despite the prominence of Canadian stand-up and sketch comedy talent working in New York City and Los Angeles.

"Trailer Park Boys," a comedy about low life in a Halifax trailer park, earlier became a cult classic on BBC America after bowing on Showcase in Canada.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ic91452dc0e71f744f41c008c009ffccc

dad1153

11-25-06, 04:33 AM

TV Notebook
'Rock' and a soft place
On '30 Rock,' macho Alec Baldwin is solid as an overbearing network exec. Now he's ready to show his gentler side
By Matea Gold The Los Angeles Times November 26, 2006

These days, if a part calls for someone to play brazen, caustic or swaggering -- in short, a real man's man -- one actor seems to have a lock on the role.

At least that's how it appears from Alec Baldwin's near-ubiquitous presence lately portraying men like Jack Donaghy, the bombastic and preening network executive on the NBC sitcom "30 Rock." Baldwin calls them "man of authority" characters, "something you need to do sort of unflinchingly," he said during a lunch break on the show's set in Long Island City, as he wolfed down a plate of rice and sauteed tofu.

Suddenly, he let out a delighted yelp. "30 Rock" creator Tina Fey had stopped in the lunchroom with her 13-month-old daughter, Alice, in tow. Baldwin leaped out of his chair, gushing over the child and her colorful outfit. (It was Halloween, and Alice was decked out as a peacock, the NBC mascot.)

"How are you?" Baldwin cooed, his gravelly voice an octave higher than usual. "I love your costume! Do you like your costume? Do you?"

This is Alec Baldwin, tough guy? "He's more like a small-town theater professor in real life than a dirty cop," Fey, who plays the frazzled head writer of the show's fictional late-night comedy sketch program, said later. "He is this very literate guy who loves the arts and goes to plays and opera and stuff. He's cultured."

Lout and clear

After a stint as a leading man in the 1990s, Baldwin has most recently re-emerged as a character actor who imbues the most hard-edged, loutish parts with subtlety and humor. His ability to avoid caricature while playing the likes of casino boss Shelly Kaplow in 2003's "The Cooler," a role for which he garnered an Oscar nomination, has made him more in demand than ever.

"Some people don't want to step up and fill that void," he said, explaining why these types of characters often come his way. "The role demands a certain amount of clarity, a certain amount of forcefulness, a certain amount of authority that other people can't do, quite frankly. And many of them who can do it, don't want to do it. And so people have asked me."

He's currently on screen as a macho, profane police official in Martin Scorsese's film "The Departed" and a remote, alcoholic father in "Running With Scissors." Up next month: Robert De Niro's "The Good Shepherd," featuring Baldwin as a CIA operative.

Lately, however, the 48-year-old actor has been itching to try his hand at a new kind of character.

"In truth, I'd rather do 'Little House on the Prairie' and play Michael Landon's role," he said without a trace of facetiousness. "I want to do something sweet." That doesn't mean he's looking to play Charles Ingalls, necessarily, but "something that stays with people."

"I want to play what I haven't played," he added, his clear, blue eyes fixed intently on his interviewer. "One thing about my career, I've done everything: TV, movies, theater. I really feel like I've done it all on one level. You become very conscious of being duplicative."

That's why Baldwin had some apprehension about signing on to "30 Rock," his first gig as a television series regular since playing Joshua Rush on "Knots Landing" in the mid-1980s.

"That is the great concern about doing a television series, that you get trapped into playing the same thing 22 episodes times however many years the thing winds up going," he said. "You can fall into these patterns where it's all pretty treadmill, you know?"

But Baldwin, who is unsparing in his criticism of the film industry ("We are now in the fully realized age of the no-risk movie"), was willing to take a gamble on a series, in part because television's more consistent schedule would allow him fly to Los Angeles every other weekend to visit his 11-year-old daughter. (He shares custody with ex-wife Kim Basinger.)

Fey actually had Baldwin in mind when she wrote the Donaghy character for "30 Rock," a show loosely based on her experiences as a head writer for "Saturday Night Live," but didn't think she had a shot at casting him.

"At the time, I was trying to think of the most masculine actor," said Fey, who had worked with Baldwin on the late-night program during his regular hosting gigs. "He's extremely manly. I thought I would use him as a writing template. I never thought we would actually get him."

Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment, said that "everybody in town was chasing Alec Baldwin. I think he was probably sent every script in town."

"It's been a blessing"

In fact, Baldwin was developing his own program for FX about a "Bill Clinton-like" mayor of New York when Lorne Michaels, executive producer of "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock," approached him about the Donaghy part.

Michaels' involvement in the show, coupled with Fey's writing, persuaded Baldwin to take a chance on it.

"It's been a blessing," the actor said. "It's a nice job, and I work with funny people."

On "30 Rock," Baldwin brought with him some definitive ideas of how to flesh out Jack Donaghy. "I didn't want them to make the character the negative value in the piece, a la Ted Baxter, the guy that's the least self-aware person in the room," he said. "I didn't want to be some male corporate pig."

In the past, Baldwin's tendency to come onto a set and "rearrange the furniture," as he has put it, earned him a reputation for being somewhat difficult. But Fey said she's welcomed his input, which has even included story lines for other characters.

"It's been a very good dialogue," she said. "You want someone who comes in and thinks of this character as a real person. He absolutely makes the guy three-dimensional and always wants to bring out his kinder side, his more knowing side."

So far this season, "30 Rock" has fallen short of the ratings NBC was hoping for, drawing an average of 6.2 million viewers. But the network still is bullish on the program. It has moved from its 8 p.m. Wednesday slot to Thursday night, where it will be part of a new comedy block with "My Name Is Earl," "The Office" and "Scrubs."

On a recent afternoon, Baldwin taped a scene that called for Donaghy to be on the phone in his office, speaking affectionately with a "Condoleezza."

Baldwin took it from there, ad-libbing his own lines as the producers -- watching on nearby monitors -- shook with silent laughter.

"Where is your hand now?" he murmured slyly. "You shouldn't be doing that while you're driving. Condoleezza? Are you there? I lost her."

It may not be "Little House on the Prairie," but for now, Baldwin said he's content.

"To be perfectly honest with you, if I do this show and that's all I do in the next few years, that would be enough for me," he said. "I'm not someone who is doing this to kill time while I'm waiting to revive my fortunes in the movie business. I don't think about it that way. This is where I'm at now, this is what I'm doing."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettel1126,0,2415630.story?coll=ny-television-headlines

dad1153

11-25-06, 04:47 AM

Critic's Notebook
It's the most rerun-derful time of the year
Melanie McFarland's Seattle Post Intelligencer 'On TV' Column Nov. 24, 2006

You will appreciate the truth of "bah, humbug" by the end of next month.

Maybe you already do. The first hints of red and green and suggestions to spend, spend, spend crept into department stores soon after trees started dropping their leaves. If merchants had their way, we'd be seeing "It's a Wonderful Life" looping ceaselessly on the monitors near the back-to-school merchandise, or "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" sparkling away in a corner behind the Halloween displays.

By the time December actually rolled around, we'd all be yelling "Jump!" when George Bailey desperately dashes onto that bridge. Wait -- some of us already do that.

Really, isn't rampant commercialism counter to the spirit of holiday TV classics? Jangly advertisements aside, the best of these programs celebrate the joy of the season as opposed to the credit-card bills we run up. That's the reason "A Charlie Brown Christmas" still gets us. The animation may show its age, but it still drives home Charles M. Schulz's meaningful central message.

Whereas seeing John Goodman play a Santa Claus fed up at people for forgetting the true meaning of Christmas -- in an NBC Universal production complete with synergistic cameo from "Queer Eye's" Carson Kressley! -- perhaps rings a tad false.

But on this busiest shopping day of the year, resisting the holiday commercialism of it all is as futile as attempting to avoid yuletide programming. The fa-la-bleepin'-la TV siege has begun, and when it doesn't pre-empt your favorite series, it will invade their story lines. Even so, there are a few beloved movies and specials that don't make you want to put your eye out, and for your benefit we have listed them here -- and others you can check out or avoid like the winter flu.

Just be grateful that the running of the Rudolphs, the Frostys and the Grinches didn't start early this year -- you know, like everything else.

Making spirits bright

"A Charlie Brown Christmas." Proving once again that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, when Charlie Brown tries to mount a play that demonstrates the true meaning of Christmas he is met with near-universal scorn and awfully cute dancing. 8 p.m., Tuesday, KOMO/4.

"Miracle on 34th Street." Not only does this department store Santa have a real beard and jolly Christmas spirit, he isn't sneezy, wheezy or drunk. That is a miracle! 8 and 10 p.m., Dec. 3., AMC; repeats Dec. 4 and Dec. 5.

"Santa Claus is Comin' to Town." Once a year, we get to see the villain Burgermeister Meisterburger in action. And that makes everything worth it. 8 p.m., Dec. 5, KOMO.

"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Santa proves he's the North Pole's version of Michael Richards by discriminating against Rudolph for having a shiny nose, and then, realizing he needs him for his career to go on, asking his forgiveness. While Richards' audience walked out on him, Rudolph accepts his apology and allows Santa to hook his butt up to a sleigh. Sucker. 8 p.m., Dec. 8, KIRO/7.

"Frosty the Snowman." Was that hat really magic? Or was there something not quite legal in that corncob pipe? 9 p.m., Dec. 8, KIRO/7. Followed by the lame-o "Frosty Returns" at 9:30.

"Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas." The heart-swelling tale of a straight-up jack. The Grinch swipes Whoville's gifts and food, then heroically rolls back into town in his whip to return it all. And that's what it is to be a gangsta. 8 p.m., Dec. 12, KOMO. Also airs at 7:30 p.m., Dec. 6, on Cartoon Network, repeating often.

"It's a Wonderful Life." Frank Capra's timeless, life-affirming message reminds us of the ways in which each person touches and changes the lives around him in profound and wonderful ways. Except for you, O.J. Never bother us again. 8-11 p.m., Dec. 16 and Dec. 24, KING/5.

24 hours of "A Christmas Story." Reliable respite from substandard holiday programming is once again available on TBS. Strange, you really can watch it over and over again, or be perfectly content with coming in on it at any point during the day. Begins at 8 p.m. Dec. 24, runs continuously for 24 hours.

Lesser classics

"Frosty's Winter Wonderland." Children play God to cure Frosty's loneliness, making him a wife named Crystal, voiced by "Bloody Mama's" Shelley Winters. 7 p.m., Dec. 1, ABC Family.

" 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas." The Powerpuff Girls slap around Princess, Townsville's spoiled, useless version of Paris Hilton, to demonstrate the true meaning of Christmas. Or something to that effect. 7 p.m., Dec. 3, Cartoon Network.

"Rudolph's Shiny New Year." Father Time puts out an Amber Alert on Happy, aka Baby New Year. With the help of a few odd sidekicks (1 Million B.C., Sir 1023 and 1776), Rudolph follows his nose to find Li'l Mr. Poopie Pants. 7 p.m., Dec. 4, ABC Family.

"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer." "She'd been drinkin' too much eggnog/ and we'd begged her not to go." At last, an animated special unafraid to tell the truth about the darker side of family gatherings. 7 p.m., Dec. 8, Cartoon Network.

The Holiday Christmas Classic Marathon. This stop-motion animation parade of lesser-known entries from the Rankin Bass collection includes "Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey," "The Story of the First Christmas Snow," " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and a repeat of original version of "The Year Without a Santa Claus." From 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Dec. 9, ABC Family.

"Olive, the Other Reindeer." Dog channels identity crisis into helping Santa when one of his reindeer, presumably the one that ran down drunk Grandma, breaks a leg. 3 p.m., Dec. 17, Cartoon Network.

"Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol." Of course he can't see the true meaning of Christmas. 7 p.m., Dec. 19, Cartoon Network.

"I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown!" Lucy and Linus' little brother, Rerun, asks Snoopy to invite his no-good brother Spike over for Christmas. Bad move, because Spike is a dirty hippie. And you know the joke about how you know a hippie has slept over on your couch, right? Yeah. Because he's still there. 8 p.m., Dec. 19, KOMO.

Candy cane flicks

"Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front." Without The WB to host this annual sales pitch hidden within a sweet little movie, the story of World War II-era American Girl Molly McIntire and her British friend Emily has to air on the Disney Channel. Not to worry, parents. The Molly and Emily dolls are available, with accessories, for just over $100 each. 8 p.m., Sunday, Disney Channel.

"The Christmas Card." Hallmark's early Valentine to our armed forces serving overseas has Cody Cullen (John Newton), a handsome soldier returning from Afghanistan, track down the sender of a homemade Christmas card addressed to "a member of the U.S. Army." Fortunately she's a smokin', church-goin' babe, and the wine-swilling geek she's attached to isn't. 9 p.m., Dec. 2, Hallmark Channel.

"The Year Without a Santa Claus." I'm not sure what's worse about this film, witnessing Harvey Fierstein massacre the Heatmiser song, or the fact that the elves who try to save Christmas are largely inspired by a speech from Dr. Laura Schlessinger. 9 p.m., Dec. 11, KING. Better yet, catch the original animated version of "The Year Without Santa Claus" at 8 p.m., Dec. 4, on ABC Family.

"A Christmas Wedding." In this weird marriage between "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and "Bridezillas," a harried workaholic bride is stranded far from her where she's supposed to tie the knot, and goes to great lengths to make it in time for her Christmas Day wedding. 9 p.m., Dec. 11, Lifetime.

"A Perfect Day." Rob Lowe is Robert Harlan, a man who loses his job, writes a novel, becomes famous and loses perspective. You know, mo' money, mo' problems. Anyway, a stranger enters his life, granting the film a "reason for the season" kind of message. 8 p.m., Dec. 18, TNT.

Garland with a Twist

"The Great American Christmas." It couldn't get more commercial than this docu -- er, unscripted movie from the producers of "Laguna Beach" -- narrated by "Deal or No Deal's" Howie Mandel and presented by Kmart. In it, six American families show viewers their supposedly unique takes on celebrating the holidays, bleaker moments included. 9 p.m., Tuesday, USA.

"Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special." The guest star list proves how popular Pee-Wee Herman was back in the day: k.d. lang, Magic Johnson, Whoopi Goldberg and, believe it or not, Oprah Winfrey all drop by the Playhouse for some yuletide fun. 10:30 p.m., Dec. 14; 1 a.m. Christmas Day, Adult Swim. The latter airing is preceded by "A Very Venture Christmas" at 12:30 a.m.

"South Park New Year's Eve Rockathon." As of this story's deadline, Comedy Central had no plans to air a marathon of "South Park's" holiday and Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo-themed episodes. For shame. However, it does have two marathons near Christmas, including a "Rewind" of the current run on Dec. 27 starting at 9 p.m., and a string of the most memorable episodes from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. on New Year's Eve.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/293374_tv24.html

dad1153

11-25-06, 04:54 AM

Critic's Notebook
Nothing special about sweeps month
By David Biaculli The New York Daily News November 25, 2006

It wasn't too long ago that ratings sweeps months -- those times set aside in February, May and November for networks to set advertising rates for the coming quarter -- were hugely competitive blood sports.

This month, except for a few music specials on NBC, it's hard to tell a sweeps month is here at all.

In other words, the whole idea of sweeps programming has been disbanded.

Movies, miniseries and specials used to be pervasive in sweeps, when presenting the exceptional was the norm.

"The Day After" aired during sweeps. So did "Lonesome Dove" and "Winds of War," "Gulliver's Travels" and all those Carol Burnett specials.

But now, miniseries made by the commercial broadcast networks basically don't exist, and the only movies being made -- usually outside of sweeps -- are tacky trash tossaways like NBC's "Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Diff'rent Strokes.'"

For specials, NBC had an old-fashioned Tony Bennett special Tuesday and a diluted, crucifixion-free Madonna special on Wednesday.

And that's about it.

One reason sweeps specials aren't what they used to be is that the compilation of ratings for sweeps isn't what it used to be, either. Technological changes in the way ratings are compiled -- more samples, faster results -- have made the sweeps, especially in the major cities, less important.

In theory, that means the networks don't have to stockpile all their big-ticket items for sweeps months and can show them all year round.

Or the networks can go in another direction -- the road they chose to take -- and essentially stop making miniseries and telemovies at all.

Instead, for sweeps in the 21st century, we get the same old, same old. We get fresh episodes of weekly series, served up as a special treat, rather than what should be expected.

We get shows like "3 Lbs." and "Day Break," new weekly series meant to replace fall shows that failed, or they hold places for ones that succeeded but are vanishing for months anyway.

And most of all, we get instant quiz and competition shows. Shows like "The Rich List" on Fox, rejected so forcefully by viewers that it was canceled after only one showing. And "Show Me the Money" on ABC, which showed us that William Shatner's willingness to embarrass himself beyond belief didn't end with his vocal rendition of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds."

This isn't programming fit for sweeps. It's programming fit to be swept -- under the rug.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06329/741076-237.stm

dad1153

11-25-06, 04:59 AM

TV Sports
Coverage Minus All the Yelling
By Les Carpenter The Washington Post November 24, 2006

KANSAS CITY, Mo. Who knows where it began? Was it the bald basketball announcer always jabbering about "TOs"? Or maybe the rumpled anchor on the highlight show babbling in a strange language of nicknames? Somewhere in the early life of ESPN it became clear the path to success was filled with shouting heads.

It's a concept that has come to serve television well the past 25 years, yanking it from a sober Walter Cronkite world to a cacophony of faces working their contrived rage upon split screens, fingers pointing, eyes flaring, little counters on the bottom totaling up the insults until the words don't even matter. All that counts is the way you say them.

This must have bothered Steve Bornstein. Which is odd because Bornstein is something of the father of screaming television, having invented much of ESPN in its first two decades. Whenever there was yelling on the ESPN set in the 1980s and '90s, the chances were good it had bounced off his desk and straight into the control room.

Last night, he sent up into the skies the first live telecast of a game that his three-year-old NFL Network has ever done. For a fledgling channel it was a jolt of legitimacy. But it also served as a de-facto forum for his new mandate.

The mind behind screaming television now rejects the hollering himself.

It doesn't seem to be one thing; he just appeared to tire of all the voices screaming at once. Like his old ESPN anchor Keith Olbermann, who often compares himself to Robert Oppenheimer, the creator of the nuclear bomb, when pondering the flood of flimsy imitators who tried to re-create his snarky "SportsCenter" telecasts, Bornstein might have blanched at the shouting planet he helped to mold. So when he began his new network, in 2002, he was sure it wouldn't happen again.

The other day, while he sat in his office near Los Angeles, he was asked what separates the NFL Network from the soup of others spread across the cable box.

"Chris Berman [the anchor with the nicknames] is one of my dearest friends in the world but this wasn't going to be somebody shouting at you," he replied.

Bornstein has a theory about this business. It's one you learn when you are 54 and have run three networks. He figures anything in television, no matter how good, can last only about 15 years. After that it needs something new. CNN with its immediacy wowed everybody until Fox News came along with its larger-than-life personalities and bombastic talk shows, and CNN suddenly looked very old. This is the nature of an industry built around fake emotions and camera tricks with lights and cameras. The makeup can't hide tired, old acts.

"You have to reinvent yourself," he said. "Ultimately, Fox will have to reinvent itself. By the 20th year if you haven't sort of re-energized it you got real issues."

He was then asked if he thought the yelling had perhaps run its 15-year course.

He thought for a moment, then smiled.

"Possibly," he replied.

"You catch magic in a bottle a couple times," he continued. "We at ESPN caught it twice in my opinion. You put [Dan] Patrick and Olbermann together and that was a very dynamic combination. You put [Mike] Wilbon and [Tony] Kornheiser together and that has been a very dynamic combination. And they haven't figured that one out again. So they revert to smarmy, sometimes smart [expletive] stuff."

The NFL Network will not. From the beginning, he decided that the players would be the stars of this new venture. He sought on-air hosts who could step aside and let the games and highlights show get the spotlight. When he brought his lead anchor, Rich Eisen, over from ESPN, he did so knowing Eisen would come without headaches, able to extract information from interviews without preening for the cameras.

"I wanted to do something more than take the most popular catchphrase from the next big movie and make it my home run call every night," Eisen said.

Which isn't to bash ESPN. Neither Bornstein nor Eisen said they were interested in ripping the network that gave them their big chance. But there is a sense that the 15-year limit might be coming fast for screaming television. The NFL Network might just be a test case for another direction. As one league official recently said, "Sean Salisbury shouldn't be the star, Jason Campbell should be."

There are, of course, many problems with building shows around players. "The Best Damn Sports Show" -- a Fox Sports regional network program featuring ex-athletes -- is considered niche programming at best, coming off as a stage for old jocks too slow for the field but trying to prove they still got game at the bar.

The whole thing may flop. The NFL Network still isn't on in about half the homes it could be, including most of New York City. The league has been heavy-handed in its dealings with cable operators. And by the time people get the station, they might not care to watch more highlight shows and players interviewing players, especially when compared with the furnace roaring elsewhere on the dial.

But as long as it lasts, it will be an oasis from the shouting.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/23/AR2006112300977.html

dad1153

11-25-06, 05:10 AM

Critic's Notebook
Filling in the Blanks on a Staple of Daytime
By Virginia Heffernan The New York Times November 25, 2006

You couldn’t say urinate. The word was “tinkle.” You couldn’t say fornicate. The phrase, naturally, was “make whoopee.”

Such were the strict language codes of “Match Game,” the ribald game show of 30 years ago that introduced American housewives and children — anyone home in the afternoons — to the inscrutable stylings of Charles Nelson Reilly.

On Sunday, GSN, which has found increasingly successful ways to exploit its small window on cultural history, chronicles the rise and fall of this blockbuster program. In “The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank,” we learn everything we’ll ever need to know about the wacky leerfest that modeled the promiscuous, drunken, risqué, gender-bending behavior of ’70s celebrities for an unlikely daytime audience — under the guise of being a quiz show.

“Match Game ’76” was how I knew it then, because for some reason that particular year the series seemed to last forever. Maybe that was because I was 7: it came on after school, was broken up by ads for bicentennial memorabilia, and its mysteries — “John always put butter on his blank” — stayed with me long after my parents had appeared with cocktails as the face of CBS dissolved from Gene Rayburn to Walter Cronkite.

The snickering, lascivious ways the regulars interacted — always hinting that the others were more depraved or druggy than they admitted — was more than a little scary to a kid. It was certainly a direct counterpoint to the after-school parables elsewhere on television. I now see that the show wasn’t planned that way. Mark Goodson’s original idea was for a kind of guess-what-I’m-thinking show that would take advantage of that era’s love of thought experiments; that soon proved boring, and matches were not frequent enough. Someone suggested turning to bluer material, or at least hinting at blueness, and the rest is history.

In “Match Game” clues, Ed was always freezing his blank off; Susie always needed to find a guy who could blank in five minutes; Pete loved girls who had gigantic blanks. The giggles these blanks got from the audience were so sure-fire it seemed the show could never fail, though fail it eventually did — partly because nothing gold can stay, and partly because it lost the (loved and hated) star who gave it ballast, and a dash of seriousness: Richard Dawson.

The GSN back story plays Mr. Dawson as the evil foil to the sweet and fun-loving Mr. Rayburn, and indeed he comes off as sour and ego-driven. But he was clearly the best player at the silly “Match Game”; contestants were always choosing him as their foxhole teammate — when it came right down to it, the jokes were over and it was time to win some money.

Mr. Dawson was tan, sideburned and not bad-looking. He played — I had forgotten this — a kind of Simon Cowell role in his “Match Game” seat. But he had his eyes on what he thought of then as bigger things, by which he meant “Family Feud,” the game show he went on to preside over, which went on to overtake “Match Game” as the most popular daytime show.

“Family Feud” is nothing if not a populist show. Rather than guess at the habits of the Hollywood demimonde, with their life of blankety-blanks, contestants guess at only what others like them might say: it’s about being average. By the ’80s, the titillation of hearing the stars on “Match Game” — many of whom were, the GSN program contends, drinking during the tapings — hint at unspeakable habits yielded to family values.

But, in the usual American way, those family values have yielded back. “Match Game” is, apparently, the No. 1 show on GSN these days — in 30-year-old reruns. Never say there’s nothing to learn from game shows!

THE REAL MATCH GAME STORY: Behind the Blank

GSN, Sunday night at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time.

Steven Michaels and Frank Sinton, executive producers; Mark Monroe, producer; Andrew Fialkowski and Mr. Monroe, editors; Gabe Cunningham and Ben Darin, associate producers; narrated by Jamie Farr.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/25/arts/television/25blan.html?_r=1&ref=television&oref=slogin

foxeng

11-25-06, 09:11 AM

I remember the original 60's version of Match Game, and if my mind isn't playing tricks on me, when it ran on NBC Daytime, it was called "The Match Game" and was no where as cool as the 70's version even though Gene Rayburn did a lot of the same stuff and the questions were along the same lines as the 70's version but no where as blue. They were pretty grey at best if I remember correctly. Of course you had celeb's such as Jan Murry and Bill Cullen and Tom Poston who made the rounds of the game shows in the 60's with Cullen and Poston mostly staying on To Tell The Truth (I think Kitty Carlise was exclusively on TTTT but for some reason I think I saw her on other game shows of the time), but if it was a Goodson-Todman game show, they might show up on any one of them.

I am not a huge fan of it now, but the wife and I will tune over to GSN if nothing else is on when Match Game is on and we seem to always come up with dirtier answers than the players and stars do. Their answers seem so "clean" these days but so outragous then. Boy, how times have changed!!

sneals2000

11-25-06, 09:23 AM

Ah - interesting. I think "Match Game" was made in the UK as "Blankety Blank". (Format were two contestants and a panel of six celebrities. Contestants were allowed to chose a phrase with a missing word, had to chose one of their own, as did the six celebrities, and the contestant who matched the most with the celebrities won?)

The whole premise of the show was usually inuendo and double-entendre - but nothing outrageous. (Typical sentence : "The Good Mrs Wogan took me to the tailors the other day. The assistant asked if I wanted him to measure my "blank or blanks")

It was originally presented as a BBC show by Terry Wogan (a prominent TV and Radio personality who had - and has - a very popular morning show on BBC Radio 2), in the 80s. It was resurrected more recently with a new presenter (a well known and popular mainstream female impersonating comedian/enne "Lily Savage" - which sounds much stranger written down than it is to a Brit!) - first on the BBC, and then transferred to ITV.

I suspect that the UK version was very similar to the US format - apart from the name. We had a revolving set, and a radio-style jingle for "Super Match Game" - were they fixtures of the US version?

foxeng

11-25-06, 10:01 AM

The70's set had the two contestants on the left side of the stage:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/49/GeneRayburnandContestants.jpg

In the center was a revolving "Super Match" set that showed the question and the three top answers and on the right side of the stage was a two tier riser that the celebs set at:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/10/RayburnSuperMatchGame.jpg

In the late 70's they added a points multiplier that came down from the lighting grid in this center area between the Super Match board and the celeb riser.

The 60's version was no where near as flashy as can be seen from this Wikipeidia picture:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5a/08_jpg.jpg/200px-08_jpg.jpg

dad1153

11-25-06, 10:01 AM

I remember the original 60's version of Match Game, and if my mind isn't playing tricks on me, when it ran on NBC Daytime, it was called "The Match Game" and was no where as cool as the 70's version even though Gene Rayburn did a lot of the same stuff and the questions were along the same lines as the 70's version but no where as blue. They were pretty grey at best if I remember correctly. Of course you had celeb's such as Jan Murry and Bill Cullen and Tom Poston who made the rounds of the game shows in the 60's with Cullen and Poston mostly staying on To Tell The Truth (I think Kitty Carlise was exclusively on TTTT but for some reason I think I saw her on other game shows of the time), but if it was a Goodson-Todman game show, they might show up on any one of them.

If I'm not mistaken the B&W 60's 'Match Game' episode GSN will show at 3:30AM ET/PT Sunday overnight/Monday morning is a celebrity edition featuring Jane Mansfield, either Kitty Carlisle or Peggy Cass (or both), Tom Poston, Bennett Cerf and Robert Q. Lewis. Either that or the pilot episode, which are the only two known episodes from the B&W 60's version to survive NBC's infamous tape purges of the 60's and early 70's. :(

fredfa

11-25-06, 10:03 AM

HDTV Notebook
Two Years And Counting
By Glen Dickson and John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 11/27/2006

The eventual success of high-definition television (HDTV) rides on the country's conversion to digital TV (DTV). Last December, when Congress voted to set Feb. 17, 2009, as the hard date for turning off analog TV broadcasts and completing the switch to DTV in the U.S., it set a finish line for the long slog that has been the digital transition. But local broadcasters, network executives and Beltway insiders all say the home stretch of this marathon will be a steep climb.

Since most digital sets sold now and in the future will be capable of providing HDTV, the analog-to-digital conversion is vital to the adoption of hi-def. And that in turn is vital to the economic viability of HD programming, which right now is growing but still a novelty. For example, all-HD cable networks generally don't get audiences large enough to be measured by Nielsen.

Most large broadcasting groups are confident that they will make the analog-to-digital deadline, but some smaller stations remain a question mark. Regardless of size and capacity, it'll be a fight for everybody, with every legal or commission decision or deadline facing a host of technical roadblocks. And if too many stations are not ready to pull the plug in February 2009, look for legislators to move the finish line rather than face the wrath of constituents, particularly if consumer-friendly Democrats are still in charge.

For many, the first problem is one of real estate. At present, more than 500 stations—roughly 28% of the country's broadcasters—are switching from their current DTV channels and returning to their original NTSC channel assignments as part of the FCC's “channel-election” process, according to spectrum-watchdog group Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV).?

Another 100 stations are waiting for new DTV assignments, most because both their analog and their digital channels fall “out of core,” or outside of channels 2-51. UHF channels higher than 51 are being auctioned off to new users by the FCC.

“You're looking at a reasonable chunk of the industry that is going to have to move,” says MSTV President David Donovan.

The conversion, say engineers, will not be as easy as flipping a switch. Analog antennas at the top of a tower might need to be traded out for digital models, and transmitters and transmission lines may need to be changed. In cities where multiple stations broadcast from a single tower, that will require cooperation among local broadcasters.

That's hardly the only tower-related issue, especially for CBS. The broadcaster's owned-and-operated stations in both New York and Los Angeles have analog channel 2 assignments that they can't use for DTV, because of cable-interference issues, and out-of-core DTV assignments they will be giving up come that February day in '09.

And crowded urban transmission facilities, like the Empire State Building in New York, don't have the room to accommodate new equipment for the digital channels that will go live then. So broadcasters are looking for FCC guidance to help smooth the transition. “You don't just put up a third antenna on towers,” says CBS VP of Advanced Technology Bob Seidel.

Cox Broadcasting also faces some tough issues, particularly in the San Francisco market, where its KTVU Oakland, Calif., is currently broadcasting on channel 56 but will be moving to channel 44 for its DTV assignment (its current analog home is channel 2, with cable-interference issues). But in the law-and-disorderly reality of this switch, channel 44 is currently occupied by an analog station, CBS owned-and-operated KBHK.

“How do we do this in blink of eye?” asks Cox Broadcasting VP of Engineering Sterling Davis.

KTVU currently broadcasts off Sutro Tower, a communal tower that supports multiple Bay Area stations. The tower company has built one DTV antenna as an interim solution—an antenna that wasn't designed to accept channel 44.

“The plan is to clean off all the analog antennas on top of the tower and build new digital ones after the shutoff date,” says Davis. “That's the antenna part. But that doesn't solve the issue about KTVU being on channel 44 and one analog getting wiped off the top of the tower. Where does that station go temporarily?

“This is business clashing with reality and physics,” he adds. “There's going to be a lot of herky-jerkiness going on. This is just one small example.”

The amount of tower work needed nationwide may be too much for the limited number of crews available, say some broadcasters. There are also questions over the manufacturing capacity of transmission vendors.

In northern climates, there are only two summers left to perform the necessary tower work before the winter of 2008-09 sets in.

Cox's situation at WSB Atlanta is easy by comparison. Since that station is giving up its analog channel 2 and sticking with its digital assignment on 39, it can take the time to swap out the analog antenna at the top of its tower while continuing to broadcast from a side-mounted DTV antenna. Once a new digital antenna is in place on top of the tower, WSB will switch from the side-mount, perhaps leaving it up as a backup.

Dave Converse, VP of engineering for the ABC station group, expects the switch to be fairly smooth, because ABC owns the facilities and, therefore, controls all the pieces of the puzzle. Nine of ABC's 10 stations have elected to return to their old NTSC assignments in the VHF band (2-13 for DTV) and the network's Fresno, Calif., station will move from a DTV assignment on VHF channel 9 to its old analog assignment, channel 30, in that UHF-dominated market.

The older analog antennas and transmission lines used for years may need maintenance to support DTV, but Converse is optimistic: “I don't think I have any situation where I [can't] run a digital facility on analog with a very short outage.”

Davis says Cox is committed to meeting the FCC deadline and will “figure out a way to do it.” But from a national perspective, he isn't sure all broadcasters will do the same.

“It's a volume thing,” he explains. “How many of these things can you do? How many towers can you work on? For bigger station groups like Cox, they're doing their homework, and they'll pay the bucks.”

But Davis fears that some smaller stations won't be able to afford a similar approach. “It's going to be a mess,” he says, adding that the FCC may have to issue some temporary rules to help stations make it through the transition.

Scripps Howard has three stations currently broadcasting DTV on an out-of-core channel, and they will be moving to a currently occupied in-core channel, says Scripps VP of Engineering Michael Doback.

“There are problems logistically,” he says. “If you are assigned an in-core channel that is being used by a third party, it's virtually impossible to turn them off and turn you on Feb. 17. Sometimes you have to take down facilities, and there is red tape associated with that. The regulatory requirement could be onerous if the FCC doesn't expedite things like moving antennas from the side to the top.”

Doback is banking on the FCC's relaxing its criteria for tower changes to allow such upgrades to be quickly performed with a modicum of paperwork.

Even if the commission grants his wish, he doesn't expect channel-switching to be easy: “It's still going to be a big deal, and there is a lot of work to be done by a lot of groups.”

It might make sense, Doback adds, for out-of-core DTV broadcasters to continue operations on their current channels until they remove old analog antennas and ready their digital facilities for their new channels. But with the out-of-core frequencies scheduled for federal auction, it is unclear whether broadcasters would be allowed to do that.

“A lot of people underestimated how difficult this is,” he says. “It's a dance.”

Another hidden hurdle

Beyond channel election, other policy issues need to be resolved before the plug is pulled on analog, or “you can forget HDTV,” says MSTV's Donovan.

One “critical” HDTV concern, he says, is cable's “involuntary downconversion” of the HDTV signal to standard digital. Telecommunications-reform legislation—now facing an uncertain fate after getting hung up on the issue of network neutrality—included provisions allowing cable to downconvert any must-carry station's HDTV signal to standard DTV.

“If cable is allowed to do that,” Donovan warns, “it undermines the incentives to go out and buy new HD sets.”

NAB President David Rehr cautions that it also may hurt broadcast HD programming.

The cable industry argues that it needs the flexibility of downconversion to reduce the capacity strains of bandwidth-hungry HDTV signals. Broadcasters counter that cable could, instead, favor its own HDTV content by perhaps downconverting network HD while delivering cable shows in that format. “It's a competitive issue,” says Donovan.

Rehr believes that some smaller cable systems without the technology might not be able to pass along the HD signal. “We have a problem with the local cable operator offering Sopranos in HD but telling the broadcaster, hey, you can't do it.”

From an operational perspective, broadcast networks also have a ways to go before their HD conversion is complete. Only Fox has created a single transmission path to support both high-definition and standard-definition feeds today, with the hi-def signal being downconverted at the station level to support analog broadcasts. The other three broadcast networks still rely on completely separate transmission paths for HD and SD, although that may change by 2009.

Most primetime fare and major sports coverage are available in HD; of network news programs, only morning shows Good Morning America on ABC and Today on NBC are. Meanwhile, syndicated HD programming was introduced this fall with Sony Pictures Television's Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, which are distributed by King World.

Both HD commercials and high-definition syndicated content have been held back by limitations in the file-based satellite delivery systems used to send content to stations. But ad-delivery firm DG Systems is rolling out HD-compliant “spot servers” at its client stations and networks, and Pathfire is expected to come up with a similar system for syndicated fare.

Despite the industry's best efforts, a 100% HD world may be unrealistic.

“You are always going to have legacy programming that was shot 4:3 and will be standard-definition,” notes Seidel. “When people say, 'When will everything be converted to HD?' you say, 'Never,' because some things won't. Gunsmoke, in 4:3 black-and-white, is going to stay that way.”

What about We the People?

With varying levels of attention given to legal and logistic issues in this uphill battle, there is a danger in forgetting arguably the most important group needing conversion to HD: the American public.

Consumer education about the DTV transition hardly appears to be a thumbtack on the national map. A lot of Americans still don't realize they're going to need a new TV set or converter come February 2009. Congress has allocated a paltry $5 million to the cause, but HDTV-policy maker Dick Wiley expects the industry to step up. He predicts the NAB will name a VP for digital transition and that Rehr will “run this like a campaign.”

Rehr may need to if he expects to keep the DTV switch from becoming this decade's version of metric conversion.

These are all Herculean tasks, requiring cooperation between the government and the industry. Getting everybody on the same page may be the first best step to making the DTV deadline.

“We're planning on doing everything we can before Feb. 17,” says Doback. “We read the FCC mandate to be that analog will be turned off, digital will be turned on, and out-of-core digital will cease to operate.

“People haven't considered, or maybe even understood, the mammoth scope of what we are undertaking,” he adds. “None of us are trying to drag our feet. It's just that there are some physical realities that we have to live with that are incredibly difficult. In a lot of situations, you are at the mercy of a third party. If they don't have the same sense of urgency that we do, that can be problematic.”

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6394584

fredfa

11-25-06, 10:04 AM

HDTV Notebook
Who Shall Get Converter Boxes?
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 11/27/2006

The new Democratic Congress may reframe the terms of the debate over the government's digital-converter-box program.

To help retrofit analog TVs to get digital signals, the government is going to subsidize consumers' purchase of digital-to-analog converters.

The boxes convert digital signals to analog so that analog sets not connected to cable or satellite won't go dark come February 2009, when the switch-over to digital is scheduled.

Republicans were looking to limit the program—there is $1.5 billion allocated—both due to the potential expense of covering all analog-only sets, which could exceed that figure, and for fear it would be gamed by a TV version of welfare cheats.

But now that Democrats will control the Energy & Commerce Committee, their leaders wasted no time telling the Bush administration not to short-change the DTV transition.

In a letter to acting National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) head John Kneuer shortly after the midterm elections, the Democrats, led by ranking members and soon to be committee leaders John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), made the wishes of the new majority clear.

They pointed out that they had voted against the Republican-backed transition plan's passage because it was “highly flawed” and “disadvantages the poor.”

The Democrats oppose limiting participation in the converter box program only to over-the-air households. Republicans only wanted to give converter boxes to those relatively few American households that only get over-the-air television, rather than extending the offer to second or third analog-only sets in cable households.

In essence, the two parties split along, well, party lines, over whether the program was necessary assistance to the poor and minorities or a corporate tax-and-spend program that could be too easily manipulated (Republicans envisioned something of a black market in coupons).

The Dems in particular argue that, since it is a government-forced march to DTV, there should be as little consumer disruption as possible, whether the consumer is rich or poor.

Thus, Democrats also oppose a means test, which NTIA proposed, for the up-to-two $40 coupons per household that could be redeemed for the boxes.

Conceding that Congress, in this case the Republicans, had given it “a challenging task” while failing to provide enough money, Dingell, Markey & company said it would have to do the best it could, understanding that “failure to devise a consumer-friendly converter-box program, or to inform consumers properly,” could jeopardize its success and derail the February 2009 deadline for the DTV conversion.

Given how much Americans like to watch TV, some wrong decisions could derail a few political careers as well.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6394584

shuttermaker

11-25-06, 10:07 AM

fredfa

11-25-06, 10:19 AM

HDTV Notebook
HD Express For Local News
Broadcasting & Cable 11/27/2006

When Phoenix-area viewers tuned in for the late news on KPNX Nov. 2, the first night of November sweeps, the NBC affiliate offered a crisp, new view of the headlines. For the first time, Gannett-owned KPNX produced and broadcast its news in high-definition.

Lin Sue Cooney and Mark Curtis anchored from a glittering new set. The station's helicopter relayed images from its new HD camera, and new graphics complemented the look. The upgrades were all designed to show off the clearer picture and widescreen format that are the hallmarks of hi-def.

With the conversion, KPNX became the first station in Arizona to go hi-def, and it trumpeted the move in promo spots and in the news.

Despite the fanfare, however, its audience is limited. KPNX estimates that about a quarter of Phoenix homes have HD sets, above the national average of 10%-15% penetration but hardly a majority. KPNX General Manager John Misner says the station's early upgrade is a long-term effort for the station to keep up with technology and win new viewers.

“Our viewers are moving to HD at a rapid rate,” he says. “We want to be there to serve them, and we want to be first to do it.”

KPNX is the eighth Gannett station to convert to high-definition local-news production but one of only two dozen or so nationwide to make the switch; about half of those have done so this year. The conversions are prompted by falling equipment prices and increasing household penetration. But given that the Radio-Television News Directors Association counts 772 stations that produce local news, the HD explosion is more like a pop gun at the moment.

It's a simple cost/benefit analysis. Stations have to weigh high costs against what are currently minimal returns. High-definition costs a station at least several million dollars for the new studio, field cameras and editing equipment necessary, as well as upgraded sets and graphics. So far, say many station managers, penetration is too small to justify the expense.

Currently, HD signals are being received by 10 million-15 million of TV sets, although that number is expected to climb quickly. Also, Nielsen Media Research currently does not measure HDTV viewership on stations' digital channels, so stations cannot even sell that potential viewership.

“Most broadcasters know it is the right thing to do and that they must do it,” says station consultant Bruce Northcott, of Crawford, Northcott and Johnson. “Then the discussion turns to, Can we afford it? Is there any evidence we'll do better in ratings or sales?”

Gannett's KUSA Denver and Capitol Broadcasting's WRAL Raleigh-Durham, N.C., were among the early pioneers in HD local news.

The latest crop includes major-market heavyweights NBC Universal's WNBC New York, ABC's WPVI and Fox's WTXF Philadelphia, and Cox Broadcasting's KTVU San Francisco. A handful of mid-market affiliates are upgrading, too, such as Landmark Communications' KLAS Las Vegas and Dispatch Broadcasting's WTHR Indianapolis.

In most cases, these stations are the first in their markets to go HD. Only Cleveland, Seattle and Atlanta have two HD-producing stations owned by different companies. Station managers say they want to be first in their market to adjust to technology and, hopefully, solidify a competitive advantage.

“When viewers have an HD set, they usually graze the HD tier first,” says KLAS General Manager Emily Neilson. “We want them to sample us and come back.”

For now, station managers admit, they can rely only on anecdotal evidence from viewers who say they watch more TV because of the HD content.

Although advertisers may not yet be rewarding stations for going HD, media buyer Sue Johenning, executive VP of local broadcast for Initiative Media, says the content is an attraction for viewers, and she thinks that will be particularly true as more households buy sets this holiday season. “I don't know if it gains a station viewers over time, but it does give them sampling,” she says. “It gives you an opportunity to distinguish yourself from the competition.”

In Boston, Hearst-Argyle-owned ABC affiliate WCVB converted its venerable nightly local newsmagazine Chronicle to hi-def last month, and plans call for its news to go HD soon.

“Given the choice, we think people will watch more HDTV than analog,” says General Manager Bill Fine. “We're going out ahead of the curve, but we know it is going to accelerate.”

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6394585

fredfa

11-25-06, 10:27 AM

HDTV Notebook
At some stores, Hi-Def Confusion
By Craig Kuhl Broadcasting & Cable 11/27/2006

Just how well salespeople can answer crucial questions about a $2,000 HDTV investment depends on the store and, mainly, the person doing the selling. The two “big-box” stores, Circuit City and Best Buy, won't talk about their sales training, but getting correct information out is important enough that Sony has 180 trainers on the go all year long. And the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is starting an educational campaign for consumers and merchants.

“We're required to take online training for all electronics, including TVs, but it's not technically very deep,” says one sales person, asking not to be identified. At another popular retail electronics store, the HDTV sales person says brand-name representatives sometimes visit, “but,” he adds, “for any deeper questions or technology, we're instructed to go online.”

Bruce Leichtman, principal, LRG Research, which follows the HDTV space, asks about the average sales clerk, “Can they tell the difference between EDT [Extended Definition TV] and HDTV? Probably not. A recent study told us few people rely on salespeople for information on buying HDTVs. Most salespeople probably don't have HDTVs, so they don't know much about them.”

Customers do seem to have trouble with the learning curve. About 30 million HDTV sets will have been shipped by the end of this year. But it appears that only 10 million-15 million HDTV sets are actually receiving HDTV signals.

Some viewers, presumably, don't know that, to get HDTV, they need a separate converter box from their cable or DBS provider. Some may not care because the improved widescreen picture is good enough. These days, many retailers post signs explaining that simply buying an HDTV unit doesn't give a consumer an HDTV picture. (Because of employee turnover at stores, Sony now plasters sets with “Key Selling Points” in case novice salespeople miss a set's best features.)

The CEA recently partnered with CNET, a consumer Website, for an interactive buying guide called MyCEknowhow (at MyCeknowhow.com) designed to introduce consumers to digital television.

The CEA also joined forces with the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the National Association of Broadcasters. “We're dealing with new audiences every day, with new consumers to educate,” says Megan Pollock, manager of public policy communications at CEA.

During the holiday buying season, the CEA will launch a marketing campaign to encourage consumers and HDTV salespeople to visit Websites dedicated to HDTV information.

“We're looking at new ways to reach out, especially to sales people, because you can't just swoop in, train, and it's done. It's a continuous process,” Pollock says.

Maybe retailers need to adjust their technique, some analysts say. “For retailers, they need to start asking customers what programming they want to watch, so they can help them zoom in to the right choices. But they always start with the technology,” says Maryann Baldwin, executive director at Frank N. Magid Associates, a market-research and consulting firm that tracks HDTV. And when they start hearing the technical stuff, she says, “that's when a consumer's eyes roll up into their heads.”

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6394586.html?display=Feature

fredfa

11-25-06, 10:27 AM

HDTV Notebook
Pretty Pictures, And Much More
By Glen Dickson Broadcasting & Cable 11/27/2006

Providing stunningly lifelike images, HDTV has been a boon to documentary producers. Programmers like Discovery Networks, PBS and Voom HD Networks offer scores of high-definition documentaries on nature, wildlife or science topics.

But HDTV's advantages go beyond mere resolution. The ease of use of high-end HD video-production gear has won over many cinematographers who previously relied on film formats such as Super 16mm. And low-cost “prosumer”-grade cameras have made it affordable for stations and videographers to make the leap from standard-definition production to high-definition.

Among the best-known HDTV nature franchises is Discovery's Sunrise Earth franchise, which uses HDTV to give viewers a first-hand look at how dawn appears in foreign locales. Next year, Discovery HD's Planet Earth will depict animal life around the globe in 1080-line-interlace (1080i) HD. The latest installment of the Nature series on PBS gives a high-definition glimpse of Yellowstone National Park in winter. And eight of Voom's 14 channel offerings are nonfiction brands, ranging from art to fashion to extreme sports to music.

One of the major advantages of high-definition video for documentary producers working in harsh or remote locations is the ability to immediately see what they've shot; with Super 16mm film, they had to wait until it was processed in the lab.

“There's a quite bit more instant gratification with high-definition cameras than with film,” notes Josh Derby, director of production technology for Discovery Networks.

Although the documentary world had been dominated by Super 16 acquisition, many producers began switching over to HD cameras beginning in the late '90s. By 2002, there was a “sea change toward HD acquisition” from the Super 16 camp, says Derby.

“Obviously, you don't have to develop high-definition videotape,” he says, “so you're working in a medium where you have more-immediate knowledge and control.”

HD isn't perfect. It lacks the distinctive grain of film, but documentary producers are enthusiastic about the more-expensive HD cameras like the Panasonic VariCam and Sony CineAlta HDW-F900, which have the ability to shoot in the film-like 24-frame-per-second progressive (24p) format. They also have innovative features like image “overcranking” for slow-motion and “undercranking” for a fast-forward effect.

“24p is really what drew the film folks into the HD world,” says Derby. “It was a good compromise for people accustomed to film in using HD as a medium.”

WNET New York relied on Sony 24p cameras for the latest installment in its Nature series. “Christmas in Yellowstone,” which premiered on PBS Nov. 19, follows the winter sojourns of nature photographer Tom Murphy through Yellowstone National Park and required some 120 days of shooting in the field by producer/cinematographer Shane Moore and another 35 days by a second cameraman.

Before switching to HD camcorders five years ago, Moore relied on the industry-standard Aeroflex Super 16mm camera. He admits to being “pretty reluctant initially” because he wasn't sure the HD cameras could measure up to the rugged Aeroflex in the harsh environments he typically works in. But after using both Sony F900 and Panasonic VariCam units on several shoots for the BBC, he was won over.

“Natural-history [producers] adopted HD first because it has a real long shelf life, basically everything we shoot,” says Moore. “Things don't change much in nature, so people are trying to maximize their libraries, whether they are independent filmmakers or Discovery or National Geographic.”

He records 24p onto HDCAM tape and gets 50 minutes of video per tape. “When you compare it to film, where you had an 11-minute roll, that's a great asset,” he says. “And changing tape is a delight compared to going into a black bag and changing film.”

Between the Sony camera and the various Fujinon lenses he uses, Moore's HD field acquisition setup is worth around $200,000. He tries to be extra careful to keep dust out of the unit and often covers the camera with a light jacket for protection. For cold-weather shoots like “Yellowstone,” he has learned to keep camera batteries in his parka to keep them warm and will sometimes power the camera by running a cable from a battery inside his parka.

“It was really rugged backcountry work in extreme cold,” says Moore. “These cameras are only supposed to work down to 32 Fahrenheit, but one morning I shot at -45 Fahrenheit, and the cameras never did fail. They do quite well in the cold.”

He still likes the look of film but says that HD images compare favorably and are “lush and rich and incredibly sharp.” HD doesn't suffer from one of Super 16 drawbacks: movement in the image due to the film's weaving around the camera gate. And Moore has found HD to be better in low-light situations, such as capturing a wolf hunt at dusk for “Yellowstone.”

