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TV Notebook
Golden Globes odds
Which globe contenders are the safe bets? Who should you place your money on?
From TheEnvelope.com at the Los Angeles Times
Racetrack odds on Golden Globe winners were drafted by David Scott of America's Line (americasline.com) based upon the opinions of the experts at TheEnvelope.com. The odds are issued for entertainment purposes only and should not be used for gambling.
BEST DRAMA SERIES
"24" 8/5
"Grey's Anatomy" 7/4
"Heroes" 9/5
"Lost" 12/1
"Big Love" 100/1
BEST DRAMA ACTOR
Michael C. Hall, "Dexter" 7/5
Patrick Dempsey, "Grey's Anatomy" 40/1
Bill Paxton, "Big Love" 50/1
Kiefer Sutherland, "24" 9/5
Hugh Laurie, "House" 8/5
BEST DRAMA ACTRESS
Ellen Pompeo, "Grey's Anatomy" 8/5
Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer" 3/2
Edie Falco, "The Sopranos" 2/1
Evangeline Lilly, "Lost" 75/1
Patricia Arquette, "Medium" 30/1
BEST COMEDY SERIES
"Ugly Betty" 4/5
"The Office" Even
"Entourage" 8/1
"Weeds" 30/1
"Desperate Housewives" 50/1
BEST MUSICAL OR COMEDY ACTOR
Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock" 4/5
Steve Carell, "The Office" 8/5
Zach Braff, "Scrubs" 75/1
Jason Lee, "My Name Is Earl" 5/1
Tony Shalhoub, "Monk" 30/1
BEST MUSICAL OR COMEDY ACTRESS
Marcia Cross, "Desperate Housewives" 50/1
America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty" Even
Mary-Louise Parker, "Weeds" 9/2
Felicity Huffman, "Desperate Housewives" 30/1
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "The New Adventures of Old Christine" 6/5
http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/globes/env-globes-odds-2007,0,6190551,print.htmlstory?coll=env-home-headlines
Television Critics Winter Tour Notebook
G4 Outlines New Programming
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 1/11/2007
Cable network G4 on Thursday outlined plans for its first reality series, The Block, as well as for new animated series Code Monkeys.
The Block focuses on the staff of a chain of California hotels that caters to the snowboarding craze. The show premieres in its Monday 10 p.m. timeslot on January 15.
Code Monkeys, which will debut sometime this spring, is from Adam de La Pena, who created I’m With Busey for Comedy Central and Minoriteam for Adult Swim.
The comedy uses animation based on the look of video games from the 1980’s and focuses on two video game programmers.
G4 will also launch Star Trek: The Next Generation 2.0 on January 15. The show features on-screen live chat and interactive features as a Star Trek episode airs. G4 has aired a similar format for original Star Trek episodes since April 2006.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6406885
Television Critics Winter Tour Notebook
The E! Panel
By James Hibberd Television Week in the “Critical Eye” blog Thursday, January 11th, 2007
Pleasantly self-effacing Comcast Entertainment Group President Ted Harbert is on stage, and there’s probably no other exec who’d introduce a network panel by declaring “now lets take some E!” and make jokes about handing out E!-branded condoms (well, maybe GSN’s Rich Cronin, but Harbert says it dryly, which makes his jokes work).
With their two series paneled at TCA, E! has quietly made an interesting programming shift. “High Maintenance 90210” is about Hollywood domestic help. “Paradise City” is a docu-soap about young talent struggling for career opportunities in Las Vegas.
In other words, E! is focusing on relatable underdogs instead of pampered poodles. It’s good to see E! getting away from the Sunset Blvd. clubkid crowd. Between Tara, Paris, Nicole, the Carters, Hugh Hefner’s blonde trio and the mother-daughter Gastineau act, for a while, it was as if Harbert was signing talent in a Geisha House bathroom stall (or, if you believe Page Six and Jossip.com, signing them in his … yeah, better to let that one go …).
G4
Comcast’s G4 has been fun to mock since it gobbled up the more interesting TechTV as part of a real estate power play in 2003. It’s always seemed like the awkward old guy at the party—a massive corporation trying desperately to relate to its young gamer demographic.
In recent months, however, the channel has made some serious improvements. Its repackaging of “Star Trek,” dubbed “2.0,” was a great move (though too bad the newly polished high-def version of “Star Trek” is in syndication instead). Buying “Arrested Development” didn’t make any sense for G4’s brand, but at least it added a program that viewers respect. In the most recent fourth quarter, a quarter that killed many cable nets, G4 was up 100 percent in prime (granted, we’re talking 124,000 average primetime viewers here, but still…).
The best show on G4 right now is their addictive new Japanese game show import “Ninja Warrior,” which is like one of those 1980s obstacle-course series that Spike’s “MXC” mocks, except done modern and straight-faced. The massive, four-section “Warrior” course of brutal physical challenges is so difficult that out of 1,700 contestants in eight years of twice-annual tournaments, only two have ever gotten all the way through it. Participants become obsessed with finishing, building replicas of the obstacles at home for practice, and competing in satellite qualifiers a la “American Idol.” Somebody should look into the format for a domestic version, it certainly has to be more exciting than the dreary check cashing of “Rich List,” “Identity” or “1 vs. 100.”
On the TCA stage, G4’s president Neal Tiles seemingly plays a lot of videogames himself. Targeting young men isn’t merely difficult, but a “suicide mission.” They are not only focused on the demographic, but are a “laser focused on young guys.” Which is good, but I want him to take it further, to talk about fragging the Nielsens with a plasma rifle.
http://blogs.tvweek.com/?cat=12
Television Critics Winter Tour Notebook
Croc Hunter's last 'a good tribute'
By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic his TV Guy blog Posted on Jan 11, 2007
What can viewers expect from Steve Irwin's final film?
"I think it was a good tribute to him and to his work, and we're excited about the conclusion of it," Philippe Cousteau told TV critics Wednesday.
"Ocean's Deadliest," which premieres Jan. 21 on Animal Planet, offers the last footage of the beloved Crocodile Hunter. Irwin died Sept. 4 when a stingray's poisonous barb struck his chest on the Great Barrier Reef off Australia. Cousteau and Irwin were supposed to be co-hosts on "Ocean's Deadliest." Cousteau is now the lone host.
"Having had him pass away like that, the accident in the middle of shooting, certainly changed our plans," said Cousteau, the grandson of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau.
Otherwise, few changes were made to the program.
"We were able to film pretty much everything that we planned on filming," Cousteau said of the 90-minute program. "There's a few pieces that are missing that we intended on filming. But that's the case with nature filming anyway. You don't always have all the animals show up."
In presenting to the Television Critics Association, Animal Planet wanted to keep the focus on "Spring Watch USA." That six-week event, starting April 14, will explore springtime in the United States. Jeff Corwin and Vanessa Garnick are the hosts. Correspondents Cousteau and David Mizejewski take part as well. The program will have a major online component. Animal Planet and The National Wildlife Federation will offer that material at www.AnimalPlanet.com and www.nwf.org.
Corwin noted that the program will present some moments that don't work out so well for wildlife. So I asked how graphic will "Spring Watch" be?
"Ultimately, it is what it is, and nature does what it does," Corwin said. "Our job is not to filter out the unsightly or the scary or the sad. Really, that is part of this story. It really is an event. And it's more than just four [human] characters in this series, most than just us participating. All the creatures, the wildlife, they are characters as well."
What's the Animal Planet approach to graphic situations in nature?
"We don't interrupt. We just observe," said Maureen Smith, executive vice president and general manager of Animal Planet Media Enterprises. (That's a mouthful.)
Corwin explained that the Internet component will be basically a conduit. "The Internet serves as a bridge to bring our audience with us to make it interactive, to allow us to connect," he said.
Disney Channel unveils Cory, Sprites
For Disney Channel, this will be a major weekend. The hot cable channel will premiere "Cory in the House," a "That's So Raven" spinoff, at 9:30 p.m. Friday. "Johnny and the Sprites," starring John Tartaglia of "Avenue Q," joins the Playhouse Disney block at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Kyle Massey continues his role as Cory Baxter in "Cory in the House." Several times, the 15-year-old actor was compared to Jackie Gleason. I asked: Does Massey know who Jackie Gleason is?
"Uh," Massey started. "Hummina-hummina-hummina."
Well, then who inspires the young actor?
"I really do love Will Smith," Massey said. " 'Pursuit of Happyness' was a great movie. But I love Will Smith, Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence."