“A lot of the best behavior with animals is in low-light conditions with a long lens,” he says. “HD gives you at least another 20-30 minutes of good shooting conditions in the morning and in the evening.”

Voom will still accept content that is originated on 35mm film but is commissioning all new programs in HD video. Greg Moyer, general manager of Rainbow's Voom HD Networks, sees two big trends in HD technology—affordability and miniaturization—and says they are impacting both post-production and field acquisition.

Where it used to cost $250,000 minimum to build an HD edit suite, now the same functionality is available at a fifth of the cost, particularly since systems like Apple's Final Cut Pro allow broadcast-quality HD to be edited on a laptop. “That's just a staggering notion,” says Moyer. “Five years or 10 years ago, that would have been unthinkable in SD, much less HD.”

The trend of smaller and cheaper gear is making its way into the field, where $10,000 prosumer HDV-format cameras are occasionally replacing $100,000 professional units. While Moyer isn't suggesting that lower-quality HDV units are the equal of high-end 24p camcorders, he notes that they are now a viable option: “These are amazing tools.”

Moore has successfully used HDV cameras for underwater shoots, where he says the relative lack of detail from the compressed images isn't an issue. And Discovery's Derby is suitably impressed after evaluating HDV units from several manufacturers and recommends them to his producers for particular applications.

“Until HDV existed, you had the big $100,000 camera, and that was all you had,” he says. “But there are times in life when you have to wreck a couple cameras to make good TV, and there are tight spots you can't get into with a large HD camcorder. HDV lets the producer get all the shots they need.”

The affordability of the HDV and P2 formats has also made it feasible for some local broadcasters to upgrade their production of documentaries and other original programming from standard-definition video to HD.

KRON San Francisco is using a mix of Panasonic AJ-HVX200 P2 HD solid-state cameras and Sony HVR-Z1U HDV-format camcorders, both of which list in the $5,000-$6,000 price range, to produce all of its original programming as well as the occasional documentary in HD.

Its high-definition shows include Bay Area Backroads, a long-running travel show; Bay Café, which follows the gourmet scene; gardening show Henry's Garden; and Bay Area Living, a new series of infomercials on local home developments.

“All of these things lend themselves to shooting in high-definition,” notes Jim Swanson, executive producer of local programming for KRON. “None of them are studio-based; they're all shot out in the field. Whether it's the Golden Gate Bridge in a wide shot or a beautiful shot of a restaurant where they are cooking up scrumptious food, it all looks really good in HD.”

The two cameras have their own distinct advantages and drawbacks, says Swanson. The Panasonic P2 unit has more high-end features, including a setting that gives a film-like look, but it requires shooting on memory cards that hold only 16 minutes of video. The Sony cameras don't have as many settings but record on removable tapes that hold 60 minutes each and allow producers to replicate “an old-school workflow,” which many find convenient.

KRON tends to rely on the tape-based HDV camcorders when moving around at remote locations, while, in more-static environments, such as a new-home location in Bay Area Builders, Swanson will set up a laptop to ingest video from the P2 cards and store it on a cheap external hard drive (perhaps $99 for a 250-gigabyte unit).

One chance to get the shot

Since the P2 format stores video as files, the hard drive can be easily hooked up to KRON's Canopus Edius nonlinear editing software to begin post-production work, either on a laptop in the field or on a desktop unit back at the station.

Matt Feury, senior product marketing manager for editing giant Avid Technology, is also seeing cost-conscious documentary clients warm up to file-based formats like P2 HD, as well as to HDV tape. “They are getting an HD picture that is certainly good enough and better-than-expected image quality, with much greater portability.”

Documentaries have stricter acquisition requirements than scripted shows, he notes. Where a sitcom producer can always return to the set and shoot a scene again, a documentary producer might have one chance to get the shot. For that reason, file-based HD formats such as Panasonic P2 HD are a great benefit in the field.

“You can literally pop the card out of the camera and have instant access to it, so you know you've got that shot before you break location,” says Feury. “You don't have to wait until you get to an edit room.”

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6394586.html?display=Feature

foxeng

11-25-06, 10:47 AM

HDTV Notebook
Who Shall Get Converter Boxes?

Finally some validity of what I have been saying for years.

HDTVChallenged

11-25-06, 12:52 PM

HDTV Notebook
Who Shall Get Converter Boxes?

Finally some validity of what I have been saying for years.

Well ... I hate to say that on this topic, I think the R's have it right. With the D plan, this is just going to a another "entitlement" for the wealthy class. Bizare twist of "traditional" roles.

The more TV's you have, the more the government gives away? :eek:

dad1153

11-25-06, 01:08 PM

Guys, I'm feeling really lousy. Tummy aching real bad, just like the last time I was forced to go to the hospital. Both times I ate KFC the night before, and here in NY all the KFC's have switched to a different oil and stopped using the transfatty stuff. Don't know how long I will be out but if you could post any articles you find online until Fredfa returns this Sunday I'd be eternally grateful. Sorry for being such a pig, back to laying face down on the sofa to moan in pain until the Maalox kicks in (ouch). :( :( :(

P.S.: click on the previous page (#611) for a dozen or so postings added in the past 12 or so hours, many with reactions to growing media coverage of GSN's upcoming 'Behind the Blank: Match Game' special on Sunday night. Hope I can live long enough to see it... ouch!

fredfa

11-25-06, 01:18 PM

Friday’s fast national prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

11-25-06, 01:20 PM

RussTC3

11-25-06, 01:33 PM

Does anyone have ratings for the last 2 episodes of Nip/Tuck? For me it went somewhere bizarre with jumping X many years in the future I just lost total interest in that episode and deleted it. I hope it was just one episode and I will pretend it never happened just like season 2 of desperate housewives.

Also is there a thread for Nip/Tuck because I couldn't find it I know its not this area because its not HD obviously.
I don't watch the show, but here are the numbers for what I believe are the last two episodes (I'm using the episode listing over at epguides.com):

Nov 7th, 2006 - "Merrill Bobolit" - 3.011M households, 3.914M viewers
Nov 14th, 2006 - "Conor McNamara, 2026" - 2.590M households, 3.470M viewers

The final numbers for the November 21st episode will be released next week.

cherry ghost

11-25-06, 04:01 PM

ABC Takes 'The Nine' Hostage
Network says show will return, but not when

November 25, 2006

It may be a while before anyone finds out what happened to "The Nine" inside that bank.

ABC has pulled the critically acclaimed but ratings-challenged series from its schedule effective immediately. A special edition of "20/20" will take its place on Wednesday, Nov. 29, and another newsmagazine, "Primetime," will move into the 10 p.m. Wednesday spot the following week.

The network made the announcement on Saturday, in the midst of a holiday weekend when presumably the TV critics who hailed the show at the start of the season aren't working. Its ratings haven't matched the praise, though: Through last week the show had averaged just 8.6 million viewers, fumbling more than half of the 17.7 million viewers who watched its lead-in, "Lost."

With "Lost" now on hiatus, numbers for "The Nine" tumbled even further this week, finishing a distant third in its timeslot.

"The Nine," which stars Tim Daly, Kim Raver, Chi McBride and Scott Wolf, follows the lives of people who survived a 52-hour hostage standoff resulting from a botched bank robbery. The series' primary focus is on the emotional fallout for the survivors, with flashback sequences filling in the events of the robbery.

ABC says the show will return sometime later this season but is offering no specifics. It joins another ABC freshman show, "Six Degrees," in scheduling limbo.

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-abcpullsthenine,0,7597771.story

rustycruiser

11-25-06, 05:10 PM

ABC Takes 'The Nine' Hostage
Network says show will return, but not when

Great. Another serialized show I invested time in ends prematurely.

:rolleyes:

The end result? I am going to be very reluctant to invest time in any future serialized show. The chance of a premature end with no conclusion to the story is too much of a red flag.

archiguy

11-25-06, 05:48 PM

ABC Takes 'The Nine' Hostage
Network says show will return, but not when

November 25, 2006

It may be a while before anyone finds out what happened to "The Nine" inside that bank.

ABC has pulled the critically acclaimed but ratings-challenged series from its schedule effective immediately. A special edition of "20/20" will take its place on Wednesday, Nov. 29, and another newsmagazine, "Primetime," will move into the 10 p.m. Wednesday spot the following week.

ABC says the show will return sometime later this season but is offering no specifics. It joins another ABC freshman show, "Six Degrees," in scheduling limbo.

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-abcpullsthenine,0,7597771.story

Oh crap. I knew it. This was a very good show, just required a bit more effort than the audience was willing to give it, I guess. I was hoping it would get a full season, then get the ax, but it's looking like it's not even going to make 13.

I hope it doesn't end up on ABC's website like 'Kidnapped' did with NBC - they only left each episode up a week. By the time I caught on, I had missed a couple, so that's the end of that. This ain't no way to run a network. :(

tkmedia2

11-25-06, 05:53 PM

ABC is much better than NBC as ABC leaves a couple of weeks episodes online.

CPanther95

11-25-06, 06:23 PM

Well, that's a folder full of shows I can delete and free up space.

keenan

11-25-06, 06:38 PM

Well, that's a folder full of shows I can delete and free up space.
No kidding, I already deleted the last 2 eps of Kidnapped, never watched them, hoping for a DVD set.

PJO1966

11-25-06, 08:01 PM

Well, that's a folder full of shows I can delete and free up space.

Same here... I was waiting to see if it made it through a season before investing any time in it. It looks like it was a wise course of action.

dad1153

11-25-06, 08:16 PM

Thank God (if he/she/it exists) for Prilosec. My stomach still feels like crap but not nearly as bad as a few hours ago, enough for me to get back to work. Morale of the story: don't eat three KFC breasts bathed in 10 lemons with Perriere sauce and salt, followed by a Pop-Tart, pop-corn and two glasses of Coke while you're catching-up on DVR'ed episodes of 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'Card Sharks.' :eek:

TV Notebook
Talking to Hayden Panettiere
By Joseph V. Amodio Newsday November 24, 2006

Every so often, television gives us one of those catchphrases that won't get out of our head. Like "the truth is out there" from "The X-Files," or even that dang "Law & Order" "dunh dunh." This season, it's "save the cheerleader, save the world," from NBC's breakout hit "Heroes." The cheerleader in question, Claire Bennet, is one of several ordinary folk who discover they have some rather superhuman powers. Claire, for one, can heal like nobody's business, making her nothing less than ... indestructible.

That word seems as apt as any to describe the career of Hayden Panettiere, the 17-year-old actress who plays Claire. Panettiere has worked in front of cameras since she was a baby, first in commercials, then in soaps ("One Life to Live," "Guiding Light"), then in larger guest spots on TV sitcoms, and in such films as "Remember the Titans," with Denzel Washington; and "Joe Somebody," with Tim Allen. Her latest effort is "The Architect," an independent film that opens next Friday. In this brooding family drama, Panettiere plays Christina Waters, the angst-ridden teenage daughter of an architect (Anthony LaPaglia) and his wife (Isabella Rossellini). Television writer and reporter Joseph V. Amodio caught up with Panettiere to discuss her recent work.

Have you ever felt as awkward as the young teenage girl you play in "The Architect"? Her whole thing is that she's not comfortable with this new developing body, with who she is. In that first scene, she stands there [in front of a mirror] and looks at herself in a bathing suit. I remember doing that sort of thing [trying on clothes] and thinking, "Ohhh, do I look OK?" But as you get older, you become a lot more comfortable in your own skin.

Now, of course, you've gone from girl who once felt awkward to star of a megahit television series. Not a bad transition. "Heroes" is an amazing show. Everyone is really surprised about it. There are so many obstacles to even get a show on television, let alone a huge hit.

Is it a raucous set, with all the young actors? Are you playing pranks on one another? I was talking to Milo [Ventimiglia, a co-star on "Heroes"] about this the other day. We're so -- we have so much work to do that it's been a little bit -- we're careful how much we fool around. The set is fun, and I love the crew. When we're all together, we have the greatest time. Unfortunately, we're not together all that much, because of the way the scenes are written.

Where are you living these days? I grew up in Rockland County. We just made the move to L.A., my parents and younger brother.

What's that like, going from East Coast to West? I love the sun -- that's the great thing about L.A. But what I miss the most about New York is having my friends so close, right down the street, and not miles and miles away.

Because everything is so spread out in L.A.? Yeah. I miss that typical, high school, low-key, house-party atmosphere. Where you can just hang out. Here you have to plan your days. It takes an hour just to get to your friend's house.

It must've been intense, in "The Architect," getting a chance to work with a veteran actor like Anthony LaPaglia. He's amazing ... amazing. So nice, so professional and so fun. Just a genuine guy, too.

You have some great moments where you don't say much, but there's so much going on in your eyes, like there's really been years of history between you and him and Rossellini. That's the whole point of creating character, finding those moments where you can let the audience see. Having that emotion -- and then covering it up. You let it peek through, and then it goes away again. That's the whole thing about creating a character -- having layers.

Your family must be happy for you. Yeah. My brother -- he's 12. He's done a film, too -- he's a lead in "The Last Day of Summer" [due out next year].

So you've got one of those show-biz families. Yeah, my mom [actress Lesley Vogel] was in soap operas. Dad [Skip Panettiere] was a lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department -- he retired six months before 9/11.

Wow -- that must've been ... tough. He floated ... he was in the business for a long time, so he knew everyone. So it was really sad for him. Sad for all of us. I grew up with all of them.

Well, no doubt all those friends from home are pleased to see all the success you've had in TV, film ... and now music. I understand you've got a debut CD that drops in February. I'm really looking forward to that. I've been singing since I was little. Did jingles and a lot of voice work when I was younger. It's been a long time in the making -- I've been working on this album for a while.

What kind of music is it? Well, I find it hard to categorize songs. It's a mixture -- probably pop rock. I co-wrote all the songs. It's been a blast. I'm used to portraying people other than myself. Now it's ... it's like giving people a little taste of me.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/am-panettiere26,0,3931438,print.story?coll=ny-television-headlines

FrankJ.Cone

11-25-06, 09:30 PM

Great. Another serialized show I invested time in ends prematurely.

:rolleyes:

The end result? I am going to be very reluctant to invest time in any future serialized show. The chance of a premature end with no conclusion to the story is too much of a red flag.

Hell ya. I am going to DVR everything new starting next year, Watch it when the whole damn season is done...

Davinleeds

11-25-06, 09:32 PM

My mother would say don't eat greasy foods with cold drinks.

rustycruiser

11-25-06, 09:34 PM

Hell ya. I am going to DVR everything new starting next year, Watch it when the whole damn season is done...

Thats the plan if you don't mind SD. I try to watch everything I can in HD.

cocoon

11-25-06, 10:10 PM

I don't watch the show, but here are the numbers for what I believe are the last two episodes (I'm using the episode listing over at epguides.com):

Nov 7th, 2006 - "Merrill Bobolit" - 3.011M households, 3.914M viewers
Nov 14th, 2006 - "Conor McNamara, 2026" - 2.590M households, 3.470M viewers

The final numbers for the November 21st episode will be released next week.

ah good ol epguides.com I had forgotten about them hadn't used them since angel was canceled.
thanks for the info.

flint350

11-25-06, 10:46 PM

dad1153

11-25-06, 10:51 PM

Wow, it's actually coming out this Tuesday. What took them so long?

DVD
Television’s Original Not-So-Healthy Hospital
By David Browne The New York Times November 26, 2006

ONCE upon a time in network television, hospitals were reassuring places: clean, well-lighted fortresses where one could be comforted by cheery nurses and treated by doctors either grandfatherly (Robert Young’s Marcus Welby) or blandly strapping (Chad Everett in “Medical Center”). These days the TV hospital is anything but a sanctuary. As “ER,” “House” and “Grey’s Anatomy” attest, assaults and bombings are as common as operations, and the staff members are as likely to be dissecting one another’s sex lives as tending to patients.

The missing link between medical shows then and now was “St. Elsewhere,” which ran from 1982 to 1988 on NBC and whose first season will be released on DVD this week. In the series, set in the shabby St. Eligius hospital in a destitute section of Boston, everything was in hectic, chaotic motion. Doctors, nurses and sometimes patients crossed paths or nearly collided in the corridors; files always seemed to be spilling onto floors.

Comparisons to later, bustling series like “The West Wing” — which inherited the “quality television” mantle established by “St. Elsewhere” and its period companion police show, “Hill Street Blues” — are plain, even if “St. Elsewhere” now seems lower-budget and slower-paced than its successors.

The DVD set is also a reminder of the show’s underlying sense of mayhem, which even the hospital’s experienced, knowing heads of staff (including William Daniels in a brilliant turn as the egomaniacal surgeon Mark Craig) couldn’t stem. The incessantly flirty resident Wayne Fiscus (Howie Mandel), who in another decade would have been charged with sexual harassment, is beaten and robbed by a thug he’d just treated. A pregnant woman, furious at the doctor who supposedly gave her husband a vasectomy, barges into an operating room with a gun. Two warring gangs bring their battle into the emergency room, trashing it in the process. In such an environment, it’s a wonder the doctors are able to mend anyone.

The show’s earnest physicians in training also include David Morse (currently back in the world of hospitals on “House”) as Jack Morrison, an idealistic, wide-eyed resident who would later become a rape victim. As Philip Chandler, Denzel Washington glides through his scenes with the self-assuredness of someone who knows he won’t be on television much longer.

These aren’t the only familiar faces to watch for. Christopher Guest, wearing a frown and a three-piece suit, shows up as a callous St. Eligius administrator who balks at shutting down a wing despite an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease. Tim Robbins plays a post-Weather Underground sociopath who fights the system by setting off a bomb in a bank and landing himself in the emergency room. (The way in which police refer to him as a “terrorist” is sadly quaint.)

Story lines like those showed that “St. Elsewhere” could easily be wheeled into melodrama (not to mention gratingly cute subplots). Through it all, though, the crumbling medical system of the Reagan years (as well as the country’s rising aggravation with H.M.O.’s) was the real star, with St. Eligius its first casualty.

During the first season all the noble intentions of the residents can’t stop homeless people from wandering in and attacking doctors. A respected heart surgeon is discovered to be on the take from a pacemaker company. The brother of a cancer-stricken patient puts his sibling out of his misery by blasting him in the face with a shotgun.

From its pastel fashions to its low-rent remakes of Police and Bruce Springsteen songs, “St. Elsewhere” can be as dated as an MTV rerun. But its recurring theme — that hospitals aren’t always good for one’s health, and not even doctors can beat the system — lives on. (So does the show’s name, which is also the title of Gnarls Barkley’s hit 2006 album.) In the final scene of the season the staff gathers to congratulate one of the doctors on his newborn baby, complete with “a toast — to life!” Even as everyone raises a glass and cheers, the viewer knows that the next assault on the hospital — and the health care system — is right outside the room.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/arts/television/26brow.html?_r=1&ref=television&oref=slogin

turansformer

11-25-06, 10:55 PM

The Nine, Six Degrees, Justice...the list keeps growing. God help us that a brain actually be required to enjoy an intelligent story or something - heaven forfend - thought provoking and creative. I realize the nets are in a tough spot with low ratings, but how can they expect a serialized show to build up steam and an audience in just a few weeks? Oh yeah, that damn "brain" thing again. Oh well, back to some insipid sitcom or OJ mockumentary.

Don't forget the reality craze that America won't seem to break free of. With reality shows often costing less than $1 million per episode, its no wonder the networks are turning to them for profits.

dad1153

11-25-06, 10:58 PM

This article is a little dated but it makes some very good points worth reading, IMHO.

TV Notebook
Decency 'standards' do nothing but inspire fear
By Mark Guide Albany Times Union November 21, 2006

Paula Kerger doesn't want to be talking about television decency "standards" yet again.

"Standards" needs to be in quotes, since they don't exist, except in the most vague of forms. Picture a traffic sign warning "Speeders will be prosecuted," but no speed limit is posted.

Kerger, the president and CEO of PBS, would rather discuss searching for new filmmakers, or delivering content via different technological platforms or the highly anticipated Ken Burns World War II miniseries "The War," which will clock in at 15 hours when it premieres next September.

No, the questions go back to S-words and F-words and the abject fear by some PBS stations that a six-figure Federal Communications Commission fine stemming from a single complaint could literally shut them down.

"It's a draining of energy that could be applied somewhere else," Kerger said.

The decency folks are still on the rampage, believing all of society's ills can be eradicated if we just rid TV of naughty words. Realism and context mean nothing; according to the FCC's rules, a documentary about war or a 9 p.m. crime drama can be held to the same standard as a "Dora the Explorer" cartoon on Nick Jr.

I mean, if your kids are watching a documentary about Nazi concentration camps, they might get scarred ... if a veteran used a profanity.

This really is an insane discussion.

We shouldn't be having it.

Unfortunately, we must be having it.

Fines to programs deemed indecent increased tenfold this year, to $325,000; susceptible programs are those that air between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. (The Burns series is slated for the 8 o'clock hour.) Individual stations, not networks, can be liable. This puts PBS stations at the greatest risk, since a single fine can represent as much as one-sixth of their annual budget.

Even talking about the Burns documentary brings us right back to decency standards, and how local PBS stations are "gun shy" about taking any chances with programming that might prompt even one complaint. (Especially from the professional complaint-meisters, the Parents Television Council.)

You see, "The War" has real vets talking about the war. They may actually explain the derivations of the acronyms-turned-words snafu and fubar. They may use salted language to describe the wounds of war.

According to a show spokesman, there are all of three curse words in the seven-part series.

For some extremists, that's enough to launch a barrage of complaints, whether those words are appropriate or not.

Burns (who declined to be interviewed for this column) can show all the carnage and gore he wants. But heaven forbid a vet uses a vulgarity to describe war's vulgarities.

"You can blow someone up," Kerger said, "but you can't use a word to describe it."

Insane.

Recently, HBO re-aired an episode of "Band of Brothers," its legendary World War II miniseries of 2001. In the installment, an educated American soldier taunts surrendering German troops in a torrent of 10-pound words interspersed with profanity.

"What were you thinking? Dragging our asses half way around the world, interrupting our lives," he shouts. "For what? You ignorant, servile scum. What the (expletive) are we doing here?"

The substitute word "expletive" doesn't cut it. Neither does "blank."

(Newspapers, even without the fears of FCC fines, are inordinately self-conscious when it comes to the use of objectionable language. I mean, we all know what words are being conjured. I think we are, in a word I can use, wusses.)

Think of the soldiers who first discovered the Nazi concentration camps. How might they recount the scene, their emotions? A parade of obscenities would be wholly appropriate.

Remember last year's Veterans Day, and the idiotic dust-up over "Saving Private Ryan" airing on ABC? Many stations refused to run the movie unedited for fear of the FCC.

No complaints were filed against the stations that did, but the incident showed the lunacy surrounding and the fear engendered by the FCC/PTC jihad. (Yeah, the word fits.)

It comes down to context, people, whether a word or image is integral to telling the story.

Those stakes are vital when we are talking about documentaries. Pixilating images or bleeping out words is the equivalent of black-lining swaths of a textbook. "This is history we're altering," Kerger said.

Some content and language do not belong on the airwaves. It not only comes down to time or channel placement. It's a matter of common sense.

The Janet Jackson fiasco at the Super Bowl was egregious because it was unexpected, because parents and others had no inkling such an incident could pop up (out?) during a football game. (Of course, it's OK for children to be bombarded with beer commercials, but not nine-sixteenths of a second of a partially exposed breast.)

So does that mean a documentary on the incident - presumably not a big draw among the kiddies - would also be susceptible to fines? You tell me: No one really knows, since the rules are so unclear. (Go to http://www.fcc.org to examine its amorphous wording.)

For the past two years, common sense took a back seat to hysteria. It's still too early to say what affect the 2006 elections and the ouster of the Republican majority in both houses of Congress will have on the debate. Kerger is optimistic that some of the prosecutorial fervor has died down.

"I think we may be entering a period where there may be some attempt to moderate what was initially a pretty strident position,"

Kerger said. "I'm really hopeful we can push the pendulum the other way."

Then maybe PBS stations won't have to worry so much about any snafus developing, and Kerger can finally move on to what she really wants to talk about.

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/tv/articles/1121tvdecency1121.html

dad1153

11-25-06, 11:01 PM

TV Notebook
She Doesn’t Look Like Morgan Fairchild (Phew)
By Joe Rhodes The New York Times November 26, 2006

IN the hours leading up to her New York stage debut 30 years ago, in a play called “Getting Through the Night,” Pamela Reed made a conscious effort to lock in as many memories as possible, paying attention to, literally, every step she took.

“I got off the subway, and I remember watching my feet as I walked, because I wanted to always remember everything about the day that dream came true, of going to the theater not as an audience member but as an actress in New York,” Ms. Reed said recently, relaxing on a quilt-covered couch in her trailer dressing room, tucked away on a cracked-pavement parking lot near the soundstages and production offices for the new CBS series “Jericho.”

Following the no-rerun model of shows like “Prison Break,” “24” and, this season, “Lost,” “Jericho,” one of the year’s most successful new shows, will broadcast its last episode of the fall on Wednesday at 8 p.m., returning with 11 new episodes in February.

“To have a job like this is heaven,” Ms. Reed said about her portrayal of a small-town wife and mother trying to hold her family together in the wake of a nuclear attack. “For the last 15 years, even though I’ve been acting, I’ve kind of kept my career in the back seat. I’ve been much more of a mom than an actress. My kids’ lives have been more important than my work, and I haven’t regretted that for a second. But this, being on a show like this, is a really, really good feeling.”

“As a matter of fact,” she said, “about six months ago my son” — 15-year-old Reed — “and I were driving in the car, and he said: ‘You know, Mom, you’ve given up a lot, you’ve stayed at home. You should just go out there and get a series.’ And then, here comes ‘Jericho.’ ”

As Gail Green, the wife of the mayor of Jericho, Kan., Johnston Green (played by Gerald McRaney), and the mother of the show’s prodigal-son protagonist, Jake Green (played by Skeet Ulrich), Ms. Reed is often the emotional anchor of “Jericho.” Her reactions to the extreme circumstances of the show’s postapocalyptic premise — the scope and origin of the attack are unknown — are believably complex, a mixture of concern for her family, fear of what’s happened to the world and tough-mindedness when it comes to protecting her loved ones.

“We needed a very strong woman,” said the show’s executive producer, Jon Turteltaub. “And to us that means someone who was comfortable within her own skin, was aware of her own flaws and the flaws of the people around her.”

“Pamela walked in, and she had had all those strengths and vulnerabilities and also an extraordinary sense of humor,” he added. “And she has a sexuality about her that is really charming and attractive. A lot of times women on television, if they’re not 24 years old, are asked to not be sexual. And she still carries her femininity and sexual spirit with her. And that really showed us just how interesting the character could be.”

Sharon Bialy, the casting director, recalled that “she moved everyone in the room to tears” during her audition, which included a scene in which she begs her son not to leave the town.

“The other thing I love about Pamela is that she looks normal,” Ms. Bialy said. “Most of the time when we see women in their 50s on television, they look like Morgan Fairchild. Pamela looks real. Which is critical to the show. You have to believe she’s from Jericho, Kansas.”

When asked whether the series’s success — it was the first new show that CBS picked up for a full 22-episode run this season — hinges more on the relationships between the characters than it does on computer-generated mushroom clouds and missile launches, Ms. Reed said: “You’d better believe it. Because if you’re going to do ‘Electra,’ you’d better believe that they killed their mom. And this is Greek in proportion. It’s huge. This isn’t ‘Our Town.’ ”

The career path taken by Ms. Reed — 57, small in stature, husky of voice and feisty by nature — since that opening night in 1976 has been long and uneven, sometimes frustrating and often unclear. Since her award-winning turn as the presidential campaign manager T. J. Cavanaugh in the HBO mini-series “Tanner ’88” 18 years ago, she has become one of those know-them-when-you-see-them actors whose presence on screen, even if you don’t remember their names, is enough to ensure that the film or television show in question gets at least the benefit of the doubt.

Besides her dozens of highly praised stage performances on and off Broadway (she won an Obie for “sustained excellence” in 1984), her lengthy list of credits includes small but memorable roles in films both good (“Bob Roberts,” “The Right Stuff,” “Melvin and Howard”) and otherwise (“Kindergarten Cop,” “Bean,” “Cadillac Man”), and a pair of mid-1990s swing-and-a-miss attempts at network television series (“Grand” and “The Home Court”).

She grew up in Washington State and Maryland, the daughter of a labor organizer, and although she’d been drawn to theater all her life, her professional acting career began relatively late. After attending the University of Maryland and Western Washington University, with some time off for jobs that included teaching and working as a cook on the Alaska pipeline, she graduated from the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program when she was 25 and, skipping her graduation ceremonies, went straight to New York.

A stage career, she says, was always her goal, and she almost certainly would have remained in New York if she hadn’t met her future husband, Sandy Smolan, when he directed her in an independent film called “Rachel River” in 1986. His career opportunities, mostly as a television director, were in Los Angeles.

“I moved out here because I was very much afraid that if we were on two coasts, then before long we’d be divorced,” Ms. Reed said. “It was a recipe for disaster.” She confessed that as much as she loves her Los Angeles neighborhood — the hiking trails and big yards, safe places for her children (Reed and her 11-year-old daughter, Lilly) to play — she still misses her Chelsea apartment, which she gave up only five years ago.

She still does theater as much as she can: appearing frequently at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, conducting seminars for students, spreading the stage-acting gospel. But film and television roles, particularly those that don’t bore her, have been difficult to find.

“Yes, I’ve turned down some things, and it’s not been easy,” she said. “But I don’t have big regrets in terms of my life as an actor. I’m deeply grateful. You do what you can, and you either decide you’re going to be an absent mother or you’re not.

“You know what the nicest thing is? When we got picked up for the full season, my kids were at school. My daughter had just come home from the car pool, came into the house, I was standing in the kitchen and I said, ‘Lilly, we just got picked up for the rest of the year.’ She looked at me, ran across the kitchen, threw her arms around me, hugged me, put her head back, looked me straight in the face and said, ‘Oh, Mommy. I knew you could do it.’ ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/arts/television/26rhod.html?ref=arts

grittree

11-26-06, 09:07 AM

Thats the plan if you don't mind SD. I try to watch everything I can in HD.

While you were away, HD DVRs were invented.

harley1

11-26-06, 09:18 AM

Tucci takes heavy role

Jane Stevenson
Sun Media

NEW YORK — Stanley Tucci has been down the TV series route before, and quite successfully. The 46-year-old character actor broke into the mainstream as the scary business magnate-defendant Richard Cross in the critically acclaimed, but short-lived series, Murder One (1995-1996).

Now Tucci, who starred this past summer in the box-office surprise hit The Devil Wears Prada, opposite Meryl Streep, is back on the small screen as a crotchety but respected New York neurosurgeon, Dr. Douglas Hanson, in the new CBS medical drama 3 lbs (Tuesdays, 10 p.m., also on Citytv).

Shades of Dr. Gregory House anyone? House actually airs an hour earlier on the same night on FOX-Global and Tucci claims he’s never seen it.

For Tucci, starring in 3 lbs, a reference to the average weight of a brain, fits him professionally and personally.

He reportedly replaced Dylan McDermott in the title role after the series’ original pilot didn’t sell two years
ago.

“It was really well-written. Shooting here in New York, I wanted to stay home with my wife and kids,” said New York-born Tucci, the father of six-year-old twins and a four-year-old.

“It’s very hard to go away as they’re getting older. It’s very hard to go away for months at a time to do something.

“And I wanted to stay home and be home as consistently as possible, and what better way to do it than to do a well-written television series and make some money.”

Tucci also wanted to get behind the director’s chair again. The last movie he directed was 2000’s Joe Gould’s Secret, in which he also starred.

“And that will afford me the opportunity to do that,” he said.

“I have three projects that I want to do and in order to do that, though, there has to be some kind of consistency to your schedule and you have to put some money in the bank. Because the movies I make anyway, you can’t pay yourself.”

Tucci hopes his next movie project will star Emily Blunt, one of his co-stars from Prada, and Scottish up-and-comer James McAcoy (The Last King Of Scotland).

“Let’s say 3 lbs goes for 13 episodes, which is all they can make,” explained Tucci. “We’d probably go until March and then I’d go straight into pre-production, then I’d shoot.

“It’s not a three-month shoot or a four-month shoot like a big Hollywood movie. It would be a much smaller shoot than that. Probably eight weeks at the most.

“And then I would edit back here at home while I’m doing the television series. And then I’ll go to an institution.”

Tucci was joking, but he certainly seems driven in a business he described as “not easy.”

“God knows. I mean, at least once a year, or at least once a day, I say: ‘I’m never going to do this again. I hate this. I can’t do it anymore.’ ”

Tucci said he just finds the speed at which the entertainment industry changes a little too much sometimes.

“We as people don’t change that quickly and I think that you always feel like you’re second guessing, and that’s where you’ve just got to stop for a second and say: ‘OK, I’m just going to stick to my guns.’ ”

http://www.calgarysun.com/cgi-bin/publish.cgi?p=163096&x=articles&s=showbiz

harley1

11-26-06, 09:22 AM

'30 Rock' moving to the must- see block

By Gail Shister
Inquirer Columnist

Tina Fey, stuck between a Rock and a hard place, is a big bowl of happy.

When Fey's new NBC comedy, 30 Rock, moves to 9:30 p.m. Thursdays beginning next week, it will face two of TV's top five series in ABC's Grey's Anatomy and CBS's CSI.

Fine with Fey.

"For us, it's just good news," says the droll pride of Upper Darby. "We were already getting our butts handed to us by [ABC's] Dancing With the Stars" at 8 p.m. Wednesdays.

"The idea of getting beaten by better programming is appealing."

After five episodes, 30 Rock averages a pebblelike 5.2 million total viewers, including just 3.2 million among targeted 18-to-49-year-olds, according to Media Nielsen Research.

But like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, its freshman dramatic counterpart, 30 Rock shows NBC the money. Though ranked 76th among total viewers, it's 17th among homes with incomes of $75,000-plus, NBC says.

Unlike Studio 60, however, 30 Rock has yet to be picked up for the "back nine" episodes, to give it a full season's 22. NBC is expected to decide next week.

By including 30 Rock in its new Thursday comedy lineup of My Name Is Earl, The Office, and Scrubs from 8 to 10, NBC hopes to replicate its glorious "Must See TV" night of the past.

NBC Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly says he's "prepared to be quite patient" with 30 Rock. He compares it to The Office, another quirky workplace comedy that took time to grow. "We stuck with it. We nurtured it along."

Still, switching competitors from Dancing to Grey's and CSI "is like jumping from the frying pan to the fire, in a certain respect," Reilly acknowledges.

30 Rock "is not getting any free pass, that's for sure. Moving it to Thursdays is testament to our belief in the show and our belief in the night."

Tina Fey believes.

After six seasons at Saturday Night Live as head writer and coanchor of the popular "Weekend Update" segment, she's finally running her own show. Or, more precisely, her show within a show.

30 Rock revolves around the backstage insanity of a live network comedy show out of New York. Fey, 36, is creator, writer, executive producer and star.

As terminally single head writer Liz Lemon, she battles Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), her anal-retentive boss brought in by owner General Electric, and her own writers, who occasionally hurl small appliances at her head.

Reality Check 1: Though GE owns NBC, Fey says the evil, soft-spoken Donaghy is not based on any real-life NBC suits. "I don't party down with those GE guys too much."

Reilly, who probably does, crows that landing movie star Baldwin for a full series "is perhaps the biggest coup of the TV season. He's one of the great scene stealers in Hollywood, and he's been offered dozens of scripts."

It probably didn't hurt that Baldwin has hosted SNL 13 times, one less than record-holder Steve Martin, and was a frequent guest star on NBC's Will & Grace.

Reality Check 2: In the real writers' room at 30 Rock, "they like me," Fey says. "If they throw stuff at me, it's a goof, not in anger."

To Fey, the writers' room "is a really fun place. It's not a heroic place. What I like is that people are at their most base, crude, complaining and selfish."

Did somebody say crude, complaining and selfish? Tracy Morgan, Fey's ex-SNL castmate, plays Tracy Jordan, a hip-hop, whacked-out movie star who wears big jewelry and travels with a posse.

Morgan, 38, says his character is not a stereotype.

"I come from the hip-hop generation. Black people love good clothes and jewelry. I wear jewelry every day. I have a $91,000 bracelet on right now. All diamonds. My wrist is frosty. All I wear is frosty."

As a younger man in the 'hood, "I had truck jewelry; heavy-duty chains," Morgan says. "Now I wear more expensive, nice stuff. Not so vulgarious."

In real life, Morgan has been married to his high school sweetheart since 1985 and they have three sons, 15, 19 and 21. "I don't take medication. I'm stable. I'm not off the deep end. My character flies over the cuckoo's nest."

In her real life, Fey and her husband, director Jeff Richmond, have a 14-month-old daughter, Alice. Babies "are instant priority machines," she says. "You just can't waste your time stressing out about work things."

Like any savvy employee, Morgan sucks up to the boss. Fey "is cool. She's down like four flat tires. She takes the anxiety off the set."

No small feat, that. After years of playing to a live studio audience, Morgan and Fey now perform without civilians in the bleachers - or a laugh track. (Ditto for The Office, by the way.)

To Morgan, "it means it's real comedy. There's no audience to develop a relationship with. We got to bring it."

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16077368.htm

harley1

11-26-06, 09:31 AM

Critic loses giddiness for NBC's show `Studio 60'

By Maureen Ryan
Tribune television critic

November 26, 2006

Talk about a bait and switch.

Three viewings of the first hour of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," Aaron Sorkin's NBC series about the backstage drama at a sketch-comedy show, convinced me that it was the best pilot of the fall season.

The episode was a crackling thrill ride, and I take back none of my praise for it. I said in my Sept. 18 review that "in a fall TV season with no shortage of fine offerings, it's the only show that made me positively giddy with excitement. `Studio 60' is not just good, it has the potential to be a small-screen classic."

Well, every TV show out there is an ever-evolving beast, and some revision of that view is in order. OK, in "Studio 60's" case, a big revision. Scratch the giddiness, for one thing.

The problem is, the "Studio 60" pilot promised one thing -- meaty character-driven drama about flawed creative people working under enormous pressures -- and delivered another thing entirely. Namely, a platform for Sorkin's out-of-date culture-war screeds and a variety of lectures that we Midwesterners may be too unsophisticated to understand.

Forgive my bitterness. I had sky-high hopes for this series, which gave Matthew Perry a meaty dramatic role as writer Matt Albie -- at first. Then the series undercut his character's supposed comic genius by having him preside over sketches that are not only not funny ... they are embarrassingly, stunningly anti-funny.

Sorkin apparently couldn't care less -- or doesn't realize -- that his characters come off as pompous and clueless. That's because, beyond the first couple of episodes, he doesn't seem to be interested in his characters as people. He's using them as mouthpieces to settle his own personal scores and to take opposite sides of cultural debates that, in his hands, come off as clumsy and tin-eared.

Sleazy, shame-driven reality TV is bad? Wow. Thanks for having the guts to take that one on, Aaron -- years after the genre faded from the networks.

Amid the preaching, Sarah Paulson has tried to make her character, Harriet Hayes, a real person, but she's fighting a losing battle. Hayes, a devout Christian in Hollywood (shocker!), is routinely browbeaten for her beliefs, a "dramatic" gambit that is as tiresome as it is insulting. Who would really attack a co-worker for her beliefs every day? That's not just insufferably presumptuous, it's plain bad manners.

Network executive Jordan McDeere went from a refreshingly bold presence to someone who walked into a room of semi-strangers -- people who work for her, mind you -- and begged them to be her friend (and by the way, on what planet would the tabloids care about a TV executive's personal life?).

Steven Weber's capable of giving a sensational performance as icy network head Jack Rudolph, but so far he has been mostly reduced to sputtering at McDeere's flippant remarks. As for the potentially intriguing relationship between Albie and his creative partner, Danny Tripp, it has been a non-starter. What happened to Tripp's drug issues and to his complicated relationship with his best friend? Not much.

The worst of "Studio 60's" excesses -- jarringly condescending scenes about how the Hollywood blacklist was bad, about middle-age Midwesterners so sheltered that they hadn't heard of Abbott and Costello -- may be over. But the most-improved sketch comedy show on NBC is "30 Rock," which at this point shows more promise than Sorkin's series.

Still, Sorkin is capable of diverting, sparky dialogue, and "Studio 60" shows an occasional moment of emotional truth. One day, we may get an interesting program about the creative and personal dilemmas of McDeere, Albie, Hayes and Rudolph.

The question is, will anyone still care?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/reviews/critics/chi-0611250242nov26,1,4692218,print.story?coll=chi-ent_critics-hed

harley1

11-26-06, 09:38 AM

Jordana Spiro sparkles as one of the guys on the new TBS comedy 'My Boys?

Frazier Moore
Canadian Press

P.J. Franklin is a twentysomething gal who's just one of the guys on the new TBS sitcom "My Boys," but not as a poor substitute for romance.

Someone this appealing has no need to compromise.

She's just respecting her druthers and, for P.J., the dependable joys of weekly poker games, pub-hopping, sports as a hobby and career (she covers the Cubs for the Chicago Sun-Times), and abundant sassy banter soundly trump the pitfalls of dating.

No wonder she prefers fraternal ties (and not just figuratively, one of the guys is her older brother) to sorting out a love life's mysteries.

Meanwhile, her boys endorse her membership. She's the one girl they can be themselves around.

"My Boys" (premiering 10 p.m. EST Tuesday) is a shrewd, funny look at what the genders have in common and can learn from each other, when they let their guard down.

The single-camera comedy sports a fine cast, including Michael Bunin, Kyle Howard, Jamie Kaler, Reid Scott and, in particular, Jim Gaffigan as P.J.'s reined-in married brother.

Kellee Stewart plays gal pal Stephanie, who, being "plenty girly enough for the both of us," as P.J. says, provides a spirited rebuttal to her boys'-club lifestyle.

But the heart of the show is Jordana Spiro. As P.J., she is deliciously authentic, irresistible and the season's happiest discovery, at least, for those who haven't already had the pleasure.

Other viewers may remember Spiro from "The Huntress," a USA drama where she played the teenage daughter who teamed up with her widowed mom as bounty hunters. She also had guest shots on "CSI: NY," "Cold Case" and "JAG."

And those who saw the 2005 romantic comedy "Must Love Dogs" were charmed by Spiro in a tiny but indelible performance as John Cusack's ditzy date. On-screen less than three minutes, when she airily dismisses the film "Doctor Zhivago" by saying "I didn't get it," her cluelessness speaks volumes. Spiro can bring substance even to a bubble-head, and do it in a flash.

She has much more to work with now as P.J., who (if a recent conversation proves anything) happens to be someone with whom she shares several qualities - a beaming smile, plummy voice never far from a chuckle and an eager curiosity (she arrives for the interview with lots of questions about journalism, not just answers about herself).

She is wearing a black sweater and black jeans, her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. Maybe a little girlier than P.J., maybe not.

But there are also distinct differences.

"P.J. could probably drink me under the table," says Spiro. "Not that I don't enjoy a few libations every once in a while. But she would slam me down.

"And prior to 'My Boys,' I had never gotten too involved in the world of sports. The first baseball game I went to, I asked what time the show started."

Not that she wasn't interested before, she hastens to add. It just wasn't something she was raised with.

Spiro grew up in Manhattan, the middle of five kids whose parents were art dealers. They encouraged her interest in acting with one caveat, that she never forget it's a business.

So she has made it her business to use acting as a path for exploration.

"I'm one of those people who's interested in everything and have a difficult time choosing, so I wanted a career that was project-oriented, where I could learn a whole new set of things, and then move on and learn another set of things."

After high school, she moved to Los Angeles and soon landed a guest shot on Marie Osmond's short-lived ABC sitcom, "Maybe This Time," where immediately she learned a useful lesson.

"The director pulled me aside at one point and said, 'Right now you're this way, and I'd like you to be that way.' Then the producer pulled me aside and said, 'Could you do it more this way and less that way?' They were completely in conflict!

"So I decided to just do it the same as before. And they both loved it."

Another project she fondly recalls is "From Dusk Till Dawn 3."

"Nobody really knows there was even a '2,' " she chuckles. "But for me it was great, because I got to go to South Africa, and I've always been interested in travelling."

In the film, set in Mexico a hundred years ago, "I got to play a girl who was posing as a boy who wanted to be an outlaw," she explains, "and that was fun. I was fixed on the idea that my character would chew tobacco. They were saying you could just take black Twizzlers and stick 'em in your mouth. But I would say, 'Tish, tosh, I'm Method. If my character chews tobacco, I chew tobacco!'

"I'd get these head rushes, sitting on my horse."

Now, as P.J., she has a whole new set of skills to master.

"I've had to really hunker down and learn a lot about sports," says Spiro. Then she recounts an introductory chat with "My Boys" creator Betsy Thomas, who offered her some tips on preparing for the role.

"She said, 'You need to learn how to play poker, you need to start watching as much baseball as you can, and you need to come out and drink with us.' I said, 'This is the best job I've ever had in my life! If we can also fit in saving the world, I'm gold!' "

Who's to say she won't be gold anyway?

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=bd2a8fe5-e4e6-41a4-b720-d3c54b40e059&k=39924

CPanther95

11-26-06, 09:44 AM

I realize the nets are in a tough spot with low ratings, but how can they expect a serialized show to build up steam and an audience in just a few weeks?

That's the problem with most serials. If they don't have an audience within a few weeks, it is unlikely to build on it with more time. Heroes and Jericho were intriguing enough to get that initial audience, the others didn't. On any other network, Studio 60 and Friday Night Lights would have probably been yanked already also.

harley1

11-26-06, 09:51 AM

THE ODD COUPLE: TELEVISION & MARRIAGE

TV has a love-hate relationship with matrimony

By JILL VEJNOSKA

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 11/26/2006

Marriage has been very good to Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa. In the relatively heartless world of broadcast television, where it's hard to get even one new show on the air, the husband-and-wife producing team persuaded two networks to say "I do" to their proposals for a pair of sitcoms they co-created for this fall's schedule.

Both shows are about marriage, although they approach the subject from very different directions.

" 'Til Death" (8 p.m. Thursdays, Fox) features Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher as a bickering couple with two decades of wedlock under their belts and an almost fiendish desire to knock some sense into the annoyingly happy newlyweds next door. On "Big Day," premiering Tuesday at 9 p.m. on ABC, Alice and Danny (Marla Sokoloff and Josh Cooke) can't wait to get hitched — they just have to make it through the ceremony.

" 'Til Death" got plenty of early attention thanks to the presence of Garrett, a three-time Emmy winner for "Everybody Loves Raymond," a sitcom that offered a similarly downbeat vision of marriage as a life sentence. But it's "Big Day" that could turn out to be more significant.

That's not just because it attempts to apply the "24" formula to a half-hour comedy (each episode covers an hour in Alice and Danny's wedding day). The show also doesn't spend all its time bad-mouthing marriage. For all the arguing that goes on — Alice's mother wants to switch the reception salad, and Alice's father has some doubts about Danny — this is one sitcom that suggests the honeymoon doesn't always have to end.

Its message? "Everything you're fighting about now is just paper and trash; the emotion is what you really take with you afterwards," Yuspa says. "The show will get some comedy out of the silly things, but it will be romantic and loving too."

As such, it joins a mini-trend of comedic shows that are attempting to mend television's love-hate relationship with marriage. The medium is clearly besotted with the subject: Besides the two Goldsmith-Yuspa shows, Fox's "The Wedding Album," about a wedding photographer and his assistant, and ABC's "The Wedding Store," a David E. Kelley comedy about wedding planners, are both poised for midseason premieres.

ABC already has taken the plunge with "Men in Trees," the dandy little screwball dramedy about a relationships expert (Anne Heche) who catches her fiancé cheating and ends up in Alaska advising lovelorn men about how to find a mate.

On the other hand, some of TV's most enduring or popular shows can't find a lot good to say about matrimony. "The Bachelor" and "How I Met Your Mother" may romanticize the quest for a mate, but more common are sitcoms such as "Two and a Half Men," "According to Jim" and "The War at Home," which depict marriage as a sort of soul-sapping endurance test.

"I don't think you really want to watch a marriage that works on TV," Garrett says. "I don't know how funny that would be."

Apparently he never saw "The Cosby Show," "The Bob Newhart Show" or "Mad About You." Not to mention "Everybody Hates Chris," now in its second season on the CW.

Executive Producer Ali LeRoi frequently ends up scratching his head over the mixed, or flat-out wrong, messages he sees television — and particularly sitcoms — sending out.

Marriage is "not all just about, 'I'm a fat guy and I drink too much beer and where's the remote?' " says LeRoi, the co-creator, with comedian Chris Rock, of the series based on Rock's adolescence in 1980s Brooklyn. "What if you love your husband? What if you love your wife? And sometimes they get on your nerves, but that's it."

One answer lies in the funny, but lovingly respectful, relationship that exists between Julius (Terry Crews) and Rochelle (Tichina Arnold), "Chris's" working-class parents of three. The most obvious TV parallel may be to "Roseanne," which, for all its raised voices and dark humor, rarely strayed from the message of the rock-solid marriage at its core (see accompanying list).

Rock suggests that there are many more marital duos like that in real life — "I grew up in a stable marriage, and my parents loved each other" — and not enough of them depicted on the small screen.

"I like couples on TV," says Rock, adding that he wouldn't mind if Julius and Rochelle's relationship came to resemble that of another TV tandem in at least one way: "I like Tony Soprano and his wife, because they're like a couple," he says. "You can tell they're made for each other. They're in it. They're partners, you know. For real."

Meanwhile, "Men in Trees" doesn't suggest that there's anything wrong with marriage — it's just not right for Marin Frist (Heche) right now. A best-selling author and lecturer on the subject of how to find a man when the show starts, Marin decides that Alaska is as good a place as any to hide out when her marriage plans go awry. Soon, though, it becomes more about finding herself.

"Is marriage still important? That's part of her journey," says Jenny Bicks, creator of "Trees," which moves this week to Thursday at 10 p.m. "It was her Holy Grail, it was about teaching women their lessons: We're supposed to learn to get married. Now it's, 'What happens if you don't?' "

Bicks was a writer and executive producer for "Sex and the City," which explored some of the same themes. But for all its sexual uninhibitedness, the HBO sitcom was almost rigid in defining its female characters by the male company they kept. There's less relationship scoreboard-watching in "Men in Trees," where the remote town of Elmo, Alaska, is living, quirky proof that there are all sorts of ways to live and get along.

"My idea is to show relationships in all forms," Bicks explains regarding an episode in which Elmo got "dumped" by its sister city and started making drastic changes to its downtown before eventually coming to its senses. "I'm especially trying [not] to have these pronouncements about the state of marriage or the state of singlehood. We all know people who are incredibly happy and unhappy in both. My point is there's no one way to be happy — be happy with yourself."

Uh, who said anything about being happy? Certainly not " 'Til Death" star Garrett, who suggests that TV has been doing just fine by marriage ever since Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows began bickering on "The Honeymooners" in 1955.

"Comedy comes from pathos and conflict and unhappiness, going back to the beginning of time," Garrett says. "It's just not funny when someone gets along."

http://www.accessatlanta.com/entertainment/content/entertainment/tv/stories/2006/11/24/1126artvmarriage.html

harley1

11-26-06, 09:56 AM

Burns debuts new documentary 'The War'

Associated Press

WALPOLE, N.H. - Two troubling statistics fueled the creation of "The War," the 14-hour documentary about World War II from acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns.

Burns thought he was done with war movies after his series, "The Civil War." But he changed his mind after realizing that America was losing its grip on the facts of World War II.

"It was really a couple of statistics that got me," Burns said. "One was that we're losing a thousand (World War II) veterans a day, and the other is that our children just don't know what's going on."

Burns said he was astonished at the number of high school graduates who believe the United States fought with the Germans in World War II.

"That to me was terrifying, just stupefying," said Burns, who will show the first two-hour installment of The War to Dartmouth College on Dec. 1.

The series follows four American towns - Waterbury, Conn., Mobile, Ala., Sacramento, Calif., and Luverne, Minn. - through the war years, focusing both on the soldiers from the towns sent to war and the families and friends left behind. Burns and his team interviewed 40 people who fought in the war or lived through it, and actors ranging from Tom Hanks to a 13-year-old Walpole girl read journals or newspaper articles about another half-dozen others. Home movies are interspersed with official archives of war footage.

"What it allows the film to be is experiential," Burns said. "It's not that our narrator doesn't talk about strategy or tactics, but you're not distracted by celebrities. It's not about Roosevelt and Churchill and Stalin and Hitler. It's not about Eisenhower and Rommel. These people are names that pass before us in this film, they're not insignificant. But the point of view is from ordinary people, who do the fighting and who do the dying in all wars."

The film also moves away from Burns' signature style - panning a camera across or focusing on a detail in an old photograph to give the viewer a sense of movement, while an actor reads from a speech or a journal over period music. But viewers still can expect the sort of painstaking attention to detail that has become a hallmark of Burns' work. It took a year to edit the sound to make the battle scenes as lifelike as possible, Burns said.

Work on "The War" started six years ago, before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Asked about the contrast between today's home front and World War II, Burns called the latter, "the greatest collective effort in the history of our country."

Common sacrifice is lacking today, he said.

"We now have a military class in this country that suffers apart and alone, whereas there wasn't a family on any street in America that wasn't in some way touched by the war," he said.

"When 9/11 happened what were you asked to do? Nothing. Go shopping. That's what we were told," Burns said. "Go shopping. It's ridiculous. Nobody said, 'This is a war born of oil, turn your thermostats down five degrees.' "

The War will be broadcast next September on PBS.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/entertainment/16099211.htm

rustycruiser

11-26-06, 10:03 AM

While you were away, HD DVRs were invented.

Yeah, it's really feasable to DVR a whole season of a show in HD on two, let alone one of my 120 gig HD DVRs.

:rolleyes:

:D

tkmedia2

11-26-06, 10:10 AM

Brian Lowry Tuning In
'Lost' needs an exit strategy
By Brian Lowry Daily Variety November 26, 2006

So here's a not-so-wild thought: ABC should announce that May 20, 2009 -- or, if they're feeling greedier than usual, May 26, 2010 -- will mark the last episode of the network's "Lost."
Species of television continue to evolve. The miniseries, for example, has essentially faded from existence beyond its Emmy category, to be replaced by two-part, four-hour movies or longer runs now labeled "limited series." In either case, it's a far cry from multi-night events such as "Roots" or "Shogun."

What appears to be needed is the "maxi-series" -- a program that, even in success, runs a finite number of years before coming to a resolution -- providing an answer to the open-ended commitment of serialized dramas.

Not every series merits this sort of treatment. That said, setting a "date certain," to borrow a current political phrase, for paying off the mystery in "Lost," the chase in Fox's "Prison Break," the threat of Armageddon in NBC's "Heroes" and CBS' newcomer "Jericho" would go a long way toward forestalling the frustration that frequently besets marginal viewers of such shows, where each opened door inevitably leads to another long hallway.

The maxi-series concept reflects a push away from the traditional "Run five years and cash in on syndication" model, but so what? The old road to riches is increasingly irrelevant for the aforementioned series, which cash in on DVD and ancillary sales at their peak but whose shelf life is far more limited than repeatable franchises such as "Law & Order" or "CSI."

In a sense, feature films have already lit the path leading in this direction. Think about the "Star Wars" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogies, which promised a complete story with a beginning, middle and end -- stretched out, by virtue of the interval between sequels, into a six-year span.

The beauty of the maxi-series is that it would allow producers to plan and build toward an actual finale -- reducing, if not eliminating, the pressure to keep pulling narrative rabbits out of the same hat. No wonder the creative masterminds behind "Lost" joke about a "zombie season" when they've theoretically exhausted every narrative trick and, all bets being off, fill the island with zombies.

"People are fed up. They want answers, dammit," exec producer Carlton Cuse joked on the preseason podcast, a video diary he tapes with partner Damon Lindelof for those fans whose ardor can't be sated by a weekly hour of TV.

Beyond movies, pay cable also has tinkered with the maxi-series template. Take HBO's "Rome," which will return for a conclusive 12-episode run early next year. Part of that, admittedly, stems from the show's prohibitive expense and the fact that the pay net's European partners balked at further seasons, but a second flight of this classy drama -- knowing that's all, folks -- is still an eminently enjoyable prospect.

This isn't to suggest the maxi-series comes without drawbacks. One network exec told me the exit-strategy proposal sounds good but, as a practical matter, is unlikely to catch on -- namely because nobody wants to commit far in advance to removing a series from their lineup when it might still be packing in viewers.

Granted, programmers would have to swallow hard before bidding farewell to a powerful franchise like "Lost," or even a reliable role player like "Prison Break." Yet the counter-argument is the near-term benefits should offset such concerns -- especially if more people stick around, instead of drifting away, because they know precisely when the payoff was due.

San Francisco Chronicle critic Tim Goodman recently surmised that, separated from TV's business demands, a premise like "Lost" would run only two or three seasons. Generously, my targeted farewell date would extend through the last night of the May sweeps in year five or six, giving development staffs time to get cracking on worthy heirs.

So come on. Tell us now when we'll learn what's really behind that island, when "Prison Break's" brothers will reach safety in Mexico (and possible unseat a sitting U.S. president), and when we'll discover how much of the U.S. survived the mushroom clouds that left the town of Jericho standing.

Until then, I'll be sequestered in my own private hatch, getting the popcorn ready.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117954419.html?categoryid=1682&cs=1

fredfa

11-26-06, 10:29 AM

TV Sports
Nets wait for NBA's aud bounce
TNT, ESPN both down in total viewers for first three weeks
By John Dempsey Variety.com Nov. 26, 2006

Pro basketball is coming off a solid year: Ratings were up during 2005-06 for its national distributors -- TNT, ESPN and ABC -- and attendance at the arenas set a record for the fourth year in a row.

David Stern, commissioner of the National Basketball Assn., reflected the buoyant mood when he said in a conference call right before the season opener: "Life is good, and shows every indication of being even better."

The word "better," however, is premature when applied to TNT and ESPN, which are down in total viewers for the first three weeks of the new season.

TNT can attribute some of the blame for the 11% dropoff in viewers for the first eight NBA games of 2006-07 to tougher competition: namely, Big East college football, which has proven to be an unexpected Nielsen bonanza for ESPN on Thursday nights, when TNT schedules its exclusive NBA doubleheaders.

But regular-season college football wraps up in two weeks, giving TNT's execs confidence that its NBA numbers will bounce back, and maybe even eclipse last year's.

ESPN is off by 2% in total viewers for the first 12 games spread across the network's primetime schedules on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

"I'm optimistic that, as we progress during the season, the numbers will move in the right direction," says Doug White, director of programming for ESPN.

White calls the NBA "a healthy league, which has taken the initiative in putting out a product that appeals to our viewers."

Stern had television very much in mind, White says, when he pushed for passage of the clause that stops players from hand-checking one another.

"Stern adapted the rulebook to speed up the flow of the game and give more advantage to the offense," says David Carter, a principal in the Los Angeles-based Sports Business Group. "It's scoring that drives Nielsen ratings and ticket sales, not grind-it-out defense."

ESPN and TNT have two years left to go on their combined $4.6 billion/six-year contract to share in nationally distributed coverage of the NBA, a humongous license fee, but they're not complaining. The numbers may be down a bit in the early going, but TNT and ESPN are each averaging more than 1.5 million total viewers so far this season. (ABC starts carrying regular Sunday afternoon games in January.)

An advertiser will pay a premium to buy these games because they pull in disproportionate numbers of young men, and, as live events, they're almost TiVo-proof: People aren't stacking them up in their hard drives in order to zap the commercials during later viewing.

Sports-media consultant Mike Trager says another reason that advertisers are gung-ho about buying time in NBA games is that Stern has burnished the league's image by successfully imposing a strict dress code on the players and cracking down on the verbal trashing of referees.

More young men are seeking out NBA games on TV, says Kevin O'Malley, a Tampa, Fla.-based media/sports consultant, because "a fresh group of youthful stars are rejuvenating interest in the game."

O'Malley cites such players as LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony.

The league earns higher TV ratings when its big-market teams do well; most analysts are predicting certain playoff berths for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Chicago Bulls, and a likely postseason appearance by the L.A. Lakers.

But as for a playoff slot for the perennially dysfunctional Knicks, sports mavens employ a favorite New York colloquialism: "Fuggedaboutit."

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117954422&categoryid=14

harley1

11-26-06, 10:34 AM

It's the wide world of sports, love, comedy
TBS takes to the field with a charmer in 'My Boys,' but that network's'10 Items or Less' and ABC's 'Big Day' strike out.

Hal Boedeker | Sentinel Columnist
Posted November 26, 2006

State of the sitcom today: Those that don't try so hard are more amusing than those straining to bust your gut. Those designated "laugh riots" usually produce pain. Is it any wonder sitcoms are struggling?

So let us give thanks that TBS' My Boys ambles in with low-key charm. This series, which debuts at 10 p.m. Tuesday, transcends a tricky topic.

Creator Betsy Thomas chooses a newspaper writer as her heroine. This is a highly improbable move, given the uncertain state of the newspaper industry.

Thomas wisely says she won't go there. "This is a fantasy where journalists keep their jobs," she says. "You know, it's TV."

Instead, Thomas concentrates on the romantic difficulties of PJ Franklin (Jordana Spiro). PJ, a baseball writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, compares dating to sports in her witty narration.

Yes, My Boys echoes Sex and the City. But this new series is a pleasant variation on that TV classic. PJ is more down-to-earth and tomboyish than Carrie Bradshaw.

PJ asks gal pal Stephanie Layne (Kellee Stewart) for advice. More often, PJ turns to her poker-playing male buddies. She has a rapport with men that Carrie never had.

Does that situation seem real, or is it another fantasy? However you look at it, the setup gives this series a fresh spin. PJ's friendship with men is crimping her dating life.

There is some hope when she finds herself attracted to Bobby Newman (Kyle Howard), a sportswriter for the Chicago Tribune. Bobby has charm and good looks, but he might not be able to accept PJ for the adult, no-nonsense woman she is.

My Boys benefits from deft casting. As PJ, Spiro is natural, unpretentious and utterly delightful. The actress excels at playing PJ's romantic yearning.

The series surrounds her with distinctive supporting actors who quickly come across as a tightknit crew. Jim Gaffigan is acerbic as PJ's put-upon brother. Bickering and bantering believably are Reid Scott as a playboy disc jockey, Jamie Kaler as a Chicago Cubs employee and Michael Bunin as the owner of a sports-memorabilia store.

My Boys is filmed like a movie. It has no laugh track and no studio audience. My Boys also doesn't have a gimmick, another plus. Gimmicks trip up two other sitcoms premiering this week.

Big Day, debuting at 9 p.m. Tuesday on ABC, follows a wedding day in real time -- the same way 24 unfolds. This comedy must keep coming up with crises to sustain the premise. The bride's father dislikes the groom. The bride's sister accidentally drinks the best man's contact lenses, leaving him blind. The groom wants to walk down the aisle to the What's Happening! theme song. Big Day is forced and tiring, although Wendie Malick is a delirious hoot as the bride's pushy mom.

TBS is presenting 10 Items or Less at 11 p.m. Monday. This comedy stresses an improv approach in following employees at an Ohio grocery store. They are led by Leslie Pool (John Lehr), who just inherited the store from his father. Leslie isn't bright, and that is supposed to be funny. Most of the time, he and the show are insufferable.

But My Boys offers some hope for the sitcom genre. This comedy might not be a home run, but a triple is nothing to ignore. That a show about a newspaper writer can produce laughs these days -- that's something.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/orl-haltv112606nov26,0,7725298.story?coll=orl-home-entlife

fredfa

11-26-06, 10:40 AM

TV Notebook
TV Land's The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases
A Comprehensive List of TV's Most Memorable Expressions Over the Past 60 Years
(TVLand News Release)

TV Land counts down The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases in a week-long look at the memorable sayings from cartoons, television series, commercials and news programs over the past 60 years like Donald Trump's (The Apprentice) "You're fired" to Billy Crystal's (Saturday Night Live) "You look mahvelous!" to Walter Cronkite's "And that's the way it is." Building on the success of 2005's The 100 Most Unexpected TV Moments, The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases gives viewers a look inside the origins of some of pop culture's most remembered and repeated catchphrases. The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases, which is produced by Gay Rosenthal Productions (Behind the Music and Little People, Big World), airs on Monday, December 11 from 10 to 11 P.M. ET/PT for five consecutive nights.

TV Land's The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases features original talent interviews and archival clips of those who made them famous as well as those who have been deeply influenced by the catchphrases. From Neil Armstrong's unforgettable "One small step ... " to Fred Flintstone's cartoon catchphrase "Yabba dabba do" to The Price is Right's Johnny Olson's call to "Come on down," TV Land's The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases will take viewers from 100 to 1 in this lively week-long countdown show.

"We have found that television is such a huge part of Baby Boomers' DNA that it makes sense that so much of America's pop culture jargon has come from TV," stated Larry W. Jones, President, TV Land. "We are sure that The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases will strike a chord with the TV Generation and will illustrate the influence the medium has had on pop culture."

The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases by the numbers:

• 1 moment from the 1940's; 10 moments from 1950's; 20 moments from the 1960's; 26 moments from the 1970's; 15 moments from the 1980's; 19 moments from the 1990's; and 9 moments from 2000 and on.

• 28 comedy moments top the list by genre with one-liners including "Dynomite" from Good Times and "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!" from South Park.

• 10 commercials grace the list including "I can't believe I ate that whole thing" from Alka Seltzer and Energizer Batteries "It keeps going and going and going ... "

• 21 variety show phrases include "Jane, you ignorant slut" from Saturday Night Live and "Here it is, your moment of Zen" from The Daily Show. Here is the list of The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases in alphabetical order:

(A List in numerical order will be available on December 6th, 2006)

• ... if it weren't for you meddling kids! (Various villains, Scooby Doo, Where Are You?)

• Aaay! (Fonzie, Happy Days)

• And that's the way it is. (Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News)

• Ask not what your country can do for you ... (John F. Kennedy)

• Baby, you're the greatest. (Ralph Kramden, The Honeymooners)

• Bam! (Emeril Lagasse, Emeril Live)

• Book 'em, Danno. (Steve McGarrett, Hawaii Five-O)

• Come on down! (Johnny Olson, et al, The Price is Right)

• Danger, Will Robinson! (Robot, Lost in Space)

• De plane! De plane! (Tattoo, Fantasy Island)

• Denny Crane. (Denny Crane, Boston Legal)

• Do you believe in miracles? (Al Michaels, 1980 Winter Olympics)

• D'oh! (Homer Simpson, The Simpsons)

• Don't make me angry... (David Banner, The Incredible Hulk)

• Dynomite! (J.J., Good Times)

• Elizabeth, I'm coming! (Fred Sanford, Sanford and Son)

• Gee, Mrs. Cleaver... (Eddie Haskell, Leave it to Beaver)

• God'll get you for that. (Maude, Maude)

• Good grief. (Charlie Brown, Peanuts Specials)

• Good night and good luck. (Edward R. Murrow, See It Now)

• Good night, John Boy. (The Waltons)

• Have you no sense of decency? (Joseph Welch to Sen. McCarthy)

• Heh heh... (Beavis & Butthead, Beavis and Butthead)

• Here it is, your moment of Zen. (Jon Stewart, The Daily Show)

• Here's Johnny! (Ed McMahon, The Tonight Show)

• Hey now! (Hank Kingsley, The Larry Sanders Show)

• Hey, hey, hey! (Dwayne Nelson, What's Happening!!)

• Hey, hey, hey! (Fat Albert, Fat Albert)

• Holy ______, Batman! (Robin, Batman)

• Holy crap! (Frank Barone, Everybody Loves Raymond)

• Homey don't play that! (Homey the Clown, In Living Color)

• How sweet it is! (Jackie Gleason, The Jackie Gleason Show)

• How you doin'? (Joey Tribbiani, Friends)

• I can't believe I ate that whole thing. (Alka Seltzer)

• I know nothing! (Sgt. Schultz, Hogan's Heroes)

• I love it when a plan comes together. (Hannibal, The A-Team)

• I want my MTV! (MTV)

• I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl... (Larry, Newhart)

• I'm not a crook. (Richard Nixon)

• I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV. (Vicks Formula 44)

• I'm Rick James, bitch! (Dave Chappelle as Rick James, Chappelle's Show)

• Is that your final answer? (Regis Philbin, Who Wants to be a Millionaire)

• It keeps going and going and going... (Energizer Batteries)

• It takes a licking... (Timex)

• Jane, you ignorant slut. (Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd, Saturday Night Live)

• Just one more thing... (Columbo, Columbo)

• Let's be careful out there. (Sgt. Esterhaus, Hill Street Blues)

• Let's get ready to rumble! (Michael Buffer, Various sporting events)

• Live long and prosper. (Spock, Star Trek)

• Making whoopie! (Bob Eubanks, The Newlywed Game)

• Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! (Jan Brady, The Brady Bunch)

• Mom always liked you best. (Tommy Smothers, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour)

• Never assume... (Felix Unger, The Odd Couple)

• Nip it! (Barney Fife, The Andy Griffith Show)

• No soup for you! (Soup Nazi, Seinfeld)

• Norm! (Cheers)

• Now cut that out! (Jack Benny, The Jack Benny Program)

• Oh my God! They killed Kenny! (Stan and Kyle, South Park)

• Oh, my nose! (Marcia Brady, The Brady Bunch)

• One small step for man... (Neil Armstrong)

• Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon? (Grey Poupon)

• Read my lips: No new taxes! (George H.W. Bush)

• Resistance is futile. (Picard as Borg, Star Trek: The Next Generation)

• Say good night, Gracie. (George Burns, The Burns & Allen Show)

• Schwing! (Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as Wayne and Garth, Saturday Night Live)

• Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy. (Lloyd Bentsen to Dan Quayle)

• Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids! (Trix Cereal)

• Smile, you're on Candid Camera! (Candid Camera)

• Sock it to me. (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In)

• Space, the final frontier... (Capt. Kirk, Star Trek)

• Stifle! (Archie Bunker, All in the Family)

• Suit up! (Barney Stinson, How I Met Your Mother)

• Tastes great! Less filling! (Miller Lite Beer)

• Tell me what you don't like about yourself. (Dr. McNamara & Dr. Troy, Nip/Tuck)

• That's hot. (Paris Hilton, The Simple Life)

• The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. (Jim McKay, ABC's Wide World of Sports)

• The tribe has spoken. (Jeff Probst, Survivor)

• The truth is out there. (Fox Mulder, The X-Files)

• This is the city... (Sgt. Joe Friday, Dragnet)

• Time to make the donuts. (Dunkin' Donuts)

• Two thumbs up! (Siskel & Ebert / Ebert & Roeper)

• Up your nose with a rubber hose. (Vinnie Barbarino, Welcome Back, Kotter)

• We are two wild and crazy guys! (Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd, Saturday Night Live)

• Welcome to the O.C., bitch. (Luke, The O.C.)

• Well, isn't that special? (Dana Carvey as The Church Lady, Saturday Night Live)

• We've got a really big show! (Ed Sullivan, The Ed Sullivan Show)

• Whassup? (Budweiser)

• What you see is what you get! (Geraldine, The Flip Wilson Show)

• Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis? (Arnold Drummond, Diff'rent Strokes)

• Where's the beef? (Wendy's)

• Who loves you, baby? (Kojak, Kojak)

• Would you believe? (Maxwell Smart, Get Smart)

• Yabba dabba do! (Fred Flintstone, The Flintstones)

• Yada, yada, yada... (Seinfeld)

• Yeah, that's the ticket. (Jon Lovitz, Saturday Night Live)

• You eeeediot! (Ren, Ren & Stimpy)

• You look mahvelous! (Billy Crystal as Fernando, Saturday Night Live)

• You rang? (Lurch, The Addams Family)

• You're fired! (Donald Trump, The Apprentice)

• You've got spunk... (Mr. Grant, Mary Tyler Moore)

The following are episode highlights for The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases (all times ET/PT):

• Monday, December 11, 10 P.M., Phrases 100-81, (TV-PG)

In the first of this five-part special to countdown to the #1 catchphrase in TV history, Brady Bunch cast members Barry Williams and Christopher Knight recall Marcia Brady's unforgettable line "Oh my nose!," and The Simple Life Executive Producer, Jonathan Murray, shares the origins of Paris Hilton's sizzling catchphrase "That's hot."

• Tuesday, December 12, 10 P.M., Phrases 80-61, (TV-PG)

In the second episode, Bob Eubanks reminisces about his classic "Making whoopie!" line from The Newlywed Game, and Ken Osmond fills us in on the origins of Eddie Haskell's deceptively polite "Gee, Mrs. Cleaver" from Leave it to Beaver.

• Wednesday, December 13, 10 P.M., Phrases 60-41, (TV-PG)

The third episode features TV's ultimate dynamic duo Adam West and Burt Ward as they discuss the origins of their classically cheesy exclamations from Batman, and Regis Philbin offers insights on his world-famous "Is that your final answer?" from Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

• Thursday, December 14, 10 P.M., Phrases 40-21, (TV-PG)

In the fourth episode, Trey Parker and Matt Stone fill us in on a little known secret about the South Park catchphrase "Oh my God, they killed Kenny - you bastards!" and Walter Cronkite weighs in on the creation of his classic CBS Evening News signoff, "And that's the way it is."

• Friday, December 15, 10 P.M., Phrases 20-1, (TV-PG)

In the fifth and final episode, William Shatner reminisces about the unforgettable Star Trek opening narration, "Space, the final frontier..." and Donald Trump explains the origins of his trademark exclamation "You're fired!" from The Apprentice.

archiguy

11-26-06, 11:14 AM

Wow, it's actually coming out this Tuesday. What took them so long?

DVD
Television’s Original Not-So-Healthy Hospital
By David Browne The New York Times November 26, 2006

The missing link between medical shows then and now was “St. Elsewhere,” which ran from 1982 to 1988 on NBC and whose first season will be released on DVD this week. In the series, set in the shabby St. Eligius hospital in a destitute section of Boston, everything was in hectic, chaotic motion. Doctors, nurses and sometimes patients crossed paths or nearly collided in the corridors; files always seemed to be spilling onto floors.

Yeah, I've been waiting for this one for a long time. There was a time when I considered this the best show in the history of television. (Then I discovered the painfully brief supernova that was 'Firefly', but I digress...) This is one I'll spend the big bucks for to get the entire series, and as it went on for 7 seasons, that will probably be quite a few of them bucks. Worth it though.

Thank God (if he/she/it exists) for Prilosec. My stomach still feels like crap but not nearly as bad as a few hours ago, enough for me to get back to work. Morale of the story: don't eat three KFC breasts bathed in 10 lemons with Perriere sauce and salt, followed by a Pop-Tart, pop-corn and two glasses of Coke while you're catching-up on DVR'ed episodes of 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'Card Sharks.'

Good gravy man, you're lucky to still be alive after that terminal load of saturated fat, excess sodium, and high-fructose corn syrup! :eek:

dad1153

11-26-06, 01:34 PM

fredfa

11-26-06, 03:01 PM

Saturday’s updated fast national over night prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

11-26-06, 03:54 PM

Critic’s Notebook
It's all about the ratings
MORE MISSES THAN HITS EMERGE FROM WHAT WAS A PROMISING SEASON
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006
(All times are Eastern/Pacific)

So here's a sad truth about network television: Every season, about 80 percent of all new series fail to make it past their first year. It doesn't matter if the shows are good, bad or merely mediocre; for whatever reason, they don't cut it in the ratings.

There was a consensus among industry executives and critics that this season's batch of newbies was the best in at least a decade. The comedies weren't great, but the rich array of dramas more than made up for the lack of laughs.

But it's not even December, and viewers already have voted with their remotes. Of the 24 freshman shows, eight are gone. Nine others are on shaky ground. Just a few qualify as hits and only one -- NBC's ``Heroes'' -- seems to have the cultural reach of a ``Lost'' or a ``Desperate Housewives.''

To help you sort out what's left after all that carnage, here's a status report on the new series that remain:

ABC

`Brothers & Sisters' 10 p.m. Sunday

This family drama has pulled a real Lazarus act. After getting off to a ragged start, it's getting better every week and is on the verge of developing into a true hit. ABC already has ordered a full season of episodes.

`Help Me Help You' 9:30 p.m. Tuesday

The Ted Danson comedy has been merely OK, creatively and in the ratings. ABC has ordered some more scripts, but the betting is that ``Help Me'' won't be around come spring.

`Men In Trees' 10 p.m. Thursday (as of this week)

This charming Anne Heche comedy-drama about life in a small Alaskan town is an interesting case study in how network TV works: It has been drawing an audience of only 7 million on Fridays, but the rest of the ABC lineup that night has been so weak that ``Men In Trees''' was considered a fairly impressive showing. As a result, it's been renewed for a full season and now will air behind ``Grey's Anatomy'' at 10 p.m. Thursday.

`Six Degrees' New time period to be announced (maybe)

Terrific cast, but no one quite has figured out what this series is really about. And when a show does an average of 9.6 million viewers coming after a hit like ``Grey's Anatomy,'' it's in deep trouble. ABC says it will be back in January but hasn't said where it will land on the schedule. Don't hold your breath.

`The Nine' New time period to be announced (maybe)

Creatively, this drama about a group of average folk taken hostage during a bank robbery may be the biggest disappointment of the year. It's not a bad show -- the acting by a large ensemble is first-rate -- but it hasn't fulfilled the promise of its electric opening episode, and its audience is shrinking. The network thinks the midseason show ``Traveler'' could be a hit and may give it ``The Nine's'' prized Wednesday slot behind ``Lost.''

`Ugly Betty' 8 p.m. Thursday

After ``Heroes,'' this is the season's big new hit, thanks to a strong cast headed by America Ferrera as Betty and storytelling that is starting to hit its stride. It's been locked in for the rest of the season.

CBS

`Jericho' 8 p.m. Wednesday

If ``Heroes'' is the big surprise of the fall season, this drama comes in a close second. Its audience isn't huge -- around 11 million viewers -- but its fans are devoted to this post-nuclear holocaust serial that seems to have wandered onto the schedule from the Cold War era. It's been renewed for the rest of season, although after this week's episode, it goes on hiatus until Feb. 21.

`Shark'10 p.m. Thursday

Great lead in James Woods but that's about it in terms of reasons to watch this legal drama. Even with ``CSI'' as its lead-in, it's doing merely OK in the ratings, but CBS has decided to keep it around for a full season.

`The Class' 8:30 p.m. Monday

This was supposed to be the hot new comedy of the season. Hasn't happened, creatively or in the ratings. The network has highly regarded newcomer ``Rules of Engagement'' waiting in the wings.

Fox

`Standoff' 8 p.m. Tuesday

We love stars Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt. But this mix of crime drama and romantic comedy hasn't given them much to work with. Even though the show's audience has sunk below 7 million in recent weeks, Fox has ordered six more episodes and may give the series a slot behind ``American Idol'' in January.

'Til Death'[8 p.m. Thursday

By all rights, `` 'Til Death'' ought to be dead, but Fox couldn't cancel its entire freshman class (although it's come close). Creatively, the comedy isn't working, and viewers largely are ignoring the show. Still, Fox has to put something on its Thursday schedule, and it looks like `` 'Til Death'' is it.

NBC

`Friday Night Lights'[ 8 p.m. Tuesday

``Lights'' may be the best new series this season. But as we've noted, being good doesn't necessarily translate into viewers and, right now, the high school football drama is floundering in the ratings. NBC is showing patience, though: It has committed to a full season of episodes and may try out the show in a different time period come January.

`Heroes' 9 p.m. Monday

The biggest new hit of the season and a Top 5 show among younger viewers. The premise -- reluctant superheroes save the world -- could have fallen apart easily. It hasn't, making the series must-viewing on Mondays. Having signed it up for the rest of the season, NBC now is negotiating with the producers to add episodes.

`Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip' 10 p.m. Monday

No new show has been as parsed, dissected and dissed as Aaron Sorkin's ``Studio 60.'' Some viewers think it's the smartest thing on TV; others think it's way too smart for its own good. But even though viewership that has fallen below 8 million of late, NBC still thinks this is a prestige show. It will be around for a full season now that the producers have agreed to reduce the fee the network pays per episode.

`30 Rock' 9:30 p.m. Thursday (as of this week)

Can be very funny when stars Tina Fey, as the creator of a network comedy show, and Alec Baldwin, as a network executive, are in the same scene. Otherwise, the series has been erratic. Right now, the show is hanging on -- but barely.

The CW

`The Game' 9:30 p.m. Monday

An OK addition to the CW's Monday night comedy lineup but nothing special. On any other network, its ratings would have gotten it canceled after three episodes, but the CW has given it a full season.

GREAT PERFORMANCES

Every season, a handful of performances by actors on new series, or by newcomers to returning shows, stand out. These are the performances we're loving this fall:

Alec Baldwin Jack Donaghy, ``30 Rock'' (9:30 p.m. Thursdays, NBC)

We long have known that Baldwin is as good at comedy as he is at drama. But his funny-guy work on ``30 Rock'' has proven just how good he is. His performance as a self-centered, sometimes self-delusional network executive -- and the splendid way he works with star Tina Fey -- are the real reasons to tune in to this show.

Abraham Benrubi Ben Jackson, ``Men in Trees'' (10 p.m. Thursdays, ABC)

After years of being best known as Jerry Markovic, the guy behind the admitting desk on ``ER,'' Benrubi finally got a more substantial role. His sweet, engaging performance as a wealthy high-tech guru who retreats to small-town Alaska and buys the local bar is a key reason why this comedy-drama works as well as it does.

John Billingsley Egan Foote, ``The Nine'' (10 p.m. Wednesdays, ABC)

``Nine'' hasn't lived up to expectations, but Billingsley has exceeded them. As an average guy who goes through a midlife crisis after he's held hostage during a bank robbery, the veteran character actor (Dr. Phlox on ``Enterprise'') has brought emotional pop to a show that badly needs it.

Connie Britton, Kyle Chandler Tami and Eric Taylor, ``Friday Night Lights'' (8 p.m. Tuesdays, NBC)

Britton (the film version of ``Lights'') and Chandler (Emmy- nominated for ``Grey's Anatomy'') have been doing the finest acting duet of the season as an embattled football coach and his supportive but independent wife. This is a true adult relationship, rare for TV, and the two veteran actors are making the most of it.

America Ferrera Betty Suarez, ``Ugly Betty'' (8 p.m. Thursdays, ABC)

Carrying a TV series is tough enough for any actor. Doing it -- and doing it well -- at age 22 is something of a small miracle. But Ferrera (``Real Women Have Curves'') has made Betty Suarez into a thoroughly engaging and believable character and has helped to make ``Ugly Betty'' one of the season's biggest new hits.

Elizabeth Mitchell Juliet, ``Lost'' (9 p.m. Wednesdays, ABC, on hiatus until February)

``Lost'' has had its problems this season, but that's not the fault of Mitchell -- perhaps best known as Dr. Kim Legaspi, Kerry Weaver's lover on ``ER.'' Her nuanced performance as one of the Others has kept us guessing as to her character's real allegiances. Plus you've got to like how she's held her own with proven scene stealer Michael Emerson as Ben-the-Guy-Who-Used-to-Be-Henry-Gale.

Masi Oka Hiro Nakamura, ``Heroes'' (9 p.m. Mondays, NBC)

Oka has come out of absolutely nowhere (well, a recurring role on ``Scrubs'') to become the breakout star of the season's breakout hit. His comic timing and endearing charm as a geeky office worker who finds himself with super powers make his performance a true gem. Yatta!

Sarah Paulson Harriet Hayes, ``Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'' (10 p.m. Mondays, NBC)

Paulson (``Deadwood,'' the underappreciated ``Leap of Faith'') has taken a tricky part -- a evangelical comedian in love-hate with a cynical, sarcastic TV writer -- and is running with it. Her warm, sexy and nuanced performance has allowed her to steal the series from the better-known cast members.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/columnists/charlie_mccollum/16101740.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

dad1153

11-26-06, 05:35 PM

TV Sports
With playoff off the table, it took major networking
TV executive Petitti was there at creation of BCS, working hard to bring Pac-10, Big Ten into mix.
By Larry Stewart The Los Angeles Times November 26, 2006

In college football circles, the story of how the BCS began often starts with the cocktail napkin.

It was the early 1990s, and Tom Mickle, second-in-command of the Atlantic Coast Conference, sketched out a framework for matching No. 1 against No. 2 in a bowl game. His boss, Gene Corrigan, took that cocktail napkin with its multi-bowl road map to other conference commissioners. Out of that came the Bowl Alliance, precursor to the BCS.

And the story usually ends there.

But missing from that alliance were the Big Ten and Pacific 10 conferences. No Ohio State. No USC. No Michigan. No Penn State. No UCLA.

Love it or hate it, the creation of the Bowl Championship Series solved that problem.

One of the people most responsible is one who has gone unsung — Tony Petitti, the man now in charge of running the day-to-day operation at CBS Sports.

Petitti in the fall of 1995 was vice president of programming for ABC and wanted to find a way to boost interest in the network's college football coverage.

"To be honest, we didn't have a plan in mind," Petitti said in a recent phone interview from his office in New York. "But we knew what we wanted — a system that would guarantee matching the No. 1- and No. 2-ranked teams in a championship game at the end of the season."

Already in place was the Bowl Alliance, which involved the Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and Sugar Bowl, and the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Big 12 and Big East conferences.

The Pac-10 and Big Ten were off by themselves, having been contractually linked to the Rose Bowl for nearly half a century.

ABC had the Rose and Sugar, CBS the Orange and Fiesta.

Petitti, looking back, calls it a "hodgepodge system." So he set out to create something better. The conference commissioners and school presidents opposed a playoff, so that was out.

And Petitti knew there would be no way to guarantee No. 1 would play No. 2 without the Pac-10 and Big Ten.

The first thing Petitti and Dennis Swanson, then president of ABC Sports, did was set up a meeting in Pasadena with Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney, and Rose Bowl committee chairman Harriman Cronk, along with other Rose Bowl officials.

It did not go well.

"They thought we were simply going to offer a straight renewal for more money," said Petitti, a 1986 graduate of Harvard Law School. "So when we proposed breaking up the Pac-10/Big Ten alliance, that caught them off guard."

Petitti and Swanson needed allies and found one in Roy Kramer, then the SEC commissioner. They met at that season's SEC championship game.

Kramer liked what he heard, and it was Kramer, according to Petitti, who was able to get all the conferences on board.

Of course, money helped.

ABC was paying about $12 million a year for TV rights to the Rose Bowl. A bump up to $18.5 million helped persuade Cronk and other Rose Bowl officials, along with Hansen and Delaney, to join what was initially called a "super bowl alliance."

Cronk remembers it wasn't easy. "At first, there was tremendous pressure on me and everybody else to keep the Pacific 10 and Big Ten in the Rose Bowl," he said. "But, and that's an enormous but, we eventually realized that making sure the No. 1- and No. 2-ranked teams play for a national championship was what was most important."

Petitti and Swanson faced the next hurdle — getting the four major bowl games all on ABC. But CBS had long-term contracts with the Orange and Fiesta bowls.

"What we did was make deals with the conferences to get their champions on ABC, regardless of where the game was played," Petitti said. "That left the Orange Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl without conference champions. CBS wasn't interested in televising those games without conference champions, so they released them."

Petitti also wanted the championship game to rotate among the four BCS bowl games.

Petitti said that by spring 1996, he was continually flying from meeting to meeting and tweaking his system. Around that time, Steve Bornstein replaced Swanson as president of ABC Sports but supported Petitti's efforts.

On July 23, 1996, what would come to be known as the BCS was announced. It would take effect with the 1998 season.

In all, ABC agreed to pay out $518 million over seven years.

That seven years was up last season, and now Fox has the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls, plus the BCS championship game, which this season will be played at the site of the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8. The Rose Bowl remains on ABC.

Petitti, who joined CBS in February 1997, said he has never attended a BCS bowl game.

Kramer, who retired from the SEC in 2003, is often referred to as the father of the BCS.

"If that is the case," he said from his home in Vonore, Tenn., "then Tony is the No. 1 son.

"Tony is the one who did most of the legwork."

Said the Pac-10's Hansen: "What Tony did was go from conference to conference, from bowl to bowl to put it all together."

Said Kramer: "What we were trying to find was a way to create more interest during the regular season, and I think that is the most successful part of the BCS.

"Look at the interest in the Michigan-Ohio State game. There wouldn't have been that much interest had we had a playoff system in place."

According to Kramer, another objective was to protect the bowl system.

"A lot of people in the media might not agree, but the bowl system is very important to college football," he said. "A team like, say, Iowa State may never get a chance to play for a national championship. But it can go to a bowl game, and that generates interest among its fans."

So, the cocktail napkin story lives on, though its creator, Mickle, died in April of a heart attack at 55. And the BCS lives on, though it has been called everything from "ridiculous" to "convoluted."

"It's not a perfect system," Petitti said. "But it is better than what we had before. I have to say, I'm proud of it."

He concedes a playoff system would be better.

"It's the last great sporting event to be created," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/?track=leftnav-sports

dad1153

11-26-06, 05:54 PM

TV Notebook
Comic Hiro
How TV's Coolest Show Jumped Off the Page
By Maxine Shen The New York Post November 26, 2006

The hit NBC drama "Heroes" has introduced characters with extraordinary abilities that have made the show the most popular new series of the season. But the real hero behind this incredibly creative and fresh drama is the show’s artist, Tim Sale.

Sale, 50, not only produces the giant paintings done by artist and “precog” Isaac Mendez (played by Santiago Cabrera), he also creates the all-important “9th Wonders!” comic book, also drawn by Mendez, that’s followed religiously by Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka).

The comic book is the show's bible and shows viewers - and the characters - where the plot is headed.

Sale's vibrantly colored art work makes "Heroes" a two-dimensional success story, feeding hungry fans clues each week. How Sale came to be the show's unlikely hero is fascinating. The 20-year industry veteran has worked for Marvel on The Hulk and Spider-Man. While with his present employer, DC Comics, he took on Catwoman and Superman, and was asked by "Heroes"creator Tim Kring to illustrate the pilot script. At the time, Sale had no idea how integral his artwork would end up being to the show's future. When "Heroes" was picked up by NBC, Sale was brought on as the show's "artistic consultant."

He likens his job to the function police personnel once served on the crime drama "NYPD Blue." Says Sale, "It's the same as when they hired ex-cops to teach Dennis Franz how to handle a gun."

Virtually every episode of the show features a scene where Hiro exclaims over the comic book or a contemplative Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) ponders the meaning behind a painting. "The art drives the narrative much more than I thought it would have," says Sale from his studio/garage in Pasadena, California.

"I knew Isaac would be a character, but didn't know how big his role would be. He could have been killed off. In fact, when I saw him with his head cut open [in an early episode], I thought, 'I guess I just lost a job,' and yet it's been more since then," says Sale. To keep up with production demands, he gets scripts well in advance, but he prefers not to read them.

That way, Sale says, "I get to see the art in the show the way everybody else sees it. There are script updates almost every day, so if I've started preliminary drawings on something, it could completely change by the next day - it's easier and more efficient to say, 'Tell me what you want me to draw.'"

While illustrating the panels for the "9th Wonders!" comic book are a snap for Sale - they're executed in the traditional style, with pen and ink, then colored in later - the paintings proved to be trickier.

Because he's colorblind, Sale draws in black ink and dilutes his work for gray tones. To make his drawings look as if they were done with a paintbrush, the image is scanned into a computer. A colorist adds color, variations in tone and texture, and then the finished product is blown up and printed on canvas. (In a notable exception, the technicolor mushroom cloud on the floor of Isaac Mendez's studio was printed on moveable rubber mats.)

Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that the dramatic figures in the paintings sometimes don't look quite like the actors in the cast. Sale explains: "I'm not very good at likenesses, so if they really want it to look like someone's face, they have to get me a picture."

Most of the paintings that Sale creates are based on scenes that haven't been filmed, which explains why one painting of cheerleader Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere), in which she's looking at the camera over her shoulder, doesn't quite look like her.

Fortunately, when he draws the comics, he works from photos of already filmed scenes.

Some cast members, though, are easy to draw because their features lend themselves to the form, he says. "You put a quarter on a page, draw a circle and that's Masi Oka's round face. I'm exaggerating, but I can easily make something that's identifiably him," he says.

Ultimately, though, Sale's work is close enough to reality that you immediately recognize the images.

"The point of the artwork is for it to be eerily familiar to the viewer - 'Where have I seen that before?'" he says. With all the heroes' storylines beginning to converge, there'll be more opportunities for viewers to say just that.

HEROES, Monday, 9 p.m., NBC

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11262006/tv/comic_hiro_tv_maxine_shen.htm

dad1153

11-26-06, 08:19 PM

Critic's Notebook
Bring in the clowns
By Rob Owen The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette November 26, 2006

Earlier this month, networks rolled out two new prime-time dramas. This week: three new comedies.

'BIG DAY'

ABC already has "Day Break," which is "24" meets "Groundhog Day." Now there's "Big Day" (9 p.m. Tuesday, ABC), which is a comedic "24" at a wedding.

Alice (Marla Sokoloff) and Danny (Josh Cooke) want their wedding to go off without a hitch, but with her controlling mother (Wendie Malick) and his best friend (Stephen Rannazzisi), who's almost blind after Alice's sister (Miriam Shor) accidentally swallowed his contact lenses, there's little hope for a drama-free day.

Each "Big Day" episode chronicles another half-hour on the day of the wedding ceremony, which is filled to the brim with characters who are all-too-eager to throw roadblocks in the way of the happy couple. They do so with mixed comedic results.

The show's writers give the funniest comic moments to Stephnie Weir, who plays anxious wedding planner Lorna. Her line reading of "baby field greens with poached pear vinaigrette" steals the show Tuesday night, and the writers, wisely, give her a larger showcase in subsequent episodes.

Those episodes also draw more comedy from other supporting characters, which makes up (somewhat) for the bland leads.

"Big Day" doesn't feel like a big hit, but it is intermittently amusing.

'10 ITEMS OR LESS'

What is it with networks scheduling part-scripted, part-improvised comedy series starring Jennifer Elise Cox on Mondays at 11 p.m.? Cox starred earlier this year as ditzy receptionist Tiffany in Lifetime's "Lovespring International," which aired in the same time slot. It's a difficult time period because most viewers aren't accustomed to seeing an original, scripted comedy in that time slot. They're most likely watching the late news or going to bed (except for college students, which "10 Items" seems designed to attract).

That won't stop TBS from premiering its grocery store-set comedy "10 Items or Less" at 11 p.m. Monday this week. It stars John Lehr as Leslie Pool, the doofus store owner/manager who takes over his family's Dayton, Ohio, grocery after his father's death.

Cox plays Amy, manager of the competing nearby Super Value Mart. Her company wants to buy Greens & Grains and turn it into a parking lot. Amy gets the best line in the pilot, threatening Leslie: "[Greens & Grains] is a third world country and Super Value Mart is America. We will invade you and shoot you and kill you."

The rest of the pilot, introducing assorted store employees (including Carnegie Mellon University alum Roberta Valderrama as Yolanda), is sort of ho-hum. A second episode, sent for review, was funnier. Leslie discovers a water stain that resembles Jesus Christ, leading him to print up a flyer that states, "Come see the miracle, stay for the prices!"

"10 Items" isn't a great comedy yet, but it often takes time. "Lovespring" didn't jell until the second half of its first season, either.

'MY BOYS'

At least there are some laughs in "10 Items." TBS's other new comedy, "My Boys" (10 p.m. Tuesday), is a lackluster "Sex and the City" companion with narrator PJ Franklin (Jordana Spiro) as a tomboy Carrie Bradshaw.

Like Carrie, PJ is a writer, only she writes about sports for a Chicago newspaper, and instead of surrounding herself with a posse of women her best buds are all guys, including older brother Andy (Jim Gaffigan) and new guy/potential love interest Bobby (Kyle Howard).

PJ narrates the show in sports cliches and behaves more like a guy in dating situations, viewers are told, which makes poor Bobby "feel like the chick."

None of these new series is likely to make viewers feel like TV's quality comedy drought will end anytime soon.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06330/740483-237.stm

dad1153

11-26-06, 08:27 PM

TV Notebook
Soap to Feature Transgender Character
By David Bauden Asociated Press November 26, 2006

In a story unusual even for a soap opera and believed to be a television first, ABC's "All My Children" this week will introduce a transgender character who is beginning to make the transition from a man into a woman.

The character, a flamboyant rock star known as Zarf, kisses the lesbian character Bianca and much drama ensues. The storyline begins with Thursday's episode of the daytime drama.

There have been a handful of post-surgical transgender characters in television shows, including a college professor in the 2001 prime-time CBS series "The Education of Max Bickford" and a model in the short-lived ABC soap opera "The City" in 1996, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Showtime's "The L Word" currently features a character changing from a woman into a man.

"All My Children" was looking for something new, and knows its audience is always interested in anything to do with sexuality, said Julie Hanan Carruthers, the show's executive producer.

"After 36 years, you start rehashing," she said. "It's inevitable. We didn't want to fall back on the baby-switch story again."

The show wasn't interested in doing something just to be sensational, she said. GLAAD and some transgenders were brought in as consultants in shaping the character, teaching the producers when it is appropriate to call a character "she" even before surgery, she said.

Damon Romine, a spokesman for GLAAD, said he hasn't seen the show yet but feels people involved were genuinely interested in telling the story with dignity. Emotions are so close to the surface in soap operas, and this story can serve a purpose by showing what transgenders go through, he said.

"I think it's groundbreaking and breakthrough television for daytime to put a spotlight on transgender people and tell their story," he said.

"All My Children" could use some attention. Mirroring the decline of daytime dramas in general, its average audience has slipped from 8.2 million in 1991-92 to 3.1 million last year, according to Nielsen Media Research. Particularly last summer, "All My Children" has tried several new characters, said Carolyn Hinsey, editor of Soap Opera Weekly.

"They're trying really hard and they're throwing a whole lot of desperate stuff against the wall to see what sticks," she said.

Actor Jeffrey Carlson portrays Zarf, an American who nonetheless speaks in an exaggerated British accent. He was on the show for one day last summer and was surprised to get a call pitching him the new story.

Carlson said it can be intimidating feeling that he is representing the entire transgender community.

"I worry about missing something, but I guess that would be the same with any character," he said. "I want the `All My Children' audience to go along. It's not for shock value. It's just another person who's story is being told in Pine Valley."

After Zarf establishes a bond with Bianca that leads to the kiss, an angry Bianca tells him she's a lesbian. It triggers something within Zarf about why it made such sense to be falling in love with a lesbian.

It's not clear, Carruthers said, whether "All My Children" will stick with the Zarf character through any surgery; one suspects the reaction of the soap's audience to the story will have a lot to do with it.

"She talks about peace so much," Carlson said of his character. "I hope that she finds some peace."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/ats-ap_entertainment10nov26,0,26902.story?coll=ny-entertainment-headlines

dad1153

11-26-06, 08:38 PM

Boy am I glad I kept my 'Transformers Generation 1' DVD Box Sets. If I wanted to buy the series now I'd be more bankrupt than Kevin Federline!

DVD
Series megasets for hard-core fans, nostalgists, completists
By Doug Elfman The Chicago Sun-Times November 26, 2006

I get a kick out of reading TV critics' complaints about DVD box sets, like the Midwestern critic who was frustrated by the little grave marker affixed to the 24-disc set of "Six Feet Under." It was "stuck poorly in place and kept coming off the box." Horrors! Then again, that set costs $180. How can you blame a critic for hoping the packaging won't fall apart?

A critic in the Southwest wrote a good point about the $140 "Alias" collection: "The stories are still ludicrously contrived." Yes, now that the show's off the air, they still are ludicrous.

And a DVD writer for a magazine dutifully points out Sacha Baron "Borat" Cohen isn't always consistent in the $35 "Da Ali G Show: Da Compleet Seereez," because "in season 1, episode 2, the theme is 'War,' but that's the episode where Borat takes etiquette lessons."

That crazy Borat. So unpredictable.

We critics know that box sets are mostly review-proof. Little grievances won't keep hard-core fans from buying favorite shows. More to the point, many people will continue to buy these sets to give as gifts this holiday season, whether gift receivers want them or not.

Some time ago, a family member asked if I wanted the box set of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as a gift. "God, no," I said.