Massey said Raven-Symone took him aside before filming started on his show. "She told me everything I need to know, that I needed to be professional and know my lines, come to work prepared and know what I'm supposed to do," Massey said.
Raven has made one guest appearance so far, and on that episode, Massey had to dress as Raven.
"I wore heels, and they really hurt," Massey said. "I have respect for women for wearing heels now."
"Johnny and the Sprites" features Tartaglia interacting with puppet Sprites. The show also presents Broadway-style music -- a worthy goal -- to new listeners.
"We're trying to make the music also educational by introducing new audiences to maybe more complex harmonies and chord progressions and lyrics than they might hear otherwise," said Gary Adler, the show's music director. "If you think about children 200 years ago in Europe, they were easily able to accept Beethoven and Mozart, so why can't they accept Stephen Schwartz?" (Schwartz is composer of "Wicked.")
Tartaglia hopes to spread a love of great melodies that tell great stories. "Children's television music is very kind of simple and very repetitive," Tartaglia said. "I wanted to be able to tell a story with this music and also be able to maybe have kinds be exposed to other kinds of music than they're used to."
Tartaglia said the show has drawn a lot of support from Broadway composers -- even Stephen Sondheim.
"He said he's thrilled about the show and said he wants to work on it," Tartaglia said.
One of the puppets chimed in, "I think we're going to do a 'Sweeney Todd.' "
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2007/01/disney_channel_.html#more
VisionOn
01-11-07, 03:16 PM
Has it aired already? I thought it was scheduled for February 26.
It was definitely on. What confused me was that while it was actually playing, I think they ran an ad saying that it would be starting on Feb 26th. I can't see it in the same timeslot for this week so I assume that was a preview. Part of their "giants of HD" week, or whatever it was called last week.
The episode is repeated again this Saturday morning at 3am according to my guide.
I'll record it, thanks for the tip
The Business of TV
Mediacom Secures High Ground in Sinclair Battle
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 1/11/2007
Cable operator Mediacom has secured some high ground in its retransmission battle with Sinclair: Capitol Hill. Or, at least, the portion transplanted from Iowa.
In a letter to both Sinclair President David Smith and Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso, the state's two Senators and five of its representatives urged them to consider submitting their carriage negotiations to binding arbitration at the FCC.
Citing the "up to 250,000 Iowa consumers who are currently unable to receive signals from KGAN Cedar Rapids and KDSM Des Moines," the legislators said that, "given the current impasse, binding arbitration would seem to present the parties with an alternative mechanism for resolving this dispute," and asked them "to consider the clear guidance of the FCC in agreeing to a process to bring the parties to an agreement without further harming Iowa consumers.
The FCC's Media Bureau, in rejecting a Mediacom complaint that Sinclair was not bargaining in good faith, still strongly encouraged the parties to submit the complaint to the FCC's Media Bureau for binding arbitration, with the stations remaining on Mediacom for the Mediacom has since appealed its complaint to the full commission.
Mediacom says it is ready and willing to go that route. Sinclair said it would consider the proposal seriously, but pulled its signals off the cable systems Jan. 5 but has yet to say whether or not it will. In the meantime, it has encouraged Mediacom subscribers to switch to DirecTV, with which its has a marketing deal that pays Sinclair for sub switches.
Sinclair has also said it is willing to "shake hands and walk away" from what it says is simply a business deal in which the parties cannot come to terms on price.
Signing the letter were Senators Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley and representatives Bruce Braley, Leonard Boswell, Steve King, Dave Loebsack, and Tom Latham.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6406924
dad1153
01-11-07, 03:54 PM
You know your morning TV show is in the toilet ratings-wise when even the Secretary of State knows about (last line of the story).
TV Notebook
Rice 'loves' Fox News; CBS anchor 'decent guy'
Reuters - January 11, 2007
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice let slip her news media preferences Thursday, saying, "I love every single one" of Fox News network's correspondents and also favors CBS anchor Harry Smith.
In comments overheard on an open microphone between morning television interviews, including one with Fox, the top U.S. diplomat said: "My Fox guys, I love every single one of them."
But Rice told an aide that when she was next in Iraq she would like to do a "one-on-one" interview with CBS "The Early Show" anchor Harry Smith.
"He's a decent guy. I know they are, like, 55 in the ratings, but I like him," Rice said in comments monitored by Reuters on a television feed.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/11/rice.reut/index.html
TV Notebook
Directors Guild of America TV Nominations for 2006
( Directors Guild of Americ news release) January 11, 2007
LOS ANGELES, CA: Directors Guild of America President Michael Apted today announced the DGA’s nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for 2006 in the television categories of Dramatic Series Night, Comedy Series, Musical Variety, Reality Programs, Daytime Serials and Children’s Programs. The winners of all six categories will be announced at the 59th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, February 3, 2007 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
“The director's role in creating compelling television has never been greater, and will continue to grow in importance as TV gets more competitive and audiences more demanding,” said Apted.
“The nominees for the DGA Television Awards are the vanguard of this movement, setting ever-higher standards of quality and taking on the challenge to deliver excellence in all genres week after week."
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series (Night)
JON CASSAR
24 – “7:00am – 8:00am” FOX
PETER HORTON
Grey s Anatomy “It s the End of the World (As We Know It)” ABC
DAVID NUTTER
The Sopranos “Join the Club” HBO
THOMAS SCHLAMME
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip “Pilot” NBC
TIM VAN PATTEN
The Sopranos “Members Only” HBO
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series for 2006
ADAM BERNSTEIN
30 Rock “Pilot” NBC
JULIAN FARINO
Entourage “One Day in the Valley” HBO
SEITH MANN
Grey s Anatomy “Name Of The Game” ABC
ARLENE SANFORD
Boston Legal “Breast in Show” ABC
RICHARD SHEPARD
Ugly Betty “Pilot” ABC
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Musical Variety for 2006
BRUCE GOWERS
American Idol: Season 5 Finale: Episode #534/535 FOX
DON ROY KING
Saturday Night Live: Alec Baldwin Hosts NBC
ROB MARSHALL
Tony Bennett: An American Classic NBC
CHUCK O NEIL
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Comedy Central
GLENN P. WEISS
The 60th Annual Tony Awards CBS
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs for 2006
BOBBIE BIRLEFFI
Texas Ranch House - “The Good, the Bad and the Colonel" Episode #2" PBS
TONY SACCO
Treasure Hunters – “Episode #101” NBC
J. RUPERT THOMPSON
Fear Factor – “Military Fear Factor, Season Finale” NBC
BERTRAM VAN MUNSTER
The Amazing Race – “Episode #1002” CBS
TIM WARREN Pros vs. Joes Spike
http://www.dga.org/index2.php3?chg=
TV Notebook
DGA nominates TV favorites
Winners will be announced at the DGA Awards on Feb. 3
By Dave McNary Variety January 11, 2007
Two episodes of HBO's "The Sopranos" and a pair of segments from ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" took nominations to stand out among DGA televison nods.
"Grey's Anatomy" took one nom each in the drama category for Peter Horton in "It's the End of the World As We Know It" and in the comedy category for Seith Mann in "The Name of the Game."
"The Sopranos" took nods in the drama category for Tim Van Patten for "Members Only" and for David Butter in "Join the Club." Other noms in drama went to Thomas Schlamme for the pilot of NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and Jon Cassar for Fox's "24." and
It's the fifth nom for Van Patten, who won two previous DGA awards for "Sex and the City," and eighth for Schlamme, who won previously for "The West Wing" and "Sports Night."
Besides "Anatomy," the other comedy contenders are Adam Bernstein for the pilot of NBC's "30 Rock," Julian Farino for the "One Day in the Valley" segment of HBO's "Entourage," Arlene Sanford for the "Breast in Show" segment for ABC's "Boston Legal" and Richard Shepard for ABC's "Ugly Betty" pilot.
HBO's "Rome" won drama series last year and "My Name Is Earl" took the comedy trophy.
Winners will be announced at the DGA Awards on Feb. 3 at the Century Plaza.
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117957187&categoryid=1985
archiguy
01-11-07, 04:40 PM
You know your morning TV show is in the toilet ratings-wise when even the Secretary of State knows about (last line of the story).
TV Notebook
Rice 'loves' Fox News; CBS anchor 'decent guy'
Reuters - January 11, 2007
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice let slip her news media preferences Thursday, saying, "I love every single one" of Fox News network's correspondents and also favors CBS anchor Harry Smith.
In comments overheard on an open microphone between morning television interviews, including one with Fox, the top U.S. diplomat said: "My Fox guys, I love every single one of them."
I am shocked to hear this. Just completely and utterly shocked!
:rolleyes: ;)
Critic’s Notebook
A big departure from "ER,''
"Men In Trees'' returns
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog Thursday, January 11, 2007
Those NBC promos do not lie (for once). Kerry Weaver really does leave County General tonight on "ER'' (10 PM ET/PT, NBC).
Laura Innes -- the longest-running "ER'' cast member with over 11 seasons -- is leaving the show to concentrate on her directing career. (She's highly-regarded and is currently directing on such high-profile shows as "Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip.'') There is a possibility that -- like Noah Wyle -- she may pop up for the occasional guest star shot but, for now, Weaver is off to a new career (and a new girlfriend) in Florida.
Innes will be missed, though. Over the years, she has turned the often-abrasive Weaver into a sympathetic and complex character who became an anchor of the large, ever-changing "ER'' cast.
While I'll probably be on hand to see Innes depart, there is another good option tonight at 10 in the form of "Men In Trees,'' which returns with new episodes on ABC. While there are those who disagree, I find "Men'' a totally engaging and funny romantic comedy with a fine cast that makes this saga of a "life'' coach finding love in a remote Alaskan town at least mildly plausible. It's a nice fit after "Grey's Anatomy.''
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/charlie_mccollum/index.html
I am shocked to hear this. Just completely and utterly shocked!
:rolleyes: ;)
Not a shocker at all, is it?
But it is really sleazy how an "open mike" allows the media to "overhear" such comments, obviously not meant for public consumption.
No matter if it is Condi Rice or Nancy Pelosi, Dick Cheney or Ted Kennedy, such stuff used to be considered (and rightfully so, to me at least) off limits. What next? High-powered long-range mikes pointed at newsmaker's homes?
No wonder the Hannitys and his ilk have such a field day with skewering the "main stream media".
It seems to me anything she said while being interviewed is fair game. Anything she said while being prepped for the next chat should not have been listened to or recorded.
Nielsen Notebook
A&E Whacks the Competition With The Sopranos
By Anthony Crupi MediaWeek January 11, 2007
A&E clipped the competition Wednesday night with the basic-cable debut of The Sopranos, averaging 3.86 million total viewers and a 3.24 household rating from 9 p.m. to 11:11 p.m., making it the most-watched premiere of an off-net drama in cable history.
The telecast, which included the first two episodes from season one of David Chase’s mob masterpiece (“The Sopranos” and “46 Long”), also delivered 1.68 million adults 18-49 and 1.79 million adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research’s early national cable numbers for Jan. 10.
The first hour, which was presented with just two commercial breaks, averaged 4.27 million total viewers and a 3.55 HH rating, as well as 1.83 million adults 18-49 and 1.94 million adults 25-54.
Hour two of the premiere telecast delivered 3.45 million viewers and a 2.94 HH rating. The second episode also served up 1.53 million adults 18-49 and 1.63 million adults 25-54.
The second half of A&E’s premiere night was characterized by a more traditional spread of ad inventory, featuring four pods totaling 15 minutes and 15 seconds.
A&E’s research staff noted that The Sopranos debut night beat out Sex and the City’s June 15, 2004, premiere night on TBS by 3 percent in total viewers (3.86 million vs. SATC’s 3.74 million).
The network picked up the rights to the HBO hit in February 2005, shelling out a record $2.5 million for each of the series’ 86 episodes.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003531785
URFloorMatt
01-11-07, 05:30 PM
Not a shocker at all, is it?
But it is really sleazy how an "open mike" allows the media to "overhear" such comments, obviously not meant for public consumption.
No matter if it is Condi Rice or Nancy Pelosi, Dick Cheney or Ted Kennedy, such stuff used to be considered (and rightfully so, to me at least) off limits. What next? High-powered long-range mikes pointed at newsmaker's homes?
No wonder the Hannitys and his ilk have such a field day with skewering the "main stream media".
It seems to me anything she said while being interviewed is fair game. Anything she said while being prepped for the next chat should not have been listened to or recorded.
This was a subplot during an episode of The West Wing. If that episode was any indication, she should have been perfectly aware that the mic was hot.
I am shocked to hear this. Just completely and utterly shocked!
:rolleyes: ;)
:D I am shocked just completely and utterly shocked that archiguy commented on this news. :rolleyes: :D
No wonder the Hannitys and his ilk have such a field day with skewering the "main stream media" Apparently he’s not just right but correct too. :cool:
OK, I apologize for xcommenting on the original posting. Let's let it go, OK?
Washington Notebook
Dispatches from the Media Reform Front
From the BCBeat blog at Broadcastingcable.com January 11, 2007
Harold Feld, senior VP, Media Access Project, reports from the run-up to the media reform conference in Memphis in the following guest blog:
Commissioner Adelstein had warm words for the academic community willing to contribute to the FCC media ownership debate, but harsh words of criticism for how the FCC currently uses research to make its decisions.
At a keynote address at the academic “Pre-Conference” at the Memphis Convention Center co-sponsored by Free Press and the Social Sciences Research Center the day before the Free Press National Conference on Media Reform, Adelstein urged activists and academics to work together to bring the “inconvenient truth” about the impacts of consolidation to the FCC and Congress. He harshly criticized the current Commission for engaging in “faith based regulation,” accusing the Commission of writing “advocacy pieces” rather than engaging in “fact based” research and analysis.
Adestein described a world in which, since the Reagan administration, the FCC has virtually eliminated industry reporting requirements and instead relies on “academic hired guns” and a vast “PR machine” to persuade policymakers. For their part, policymakers at the FCC have proven “complicit,” accepting the corporate research and framing of the ownership debate without question.
The result, said Adelstein, is an “expert agency starved for data” about the industry it regulates. As a result, FCC research and reports are either devoid of real analysis or actively push the agenda of industry at the expense of the public.
Adelstein singled out the research supporting the recent FCC Order preempting local franchising authorities and the media ownership studies announced by the FCC as prime examples of “faith based policymaking.” Adelstein complained that he had repeatedly asked staff for real world examples of franchising abuses, but they offered none. Instead the majority “trusted the word of big corporations rather than of the public or their elected officials.”
Adelstein also criticized the Commission for outsourcing 7 of the ten media studies to researchers who, with the exception of Professor Allen Hammond, had no background in media issues. He complained that he had received no notification before the public notice on the studies was issued and no explanation for how the Commission had selected the researchers. He urged the assembled activists and academics to push for “real peer review” of the studies before release, saying the FCC is considering how to conduct peer review of the papers.
At the same time, despite this “depressing picture,” Adelstein found cause for hope. He applauded what activist and academics had already done to “awaken the sleeping giant” of the American public on this issue. Further, with the change brought about by the ;ast election, Adelstein expects Congress to be “more open” to “fact based, reality based” research on the impacts of media ownership.
But to triumph over the huge resources and special access media and telecom corporations enjoy, activists and academics would need to work together in a coordinated and politically strategic fashion. While a difficult challenge, Adelstein expressed confidence in the people gathered at the conference to succeed:
“This much brain power should make the media conglomerates shake in their boots.” Said Adelstein.
In response to a question from the audience, Adelstein reported that staff complained of being “squeezed” and unable to participate fully in debates because political pressure at the FCC suppressed views contrary to those of industry.
Adelstein also promised, in response to a different question, that he and Commissioner Copps would hold public hearings on cable public access (PEG), specifically on the impact of state franchising and the FCC’s recent action, and what the FCC can do to strengthen public access.
http://broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138.html
Television Critics Winter Tour Notebook
Why Reporters Love Locklear
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News in her blog January 11, 2007
Oh, that Heather Locklear.
She's here for a Lifetime panel on a series of movies the network's launching later this month based on novels by Nora Roberts.
Heather's starring in "Angels Fall," and another actor on the panel, John Corbett, is one of the stars of "Montana Sky." We'd been at it for several minutes and no one had yet asked Locklear a personal question, but she'd come, as she usually does, prepared to play.
And so when Corbett's co-star, Ashley Williams, described him as a "rock star" -- a reference to his music career -- Locklear leaned forward and said, "I didn't know you were a rock star" in what might be described as a suggestive tone.
Which opened the door, naturally, to a question about how the actress, who's going through a divorce from rocker Richie Sambora, is doing.