"Buffy" is my favorite series. But I watched every episode that aired. If I need a fix, "Buffy" still re-runs on FX. And sometimes, box sets freak me out. I look at them and think, "Which one first?" I can't decide, then play Xbox 360 instead.

On the flip side, who doesn't want to catch up on a series they didn't always tune in for? I own the apparently grave marker-flawed "Six Feet Under" box and the "Ali G" anthology, so I'm sure I'll check out episodes I didn't catch over the years.

Much has been made in the press about the "24" effect. "24" is a 24-episode movie every season, and quite a few fans would rather watch them all in a row than an hour at a time. The same is true for serials like "Lost" (which, like "24," is only on season-by-season DVDs, not yet a box set).

But there's also the living-in-the-past crowd. New TV's not good enough for them, so they go all auld lang syne on "Sex and the City," "MASH," Johnny Carson and "Homicide." But a $200 "Get Smart" box? A $384 "Transformers" collection? Whatever flips your skirt, man.

And then come the "completists" who simply want to own everything a show has to offer. If I were a "Buffy" completist, I'd covet that box set for the usual DVD bonus items, like behind-the-scenes footage, and commentaries by creator Joss Whedon and actor David Boreanaz.

Hmm. OK, maybe I do desire "Buffy's" box. Damn you, "Buffy"! Damn you and your $170 wiles!

THINK IN THE BOX

This year, more mega-sets are weighing down DVD shelves -- complete series on dozens of discs in very big boxes. Here's a look at some of the new behemoths available.

"Alias: The Complete Collection" (ABC, 2001-06): $140-$163, 29 discs

"Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Collector's Set" (WB and UPN, 1997-2003): $170-$183, 40 discs

"Complete Transformers G1 Series" (syndication, 1984-87): $384, 15 discs.

"Da Ali G Show: Da Compleet Seereez" (HBO, 2003-04): $35-$38, four discs

"Friends: The Complete Series Collection" (NBC, 1994-2004): $180-$183, 40 discs

"Get Smart: The Complete Collection" (NBC, 1965-'69): $200 through TimeLife.com, 25 discs

"Highlander: The Complete Series" (syndication, 1992-98): $210 through Amazon, 51 discs

"Homicide: Life on the Street -- Complete Series Megaset" (NBC, 1993-99): $192-$254, 35 discs

"The Kids in the Hall: Complete Series Megaset" (CBS and HBO, 1989-94): $180-$210, 20 discs

"MASH: Martinis and Medicine Complete Collection" (CBS, 1972-83): $175-$200, 36 discs

"Sex and the City: The Complete Series" (HBO, 1998-2004): $150-$238, 20 discs

"Six Feet Under: The Complete Series Gift Set" (HBO, 2001-05): $180-$227, 24 discs

"The West Wing: The Complete Series Collection" (NBC, 1999-2006): $180-$240, 45 discs

Price ranges come from online and retail stores Amazon, Best Buy and DVD Empire.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/elfman/147742,SHO-Sunday-box26-elf.article

fredfa

11-26-06, 09:22 PM

This week's BCS rankings have been added to next Saturday's HD college football schedules

fredfa

11-27-06, 12:54 AM

HDTV Technology Notebook
Pioneer Says HD Not Hitting Potential
James Tiernan Contends the Technology Is Available to Make Image Even Sharper
By Lee Alan Hill Special to TelevisionWeekNov. 27, 2006

James Tiernan is a pioneer of HD, and though he has moved on to other research and development and his former company, Tiernan Communications, is now a part of Radyne Corp., he remains opinionated on the subject of high-definition television and the state of digital technology. In his characteristic candid style, he insists that "HD is an incremental step, it's not a revolution."

In the 1990s, Mr. Tiernan developed a transport and protocol structure that was adopted for MPEG-2, which, in turn, provides the underlying structure used in the digital cable standard DOCSIS and in the HDTV standard. His high-performance encoder systems still support broadcast and distribution applications for an international list of customers.

Mr. Tiernan sells to the companies that in turn sell to the consumers, and he muses that he then becomes a consumer himself. A man of technology and science, he's looking way down the road, he says, and the parade isn't moving fast enough for him.

"The whole country will be HD eventually," Mr. Tiernan said. "Why not just do it? HD can be much cheaper than it is now. The whole world ought to just go HDTV and get on with it."

"I'm actually not totally unhappy with how HD has been introduced to the consumer in terms of the technology," Mr. Tiernan added. "But the cost-I went out and bought the damn set, spent the money. But it's too much. You're paying for the manufacturing, the overhead and the research and development for the next generation of sets and a whole lot more. They say they're protecting their workers and their industry. Come on, guys, make HD cathode-ray tubes and make 'em cheap. HD should not be expensive until you get to a certain size of the screen.

"And when you buy the 1080p it's superb quality, spectacularly high quality. Yet it's probably more than you'll ever need.

"But you can be dazzled by the quality, no question. Looking at sports, you can see the expression on the player's face."

As Mr. Tiernan sees it, HD as it is currently used in the industry and sold to the consumer "is the typical human solution: It sort of works, and it's sort of messy. With all this HD, we're still there. We're still in the same place we were with analog, sending every frame of the picture. That's not necessary. You don't have to resend every frame."

Instead, Mr. Tiernan contends that the technology exists to send each frame just once and encode through the objects instead of through the frames. "You can send the frame once and send instructions on how to move it," he said. "Like animation, but a real person instead of something created. That would create an even more sharp image-and that 3-D imaging is the future, though it may be 100 years before it's entirely the way `broadcasting' is done."

Unexpected Break

Mr. Tiernan comes out of the research "labs" of both industry and academia as a former member of the technical staff at MIT with a doctorate from the University of California at San Diego. Before joining MIT, he was at LINKABIT Corp., a military satellite communications contractor now part of Qualcomm. Previously Mr. Tiernan headed a research team at the Navy Electronics Laboratory focusing on radar, communications and network research.

Moving into the private sector in the 1980s, he was employed by General Instrument, which later became his chief competitor. He worked with clients such as Major League Baseball and ran the development program for Videocipher I TV satellite processing equipment, which is still in use. He also worked with programmers in Europe to gain acceptance of General Instrument's satellite encryption technology.

He then went out on his own to develop a method of digital delivery.

Mr. Tiernan and his company got their "big break" in the midst of a high-profile television event. In 1995, CBS was interested in his digital broadcast delivery and, as a test, was running the system over a satellite parallel to the network's regular analog feed during the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

On the day of the verdict in the trial-in which Mr. Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron Goldman-CBS lost its regular feed about an hour before the jury returned to the courtroom.

"So they ran our picture because they needed something then and there," Mr. Tiernan recalled. "When the verdict was read, the entire nation was watching along with every executive in the company. And they got all sorts of compliments from the executives that it was the best picture they'd sent out in quite a while.

"We were in business."

The next year CBS bought equipment from Tiernan Communications for use in covering the Republican National Convention, which was held in San Diego, not far from Tiernan's headquarters. Digital equipment with the Tiernan name had also been used to beam out the first reports from Chechnya when that region broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991, when European broadcasters were experimenting with digital.

When Mr. Tiernan was ready to unveil HDTV, the networks were familiar with his company and were receptive to the idea. ABC and NBC became customers, using his equipment to transmit to their affiliates. CBS, on the other hand, made its first HDTV deal with Mr. Tiernan's rival and former employer, General Instrument.

Mr. Tiernan now has his own shop again, La Jolla Networks, based in Solana Beach, Calif., which he started in 2000. He plans to provide inexpensive wireless, broadband, two-way connection with the home using a technology called WiBUS (Wireless Broadband UHF System).

WiBUS, which will soon be in use in Buenos Aires, Argentina, uses UHF channels for digital delivery of TV, the Internet, telephone and interactive. Mr. Tiernan contends it is 10 times faster and less costly than any of the current consumer delivery methods.

"I'm doing the next revolution," he said. "I'm going to put broadband into UHF, put that into the mix."

Although it is a for-profit endeavor, part of the mission of La Jolla Networks is to distribute worldwide the technology that Mr. Tiernan says is now taken for granted in industrialized countries. The company's promotional materials contend that 84 percent of the people of the world still do not have access to the Internet.

Exploring New Initiatives

The reason for the lack of broader distribution, Mr. Tiernan said, is the cost of cable, fiber and copper line extensions. La Jolla Networks is banking that the future of broadband expansion lies in finding the path to reach the consumers without huge infrastructure investment.

"Just put the bits into the stream, send 'em down the pipe," he said. "You have to stop thinking of UHF as broadcast and start thinking of it as a space you can jam bits through."

Just as he's still rankled at the amount he paid for his HD-ready TV set, so Mr. Tiernan would like to see the consumer be liberated from "$50 to $100 and larger bills for monthly service. Let's strip it down. Think of it a little like the iPod. It can deliver music, and if you want, it can do much more."

"I guess this is a revolution we're doing very quietly," he added. "I'm not one to go out speaking about things. I know people I grew up with in this industry who just naturally can do the rubber chicken dinner circuit. That's not me."

Busy exploring new initiatives, Mr. Tiernan admitted he pays far less attention these days to the progress of HD. But he still has strong opinions on the subject.

"HD has a long way to go before it reaches its potential," Mr. Tiernan said. "But in the future we are going to be less and less tied to the method of delivery. And, boy oh boy, that's going to be a big shock to advertisers-and they've had quite a lot of shocks already, haven't they?"

http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=30916

dad1153

11-27-06, 07:07 AM

Technology
In a Different Race, TV Web Sites Win
By Katharine Q. Seelye The New York Times November 27, 2006

There were winners on Election Day other than the Democrats. In the race for best media coverage, the winners were television Web sites, according to a report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which followed 32 different outlets, including newspaper Web sites, television programs, blogs, magazine Web sites and aggregators like Google and Yahoo.

The Web sites of both network and cable television delivered results quickly, allowing users to dig as deeply as they wanted into exit poll information and interactive maps with reports on hundreds of races.

“Most news organizations are still finding their way in this new multimedia environment,” said the report, compiled by Tom Rosenstiel, director of the project, which is affiliated with the Pew Research Center.

The posting of once-privileged exit polls, which the networks pay for, and the linking with state boards of election for county-by-county results are changing the election-night equation between media organizations and consumers, the report said.

“The exit poll may be more important today, not less, since users are probing that information directly, functioning as their own editors going state by state, looking for demographic information, late deciders and more,” the report said.

The report noted that television Web sites did well in part because the exit poll data was reliable. If that data were misleading, however, as it has been in recent years, all news organizations would be vulnerable.

Among the better sites, the report said, was MSNBC.com, which was particularly easy to navigate with an array of searchable features including results, videos and discussion boards.

Perhaps faring least well in the Project for Excellence survey were bloggers, who, the report said, were left empty-handed because there were few snafus to discuss and they offered no original reporting.

Newspaper Web sites generally lagged in reporting results, though the report cited The Washington Post Web site for running a ticker, fed by The Associated Press, across the top of its screen to continuously update races.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/business/media/27election.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

dad1153

11-27-06, 07:13 AM

TV Notebook
That Old Gang of Wine
By Don Kaplan The New York Post November 27, 2006

The brains behind "American Idol," "So You Think You Can Dance" and "America's Got Talent" will get the tables turned on them this week when they start their own reality show, "Corkscrewed: The Wrath of Grapes."

Childhood pals, Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick, have spent the last few years working behind the scenes on "Idol." They have even competed head-to-head with rival talent shows on different networks.

But for the first time, the pair put themselves in the spotlight when they purchased and tried to operate a vineyard - with the cameras rolling - earlier this year. Initially the plan was to buy and operate the property with a handful of co-workers from "Idol," including Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest.

But along the way, their investment partners dropped out one by one, leaving only Warwick and Lythgoe who insisted on going ahead with the purchase and filming the entire process.

The result turned out to be a bit more than they bargained for when vines became infested with rot and potential profits went sour faster than a cheap white.

The two TV moguls have been pals since they were 13 and sat next to each other in grade school.

The reality show, "Corkscrewed" debuts Wednesday night on the Fox Reality Channel.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11272006/tv/that_old_gang_of_wine_tv_don_kaplan.htm

dad1153

11-27-06, 07:22 AM

TV Notebook
Smiths have laugh tracks for CW, ABC
By Nellie Andreeva The Hollywood Reporter November 27, 2006

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have set up two comedy projects, one at CW with "Jack & Jill" creator Randi Mayem Singer and one at ABC with Betsy Borns, who co-created "All of Us" with the couple.

The untitled CW project, from CBS Paramount Network TV and Overbrook Entertainment, is a single-camera half-hour about a group of mostly divorced mothers who live in a large apartment complex. From the point of view of a security guard who patrols the area, it focuses on the women's child-rearing problems and their dating lives.

"It's about making lunch and making love," Singer said.

Singer was one of several writers approached with the concept, a brainchild of Pinkett Smith, and she immediately responded.

"Single moms are nothing new, but it was the idea to set it in one of these communities that made it cohesive to me," Singer said. "The (apartment) development will be a character in the show in the way that New York City was a character in 'Sex and the City.' "

Singer is writing the project, which has received a script commitment from the network. She also is executive producing with Smith, Pinkett Smith and James Lassiter, Smith's partner at Overbrook.

Since "Jack & Jill," Singer has focused on the feature world. Most recently, she wrote a script for a fantasy romantic comedy for Imagine Entertainment and Universal, "Just Like a Woman."

The untitled ABC project, which is yet to be set up at a studio, is a multicamera comedy about an upper-class black man from a conservative family and his Jewish wife from a liberal lower-middle-class family who juggle raising their twins and dealing with their respective mother-in-laws who move into their crowded home.

Borns is writing the project, which has received a script commitment from the network. She is executive producing with Smith, Pinkett Smith and Lassiter.

The comedy "All of Us," which Borns co-created and is executive producing with Smith and Pinkett Smith, is in its fourth season. The show, which originated on WB Network, migrated to the new CW in the fall.

Before "All of Us," Borns worked on such series as NBC's "Friends" and ABC's "Roseanne."

Overbrook has been busy this development season. Last month, the company landed a put-pilot commitment from CBS for a medical drama set at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Jan Nash and Jennifer Levin are penning the project, a co-production with CBS Par TV (HR 10/11).

Singer and Pinkett Smith are repped by ICM. Borns and Smith are repped by CAA.

Singer additionally is repped by attorneys Ernie Del and Jean Tanaka.

Overbrook is repped by CAA and attorney Jason Sloane.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ib9776be7e7550d8b14594e87a67d050d

dad1153

11-27-06, 07:24 AM

The Business of TV
A Lone Sponsor for a Longer ‘Nightly News’
Stuart Elliot's New York Times Advertising Column Nov. 27, 2006

A week from tonight, viewers of the “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” will be able to watch more news — and fewer commercials — as a result of a sponsorship deal with the Philips Electronics North America Corporation.

The sponsorship is part of a weeklong, $2 million agreement between Philips and the NBC Universal division of General Electric that includes “Today,” two cable shows and a feature on NBC’s digital weather channel. The deal is the latest element in a campaign that seeks to drive home the Philips advertising theme “sense and simplicity.”

“By taking the interruptions out,” said Eric M. Plaskonos, director for brand communications at Philips, “it’s our demonstration of the gift of simplicity.”

Philips will be the only national advertiser during the “Nightly News” broadcast, Mr. Plaskonos said, running three commercials that will total one minute and 15 seconds. A typical “Nightly News” carries 14 national commercials totaling seven minutes. NBC News plans to add one or more longer segments to the newscast to take advantage of the reduced commercial load.

“We’ve had a recent request to do something similar” from a second advertiser, said John R. Kelly, senior vice president for NBC News Networks. “We’re quite interested.”

The sponsorship is the second for Philips involving a news show. In October 2005, the company sponsored an episode of “60 Minutes” on CBS with fewer commercials than usual. The NBC Universal deal also includes a provision for Donny Deutsch, the host of “The Big Idea” on CNBC, to read a Philips commercial live during his show. It will be the first such delivery of a spot by Mr. Deutsch, who has some familiarity with commercials: he is also the chairman of Deutsch, an advertising agency owned by the Interpublic Group of Companies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/business/media/27nbc.html

dad1153

11-27-06, 07:31 AM

Critic's Notebook
Scannery Row
Supermarket Comedy and a Cute Tomboy
By Adam Buckman The New York Post November 27, 2006

I am just about ready to throw in the towel on sitcom narrators.

I have railed and railed against them for years, but no one is listening.

Maybe it's time I surrendered and simply accepted the fact that producers of situation comedies today are just not clever enough to come up with ways to introduce their shows and characters other than to have a disembodied voice do it for them.

"This is the Greens & Grains grocery store," recites a narrator at the beginning of "10 Items or Less" on TBS, as a grocery store is shown with a huge Greens & Grains sign hanging on it.

You see what I'm driving at here? Why do I need a narrator to tell me what I can see easily with my own eyes?

"It's been in my family for five generations," continues the voice, which turns out to belong to the current-generation manager of the store, Leslie Pool (John Lehr). "This is my father, Bud [picture of "Bud Pool" is shown. He never thought I'd amount to anything, so I went to New York City to prove him wrong. . . . Now I'm back . . . blah blah blah blah."

This new sitcom doesn't amount to much either. Besides its narration, "10 Items or Less" has another strike against it: It's an improv comedy, a form that, like narration, allows a show's creators to evade the hard work of actually writing a script, relying instead on their actors to make up the story as they go along (based on some sort of outline, of course).

This show concerns the efforts of Leslie Pool to keep his family business afloat and cope with the store's eccentric employees. The improvisations are sometimes so forced that I swear you can actually see the actors thinking about what to say next.

Like "10 Items or Less," "My Boys" represents a new effort by TBS to produce some of its own comedies as companions to the reruns of established hits it already runs - "Friends," "Seinfeld," "Sex and the City," "Everybody Loves Raymond" and others.

"My Boys" is no improv comedy, but it also relies on unnecessary narration, this time delivered by tomboyish PJ Franklin (Jordana Spiro).

"I've come to realize that almost everything in dating and relationships has a parallel to sports, especially baseball," she says at the outset of the premiere episode.

"That's probably because that's what I do, I'm a sportswriter for the Chicago Sun-Times. I cover the Cubs . . . [and blah blah blah blah]."

While that assignment undeniably deserves our sympathy, PJ's dating woes do not. For one thing, her dating life isn't all that woeful - she hits it off with a nice, regular guy in the very first episode.

According to her ceaseless narration, however, her romantic life gets derailed frequently because she has more male friends than female.

As predicaments go, this one is hardly weighty enough to hang an entire series on.

"10 Items or Less" Monday, 11 p.m., TBS

"My Boys" Tuesday, 10 p.m., TBS

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11272006/tv/scannery_row_tv_adam_buckman.htm

dad1153

11-27-06, 07:36 AM

TV Notebook
MSNBC boosts doc buys
Cabler goes 'Super Size'
By Alison James, Michael Learmonth Variety November 27, 2006

MSNBC has acquired basic cable rights to Dick Wolf's "Crime and Punishment" series and Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me" to help fill the pipeline for its primetime "doc block."

Documentaries were made central to MSNBC's primetime strategy soon after Dan Abrams was appointed general manager of the net last summer; he threw out two hours of live programming in favor of taped shows from 10 p.m. to midnight in the East and 7-9 p.m. on the West Coast.

Originally, MSNBC leaned heavily on "Dateline" and a library of docs from NBC News, but it has ramped up production in the past few months and has been actively financing and acquiring work by independent producers.

"There is really nothing in the documentary world we don't want to look at or get our hands on," said MSNBC longform veep Michael Rubin.

Among the indie docs acquired to air during December are "Beyond Conviction," about a rape victim who confronts her attacker, and "For God and Country: A Marine Sniper's Story," about a young veteran of Iraq.

MSNBC's own doc unit produced "No Place for a Child," which tracks five children through the child welfare system, and new episodes of "Lockup," a series on America's prison system.

From NBC, the net will air the "Dateline NBC" hidden-camera series "To Catch a Predator" and episodes of "Headliners and Legends" on Ted Kennedy and Nelson Mandela.

Net will air 10 episodes from Dick Wolf's "Crime and Punishment" series, which follows cases as they are prosecuted in the San Diego district attorney's office.

Spurlock's feature "Super Size Me" will air over the entire two-hour block during January.

Part of the strategy is to knit MSNBC closer to NBC News and provide it with another venue to spread out the cost of documaking. But the net is looking to acquire indie work from outside NBC U in order to bring diverse viewpoints to the network.

"These docs have to conform to NBC broadcast standards and pass legal-department muster," Rubin said. "I think we can have other voices speaking, and it broadens our palette, which is good for the viewer."

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117954485.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

dad1153

11-27-06, 07:46 AM

Two stories about how the networks are putting their resources and talent behind the growing business of broadband programming. It's not just a place for networks to dump unaired episodes of underperforming series anymore!

Technology
Cera is 'Good' for Innertube
By Andrew Wallenstein The Hollywood Reporter November 27, 2006

CBS is drafting TV talent for its broadband channel, Innertube, signing Michael Cera of "Arrested Development" to do a scripted shortform series.

The deal marks the first of its kind for talent agency Paradigm, which has launched a new-media division under former Yahoo! Inc. exec Joel Wright.

Cera, who played the son of Jason Bateman's character on the Fox cult favorite, will star, write and produce "The Good Life," Innertube's first scripted program with a talent deal attached. CBS said at least eight multiminute episodes of varying lengths will be produced, with an option for more.

Shot mockumentary-style, "Good Life" follows Cera and Clark Duke as aspiring TV producers who are so convinced that they have the next big thing on their hands that they remain oblivious to the fact that they have made little progress getting their dream show made.

"Good Life" is the first offering from Paradigm's new digital-focused division, a team of three headed by Wright, who is charged with helping the agency's client base mine opportunities in new media. "My responsibility is to shepherd them into this new ancillary business area and maximize the revenue potential for our clients," he said.

Wright served as director of advertising solutions at Yahoo! for four years ending in 2005. At Yahoo!, he was instrumental in packaging branded-content assets for entertainment projects, including Mark Burnett's Web sites for "The Contender" and "The Apprentice." He also was a principal at Slingshot Media, a boutique agency that brought original programming to digital-media outlets.

Since launching in May, Innertube has stocked a mix of repurposed CBS programs and original projects, including "BBQ Bill" and "The Green Room."

Cera next appears in the Columbia theatrical "Super Bad," from Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen. He is shooting "Juno," directed by Jason Reitman for Mandate, in January.

Duke also is writing and producing the project with Cera. He is repped by Generate.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ib9776be7e7550d8b31f17adee4a5a632
____________________________________________________________ _____
Technology
Daly expands domain with Net projects
By Carly Mayberry The Hollywood Reporter November 27, 2006

Carson Daly made his mark in television, but he is ready to prove himself all over again on the Internet.

Daly is already a household name among younger audiences thanks to his late-night show on NBC, "Last Call With Carson Daly," and before that as emcee of MTV's "Total Request Live." But he also has been busy lately in a lower-profile role through his production company, Carson Daly Prods., cultivating a distinctive side career creating programming for digital platforms.

"I can't compete with the Dick Wolfs of the world and those producing 'The Office' or 'My Name Is Earl,' " Daly said. "We don't have a tremendous amount of money, which leads me back to the Internet because with $5,000, we can do a lot now."

Though well situated in the TV world though a production deal at NBC Universal Television Studio, Daly has chosen to focus his production company on Internet projects. In June, it awarded 20-year-old Brooke Brodack a talent/development deal on the strength of her video commentaries on YouTube. It was the first time an established Hollywood figure struck a formal arrangement with an unknown off the Internet.

Daly has since utilized Brodack's madcap style on a Web site he launched with NBC Uni, "It's Your Show," which rewards video contributors with cash prizes. Daly expects the site to sprout social-networking capabilities as well as a television component featuring himself as the show's host.

Daly also is involved with Campus MovieFest, serving as strategic adviser for the online film festival hub and to more than 50,000 students from colleges nationwide. Like all his digital endeavors, the site caters to a college-age demographic and who Daly sees as his peers on the Web.

His Web-centric approach has proven particularly timely in light of the recent rise of MySpace and YouTube, the emergence of such Web personalities as LonelyGirl15 and Andy Milonakis, and the integration of new-media strategies by television networks and studios. But his preoccupation with the online world has earned him a few quizzical looks in traditional Hollywood circles.

"I talk about this stuff in my agency at Endeavor, in meetings at NBC, and people just look at me like 'What is wrong with you?' " Daly said.

"He was always very plugged in to new artists and new approaches to things -- and still is," said Tony DiSanto, executive vp series, development and animation at MTV and head of programming at MTV2. "But that has sort of translated into whatever medium he's working in, whether it be the Internet, TV or the movies and whether it's behind the scenes or behind the camera."
Often associated with New York from his "TRL" days, Daly was born in Santa Monica, where he currently lives. Sitting in his home, the traits of a Southern California native are evident in his deep tan and casual attire of long beach shorts and flip-flops.

He first broke through as a disc jockey in the mid-1990s, initially at a San Francisco alternative station and later at Los Angeles' KROQ. Those roots inform his company's strategic outlook to this day.

"Being in music, I fell victim to the digital side pretty early," he said. "Downloading music has single-handedly crippled my former business, so I sort of learned the hard way about the power of the Internet. I thought, if you can't beat them, join them."

He transitioned to "video jockey" in 1998 at "TRL," the afternoon music video countdown show that catapulted Daly to nationwide popularity. He credits that experience with giving him an open mind to discovering Internet talent.

"I remember the first time we watched Eminem -- a white guy rapping -- and half the room was laughing," Daly recalled. "But my view was that this guy could be insanely popular and talented. There's a fine line between absolute ridiculousness and genius."

Developing a discerning eye has served him well since moving from MTV to NBC in 2002, from the launch of his company to a brief stint running a small record label. An inveterate Web surfer, Daly happened upon the homemade videos created by Brodack, a onetime restaurant hostess who developed a following on YouTube with her spirited monologues about pop culture.

"She has a voice, she has an opinion, she's crazy, and I couldn't stop watching her," said Daly, who praised her editing style and soundtracks.

Since signing her, Daly has been focusing on Brodack's role in helping to virally promote "Show," along with the creation of a TV component for her.

Brodack, who has never met Daly in person, continues to furiously create her brand of video content out of her bedroom in Holden, Mass. She said her visibility has skyrocketed since linking up with Daly.

"I didn't realize how big it all was until my sister's husband said I was the No. 18 most-googled person in the world, right up there with George Bush," Brodack said.

Daly also is keen on taking Campus MovieFest to the next level. Having recently appeared at the festival's finale event in San Jose, Calif., he foresees taking some aspect of the fest to television and establishing it as a launchpad for up-and-coming directors.

The entrepreneurial verve he brings to new media also has a family connection. Daly's sister, Quinn Daly, works for Richard Rosenblatt, former chairman of MySpace and former CEO of MySpace's onetime parent company Intermix, who brokered the sale of the site to News Corp. Rosenblatt has helped inform Daly's Internet acumen.

While Daly still aspires to ascend to greater heights in the TV talk show realm, these days he considers himself a businessman capitalizing on the excitement of the digital world.

"The landscape is changing so dramatically that in a year from now every network will already be earmarking their 'new-media money,' " Daly said. "I want Carson Daly Prods. to be a launching pad to break talent -- that's what 'TRL' did, it was a stage," Daly said. "That's why people handed me their CD and looked at me like, 'Hey, can you help me make it?' That's a great business to be in."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ib9776be7e7550d8b97e08e31a8372118

dad1153

11-27-06, 07:54 AM

If you grew-up in any Spanish-speaking country over the past 40 years this man was the American equivalent of Ed Sullivan: an apparently talentless suit whose weekly three-hour variety show just happened to attract the biggest luminaries in the world of the Spanish music. R.I.P. Mr. Velasco, you will be missed by many! :(

In Memoriam
Mexican TV Host Raul Velasco Dies At 73
Associated Press November 27, 2006

Mexico City (AP) -- Raul Velasco, who hosted one of Mexico's most popular and enduring television programs, "Siempre en Domingo," died Sunday at his home in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco, his network said. He was 73.

Velasco, whose variety show has been compared to "The Ed Sullivan Show," was credited with launching many of Mexico's biggest pop stars to fame by having them appear on his show, which was broadcast from 1969-1998.

President Vicente Fox called the death an "irreparable loss" in an open letter to Velasco's wife Dorle Klokow, distributed by the president's office.

Fox called Velasco "a founder of entertainment journalism," adding that, "he leaves us a particularly memorable story of the happiness and entertainment that he knew how to communicate."

Announcers on the Televisa network, which broadcast "Siempre en Domingo," or "Always on Sunday," broke into coverage of a Sunday soccer game to lament Velasco's death.

On its Web site, the Televisa network posted an article saying Velasco died "surrounded by his family at his home, after an intense struggle against several illnesses."

"This closes a chapter in the history of Mexican television," the article said.

Earlier this month, Velasco's son Arturo told local media that stomach problems had prevented Velasco from appearing at a ceremony in his honor sponsored by an entertainers' union.

An October homage to Velasco was attended by pop stars including Alejandra Guzman and Puerto Rican singers Ricky Martin and Chayanne.

In 1998, a case of hepatitis forced Velasco to undergo a liver transplant, which local media said hastened the demise of his show.

Jovial in the show's earlier years, Velasco showed a more spiritual side in later broadcasts. He became known for his favorite phrase: "Aun hay mas," or "There's more to come."

http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/O/OBIT_VELASCO?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT

dad1153

11-27-06, 08:00 AM

Please check on the previous page (#613) for a dozen or so stories we've added in the past few hours.

And in case you were busy all weekend and missed the news...

TV Notebook
ABC Benches The Nine
By Jim Benson Broadcasting & Cable November 26, 2006

ABC Saturday abruptly announced that The Nine, which has been struggling in the ratings, is going on hiatus immediately.

This week’s scheduled episode of the serialized drama will be replaced by a special edition of 20/20 at 10 p.m. Wednesday, the final day of November sweeps.

The decision to pull The Nine appears to have been made at the last minute, since a preview of this week’s slated episode had aired at the end of the last show.

In a one-line statement about the move from ABC News, the network said The Nine “will return later in the season.”

There was no word what will fill the slot beyond this Wednesday, when it likely would have disappeared anyway during the lower-viewed holiday season.

ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson is known to be a big supporter of the show and frustrated by its ratings problems, an indication that it may come back to television rather than being relegated to the Web.

The Nine joins another critically acclaimed but low-rated ABC drama, Six Degrees, on the bench until later in the season.

Neither of the series had received back-nine episode orders, unlike other low-rated serialized dramas this season at various networks, including ABC.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6394611.html

Adam Tyner

11-27-06, 09:24 AM

OK, maybe I do desire "Buffy's" box.:juvenile snicker:

fredfa

11-27-06, 12:21 PM

Sunday’s over night prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

11-27-06, 01:50 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
ABC dips with return of 'Boston Legal'
Falls 12 percent in 18-49s, to a 4.6 rating
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Nov. 27, 2006

With “Brothers & Sisters” on a one-week layoff, a substitute “Boston Legal” only served to confirm the growing popularity of the show it replaced.

“Legal” averaged a 4.6 adults 18-49 rating last night, according to Nielsen overnights, in a special one-time appearance in the 10 p.m. post-“Desperate Housewives” timeslot, a slot it occupied during the 2004-’05 season.

That was down 12 percent from “Brothers’” season-to-date 5.2 average and off 16 percent from last week’s 5.5 for the show.

Though “Legal” did improve its season-to-date average of 3.2, it seemed to prove that “Brothers’” recent growing performance in the timeslot is no fluke. That is, “Housewives” viewers won’t stay tuned for just anything, and “Brothers” seems to be attracting some audience of its own.

“Legal” also slightly dragged down ABC’s average for the night, from a 5.7 last week to a 5.4, though the network still easily won the night.

Also last night, CBS aired its first Sunday night movie in weeks, and it was much weaker than the two programs that replaced it in the 9 to 11 p.m. timeslot this season. “Candles on Bay Street” averaged a 2.8, which was 32 percent below the combined season average of 4.1 for “Cold Case” and “Without a Trace.”

ABC was first for the night among 18-49s with a 5.4 average rating and a 13 share. Fox was second at 4.9/12, NBC third at 4.4/11, CBS fourth at 2.8/7, CW fifth at 1.3/3 and Univision sixth at 1.2/3.

As a reminder, fast national results measure timeslot data and not program data, and NFL coverage bled into several timeslots. Final ratings may thus change somewhat.

Fox began the night in the lead with a 6.1 during the 7 p.m. hour for the end of its NFL coverage and “The O.T.” postgame show. ABC was second with a 3.2 for “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” CBS third with a 2.4 for “60 Minutes” and NBC fourth with a 2.3 for “Football Night in America.” That left CW fifth with a 1.2 for an hour of “Reba” and Univision sixth with a 1.0 for “Noche de Estrellas.”

ABC took the lead during the 8 p.m. hour with a 5.1 for “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” followed by a 4.9 for NBC for NFL pregame and the first portion of its game between the Indianapolis Colts and Philadelphia Eagles. Fox finished third with a 4.5 for “The Simpsons” (5.0) and “American Dad” (4.1), CBS fourth with a 3.3 for “The Amazing Race,” CW fifth with a 1.6 for “7th Heaven” and Univision sixth with a 1.4 for the first hour of the awards show “Premios TV y Novelas.”

ABC extended its lead at 9 p.m. with an 8.5 for “Housewives,” the night’s top-rated show among 18-49s. NBC was second that hour with a 5.4 for football, Fox third with a 4.1 for “Family Guy” (4.8) and “The War at Home” (3.4), and CBS fourth with a 2.7 for the first hour of the movie “Candles.” Univision was fifth with a 1.3 for its second hour of “Premios” and CW sixth with a 1.2 for a repeat of “America’s Next Top Model.”

NBC grabbed the lead during the 10 p.m. hour with a 4.8 for football, followed by ABC’s 4.6 for “Legal,” a 2.9 for the last hour of CBS’s movie and a 1.1 for the final 60 minutes of “Premios” on Univision.

Among households, ABC was first for the night with a 9.3 average rating and a 14 share. CBS was second at 8.1/12, NBC third at 7.5/11, Fox fourth at 7.2/11, CW fifth at 2.2/3 and Univision sixth at 1.7/3.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_8755.asp

fredfa

11-27-06, 02:43 PM

TV Reviews
TBS's '10 Items' And 'My Boys':
Save the Receipt
By Tom Shales Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, November 27, 2006; C01

What do years of exposure to insipid sitcoms do to the human brain? Maybe nothing, since they may bypass the brain altogether and register instead in some other internal organ -- say, the gallbladder. Shouldn't science be studying this? More to the point, shouldn't TV critics receive the equivalent of combat pay? Or at least free psychiatric counseling and hot chocolate for life at Starbucks?

Actually, "10 Items or Less" and "My Boys," two new sitcoms surfacing this week on the TBS cable channel, aren't entirely without merit, although "10 Items" comes close. The premiere episode, at 11 tonight, also makes a stab at being entirely without laughs -- never mind 10 or less. Things look up slightly in the second show, a week from tonight, when the image of Jesus seems to appear on one wall of Greens & Grains, the raggle-taggle grocery store where the series is set, and the manager tries to exploit it for profit.

Meanwhile "My Boys," premiering with two episodes back-to-back tomorrow night at 10, shows a little more promise and even a trace of charm. It's about a female sportswriter for the Chicago Sun-Times whose status as "one of the guys" proves a liability to her romantic life, such as it is. The series has auspicious credentials: Among the executive producers are Gavin Palone, who works on Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" at HBO, and Jamie Tarses, the youngest person ever to run ABC's entertainment division when she held that post in the 1990s.

But worse news first: "10 Items or Less" would deserve praise for experimenting with traditional sitcom structure if (a) other shows, like the aforementioned "Enthusiasm," hadn't already carried out the same experiments, and much more successfully, and (b) the people who made the show knew what the heck they were doing. No one is likely to call any of them geniuses who are squandering their talent; they're more like scavengers trying to assemble a comic Frankenstein's monster from bits and scraps of other shows.

The producers and writers attempt to combine a scripted show with improvisational comedy, the technique that David has perfected with "Enthusiasm." But you have to master the rules before you can run around breaking them, and you need actors who are capable of making up their own lines and even comic situations to supplement whatever the writers have concocted. Such actors are hard to find.

Bluntly put, neither the writers nor the actors are good enough at what they're trying to do to justify trying to do it. They'd all be better off making "10 Items" a traditional scripted show, because then it would stand a better chance of making sense. Characters and their motivations might even be clear and consistent from scene to scene. Instead, everyone gropes around for ideas that prove stubbornly elusive.

The obvious inspiration for the show is "The Office" -- the British original and NBC's adaptation. John Lehr inhabits the Ricky Gervais role of office manager, but he's the manager of a supermarket instead, one handed down to him by his father, who died of a heart attack at 72. This, incidentally, is made the subject of a joke. Lehr is explaining to an employee that they're standing at the very spot in the very aisle where his father was stricken: "The funny thing was . . ."

But there was no funny thing, and there rarely is where the death of a parent is concerned.

Jennifer Elise Cox possesses one of the few familiar faces in the cast. She was one of the kids in the "Brady Bunch" movies but is miscast here as the nasty and vindictive manager of Super Value Mart, Greens & Grains's high-powered competitor. She wants Lehr, who plays fatuous doofus Leslie Pool, to sell out so that her store can expand its parking lot.

Greg Davis Jr. and Christopher Liam Moore set off a spark or two as a battling bagger and checker; Roberta Valderrama tries to keep her character, Yolanda, from being a Hispanic caricature; and Kirsten Gronfield brings a sweet naivete to Ingrid, another inexplicably loyal employee. Even when the actors manage to get a scene going, the director cuts away abruptly to something happening in another part of the store and then back again. Any hope for even minimal momentum is clumsily cut short.

"My Boys" is a more assured and tolerable half-hour, although it would help if Jordana Spiro exerted more energy in the central role: PJ Franklin, who writes about sports and is most comfortable hanging out with guy friends, a gang that treats her apartment in much the way that the regulars treated the bar in "Cheers." There's also a real bar they all go to when PJ runs out of beer.

Some of the details of their lives are real groaners. They all love to play poker, the card game that has come back from the dead with a vengeance and fills up hours and hours of airtime on one cable channel or another. Did our oft-cited forebears ever imagine we'd be spending our evenings watching other people play cards? Aren't there a dozen things wrong with that picture? At least if we watched people play Twister, there'd be some physical movement going on.

Jim Gaffigan, one of David Letterman's favorite comics (mysteriously enough), plays PJ's married brother, who sneaks away from his domineering wife to join the group at her apartment. "I have no free will," he confesses. "It's okay; I've made peace with it." Others in the inner circle include likable Kyle Howard and Reid Scott as, respectively, Bobby Newman, a sportswriter for the rival Chicago Tribune, and Brendan Dorff, a radio deejay who can't sever dangling ties with a girlfriend who exploits his good nature.

They're not the most unforgettable people anybody ever met, but they jell as a group in the first minutes of the premiere. Spiro isn't comically inventive, but she is definitely cute. Her more glamorous friend Stephanie (Kellee Stewart) tries to school her in "girly" matters, like how not to chase men away, and their encounters are moderately amusing.

Writer and series creator Betsy Thomas doesn't appear to have an unlimited number of wildly imaginative notions on the subjects of dating and relationships, but the topics are of such widespread interest that even her semi-original ideas suffice. "My Boys" is the kind of show that you're unlikely to seek out -- it's not TiVo-worthy by any means -- but if you happen upon it while channel-surfing, you could do a lot worse than pause and give it a shot.

It's sort of like a toy you trip over in the dark. You could toss it aside and not miss much, but you could also sit down and play with it and have a few laughs. Not many -- but every "few" helps.

10 Items or Less (30 minutes) airs tonight at 11 ET on TBS.

My Boys (30 minutes) airs tomorrow night at 10 ET (and again at 10:30), also on TBS.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/26/AR2006112601028_pf.html

fredfa

11-27-06, 03:23 PM

In case you missed it over the weekend (or in dad1153's post earlier today)...
TV Notebook
"The Nine" 86'd
By David Kronke Los Angeles Daily News Television Critic in his “The Mayor Of Television” blog Nov. 27, 2006

If you're really, really curious as to what happened during that hostage crisis in the bank that's playing out on "The Nine," well, sorry. In an act of stealth programming, ABC during the long holiday weekend quietly trotted the show into a back alley, forced it to its knees and put a couple of bullets in the back of its head. ABC promises that the show is merely "on hiatus" and will return "later in the season," but we all know that network promises are coprophagous at best.

"The Nine" was a show that, despite a fine cast and critical admiration, apparently put off a lot of viewers because it just looked like hard work and, as it followed the show requiring the most heavy lifting in network primetime (that would be "Lost"), too many viewers for ABC's tastes opted to reserve some of their brain cells for other activities. And when "Day Break" - which is quickly pulling off a spectacular tank job - took over "Lost's" time slot, there soon became no audience for "The Nine" to lose.

Actually, "The Nine" never quite felt right as an ongoing series; it would've been much better as a limited or miniseries. Dragging out secrets - particularly those all the characters already know - can be vexing for viewers; knowing the whole story's going to be wrapped up in eight hours ameliorates having to wait. Besides, once all the major particulars of the hostage tragedy were revealed, what were they going to do next season? Reveal that one of them had smuggled some beef jerky into the bank but wouldn't share with the others? Have the nine decide to join forces as a crack crime-fighting unit?

So the freshly scrubbed and hopeful series of September are stacking up like cordwood quickly and earlier than ever. A lot of the cooling bodies belong to serialized shows, and the networks are at least trying at times to give those shows' shrinking number of fans some sense of closure. You can find out how NBC's "Kidnapped" and Fox's "Vanished" - similar shows with their networks' trademark styles (NBC: polished, big stars; Fox: hyperbolic, conspiracy-tinged) and suffered similar fates - would've played out online; CBS has posted "Smith's" intended story arc before its cancellation online.

Regrettably - oh, who am I kidding? - thankfully, NBC has not offered the same service for "20 Good Years," and The CW realizes no one cares enough about whatever was going to happen on "Runaway." Fox is too busy trying to figure out how to keep "Standoff" and "'Til Death" on life-support - Bill Frist said that based on video he's seen, those shows are alive and healthy, but everyone knows his record on that sort of thing - to worry with the fates of its cancelled shows "Justice" and "Happy Hour." ABC is pretending that "Six Degrees," also "on hiatus," will return, so that when the trigger is finally pulled, people will have forgotten about it and won't care what was going to happen.

And while NBC and ABC have been awfully sympathetic to its ailing shows - ABC's full-season pickup of "What About Brian" is the biggest head-scratcher so far, though NBC may come to regret ordering the back nine for "Friday Night Lights" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (which had its lowest numbers of the season on Monday, even though its lead-in "Heroes" had its highest) - the season's carnage is far from over.

http://www.insidesocal.com/tv/

fredfa

11-27-06, 03:28 PM

TV Notebook
What do women want?
A baseball collection and a big wedding, apparently
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” November 27, 2006

The lavish American wedding -- in the movies, on TV and sometimes in real life -- is an event that comes stocked with a bumper crop of archetypal characters: the randy bridesmaid, the inappropriate in-laws, the overzealous mother of the bride, the groom with cold feet.

It’s pretty fertile ground for mainstream comedy, as the makers of “The Wedding Crashers” found: amid all that taffeta and all those pratfalls into multi-tiered cakes, there’s plenty of old-fashioned sentiment to be found.

But that hit film revolved around the wedding ceremonies themselves. Imagine a comedy centered on the shredded nerves of a family in the final stages of planning a wedding.

That’s the premise of “Big Day” (9 PM ET/PT Tuesday, ABC): Each episode of the show will follow an hour or so of the final day of wedding preparations for young Alice and Danny. Presumably the show’s big finish will depict the ceremony itself, but the fact that ABC is dumping this comedy in the middle of winter doesn’t give one hope that the “Big Day” couple will ever get to the altar.

Like “Help Me Help You,” this single-camera comedy traps a lot of good performers in a not very funny show. Marla Sokoloff and Josh Cooke are rather cookie-cutter couple whom viewers meet early on the morning of their wedding, which is to take place at her parents’ luxurious house later in the day.

Skilled comic performers Wendie Malick and Kurt Fuller deftly play the bride’s parents (she’s obsessed with the details; he detests the groom), and character actor Stephen Tobolowsky has a great time in the second episode in his role as the groom’s dippy father (his previous careers include cat breeder and hand model).

But much of this show is centered on tired clichés: the bride’s sister had a one-night stand with the best man; one of the groomsmen has a secret crush on the groom. Besides, who wants to relive -- minute by minute -- the crushing stress of the final day of wedding planning, the day on which the last-minute menu choice between Caesar salad and field greens can make sane people lose all perspective?

Too often, “Big Day” evokes the unpleasantness of pre-wedding stress, without mining the nuptial process for creative, original laughs.

Another new comedy, “My Boys” (10 PM ET/PT Tuesday, TBS) also has a talented ensemble assembled around a wobbly lead character and a concept that doesn’t quite ring true. P.J. Franklin (Jordana Spiro) covers baseball for the Chicago Sun-Times, and the premise of the show is that guys find it odd that she’s into sports, has a lot of male friends and isn’t shy and retiring about making the first move.

Something about this concept feels musty and a little condescending. Anyone who’s walked into a bar in the last 10 years has no doubt met any number of women under 30 who are assertive and uncompromising in many areas of their lives, and who also like to throw back a few drinks and play poker. Why are P.J.’s assertiveness and her baseball-card collection held up as, well, sort of weird?

Maybe this sort of independent female character was a new thing on the scene when “Sex and the City” premiered -- eight years ago. If P.J. was a compelling character, there might be a reason to overlook the fact that, when he gets flustered by her inability to communicate well, the guy she’s interested (naturally, the Chicago Tribune’s baseball reporter) says things like, “Why is it, every time I talk to you, I feel like a chick?”

Spiro is not really charismatic enough to carry a show, but the real problem is that P.J. isn’t going to make anyone forget Carrie Bradshaw any time soon (and the cutesy narration on “My Boys” leans on the sports analogies way too hard). It’s a shame, since the comic actors assembled around Spiro, especially Jim Gaffigan as P.J.’s henpecked brother, are a treat to watch. And it’s not as though we couldn’t use an intelligent comedy about sexual, and personal, diversity in Chicago.

Even if it’s about a reporter for that paper.

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

fredfa

11-27-06, 03:41 PM

TV Q&A
Ask Matt
(from the Ask Matt column at TVGuide.com
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com TV Critic Monday, November 27, 2006

Question: So now that we know the CW picked up Veronica Mars, the best show ever, for another seven episodes instead of the back nine, what is the likelihood of a fourth season? I know it's a little premature, but it just seems a little worrisome that it didn't get the full 22-episode season. Also, you mentioned earlier that Veronica and the gang might take a short break so the CW could try out some new shows. Is this pretty typical, or should I worry?— Jennifer

Matt Roush: I wouldn't worry yet. But then, this is the sort of show that has always had to sweat it out from season to season, so what else is new? What I was told about the shortened pickup for Veronica Mars is a simple matter of supply and demand and the not so simple matter of keeping budgets in line. The CW is going to use Veronica's post-Gilmore slot at some point in the mid-season to try out a new series, and thus the network doesn't need as many original episodes as it might have otherwise. This is not out of the ordinary. Mid-season experiments are commonplace, and one would think it's especially critical for an emerging network like the CW to be testing the waters with some new shows. This generally necessitates that an ongoing show take a brief hiatus. It's not like Veronica has a bull's-eye on her back, no matter how it looks.

Veronica prompted quite a bit of mail this week, including this fan posting from Tommy O.: "I've been a Veronica Mars fan since the very first episode. I loved Season 1, and though it seemed like there was too much going on, I also enjoyed Season 2. I am really enjoying Season 3, though I've read quite a few opinions on the Internet in which people say its quality has gone down. Some are even as petty as to criticize the new version of the theme song. The only thing I could legitimately complain about would be the way it basically started fresh this season, though I was happy that new viewers would have the opportunity to get into the show without being completely lost. How do you feel about Veronica's freshman year of college so far?"

So far, I like it just fine. I've enjoyed seeing how they've found a way to get Veronica involved with mysteries on campus while also keeping her a bit of an outcast and even a pariah in some circles. I'm liking most of the new characters and feel the show's on much more solid footing than it was by this time in the glutted second season. I'll know for sure how I feel about the show once they resolve the campus-rape story line. If it's as ludicrous as last season's rooftop denouement, then we may have some issues to discuss. Otherwise, ignore the griping on the message boards. Do not allow those naysayers to "harsh your buzz," as they used to say at my alma mater.

Question: What's your take on the CW, now that it's almost done with its first month of sweeps? Practically every show is down from its ratings last season (except America's Next Top Model, I believe), but this was expected. People are still finding CW channels in their homes, and some ignorant people I talk to haven't even heard of it. Do you think Dawn Ostroff is pleased? I wasn't surprised to see Runaway chased out, but The Game's pickup wasn't expected. I guess they couldn't admit both of their newbies failed. Gilmore Girls, though still one of the top-rated dramas, is about a million viewers below last year and is getting beat by Smallville. And as far as dramas go, Supernatural has the best retention rate. Do you think any of the CW's shows will not make it through this season?— Sonya

Matt Roush: This is all pretty much uncharted territory for a network like the CW, which is trying to establish itself in a very cluttered and confusing media environment, so I'm generally reserving judgment during its first season. There are even isolated markets where there are no CW affiliates (or so I've been told by some frustrated consumers out there), and growing pains are inevitable for a startup, even one with so many preexisting franchises. Several of the shows will probably take breathers in the winter and spring (including, as previously mentioned, Veronica Mars) to make room for some new shows, as well as for short-run reality franchises, like Beauty and the Geek. But I'd be surprised if any of the existing CW shows were yanked before the season is out. Now, when it comes to renewals for the CW's second year: That oughta get interesting.

Question: The Nov. 14 episode of Nip/Tuck ("Conor McNamara, 2026") was very positive and optimistic, for a change. However, there is a problem: That episode was a futuristic episode, basically showing where everyone would be roughly 20 years from now. By having such an episode, they have basically put themselves in a corner. If and when the Carver comes back, clearly no primary character of the TV show can be bumped off. Part of the appeal of the show was not knowing what was going to happen to the characters.— S.

Matt Roush: Oh, so you're the one still waiting for a Carver comeback. Sorry, that ship has sailed. I was OK with most of the episode, which at least was less obnoxious than usual (and no wooden Michelle is always a plus), although what in the world did Annie do to deserve growing up into the hideous brat she was portrayed as by that too-ubiquitous Jan Brady actress? Consistency has never been one of Nip/Tuck's virtues, but I admit I was also thrown by the notion that Matt could ever get his mess of a life together enough to be able to become a medical wiz like his two dads. To your point of the show being somewhat painted into a corner by revealing how all of these characters end up (Christian still a lech, Sean still a mope, everyone the victim of bad makeup, which is kind of ironic considering the show), I would say: It didn't really bother me, because I stopped taking these characters seriously about a season ago. (And this season would have definitely gotten me out of the habit.) I would have liked this episode even better if it were an indication that the show was nearing its end, which unfortunately doesn't appear to be the case. In many ways, especially emotionally, Nip/Tuck is over for me. I'm watching now out of duty, not pleasure.

Question: As I enjoy watching Friday Night Lights immensely, except for the herky-jerky camera work, one thing has dawned on me about the show. While critics and fans have been talking it up to keep it going, I believe Kyle Chandler needs to be praised, too, and that his performance merits strong Emmy consideration. He has been incredible at balancing compassion with toughness. He's also very believable, and he really is one reason the show is so good.— John

Matt Roush: Funny you should mention it. Kyle Chandler is one of my "Five Reasons We Love Friday Night Lights," which appears in the current issue of TV Guide, on stands now. (Shameless plug over.) In an item labeled "Best. Coach. Ever.," I write: "In a career-defining performance, Kyle Chandler gives the show its hunky spine and rock-solid conscience as beleaguered coach Eric Taylor. He's a father figure for his players, a role model for the town, a sex symbol for the PTA moms. He's compassionate but brutally demanding. The tougher he gets, the more we admire him. But at home he's a bit of a pushover, often put on the wry defensive by his feisty wife (the excellent Connie Britton) and precocious daughter (Aimee Teegarden), who argue that there's more to life than football. That's all Friday Night Lights is really trying to say, when you think about it."

Question: I notice you include a lot of questions concerning shows that are really popular. I have not noticed much being asked about Bones. I love this show, although I must admit, I originally began watching it because I am an avid Buffy and Angel fan. Do you feel that this show has enough of a following for Fox to stick with it, especially since they were already planning on moving it around in the scheduling, which usually signals a death sentence?— Nancy

Matt Roush: Fox isn't giving up on this one yet, so neither should you. The week before Thanksgiving, I moderated a panel discussion in New York featuring the networks' scheduling executives, and when I pointedly asked about the fate of Bones (citing the scores of e-mails I get about the show), the Fox exec indicated that despite any earlier suggestions that the show would move to Fridays at mid-season, it's probably going to stay put. The hope is American Idol could do for Bones what it did for House. (That said, Fox has yet to confirm many of its mid-season plans, and because of the expanding nature of Idol episodes, there will be weeks when Bones won't appear anywhere, I imagine.) I liked Bones from the start, but it's really growing on me this season, so I'm cautiously hopeful that Fox will do the right thing and not mess around with its scheduling. Regardless, I can't imagine it not getting a third season.

Question: Do you think that NBC will move Heroes? Beginning in January, it'll be going up against 24. I'm sure there are Heroes fans who will pick the more established 24. Even those who have TiVo can only watch so much recorded TV in any given week.— Will

Matt Roush: There's no question that 24 is going to present the biggest challenge yet to Heroes. But for the moment, there's no indication that NBC is going to blink. As a matter of fact, from what I understand from my spies in this office, when Heroes returns from its winter break on Jan. 22 (the first Monday showing of 24, the week before, will face the Golden Globes on NBC), the show will take off in a new direction, leading to some very promotable story lines that could help lure some viewers away from Jack Bauer and CTU. (A thought: If Sci Fi continues replaying Heroes episodes on Fridays in the new year, the DVR-challenged could always catch it then instead of having to choose between Heroes and 24 on Mondays.)

Question: Don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy with the NBC two-hour comedy block. All four shows are terrific. But, from a business standpoint, how does this make sense? While both Scrubs and 30 Rock will need time to grow after The Office (much like The Office needed time to grow after My Name Is Earl last year), realistically their ceiling will be about as high as the Earl/Office hour is. And that is under what Deal or No Deal had been doing for the hour. By the looks of the numbers for the first night, the move hurt ER and helped CBS. How long will NBC continue with the comedies in the 9 pm/ET hour if they are weak performers initially? I really want to enjoy this two-hour block, but in the back of my mind, I have the feeling it won't last too long.— Nate

Matt Roush: So enjoy it while you can. What choice do you have? Look, NBC is under no illusion that these cultish comedies will suddenly win the time period against CSI and Grey's Anatomy. But as a two-hour block, it's still probably a more attractive buy for advertisers seeking affluent, educated, hip viewers, especially compared to what was there before. You're right, though, that if the new programming shift does begin for whatever reason to negatively impact the ratings for ER, NBC might have to regroup again (although reluctantly, I would imagine). It's really depressing to think NBC would take a hit for having the nerve to schedule four smart comedies in a row. If only they'd done that when they were in a position of strength.

Question: Could you please tell me what I'm missing about The Office? Most critics keep writing about how wonderful and clever it is (you seem lukewarm). I don't get it. I love Arrested Development, Scrubs, Earl and even 30 Rock, so I can live without laugh tracks and three cameras. Michael and Dwight aren't pathetically funny: They're pathetic. Some of the fringe players are funny at times, but those times are rare. Of course, Jim and Pam are excellent, and their romance is enjoyable, but it's not enough. I cringe at this show much more often than I smile at it. Last week's episode ["The Merger"] was particularly painful to watch, but sure enough, the critics lauded it as one of the best. I respect the job you guys do, but what is this show's appeal? I've still yet to meet anyone who likes The Office.— Rick M.

Matt Roush: Bottom line here: Nothing is more subjective than comedy. For every letter I got from an Arrested Development fan over the years, I'd get one from someone going, "What's so funny about that overrated loser?" Or if I dare to say something generous about a more mainstream comedy, like one of CBS' comedy hits, I invariably get a response on the order of, "Were we watching the same show?" To me, the key word in Rick's take on The Office is "pathetic." The Office, in both its brilliant British and steadily improving U.S. versions, is a bitter comedy of pathos. It will never be to everyone's taste, but the more painful and realistic it gets, the better it actually is. And when you write that it makes you cringe, that means The Office is doing its job. Some find the cringeworthy nature of the show hilarious, many others find it off-putting. (And I am resolutely still not a fan of the Dwight character or the actor that plays him, and even Michael grates on me when the show goes over the top from time to time.) Still, for me, The Office has grown more this year than any other comedy, which is why (to my own surprise) it's probably going to end up on my top 10 list this year. The "fringe players" have emerged as distinct and very funny characters, the twists in the Jim and Pam relationship have been fascinating and compelling, and the story line of the Stamford-Scranton merger has been impeccably handled, adding many new layers of conflict and awkwardness to the group dynamic. But then, that's my take. I don't expect everyone to agree. Truth is: It's not as lovable as either Earl or Scrubs, but it has hit its stride lately (though if you hit it on a bad week, as in the "Initiation" episode, it can be painfully uneven).

Question: I was very upset to hear that Fox is canceling Justice, one of my favorite shows. One of the unique parts of this show is that at the end you are given the details on exactly how the person was killed. While at the end of other crime drama episodes, you still wonder exactly how "it" happened. Why is it that Fox is dumping Justice while going all out to save Standoff? I have tried to watch Standoff on three different occasions and have only found poor acting and even worse story lines. I feel that Fox has not even tried to help Justice with promos and advertisement but is continually doing this for Standoff.— Maribel

Matt Roush: The fact is, Fox had another lousy fall, with not even a Prison Break-sized breakthrough this year. Justice was given two chances. When it was clearly getting clobbered by Criminal Minds on Wednesdays (don't ask me why — that's the most inexplicably popular show on TV), Fox moved it behind Prison Break, which was about as good a shot as Justice was going to get. Ratings continued to stall, and given the procedural nature of Justice, there wasn't that much to promote beyond the case of the week. Whereas with Standoff, I guess Fox feels there's some potential in the mix of weekly crises and the leads' personal relationship. I don't see it, either, much as I like Ron Livingston. But Fox probably couldn't afford to cancel everything from the fall, which is why Standoff and 'Til Death got a reprieve. (And why Fox doesn't try that comedy in The War at Home's Sunday time slot is beyond me.) I understand that people get upset anytime a show gets canceled, but the writing was on the wall for Justice pretty early on. It wasn't a terrible show, but (climactic gimmick aside) it was a pretty ordinary one. At least Fox is planning to burn off some of the remaining episodes on Fridays in December.

Question: I'm a bit surprised at all the Izzie hate from Grey's Anatomy fans this season. She was so sympathetic with the Denny ordeal last season, and who didn't shed at least one tear when she had to be picked up and carried off his bed? Then this season, instead of throwing her back into the fire, the writers took the time to show her going through her grief (the image of Izzie standing outside the hospital all day is one of the things I will always remember about the show). Now she is trying to make up for her mistakes, but fans don't seem to be so forgiving, do they?— Dan

Matt Roush: Apparently not, but who cares? She's still a great character. I don't really buy the fact that she's allowed anywhere near a patient, even under the rules and restrictions they've set for her (which, of course, she rarely obeys). But I love the character and the actress, and this is one area where I'm willing to suspend some disbelief. Especially if it gives us moments like Alex and Izzie mimicking the patient who talked in the third person. As I noted in a recent Dispatch, Matt really liked that gag. Matt thinks it might have been his favorite Izzie and Alex moment of the season to date. I would have regretted her leaving the show far more than I will ever be annoyed by the way they're keeping her on.

http://tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Matt/default.aspx

fredfa

11-27-06, 03:50 PM

TV Notebook
Nets Set for Midseason
But Brace for Idol's Punch
By A.J. Frutkin Media Week Nov. 27, 2006

Aside from the fall, midseason remains the most crucial launch frame for broadcasters. And the networks have plenty of product waiting in the wings.

Among ABC’s midseason shows are serialized drama Traveler, sitcoms Knights of Prosperity,
Notes from the Underbelly and In Case of Emergency; According to Jim and George Lopez return midseason. CBS debuts sitcom Rules of Engagement. NBC launches dramas Black Donnelys and Raines, and returns The Apprentice to its schedule. Fox, in addition to American Idol and 24, brings back sitcom The Loop, plus new sitcom The Winner, and dramas Drive and The Wedding Store. And The CW debuts Hidden Palms.

As in years past, the game changers this midseason are American Idol and 24. Fox execs said they hope to use that promotional power to launch the net’s two new dramas in March.

“That’s when we’re at our strongest, and the other guys have to go back into repeats,” said Preston Beckman, executive vp of strategic program planning for Fox. “And given how difficult it is for us in the fourth quarter, if we can get these going in March and April, that could make life easier for us next fall.”

Idol’s return could knock ABC out of the top spot among 18-49 viewers. But with four new series ready to launch, the Disney-owned net isn’t going down without a fight. In fact, ABC Entertainment senior vp Jeff Bader suggested all broadcasters should take as many shots at success as possible, given the odds against such occurrences. “The percentage of shows that work versus those that don’t work just isn’t very high,” he said.

While ABC has the most new midseason programs among the major networks, CBS has the least. The reason? Following crime drama Smith’s quick fizzle, and the subsequent launch of medical drama 3 Lbs., “We went to our drama replacement earlier than we did last year,” said Kelly Kahl, executive vp of program planning and scheduling at CBS. “But we have what we think is an appropriate amount [of midseason shows] for our schedule.”

Of course, Idol may have the deepest impact on NBC, which has been on an upswing this fall. Against Idol, the network is maintaining realistic expectations. “There aren’t a lot of openings against that,” said Mitch Metcalf, executive vp of programming, planning and scheduling for NBC Entertainment.

But Metcalf is more optimistic about Heroes’ chances against 24. “You’ve got to expect it will take some kind of hit, but it won’t be knockdown,” he said, adding that the real winner will be network TV in general. “Viewing in that time period will be higher than it was a year ago,” Metcalf noted. “And that’s good for everyone.”

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003438132

fredfa

11-27-06, 03:59 PM

TV Notebook
Just A Thought
By Marc Berman Media Week Nov. 27, 2006

When I launched PIFeedback.com, the Programming Insider chat room, two months ago (the "place to be" online, if I may say so, for people to respond to the column and talk about TV), I expected a bevy of TV junkies to participate. Who doesn't have opinions about the small screen?

But what I did not anticipate was the incredible number of scheduling wannabes—both people working in the industry and outside of it—whose favorite hobby seems to be rearranging the prime-time broadcast lineups. Obviously, I am not alone in my obsession.

Several ideas, in fact, are worthy of consideration. Who better to trust, after all, than the people actually watching these series?

To begin, no one in the chat room, myself included, can understand why NBC won't return Medium to the Monday 10 p.m. hour. (It currently airs at 10 p.m. on Wednesdays.) With breakout hit Heroes at 9 p.m., the flow would certainly be seamless, and the lead-in support would be beneficial. Although the two-hour Medium season-opener, from 9 to 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 15, resulted in a respectable 9.44 million viewers and a 3.5 rating/9 share among adults 18-49, according to Nielsen Media Research data, the drama already has a proven track record opposite CBS' CSI: Miami on Monday. And flipping it with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip—which was just renewed for the full season—would give the Aaron Sorkin drama another chance at finding an audience opposite the less competitive CSI: NY.

The PIFeedbackers are also fed up with the lack of original scripted-programming options on Saturday (as am I). And since only one network, CBS, is strong enough to experiment, we have a suggestion. Move Close to Home from Friday at 9 p.m. to the Saturday anchor position, and find two compatible female-skewing dramas to air in the Friday 9 p.m and Saturday 9 p.m. time periods. I also like the idea of ABC testing struggling Monday drama What About Brian in the Thursday 10 p.m. hour (out of Grey's Anatomy) if the soon-to-be relocated Men in Trees fails there. And I agree with these online programming wannabes about Fox's The O.C. It's over, so let the serial drama die with some dignity. Taking its cue from classic serial Dallas, maybe the show can end with Mischa Barton as "dead" Marissa being discovered in the shower by brooding Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie). It was all a bad dream!

I am also on the same page as the PIFeedbackers about ABC's Grey's Anatomy. As well as it is doing on Thursday (And that is damn well!), ABC might have done even better by moving it to Monday at 9 p.m. It would have given the network a golden opportunity to build its first-quarter Monday schedule without football in 36 years, while thwarting NBC's competing Heroes. Without CSI in the competitive mix, even more viewers would be watching. And we all agree that NBC must be patient if it expects viewers to reconnect with its two-hour Thursday sitcom block opposite killer competition on ABC and CBS. But, I must be honest: I am not as gung ho as the majority of online chatterers are about NBC's 30 Rock or recently axed Fox drama Justice. I don't see what the fuss is about for either series.

The one new show nearly everyone on the site agrees is getting better by the week is ABC drama Brothers & Sisters. We like it, Sally Field, we really like it!

There are some suggestions, however, I do not agree with. For instance, one poster suggests Fox move House to Thursday to jump-start the evening. With holes galore on every night of the week, I think the struggling network should leave well enough alone. I am also dead-set against CBS flipping 8 p.m. show Ghost Whisperer on Friday with The Amazing Race on Sunday; the adults 18-34 audience watching TAR is usually out celebrating the start of the weekend.

ABC reconsidering the two-hour TGIF sitcom-block is also a mistake. The network recently tried it and it didn't work. Why go down that same path again? As for The CW moving 7th Heaven back to Monday, what would you do about relocated sitcoms Everybody Hates Chris and All of Us?

Whether I agree with the opinions on pifeedback.com or not, I love to read them—it's like an addictive game of chess. I hope readers continue posting their views. You never know when a network exec will take someone's advice. Consider it Fantasy Camp for programmers.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/departments/columns/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003438204

fredfa

11-27-06, 05:46 PM

TV Notebook
Morning News Ratings:
NBC Tops Heap, but ABC Gains
By Rebecca Stropoli Broadcasting & Cable11/27/2006

NBC's Today show topped the morning-news heap again for the week of November 13, but ABC's Good Morning America managed to slash the ratings gap with the Today show by 51% in total viewers and 24% in the key demo, adults 25-54. Week-to-week, GMA gained 340,000 viewers and 70,000 adults 25-54, while Today declined by 10,000 in total viewers and 80,000 in adults 25-54.

Today posted 5.74 million viewers and 2.64 million adults 25-54, while ABC got 5.41 million viewers and 2.16 million in adults 25-54. CBS' Early Show was far behind the top-two contenders with 2.84 million viewers and 1.12 million in adults 25-54.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6395020.html?display=Breaking+News

fredfa

11-27-06, 05:51 PM

TV Sports
NBC gets Cowboys-Saints Dec. 10th
NBC News Release

High-Flying Saints Brees into Dallas to Tackle Romo and Cowboys

NEW YORK – November 27, 2006 – The National Football League today announced the New Orleans Saints at the Dallas Cowboys game on December 10, previously listed for 1 p.m. ET, was selected to be moved to Sunday Night, an 8:15 p.m. ET kickoff on NBC as part of the NFL's new Flexible Schedule.

The Saints are in first place in the NFC South (7-4) and the Cowboys lead the NFC East (7-4). The Cowboys are making their second "NBC Sunday Night Football" appearance, having defeated the Redskins 27-10 in the second week of the season. The Saints are making their 2006 network primetime debut.

The Cowboys have won four of their last five games since installing backup Tony Romo as the starting quarterback. Romo has an NFL-best 110.8 quarterback rating, throwing 13 touchdown passes against five interceptions, while compiling an impressive 69.4 completion percentage. In his last outing on Thanksgiving Day, Romo tied a Cowboys record with five touchdown passes in a 38-10 rout of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Saints are the feel good story of the NFL, returning to the New Orleans Superdome after a year's absence in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and leading the NFC South division. QB Drew Brees, acquired in the off-season from the San Diego Chargers, leads the NFL in passing yards with 3,463 and has eclipsed 300 yards passing in five straight games. Yesterday, Brees threw for 349 yards in a 31-13 thrashing of the Atlanta Falcons. The Saints are seeking their first playoff berth since the 2000 season when they captured the NFC Western Division title.

ABOUT FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING:

The NFL this season is implementing for the first time in its history a primetime "flexible scheduling" element on Sundays in Weeks 10-15 and in Week 17 to ensure quality matchups with playoff implications in those weeks and give surprise teams a chance to play their way onto Sunday Night. The NFL will announce the flex game no later than 12 days prior, except for Week 17, which will be announced no later than six days before, to ensure that the final regular season Sunday Night game has playoff implications.

fredfa

11-27-06, 07:13 PM

TV Sports
Speed Channel and Fox Sports Acquire Formula One
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 11/27/2006

The Speed Channel and Fox Sports have acquired the rights to air Formula One auto racing through 2009.
Fox will air four events each year and Speed will carry 13 beginning in 2007.

The on-air team for both networks will include Bob Varsha, David Hobbs, Steve Matchett and Peter Windsor.
Formula One racing is one of the most popular sports in the world outside of the United States, but has had little exposure domestically.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6395027

grittree

11-27-06, 07:45 PM

The idea of having Mischa Barton coming out of the shower is hilarious. But it's doubtful the average OC viewer knows who Pam Ewing was.

fredfa

11-27-06, 10:57 PM

TV Notebook
Hargitay has reasons to smile
By Donna Freydkin USA Today Posted 11/27/2006

NEW YORK — In her trailer, Mariska Hargitay balances a baby on one hip, a holster on the other.

The infant is her then-4-month-old son August, a chubby-cheeked, cashmere-clad, blue-eyed bundle of gurgles and grins. And the firearm case belongs to Detective Olivia Benson, the character Hargitay has played on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for eight seasons.

"I was so worried about going back to work," says Hargitay, who brings her son and nanny to the set with her every day. "I don't leave home without him! Just like a new American Express card. The blessing is I can be with him all day. ... I can't believe how lucky I am."

Indeed, it has been a big year for Hargitay, 42. In June, she gave birth to her child with her actor husband, Peter Hermann, 39. In August, she won her first Emmy for playing Benson, the lonely child of a rape victim who spends her days and nights investigating sex crimes. And in September, she lost her father, actor and bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay. (Her mother was actress Jayne Mansfield.)

She gets teary-eyed when she shows a digital photo on her iBook of a bedridden, hospitalized Mickey cradling baby August. "It's like they got each other," she sighs. "It was so unspoken but so beautiful. Fortunately, I have these great pictures. My two favorite guys together. It's been an amazingly full year. Amazing how life can throw everything at you at once."

There's plenty of drama ahead for SVU's (Tuesdays, 10 p.m. ET/PT) Detective Benson as well. She finds out about family she never knew existed. Hargitay calls it "probably the biggest thing that's ever happened to Olivia."

Unlike her standoffish character, Hargitay is a chatty charmer on the set. She poses for photos with passersby outside a Bronx school, where the show shoots this day, teases the network photographer about a cellphone he fried during a trip abroad and hands a freezing bystander one of her hand-warmers. "Don't you want to date me now?" she yells, running back to rehearse her scene with co-star Chris Meloni.

Winning her Emmy didn't so much revitalize the procedural drama, the highest-rated of the Law & Order franchise and the leader of its time slot, as it did her personally.

"I don't think the show was doing bad before the Emmy," Hargitay jokes. "It makes me only want to be better. Now I'm an Emmy winner. I have to step it up."

She would like to lighten up with a comedy, but "I have no intentions of leaving, even though our contracts are up this year," she says.

After a six-month maternity leave that saw Benson going undercover with the feds, a newly svelte Hargitay is back in fighting shape. She plans to nurse August until he turns 1, eats organic vegetables and poultry and two pieces of dark chocolate every day, and has hired a personal trainer so her "body and spine would be strong" for toting August around in a Baby Bjorn.

Motherhood, Meloni says, "filled out her life and got her in touch with her center. It's been very good to her."

Hargitay scoots into her trailer during breaks to play with August, a kid who smiles at everyone. She shows pictures of co-stars Ice-T and Meloni cradling August.

"He's completely embraced here. People are fighting over who gets to hold him."

You won't catch her on the party circuit. "I just want to spend as much time with him as possible," Hargitay says. "He comes out, and it's like, 'You are my life.' It reinvigorates and re-energizes your marriage. My husband and I are so much more in love than we were before. We can see these new parts of each other as parents."

Her wide-eyed son sits in her lap, grabs her hand and tugs on her index finger. "This kid," she says, gazing at him, "knows he was wanted more than anything in the room. I hit the jackpot."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-11-27-hargitay_x.htm

AAF

11-28-06, 12:31 AM

TV Sports
Speed Channel and Fox Sports Acquire Formula One

Racing junkies thank you. Any chance of Fox airing F1 in HD? The U.S. Grand Prix in particular?

rpete

11-28-06, 01:41 AM

Racing junkies thank you. Any chance of Fox airing F1 in HD? The U.S. Grand Prix in particular?

I don't imagine Fox Sports would go to the trouble for an audience of half a million people or whatever pathetic number it is in this country. Begrudgingly I've resigned myself to the idea of SD F1 broadcasts for at least the next half decade or so. Hope I'm wrong though.

fredfa

11-28-06, 01:57 AM

Perhaps one of the four races on Fox Sports Net could be in HD, but I tend to agree with rpete -- until the audience is there, I would doubt we'd see any F1 HD coverage.

bgooch

11-28-06, 06:06 AM

Cable Subscribers Aren’t Saying, ‘I Want My N.F.L.’
The New York Times, TV Sports By RICHARD SANDOMIR
November 28, 2006

The NFL Network carried its first regular-season game on Thanksgiving night — Kansas City beat Denver, 19-10 — but the cable operators who have refused to show the channel did not bow to league power and enlist.

Time Warner, Cablevision and Charter are still saying no.

They did not feel pressured by the start of the NFL Network’s package of eight Thursday and Saturday night games. Time Warner Cable has 13.5 million subscribers, and only a handful protested by disconnecting their service.

“After the first game, we’re in the same position as we’re in before it,” said Landel C. Hobbs, the chief operating officer of Time Warner Cable.

There are no active negotiations, he added.

The NFL Network is available to 41 million cable and satellite subscribers. Its president, Steve Bornstein, is proud of that, but it is not the ubiquitous distribution he hopes for.

“I’m disappointed that fans of the N.F.L. were not able to access the game,” he said yesterday by telephone from Los Angeles. “We pride ourselves on being as available to as many people as possible.”

The problem for Time Warner, Cablevision and Charter is that the NFL Network is seeking 70 cents a subscriber, 50 cents more than it charged before it got the rights to carry eight games.

In seeking the widest possible distribution, Bornstein has run into the recalcitrant cable systems’ belief that the channel is too expensive or belongs on a digital sports tier with the likes of NBA TV, CSTV and the Tennis Channel.

With so much football out there, Hobbs said, a network offering eight games over five weeks (five Thursdays and three Saturdays) belongs on a sports tier.

•

Bornstein hates sports tiers and says his network is the “best product out there” for the most broadly available digital cable businesses, as opposed to the “thirteen iterations of the Discovery Channel on digital.”

Bornstein wants the most subscribers to maximize his revenues; he also needs to justify the league’s rejection of Comcast’s bid of $400 million a year to carry the games on its Versus network. He can’t maximize his audience on digital sports tiers because cable companies charge extra monthly fees for them.

Evidence of the league’s ardor is a lawsuit it filed against Comcast last month in Manhattan Supreme Court over the cable operator’s right to keep carrying the league’s channel on a sports tier, as it has done since 2004.

“We’re not familiar with a sports tier that’s worked,” Bornstein said.

The network is also in litigation with Charter.

With one game aired, the NFL Network looks as if it has begun to lose leverage against the cable operators. There are no reports of major fan groundswells demanding the channel — Bornstein said his office received “quite a few” complaints but would not say how many — that remind anyone of Yankees fans’ ire when Cablevision did not carry the YES Network in 2002.

Bornstein insisted that he had not lost any leverage, and he was hoping a tide of aggrieved fans would rise to demand that Time Warner, Cablevision and Charter make a deal, as 160 other cable operators have.

“We didn’t anticipate that we’d have everybody aboard by now,” he said. “We need our fans to speak up and petition their distributor to get us.”

But this isn’t some sort of “I Want My MTV” campaign; it is a negotiation between parties who are natural antagonists.

•

One of the NFL Network’s problems in provoking the disenfranchised, displaced and dissatisfied into demanding the NFL Network is that most of the potentially angry fans will see the games. A local broadcast station in the home markets for each game will carry the NFL Network feed. But fans outside those primary markets (say, Giants fans in Albany or Chiefs fans in Topeka) will not see those games on local stations.

Viewers who saw the Kansas City-Denver game heard Bryant Gumbel struggle in his first N.F.L. play-by-play stint. He sometimes hunted for the right words (too often saying a running back was “stacked up”), erroneously reported downs and yardage several times and rarely offered excitement in his voice. (Bornstein said Gumbel had the flu.)

Cris Collinsworth’s estimable analysis showed the value of being an N.F.L. game commentator in the past and being on studio programs since the 1990s. Gumbel, who is known mostly as the co-host of “Today,” is also the host of “Real Sports” on HBO, but he had never called a professional football game.

Fans who saw Thursday’s game also noticed an obtrusive score strip that hung too low from the top of the screen, a first-down line that was shown erratically, and the pleasant emergence of Marshall Faulk, an analyst on the pregame program “Total Access.” Faulk is a smart voice who made his colleagues Deion Sanders, whose act grew tired on CBS, and Steve Mariucci, a former N.F.L. coach, shrink in significance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/28/sports/football/28sandomir.html?_r=5&oref=login&ref=football&pagewanted=print

Commentary: NFL Network HD: Not Ready for Primetime?
By Joseph Whip, HD Observer

Washington, D.C. (November 26, 2006) -- I checked out the first HD broadcast of a live NFL game on the NFL Network Thanksgiving night. I watched on DIRECTV and later on Comcast which, for some reason, did not pick up the game until sometime in the second quarter.

My impression? Not too good. The pre-game and halftime segments were in SD not HD. The picture quality of the HD broadcast was poor with constant macroblocking (picture break up) with any movement and pixelation of graphics. This was true on both DIRECTV and Comcast.

While one would expect some problems starting up a new production, NFL Network HD really needs to do a lot of work to bring its broadcasts up to acceptable standards. On the HD side, they really need to do something about the macroblocking which made the broadcast very difficult to watch. All in all, a rather poor first effort.

Joseph Whip is a HD Observer for TVPredictions.com
http://www.tvpredictions.com/josephwhip112606.htm

harley1

11-28-06, 07:32 AM

Three sitcoms arrive on an unfunny scene

By Jonathan Storm
Inquirer Columnist

These days, there is no joy in Tubeville.

"When a team is in a slump," says the narrator and lead character in a coming episode of TBS's sports-obsessed My Boys, "they'll do almost anything to find their way out of it - even wear the same underwear for a week."

Hollywood writers are more civilized than your average baseball boy, and that's a good thing. If they were practicing that particular juju to rise from their unprecedented sitcom slump, you could smell them all the way to Salt Lake City.

Three new comedies premiere this week. ABC unveils Big Day, a 24-style, hour-by-hour take on one couple's wedding day, tonight at 9. My Boys, yet another batch of young singles looking for love, goes at 10 on TBS, and the cable network launched an improvisational situation comedy, 10 Items or Less, yesterday. It's scheduled Mondays at 11 p.m., just before back-to-back episodes of Seinfeld.

All three comedies have their funny moments, and, in another era, it would not be difficult to imagine viewers bonding with some of their quirkily likable characters. But viewers these days have better things to do.

In 1989-1990, 20 of the top-30-rated TV shows, and seven of the top 10, were sitcoms. Today, two sitcoms sit in the top 30. The highest-rated, Two and a Half Men, is No. 11.

Where have all the viewers gone?

In the first place, they're watching ubiquitous reruns of classic comedies, like that late-night Seinfeld block on TBS. In Philadelphia, Jerry and his friends compete against themselves at 11:30 p.m., on cable and in syndication on Fox29, and they show up at 7:30, too, on Fox29.

TBS ("very funny" is the motto) alone offers Seinfeld, Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Sex and the City. Malcolm in the Middle, Bernie Mac, The Simpsons and others - proven laughers - are all over the schedule.

All three new comedies get along without laugh tracks, and you don't see total improvisation in a sitcom structure or a tick... tick... tick one-day format every day. But even with their innovations, and even on the slightly edgy basic cable, mainstream comedies can't compete with the deliriously comic excesses of such premium cable offerings as HBO's Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm or Showtime's Weeds.

Pallid by comparison, they can't attract an audience.

Reality and quiz shows have also supplanted sitcoms as a TV staple. Gaining more viewers, and frequently costing less to produce, why wouldn't they? In 1989-90, America's Funniest Home Videos and Unsolved Mysteries were the only two in the top 30. Today, there are five, and the start of American Idol is more than a month away.

Writers and producers are in a slump, and someday a sitcom savior will emerge from their beaten-down brains. Now, however, there isn't a single must-see comedy on mainstream TV. Seventeen years ago, Roseanne, The Cosby Show and Cheers were all appointment television.

But back in those dark days, there were also fewer alternatives for pleasant time-wasting, pre-everything: DVDs, video games, computer broadband. People even sat still for Jackie Mason's Chicken Soup, No. 15 for the year, but canceled after two months because it "only" attracted about 17 million viewing households. That would make it by far the No. 1 show on today's hit parade.

Families also watched TV together (how quaint), and gave such silliness as Full House and Growing Pains the status of hits.

It's a grim comedy world, but some folks are still trying. Cheltenham High graduate Josh Goldsmith and his wife, Cathy Yuspa, have two new shows. They're dangling by a thread with Fox's Till Death, the Brad Garrett starrer that has no viewers but a full-season order, and now they present Big Day.

Marla Sokoloff (The Practice) is the bride, Josh Cooke is the groom, and their friends and family, including the accomplished Wendie Malick, Kurt Fuller and Stephen Tobolowsky, seem inadvertently intent on messing things up.

"Your dad was inappropriate," Marla tells her hubby-to-be. "My dad was hostile, and my mom was passive-aggressive - a lot better than Christmas."

The show often goes to annoying extremes. The best man sleeps with the maid of honor the night before the wedding, for instance, and she accidentally swallows his contact lenses, rendering him blind for the duration.

But we've all had to ignore individual idiocy from some quarter at most of the weddings we've attended, and, eventually, your heart may go out to these lovebirds, enough to wish them good luck to at least get to "I do."

My Boys features a preternaturally cute sports reporter, Jordana Spiro from Must Love Dogs, whose friendship with five men gives everybody lots of chances to talk about sex and dating. She has a girly girlfriend, too: Philadelphia's own Kellee Stewart.

We've seen this before. TBS even goes to great lengths to demonstrate how much it resembles Sex and the City. Except not nearly enough.

Audiences haven't seen anything like 10 Items or Less, in which the actors take over Jons Market (if it were my market, it would have an apostrophe) in Reseda, Calif., and improvise their way around real customers.

"It's a long day, living in Reseda," sings Tom Petty, but 10 Items or Less is a quick hit of inanity, as close to The Office as anything else and an infinitely more worthwhile waste of time than watching the local news at 11 o'clock.

Don't get too angry if you watch and realize that's not exactly a wild endorsement.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16111287.htm

harley1

11-28-06, 07:44 AM

'Bones' rattles on

With sharp characters, forensic show has managed to set itself apart from CSI mould

By BILL BRIOUX -- Toronto Sun

David Boreanaz, and Emily Deschanel co-star in the forensic series Bones
Not every show is shutting down for a month or two with a "fall finale." Here's one that will keep right on rattling: Bones.

The second-year crime drama stars David Boreanaz (Angel) and Emily Deschanel as Seeley Booth and Dr. Temperance Brennan, mismatched homicide investigators.

He's a cynical, seen-it-all FBI homicide special agent. She's a no-nonsense author and forensic anthropologist.

You've seen this part before: They hate each other but they love each other. They were called "TV's sexiest sleuths" on the cover of last week's U.S. TV Guide, which seems about right.

Bones, however, is more than just a couple of pretty faces. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, Bones is both heavy and light. Brennan's lab partners revel in their high-tech toys and scientific nerdiness. The two leads, if you'll pardon the expression in a review about a forensic drama, have a nice chemistry.

Also easy on the eyes is Toronto native Tamara Taylor, who has broken through as a regular this season as Booth's love interest. This early in the series, somebody's got to force that simmering Booth/Brennan heat onto the back burner.

Tomorrow night's episode, The Headless Witch In The Woods, is very Blair Witch (8 p.m. on Fox and Global). A headless body discovered in a Washington, D.C., woods invokes an old legend. A videotape found at the scene offers more creepy clues.

For some, Bones must seem like just another Fox ripoff, a CSI clone. Deschanel, however, is the difference. Her flinty and focused character is intriguing and original.

Maybe that's because she's based on a real person: Kathy Reichs, a novelist and forensic anthropologist who spends much of her time in a Montreal crime lab. Look for her to make a cameo next month in an episode directed by former X-Files star David Duchovny.

NBC LIGHTS UP:

NBC is developing a TV series based on Thank You For Smoking, the indie feature movie about a superstar spin doctor who works for big tobacco. Plus, CBS has ordered a script for Voyages, a 'Rashomon-style' drama about passengers on a luxury cruise liner. The would-be series' executive producer is X-Men star Hugh Jackman.

ROMBER RACES AGAIN:

That 'All-Star' edition of The Amazing Race is currently in production with overexposed reality duo Rob and Amber among the contestants. The former Survivor sweeties are racing against the couple that nipped them at the finish line last time, Joyce and Uchenna. Other players are unconfirmed but there are Internet reports that cousins Charla and Mirna are back. Missing, apparently, are popular hippies BJ and Tyler, as well as bickering marrieds Jonathan and Victoria. This 11th edition of Race will begin in the new year.

NINE DEEP-SIXED:

The Nine is the latest procedural drama to be yanked off the schedule. The critically-acclaimed ABC series, which starred Tim Daly, Kim Raver and seven others as hostages caught in a botched bank heist, will be replaced by 20/20 tomorrow night. Serial rookies Six Degrees, Kidnapped, Smith, Runaway and Vanished have all also vanished from the schedules.

http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2006/11/28/pf-2530699.html

harley1

11-28-06, 08:02 AM

A farce on the way to vows

BY MIKE DUFFY
FREE PRESS TV CRITIC

You know the wedding day drill.

The bride is uptight. The groom is slightly clueless.

And the mother of the bride, well, she's even more on edge than her daughter.

But on "Big Day," a frantic new romantic comedy, everybody's completely flipping out or acting very, very strange.

And here's the ultimate quirk: This screwball farce plays like a nutty nuptials twist on "24," right down to a real-time digital clock. Each episode traces 30 minutes in the dizzy day's countdown to "I do, I do."

Heaven knows what they'd do for a second season. Maybe call it "Big Honeymoon Night."

On tonight's premiere we quickly meet young, occasionally addled bride Alice (Marla Sokoloff, "The Practice") and her more laid-back husband-to-be, Danny (Josh Cooke, "Four Kings"). It's 10 hours before the ceremonies at the spacious suburban home of Alice's semi-snooty parents, control freak mother Jane (Wendie Malick, "Just Shoot Me") and sardonic doctor father Steve (Kurt Fuller, "Anger Management").

Naturally, since this is Planet Sitcom, chaos reigns.

Alice and her mother are battling over the salad to be served at the reception, with the bride desperately wanting Caesar and the manic mother hard set on poached pear vinaigrette.

Meanwhile, the maid of honor, Alice's acerbic older sister Becca (Miriam Shor, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch") has just woken up with the horndog best man, Skobo (Stephen Rannazzisi, "A Day in the Life"), after a night of too much rum. And now -- big oops! -- Becca accidentally drinks his contact lenses from a nearby glass; leaving dopey Skobo legally blind and stumbling around like a fool for the rest of the frazzled day.

And did we mention Lorna (StephnieWeir, "Mad TV"), the flibbertigibbet wedding planner? Or that one of the groomsmen is not so secretly hot for the groom? Whew, farce fatigue is already setting in.

Dreamed up by the writing team of Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa ("13 Going on 30"), "Big Day" is stylishly made, free of a laugh track and blessed with a pretty nifty cast. But the show itself swings wildly back and forth, sometimes witty and fun, but more often just comically erratic and disappointingly ho-hum.

The bottom line: "Big Day" just doesn't deliver many big laughs.

But there are just enough grins and giggles to give one hope that "Big Day" can eventually find its comic way. If not, viewers may soon want to file for a quick chucklehead annulment.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061128/ENT03/611280317/1038&template=printart

harley1

11-28-06, 08:09 AM

Altar angst tops dating woes

VINAY MENON

Popular culture loves a wedding.

In recent years, the big screen has mined this rite of passage, unearthing Crashers and Planners and Singers. We've glimpsed the kaleidoscopic rituals of other cultures (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Monsoon Wedding), rode shotgun during Wedding Dates, Wedding Marches, Wedding Banquets and Wedding Nights. Along the way, we've even endured the horror that is an overwrought J.Lo.

On television, weddings usually fall into one of the following: 1. Sweeps Stunt, 2. Season Finale Stunt or, 3. On-Location Special Stunt (see: Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding or Saved By the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas. Actually, don't).

So why would any sensible producer plunge into such an unoriginal abyss?

Who knows? But if the pilot for a new sitcom is a reliable gauge, we should stop asking silly questions and start giving thanks to the TV gods.

Big Day (ABC, 9 tonight) taps into television's serialized craze by wringing one Wedding Day Gone Wrong into a full season of screwball comedy.

The enchanting Marla Sokoloff (The Practice) stars as Alice, a young bride-to-be thrilled to be marrying Danny (Josh Cooke), her sweet but flaky fiancé with the requisite shaggy hair and naïve outlook on life.

Alice's abiding love for Danny is not shared by father Steve (Kurt Fuller), a pragmatic physician who is worried about the lad's not-so-obvious job prospects (Danny works at a summer camp) and obvious arrested development. (As Steve dryly informs his daughter: "Most adults don't have theme songs.")

Compounding Alice's pre-altar stress is mother Jane (Wendie Malick). Mom has hijacked the proceedings and is glibly interfering with every detail, from the salad to the flowers.

"You've had it out for caesar salad from day one!" screams Alice, during one particularly amusing dispute.

Big Day also boasts a compelling assortment of secondary characters: the older, embittered single sister; the groomsman who harbours a secret crush on the groom; the ex-boyfriend who holds a carnal torch for the bride; the skittish wedding planner; the best man who suddenly can't see (you'll see).

The network's marketing department is fixating on the show's "24-style" form of storytelling. But, if anything, this "real time" gimmick may get in the way of a splendid new show that's brimming with real promise.

I could bore you with some thoughts on the sharp writing. Or the feature-worthy editing. Or the clever transitions. Or the truly inspired snafus. Or the spot-on casting. Or the sly use of cultural allusions.

But, ultimately, there is only one litmus test for a TV pilot: does it leave a viewer wanting more? And, for this sleep-deprived viewer, the answer was a resounding, "Yes!"

Moving on.

My Boys (TBS, 10 tonight) also deals with love, relationships and the battle of the sexes. But it does so less successfully.

The new comedy revolves around P.J. Franklin (Jordana Spiro), a 20-something blonde who makes her living covering baseball for the Chicago Sun-Times. (If this sounds like a strange hybrid of HBO's Sex and the City and Mind of the Married Man, well, it is.)

P.J. plays poker. P.J. orders pitchers of beer. P.J. eats pizza. P.J. coaches her male softball team. P.J. collects sports paraphernalia. Connect the dots: P.J. is one of the boys!

P.J.'s boys include Mike (Jamie Kaler), Kenny (Michael Bunin), Brendan (Reid Scott) and her brother Andy (Jim Gaffigan), a henpecked fellow trapped in an unhappy marriage.

Another boy, Bobby (Kyle Howard), enters the clique tonight, putting P.J. in a difficult predicament, one that gives the show its tension. What might that be? Let me attempt to explain her existential dilemma:

Okay. Although one of the boys, P.J. is still a girl. A girl who has a crush on this boy, Bobby. But Bobby is having trouble thinking of P.J. as a girl when she constantly acts like a boy. So P.J. begins to wonder about life as one of the boys when, in fact, she's a girl, a girl who's having trouble meeting boys who can think of her as a girl.

Confused? Good. So is P.J.

The following quote, from P.J. in voiceover, gives you a good sense of the show's writing:

"The reason I love sports is because you know where you stand. Someone wins and someone loses. It's black and white. Dating, on the other hand, is a whole different ballgame."

So now it's up to you. Is My Boys a grand slam? Or a strikeout?

vmenon@thestar.ca

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1164667810238&call_pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630

Michael252

11-28-06, 10:57 AM

[SIZE=4]

By BILL BRIOUX -- Toronto Sun

ROMBER RACES AGAIN:

That 'All-Star' edition of The Amazing Race is currently in production with overexposed reality duo Rob and Amber among the contestants. The former Survivor sweeties are racing against the couple that nipped them at the finish line last time, Joyce and Uchenna. Other players are unconfirmed but there are Internet reports that cousins Charla and Mirna are back. Missing, apparently, are popular hippies BJ and Tyler, as well as bickering marrieds Jonathan and Victoria. This 11th edition of Race will begin in the new year.

http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2006/11/28/pf-2530699.html

My wife and I have been fans of the Amazing Race and Survivor since the beginning. And we tend to not enjoy the "all-star" versions quite as much simply because it's not as "fresh" when you've seen the way the players play. But when I read the above article, I just want to say, "Aw, come on, CBS!! Haven't you milked this rob and amber crap enough?"

Sad to say, the first series of Amazing Race we will not watch.

fredfa

11-28-06, 11:25 AM

Monday’s metered market over-night prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

flint350

11-28-06, 11:45 AM

archiguy

11-28-06, 11:58 AM

With all the anger over serialized shows demanding viewer involvement, but then lacking network suport, I wonder if there isn't a minor, tenable solution. Is it possible to expect that in the future a series have an ending show/story planned, just in case? Or, failing that, couldn't they just have the writers come up with a sort of novelette that could be posted on their network website that would put forth the producers' original intention/conclusion? I'd prefer a real end-story in the form of a last episode, but I would settle for a written plot that summarizes where the story was going and what the intended ending and main plot points were meant to be.

I think both of us (and the other 8 million or so fans) are hoping something happens with "The Nine" that tells us just what happened in that damn bank, but I'm not holding my breath. NBC just basically flushed 'Kidnapped' down the drain, consigning the 8 remaining episodes to their website, but then taking them down after only a week when many of its fans still hadn't seen them (including me)! :mad: Guess they've got such a severe bandwidth shortage they can't leave them all up for a few weeks to give everyone a chance to see them who wants to see them. :rolleyes:

In short, I don't see the networks really caring enough about the fans to give them any real closure; NBC's abhorrent treatment of 'Kidnapped' and its fans shows us that pretty clearly.

fredfa

11-28-06, 12:08 PM

Monday’s updated fast national over night prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

11-28-06, 12:20 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
An aging but still virile 'The Bachelor'
Season finale shows its strength in women 18-49s

By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Nov. 28, 2006

“The Bachelor” finale will probably never be appointment television again, as it was four years ago when the show was at its peak.

But for a reality show in its ninth year, “Bachelor” is doing exactly what ABC wants, and that’s performing well among its target demographic of women 18-49 and 18-34.

The “Bachelor: Rome” finale last night helped boost ABC to second for the evening in those demos, just behind NBC, according to Nielsen overnights. “Bachelor” averaged a 5.9 in women 18-49 and a 5.4 in women 18-34 for its two-hour finale at 9 p.m., both of them tying for No. 1 in the slot.

ABC averaged a 5.5 for the night in women 18-49, 0.1 behind NBC, and a 4.9 in women 18-34, 0.3 behind NBC.

Among adults 18-49, the results weren’t quite as impressive. “Bachelor” averaged a 4.0, peaking with a 4.3 at 10 p.m., but that was down more than 20 percent from last spring’s finale of “The Bachelor: Paris.” It was up from the show’s October premiere.

ABC’s post-“Monday Night Football” strategy ever since the show left for good last January has been to target women on Monday nights. It’s seen varying success.

While “Jake in Progress” and “Emily’s Rules Why Not” bombed, “Bachelor” and, to a lesser degree, “Supernanny” and “Wife Swap” have done decently in the demographics.

NBC was first for the night among 18-49s with a 5.1 average rating and a 12 share. CBS was second at 4.4/11, ABC third at 3.8/9, Fox fourth at 3.4/8, Univision fifth at 1.6/3 and CW sixth at 1.4/3.

At 8 p.m., NBC led with a 5.2 rating for “Deal or No Deal,” followed by a 4.0 for Fox for the fall finale of “Prison Break,” down from last fall’s 5.5 but up 14 percent over its season average of 3.5. ABC was third with a 3.5 for “Wife Swap,” CBS fourth with a 3.3 average for “How I Met Your Mother” (3.5) and “The Class” (3.1), Univision fifth with a 2.1 for “La Fea Mas Bella,” and CW sixth with a 1.4 for “Everybody Hates Chris” (1.4) and “All of Us” (1.4).

NBC extended its lead during the 9 p.m. hour with a 6.7 for “Heroes.” CBS moved to second with a 4.2 average for “Two and a Half Men” (4.8) and “The New Adventures of Old Christine” (3.7), with ABC third with a 3.7 for its first hour of the “Bachelor” finale, Fox fourth with a 2.7 for a “House” repeat, Univision fifth with a 1.5 for “Mundo de Fieras,” and CW sixth with a 1.4 average for “Girlfriends” (1.4) and “The Game” (1.3).

CBS jumped into the lead at 10 p.m. with a 5.6 for “CSI: Miami,” followed by a 4.3 for ABC’s second hour of “Bachelor.” That left NBC third with a 3.3 for “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and Univision fourth with a 1.3 for “Cristina.”

Among households, CBS finished first on a competitive night, averaging an 8.6 rating and 13 share, edging out NBC’s 8.2/12. ABC finished third at 6.8/10, Fox fourth at 5.3/8, and Univision and CW tied for fifth at 2.2/3.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_8783.asp

fredfa

11-28-06, 12:35 PM

Critic’s Notebook
''How I Met,'' ''Studio 60,'' ''Two and a Half,'' ''Big Day''
By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal blog Nov. 28, 2006

Last night was one of those where the things we know off-camera affect what we see on camera. How many times did the guys on ''Studio 60'' have to use the word ''pregnant'' before you began to think, oh, yeah, Amanda Peet? How much did you ponder Neil Patrick Harris's recent coming out while watching ''How I Met Your Mother's'' riffing on acceptance -- only making the riff about Barney's disaste for marriage instead of the usual topic?

Still, ''How I Met'' was pretty funny, especially with Wayne Brady's spot-on Barneyness. And maybe I missed an earlier reference to it, but what does it tell us about the third season that Marshall and Lily were married in that flash-forward?

''Studio 60,'' meanwhile, by the week becomes more of a giant, lumbering beast of a show, one that can't even carry the weight it creates for itself. We go through this whole business about getting the remaining writers to write, to the point that they're supposed to be included in writing the replacement sketch (''Spit Take Theater,'' eh?) -- only, as far as I can tell, they weren't. Matt's idea saves the day.

(And my buddy Alan Sepinwall saved me a nagging headache this morning by knowing where the duck-joke bit had come from; it's in ''My Favorite Year.'')

I keep watching this because it had possibilities in the very early going, and because Sorkin has had moments of greatness in other things, and because some people are so passionate about it that I want to be able to talk to them in detail -- if only about the reasons I dislike the show. But I was reading a line from Robert Christgau this morning that gets closer both to why I watch and why I am so unhappy doing so than anything I have been able to come up with on my own.

Reviewing a Jane Siberry album, Christgau said, ''Interesting music is the perfect cover for mediocre literature.'' And I thought, yeah, that's ''Studio 60'' before I even made the precise parallel. Which boils down to, ''Studio 60'' is so wrapped up in seeming smart (''Look Back in Anger'') that it offers you an excuse to ignore how stupid it can be (Sarah Paulson can't tell a joke, which is just Sorkin's latest woman-as-ninny bit).