"Today, I'm good," she said. "Don't I look good?"
Told that the question was a response to some of her own remarks, she said, "Oh, s---, I should keep my mouth shut. I'm just trying to lighten" the mood before the questions she expected to field after the press conference.
"I'm single. I still like rock stars, and like any man is good for me," she said, adding, "Not married men."
http://blogs.phillynews.com/dailynews/ellengray/
TV Notebook
Laura Innes Reveals Why She's Leaving the ER
by Ileane Rudolph TV Guide January 11, 2007
It's goodbye to the last remaining — well, almost — original ER cast member. Tonight Kerry Weaver hangs up her scrubs and leaves Chicago's County General for warmer climes (Florida) to deliver medical news for a prestigious TV station.
Laura Innes, who has played the irascibly endearing doc for 11 and a half seasons, gives us the dish on why she needs an abrupt exit, her years on the long-running hit show, and what she's up to next.
TVGuide.com: Say it ain't so! After nearly 12 years, Dr. Kerry Weaver's leaving County General for good?
Laura Innes: Yeah. There's some talk of her coming back a little bit next year, but we'll see.
TVGuide.com: In what way?
Innes: There's an idea about integrating her new job on the medical show into a story line. Part of that thinking had to do with the fact that next year would probably be ER's last year, but the show's doing so well, I don't know what's going to happen.
TVGuide.com: The producers kept your departure awfully quiet. Everyone went, 'What?" when Weaver was fired. Why so under-the-radar?
Innes: We decided to just have it be a surprise. It may not have been a smart decision, but it was good storytelling — making it happen the way it might in real life.
TVGuide.com: It was left a little vague last week. My colleague's daughter, who's a major fan, said that after watching she thought that maybe you'd still be around in some way.
Innes: Nope. I'm in this week's show and have a couple more meaty goodbye scenes to wrap it up. I'm basically doing cleaning-out-my-locker kind of stuff. So one more [episode] for me, and as I said, there's talk about maybe a couple next year, but I [told them], "We'll see if that feels right."
TVGuide.com: Why are you leaving in the middle of the season?
Innes: There are other big stories happening and... Aaron Sorkin just walked in the room. I'm so sorry, I have to talk to my boss for a minute. [Innes calls back five minutes later.] I'm directing a Studio 60 episode for him.
TVGuide.com: Already moving on. Sounds like some other ER characters could be leaving at the end of the year?
Innes: That's a possibility. There are a lot of discussions with the actors about what they want to do. They felt, in case there does end up being another departure, that they wanted to wrap me up early.
TVGuide.com: How long has your departure been in the works?
Innes: About a year ago we talked about it. For the past couple of years, I've been doing half episodes, and I have a directing deal with [ER creator] John Wells. So I've been easing off the acting. This summer we talked about what was going to take place.
TVGuide.com: Whose idea was it for you to make your exit?
Innes: It was kind of mutual — one of those things where it just feels like you're running out of steam. It's awfully hard to leave this show, though, because it's such an incredible joy. But it seems like [it's] time, doesn't it? I just told them, "I don't want to be sick or die." I didn't want to send this message that this woman who had this history of disability and is gay — now we're going to kill her off. I said, "Let her have a happy end." So I'm happy about that.
TVGuide.com: Is that why Weaver had an operation and finally threw away her crutch?
Innes: It did feel like the character was shedding some of her hardness and moving on in her life.
TVGuide.com: You're not kidding. She gets a glam TV job and a gorgeous girlfriend to boot.
Innes: I know. Weaver must be so good in bed! All of her girlfriends are so hot. I definitely raised the bar in the lipstick-lesbian category.
TVGuide.com: Speaking of hot girlfriends, do you watch Elizabeth Mitchell, who played your first female lover, on Lost?
Innes: Isn't she great? You never know which way she's going to go. [Her character] is this creepy, beautiful lady.
TVGuide.com: Over the years, Weaver has been portrayed as abrasive, prickly, intensely ambitious and disloyal. Was playing a bitch fun?
Innes: I didn't see her so negatively, because if I did, I might have played her as an evil person. But I remember early on, being in a department store and hearing a woman say, "Oh, I just want to slap her!" That's when I realized this character is going to drive everybody crazy. She's the boss from hell, which was fun to play. But just at the point where you'd want to shoot her, they'd plop in poignant story lines where she'd show empathy, like when I signed with this deaf little girl.
TVGuide.com: Do you think it was brave of you to play her bitchy when she was also a role model for the disabled and lesbian communities?
Innes: [Laughs] A bitchy role model. But you know what? If I had to choose a doctor, it would be Weaver. Her bedside manner is sometimes lacking, but at least she'd save me.
TVGuide.com: Was there a real responsibility being that two-for-one role model?
Innes: For the disabled community, it was a mixed thing. To have somebody who's disabled be a very strong, capable person is great, but I'm not actually disabled, so it was this kind of back-and-forth. But I did always feel a responsibility. I said to the writers, "It's OK if I'm the hard-ass, but I hope you always show her being compassionate, because I represent this large group of people."
TVGuide.com: And then Weaver came out. How was the reaction?
Innes: It explained her avoidance of a personal life. That was my favorite story line. I feel that the producers and NBC didn't really get enough credit, because it was a big deal to have a main character on a mainstream show come out. Some viewers were not happy with that, and my friends said, "People will assume you're really gay." Everyone should get over it. A lot of people do think I'm gay. But for that character, what could have been more interesting to do?
TVGuide.com: You're a married mom of two. C'mon, aren't you sorry you never got to kiss George Clooney or Goran [Visnjic]?
Innes: How do you know I didn't?
TVGuide.com: Did they throw you a big party?
Innes: Yes. Everybody came. It was Dec. 6, my last day, after an emotional goodbye scene I had with Maura [Tierney, Abby], who has become a close friend in real life. They put together a reel of scenes and outtakes and because I'd been on the show so long, it was a long reel. They also gave me a framed copy of my very first call sheet. I was something like No. 47 on that — and the past two years, I've been No. 1. It's like I clawed my way to the top of the call sheet.
TVGuide.com: How Weaverish of you. So is it Laura Innes, director, from now on? You've directed ER, House and now Studio 60.
Innes: I'll definitely keep acting if anything interesting that's not like Kerry Weaver comes along, some hot old chick.... I won't wear a lab coat, and I never want to say, "Pass the CBC Chem 7" again. I would like to do some comedy. I love The Office.
TVGuide.com: There are so many former residents of ER out there. Do you ever hang out?
Innes: There are! We could start our own show — an alternative universe version of ER. I keep up with Julianna [Margulies] and Gloria [Reuben] and I see Tony [Edwards] once in a while.
TVGuide.com: Any last words to your fans of 11 and a half years?
Innes: I would just say, "Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching. I have had a blast."
http://tvguide.com/News-Views/Interviews-Features/Article/default.aspx?posting={9821887D-1FDE-46AE-B412-D6247FF1C1C9}
Television Critics Winter Tour Notebook
You're Paranoid, Dude
By Linda Haugsted MultiChannel News1/11/2007
The clunky, early Mario Bros.-like animation of upcoming G4 animation series Code Monkeys had more than one critic wondering whether creators of the cartoon sought, or needed, licensing agreements from game distributors such as Nintendo.
“Are you a cop?” retorted creator Adam de la Pena jokingly. “Legally, you have to tell me. I know the law.”
More seriously, he said the animators attempted to craft a look that’s an amalgam of games from Nintendo, Atari, etc. They are so conscious of possible rights infringement that the computers depicted in the show are from “Computers Inc.”
On a more politically incorrect note: The company boss in the show is a clueless Texan. Are Texans particularly lampoonable?
“Did you watch TV last night?” he retorted, before launching into an impression of President Bush’s awkward beginning to his Jan. 10 Iraq speech.
Match Made in Hospitality
Young-male-targeted G4 and The Block, a hotel targeting snowboarders in Lake Tahoe, Calif., seem to be a perfect demographic match. Highlights of the hotel: Visitors are greeted upon check in with a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, the official sponsor of the hotel. Room floors are beer-proofed. Rooms are themed, such as the Napster room, tied to the online download service. G4 will be branding a room, too, executives said. Instead of overstuffed upholstery in the lobby, the hotel at the Nevada-California state line has a pool table.
And if you’re a pro snowboarder, come on down. Owners let them stay free (normal weekend rates are about $190, compared with the $30-per-room hotels referred to by the local shuttle drivers as the riff-raff hotels). The “pros free” policy is so that the paying customers can hang out with their favorite shredders, the owners said.