''Two and a Half Men'' continues to be the dirtiest show on network television. (One incontrovertible piece of evidence: The Abraham Lincoln joke.) No fear of the FCC around that place. And still a funny show; good to see Conchata Ferrell moved closer to center stage for a change.

''Big Day'' premieres tonight on ABC. It's the comedy about a couple getting married, with the wedding day spread across an entire season. It has some people who know how to do funny, including Wendie Malick and Miriam Shor. It works very hard at being funny, jamming jokes, showing off lots of quirks in the characters, trying to keep everything moving. But I don't want to see the sweat in a comedy; I don't want to be impressed by the work ethic; I want to laugh. This show is not as successful by that measure. It has a basic premise that drives everything -- stuff goes wrong on a wedding day -- and then, tick tock, one thing after another goes wrong. I don't want to hear the tick-tock in a comedy either.

And, wow, let me tell you how good it felt to write this. Nice to spend some time really thinking about TV.

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

fredfa

11-28-06, 01:49 PM

Critic’s Notebook
This TV season's been a real beaut
With quality shows like 'Ugly Betty' and 'Heroes,' the networks actually got it right
By Diane Werts Newsday Staff Writer November 29, 2006

People say it so much, it must be true.

Critics don't like anything. They'd rather hate stuff than see it be good.

Well, if that were true, folks like me should be mighty miserable right now.

But I'm gellin' like Magellan.

Because this fall, tube viewers are living in the land of plenty. This new TV season has been plenty good. Probably even - see how critics actually love TV? - great.

If anything, network prime time has been too ambitious this fall, and whoever thought I'd live to write that? I cut my TV teeth on the era that gave us "Manimal" and "The A-Team," which today may sound like kitsch heaven but was actually a steady diet of empty calories that porked out our favorite medium. Two decades later, those once-lazy networks have studiously hard-worked themselves into a lean, mean quality machine the movies can only dream of duplicating.

There's great stuff airing every night, of every different tone and style. You want superb soap? "Grey's Anatomy" and its forebear, "ER." High adventure? "Lost" and, returning in January, "24." Character comedy? "Desperate Housewives." Savvy human drama? Slick mystery? "House" on both counts. Mind-blowing fantasy? That, too. You got 'em all.

And the new shows? Lordy, who'da thunk one season could proffer such bounty? The freshman class of 2006 has actually further elevated the playing field, it's so jam-packed with shows that are not just good but truly different in fresh, creative ways.

Look how NBC's Monday hit "Heroes" juggles its interweaving storylines of fascinating characters from around the globe, linked only by being confounded over their nascent "super" powers. Then add those prescient paintings by a future-seeing artist who's creating a living comic book from their distinctive deeds. There's dark mystery and deep character study and race-against-time adventure that so imaginatively takes flight (sometimes literally), you never know where you're gonna land. But you do know the ride will be exhilarating.

Same with ABC's "Ugly Betty," that swan of a sassy hour stew with ingredients from comedy, family drama and lurid soap by way of its telenovela roots. Spiced with high camp, it's also cheeky commentary on our beauty-and-celeb-obsessed culture. As an earnest American go-getter chases her dream among the privileged pretty people, competing on nothing but talent and niceness, this underdog saga gives us yet another new hero(ine) to root for.

And who are the stars of these fall gems? They're fresh faces, too - average-looking actors who radiate pluck and relatability. In the same season where ABC's once-hot "Lost" seems to be losing its identity, adding a pair of eye-candy newbies who do nothing, the breakout personalities are two vibrant unknowns playing a gutsy Japanese office geek (Masi Oka of "Heroes") and a Latina brain with braces (America Ferrera of "Ugly Betty").

Real-seeming people fill the season's sleeper success, too. CBS' "Jericho," which climaxes tonight with its fall finale (then returns in February), ranges far from the city pretties of a dopey dud like ABC's much-hyped "Six Degrees." The small-town denizens of Jericho, Kan., know and care about each other, and they depend on their sense of family and community, even in the case of - especially in the wake of - a nuclear disaster. Such feel-good compassion is a heartland value for which there's actually a universal audience, from "The Waltons" to "Touched by an Angel" to "7th Heaven," even if the networks often seem oblivious to its gut-check effect on the folks in the family room.

These successes illustrate another power that TV often neglects as it beams into homes populated by viewers of so many ages. Young and old share screen time in all the fall successes, whether it's a mom and her kid ("Heroes"), a college grad living with dad ("Ugly Betty") or parentless teens alongside prodigal sons returning home ("Jericho"). Rather than ogling trendoid cuties in young-centric shows, as the networks so often did in recent years, these shows mix their generations the way life does, involving youth in adult situations and vice versa. And intelligently for every age.

This fall season is even - no way! - redeeming the much-disparaged high school cheerleader. Twice. Hayden Panettiere's indestructible blonde on "Heroes," whose saga is intertwined with her furtive dad (Jack Coleman), may be the show's shrewdest and coolest character. Not quite matching her for smarts but certainly for sympathy is Minka Kelly's brunette cheerer on NBC's underappreciated "Friday Night Lights," a clearly sincere girl who reacts to her much-loved quarterback boyfriend's sudden paralysis by hopping into bed with his screw-up pal, much against both of their better judgments (in another show that assays the landscape of an entire community with a keen eye for all ages and status levels).

Their magnetic yet reluctant relationship is emblematic of this 2006 fall TV season in its simplicity, subtlety and complexity. There's an emotional directness that's affecting, yet nothing clear-cut about either its cause or effect. These new series are all delving deep, each in their own way, into just what it is that makes us tick. They're much more centered on people than situations, even when the situations are, like "Heroes," wild in their own right. None of these shows looks like any other. They're all strong individual visions, beautifully rendered. This is work TV should be proud of.

It's an especially gratifying reaction to the factory thinking that's recently given us three "CSI" series and 11 or 12 "Law & Orders." Break the mold and go for broke. While it's easy to pick at what went wrong this season - the thrown-together groupings of "Six Degrees" and "The Nine," the single-story season for "Vanished" and "Kidnapped," too many serialized sagas - it's all the more amazing how much went right.

Long before the holidays, we already had a season to celebrate.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettube4993165nov29,0,1148940,print.column?coll=ny-television-headlines

fredfa

11-28-06, 05:51 PM

TV Notebook
Beauty and The Geek To Return
By Caroline Palmer Broadcasting & Cable 11/28/2006

The third season of The CW's Beauty And The Geek kicks off with a two-hour season premiere on January 3, 2007 from 8-10 PM ET/PT.

This season reality show will pair eight beautiful, but brainless women with eight brainy, but socially awkward men to test smarts and social skills--and see how the two sexes interact.

In the previous two seasons, sparks flew between a beauty and a geek, and this year's winning couple will receive a prize of $250,000 dollars.

The show is produced by Katalyst films and 3 Ball Productions with Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg (Punk'd, Guess Who) Nick Santora (Prison Break, The Sopranos), J.D. Roth (The Biggest Loser) and Todd A. Nelson (For Love or Money, The Biggest Loser) as executive producers.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6395259

fredfa

11-28-06, 05:55 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Confusion on 'Studio 60'
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic in his “TV Eye” blog Nov. 28, 2006

Weird that “Studio 60” was presenting its “The Bachelor: Rome” parody opposite the reality show’s two hour finale Monday. It wasn’t a particularly funny sketch, of course, but there you go.

Neither was the one about “Deal or No Deal,” done -- twice, as it turned out – because Howie Mandel was guest host of the show within the show.

But the utterly unhip Howie Mandel would never be host of a late night show thinking itself hip unless it was on the same network. But Mandel’s game show is on NBC, and “Studio 60” is on the fictional NBS. Though of course “Studio 60” the Monday drama is on NBC.

But music guest Corinne Bailey Rae, doing precisely the kind of modern turn on Billie Holiday that made Norah Jones a star, is exactly the kind of musical guest a “Saturday Night Live Show” would have. In fact, she’s already been on this season on the real late night show that is incessantly promoted during the drama about a fake one, and is on NBC.

Other confusing developments on “Studio 60” this week:

• Mark McKinney a former member of both “Saturday Night Live” and “Kids in the Hall” who has been a story consultant on "Studio 60," has started to appear on the show too – as a story consultant. Makes sense on a show where Timothy Busfield plays a director and sometimes actually directs as well.

• Glad to see Lucy Davis, who essentially played the Pam character on the English version of “The Office,” playing a “Studio 60” writer on NBC, where the American version of “The Office” runs and will offer its first script this week from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, founders and writers of that British version.

• At least Amanda Peet’s character finally decided to admit she’s pregnant. Because she’s been showing for weeks.

http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/2006/11/confusion_on_st.html#more

fredfa

11-28-06, 06:08 PM

Washington Notebook
Phone firms' TV market bid may skip Congress
With Democrats rising, an overhaul of telecom laws is unlikely. The industry turns to states.
By Jim Puzzanghera Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 28, 2006

WASHINGTON — Big phone companies trying to dial in an overhaul of telecommunications laws will have to hang up and try the call again next year.

The Democratic takeover of Congress makes it increasingly unlikely that AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. will be able to push through stalled legislation to make it easier for them to sell pay television.

Instead, they probably will focus their efforts on state legislatures as they try to deliver more services to compete against cable companies.

Lobbyists have all but given up on the telecommunications legislation, which also includes new anti-piracy measures for digital TV and radio signals, a three-year ban on new cellphone taxes and a permanent moratorium on Internet access taxes. Even the bill's most ardent backer, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has little hope.

"I really don't see much chance to get a bill like that out," he said. "It's got firm objections."

The bill, which would have eliminated most state and local regulation of pay television, has been stalled for months because of a dispute over rules to assure that data continue to flow freely across phone and cable company lines.

Democrats support those rules, known as "network neutrality," which would apply to high-speed Internet access delivered by the same lines. But most Republicans oppose them and kept them out of the legislation.

With Democrats set to take control of the Senate and the House of Representatives in January, they have no desire to allow the outgoing Republican majority to pass major legislation while still in charge.

The legislation would have to be drafted from scratch next year.

And Democrats, who will control all congressional committee chairmanships, may not make telecommunications overhaul as high a priority as the Republicans had. But AT&T and Verizon haven't been depending solely on Congress.

They can't afford to. Phone companies are locked in a heated battle with cable providers to offer a full-range of services — including pay TV, Internet access and phone service. The cable companies have a big early advantage because their networks and quirks in the regulations make it easier for them to roll out new offerings.

So AT&T and Verizon have pressed state legislatures for changes in oversight of pay television, with some major victories this year, including a new California law that shifts authority away from cities and counties and consolidates it with officials in Sacramento.

"No question, we've had much greater success at the state level," said Tim McKone, AT&T's executive vice president for federal relations.

Since 2005, Texas, New Jersey, Virginia and four other states have enacted laws making it easier for phone companies to deliver TV programming by eliminating the need to get approval from every community they want to serve. Those states provide the phone companies more than enough potential customers for their nascent TV services, which have been rolled out slowly so far.

"They're OK state by state," said Jessica Zufolo, a telecommunications analyst for independent equity research firm Medley Global Advisors. "It's better than federal legislation."

The Michigan House of Representatives passed legislation last week similar to California's that allows phone companies to bypass city and counties for TV service approval.

And the phone companies are expected to push for similar laws next year in other large states, including New York, Florida and Pennsylvania.

Although AT&T and Verizon would prefer a nationwide law that would give them the ability to offer TV service anywhere they choose, federal legislation — particularly if passed by a Democratic Congress — could come with the unwieldy baggage of network neutrality.

Phone companies desperately want to offer TV service, but executives have indicated that they want to help offset the construction of new high-speed lines to handle the extra data by charging websites for faster data delivery.

Those plans provoked an outcry this year from Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and other major Internet companies, as well as a wide array of public interest groups.

They fear that network operators will create toll lanes on the Internet, stifling innovation.

The controversy stalled the telecommunications bill in the Senate this summer. But proponents of network neutrality have not pushed the issue hard in state capitals — at least not yet.

"If the action is in the states, we'll be in the states," said Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, a nonpartisan media reform group that is part of a coalition advocating network neutrality rules.

"Net neutrality can and should be addressed at the state level in the absence of any federal activity," Scott said.

Reflecting the shift in strategy, network neutrality supporters will deliver 18,000 petitions today to the Michigan state Senate.

McKone said AT&T would continue to push for a federal law streamlining pay TV franchises. But Verizon's top lobbyist has said his company wouldn't.

Congress may press ahead anyway. Many lawmakers believe that making it easier for phone companies to offer TV services will lead to more high-speed Internet service nationwide because of the desire to offer customers one-stop shopping for all their digital communications.

Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), the incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he planned to consider new telecommunications legislation next year.

A longtime friend of the former Bell companies, Dingell still opposed the House version of the telecommunications legislation because it failed to include rules preventing phone and cable companies from charging websites for higher-speed delivery of content.

"Clearly we're going to have to address the question of network neutrality," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-telecom28nov28,1,149737,print.story?coll=la-headlines-business

generalpatton78

11-28-06, 06:22 PM

Nice find freda!! That was a great article on just how things work. I have to lol at Ted Stevens from Alaska. This guys gets what he can cash wise for his state and then pushes what ever pays the most lol. I'm sure some people here saw the recent MPAA proposals on home theater systems.

dad1153

11-28-06, 07:28 PM

The Daily Show on Ted Stevens' definition of what 'the internet' is (classic!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl0UE62WnGA :D

SJKurtzke

11-28-06, 07:30 PM

DVD
Series megasets for hard-core fans, nostalgists, completists
"Buffy" is my favorite series. But I watched every episode that aired. If I need a fix, "Buffy" still re-runs on FX.

Yeah, it reruns on FX, if you can endure the Nip/Tuck promos (with glorious FNC-esque metallic scratching sounds) every minute or so, and, of course, the irony that it conflicts with Angel reruns on TNT, and the odd timeslot of 7AM for a show about dark, scary vampires.

Unfortunately, I must side with this guy. There's no way I'm shelling out $200 for the Buffy DVD set, just because that I know as soon as I do, they'll announce an HD remaster.

fredfa

11-28-06, 08:26 PM

Last week’s updated top 10 prime-time program ratings are now toward the bottom of RATINGS NEWS -- the first post in this thread.

fredfa

11-28-06, 08:30 PM

Last week’s complete network average prime-time results (with demographic averages) are now at the bottom of RATINGS NEWS the first post in this thread.

fredfa

11-28-06, 09:27 PM

TV Sports
NFL Net Scores With Live Game
By Jon Lafayette Television Week November 28, 2006

Despite not being carried by several major cable operators, the NFL Network's first live game telecast was the most-watched program on cable Thanksgiving night, attracting 4.2 million viewers.

The game, which pitted the Denver Broncos against the Kansas City Chiefs, drew a 6.8 rating in its coverage area, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research. NFL Network expects that number to increase when numbers from Denver and Kansas City are fully integrated.

NFL Network said its postgame show drew a 3.1 rating, making it the second-most-watched show on cable that night. The pre-game show ranked fifth.

Cable operators including Time Warner Cable and Cablevision have balked at carrying the NFL Network because of its cost and its demand that it be on a basic or digital basic tier rather than a sports tier.

Meanwhile, Sunday's game between the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots on Fox drew a 15.4 national rating and 24.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched NFL game of the season and the most-watched sporting event on television since the Olympics.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11135

rebkell

11-28-06, 11:28 PM

I'm loving all the love Bones is getting, I think ;) It's definitely in my top 3 shows.

fredfa

11-29-06, 12:36 AM

TV Notebook
'Biggest Loser' Picked Up for 4th Season
By James Hibberd Television Week November 28, 2006

NBC has picked up "The Biggest Loser" for a fourth season, the network announced Tuesday.

The Peacock Network renewed the makeover reality series after a season performing opposite ABC's "Lost" and CBS's "Criminal Minds." Though the series typically ranked third in the time period with a 3.1 average rating among adults 18 to 49, that's still a 40 percent improvement for the time period compared with last year.

"'The Biggest Loser' is a valuable franchise and proven competitor in a very challenging time period," said Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment. "The producing team has come up with unique ways to keep the series fresh and we anticipate the next cycle will continue to produce life-changing results for the contestants and jaw-dropping reveals for the viewers."

NBC Universal Television CEO Jeffrey Zucker recently announced the network would aim to air only unscripted programming in the 8 p.m. hour. "Loser," however, was given the task of defending a 9 p.m. slot. The series will broadcast its third-season finale in a live two-hour special Dec. 13.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11136

fredfa

11-29-06, 12:44 AM

Nielsen Notebook
NBC much improved
ABC tops quiet sweeps week
By RICK KISSELL Variety Nov. 28, 2006 (Michael Schneider contributed to this report.)

There was a time, as recently as a few years ago, when the November sweep was an overcaffeinated month of excess.

Webheads would complain about the ratings period yet bow to the ratings horse-race pressure. They'd schedule gimmicky specials and expensive miniseries and then hold conference calls with reporters at month's end to boast about their successes -- misleading as they might be.

But several factors -- including the decline of the telepic as a major ratings draw and Nielsen tracking demo information for major markets on a daily basis -- have rendered "sweeps month" more irrelevant than ever.

ABC hastened the decline of sweeps in November 2004. Rising from the ashes to a leadership position thanks to "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," Alphabet webheads decided to cancel the conference call and tone down the bragging. Rivals eagerly followed suit, glad to be rid of such monthlong scrutiny.

Now, nets are increasingly choosing to let their regular programming do the heavy lifting; the end result is that the sweep's leaders come as little surprise.

ABC, which has been consistently winning this fall among adults 18-49, will capture the sweep that ends tonight by a comfortable margin in that key measure, while CBS will prevail in the 25-54 demo as well as total viewers.

After tying CBS for the 18-49 lead last year, the Alphabet's outright November victory in young adults will be its first since 1999. And for the Eye, the November triumph in adults 25-54 and total viewers are its fourth and sixth straight, respectively.

NBC is on the rise, meanwhile, and not just because of football. Fox, on the other hand, will finish deep in fourth as the net is not competitive without "American Idol."

Based on Nielsen estimates and projections through tonight, ABC will finish with a 4.1 rating in adults 18-49 (down 7% vs. a year ago), followed by CBS (3.8, down 14%), NBC (3.7, up 12%) and Fox (2.9, down 9%).

In 25-54, CBS will edge past ABC (4.8 to 4.7), while in total viewers, the Eye's average audience of 13 million easily tops ABC's 11.6 million.

ABC's successful programming strategy included a mix of series and some annual events, highlighted early by the finales of "Dancing With the Stars" and "Lost" and late by the "American Music Awards" and college football's highly rated USC-Notre Dame contest.

Key to the net's performance was "Dancing With the Stars," which set series records in its third edition and drew the largest overall audience for any telecast during the month (27.52 million for its Nov. 15 finale).

It averaged a 6.6 rating in adults 18-49, helping to compensate for the loss of "Monday Night Football," which had a huge November a year ago (7.7 rating) in its final season at the Alphabet.

Net also claimed the top two series in 18-49 during the month with "Desperate Housewives" (8.8) and "Grey's Anatomy" (8.5).

The combo of "Grey's Anatomy" and rookie success "Ugly Betty" has dramatically changed the net's performance on Thursday. Net tripled its year-ago average in some categories on the night, which is primo for advertising.

ABC also has reason to be happy with the performance of first-year drama "Brothers & Sisters," which has emerged as the season's No. 2 new program in 18-49 and has meshed well with "Housewives" on Sunday.

Net does have some holes to fill, though, as neither "Six Degrees" nor "The Nine" clicked.

CBS was down vs. last year, when it was boosted by four-hour telepic "Category 7" and other specials, opting this year to stick with its bread-and-butter skeins. Except for one pre-scheduled movie and an hour of news coverage on Election Night, CBS aired all regularly scheduled programming.

"It's always been more important to gain viewer equity in series," said CBS scheduling chief Kelly Kahl, "because series are long-lasting assets that can produce for you for years."

He pointed out that all the nets are better off allowing young shows a chance to develop an audience rather than pulling them for a one-time, artificial ratings spike.

The Eye got some pretty good production out of newbies "Shark" on Thursday and "Jericho" on Wednesday, while Monday laffer "The Class" is hanging in there.

CBS also has seen a strong fall for "Criminal Minds" (which hit a series high during the month) and nice showings for other sophomores "Ghost Whisperer," "Close to Home" and "How I Met Your Mother."

The "CSI" franchise remains potent, winning with both "Miami" and "NY" and a solid No. 2 demo finish behind "Grey's Anatomy" for the original on Thursday.

NBC's 12% growth is the largest year-to-year gain in November for the net in at least 20 years.

Certainly, top-10 performer "Sunday Night Football" (6.9 average 18-49 rating for the month) has helped, but the net also claims the season's No. 1 new program in "Heroes." The Monday drama peaked this month, achieving a 6.9 rating in 18-49 -- the best for a first-year skein on any net in two seasons.

Another strong selling point for NBC has been its 20% build year-to-year among adults 18-34, rising from fourth to second in this demo.

Also helping was gameshow "Deal or No Deal," which has been dominating its Monday hour, and vet dramas "ER" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," which are leading their hours.

Success in these and other areas has enabled NBC to be patient with first-year skeins "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," "Friday Night Lights" and "30 Rock," but they will need to improve if they are to be invited back for a second season.

Fox will benefit from the college football championship game and the return of "American Idol" in January, but it emerges from November deep in fourth place.

"House," "Prison Break," "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" have been the standouts thus far, but the net's rookie class -- including laffer "'Til Death" and dramas "Justice" and "Standoff" -- has disappointed.

For nascent net the CW, November has been about finding its level -- and it seems to be stacking up with numbers similar to the WB's from last year.

UPN transfers "America's Next Top Model" and "WWE Smackdown" are excelling at their new address, but the net would like to see some growth from its Monday comedy block, which has started slow on the new net after shining for years on UPN.

Also helping out was the return of former WB laffer "Reba," which bowed this month and has emerged as the CW's top-rated comedy -- despite little promotional fanfare and airing in a tough Sunday 7:30 p.m. slot.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Looking at the Nov. 20-26 frame, ABC rolled to victory in adults 18-49 (3.9 rating/11 share) as the other three major nets tied for second with a 3.3/9, according to Nielsen.

CBS and ABC tied for the week's 25-54 lead (4.3/11), with the Eye winning for a 10th straight frame to start the season in total viewers (12.2 million).

The Alphabet enjoyed a strong Tuesday courtesy of "The American Music Awards" (4.7/13, 10.85m) and then got a big lift from Saturday's USC-Notre Dame college football game (5.0/16, 14.65m).

One thing that didn't work was NBC's Wednesday concert spec "Madonna: The Confessions Tour Live" (1.8/5 in 18-49, 4.61m). It lagged the offerings on the other major nets as well as the CW and Univision among viewers under 35 for its two-hour time period.

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117954650&categoryid=14

fredfa

11-29-06, 02:34 AM

Nielsen Notebook
CBS, ABC can claim victory in sweeps
By Bill KeveneyUSA Today

CBS and ABC will divide bragging rights as the November Nielsen ratings sweeps comes to a close.

CBS is projected to take the audience crown for the sweeps period ending tonight. It would be the sixth straight November win in total viewers for the network, which was averaging 12.9 million viewers as of Sunday. ABC, NBC and Fox trail, in that order.

ABC, boosted by Dancing With the Stars, is expected to triumph among the young-adult viewers (ages 18 to 49) desired by advertisers. For ABC, now without Monday Night Football, it would be the first outright November young-adult victory since 1999. As of Sunday, CBS and NBC were tied for second.

Dancing's final competition and results show hold the top two spots in viewers for the month, and the season so far.

NBC, powered by its new NFL franchise and first-year hit Heroes, is the only network to show year-to-year growth in both categories, with projected increases of 9% in total viewers and 12% in young adults. CBS is expected to be down 11% in viewers; ABC's total audience is essentially flat year to year.

Fox will finish sweeps a distant fourth, down in both categories from November 2005. If the pattern of recent seasons repeats itself, the network should see its fortunes rise in January with the return of American Idol and 24.

Sweeps periods are used to set advertising rates for local stations.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-11-28-november-sweeps_x.htm

fredfa

11-29-06, 02:37 AM

I'm loving all the love Bones is getting, I think ;) It's definitely in my top 3 shows.

The critics are finally catching up to the viewers, rebkell.

(By the way, the first season "Bones" DVD was released today.)

fredfa

11-29-06, 02:38 AM

Nielsen Notebook
'Housewives' hot, Madonna not-so
By Bill Keveny USA Today

• Sweepsgiving. The mix of the competitive November sweeps and Thanksgiving week viewing patterns made for an unusual prime-time mix of original episodes, specials and theatrical movies last week. CBS finished tops in viewers (12.2 million); in the advertiser-coveted young-adult demographic (ages 18 to 49), ABC won (5.1 million).

• Top honors. With the holiday eating into Thursday audiences for ABC's Grey's Anatomy (18.5 million) and CBS' CSI (17.2 million), ABC's Desperate Housewives (21.4 million) was an easy No. 1.

• Saved the cheerleader, not the world. NBC freshman hit Heroes reached a series high Monday with 16 million viewers. Most of those viewers didn't stick around for fellow newcomer Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which hit a series low (7.2 million).

• Sad songs. ABC's American Music Awards hit a record low (10.8 million) Tuesday but still crushed NBC's Tony Bennett special (6.4 million). Bennett's An American Classic performed especially poorly among young adults, finishing behind all other shows last week on the five networks save for three CW reruns.

• Papa don't watch. Neither did many others, as Madonna's much-hyped concert was a Thanksgiving Eve turkey. Despite the pre-performance hullabaloo about possible inclusion of a Madonna-on-a-cross scene — it was dropped in advance of the program — the NBC special attracted a paltry 4.6 million viewers, finishing second-to-last among prime-time shows on the Big 4 networks.

• Building to a climax. Prison Break's penultimate fall episode Monday attracted the program's largest audience of the season (9.6 million). The Fox series returns Jan. 22.

• Broken. The second outing of ABC's Day Break (5.1 million), broadcast on the night before Thanksgiving, attracted half the viewers of its two-hour premiere. That didn't help The Nine, which drew 4.1 million viewers, ranking as the week's least-watched program on any of the Big 4. It was then yanked from the schedule.

• Reason to give thanks. NCIS made the top 10 Tuesday with its biggest audience (17 million) since March.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-11-28-nielsens-analysis_x.htm

fredfa

11-29-06, 02:44 AM

The TV Column: The Week’s Winners and Losers
'Housewives' hot, Madonna not-so
Charlie Brown Feasts, Madonna Gets the Crumbs
By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, November 29, 2006; C01

Charlie Brown outstripped Madonna last week -- in the ratings. That's among kids, teens, young adults, old adults. Everybody. And for this, we give thanks.

Here's a look at the week's gravy and mincemeat:

WINNERS

"A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." This year, about 9.4 million people gobbled up this old holiday feast on ABC -- its biggest Thanksgiving crowd in five years. Later in the week, Horsy Girl, cracking her whip on her "Confessions Tour" over on NBC, clocked about 5 million fewer viewers -- Charlie's never done that badly on ABC. Also, the "Peanuts" character, who was born the same decade as Madonna, snared about twice as many young viewers as Madge. He also thumped her in every other demographic, including older viewers and kids. In fact, this holiday classic and a new "He's a Bully, Charlie Brown" are now this TV season's two most-watched broadcasts among kids.

"Heroes" hit a series high of 16 million viewers. Save the Cheerleader: Save NBC.

CBS will win the November ratings sweeps, which end tonight, making it six in a row the network has won among all viewers. Best of all, 97 percent of CBS's lineup was regular programming, interrupted only by one hour of election-night coverage and this past Sunday's "Hallmark Hall of Fame" flick.

ABC will win the sweeps among the 18-to-49-year-olds advertisers want to reach -- the network's first outright November sweeps win in the demographic group since the glory days of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" in the late 1990s.

LOSERS

Madonna. Only 4.6 million viewers caught Faux Brit Girl on NBC Wednesday.The network doesn't seem to have much luck with Kabbalah Girl. At various points in her Wednesday 8-10 p.m. slot, she got beat by the likes of William Shatner ("Show Me the Money"), Mandy Patinkin ("Criminal Minds"), Steve Martin ("Cheaper by the Dozen") and Univision's telenovela "La Fea Más Bella." Back in '03, when she sat down with Matt Lauer to discuss her fabulousness, it resulted in the lowest-rated Tuesday "Dateline" of the season, though, in fairness, her appearance on "Will & Grace" that same year, playing a limber secretary in a bad wig, scored nearly 18 million viewers.

"The Real World: Denver." Only 1.5 million watched the debut of the 18th edition of MTV's aged reality-series franchise. That's at most half the audience logged by the first episode of the 17th edition, "The Real World: Key West"; the nearly 4 million who caught Episode 1 of the 16th edition, "The Real World: Austin"; the 3.3 million for the opener of the 15th edition, "The Real World: Philadelphia"; and the 4 million for the first installment of No. 14, "The Real World: San Diego." Which leaves us pondering whether it was the "Denver" or the Thanksgiving Eve debut that rendered this one DOA.

"Tony Bennett: American Classic." Mom's gonna kill me for putting Tony in the Losers column, but his 0.9 rating among the 18-to-49-year-olds that NBC chases put him squarely in 86th place out of 89 shows last week in that age bracket, ahead only of three CW reruns. It's about ratings, Mom.

"The Nine." ABC yanked this serialized drama after a paltry crowd of 4.1 million made it the week's least-watched show on ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox.

The American Music Awards scored their smallest crowd since at least the early '90s, though, ABC pointed out, it was up among young adult viewers, while shedding older ones and kids, which, yes, in their world, is a good thing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112801854_pf.html

harley1

11-29-06, 08:22 AM

Making 'The Sopranos' suitable for basic cable

By Gail Shister
Inquirer Columnist

Can The Sopranos be The Sopranos without violence, nudity and the F-word?

Yes and no.

A&E, naturally, says viewers will barely notice a difference when the basic cable network launches reruns of David Chase's blockbuster HBO drama. Back-to-back episodes will be telecast at 9 p.m. Wednesdays beginning Jan. 10, it announced yesterday.

The mobbed-up Sopranos "is so well written and so well acted, it doesn't rely on language, violence and nudity to carry story arcs," says Tom Moody, A&E's vice president of program planning.

"It overcomes any of those little obstacles."

"Those little obstacles" are part of Sopranos' DNA, many say.

Like Michael Imperioli's Christopher or Tony Sirico's Paulie beating some man (or woman) to death. And liking it. Like James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano delivering an obscenity-laced tirade to his mistress or one of his soldiers.

"One of the things that makes The Sopranos The Sopranos is that, when it chooses to, it can be so ruthlessly, uncomfortably violent," says Bob Thompson, director of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television.

"When you take it away, you're making it something different. You're emasculating the nastiness of these people... . The language is very important because it's so ugly and aggressive. To some extent, if you tame the language and violence, you tame the characters."

Not to worry, says A&E's Moody.

Looking ahead to international distribution and domestic syndication, HBO initially shot alternative "cover" scenes from different angles and with tamer dialogue, he says.

One example: On premium HBO, viewers routinely see topless dancers gyrating behind Tony in the Bada Bing. On A&E, the shot might focus on Tony's face, eliminating dancers from the frame.

In all, less than one minute - and no full scenes - will be edited from each of the 77 episodes, an HBO rep says. Sopranos' final nine originals on HBO will most likely debut in early April.

Outbidding TNT, A&E paid a record $2.5 million per episode in January '05 for exclusive U.S. rerun rights. Moody labels it as the network's biggest-ever syndicated deal, both in terms of money and stature.

Sopranos "is immensely important to our brand," he says. "It's a huge, pre-sold, pre-marketed name. It has yet to be seen by two-thirds of our audience." A&E reaches more than 90 million homes, three times HBO's universe.

Given the precedent of Sex and the City, Thompson isn't entirely skeptical about a somewhat sanitized Sopranos. Even with commercial breaks.

When TBS announced it would carry edited reruns of the racy Sarah Jessica Parker comedy, "I thought the episodes would only be 12 minutes," he says.

Instead, HBO's editing was so seamless, "I was really impressed. If they do as expert a job with The Sopranos, it may not be as bad as we think."

Short stuff. Reruns of ABC's blockbuster Grey's Anatomy will be shown on Lifetime at 11 p.m. Sundays beginning Jan. 7, the cable network announced yesterday. Disney owns all of ABC and 50 percent of Lifetime... . CBS has ordered eight segments of The Good Life, starring ex-Arrested Development's Michael Cera, for its Innertube streaming platform. Cera will also write and produce the show... . Daniel Sieberg, formerly CNN's technology correspondent, has joined CBS as science and technology correspondent. He starts Dec. 18.

Showing support. More than 25 NBC staffers - including Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, Weekend Today's Campbell Brown, and NBC Universal TV boss Jeff Zucker - attended Monday's memorial in Warminster for Jeannie Capus, mother of NBC News president Steve Capus.

Mrs. Capus died Friday from lung cancer at age 68. She is survived by her husband of 45 years, Paul. Steve Capus is a Warminster native and graduate of William Tennent High and Temple.

Also in attendance: NBC10 medical reporter Cherie Bank, who worked with Capus years ago at WCAU.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/16118516.htm

I am not interested in watching a edited version of The Sopranos.

harley1

11-29-06, 08:30 AM

'30 Rock' Star Morgan Charged With DWI

By SAMUEL MAULL
Associated Press Writer

Tracy Morgan, a former "Saturday Night Live" regular who co-stars on NBC's "30 Rock," was arrested Tuesday in Upper Manhattan on drunken driving charges, the district attorney's office said.

The 38-year-old comedian was stopped around 4:30 a.m. while driving a Cadillac Escalade on the Henry Hudson Parkway near West 158th Street, said Edison Alban, a spokesman for District Attorney Robert ******thau.

Police said Morgan smelled of alcohol and later failed a breathalyzer test at a police station, Alban said.

When he was arrested, Morgan told police he had been to a club and "had some beers," Assistant District Attorney Robert Kennedy said in court.

Morgan's publicist in Los Angeles didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

Morgan was arraigned on charges of driving while intoxicated and driving while impaired. Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Matthew F. Cooper released Morgan without requiring him to post bail, but ordered him to turn over his driver's license.

The prosecutor told the judge that he recommended a $1,000 fine, five days of community service and a DWI program. Morgan's lawyer, Sheryl Reich, told the judge they had no interest in the plea offer at this time.

The judge scheduled a Jan. 4 hearing "for a possible disposition."

Morgan didn't speak in court and he evaded reporters afterward.

Last Dec. 2, Morgan was arrested in Hollywood, Calif., on impaired driving charges after police stopped him for speeding. Authorities there said his blood-alcohol level was 0.13 percent, over the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to 36 months' probation, fined $390 and ordered to attend an alcohol education program.

Morgan was a "Saturday Night Live" cast member from 1996 to 2003. He left the show to star in the short-lived "The Tracy Morgan Show."

He co-stars on "30 Rock" with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin

http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/P/PEOPLE_TRACY_MORGAN_ARREST?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT

Does this help the 30 Rock ratings ? How many times today on cable news will we hear " Tracy Morgan of 30 Rock arrested" ?

harley1

11-29-06, 08:36 AM

'Jericho' cliffhanger in mid-season

The post-nuclear drama hits the "half-season" mark tonight with a cliffhanger ending where one of the townsfolk ends of dead

BILL HARRIS, TORONTO SUN

Small town in Kansas, pre-nuclear attack.

Small town in Kansas, post-nuclear attack.

The difference is subtle.

For all you Kansas-lovers out there, that's a joke, okay? It's just too easy a shot to pass up whenever the discussion turns to Jericho, a first-year serial drama that will end its fall "half season" with a cliffhanger episode tonight (A-Channel, CBS, 8 p.m.).

While a lot of higher-profile new dramas have struggled to find an audience this season, Jericho has been a surprising little success. The premise always was pretty interesting, though, so maybe we shouldn't be so shocked.

Jericho is set in a tiny Kansas town that has found itself cut off from the outside world in the wake of a nuclear attack by unknown forces. The townsfolk are trying to piece together what happened while also keeping themselves fed and safe from outsiders -- and especially from each other.

Let's see, post-nuclear survival or the backstage shenanigans at a Saturday Night Live-type program. Really, what smells like a hit and what doesn't?

Anyway, the Jericho episode tonight is called Vox Populi. When one of Jericho's own turns up dead -- it's Gracie (played by Beth Grant), if the end of last week's episode is any indication -- the uber-ambitious Gray (Michael Gaston) organizes a manhunt for suspected murderer Jonah (James Remar). Of course, all this vigilante justice goes against the wishes of Mayor Green (Gerald McRaney).

The cliffhanger element to the episode tonight will have to hold viewers till next Valentine's Day (Feb. 14, 2007). That's when Jericho will return for its winter run, starting with a flashback/review episode that will focus on what happened in the town just prior to the bombs going off.

Everyone should be used to this split-season stuff by now, but it's still a little confusing for those of us who remember when the word "season" actually had a link to things like spring, summer, fall and winter. TV audiences have spoken, though, and the clear indication is that viewers do not like it when serial dramas are interrupted by reruns.

It's okay to throw in a rerun or two during a sitcom season, but do that with a serial drama and loyal fans get mad. So programmers have decided it's better to have a show like Jericho go on complete hiatus for two-and-a-half months and then re-emerge with another string of new episodes.

Is there a danger of fans drifting off and forgetting about the show? Well, part of that could depend on how compelling the cliffhanger is, right?

Jericho ostensibly stars Skeet Ulrich as prodigal-son Jake Green, but as the supposed hero Jake can be a little bland for our tastes. McRaney is excellent as the embattled mayor, as is the often-underrated Pamela Reed as the mayor's wife Gail. Remar is compelling, too, as the villain Jonah, but the Gray character pushes the bounds of credibility with his consistent and irritating obstinacy (Green says black, Gray says white. It's tedious).

The romantic and sexual tension between some of the characters on Jericho comes across as self-centred and small-minded, given the town's dire circumstances. And we must admit, we rolled our eyes last week when the mayor's family still decided to have its traditional game of touch football prior to Thanksgiving dinner.

"There are some things the apocalypse can't change," Gail said. Yup, Americans sure love their football. Heck, as the nuclear blasts were occurring, the people in Jericho probably just turned up their TV sets so they could watch Emmitt Smith's victory on Dancing With The Stars.

But those minor issues aside, Jericho has a nice little thing going.

Sometimes shows like this don't stay special for long, though, so fans should enjoy the ride rather than getting too caught up in where it's all going.

http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/TV_Shows/J/Jericho/2006/11/29/pf-2545574.html

harley1

11-29-06, 09:04 AM

Readers' 'must-see TV'

VINAY MENON

Toronto Star

We need to come up with a title before starting today's dispatch.

But slouched here in the East York Bunker, my shirt caked with foul spit-up, my ears ringing from the deranged ditties blaring on Baby TV, my eyes as bloodshot as Paris Hilton's after a bender in Tijuana, I'm having some trouble.

We could go with, "The Best New Television Shows of the Season as Determined By a Random Selection of Kind People Who Emailed This Week!" No, too clunky. Maybe, "Couch Potatoes Give Mad Props to These New Shows!" No, too hip-hoppy.

Wait. Got it: "Fall TV Report Card — What Star Readers Are Watching."

On Monday, recall, help was solicited. After a lengthy absence from work (i.e. TV), I asked for some guidance. Then, anxiously, I waited by my inbox ...

... Wow! Nicely done, people! Now who wants to babysit? Anybody?

Okay, let's get started.

Heroes, which airs its "fall finale" next week, was praised by many, including Julia Borgini, who wrote: "You MUST Watch This Show! Absolutely wonderful. A great mix of X-Files and The Matrix, with good writing, great cinematography and a great cast of characters."

Sarah Eddenden wrote: "I feel awake watching it." And Courtney Kelly added: "It's better than Lost right now."

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, meanwhile, has polarized readers. Among the fans was Adrian M. Macdonald: "Its subtlety and nuance may not catch on in those United States, but its humour and clever allusions make for an hour of quiet chuckling."

Detractors included Alyson Court: "Aaron Sorkin's writing has seen better days. It's one thing to write (please read the following quickly and without breathing) obscure, noun-free dialogue delivered in an over-accelerated monotone spill as political rhetoric for characters addressing real issues, world affairs, etc. But Hollywood producers?! (Now breathe.) Come on. His love affair with himself is more than this stomach can handle."

Ouch. But so very awesome, Alyson!

Tim French has noticed a recent change on Studio 60: the show-within-the-show is getting more play. As he observes: "I don't want a comedy show, but seeing a bit of the finished product the writers are shown agonizing over behind the scenes adds depth."

Walter Passarella says Ugly Betty is the season's best show, a sentiment shared by many. Hilary Plummer: "That show is hilarious — the nephew is something else." Keri Black: "Don't know what it is about this show, but I love watching it. It's such a complete break from reality. All of the characters are blissfully cartoony and the `Good Guys' always seem to win." Andrea G.: "It's so quirky and different and the set design is amazing. If America Ferrera doesn't get an Emmy nod for this, there is no justice."

Shark received several gushing testimonials. Peggy Porter says James Woods is "absolutely mesmerizing on the screen ... Great actor, great cast around him, and great stories." Added Chrissy Moutsatsos: "My husband is a lawyer and he is very entertained, however over the top the legal antics go."

I assumed Jericho, which has its fall finale tonight, would be revered. But many expressed exasperation and growing apathy. To wit: "(It's) a great show if you suffer from a surplus of happiness and need to bring it down several notches."

Todd McLauchlin: "I started watching Jericho about four episodes in and, frankly, I'm bored. I've given it a chance, but I don't see this relationship going anywhere."

Sharon Chin-Yee listed Brothers and Sisters as a favourite because "we're all part of families, so can identify with the ups and downs of relationships in that dynamic. The show has both humour and drama, and Calista Flockhart is extremely watchable."

Friday Night Lights has earned a devoted following. Jo-Anne Liburd says the show is "wonderful" and "refreshing" because "the actors (give) performances that are at once uplifting, heartbreaking and humorous."

Sender Tator listed several favourites but also echoed a recurring sentiment when he wrote: "I can't remember going into a TV season with high hopes for so many `quality' dramas (Smith, Kidnapped, The Nine, Studio 60), only to see them cancelled or with basically no chance of being picked up for a second season."

Similarly, Karen Sencich wrote: "My family has given up on the new TV seasons! I absolutely refuse to invest my hard-earned leisure time watching new shows that are often gone by Christmas."

Jono Halpern, like myself a father of twins, offered some sage advice: tape everything and "watch in the middle of the night while feeding one of the girls."

Or, perhaps, when I'm alone in the attic, rocking in the fetal position.

Michael Murphy's treatise was particularly brilliant. On 30 Rock: "Poorly written, pedestrian sitcom ... someone at NBC has to learn how to tell Tina Fey, `No.'" On Twenty Good Years: "Watching John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor simply reminded me to continue mourning the loss of Arrested Development, and to throw on a 3rd Rock episode."

According to many, the best show now on TV is Criminal Minds. Noted Linda MacDonald: "The writing is brilliant, the pacing is perfect and the acting superb. Every character has a distinct personality, and you become attached to each of them for different reasons."

And Katherine Russo wrote: "Now that you're a dad, I hope that you discuss the various children's programs on TV each day — the good (4 Square), the bad (those ladies on Tree Town) and the scary (the clown in Toy Castle)."

Katherine, I've never heard of any of these shows. But now I'm scared.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1164754216738&call_pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630

Since almost all the "must see" shows from these Canadian viewers are American TV shows, does anyone take a count of how many viewers from Canada are watching each show ?

They buy a lot of the same products that are advertised on American TV .

So if they are buying ad space for Ford F-150 trucks do they consider how many viewers in Canada are also watching ?

VisionOn

11-29-06, 09:06 AM

[
"There are some things the apocalypse can't change," Gail said. Yup, Americans sure love their football. Heck, as the nuclear blasts were occurring, the people in Jericho probably just turned up their TV sets so they could watch Emmitt Smith's victory on Dancing With The Stars.

which is the main reason I stopped watching. Jericho is the most ridiculously calm town on the face of the Earth. Despite a nuclear war going on they wander around as if nothing has happened. Radiation is no more of a bother than a slight rain shower and rationing food and water isn't that high on the priority list as street parties and sitting in the bar playing pool is.

Amnesia

11-29-06, 09:12 AM

There's no way I'm shelling out $200 for the Buffy DVD set, just because that I know as soon as I do, they'll announce an HD remaster.I've seen the Chosen set for under $100...

dad1153

11-29-06, 09:26 AM

Making 'The Sopranos' suitable for basic cable

I am not interested in watching a edited version of The Sopranos.

Too bad. Edited-for-regular-TV 'Sopranos' looks like it will be loads of fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_5XYmALfVs :D :D :D

fredfa

11-29-06, 10:21 AM

The Business of TV
Pappas Battles Echostar
Set to Pull Net-Affil Stations in 11 Markets
By Katy Bachman Media Week Nov. 29, 2006

Pappas Telecasting Wednesday took a hard line in its retransmission negotiations with Echostar's DISH Network, pulling 15 network-affiliated stations in 11 markets beginning Dec. 1. Nearly 2 million DISH subscribers will be affected in markets such as Los Angeles, Houston, Des Moines, Omaha and Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem and are stations affiliated with Fox, CBS, ABC, The CW, and Azteca America.

Like other broadcasters, Pappas wants what it believes is fair compensation from cable and satellite operators to carry their stations. “It may surprise our DISH viewers to know that, while DISH is charging them $5.99 per month just for their free local broadcast stations like the ones owned or operated by our company, DISH is unwilling to pay even a modest prices - less than 19 cents out of the $6 per month they charge their customers - to the local stations that must spend millions of dollars to buy or to produce this programming,” said Harry Pappas, chairman and CEO of Pappas.

Pappas’ move also coincides with a federal court ruling that DISH has been violating the copyright laws by illegally retransmitting network signals throughout the country and must remove by Dec. 1 all “distant” network signals from its network.

The broadcaster also noted that Pappas stations can be viewed over-the-air, on cable, and via DirecTV.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003465571

fredfa

11-29-06, 10:25 AM

The Business of TV
Pappas Plays Hardball with Echo Star Over Transmission
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 11/29/2006

Pappas Telecasting is playing hardball with EchoStar's DISH Network over retransmission of its signals by telling some 2 million viewers they may want to switch over to competitor DirecTV or cable to get their local station signals.

Pappas, which bills itself as the largest privately owned TV group in the country, warned viewers that as of Friday, Dec. 1, DISH customers will no longer have access to a number of Pappas' stations after the TV station owner and EchoStar failed to negotiate a renewal of DISH's local carriage agreement. Pappas has agreements with DirecTV and local cable companies in the affected markets.

The move comes at the same time that EchoStar has been ordered by a court to yank all the distant network TV signals it delivers to those and other markets.

Pappas, with a mix of stations including Fox, ABC, CBS and Azteca America, drove the point home by ticking off the big-ticket programs that various DISH customers could lose.

"The affected stations are the local broadcast homes of popular network programs such as American Idol, 24, House, NFL Football, the Bowl Championship Series, NCAA Football and Basketball, CSI, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, America’s Next Top Model, Smallville, 7th Heaven, Major League Soccer, and the 2007 Super Bowl."

It also pointed out that there was cable, over-the-air, DirecTV, and even telcos in its L.A. market that customers could still get local signals from.

EchoStar paid $100 million to settle a majority of stations over their complaint that it had illegally imported distant network affiliate stations to homes that could receive a sufficiently strong local station affiliate of that network. But a federal court ruled that, the settlement notwithstanding, Echostar had not demonstrated it could effectively distinguish between eligible and ineligible subs.

Barring some last-minute move, some 850,000 EchoStar customers will lose their distant signals Dec. 1. And now in Pappas markets, their local ones as well.

EchoStar sought help from Congress, and a bill was introduced that would effectively block the court injunction, citing the deleterious effect on TV viewers. But no action was taken before the congressional recess, which isn't over until next week.

According to Pappas, the affected markets are: KAZA/Los Angeles; KTNC/San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose; KAZH/Houston; WCWG/Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem; KMPH and KFRE/Fresno-Visalia California; KCWI/Des Moines-Ames, Iowa; KPTM and KXVO/Omaha; KDBC/El Paso; KHGI and KTVG/Lincoln & Hastings-Kearney, Nebraska; KREN/Reno, Nevada; and KPTH and KMEG/Sioux City, Iowa.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6395382

fredfa

11-29-06, 10:43 AM

Tuesday’s metered market over-night prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

harley1

11-29-06, 10:54 AM

Too bad. Edited-for-regular-TV 'Sopranos' looks like it will be loads of fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_5XYmALfVs :D :D :D

Thanks - I enjoyed watching that.

I guess one cast member P***Y will have to get renamed for show.

fredfa

11-29-06, 11:10 AM

Critic’s Notebook
'Friday Night Lights':
Going past fear
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher”

I wonder if more people aren’t checking out “Friday Night Lights” due to fear. Not fear that the show is bad – the reviews have been wall-to-wall praise – but because the stories are often shot through with anxiety.

In (Tuesday’s) typically engrossing episode, Coach Taylor and his wife Tami get nervous when their daughter, Julie, finally makes a date with the Panthers quarterback, the charmingly inept Matt Saracen. Tami’s job at the high school has opened her eyes to what girls at the school are dealing with – and for the girls who want to be popular, dealing with the requests -- demands -- of athletes is a big concern. Letting their little girl go out with an athlete – or any boy, really – is scary.

Running back Smash Williams, still reeling from an awful game that failed to impress a college scout, is living in mortal fear that he won’t get a college scholarship and will thus kill his chances at a pro career – and the kind of money he wants to make to support his family. Hence he turns to drugs that he thinks will enhance his athletic performance. The drugs are costly. And he considers doing something deeply unpleasant to get the money he thinks – fears – he needs.

Tim Riggins’ brother, like the Panther players from previous seasons, is worried about making it in real life – holding down a job, making money, paying bills. He thinks Tim has a real chance at a pro career, and he’s afraid Tim will just throw it away, out of spite, or, even worse, laziness.

But Riggins’ laziness, and his inarticulateness, are really derived from the same source. Tired of the fear he sees all around him, he’s given up on hope. He ends up back with Tyra, but that’s really a consequence of his intentional lack of will.

Having lost Lyla, and having lost his chance at playing any more games with his best friend, Jason Street, he’s just marking time until high school is over. Does it matter what comes after? Not to him. It’s all just going to be another round of disappointments, the kind that he’s faced since his parents essentially abandoned him.