Crabby Critics
If there’s one thing that’s universally irking writers, it’s the claim of each and every cable network that they have “achieved double-digit growth” in viewership, without actual ratings numbers to verify that claim. Writers note that 10 viewers growing to 20 is a 100% increase, too. The hero that puts actual ratings numbers with that claim will likely be praised for being forthcoming. The downside: The numbers will likely be derided as low compared to a broadcast network.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6406378.html?display=Breaking+News
TV Notebook
A mob hit for A&E
'Sopranos' attracts record audience for cabler
By John Dempsey Variety January 11, 2007
Even with all of the four-letter words taken out, "The Sopranos" scored more viewers in its rerun kickoff on A&E Wednesday than any other off-network-series premiere in the history of cable TV.
A&E marketed the "Sopranos" premiere as aggressively as the opening of a big-budget theatrical, and 4.3-million viewers tuned in to the kickoff. It was the highest-rated show on all of basic cable for the night among total viewers and the key adult demographics.
"We treated it like an event," said Bob DeBitetto, exec VP and general manager of A&E. Unlike most off-network series, which typically start off running once or twice a day, five days a week, "Sopranos" will play as two primetime episodes back to back Wednesday at 9, with one repeat of the episodes the following Monday, also at 9.
DeBitetto said A&E deliberately cut back on the number of 30-second spots for the premiere, so the first episode spilled only a few minutes over into the 10-o'clock slot. The usual spillover will be about 15 minutes, with a full commercial load. Most of the episodes ran longer than 50 minutes on HBO.
HBO will have produced 86 episodes counting the final batch HBO will play off starting in April. That makes afive-0day-per-week run tough.
A lot is riding on "Sopranos." A&E ponied up the record price of $2.5 million an episode, way ahead of second place "CSI: New York," which fetched $2 million per from Spike TV.
DeBitetto said most of the shows he's developing for A&E's first scripted series in more than five years fall into the category of crime and punishment. When the new series premieres in 2008, A&E will protect it by surrounding the rookie with episodes of "Sopranos" and "CSI: Miami," which will also be used as promotional vehicles for any scripted originals.
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117957213&categoryid=14
When looking at those numbers for "The Sopranos" remember a couple of things.
1. The first episode ran with very limited commercial interruptions.
2. The first episode ran against the Iraq speech by President Bush -- carried by all four networks.
3. The second hour, with a normal commercial load, lost about 20% of the audience from the 9 PM premiere.
Last night provided great initial ratings for A&E, but let's see how they hold up in the coming weeks.
dad1153
01-11-07, 07:08 PM
Any news on how the second episode of Dirt did ratingswise last Tuesday? We all know premieres rank high (remember the 13 million that sampled the premiere of Studio 60 last year?) but its the 2nd, 3rd and subsequent episodes that tell the tale.
dad1153
01-11-07, 07:18 PM
The headline might suggest sleaze but Battlestar Galactica fans will want to read this story regardless.
TV Notebook
Battle-Skin Galactica
Star Poses for Six-y Nudes
By Don Kaplan, New York Post - January 11, 2007
Helfer plays an evil machine on "Battlestar Galactica," but the sexy Cylon may cause her fans to short-circuit when they see the latest edition of Playboy.
"I hope people like them," Helfer told The Post of her 10-page nude pictorial shot by famed shutterbug Sante D'Orazio. "I know I do."
On "Battlestar," Helfer plays Number Six, a blonde- bombshell member of a race of machines called Cylons, who are bent on pursuing and annihilating the human race. New episodes of the popular SCI FI channel show's third season begin on Jan. 21 at 10 p.m.
The part, for which she originally dyed her hair peroxide blonde, caused her hair "to fall out in clumps," she says. "So now I just wear a wig"
Helfer says that recently her character has begun to question her loyalty to the machines. "In the second half of the season we start to see a bit of a break with my Number Six," says Helfer. "She's at a crossroads and kind of feels that she's not quite part of the Cylons anymore but doesn't know if the humans will accept her."
"Galactica" is a high-concept re-imagining of what was a cheesy, but beloved 1970s space show and stars two Oscar nomi nees, Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell.
In just a few short years, the new version has become one of the most talked-about series on TV, mainly for it's ability to tackle controversial current issues, such as terrorism, war and politics skillfully disguised as science fiction.
Helfer says that while the cast is aware of how impactful "Galactica" has become, the true message behind each episode is usually not clear until they get to watch the finished product. "It's something that we're all proud of," she says.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01112007/tv/battle_skin_galactica_tv_don_kaplan.htm
Any news on how the second episode of Dirt did ratingswise last Tuesday? We all know premieres rank high (remember the 13 million that sampled the premiere of Studio 60 last year?) but its the 2nd, 3rd and subsequent episodes that tell the tale.
2.4 million for episode # 2. (The premiere did 3.7 million.)
TV Notebook
"Sopranos'' score a hit for A&E
"Sopranos'' score a hit for A&E
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog Thursday, January 11, 2007
Those big sighs of relief you may have heard earlier today were coming from the executive suits at cable's A&E.
Last night's first repeat of "The Sopranos'' on A&E drew a very snappy 4.3 million viewers, just the kind of big audience the channel had been hoping for when it agreed to pay $2.5 million per episode to reshow the HBO mob drama on basic cable. It was a far bigger viewership than A&E normally gets in primetime and made A&E the most-watched cable channel for the night.
Viewers were apparently not put off by the fact that the show had been edited (for language, nudity, etc.) so it could be shown on basic. (The folks at home weren't put off by the cuts made to "Sex and the City'' by TBS either so ...) I still prefer seeing the real deal but, hey, you can't argue with success.
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/charlie_mccollum/index.html
dad1153
01-11-07, 07:23 PM
TV Review
Cherish the glory that is ”Rome”
By Mark A. Perigard, Boston Herald - January 11, 2007
“Rome” Season premiere Sunday night at 9 on HBO.
Grade: A-
Julius Caesar lies dead in a pool of blood and assassins chase Mark Antony (James Purefoy) as the second season of HBO’s bloody good “Rome” opens at 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Picking up just seconds from the 2005 finale, “Rome” finds a city ablaze with intrigue and knives at every throat.
A grief-stricken Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) cradles the body of his wife, Niobe, and turns his rage on his children.
“By all the gods below, I curse you to damnation,” he says.
Unfortunately, the gods are listening. Vorenus comes to rue his hasty words.
Judging from the first four episodes available for review, the second season of “Rome” is as much about a nation searching for its soul as one man struggling for his sanity.
Vorenus is mad with grief, and his rage will plunge him into the most dangerous parts of Roman society.
Meanwhile, Mark Antony wants to flee the city with Atia (Polly Walker) and her family until he can gather an army and take his revenge on his enemies. “I shall piss on them as they die,” he vows.
But Caesar’s will names Octavian (Max Pirkis) as his heir and legal son, and that changes the political dynamic. Mark Antony finds a good reason to breeze right into Brutus’ (Tobias Menzies) den of killers.
As “Rome” demonstrated in its first season, politics starts with the very personal, and Mark Antony’s condescension toward Octavian sowsthe seeds for a military conflict that will cost Rome thousands of its sons.
One thing “Rome” does unlike any other series is showcase violence in all its brutality. There’s precious little Hollywood staginess. Next week, Marc Antony and Octavian’s bickering explodes into a brawl.
In the Jan. 21 episode, Pullo and Vorenus turn on each other with a force that literally brings the house down around them.
Atia and Servilia (Lindsay Duncan) pick up their rivalry, at times simply biting, at other times bloodthirsty. Pity the servants who work for these two. The job description doesn’t include a long life.
While the original cast has returned, Pirkis has grown several inches and brings gravitas to his role of a teenager becoming the leader of men. His growth spurt makes the producers’ decision to recast the role in the fourth episode a mystery. The new actor, Simon Woods (“Pride and Prejudice”), has a similar physique and a CW teeny-bopper look to him.
“Rome” takes the time to incorporate the odd tics of character that define and make their players so relatable. Consider the start of lunkhead Titus Pullo’s (Ray Stevenson) proposal tonight to Eirene (Chiara Mastalli): “I know I didn’t get us started off on the right foot - killing your man and all . . .”
Unfortunately for viewers, this is the show’s final season. Citing production costs, HBO has canceled the series. Cherish every moment of the glory that is “Rome” while you can.
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/tvNews/view.bg?articleid=176599
Television Critics Winter Tour Notebook
Heather Locklear, always welcome
By Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic TV Critic in his Critic’s Tour blog
PASADENA, Calif. -- The Lifetime network -- not just for women anymore?
Hmm. Maybe I'll have to start watching.
Kidding, kidding, haha. I have to watch. The switch in gender targets is just what some people said during panels for the network's shows. Of course, not long after, the network put on a panel for four women-in-peril movies based on Nora Roberts books.
"I don't know if a lot of men watch the Lifetime channel," John Corbett, who stars in one of the films, said, no doubt thrilling the network executives in the room. "Raise your hand if you watch the Lifetime channel. Be honest."
Not a lot of hands went up. Probably too busy typing.
After all, Heather Locklear was here, and any time there is a tabloid staple, ears perk up and fingers fly. She's been to the TV tour a million times, knows the game and is suitably hilarious.
For instance, Corbett's music career came up.
Locklear sat up and said, "I never knew you were a rock star, but right on!"
Much laughter. Locklear, as you know if you glance at the fine publications at the supermarket checkout line, has quite a history with rock stars. She was married to Motley Crue's Tommy Lee, then to Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora, who, if you can believe these things, now dates Denise Richards, who was married to Charlie Sheen and was -- WAS -- friends with Locklear. Whew. Complicated, and not quite so funny once you explain it.
Someone asked how she was doing. Good, she said, cracking a couple of jokes about it, before deciding, "Oh (expletive), I should just keep my mouth shut."
Then, ignoring her own advice: "I'm single. I still like rock stars. Any man is good for me."
And much, much more. She even tossed in a line or two I can't repeat here.
Good sport, her. Need more panelists like her. Come back anytime.
http://www.azcentral.com/blogs/index.php?blog=5&blogtype=Entertainment
dad1153
01-11-07, 07:32 PM
2.4 million for episode # 2 [of Dirt]. (The premiere did 3.7 million.)
Source?
(Sorry I missed this yesterday. But it still puts things a bit in perspective, and is a fun read.)
Television Critics Winter Tour Notebook
We all say dumb things
By Scott D. Pierce (Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News
PASADENA, Calif. — As another Television Critics Association press tour gets going, let's take a quick look back at some of the things network executives said at the last one, six months ago.
• "Fox does an outstanding job from January through August. We're pretty much a dominant network. For us, the whole ball of wax is really about improving our fourth quarter," said Fox Entertainment president Peter Liguori.
Fox did worse in the fourth quarter of 2006 than it did in 2005. The only one of six new series that's still on the air ("'Til Death") is bombing in the ratings.
• "There's no other show like that on the air, and I think that show has a real chance to pop," NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly said of the sitcom "Twenty Good Years."
That "pop" was a bomb. Four episodes of this dreadful show aired before Reilly yanked it off the air.
• "I think the green has done a lot for us. ... People who see the green everywhere have said that it really stands out. And marketing, and depending on the viewers who already love these shows, is going to play a big part in bringing in the viewers to the new network," said CW Entertainment president Dawn Ostroff.
Despite all the green and all the marketing, ratings for the network — a combination of UPN and The WB — have been disappointing at best.
• CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler gets points for being right when everyone (including most of us TV critics) thought she was wrong. But she certainly wishes she'd been less right about what would happen when ABC moved "Grey's Anatomy" opposite "CSI."
"Who would have thought that "CSI" would be the underdog? We expect to be dinged a bit by 'Grey's,"' Tassler said.
To the surprise of most, "Grey's" has indeed gotten the better of its competition, making ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson sound a little silly:
"In terms of 'CSI,' I heard Nina was playing the rope-a-dope. It's kind of funny. I mean, 'CSI' and CBS have dominated that night, so I think they are the champions without question," McPherson said.
Of course, television executives aren't the only people who get it wrong:
• "This could end up being the 'Friends' of the 21st century." DesMoNews television editor Scott D. Pierce wrote of the CBS sitcom "The Class."
Ratings haven't been good, and the network cut back its order from 22 episodes to 19.
• "'Studio 60' is a show that has the seemingly impossible task of living up to the lofty expectations NBC (and critics) are creating for it. And yet it does," Pierce wrote.
Well, it's a good show. But not a great one.
• "ABC would seem to have legitimate reasons for not showing us the 'Brothers & Sisters' pilot — what with the recasting and reshooting. But in the past 16 years, no series that wasn't shown to critics before or during press tour has ever succeeded," Pierce wrote.
The show is doing rather well in the ratings and has been renewed through the end of the season.
I'm willing to admit my mistakes. I followed that up by writing that "'Brothers & Sisters' is a whole lot better than I thought it was going to be." And "'Brothers & Sisters' has turned out to be one of the best new shows in a season with a lot of good new shows."
We'll see how many mistakes network executives own up to over the next couple of weeks.
http://www.desnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650221368,00.html
VisionOn
01-11-07, 07:40 PM
TV Review
Cherish the glory that is ”Rome”
By Mark A. Perigard, Boston Herald - January 11, 2007
“Rome” Season premiere Sunday night at 9 on HBO.
Grade: A-
One thing “Rome” does unlike any other series is showcase violence in all its brutality. There’s precious little Hollywood staginess. Next week, Marc Antony and Octavian’s bickering explodes into a brawl.
so Perigard has obviously not seen Deadwood ... or Oz for that matter.
dad1153
01-11-07, 07:41 PM
TV Review
”Extras” worth the effort
By Mark A. Perigard, Boston Herald - January 11, 2007
“Extras” Season premiere Sunday night at 10pm on HBO.
Grade: B+
Can a starving artist achieve success without selling out?
On HBO’s “Extras” (returning Sunday at 10 p.m.), that’s a joke within a joke. Creator and star Ricky Gervais returns to skewer the industry that made him famous.
In the opener, Gervais’ long-suffering day player, Andy Millman, finally has a BBC sitcom, “When the Whistle Blows,” in production. He even has a supporting role in his own show. The BBC, however, wants to cheapen the comedy and play to the largest - that is, doltish - crowd possible.
The wardrobe department insists on plopping a curly wig and big glasses on Andy’s head. The director wants him to mug for the camera as if he were brain-damaged.
The best part of “Extras” is watching the big guest stars send up their images.
In the night’s best story, fellow extra Ashley (Maggie Jacobs) ends up on the set of Orlando Bloom’s latest film and drives him crazy with her lack of interest.
Regarding his fawning fans, she says, “If you were the prop boy, you’d just get ignored.” Bloom can’t believe she’d fancy his “Pirates of the Caribbean” co-star Johnny Depp, and goes to great lengths to convince her he’s beautiful.
Next week, Andy’s brief foray back and forth into a club’s exclusive VIP area takes a humiliating turn when guest David Bowie composes a song about him that includes the lyrics, “Little fat man who sold his soul . . . they all just wish he’d die.”
Some of the topical references in this HBO/BBC production don’t translate on this side of the Atlantic, but “Extras” is always good for a plus-sized look at egos checked and balanced by showbiz’s merciless grind.
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/tvNews/view.bg?articleid=176600
TV Notebook
'Ugly Betty' reflects America
"Sopranos'' score a hit for A&E
By Terry Morrow Scripps Howard News Service Thursday, January 11, 2007
Like her character in "Ugly Betty," America Ferrera is working her imperfections.
"The easiest way for me to come to terms with who I am is to broadcast all my flaws," says the 22-year-old actress, whose film credits include "Real Women Have Curves."
"Some of them I can change. Some of them I can't."
To look at her, it's hard to believe Ferrera and her TV alter-ego, Betty Suarez, are the same person. Ferrera is well-spoken, slender and confident. Betty, on the other hand, is dumpy and clumsy, if well-meaning.
But Ferrera says she and Betty are cut from the same cloth.
"Approaching the role from a very personal way is the only way to do it," she says. "To relive those moments that are very embarrassing and very isolating and very cold are, in a big way, heartbreaking.
"To make those moments real for myself, of course, I have to draw from my life."
When she was growing up in the San Fernando Valley, Ferrera says, her family's income was "meager," but her childhood was nonetheless "amazing." She is the youngest of six children raised by a single mother.
"There was so much love and so much attention placed on what we did have," she says. "By no means did we have it easy."
Her mother worked as an executive at a hotel. Ferrera was a self-proclaimed "ham" who loved to entertain family and friends. By age 7, Ferrera knew she wanted to be an actress.