For Street, fear starts to give way to acceptance, in the episode’s most moving story line. He gets a chance to play on his new rehab-center friend’s team, and he loves it. He starts accepting that the old “normal life” isn’t coming back, and his new life in a wheelchair is the new normal. He’s not going to walk. He’s not going to be that All-American football player. Having a new sport to excel at helps him accept that.

And because he feels he’s now part of a new tribe, he’s confident enough to confront Tim and Lyla about their relationship. Scott Porter’s performance as Street in that scene is transfixing, but it’s of a piece with the rest of this show, which has one of the finest casts in television.

The ensemble is all the more impressive for the fact that most of the actors are young and don’t have many credits to their names. But all of them brings authenticity and emotional truth to their roles. And, speaking of the experienced actors in the cast, Kyle Chandler has really come alive in the role of Coach Taylor. How someone can be forceful, sensitive and conflicted all at once is a mystery to me, but he manages it.

Not watching “Friday Night Lights” because it has such true depictions of fear and anxiety – as well as love, lust and sheer exuberance – is like not ever leaving your house because of a fear you might get hurt.

It’s better to risk it. And how could you not?

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2006/11/friday_night_li.html#more

VisionOn

11-29-06, 11:22 AM

HBO hears word, brings 'Preacher' to small screen

By Borys Kit
Reuters
Wednesday, November 29, 2006; 2:46 AM

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - HBO has seen the light and is bringing "Preacher" to the small screen.

The pay cable network is developing a one-hour series based on the popular Vertigo comics series.

"Preacher," which ran from 1995-2000, told the story of a down-and-out Texas preacher possessed by Genesis, a supernatural entity conceived by the unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon. Given immense powers, the preacher teamed with an old girlfriend and a hard-drinking Irish vampire and set out on a journey across America to find God -- who apparently had abandoned his duties in heaven -- and hold him accountable for his negligence.

The series -- which developed a rabid fan base -- was known for tackling religious and political issues, its dark and violent sense of humor and its observations of American culture. It also was one of the series that helped define Vertigo, the adult-oriented line of comics from DC Comics.

There have been several attempts to bring the comic to the screen, whether big or small, but nothing stuck. A movie version, to have been produced by Kevin Smith's View Askew production company, among others, got to the casting stage, with James Marsden attached for the title role and a reported budget of $25 million.

The series was created by Irish-born writer Garth Ennis and British artist Steve Dillon. Mark Steven Johnson, the writer-director behind comic adaptations "Daredevil" and the upcoming "Ghost Rider," is writing the pilot, while Howard Deutch is attached to direct. Johnson also wrote "Grumpier Old Men," which Deutch directed.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112900139.html

(with apologies to Fredfa for jumping in his news shoes - I just thought this was pretty cool)

fredfa

11-29-06, 11:27 AM

Fred’s Notebook
A reminder

Mo Ryan’s thoughts about “Friday Night Lights” reminded me that we all have our favorite shows. And try as I might to keep my prejudices out of what I post here, I am sure that my own tastes must have some effect on what I find interesting – and what I post..

If you aren’t aware of it, I keep an updated list of my own favorites here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4278412#post4278412

And that brings me to this: now that the November sweep is over (actually, it ends tonight), how about telling us all what your favorite five shows (new or old) are. As an added bonus, how about also letting us know about your favorite “guilty pleasure” program – the one you are most hesitant to let anyone outside of your home know you enjoy.

(For the moment, let’s stick to network programming. I’ll rerun the quiz for cable programs in a while.)

To start things off, here are my network favorites:

FAVORITES
1. “Friday Night Lights” NBC
2. “Grey’s Anatomy” ABC
3. “Bones” Fox
4. “House” Fox
5. “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip” NBC

GUILTY PLEASURE
“Men in Trees” ABC

fredfa

11-29-06, 11:31 AM

...(with apologies to Fredfa for jumping in his news shoes - I just thought this was pretty cool)

No apologies necessary. I encourage people to post items which interest them

In my view it makes the thread far more interesting when your views are better represented.

rustycruiser

11-29-06, 11:36 AM

My network favorites:

FAVORITES
1. “Friday Night Lights” NBC
2. “Grey’s Anatomy” ABC
3. “The Office” NBC
4. “Heroes” NBC
5. “House” Fox

GUILTY PLEASURE
“Ugly Betty” ABC

steverobertson

11-29-06, 11:38 AM

Favorites,

Criminal Minds
CSI Miami
Prison Break
The Unit
Close To Home

Guilty Pleasure
Friday Night Lights

rustycruiser

11-29-06, 11:49 AM

I know this is a little older than the news normally posted so timely by Fred, but this is from a wierd place (ESPN), and about The Wire, the best show on TV that gets far too little press.

'Will HBO Series Change Attitudes?':

By LZ Granderson ESPN PAGE2

Be the change that you want to see in the world
-- Mohandas Gandhi

With all due respect to the good people who hand out the Emmys, the best show on television has nothing to do with horny housewives, castaways or Jersey. It's "The Wire" -- HBO's gritty depiction of Baltimore's war on drugs. It's dripping with so much political corruption and unsettling social commentary that it's hard to tell whether you're watching a TV show or the news.

The series has been the darling of critics since it debuted four years ago. It has also become one of the most-watched programs among black athletes.

Carmelo Anthony loves the show.

As does Steve Francis.

Larry Hughes is also fan.

The Baltimore Ravens? Half the squad TiVo's it.

"The things in the show are some of the things I saw growing up in Detroit," says the Ravens' Derrick Mason. "Maybe not that drastic, but it's pretty real."

It should be. David Simon, the show's creator, was a police reporter for the Baltimore Sun. His writing partner, Edward Burns, taught social studies for seven years in the Baltimore school system after serving for 20 years as a city police detective. If those two can't get it right, no one can.

"A lot of black athletes like the show because it really tells it like it is," says Hughes, who grew up in St. Louis. "It goes beyond just who got shot, which makes it more interesting, because life in the 'hood is more complicated than that."

Which brings me to my point.

Omar -- the gun-slinging vigilante who, without question, is one of the most respected and loved characters on the show -- is gay. And I'm not talking the secretive and shady Haggard/Foley variety. I'm talking waking-up-buck-naked-with-his-buck-naked-Latino-boyfriend-on-the-other-side-of-the-bed gay. Everyone on the block knows. And so does the audience.

Can you think of another show or movie in which pro athletes openly root for the gay guy? I can't.

"The thing is that's such a small portion of who Omar is," Mason says. "He is respected because he is tough, he doesn't take any stuff from anybody and he doesn't apologize for anything that he does or who he is."

Hughes says he just "closes his eyes to that part."

"He's one of the best characters on the show," the Cavs guard says. "I think Omar is very believable. If you can have a businessman be on the down low, why can't you have a gangsta?"

Or athlete?

"That's different," Mason says. "Because Omar does his thing but you don't have to be around him all of the time. In football, you spend so much time together and you're in the shower … it's just different. I still think if an athlete comes out, he would be committing professional suicide."

But Mason's teammate, Bart Scott, has a different take.

"I don't care what he does in his personal life," the linebacker says. "All I care about is, 'Can he help me win football games? Can he help me win a Super Bowl?'"

Simon says people often ask him why he made Omar gay. He says the real question is, "Why did I make the other characters straight?"

"With each character on the show I tried to base it on one or two people who I actually knew of in Baltimore," he says. "Omar is no different.

"Look, the world is a complicated place. Nothing's black or white … not even race."

Michael K. Williams, the actor who plays Omar, says he believes one of the reasons athletes are not put off by his character's sexual orientation is because of his overall strength.

"Brothers approach me all of the time thanking me for giving them a TV character they can identify with," he says. "They tell me how they are tired of sexuality being the only thing gay characters talk about on TV and how Omar is so much more than just a gay dude. He has a code that he lives by. He has the respect from other people in the 'hood because if you cross him up, he's going take his shotgun out and handle his business.

"But the big thing is Omar doesn't apologize for who or what he is. He lives his life without shame."

After talking to a number of athletes about "The Wire" and specifically Omar, I came away with the feeling that male athletes aren't opposed to gay teammates simply because they are gay. It's because they perceive them as being weak, and they may continue to believe that until a gay athlete finally comes out during his playing career.

I know that at the heart of it all, it's a fictional show. But the way I see it, if Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony can fight for a woman's right to vote in the 1800s; if Jackie Robinson can integrate baseball in 1947; if Rosa Parks can say "No" on that bus in 1955; if Don Haskins and the young men of Texas Western can ignore death threats to win a championship in 1966; if Hank Aaron could muscle the courage to break Babe Ruth's record in 1974, then what on Earth is stopping gay athletes from saying "Yes, I am" in 2006? How can they possibly believe their situation is any worse than those mentioned above? Yes, it's insightful to hear the story of a guy who comes out of the closet after he retires. But isn't it about time someone does it beforehand and be the change, as opposed to just hope for it? It won't be easy, but few things in life worth having are.

On the HBO Web page for "The Wire," there is a steady stream of blog posts about the show and its characters. One of the bloggers describes Omar as "that badass mother------ with the shotgun, smokin' on a Newport cigarette, and runnin' corner boys off like little bitches."

I believe what it doesn't say, says it all.

LZ Granderson is a senior writer for ESPN the Magazine and host of the ESPN360 talk show "Game Night." He is currently working on his first book. LZ can be reached at l_granderson@yahoo.com.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=granderson/061116

VisionOn

11-29-06, 11:50 AM

Sticking with new shows just to make it easier.

FAVORITES
1. “Heroes” NBC
2. “Men In Trees” ABC
3. “Friday Night Lights” NBC
4. “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip”” NBC
5. “Shark" CBS

Don't have a guilty pleasure among the new season. The New Adventures of Old Christine is the closest.

dad1153

11-29-06, 11:50 AM

FAVORITES
1. “Law & Order/L&O: Special Victims Unit/L&O: Criminal Intent” NBC (so sue me, I watch all three religiously and it's all three or none... although last Wednesday's "CI" episode about 'cyber-kidnapping' has got to be the most pathetic and inept 'L&O' episode on any series in ages. Talk about stinky poo!)
2. “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip” NBC
3. “The Amazing Race” CBS
4. “Heroes” NBC
5. "Dateline NBC: To Catch A Predator" NBC

GUILTY PLEASURE
Tie: “Deal or No Deal/Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” NBC/ABC (respectively)

I assume we're only talking about primetime network programming here? Because if we're not I'm reshuffling my Top 5 to include 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' (ABC), 'Late Night w/Conan O'Brien' (NBC) and 'The Price Is Right' (CBS)

fredfa

11-29-06, 11:58 AM

Yes, dad1153, let's stick to prime time for this exercise.

By the way, I have long thought "The Price Is Right" would be great in HD. Maybe when Bob Barker leaves next year tCBS will upgrade.....

archiguy

11-29-06, 12:01 PM

FAVORITES

1. “Battlestar Galactica” SciFi
2. “LOST” ABC
------------
(next level down)
------------
3. “Heroes” NBC
4. “Jericho” CBS
5. “The Nine” ABC (R.I.P. :( )

GUILTY PLEASURE
“Dancing with the Stars” ABC

fredfa

11-29-06, 12:02 PM

Nielsen Notebook
Looming cloud over ABC's 'Day Break'
Promising new drama sinks on its second outing
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Nov. 29, 2006

The series premiere of “Day Break” received an artificial boost two weeks ago, airing behind the highly rated season finale of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

Left on its own last week, however, the new drama plummeted, becoming the most recent in a string of high-concept flops this season.

“Day Break’s” second episode averaged a dismal 1.8 18-49 rating in the 9 p.m. timeslot last Wednesday, half the 3.6 the show’s two-hour premiere pulled the previous week.

The night before Thanksgiving is notoriously low-rated, meaning “Break” could perk up a bit tonight. Also, in “Break's” defense, ABC points out that it retained more of its much-smaller lead-in in week two, 86 percent from “Show Me the Money,” and grew 6 percent from its first half hour to its second.

Still, a 1.8 is dangerously low. By comparison, the CW’s “Gilmore Girls” averaged a 1.9 last week.

“Break” stars Taye Diggs as a detective framed for murder who lives the same day over and over again, presumably until he can clear his name. It fills “Lost’s” old Wednesday timeslot until the latter’s return in February.

“Break” is ABC’s third new drama to sputter this season, joining “Six Degrees” and “The Nine,” both of which are now on hiatus and unlikely to resume production.

But these shows were far from duds creatively. They received generally good reviews, had high production values and excellent acting, plus they all had big lead-ins.

Other networks have seen similar audience disdain for high-concept, very different shows like CBS’s “Smith,” Fox’s “Vanished” and NBC’s “Kidnapped” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.”

That raises the question, just how many high-brow shows can you put out there before viewers tune out? Many have already committed to “24,” “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives,” not to mention cable shows like “The Sopranos” and “Nip/Tuck.”

Certainly there are some viewers unwilling to add another hour of TV watching, no matter how good the show. And there's too the issue of adrenalin overload, back-to-back serialized shows that demand a viewer's all. An hour of pulse-pounding adrenaline is fun; two hours gives you a headache.

But the ultimate problem may simply be that the quality bar has been raised so high that viewers will only attach themselves to shows they deem superior right from the debut episode. Shows that might have stood out just two years ago as instant hits now struggle in the ratings.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_8786.asp

dad1153

11-29-06, 12:04 PM

...I have long thought "The Price Is Right" would be great in HD. Maybe when Bob Barker leaves next year tCBS will upgrade...

Actually if you look at the cameras in the studio whenever a contestant goes crazy and wonders off the shot (happens all the time) you'll see they're all HD-ready. If CBS wanted to they could do 'TPIR' in HD right now but let's be honest: how many new viewers would CBS gain from doing a 35+ year-old daytime gameshow (50+ if you include the original Bill Cullen run on ABC in the 50's) in HD? And most importantly, does Barker want people at home to see just how much make-up is applied on his wrinkly skin for him to look half-decent on SD? 'Price' is a unique show in its longevity, popularity, consistent host and audience loyalty. Even if it were shown in B&W with static I'd watch it, so HD is a luxury. After Barker retires in June though... :o

rustycruiser

11-29-06, 12:07 PM

Nielsen Notebook
Looming cloud over ABC's 'Day Break'
Promising new drama sinks on its second outing

Arrgggghhh. Yet another show I like is in trouble. I am 0 for 5 this season so far.

Come On!

RockyF

11-29-06, 12:08 PM

Favorites
1. Heroes-NBC
2. Lost-ABC
3. Smallville-CW
4. Veronica Mars-CW
5. Jericho-CBS

Guilty Pleasure
Gilmore Girls-CW

fredfa

11-29-06, 12:14 PM

Tuesday’s updated fast national over night prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

11-29-06, 12:16 PM

RockyF: Check Marc Berman's take on last night's ratings for some encouraging "Veronica Mars" news....

fredfa

11-29-06, 12:20 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
ABC's 'Big Day' is dumped at the altar
Debut for wedding sitcom pulls a 2.8 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Nov. 29, 2006

Post-“Dancing with the Stars,” ABC’s Tuesday lineup seems to be in serious trouble. Last night the premiere of the new wedding-themed sitcom “Big Day” delivered disappointing numbers despite a strong lead-in from “Charlie Brown Christmas.”

“Day” averaged a 2.8 adults 18-49 rating in the 9 p.m. timeslot, according to Nielsen overnights, losing 42 percent of “Charlie’s” 4.8 lead-in. In households it averaged a 4.6 rating, more than a point behind third-place "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" on NBC.

What’s more, the new sitcom “Help Me Help You,” which had been averaging a so-so 3.1 18-49 rating behind “Stars,” dipped to a series-low 1.8 behind “Day.” The two sitcoms combined for a 2.3 average, fourth in the timeslot and less than a point ahead of “Veronica Mars” on the CW.

ABC finished third for the night, behind Fox and CBS, with a 3.4 average, a full 1.1 behind its season-to-date “Stars”-fueled Tuesday average.

No one expected the network to maintain that level without “Stars,” of course, but a 2.3 combined average for the sitcoms is alarming. “Help” dipped below what NBC’s “Twenty Good Years” averaged before it was yanked earlier this year, and “Day” was right around the average for several sitcoms ABC canceled last year.

On the strength of “House,” Fox was first for the night among viewers 18-49 with a 4.6 average rating and 12 share. NBC finished second at 3.6/9, ABC third at 3.4/9, CBS fourth at 3.3/9, CW fifth at 1.9/5 and Univision sixth at 1.6/4.

ABC led at 8 p.m. with a 4.8 average for “Charlie.” CBS was second with a 4.1 for “NCIS,” NBC third with a 2.4 for “Friday Night Lights” and Fox fourth with a 2.3 for “Standoff.” That left CW and Univision in a tie for fifth at 2.2, CW for “Gilmore Girls” and Univision for “La Fea Mas Bella.”

Fox took the lead at 9 p.m. with its 6.8 for “House,” easily the top-rated show of the night among 18-49s. CBS was second that hour with a 3.4 for “The Unit,” NBC third with a 3.1 for “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and ABC fourth with a 2.3 average for “Day” (2.8) and “Help” (1.8). CW remained fifth that hour with a 1.6 for “Veronica Mars” and Univision fell to sixth with a 1.5 for “Mundo de Fieras.”

It was NBC’s turn on top during the 10 p.m. hour, as the network led with a 5.2 for “Law & Order: SVU.” ABC was second with a 3.0 for “Boston Legal,” CBS third with a 2.4 for “3 Lbs.” and Univision fourth with a 1.1 for the special “Lo que No Vio de ‘Premios TV y Novelas.’”

CBS didn’t lead any hour among 18-49s, but it took the night among households with an 8.1 average rating and a 13 share. Fox was second at 7.1/11, NBC third at 6.8/11, ABC fourth at 5.8/9, CW fifth at 2.6/4 and Univision sixth at 2.1/3.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_8812.asp

Bradduh

11-29-06, 12:26 PM

My network favorites:

FAVORITES
1. “NCIS” CBS
2. “CSI” CBS
3. “Criminal Minds” CBS
4. “L & O SVU” NBC
5. “House” Fox

GUILTY PLEASURE
“The Amazing Race” CBS

fredfa

11-29-06, 12:29 PM

Thanks Bradduh -- and welcome top thne thread!

bphisig

11-29-06, 12:39 PM

My network favorites:

FAVORITES
1. “The Office” NBC
2. “Lost” ABC
3. “House” FOX
4. “Friday Night Lights” NBC
5. “Heroes” NBC
6. "CSI" CBS
7. "Jericho" CBS

24 and American Idol will be 1 and 2 on my list when they return.

GUILTY PLEASURE
“Desperate Housewives” and "Grey's Anatomy" ABC

foxeng

11-29-06, 12:49 PM

'Price' is a unique show in its longevity, popularity, consistent host and audience loyalty. Even if it were shown in B&W with static I'd watch it, so HD is a luxury. After Barker retires in June though... :o

If history is any indicator, Price will drop off in ratings. As a game show it is pretty stupid by itself. Barker, like Gene Rayburn on Match Game, is the reason for its success. High personality driven and someone the audience felt at home with. Match Game, without Gene Rayburn was a flop every time it was tried. American Bandstand without Dick Clark flopped (even though it was on the way out when he left) and now I suspect whomever the Price mantle is passed on to will never see the ratings success of the Barker era. Just the way the biz works.

Hope CBS has a Plan B if Price totally tanks after Barker leaves, which isn't beyond the realm of possibility.

harley1

11-29-06, 01:01 PM

FAVORITES

1- NCIS

2- Studio 60

3- The Unit

4- 30 Rock

5- L&O SUV

GUILTY PLEASURE

Las Vegas

CABLE FAVORITES

1 The Wire

2- The Closer

3- The Sopranos

4- The Shield

5- Entourage

jandron

11-29-06, 01:28 PM

My Favorites

1. Heroes
2. Grey's
3. House
4. Studio 60
5. Friday Night Lights

Guilty Pleasures

Housewives, DOND

JimsArcade

11-29-06, 01:42 PM

My network favorites:

FAVORITES “My Name is Earl” NBC
“Family Guy” FOX
“Veronica Mars” CW (first-time viewer!)
“Heroes” NBC
“How I Met Your Mother” CBS

GUILTY PLEASURE
“Til Death” FOX (two Words: Kat Foster) :o

mike_somd

11-29-06, 01:45 PM

My Favorites

Lost - ABC
NCIS - CBS
CSI - CBS
Friday Night Lights - NBC
Jericho - CBS

Guilty Pleasure

7th Heaven - CW My sister got me started on this show a long time ago and it stuck... very guilty pleasure

keenan

11-29-06, 01:57 PM

fredfa

11-29-06, 02:31 PM

TV Sports
NFL Network and Insight Reach Deal
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 11/29/2006

The NFL Network has grabbed its first new deal since it began carrying live football last Thursday, striking a deal with Insight Communications for carriage of the league’s Thursday-Saturday live game package.

Insight was already an affiliate of the NFL Network, but had refused to pay a surcharge that would allow the carrier to air the live games.

Insight, the 8th-largest cable operator in the U.S., serves about 1.3 million customers in Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.

The league-owned network is still in stalemates with several other major carriers including Time Warner, Cablevision and Charter. Because of the inability to reach those carriage deals, the network began carrying live football on Thanksgiving with penetration of just over 40 million homes.

This is the first year the network has carried live football, as the league looks to expand penetration for its network after passing on $400 million in annual rights fees from outside bidders such as Comcast.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6395542

cheesesteaks3

11-29-06, 02:45 PM

FAVORITES
1. “Heroes” NBC
2. “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” NBC
3. “Friday Night Lights” NBC
4. “The Office” NBC
5. “House” FOX

GUILTY PLEASURE
"Family Guy" FOX

fredfa

11-29-06, 02:58 PM

Thanks for the vote, cheesesteaks3 -- and welcome to the thread

CPanther95

11-29-06, 03:10 PM

Lost
Heroes
The Office
House
Bones

Guilty Pleasure
Grey's Anatomy

Non-Broadcast Network
Battlestar Gallactica
The Wire
Dexter
Nip/Tuck

The first three would be ranked above all 5 broadcast favorites.

fredfa

11-29-06, 03:14 PM

HDTV Technology Notebook
Winning the HD War:
Round Two
Sky Report Nov. 29, 2006

One thing is as clear as high-def: cable and satellite operators had better be ready to accommodate a surge of HD upgrades when customers unwrap their new HDTVs this holiday season. While industry analysts are warning that the ill-prepared should embrace for higher churn, slower subscriber growth and higher spending, the well-equipped HD providers will reap the benefits.

So between the cable, satellite and telco companies all offering HD, which is in the lead? According to Bernstein Research's Craig Moffett, at least temporarily, cable does. "Cable and satellite - and even the telcos - each have their advantages in the battle for HD subscribers... but cable operators would appear to have the edge for now," he said.

Unlike satellite, it's cable that offers all the local broadcast channels - which in addition to the primetime lineups, also dominate the sports landscape - in virtually all their markets. By contrast, DISH offers HD locals to about 47 percent of U.S. markets, and DIRECTV (after recently expanding its local footprint) reaches about 65 percent. Of the startup telcos, Verizon has an edge but is available to only 1.2 million households (less than one percent).

For national HD, Moffett gives the nod to DISH which offers 30 HD channels compared to the average cable operator's offering of about 20. DIRECTV, the analyst said, is by far the weakest of the big guys only offering 7 national channels. But don't count the nation's largest satellite provider out of the race, he said, because DIRECTV is poised to take the lead with new satellite capacity slated for next year - bumping the company's total offering to a promised 150 channels of national HD.

"That programming doesn't exist yet," Moffett said, "but when it does, DIRECTV will likely have more of it than anyone else. It will take the cable operators a few years - and new technologies - to be able to match DIRECTV's 150 by the end of the decade."

As far as equipment is concerned, Moffett said by most accounts (and without going into specs), EchoStar's may be the best but costs the most with an upfront charge in its leasing agreement. Cable operators like Time Warner and Comcast provide similar units that have less intuitive user interfaces - and don't require any upfront fees. Moffett also said DIRECTV has struggled the most with its equipment, which goes a long way toward explaining why HD penetration is so much lower given the company's high-end demographics.

taz291819

11-29-06, 03:27 PM

1. Heroes
2. Veronica Mars (I had to switch #2 and #3, as I watch VM live and watch House on the weekends. It was the opposite last year).
3. House
4. Supernatural
5. NCIS

EDIT:
Guilty Pleasure - Prison Break (for some reason, I keep tuning in every Monday night).

dad1153

11-29-06, 03:29 PM

If history is any indicator, Price will drop off in ratings. As a game show it is pretty stupid by itself. Barker, like Gene Rayburn on Match Game, is the reason for its success. High personality driven and someone the audience felt at home with. Match Game, without Gene Rayburn was a flop every time it was tried. American Bandstand without Dick Clark flopped (even though it was on the way out when he left) and now I suspect whomever the Price mantle is passed on to will never see the ratings success of the Barker era. Just the way the biz works.

Hope CBS has a Plan B if Price totally tanks after Barker leaves, which isn't beyond the realm of possibility.

True, but to call 'Price' a stupid game show is silly because Barker by himself is a pretty shallow attraction besides audience's decades-long familiarity with him. There are over 100 pricing games on 'TPIR' (some retired, some overplayed, some dumb, some better than others) in constant rotation to the point that hardcore 'Price' fans still can't accurately predict which six games will be trotted out regularly or in which order (and producer Roger Dobkowitz sure tries hard to surprise them by still finding six-game line-ups that haven't been seen before). And even though they weren't ratings blockbusters the 'TPIR' versions of Dennis James (1973-1979) and Tom Kennedy (1985-86) were still fun to play along with even without Barker at the helm.

Al Shing

11-29-06, 03:38 PM

Favorites

1. Heroes
2. Criminal Minds
3. CSI: Las Vegas
4. Grey's
5. Medium

Guilty Pleasure: Ghost Whisperer

fredfa

11-29-06, 03:39 PM

Current standings in the favorite network show poll:

1-Heroes
2 (tie)-Studio 60
2 (tie)-Lost
4-House
5-NCIS
6-Friday Night Lights
7-The Office
8-Grey's Anatomy
9 (tie)-CSI
9 (tie)-Law & Order: SVU
9 (tie)-Criminal Minds
9 (tie)-Veronica Mars

Favorite Guilty Pleasure:

(three tied in first place)
Deal Or No Deal
Desperate Housewives
Grey's Anatomy

The Polls Are Still Open!

If you haven't voted yet -- it's easy.

Just list your current five favorite network prime time shows in order, 1-5.

Then note the one guilty pleasure show you enjoy but hate to admit publicly.

You post and I'll keep tabulating the results. (I told you it was easy.)

rebkell

11-29-06, 03:51 PM

1. Bones
2. Heroes
3. Men In Trees
4. House
5. LOST

Others
---------
Jericho
Boston Legal
Ugly Betty
Brothers & Sisters
Shark
ER

dline

11-29-06, 04:18 PM

UPDATE: Sinclair says agreement "not likely" with Mediacom

In a press release (http://www.sbgi.net/press/release_20061129_184.shtml) issued today, Sinclair Broadcast Group said that "negotiations with Mediacom Communications Corp. are not likely to result in an agreement being reached between the two companies." As a result, it now appears more likely than ever that Mediacom will be forced to drop Sinclair stations in 16 markets -- both analog and digital -- this Friday morning at 12:01am.

Sinclair also announced that its rebate offers, designed to entice Mediacom subscribers to switch to DirecTV, have been extended through December 31.

Unless the FCC steps in at the last minute, the true test of wills is about to begin.

fredfa

11-29-06, 04:23 PM

WilliamR

11-29-06, 04:24 PM

1. Heroes
2. Jericho
3. Stargate (if we can do non-network stuff), if we can't then House
4. Smallville (if non-network stuff), if not then Medium
5. Tie Prison Break - Survivor

Guilty Pleasure

1. Tie - American Idol & The Bachelor :D

This is of course right now, it changes as shows come and go (i.e. summer shows only).

baizdd

11-29-06, 04:33 PM

1. NCIS
2. Jericho
3. House
4. Amazing Race
5. Lost

Guilty PLeasures
1. Men in Trees
2. Criminal Minds

DoubleDAZ

11-29-06, 04:35 PM

Network Favs
1. Heroes
2. Criminal Minds
3. House
4. Boston Legal
5. Studio 60 (IMHO the last episode was one of the best so far)

Guilty Pleasure
Las Vegas

Others
Grey's Anatomy
Desperate Housewives
CSI
CSI: Miami
Jericho
Shark (though with a 7 of 9 wardrobe, this could easily go to Guilty Pleasure ;) )
and on and on and on.............. :)

Before the recent cancellations, I recorded 44 primetime dramas and 1 sitcom. I like them all and look forward to them every week, so it's really hard to pick out just a top 5.

That is the one thing I find interesting about the current crop. Either none really stands out that much more than another or they all are relatively close in entertainment value and equally good, which is what I tend to believe. I don't think there has ever been this many programs with so many different stories to tell.

The one thing I do miss though is a good western. Deadwood has been a great ride, but it's too few episodes and too far between seasons. With Alias gone, we could also use a good spy caper ala Le Femme Nikita. :)

Michael252

11-29-06, 04:43 PM

FAVORITES
1. “Lost” ABC
2. “Boston Legal” ABC
3. “Men in Trees” ABC
4. “Prison Break” Fox
5. “Survivor” CBS

GUILTY PLEASURE
“Jericho” CBS

fredfa

11-29-06, 05:06 PM

TV Notebook
NBC Unveils Midseason Schedule
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable11/29/2006

NBC announced its midseason schedule Wednesday, highlighted by a two-hour reality block on Sundays in place of football and Friday Night Lights shifting to Wednesdays at 8.

The Black Donnellys, a series once highly touted by the network, still does not have a place on the schedule. Jeff Goldblum drama Raines also failed to secure a slot. NBC says both will join the schedule in the spring.

Sundays will feature the new reality series Grease: You’re the One That I Want, which will feature contestants competing for Broadway leads in a production of Grease. It will be followed at 9 by the next cycle of The Apprentice. Crossing Jordan returns Sundays at 10.

The schedule will also include two hours of Dateline NBC, on Tuesdays at 8 and Sundays at 7 and two hours of Deal or No Deal, Mondays at 8 and Wednesdays at 9.

NBC’s midseason schedule:

Mondays
8-9 p.m. -- Deal or No Deal
9-10 p.m. -- Heroes
10-11 p.m. -- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Tuesdays
8-9 p.m.-- Dateline NBC (beginning December 26)
9-10 p.m. -- Law & Order: Criminal Intent
10-11 p.m. -- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Wednesdays
8-9 p.m. -- Friday Night Lights (January 10)
9-10 p.m. -- Deal or No Deal (January 3)
10-11 p.m. -- Medium

Thursdays
8-9 p.m. -- My Name Is Earl
8:30-9 p.m. -- The Office
9-9:30 p.m. -- Scrubs
9:30-10 p.m. -- 30 Rock
10-11 p.m. -- ER

Fridays
8-9 p.m. -- 1 VS 100
9-10 p.m. -- Las Vegas
10-11 p.m. -- Law & Order

Saturdays
Drama repeats

Sundays
7-8 p.m. -- Dateline NBC (February 11)
8-9 p.m. -- Grease: You're the One That I Want (January 7; first two weeks will run from 8-9:30 p.m.)
9-10 p.m. -- The Apprentice" (January 7; first two weeks will run from 9:30-11 p.m.)
10-11 p.m. -- Crossing Jordan (January 21)

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6395730

fredfa

11-29-06, 05:11 PM

Here is how NBC officially announced the new schedule:
TV Notebook
NBC Unveils Midseason Schedule
(NBC Press Release) Nov. 29, 2006

NBC’S MID-SEASON 2006-07 SCHEDULE INCLUDES NEW SUNDAY LINEUP WITH DEBUT OF ‘GREASE: YOU’RE THE ONE THAT I WANT’ AND SEASON PREMIERE OF ‘THE APPRENTICE’ STARTING JANUARY 7, FOLLOWED BY RETURN OF 'CROSSING JORDAN' ON JANUARY 21 AFTER CONCLUSION OF ‘SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL’

WEDNESDAY NIGHT ALSO CHANGES AS ‘DEAL OR NO DEAL’ STARTS JANUARY 3 AND ‘FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS’ BEGINS JANUARY 10

BURBANK, Calif. -- November 29, 2006 -- NBC will re-shape its mid-season program lineup following the planned departure of “Sunday Night Football” in January with the debut of the new reality series “Grease: You’re the One That I Want” (8-9 p.m. ET) on Sunday, January 7 (8-9 p.m. ET) and the season premiere of the Emmy Award-nominated “The Apprentice” (9-10 p.m. ET) - followed two weeks later by the return of the popular drama “Crossing Jordan” on Sunday, January 21 (10-11 p.m. ET).

In addition, starting on Wednesday, January 3, NBC’s Wednesday-night lineup will have a new look with the popular game show “Deal or No Deal” shifting to the 9-10 p.m. (ET) slot. Likewise, on Wednesday, January 10, “Friday Night Lights” - the critically acclaimed freshman drama that recently received a full-season order -- will now be broadcast from 8-9 p.m. (ET) starting that night. Both programs will precede “Medium,” which continues at 10-11 p.m. (ET).

As a result, “Dateline NBC” will replace “Friday Night Lights” on Tuesdays (8-9 p.m. ET) beginning December 26 and will eventually add an additional night on Sundays (7-8 p.m. ET) beginning February 11.

In addition, new mid-season dramas "Raines" and "The Black Donnellys" will also join the NBC schedule in Spring 2007 on a date and time period to be announced later.

The announcements were made by Kevin Reilly, President, NBC Entertainment.

"It's already been a terrific Fall for NBC, our re-build is in motion and we’re looking to maintain that momentum through the Spring,” said Reilly. “Although the second half of the season will get tougher, we think the quality of our mid-season series will continue to fuel NBC’s year-to-year story of ratings growth.”

The following includes NBC's new mid-season schedule (all times ET):

Mondays
8-9 p.m. -- "Deal or No Deal"
9-10 p.m. -- "Heroes"
10-11 p.m. -- "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"

Tuesdays
8-9 p.m.-- "Dateline NBC" (beginning December 26)
9-10 p.m. -- "Law & Order: Criminal Intent"
10-11 p.m. -- "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"

Wednesdays
8-9 p.m. -- "Friday Night Lights" (January 10)
9-10 p.m. -- "Deal or No Deal" (January 3)
10-11 p.m. -- "Medium"

Thursdays
8-9 p.m. -- "My Name Is Earl"
8:30-9 p.m. -- "The Office"
9-9:30 p.m. -- "Scrubs"
9:30-10 p.m. -- "30 Rock"
10-11 p.m. -- "ER"

Fridays
8-9 p.m. -- "1 VS 100"
9-10 p.m. -- "Las Vegas"
10-11 p.m. -- "Law & Order"

Saturdays
8-9 p.m. - “Dateline NBC” (repeats)
9-11 p.m. -- Drama repeats

Sundays
7-8 p.m. -- "Dateline NBC" (February 11)
8-9 p.m. -- "Grease: You're the One That I Want" (January 7; first two weeks will run from 8-9:30 p.m.)
9-10 p.m. -- "The Apprentice" (January 7; first two weeks will run from 9:30-11 p.m.)
10-11 p.m. -- "Crossing Jordan" (January 21)

The fifth cycle of "The Apprentice" last season averaged a 4.0 rating, 9 share in adults 18-49 and 9.8 million viewers overall, and ranked as one of the most upscale shows on television. The fifth cycle peaked with its June 5 finale (4.4/12 in 18-49, 11.2 million viewers overall), which scored primetime's #2 non-sports rating of that week in adults 18-49.

"Friday Night Lights" is averaging a 2.5 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49 and 6.1 million viewers overall on Tuesday nights this season. The "FNL" audience has been impressively young and upscale, with the third-lowest median age for a primetime NBC series and strong concentrations of key upscale households in its viewership.

For the 2005-06 season, "Crossing Jordan" averaged a 3.3 rating, 8 share in adults 18-49 and 10.9 million viewers overall. Last season, "Crossing Jordan" consistently built on its adult 18-49 lead-in from "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" despite airing opposite ABC's "Grey's Anatomy."

The most powerful people in musical theater are on a mission in “Grease: You’re the One That I Want” (Sundays, 8-9 p.m. ET, starting January 7 with a special premiere from 8 -9:30 p.m. ET). They have the stage, the lights, the money, the music, the cast and the costumes. But they’re missing one thing -- the leads. NBC will search for the next Sandy and Danny in the new talent competition series from BBC Worldwide Productions as America will ultimately get to choose the two leads for a new Broadway production of "Grease." The new production of "Grease" will open on Broadway in June 2007 and will be directed and choreographed by two-time Tony Award-winner Kathleen Marshall ("The Pajama Game"), who will also be a judge on the TV series along with Jim Jacobs, the co-creator of "Grease" and renowned theater producer David Ian. Billy Bush (“Access Hollywood”) and Denise Van Outen (“Chicago”) on Broadway serve as host and co-host.

"Grease: You're the One That I Want" is produced by BBC Worldwide Productions. Al Edgington ("Last Comic Standing," "The Amazing Race"), Lou Stroller ("Tomb Raider," "The Rock," "Scarface") and Paul Telegdy, Senior Vice President, Programming and Production, BBC Worldwide, are the executive producers. Suzy Lamb (“BBC UK's "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?") is the co-executive producer.

“The Apprentice” (Sundays, 9-10 p.m. ET beginning January 7 with a special premiere from 9:30-11 p.m. ET) moves to Southern California for season six of the unscripted series -- leaving Manhattan for the first time in the history of the show. Series star Donald Trump will once again do the firing -- and the hiring -- as 18 enterprising candidates vie for the coveted title of “The Apprentice” and the career opportunity of a lifetime working for the legendary business tycoon. Along with the new Southern California backdrop comes a whole new series of surprising twists and turns that will make this the liveliest and most challenging competition yet among candidates eager to become the next “Apprentice.”

"The Apprentice" is produced by Mark Burnett Productions in association with Trump Productions LLC. Mark Burnett, Donald Trump and Jay Bienstock are executive producers. Conrad Riggs, James Canniffe and Page Feldman are co-executive producers.

Expanding on the hit feature film “Friday Night Lights,” this poignant series (Wednesdays, 8-9 p.m. ET beginning January 3) centers on the small rural town of Dillon, Texas, where the coveted state football championship rings are held in the highest regard. Dillon’s promising high school team and newly appointed head coach, Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler, “King Kong,” “Grey’s Anatomy”) feel the mounting pressure of the town’s pride and honor riding on their shoulders as the season progresses.

The cast also includes: Scott Porter (“The Bedford Diaries”) as rehabilitating team captain and first-string quarterback, Jason Street; Gaius Charles (“Book of Daniel”) as feared running back Brian “Smash” Williams; Taylor Kitsch (“Kyle XY”) as running back Tim Riggins; Connie Britton (“The Brothers McMullen,” “24”) as Taylor’s supportive wife, Tami; Zach Gilford (“The Last Winter”) as third-string quarterback, Matt Saracen, and Minka Kelly (“What I Like About You”) as Lyla Garrity, Panther cheerleader and Street’s girlfriend.

Also starring are: Aimee Teegarden (“Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide”) as Coach Taylor’s daughter, Julie; Adrianne Palicki (“South Beach”) as Tyra Collette, and Jesse Plemons (“Grey’s Anatomy”) as Landry Clarke.

The series is executive-produced by Peter Berg (the film “Friday Night Lights,” “The Rundown”), who also wrote and directed the pilot, as well as Brian Grazer (“The Da Vinci Code,” “A Beautiful Mind”), Jason Katims (“Roswell”), David Nevins (“Arrested Development,” “24”) and Sarah Aubrey (“Bad Santa,” “The Kingdom”). “Friday Night Lights” is a production of Imagine Television, NBC Universal Television Studio and Film 44.

The powerful drama “Crossing Jordan” (Sundays, 10-11 p.m. ET, beginning January 21) from NBC’s “Heroes” executive producer Tim Kring heads into its sixth season and continues to explore disturbing topical crimes, while following a cadre of coroners who use their forensic skills to help the Boston police department bring murderers to justice and closure to victims’ families.

Jill Hennessy (NBC’s “Law & Order”) stars as Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, a sexy, smart and fearless medical examiner with a checkered past. She works under the guidance of Dr. Garrett Macy (Miguel Ferrer, “Traffic”), the no-nonsense head of the morgue, and alongside Detective Woodrow “Woody” Hoyt (Jerry O’Connell, “Jerry Maguire”), who puts in the legwork to hunt down the perpetrators of crimes. Yet, Jordan’s unorthodox methods constantly test her professional and personal relationships.

Additional support for the investigative team is provided by grief counselor Lily Lebowski (Kathryn Hahn, “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”), forensic entomologist “Bug” (Ravi Kapoor, “Gideon’s Crossing”) and criminalist Nigel Townsend (Steve Valentine, “The Muse”). This season, trouble is in store for Jordan and her colleagues when Special Prosecutor William Ivers (Jeffrey Donovan, “Touching Evil”) is appointed to investigate the morgue; and Kate Switzer (Brooke Smith, “Silence of the Lambs”), a prickly medical examiner, joins the coroner’s office.

“Crossing Jordan” is from Tailwind Productions in association with NBC Universal Television Studio. Kring (“Heroes”) is creator and executive producer; Dennis Hammer (“Heroes”), Allan Arkush ("Heroes”), Jon Cowan ("American Dreams"), Robert Rovner ("American Dreams") and Kathy McCormick (NBC's "Law & Order") are executive producers.

Academy Award winners Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco ("Crash") are the creators of "The Black Donnellys," a gritty new crime drama series loosely based on Moresco's background. The series follows the exploits of four young, working-class Irish brothers and their involvement in organized crime in New York City. Despite their rough surroundings, the Donnelly brothers basically remain "good kids" -- who will do anything to protect each other against all odds. The ensemble cast includes Jonathan Tucker ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), Billy Lush ("Huff"), Thomas Guiry ("Mystic River"), Michael Stahl-David ("Uncle Nino"), Keith Nobbs ("25th Hour"), Olivia Wilde ("The O.C.") and Kirk Acevedo ("Oz").

Haggis, who directed the pilot, and Moresco are the creators, executive producers and co-writers. The series is from NBC Universal Television Studio in association with Blackfriars Bridge Productions.

In "Raines," Emmy-Award winning writer-producer Graham Yost ("Band of Brothers," “Boomtown") and star Jeff Goldblum ("The Lost World: Jurassic Park," "Independence Day," "The Fly") combine creative forces in this inventive police drama, which blends traditional noir storytelling with humor and intrigue. Eccentric LAPD Detective Michael Raines (Goldblum) has a unique ability -- his imagination is so keen that when he's on a murder case, the murder victims actually take shape in front of him. Matt Craven ("From the Earth to the Moon"), Dov Davidoff ("Third Watch"), Linda Park ("Star Trek: Enterprise"), Nicole Sullivan ("MADTV"), Malik Yoba (“Thief”) and Madeleine Stowe (“The Last of the Mohicans”) also star.

"Raines" is from NBC Universal Television Studio.

“Dateline NBC” (Tuesdays, 8-9 p.m. ET beginning December 26, and later Sundays, February 11, 7-8 p.m. ET), the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features and newsmaker profiles, consistently and comprehensively.

Stone Phillips and Ann Curry anchor. The broadcast also features leading NBC News talents Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams and Matt Lauer, as well as correspondents that include Victoria Corderi, Chris Hansen, Sara James, Hoda Kotb, John Larson, Edie Magnus, Josh Mankiewicz, Keith Morrison, Dennis Murphy, Rob Stafford, Mike Taibbi and Lea Thompson.

archiguy

11-29-06, 05:26 PM

I thought NBC was going to try to move 'Studio 60' to a more friendly time-slot to try to jump-start its ratings. Guess not; looks like they're going to let it live or die in that late Monday slot where it hasn't been doing too well.

dad1153

11-29-06, 05:30 PM

I haven't seen so much spin since I did laundry over the weekend! :rolleyes:

So, 'Studio 60' stays at 10PM Mondays where its been wasting almost half of 'Heroes'' gigantic lead-in. Vote of confidence or NBC riding out its contract with Warner 'till it gets rid of the show come May? I can see 'Medium' moving to 10PM Mondays now after a few more 'Studio 60' episodes keep bleeding its healthy lead-in numbers (which are more compatible with 'Medium' given 'Heroes'' plot/genre). 'Studio 60' can do no worse Wednesdays at 10 than Mondays; us few loyalists that watch it and love it will follow it wherever it lands.

And why is 'Friday Night Lights' on the same block as 'Deal or No Deal' on Wednesdays? Both shows' demographics are miles apart to begin with, but shouldn't the show with the biggest audience ('Deal') lead into the show ('FNL') that needs viewers instead of the other way around? Patchwork all around, and 'Criminal Intent' is about to be sacrificed at the altar of 'American Idol'/'House' Tuesdays at 9PM. Oh well! :(

fredfa

11-29-06, 05:39 PM

A side note of interest to those on this forum: NBC started the season with 18 of 22 hours broadcast in HD.

When this schedule is fully in effect, it will broadcast three hours less of HD content -- just 15 of 22 hours (including all three hours of Saturday repeats).

DoubleDAZ

11-29-06, 05:50 PM

I really think they over-hyped Studio 60 and pushed expectations beyond reality. I love the show, but I can see where folks who bought the hype might be disappointed. It takes a lot more investment to learn these characters, etc., that it did The West Wing and more than the hype suggested.

As for the timeslot, I am one who will follow wherever they slot it. While I agree Medium would be a better fit with Heroes, genre-wise, I think Medium already has it's own following, so why not at least try to improve Studio 60 with a strong lead-in? Sure they lose much of it, but I don't know that Medium would gain much from the lead-in. Then, too, is doing well in a single timeslot on two different nights better than doing well in back to back slots on a single night?

dad1153

11-29-06, 06:30 PM

It's nice to see Trump's probably last 'Apprentice' show getting thrown to the wolves on Sunday night. Between the 'Housewives' and the CBS dramas there won't be much left of this once mighty reality genre giant to warrant another season. :D

VisionOn

11-29-06, 06:30 PM

And why is 'Friday Night Lights' on the same block as 'Deal or No Deal' on Wednesdays? Both shows' demographics are miles apart to begin with, but shouldn't the show with the biggest audience ('Deal') lead into the show ('FNL') that needs viewers instead of the other way around?

I don't understand why FNL is on at 8pm any night of the week. It just isn't 8pm fodder. it's too serious, sombre and not flashy enough to start off an evening viewing experience. 10pm suits it better in my eyes. And a Friday night slot even more so.

keenan

11-29-06, 06:34 PM

1) Heroes
2) Friday Night Lights
3) House
4) Veronica Mars
5) Boston Legal

Guilty pleasure--Brothers and Sisters

dline

11-29-06, 06:35 PM

Not a surprise, sadly, dline. And now Pappas has joined the fray.

These are just the very first volleys in what will surely become a very contentious fight between broadcast and cable over the next few years.Yeah, just saw it posted on KPTM's (Fox Omaha, NE) website.

In their case, the dispute is with Dish Network, although disputes between stations and E* aren't exactly new. You may remember that recently, Sinclair nearly pulled all its stations from E* before agreeing to a last-minute extension, and a broadcaster with four stations in Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska withheld its signals from E* for a while after LIL came to those markets.

keenan

11-29-06, 06:39 PM

I haven't seen so much spin since I did laundry over the weekend! :rolleyes:

And why is 'Friday Night Lights' on the same block as 'Deal or No Deal' on Wednesdays? Both shows' demographics are miles apart to begin with, but shouldn't the show with the biggest audience ('Deal') lead into the show ('FNL') that needs viewers instead of the other way around?
FNL at 8PM on any night is not good news, NBC has already said they're phasing out scripted drama at that time period. If you'll notice it's the only scripted drama in that time period for the whole week.

tkmedia2

11-29-06, 07:07 PM

Veronica Mars
The Office
How I met your mother
NCIS
Studio 60

The Wire
Battlestar

Guilty pleasure: Heroes

fredfa

11-29-06, 07:50 PM

Cable Nielsen Notebook
ESPN Stays on Top in November
By Anthony Crupi Media Week Nov. 29, 2006

ESPN in November put in a second consecutive tour of duty as ad-supported cable’s highest-rated network, averaging 3.14 million viewers in prime time, a 5 percent increase over the same period a year ago.

While its Monday Night Football franchise hasn’t sustained the huge ratings it churned out earlier in the season––the Oct. 23 New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys grudge match delivered a record 16.03 million viewers––ESPN’s weekly NFL showcase still drew the month’s biggest audiences, averaging 10.59 million viewers over the course of four games.

Among the core demos, ESPN also ended the month on top of the pile, winning the adults 18-49 category (1.5 million), as well as adults 25-54 (1.52 million) and adults 18-34 (673,000). Predictably, ESPN also took all key male demos.

Meanwhile, non-ad-supported Disney Channel finished behind its sibling net, delivering 2.58 million total viewers in prime, an increase of 19 percent year-over-year. Disney’s highest-rated program was its Nov. 1 premiere of the holiday theatrical The Santa Clause, which drew 5 million viewers between 8 p.m. and 9:45 p.m.

Among ad-supported cable nets, USA Network was No. 2 in November with 2.53 million viewers, a 5 percent decrease from a year ago. USA also finished second in the 18-49 demo, with 1.17 million members of the category checking in during the month, a decline of 10 percent year-over-year.

TNT placed third on the month with 2.01 million prime time viewers, a drop of 3 percent versus November 2005. The Turner net also finished third among adults 25-54 with an average audience of 940,000, a dip of 4 percent from the numbers it posted a year ago.

Rounding out the top ten for the month are: TBS (1.62 million viewers, down 12 percent year-over-year); Nick-at-Nite (1.44 million, down 13 percent); Cartoon Network (1.39 million, down 10 percent); A&E (1.36 million, up a whopping 43 percent versus November 2005); Fox News Channel (1.36 million, down 18 percent); Lifetime (1.31 million, down 17 percent) and Hallmark Channel (1.28 million, up a healthy 22 percent).