"I always grabbed the video camera or a tape recorder and sat with my friends for hours, making up radio shows," she says.
Her first major role was in a Disney Channel movie called "Gotta Kick It Up," a cheerleading dance movie.
"I played the best friend to the main character, but I never saw myself playing those 'best friend' characters," she says. "I always saw myself doing something more."
Hollywood, with its typecasting ways, isn't always forgiving for women who aren't the idea of perfection. Ferrera, though, wanted to break out of that before it cursed her career.
At 17, she decided more opportunities would come through independent films. "Real Women Have Curves," a coming-of-age comedy, set the tone for her career so far.
When actress Salma Hayek was developing "Ugly Betty" for American audiences, she was familiar with Ferrera and sought her out.
"Ugly Betty" is based on the telenovela that was a hit worldwide before coming to the States. When it premiered here in September, "Ugly Betty" came on the upscale heels of "The Devil Wears Prada."
Ferrera says the universality of "Ugly Betty" is why audiences have taken to it so. "If you ask anyone if they have ever felt ugly and they say they haven't, they are lying," she says. "One of the things our show addresses is the ridiculous standards the entertainment industry has."
The same media that Ferrera condemns for their unrealistic standards of beauty also attacked the show early on. The title "Ugly Betty" was considered sexist by many critics.
"The title 'Ugly Betty' is really ironic," she says. "It's not about how she perceives herself or even how the audience is supposed to perceive her. It's about the irony."
The beauty of the story is in Betty's determination.
"She doesn't even see herself the way other people see her," Ferrera says. "The painful thing is that people can't see past that. They won't listen to her. They won't listen to her words. To her, that's a shame. The beautiful part about Betty is that she forgives. She forgives so much. She forgives people who don't deserve her forgiveness."
There's no denying, though, that "Ugly Betty" has harsh undertones to its story. Betty may have found her big break in publishing, but it comes at her own expense. Her co-workers are often cruel and make her life miserable.
In some ways, though, they feed into what Betty thinks of herself.
"What she wears and how she walks is all very much an act," Ferrera says.
"It's a safety net for her. When you're afraid of the world, you find something to hide behind."
That darkness will remain as a key element to the story. So don't expect to see Betty lose the gaudy clothes and tacky braces soon.
"Everybody wants to see Betty change into this beautiful swan to complete the story," Ferrera says. "But the real story is how we will see Betty change inward, and how that will affect the way she will look on the outside."
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNjcmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cW VlRUV5eTcwNTQ2ODkmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3
Source?
Marc Berman's PI blog.
http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/63310451/m/11110272/p/7
dad1153
01-11-07, 07:50 PM
TV Notebook
‘Philadelphia’ producers/stars say it’s always sunny at FX
By Rick Kushman, Sacramento Bee - January 11, 2007
This is not a news flash: traditional TV sitcoms are struggling. And if this were a traditional sitcom, a precocious preteen would have had a snappy little put-down for me for even saying that.
This is a big part of the problem. We always know what’s coming, and that’s why the new generation of TV comedies, the un-sitcoms like NBC’s “The Office” and “My Name is Earl,” HBO’s “Entourage,” or almost anything on Comedy Central, are connecting. In big part, it’s because they’re fresh.
“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” a cheeky, shameless little comedy returning to FX this summer, is a good example of that new TV wave, and the producers/stars were here this week, talking about how TV comedy may be changing.
“Always Sunny” is written and produced by its stars, and it’s been given some room by FX to experiment, and to be shameless. And the foundation of any good comedy, or any good show, period, is to find creators with a strong idea, and let them run with it.
“Humor by committee (standard sitcoms usually get written by a group) doesn’t necessarily work,” said Charlie Day, one of the producer/stars. “The FX guys give us a lot of liberty and a lot of trust, and they’re letting three basically unknown, unproven guys produce a show and just put it out there. They’ll steer us in the right direction a lot of times, but they trust our humor.”
Rob McElhenney, another producer/star of the show, says a lot of networks want shows to fit a style or demographic and force a worn-out, or an out-of-sync approach, on comedy writers.
“I have a lot of writer friends who are really talented and a lot funnier than I am, who work on a lot of those (not-so-funny) shows. And they say they wind up being dictated to what they can and can’t actually do or show,” McElhenney said.
“We also trust our audiences,” Day said. “I feel like a lot of shows don’t do that, especially comedies where they spend a lot of time telegraphing the jokes, saying let’s make sure our audience gets the joke. A lot of times, we’ll just sort of point the camera at the action and say, you know what? The audience is smart enough to find what’s funny about this.”
So, their biggest argument is that it comes down to finding good people and letting them do their jobs — like in pretty much anything.
“There are people out there trying to push the envelope in a lot of different ways, and those are the funny shows and some are on the big networks, too,” McElhenney said.
“I feel like those shows probably have a really strong, creative show runner that the network is trusting,” Day said. “So maybe this is the direction that comedy’s heading.”
http://www.sacbee.com/127/story/105893.html
dad1153
01-11-07, 07:51 PM
TV Review
Back-to-Back Jack
Scariest '24' Yet, So Damn Real
By Adam Buckman, New York Post - January 11, 2007
"24" - Sunday and Monday nights at 8 on Fox
Rating: Four Stars (Out of Four)
Have you ever stop to think what would happen if even superman Jack Bauer couldn't save us from the terrorists?
You'd get a situation something like the one that unfolds this weekend on the season premiere of "24": An entire nation under continuous attack by suicide bombers, transforming our cities into American Baghdads.
It's a scenario more nightmarish than any we've seen before on "24" because it feels so real.
The attacks - on buses, on subways and in shopping malls in cities including Chicago, San Antonio, Baltimore and L.A. - are the ones we've all been bracing for in real life, whether we admit it to ourselves or not.
As the sixth season of "24" begins, we learn that the attacks have been underway for about 11 weeks in at least 10 cities.
There are simply too many of them for one counter-terrorist agent to prevent, no matter how skillful he might be.
Fortunately, though, the probable mastermind behind the attacks is located in Los Angeles, which happens to be Jack Bauer's home turf.
And once again, Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is the man the government is calling on to take out the ringleader, despite the fact that Jack has just spent nearly two years being tortured by the Chinese, during which time he did not utter a single word.
Then, suddenly, within 15 minutes or so after being dropped off by the Chinese - wearing a long, shaggy beard and shuffling like a near-catatonic POW - he's back barking orders into his cellphone and ranging all over L.A. in hot pursuit of a terrorist kingpin.
OK - so plausibility is not this show's strong suit. It never has been. This show is about suspense, action and violence. And, as a look at the show's first four hours reveals, all three have been taken up several notches in the series' sixth season.
Do you like your fingernails? Then I suggest you wear gloves. Otherwise, when watching this, you're liable to bite them right down to the quick.
In its depiction of sudden, blunt force, this show is like a clenched fist. In one scene, an escape is accomplished Hannibal Lecter-style, with a vicious bite to a captor's throat. In another scene, a hardened terrorist who refuses to talk has his tongue loosened with a kitchen knife driven straight through his knee.
Despite all the mayhem afflicted on various bad guys, it is Jack Bauer who, once again, is forced to endure more pain than 10 terrorists put together.
It makes you wonder how much this guy can take before he decides he's had enough.
In the new season of "24," Jack's pain threshold is higher than ever, and so are the stakes.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01112007/tv/back_to_back_jack_tv_adam_buckman.htm
dad1153
01-11-07, 07:59 PM
Television Critics Winter Tour Notebook
My day at ‘The Office’
By Gail Pennington, St. Louis Post-Dispatch - January 11, 2007
I’m saving a lot of the details from my set visit to “The Office” for a story I’m writing when I get back, but in short — very cool. I arranged this with the help of Phyllis Smith, who plays Phyllis and spends several months a year in St. Louis with her parents, and she really gave me a great tour.
We parked in Dunder-Mifflin employee parking, in Phyllis Lapin’s space, and went in just the way a visitor would. The office set is exactly the way it looks on TV, with usable desks and everybody’s personal stuff all around. They were shooting that day on the warehouse set, so the office was empty, but while I was there, Rainn Wilson (Dwight) came in and let me play with his bobblehead. We also went into Michael’s office and looked at the stuff on his desk.
Then we went to the warehouse and watched them rehearse; the episode they were shooting is about Bob Vance’s bachelor party. (Bob and Phyllis will get married during February sweeps.) I talked briefly with Steve Carell, who is not very tall but quite attractive when he’s just being himself.