November was an encouraging month for a number of nets, including Court TV, which enjoyed its highest-rated 30-day period ever as it grew its total prime time audience by 28 percent to 1.12 million viewers and delivered 454,000 adults 18-49, up 34 percent versus the same period a year ago. Other fully-distributed nets that saw big ratings increases were: E! Entertainment Television (527,000 viewers, up 25 percent); TLC (856,000, up 22 percent); Sci Fi Channel (1.1 million, up 19 percent); CNN (828,000, up 15 percent); HGTV (1 million, up 14 percent); Comedy Central (1.06 million, up 13 percent) and Bravo (562,000, up 11 percent).

Smaller nets that saw growth include: National Geographic Channel (308,000 viewers, up 23 percent) and Oxygen (269,000, also up 23 percent).

The biggest losses on the month were registered by: TV Land, which fell 26 percent to 818,000; MTV, which saw its prime time audience drop 15 percent to 834,000; The Weather Channel, which dropped 15 percent in prime to 241,000; Spike TV, down 13 percent to 1.16 million viewers and ESPN2, which fell 13 percent to 804,000.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003466002

jandron

11-29-06, 07:53 PM

About the NBC Schedule...
I think this schedule is about one thing primarily; NBC feels like it's current line-up is finally getting traction with the viewers and they want to lose as little momentum as possible. They've held back all the new scripted shows (Raines and Black Donnelys.) They just want to try and build on thier existing line-up. So, they plug in all the proven workhorses and hope for the best.

fredfa

11-29-06, 08:16 PM

You probably are right.

But with just one new breakout hit ("Heroes") and the rest of the schedule propped up with "Deal Or No Deal", "1 vs 100", "Law & Order: SVU", "NFL Sunday Night Football", and "ER", I wouldn't get too cocky if I were NBC.

With the NFL gone -- and "24", "Prison Break" and "AI" back on Fox in January, then "Lost" returning to ABC -- it could be a long and bad 2007 for the peacock.

fredfa

11-29-06, 08:49 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Hinky TV, 'Scrubs' - and reruns
By Rick Kushman Sacramento Bee TV Columnist Wednesday, November 29, 2006

We're about to enter one of those stretches when TV goes all hinky. On the other hand, on Thursday, we get the return of NBC's "Scrubs." In TV, you take the hinky with the good.

Let's start with this weird stretch. November sweeps end after tonight, and the holiday season has started, so through the end of the year, some shows will disappear, some will get pre-empted for specials and some will get new time-slot tryouts. Plus, expect reruns.

That's because the networks figure people will be out shopping or going to parties or just generally doing things more interesting than watching TV (insert your joke line here), and they don't want to fritter away fresh episodes on a small, distracted audience.

So, in short, if you're looking for a show that's suddenly gone missing, don't panic until January. For instance, CBS' "Jericho" airs its last new episode tonight (at 8 on CBS). It returns Feb. 21 after a recap episode Feb. 14. And Fox's "Prison Break" won't run a new episode until Jan. 22.

On the other hand, if anyone is looking for ABC's "The Nine" -- and considering the low ratings, the odds are against that -- it's been pulled indefinitely. ABC will run "20/20" tonight in its place (at 10 on ABC) and announced the change with a one-line press release that said the show will return "later in the season." No one believes that.

There's also a time-slot shift worth noting. ABC's "Men in Trees," a zippy little "Northern Exposure"-style hour that has been airing on Fridays, moves to Thursdays (at 10 p.m. on Channel 10) starting this week in the hopes of catching some of the audience left over from the powerhouse "Grey's Anatomy."

• • • • • • • • • • •

And speaking of Thursday, "Scrubs" is back (at 9 p.m. on NBC). Pause for loud cheering. This has been one of TV's most inspired, irreverent and witty shows through its first five seasons and you have to think Season 6 will continue the brilliance.

"Scrubs" has never been a ratings smash, in part because NBC has changed days, times and season-launch dates so many times, even its biggest fans can't track it. But it's also not like anything on TV, and that throws some viewers.

The rhythms shift, the style changes from spoof to goofy to endearing within a couple sentences, the pace demands attention. The stories aren't always linear and the humor is a mix of ironic, droll and slapstick. For some viewers, it just doesn't connect.

Their loss. Every episode of this show has been worth watching, there is always at least one big-time laugh and it's got a huge, but not mushy, heart. Despite the lack of attention and the brutal handling by NBC, when you talk about great TV comedies, "Scrubs" has to be part of the conversation.

This season, a running theme will be looming parenthood for Turk (Donald Faison) and Carla (Judy Reyes), and for JD (Zach Braf), but do not expect this to be the usual gooey TV comedy parenthood. Do not expect it to be the usual anything. And in the meantime, on Thursday, JD gets himself involved with the Blue Man Group.

By the way, with "Scrubs" in the lineup, NBC has itself a suddenly classic two hours of comedy starting at 8 with "My Name Is Earl," "The Office," "Scrubs" and "30 Rock." Although there is no huge ratings star, this is as good a two-hour comedy block as anything on TV since NBC's golden years of Must-See TV a decade ago.

You have to go back to 1993-94, when NBC's lineup was "Mad About You," "Wings," "Seinfeld" and "Frasier" for a better lineup and for two solid hours that didn't include clunkers such as "Good Morning, Miami," "Stark Raving Mad," "Veronica's Closet," "Suddenly Susan," or, heaven help us all, "The Single Guy."

Farther back, there were a couple of other years with a solid two hours, including 1991-92's "The Cosby Show," "A Different World," "Cheers" and "Wings," but the Must-See-est run for NBC was the four-year stretch from 1984 to 1987 that had "The Cosby Show," "Family Ties," "Cheers" and "Night Court."

NBC abandoned its two-hour comedy block in 2004, when NBC boss Jeff Zucker declared "The Apprentice" the new "Friends" and stuck it in the 9 p.m. Thursday slot. It worked for a year or so. This season, it was "Deal or No Deal" in that linchpin hour, and despite the show's popularity on other nights, it was mostly a ratings no deal.

So NBC is back to two hours of comedy, and as solid as the lineup may be, it, too, faces some serious ratings challenges from a pack of popular shows, including CBS' "Survivor" and "CSI," and ABC's "Ugly Betty" and "Grey's Anatomy." Think of it as Would-Be-Nice-But-Probably-Won't-See TV. Not that catchy a slogan.

Still, it's good that comedy is back in force on Thursday nights. It just seems right.

http://www.sacbee.com/172/v-print/story/84128.html

fredfa

11-29-06, 11:02 PM

TV Notebook
Humor returns to roost on Thursday
By Bill Keveney USA Today

Thursday game shows? No deal. Thursday reality? You're fired. It's comedy tonight.

After a two-year-plus abandonment, NBC tonight revives its two-hour Thursday comedy block, once known as "Must-See TV" for producing such hits as Friends, Seinfeld, The Cosby Show and Cheers. Emmy winners My Name Is Earl (8 ET/PT) and The Office (8:30), which have anchored the first hour, will be joined by returnee Scrubs (9) and freshman 30 Rock (9:30), two smart, not-so-highly rated comedies replacing the highly rated, not-so-smart Deal or No Deal.

All have strong creative pedigrees, although their ratings, especially Rock's, pale in comparison with Thursday heavyweights on ABC and CBS. NBC is promoting the quartet as Comedy Night Done Right.

Executive producers Greg Daniels (The Office), Tina Fey (30 Rock), Greg Garcia (Earl) and Bill Lawrence (Scrubs) have the chance to restore a luster tarnished many Joeys ago. The four recently discussed each other's shows, the state of TV comedy, the ingredients of a funny series and ratings with USA TODAY. Excerpts:

Is this the return of Must-See TV?

Fey: Let's say yes. For my sake, let's say yes.

Any other suggested names?

Garcia: Really-Must-See TV.

Lawrence: How about: Half the Comedies That Are on Television — on the Same Night?

Since there are fewer prime-time comedies today, some have asked if TV comedy is dead. Is it?

Lawrence: The only thing really dead about comedy right now is that everybody has so many options about what to watch that crappy comedy is dead. Crappy television is dead. The days of putting anything on at 8:30 just because it's after a hit and expecting people to watch it, I think that's over with.

So what's fresh about your shows?

Lawrence: You look at what Earl and The Office are doing, and it's a new style of comedy, not setup jokes. There's a lot of room for visual stuff, a whole lot of room for quirky characters. And pauses. I think people are enjoying that. I'm just hoping that now for the next three or four years that whatever comedies we do see don't have to be carbon copies. Hopefully, what made all these shows special was they were a little different than what people had seen before.

Fey: I have a question for Greg Garcia. How did it feel this pilot season when there seemed like four or five Earl knockoffs (among the proposed new shows)?

Garcia: It was strange. I was so lucky to get the cast I got and to get the director I got, who came in and created the look of the show just as much as I did. And then you see they're going to chase after this one thing that worked. Good luck getting lightning to strike.

Despite the praise and awards, most of these shows have struggled to attract viewers. 30 Rock is going through that now. How has NBC responded?

Lawrence: One of the greatest things that happened with The Office was that NBC wasn't on top of the world, and had an executive like (entertainment chief) Kevin Reilly who could stand up for it and take chances. ... Who's to say that four years earlier when Friends was pulling in ridiculous numbers that they wouldn't have pulled the plug quicker?

Daniels: What do you think, Tina? The Office was pretty low rated in the beginning, but I never got the feeling (NBC) was panicking.

Fey: I feel like they've been very supportive of us. They kind of know what the show they bought is about and are not all of a sudden trying to change it.

Lawrence: But Tina's character does have superpowers from now on.

Fey: I do have superpowers. And a briefcase full of money. My character is going to give away up to $100,000 every week.

Lawrence: Otherwise, it's the same show.

What do you do about low ratings?

Lawrence: If I can give any advice to Tina, the coolest thing happened on Scrubs starting last year. We just stopped looking at (the ratings). I know Tina has to, because it's a new show, and it's more like, "Are we going to be on or are we not going to be on?" I hope what you focus on is (the content). ... Nowadays, you can also survive by developing a niche audience that really enjoys and follows your show loyally from time slot to time slot.

Fey: We're trying not to sweat the numbers because it's beyond our control.

Sometimes, a sitcom will suffer if it isn't paired with a compatible half-hour. Is the new lineup a good fit for your shows?

Lawrence: The Office, Earl and now 30 Rock are literally three of the six or seven shows I TiVo.

Daniels: I think it's great. I would watch all of them all evening.

Lawrence: I'm going to use that thing you said about not having a good show to partner with as the excuse as to why Scrubs hasn't done that well (in the ratings) for six years.

Fey: I hope I get to not do that well for six years. Like in "not-do-that-well, living-in-a-great-big-house-somewhere."

Do you ever think that the public doesn't get these comedies, that they're too smart for the room?

Fey: I don't think our show is. I think it's perfectly safe to watch. No one is going to preach to you or try to teach you anything. I had the same thing on Mean Girls. I had to go around the country and explain that it was safe for men to see it. I say the same thing about 30 Rock: "I promise you it's a fun time. No one's going to yell at you."

Lawrence: I don't think the answer is to dumb down television and pander to the audience. I respect the audience more than that. Borat (was) the No. 1 movie in the country. I think that's a hysterical satire. I think most people who go see it get the jokes and aren't just watching him do silly voices.

Daniels: When Cheers was big, and Seinfeld, those were perceived as smart, high-quality comedies.

Lawrence: Seinfeld was eventually watched by every human being on the planet. I would argue that that's an incredibly erudite show.

Do you feel constrained because broadcast TV has stricter standards than cable?

Garcia: I don't.

Lawrence: I don't think it's that big a deal. There are times (a swear word) makes something funnier. But these shows are certainly not tame. I think we're doing comedy as edgy as anything on HBO.

Fey: It's nice to have a boundary to work with. It would be too easy to drop some f-bombs in there to spice things up.

Lawrence: You'd do it if you were allowed. Come on!

Fey: I totally would, because it would be so easy. ... Coming from SNL, this almost is a more lenient environment, because at SNL I think it was widely believed that our audience was children, like 14-year-olds. So they were really very strict with us.

Scrubs is shot in a former hospital, The Office in an office park and Earl in a grungy neighborhood. What are the benefits of your set locations?

Garcia: We're in between two trailer parks. You not only get the feeling of Earl's world, you can walk right out the door and start shooting (scenes). You just look outside, and there are stories. We've got people on meth running into our cars. We've got people living in a van out front. It's fantastic.

Lawrence: All the actors, writers and crew are in the same building, so we know everybody's quirks. You get to be around the actors when they ad-lib lines, and you can come up with new jokes if stuff isn't working. And no network executives ever visit.

Fey: We're in Queens, but we shot the pilot at 30 Rock in the lower plaza. When we go on location, you can see people drifting by, praying they'll see Sarah Jessica Parker (in a Sex and the City shoot). Sorry, folks. Those days are over. Just me and Tracy Morgan.

Daniels: It's an interesting point, too, that all of us are physically distant from other TV productions.

What's coming up on your shows?

Daniels: For The Office, the English creators, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, wrote (tonight's) episode. And we have a one-hour Christmas special Dec. 14.

Garcia: We have my favorite episode of the season tonight. (Pause.) I don't even know which one is on.

Fey: We have an episode where Dean Winters from Rescue Me plays a dirt-baggy boyfriend of mine who is the last remaining pager salesman in Manhattan. Next week's episode is a particular favorite of mine, where Conan O'Brien guest stars as himself.

Lawrence: We got stuck. We'd been building toward this married couple, Turk and Carla, having a kid. My wife (recurring cast member Christa Miller, who recently had the couple's third child) got pregnant in real life, so we had to say (her character) was having a kid. Now we're trying to rapidly work our way out of (multiple pregnancy story lines). Carla will have her baby in the second episode.

Garcia: Earl gets into the world of gambling. We have an hour episode next week, our first.

Do you give shout-outs to each other? In a recent Office episode, Ryan (B.J. Novak) mentioned Scrubs star Zach Braff.

Daniels: It was the Diwali Day episode. His girlfriend on the show, who is Indian-American, and her sisters say something in Hindi, and you can hear the words "Zach Braff." So (Ryan) thinks they're saying something about him.

Fey: I think we have a Zach Braff reference in the Conan episode.

Lawrence: What's embarrassing is that Zach cares more about being mentioned in The Office than he cares about being on my show.

Scrubs isn't the only sitcom dealing with babies. Earl's Jaime Pressly recently announced her pregnancy. And 30 Rock was put off for a year when Fey had her daughter. Is there something in the bottled water?

Lawrence: Very funny people are very fertile. It's a medical fact.

Fey: And everybody wants to get it on with them.

Garcia: You can't keep people away from us.

Fey: And we don't understand birth control.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-11-29-must-see-TV-main_x.htm

fredfa

11-30-06, 12:06 AM

Critic’s Notebook
TV casting a wider & wider Net
By David Hinckley The New York Daily News Wednesday, November 29th, 2006

A couple of new developments in the TV world suggest we're moving ever closer to the time when we viewers can become our own program directors - watching what we want when we want.

Sounds like Nirvana, huh?

Or maybe not.

But we may have less and less choice about it.

What's hurtling us toward this new world is, naturally, the Internet, which has the flexibility traditional media lacks.

A television station sends out one signal at a time. At 9 p.m. EST on Sundays, ABC towers transmit "Desperate Housewives." They can't also send out "Grey's Anatomy."

The Internet has no such constraints. ABC puts "Desperate Housewives" on the Web and a viewer can watch it anytime, whether or not someone else has clicked on McDreamy.

Time-shifting became an increasingly significant part of the TV world back when someone finally invented a VCR that viewers could operate. TiVo and its cousins have simplified that process further, and today a growing part of the TV-watching world stores its shows and watches them when it's convenient, not when they're "on."

TV fought this for a while, but now has decided to work with it. Networks are making more shows available over the Net. MTV offers videos over the Net, and movies-on-demand services are thriving.

Meanwhile, a survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism found the best coverage of this month's elections wasn't on networks' broadcasts, but their Web sites.

The main reason was that the Web sites offer almost unlimited data all the time. If you didn't want to wait for the on-air anchor or the crawl to update you on the Virginia Senate race, you could get that update on the Web site with a click.

All this has a number of implications. Because watching TV shows on a computer screen can be annoying, look for it to become easier and more common to hook computers into TV sets.

Look, too, for traditional media to offer more content without shaping its use. Just as iPod users choose which songs they want on their "station," TV viewers can choose from a menu of news or entertainment.

The problem is that the novelty can wear off when viewers realize they may now have to devote more time to TV, not less.

Just as music fans must keep up with new sounds and download them into iPods, TV watchers must now find their own hour for Gaby and Carlos. One suspects some will find it easier to let ABC keep doing it.

For the foreseeable future, ABC surely will. But a story yesterday out of Great Britain reported that some officials are already discussing the idea of eventually discontinuing the AM and FM radio bands, figuring at some point most listeners will receive that programming through alternative means anyhow.

The tech train keeps rolling.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/v-pfriendly/story/475362p-399838c.html

dad1153

11-30-06, 12:27 AM

The Business of TV (Sports)
NBA near richer TV contract, Stern says
The Hollywood Reporter November 29, 2006

National Basketball Assn. commissioner David Stern said Tuesday he expects to sign a new television deal, one that includes a "healthy" increase over the current $4.6 billion terms, before the end of the 2006-07 basketball season.

Stern, speaking at the Reuters Media Summit, said the NBA was already in talks with existing broadcast and cable partners Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc about a deal to replace the current six-year contract, which expires after the 2007-08 season.

"We have begun the discussions a couple of years early," Stern said. "We would very much like to remain in business with our current partners."

The NBA also is exploring selling a stake in its digital assets, which includes its cable TV network and Web site, to a media company, and establishing an NBA-sponsored league in China, he added.

Stern said the new TV deal would likely be an expansion of the current contract, noting that it could include digital assets and overseas markets, and run over six years.

"I would say it's going to be a larger deal," Stern said, referring to the current terms, which pays the league $4.6 billion over the life of the contract, or $767 million a year. "We expect a healthy increase."

The NBA's current TV deal increased the league's annual payment by 25% from the prior four-year deal.

Regarding a deal involving the NBA's digital assets, Stern did not name possible investors, but pointed to the current TV partners.

"We are thinking about expanding the ownership base of our digital assets to include a media company," he said. "We anticipate a new deal will make both NBA TV and NBA.com more robust. We have made it clear that for us a discussion of all of our assets on a global scale is available.

"To be engaged with a company like Time Warner or a company like Disney on either a digital or global scale is to engage partners who bring their expertise and the scope of their businesses in ways that we don't have yet and might not even be the best investment of our resources," he added.

Time Warner owns a 2% stake in NBA TV and Stern said the cable company and the league are discussing an increase in that stake.

"As those negotiations unfold, you will see (Time Warner) having a larger opportunity in our digital assets," he told Reuters Television.

NBA TV, launched in 1999, airs about 100 NBA games a season. It is available in 70 million U.S. homes and has 12 million subscribers.

The league's NBA.com Web site averaged more than 2.6 million daily visits last year, up 35% from the previous year. About 20% of the traffic originates from the league's Mandarin Web site, Stern said.

While the NBA in the past has discussed setting up a league in Europe, China is the more likely destination in the short term, he said.

"The model that we're working on now is the placement of all of our assets in China in an enterprise with all NBA rights," Stern said. That would include rights to sponsorship and merchandise revenue, TV deals there, and the ability to operate a league "such as NBA of China."

"It's something that will be articulated by the close of the (2008) Beijing Olympics," he added.

The key to the NBA's future success will be a geographic division of league assets, rather than by businesses, with each region including the right to operate a league under the NBA brand name.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/sports/e3i7667731acf7f75de18926a9f487a5d06

dad1153

11-30-06, 12:30 AM

Bump

Current standings in the favorite network show poll:

1-Heroes
2 (tie)-Studio 60
2 (tie)-Lost
4-House
5-NCIS
6-Friday Night Lights
7-The Office
8-Grey's Anatomy
9 (tie)-CSI
9 (tie)-Law & Order: SVU
9 (tie)-Criminal Minds
9 (tie)-Veronica Mars

Favorite Guilty Pleasure:

(three tied in first place)
Deal Or No Deal
Desperate Housewives
Grey's Anatomy

The Polls Are Still Open!

If you haven't voted yet -- it's easy.

Just list your current five favorite network prime time shows in order, 1-5.

Then note the one guilty pleasure show you enjoy but hate to admit publicly.

You post and I'll keep tabulating the results. (I told you it was easy.)

fredfa

11-30-06, 12:53 AM

Thanks Dad.

Here is the updated list of the top 20 shows in our little poll.

(And there still is time to vote, either here in the thread -- or as many of you have done, by sending me a PM.)

1. Heroes
2. House
3. Friday Night Lights
4. NCIS
5. Grey's Anatomy
6. Studio 60
7. The Office
8. Men In Trees
9. Lost
10. Law & Order: SVU
11. Veronica Mars
12. The Unit
13. (tie) Bones
13. (tie)Law & Order
13. (tie)Ugly Betty
16. Desperate Housewives
17. Law & Order: CI
18. (tie) CSI: NY
18. (tie) Jericho
20. CSI

fredfa

11-30-06, 01:10 AM

TV Notebook
Brain drain: '3 Lbs.' goes to early grave
CBS places medical drama on hiatus
By Adam Dawtrey, Josef Adalian Variety

It's not brain surgery, but it's canceled.

New CBS medical drama "3 Lbs." has been declared brain dead after just three weeks, though the Eye has yet to pull the plug officially.

After weighing the latest Nielsen numbers, net execs confirmed Wednesday that the Peter Ocko-produced medical drama has been placed on hiatus effective immediately.

While the net isn't officially saying the show has been canceled, there are no plans to produce more segs beyond the eight already filmed, and it's unlikely CBS will give the show a shot elsewhere on its sked.

As it is, a special 9 p.m. Tuesday airing of "3 Lbs." slated for next week has been scrapped in favor of "The Unit," which normally occupies the timeslot. Following a planned preemption for the Victoria's Secret fashion show, it seems likely CBS will fill the 10 p.m. Tuesday slot with a selection of repeats from its crime show library.

Killing "3 Lbs." was a no-brainer. Skein's low ratings dropped each week it aired, with its overall young adult average of a 2.7/7 down 16% from that of previous slot occupant "Smith."

Ocko's "3 Lbs.," from CBS Paramount Network Television, becomes the latest casualty in what's become a death slot for CBS skeins. Its succumbing after three airings Tuesdays at 10 follows similarly short stints this year from dramas "Smith" and "Love Monkey," as well as reality skein "Tuesday Night Book Club."

Last season, "Close to Home" also performed miserably in the slot but was saved by a shift to Friday.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117954742.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

RussTC3

11-30-06, 01:11 AM

These lists are always so darn difficult for me since I have so many favorites. That and my feelings towards certain shows always seem to fluctuate, but I'll give it a go. Here are my top 5 as of right now:

1) Grey's Anatomy - Hasn't been as strong this season as the shows past two years, but recent episodes have gained momentum and it seems to be back on track. Its still an extremely enjoyable hour of television and one I look forward to every week.

2) Heroes - What an amazingly entertaining hour of television this series has turned out to become. Lots of different but well developed characters make the show a must see hit for me.

3) Brothers & Sisters - This one surprised me, mostly because I didn't expect it to be anything all that good (most critics still haven't seemed to warm up to it) but its better than just good, its outstanding. Like Heroes, it has a wide range of characters that pretty much appeal to anyone. I just love the idea of basing a show around a dysfunctional but loving family. They did a great job with this series.

4) Veronica Mars - Not much to say about this show. I see many of its fans go on and on about how great it is, but that doesn't seem to stick with people. I'll just say the appeal of the show to me is its just a blast to watch. It's fun like Heroes, but in a different way.

5) Friday Night Lights - I decided to sneak this little gem in my top 5. A great cast makes this more than just a sports show. It's an excellent character-based drama that just happens to be football related. At least that's how I look at it.

Apparently I like shows with well-developed characters.

There are many other shows that probably deserve to be in that top 5 (The Office, House, Boston Legal, Desperate Housewives even, just to name a few). But I guess that'll do.

fredfa

11-30-06, 01:17 AM

Critic’s Notebook
“30 Rock”, “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”
Behind the Scenes, and Above the Rest
By Alessandra Stanley The New York Times Nov. 30, 2006

On “30 Rock,” NBC’s comedy about television comedy, product placement is a self-mocking joke within a joke. On NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” the advertising ploy is presented as a menace to be combated with the same finesse and courage as the North Korean nuclear threat on “The West Wing.”

Self-deprecation is a strength of Tina Fey’s sitcom. (The characters on the mock NBC show balk at working General Electric products into their sketches while making deadpan plugs for Snapple, one of the real sponsors of “30 Rock.”) It’s the lacuna in Aaron Sorkin’s drama; for one thing, the fact that NBC has kept both shows on the schedule despite lackluster ratings belies their founding premises.

These two very different behind-the-scenes looks at network intrigue were among the most vaunted shows of the fall season and did not meet expectations, yet both survived the midseason tumbrel. Turns out cold-eyed corporations don’t always look at the bottom line to determine the fate of fledgling television shows. Neither series is a hit, and “30 Rock” is perilously close to a flop, but both are good enough in their own right to merit more time: “30 Rock” was moved to Thursday nights to follow “My Name Is Earl,” “The Office” and “Scrubs.”

G.E. apparently really does want to bring good things to life.

The best television is necessarily uneven. A conventional hit sitcom like CBS’s “Two and a Half Men” is consistent, if not always consistently funny, but more original material needs larger margins for error.

“30 Rock” had a wobbly start: Alec Baldwin’s star turn as Jack Donaghy, a mad, mercurial network executive, eclipsed everyone else, including the show’s creator and star, Ms. Fey, who plays Liz Lemon, a single, 30-something head writer of a skit comedy show. Since then, other characters have grown stronger and funnier. Tracy Morgan, who plays an egotistical movie star, Tracy Jordan, is an amusing foil for Ms. Fey. In one episode, his sloppy work during rehearsals convinces Liz that he cannot read, and he takes sly advantage of her liberal guilt to feign illiteracy and skip boring run-throughs.

Mr. Baldwin still stands out. On tonight’s episode Jack is dismayed by Liz’s loser boyfriend, a boorish beeper salesman, and decides to take her personal life in his own hands. “Do you know why Jack Welch is the greatest leader since the pharaohs?” Jack silkily asks Liz, referring to G.E.’s former chairman. “He held our hands during our triumphs and our Senate hearings.”

To needle Liz, Jack buys a beeper from the boyfriend. When she tells him to take it off, Jack replies: “I can’t. I’m expecting a call from 1983.”

“30 Rock” works because it plays with the absurdities of the television business lightly, the way “Murphy Brown” pranced around a television newsroom or “The Office” trifles with a branch of a paper company.

“Studio 60” works, at times brilliantly, despite its setting.

Viewers cannot be expected to take the diktats of a network’s department of standards and practices as seriously as the crises that fueled “The West Wing,” Mr. Sorkin’s previous show. Yet his heroes, many of whom are “West Wing” alumni and still seem to be wearing their White House passes around their necks, express so much passionate contempt for network mediocrity and censorship that they miss the humor in their own sketches.

On a recent episode, the head writer, Matt Albie (Matthew Perry), and his co-executive producer, Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford), were appalled when a sloppy blunder by writers forced the guest host, Jessica Simpson, to improvise for 37 seconds. Ms. Simpson asked the audience to pray for “peace in the Midwest,” a daffy Jessica Simpson-ish gaffe so perfect that real comedy writers would kill to have thought it up themselves. Matt and Danny are not amused.

Alongside the network’s sexy, tough-minded network president, Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet), Matt and Danny resist the network’s attempts to cave to the evangelical right and corporate budget-crunchers and bemoan the bosses’ preference for stupid reality shows over cutting-edge satire.

The heroes’ sanctimony is irritating but not boring: they are like Hope or Michael on “Thirtysomething,” characters viewers love or hate but find engrossing either way. And the beauty of “Studio 60,” and its writing, is that other characters pop up who are more compelling.

Steven Weber, who plays the naysaying network chairman, Jack Rudolph, is deliciously sardonic, particularly when he riffs on the “quality” show set in the United Nations that Jordan snatched away from HBO against his wishes. “America’s been waiting for a show about negotiating lasting peace in Sudan,” Jack tells Danny. “I hope they’ll hold off on a debate about humanitarian aid to Darfur until sweeps.”

This series about satire is not afraid to push sentiment. At times it teeters over into bathos.

A recent episode was made up of three separate bittersweet subplots: an elderly, doddery drifter shows up backstage and turns out to be a blacklisted writer who used to write comedy sketches for the ancestral version of “Studio 60.” The Midwestern parents of one of the actors, Tom Jeter (Nathan Corddry), visit the set and withhold their approval. (“You’re standing in the middle of the Paris Opera House of American television,” Tom tells his father. He replies, “That’s swell, Tom, but your little brother is standing in the middle of Afghanistan.”) And the show-within-a-show’s lone black performer, Simon Stiles (D. L. Hughley), reveals his poignant life story as a young gang member to persuade Matt to hire a black writer.

Each strand is beautifully written and acted; together the emotionalism grows cloying.

But the show keeps bounding back. The most recent episode produced a hilariously mirthless veteran comedy writer hired to train Matt’s rookie staffers. The perils of Jordan, who is ever on the brink of being fired, keep twisting, and backstage romances flicker and glow under the opalescent lighting that makes the series’ look so distinctive.

“Studio 60,” like “30 Rock,” is better when it’s not about network television, but about the people who happen to work inside it. And at their best, the two shows are unequaled by anything else on network television.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/arts/television/30watc.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=television&pagewanted=print

fredfa

11-30-06, 01:32 AM

TV Notebook
NBC tweaks three nights
By Nellie Andreeva The Hollywood Reporter Nov 30, 2006

Three nights -- Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday -- will be getting a makeover on NBC this midseason.

The network's post-NFL Sunday lineup will feature previously announced "The Apprentice" at 9 p.m. joined by the new reality series "Grease: You're the One That I Want" at 8 p.m. and "Crossing Jordan" returning to its previous 10 p.m. Sunday slot.

Meanwhile, the new drama "Friday Night Lights" will move to 8 p.m. Wednesday, followed by "Deal or No Deal."

"We have a focused effort in January to get Sunday going and to continue the progress we've seen on the other nights, most notably Monday and Friday, where we're up substantially," NBC head of scheduling Mitch Metcalf said.

NBC's Monday lineup of "Deal or No Deal," the hit new drama "Heroes" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" will stay intact despite speculation about a possible move of Aaron Sorkin's critically praised "Studio 60," which regularly loses a large chunk of the "Heroes" audience.

"Studio 60's" creative strength and strengthened focus on characters was behind the network's decision to keep the series in the cushy post-"Heroes" time slot, Metcalf said.

"I think we're going see numbers that are even stronger," he said of the Matthew Perry-starring show.

To stay primarily in originals, "Studio 60" will share its 10 p.m. slot with midseason drama "Black Donnellys."

After struggling to gain traction with viewers in the 8 p.m. Tuesday slot, "Lights" is being taken out of "American Idol's" cross hairs with a move to Wednesdays as of Jan. 10. On its new night, the high school football drama will continue to air in the 8 p.m. hour, which the network has been looking to make a scripted-free zone. An unscripted show, the hit game show "Deal or No Deal," will run at 9 p.m. beginning Jan. 3, when it will face the results show of Fox's "Idol." "Medium" is staying put at 10 p.m.

Beginning Dec. 26, a second edition of "Dateline NBC" will take over "Lights' " Tuesday slot, leading into "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (HR 11/22).

NBC is sticking with its current lineups on Thursdays ("My Name Is Earl," "The Office," "Scrubs," "30 Rock" and "ER") and Fridays ("1 vs. 100," "Las Vegas" and "Law & Order").

"Las Vegas," which has been airing predominantly original episodes, will end its fourth season early, making room for the midseason drama "Raines," which will take over the 9 p.m. period.

"Dateline NBC," which has been airing on Saturdays, will move to its old, prefootball slot of 7 p.m. Sunday beginning Feb. 11, with three episodes of "Deal" and one of "1 vs. 100" filling in during the time period in January.

"Grease," a talent search for the next Sandy and Danny to star in a new Broadway production of the hit musical, will premiere Jan. 7 along with the sixth-season premiere of "Apprentice." For the first two weeks, the two reality shows will run 90-minute episodes each from 8-11 p.m. before settling into their 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. time periods, respectively.

NBC will use the final games of its football coverage to heavily promote its new Sunday lineup.

"We're putting together a great night of reality with 'Deal,' 'Grease' and 'Apprentice,' and we have the means of getting the message out," Metcalf said.

Veteran crime drama "Crossing Jordan" will return to its 10 p.m. Sunday slot for a sixth season Jan. 21.

NBC's midseason schedule does not include any of the network's midseason comedies, "Andy Barker, P.I." and "The Singles Table." One of them is expected to air in the spring in NBC's new two-hour comedy block on Thursday.

As for "America's Got Talent," originally slated to return for a second cycle in the 8 p.m. Sunday slot in January, the reality competition is now expected to air in the summer, where it launched earlier this year.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i906fac48acadf4a16b2516a871f4a638

fredfa

11-30-06, 01:52 AM

The Business of TV
Mediacom Prepares for Sinclair Battle
By Linda Moss Multi Channel News

Bracing for the worse, Mediacom Communications is preparing alternative programming and has antennas ready for subscribers in the event that it loses carriage of 22 Sinclair Broadcast Group stations Dec. 1 due to a retransmission-consent dispute.

“They’re making it very difficult, in my opinion, to strike a deal,” Mediacom chairman and CEO Rocco Commisso said Wednesday during a press-conference call on the looming battle, adding later, “You have to decide for yourself who the greedy outfit is here.”

Mediacom outlined the offer it has put on the table in the past week to Sinclair to try to avoid the broadcaster’s stations going dark this week. According to Commisso, the cable operator increased the compensation it offered to carry Sinclair’s stations by 33%; said it would agree to have the dispute go to binding arbitration; and gave the broadcaster the option of providing its TV stations a la carte to Mediacom customers.

Mediacom officials also said they would take the same retransmission-consent deals that other cable operators, such as Comcast and Insight Communications, have struck with Sinclair, to no avail.

As of Wednesday, it appeared that only an emergency order from the Federal Communications Commission, which Mediacom is seeking, will prevent Sinclair from pulling the signals for its stations.

Sinclair issued a press release Wednesday that said it doesn’t expect to reach a retransmission-consent deal with Mediacom and, therefore, it expects its stations to be off the cable company’s lineup at 12:01 a.m. Friday. If it happens, roughly 700,000 Mediacom subscribers, one-half of its customer base, will be impacted, Commisso said.

If the stations go off, Mediacom has been making plans to offer alternative programming in their former channel slots. The cable operator has been talking with other local broadcasters in the affected markets about getting local news from them to run, for example.

Mediacom may also replace the dropped Sinclair stations with updates on the dispute, digital channels, or entertainment programming, such as previews of new cable networks, according to officials.

Mediacom will also have antennas at its offices to hand out to customers, but it declined to say how many of those devices it has ready to pass out.

In some cities, Mediacom is carrying Sinclair stations “out of market” in locations where other broadcasters have rights to those areas, and Mediacom is talking with those broadcasters to “to come into those territories,” officials said.

During the Mediacom call, Commisso said that his company has been willing to pay for carriage of Sinclair stations, but the issue remains how much that should be.

The cable operator said it is willing to hold money in escrow -- license fees for Sinclair’s stations -- as negotiations go forward.

At one point Commisso said, “Never, in 10 years,” had a TV station gone black on his cable systems.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6395776.html?display=Breaking+News

capsfan

11-30-06, 02:52 AM

Top 5 network shows:

1. Heroes
2. Lost
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. Desperate Housewives
5. The Office

Favorite cable shows:

1. Dexter
2. Nip/Tuck
3. Rescue Me and The Shield (when in season)

Guilty pleasures:

1. Deal Or No Deal
2. 1 vs 100
3. Show Me The Money (those dancers are hot! :D )

pianoman41

11-30-06, 03:08 AM

Favorite Network Shows:

1. Heroes
2. Criminal Minds
3. The Office
4. How I Met Your Mother
5. Studio 60

Favorite cable shows:

1. Weeds
2. Rescue Me
3. Everybody Hates Chris

Guilty Pleasures:

1. Desperate Housewives
2. American Dad

kb7oeb

11-30-06, 03:10 AM

New CBS medical drama "3 Lbs." has been declared brain dead after just three weeks, though the Eye has yet to pull the plug officially.

Just seeing the promos for this show were enough to keep me away.

bgooch

11-30-06, 08:15 AM

AFTER TURKEY OF AN OPENER, NFL NET RUSHES TO WEB

By PETER LAURIA, New York Post

November 30, 2006 -- A week after losing an important round in its staring contest with big-name cable operators, the NFL Network has struck a deal with telephone giant Verizon to broadcast its live games over the Internet.

The deal will enable Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and Charter Communications subscribers, who now can't access the channel, to view the network's live Thursday night games. The games will be available to Verizon broadband customers starting Dec. 7.

The pact comes on the same day that preliminary ratings for the network's premiere live broadcast Thankgiving night indicated that while leading all cable channels, they were well off even the worst "Monday Night Football" broadcast on ESPN.

The fledgling football channel needs a significant ratings lift if it is to convince some of the nation's largest cable operators that the network should be available in as many homes as Fox News Channel or MTV.

"There are 531 national cable networks, so to have the top-rated program among them is thrilling to us," said an NFL Network spokesman. "Networks that have full distribution didn't get as many viewers as us."

The network, which is currently available in 41 million homes, bagged 4.2 million total viewers in its premiere telecast of the match-up between the Denver Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research.

While that made the channel the No. 1 cable network for the night, the NFL Network's debut game didn't come close to even the least-watched "Monday Night Football" contest on ESPN this year - the Nov. 13 contest between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Carolina Panthers, which garnered 9.6 million total viewers.

NFL Network for months has been locked in a series of battles with cable companies over whether the channel should be made available to the largest number of homes by being offered on cable operators' basic cable service.

With that deadline blown, the NFL Network might have a tougher time making its case after last Thursday.

"We've always maintained that the limited number of games, while quality contests, are aimed at the avid NFL fan and therefore constitute niche programming," said a Time Warner Cable spokesman.

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/11302006/business/after_turkey_of_an_opener__nfl_net_rushes_to_web_business_pe ter_lauria.htm

RemyM

11-30-06, 08:56 AM

November 30, 2006 -- A week after losing an important round in its staring contest with big-name cable operators, the NFL Network has struck a deal with telephone giant Verizon to broadcast its live games over the Internet.

The deal will enable Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and Charter Communications subscribers, who now can't access the channel, to view the network's live Thursday night games. The games will be available to Verizon broadband customers starting Dec. 7.

One problem, those of us that get our internet service from our cable company that doesn't carry NFLN, or who are in AT&T's service area, are still out of luck.

shuttermaker

11-30-06, 09:03 AM

Favorite TV Shows

1. Lost
2. Heroes
3. Jericho
4. Boston Legal
5. Dexter ( Showtime )
6. The Unit
7. NCIS
8. Grays Anatomy
9. CSI
10. ER

Guilty Pleasure:Desperate Housewives

I was enjoying 3 Lbs. I guess I was the only one. LOL

fredfa

11-30-06, 09:07 AM

The Business of TV
David Hill Talks HDTV at the Javits Center
By Glen Dickson Broadcasting & Cable

Fox Sports Chairman and DirecTV Entertainment president David Hill pledged his allegiance to HDTV during the his keynote address at the inaugural HD World show in New York Wednesday, "Why HDTV is the Road to Financial Nirvana."

The gregarious Aussie entertained the crowd at the Javits Convention Center with jokes ("I have zero education. You know what kept me out of college? High school."), remembrances of the old film-based production days, and clips of Fox Sport hi-def programming played at ear-splitting volume.

He also presented some research on consumer's projected adoption of HDTV and pronounced that DirecTV will be the biggest provider of HD programming in the world come mid-2007, when two new Ka-band satellites will allow it to offer 150 channels of HDTV programming.

"We have definitely drunk the HDTV Kool-Aid," says Hill, who notes that DirecTV hasn't invested billions on HDTV "because we believe HD is a passing fad." In a world of increasing competition for advertising dollars from the Internet, and competition for viewer eyeballs from sites like YouTube, HD is the way for television to protect its market share, says Hill.

Programmers have a "fiduciary duty," says Hill, to switch to HDTV as soon as possible. Since most viewers typically "graze" from a pool of 15 or so favorite channels, networks can "either go HD or simply get lost in the mix," he says.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6395789ys.

VisionOn

11-30-06, 09:10 AM

New CBS medical drama "3 Lbs." has been declared brain dead after just three weeks, though the Eye has yet to pull the plug officially.

I hope it wasn't good, at least that way I won't be disappointed when I watch the three episodes I have recorded this weekend.

fredfa

11-30-06, 09:19 AM

Critic’s Notebook
Not all the turkeys get the ax
By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic Thursday, November 30, 2006

Few experiences are more humbling than failure. Any television producer or network programmer worth his or her paycheck will happily tell you that. In their world, tumbling into that dark, muddy pit of woe isn't just an option, it's an expectation.

Three-quarters of the new series introduced every fall won't see a second season. A hefty number don't make it past December. They know this and keep throwing new ideas to the wolves anyway.

Failure is an unchecked plague sweeping through a fall slate many critics declared to be better than most in recent memory.

As if rave reviews ever keep the bodies from stacking up.

"Smith" and "Kidnapped" both got mixed receptions; they and born losers like "Vanished," "Twenty Good Years," "Runaway" and "Happy Hour" are all dead, over, through.

But an interesting thing happened during the usual sprint to the cancellation wood-chipper: Series that displayed none of the usual reasons to keep on keeping on have been cleared for a full season. " 'Til Death"? Nobody watched it. So what? Brad Garrett's sitcom won 22 episodes. In other years, it would have been gone by now.

Could it be that this fall's combination of high critical expectation and low viewer response has conspired to bring about ... patience?

It may be a little too soon, perhaps even naive to posit that networks seem to be giving the concept a try. Midseason is only a few weeks away. Each one has untested series waiting to hit the schedule.

If patience really is a fashionable merit nowadays, that's because broadcasters have no other choice. We've said it before: They can't cancel everything, and hopefully they know we can only take so many game shows hosted by the likes of Howie Mandel or William Shatner.

What remains is to try their hands at this patience gig. It may be cheaper to stick with the dates you've already brought and hope people get used to them instead of picking up something else that might actually perform worse.

That fear and a tenacious refusal to embrace error have conspired to grant stays of execution all over the place.

Mind you, that hasn't stopped Fox and CBS from getting chop-happy. Fox never has much to show for itself before January, which is why " 'Til Death" and "Standoff," which still hasn't received its pickup notice, are the sole survivors of this round. "Justice" is getting the Friday night burn-off treatment; after that, finis.

CBS had the first official cancellation of 2006-07 and is not a network to admit regret. Nevertheless, you can bet someone's gritting his teeth over "3 Lbs." underperforming in the slot "Smith" used to occupy, and expanding his bald spot over "The Class's" inability to take off.

At the other end of the spectrum, ABC brought back one of last spring's crawl-space-rated experiments, "What About Brian," and, in spite of continued viewer non-interest, is sticking with it. Fantastic. We can continue to ignore it right on through May.

In other cases, the Alphabet has opted to explore Hiatusland. "The Nine" and "Six Degrees," benched until further noticed, will reside there until some point in 2007. Nobody's making any promises we'll ever see them again. When they arrived in the fall, competitive ratings did not follow.

They didn't tail "Men in Trees," either, although the Friday night drama earned its back nine and a move to Thursdays at 10, starting tonight. There's a good reason behind that decision. Anne Heche's Alaskan escapades built upon the audience tuning in for Friday's "Grey's Anatomy" rerun, and improved creatively as well.

Fall's most patient network has to be NBC, home to one of the season's only hits, "Heroes." Breakout success tends to make a network cocky. But NBC has had several years to become intimate with mucky, miserable failure, making it considerably meeker.

This fall it managed to score a few legitimately outstanding dramas, so why give up on them? Maybe because high-quality writing does not guarantee high ratings out of the starting blocks. That's OK. "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Friday Night Lights" were picked up; unless a better option comes along, they have months to find a broader audience.

Those two aren't the poster children for TV's patience movement, however. For that, we give you The Peacock's Thursday lineup. No longer under any illusions of re-creating "Must-See TV," NBC has to be content that it has four of the most intelligent comedies on television lined up in a row.

The downside is that "My Name Is Earl," "The Office," "30 Rock" and, as of tonight, "Scrubs" (returning at 9 p.m.) can never hope to be anything but third place that night. Everyone else is watching ABC and CBS.

While it paid to wait for "The Office" to grow into arguably the wittiest 30 minutes of bizarre humor on network television, the 9 o'clock hour's contenders might not receive such grace.

Being up against TV's top-rated series is the least of "Scrubs' " and "30 Rock's" worries. The former is six seasons old and has scraped through some of NBC's most creatively appalling stretches. That also means its audience probably won't grow. After tonight's disappointing and flat premiere, even longtime viewers may not be able to deny that its best days are gone.

People long for the early days of "Scrubs"; at least that's something to cherish. "30 Rock" will have to overcome its vapid, aimless first episodes if it sees an entire year. Beyond Alec Baldwin's character, there isn't much to recommend.

It could very well be that what we see is what we're going to get. Patience is wonderful, of course, but in some cases, the ax is a finer mercy.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/294059_tv30.html

harley1

11-30-06, 09:24 AM

Anatomy of a gender confrontation
Important Ravens game pre-empts 'Grey's Anatomy,' a women's favorite

By Sarah Kickler Kelber and David Zurawik
sun reporters

November 30, 2006

The Pittsburgh Steelers weren't the only ones shut out by the Ravens this week: McDreamy, McSteamy and the rest of the Grey's Anatomy gang won't be shown on WMAR-TV in the Baltimore area tonight.

Fresh off a cliffhanger episode, the popular ABC medical drama is getting knocked back to 1:05 a.m. tomorrow so WMAR can air the Ravens' potentially division-clinching game against the Cincinnati Bengals starting at 8 p.m.

Since about twice as many women as men watch Grey's Anatomy - the exact opposite of the typical female-to-male ratio for Ravens football - tonight's TV conflict seems a classic case of the gender gap playing out in prime time.

The TV schism results from the new NFL Network that the National Football League is seeking to establish on premium cable. Because the new channel, which features Thursday and Saturday night games, isn't available to all cable subscribers, the league allows broadcast networks to bid for the games in the competing teams' markets.

In Cincinnati tonight, the NBC affiliate won the rights. In Baltimore, however, WMAR-TV (Channel 2), the ABC affiliate, won, placing the game above Grey's Anatomy, a show in its third season with a very strong fan base and especially popular with female viewers.

"I was very upset, and I'm still trying to figure out why it's going to be on at 1 in the morning," said Nicole Scheff of Baltimore, who regularly communicates on Web message boards about the show. Scheff typically keeps ahead of the latest plot turns by reading postings from fans in eastern Canada. They get the show an hour ahead of East Coast viewers in the United States and summarize it during commercials. Scheff said she learned about the pre-emption from an announcement at the end of last week's episode.

Clashes between games and other programming are nearly as old as televised sport itself, although they usually involve sporting events going into extra innings or overtime and, thus, running into regularly scheduled prime-time shows.

One of the most storied incidents involved a 1968 game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders in the old American Football League. The Raiders mounted a remarkable comeback in the last 65 seconds, scoring 14 points to win the game, but viewers saw none of it: NBC had cut away to air the start of a made-for-TV version of the children's book Heidi after fielding complaints from parents whose children were awaiting the special.

Another controversial pre-emption for sports came in 1987 when CBS executives decided to continue coverage of a U.S. Open tennis match rather than cut away for the CBS Evening News With Dan Rather. The anchorman stormed off the set when informed of the pre-emption. When the network cut to the newscast, cameras found only an empty set. In the confusion, CBS was left with six minutes of an empty screen.

Drew Berry, vice president and general manager of WMAR, yesterday said that his station sought permission from the network to air Grey's Anatomy before tonight's football game but was denied.

"Even my wife's angry," he acknowledged.

In October, the most recent figures available, Grey's Anatomy was watched in about 167,000 households a week on Channel 2 - a 13.2 local rating. Tonight's Ravens game will likely be seen in 211,000 homes on Channel 2, a 19.0 rating, estimated Christina Clemson, WMAR research and marketing director.

The station will undoubtedly make more money with the game than it would have with Grey's Anatomy. Beyond attracting higher advertising rates for what is expected to be a larger audience, WMAR will not have to split revenue with the network in the way it would for an ABC series.

Grey's Anatomy fans can watch or record the show on WMAR at 1:05 a.m. (if the game doesn't go long). In a world of new media, they also have other options, including watching the show on the Internet after 5 a.m. tomorrow (abc2news.com or abc.go. com). Two other ABC shows are also being pre-empted tonight: Ugly Betty will air on WMAR at 1:05 a.m. Saturday and Men in Trees at 1:05 a.m. Sunday.

In Ocean City and other places in the state beyond WMAR's range, football fans might be the disappointed lot. WMAR is the only over-the-air broadcast station in Maryland allowed to carry the game, which means that unless viewers have the NFL Network, available through Comcast digital cable and satellite dish companies, they can't watch the Ravens-Bengals game tonight.

Viewers in Cincinnati have a different conflict. The NBC affiliate WLWT won the bid to air the game there, which means shifting hit shows such as My Name Is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, 30 Rock and ER to this weekend. But those shows, while extremely popular, don't present the gender clash posed by pitting football vs. Grey's Anatomy. Clemson said she believes more women will watch tonight's game than normal as a result of the Ravens' winning season.

While pre-empting Grey's for a key Ravens game might seem like a no-brainer for the football faithful, fans of the show would take another view. Last week's episode exposed a long-festering secret - that Cristina (Sandra Oh) was helping Burke (Isaiah Washington) cover up a tremor that should have kept him from operating on anyone. Viewers are hungry to know what the fallout is going to be.

As for Scheff, her recorder will be set, but she knows what she'll be doing this evening.

"I'm going to watch football tonight, but I'm not happy about it," she said of missing Grey's, the only show she and her husband typically watch together. She'll probably read the recaps from Canada as soon as possible, and she's contemplating watching the show before work.

"I'm curious to see how it all plays out," she said.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/football/bal-to.greys30nov30,1,5303106,print.story?coll=bal-sports-headlines

Do the ratings adjust for the lost of the two cities ?