Finally, we had lunch — very healthy stuff, fish and vegetables — with the cast and crew. We sat with Leslie David Baker, who plays Stanley and is one of Phyllis’ best friends. She showed me her trailer, a tiny space with a bathroom, microwave, little TV, etc., and then we met Paul Lieberstein, who plays Toby and is also a writer on the show. Then I came home. In all, I was over there a couple of hours.
We also have formal set visits to “Ugly Betty,” “Studio 60″ and “NCIS” coming up next week, and “lunch at CTU with Jack Bauer.”
http://www.stltoday.com/blogs/entertainment-tube-talk/2007/01/my-day-at-the-office/
It is funny how some of these critics seem more easily impressed than we viewers are.
"The office set is exactly the way it looks on TV..."
Yuh think?
dad1153
01-11-07, 08:06 PM
Television Critics Winter Tour Notebook
Where the Coffee's Free and the Girls Are Pretty
James Poniewozik's Time "Tuned In" Blog - January 11, 2007
PASADENA -- Oooh! I love bylines! Makes me feel all reporter-y!
People who say that being a TV critic involves nothing more than sitting on your can and pretending to care about TV shows don't know what they're talking about. Sometimes it involves sitting on your can and pretending to care about the people in TV shows. This week is the cable TV critics' winter press tour, where cable networks hold wall-to-wall press conferences about their winter and spring offerings. The assembled "critics" (which often as not are actually TV beat reporters or trade-magazine journalists) are plyed with free food, drinks, coffee, smoothies and such, in exchange which they pretend to be deeply engaged in, for instance, "High Maintenance 90210," the new E! reality show about a butler.
Currently, we're questioning the panel for "Paradise City," the Ryan Seacrest-produced E! reality show about Las Vegas business. (Yes, they do use the Guns 'n' Roses song, and no, I will not be able to get it out of my head for the next 4 days.) The compact here is for us to pretend to be interested in a Seacrest project other than American Idol, questions about which would be in poor form. (Questions about The Ryan Seacrest Show, even more so.)
Seacrest did graciously offer his opinion of being called "the devil" in a men's magazine profile: "I guess it's flattering." Beyond that, the assembled writers are doing a yeoman's job filling the awkward silences with questions. One asks a cast member if there's any benefit to doing the show beyond TV exposure.
There is no benefit greater than TV exposure, sir! Someone seize that man's press credentials!
http://time.blogs.com/tuned_in/2007/01/where_the_coffe.html
dad1153
01-11-07, 08:07 PM
It is funny how some of these critics seem more easily impressed than we viewers are.
"The office set is exactly the way it looks on TV..."
Yuh think?
Gail is going to pass out when she visits the "Studio 60" set next week on the Warner lot. Gosh, how I envy her! :D
CPanther95
01-11-07, 08:12 PM
It is funny how some of these critics seem more easily impressed than we viewers are.
"The office set is exactly the way it looks on TV..."
Yuh think?
Maybe he thought the desks and copier were CGI - and the forklifts were miniatures. :D
dad1153
01-11-07, 08:19 PM
TV Notebook
Just keep telling yourself: It's only a TV show...
Fox's "24" returns with reality-jarring action scenes and a story line that effectively mines current tensions
By Peter Ames Carlin, The Oregonian - January 10, 2007
Maybe the best news is that the most realistic show hitting the airwaves in the next few days is actually a fiction.
Because that show turns out to be Sunday's season premiere of Fox's cliffhanger thriller "24." And what it captures so vividly is how quickly fear can turn into paranoia and then, inevitably, into widespread hostility.
All the footage of buses exploding, of bloodied, dazed victims sprawled on city sidewalks, of the high-stakes debate between protecting the rights guaranteed in the nation's Constitution versus protecting the lives of its citizens.
It's all very authentic-seeming. So much so that it doesn't pull you to the edge of your seat so much as push you back into it, with increasing dread.
Relax. It's only "24," you know.
Just the start of a season chock-full of explosions, chases, shootouts and other typical action-movie beats. And though "24," among all action franchises, has shown the greatest willingness to surprise -- particularly when it comes to the sudden, shocking sacrifice of leading characters -- you can go into the sixth season already anticipating exactly how this dramatic roller coaster will climb, fall, twist and loop-de-loop its way through its 24 real-time episodes.
You'll love it or you won't. I tend to find it overwhelming, and not necessarily in a good way, either. Turns out that 24 straight hours of panic and mayhem aren't what I'm after vis-a-vis entertainment. But I also understand that your appetites may be quite different. And I've seen enough of "24" over the years to know that it offers high-level anxiety. And apart from the occasional bout of amnesia, near-fatal wounds (the effects of which dissipate in a matter of hours) and/or some howler lines of dialogue, it's a corker of an action show.
If only because it jump-starts its tick-boom-smash from the same currents of angst flowing through America's real consciousness. In this case, we're talking about that apparent conflict between freedom and safety.
This is evoked by a sudden rash of bombings that have erupted around the United States. No one has taken credit for the weeks-long terror campaign, but "evidence points to Islamic militants," we hear on a Fox News report (corporate synergy, that). People are freaking. Turning on each other, in fact. All of which inspires the White House factions eager to open detention facilities to fill with as many Islamic usual suspects as possible.
The action takes place two years after the end of last season's crisis. The new president, Wayne Palmer (whose ascension into his slain big brother's Oval Office makes real Bobby Kennedy's bullet-ridden ambitions of 39 years ago), is leery about repeating Franklin Roosevelt's notorious jailing of Japanese Americans during World War II. But his chief of staff disagrees, and you can probably imagine how this debate plays out.
It's not long before "24's" real hero, unkillable superspy Jack Bauer, is sprung from the Chinese prison in which he's been languishing amid much torture, only to be delivered into the hands of this year's chief villain, whose multipronged ambitions include making Bauer pay for killing his brother in the midst of torturing him.
That's only a small road map to the many hairpins and curlicues that lie at the start of"24's" new season.
This looks familiar
As surprises go, "24" is nearly as predictable as NBC's "Grease: You're the One That I Want." Sunday's premiere episode tracked the first set of open-call auditions for actor/singer/dancers eager to catapult to theatrical stardom as the leads in a coming Broadway revival of the hit musical "Grease."
Do I even have to mention how closely this follows the structure of Fox's smash talent show "American Idol"?
Certainly the fact that the judges were the show's actual writer (Jim Jacobs, who was shockingly mean), director (Kathleen Marshall) and producer (David Ian, whose insensitivity stems from a very real financial anxiety) makes things a bit more interesting. But not enough. Not nearly enough.
It's much easier to locate the perverse pleasures of CBS' "Armed and Famous," in which five relatively low-watt celebs serve as cadet officers in the real police department of Muncie, Ind.
Imagine the illegitimate offspring of "COPS" and "The Surreal Life," and you'll just about have it. But just try to imagine a 50-ish LaToya Jackson -- the breathy voice, the artificially constructed pixie nose, the near-complete detachment from quotidian life -- wielding handcuffs and an extremely large automatic pistol. And she does it! So does Erik Estrada, late of the "CHiPs" franchise; Jason "Wee Man" Acuna, the dervish-like little person on "Jackass"; a trimmed-down Jack "son of Ozzy" Osbourne; and Trish Stratus, a statuesque ex-wrestler.
The training exercises run quickly and surprisingly easily. Turns out Osbourne is a terrific shot and, like Stratus, a born authoritarian. Estrada recalls the style points he learned during his years on the "CHiPs" set, and Acuna just likes being the center of attention. Soon the gang is deputized, assigned real cop partners and sent out onto Muncie's real streets.
This is where "Armed & Famous" zigs suddenly for the compelling. Because once they're confronted with real danger, and real heartbreak, the celebs lose their customary gloss and turn back into real humans.
The climax of the premiere, in which Stratus comforts a sobbing family that has just lost everything in a house fire, is staggering. Not just for the awful wails of a grade-schooler who has just seen his home destroyed, but also for the immediate and apparently real human generosity Stratus and her partner show to the entire family.
http://www.oregonlive.com/living/oregonian/peter_carlin/index.ssf?/base/living/1168383367264610.xml&coll=7
dad1153
01-11-07, 08:24 PM
BTW, a new episode of Armed & Dangerous is airing tonight (8PM) right now on the East Coast. Just a heads-up to West Coast viewers that liked the Wednesday premiere and want to watch more of the same tonight.
dad1153
01-11-07, 08:34 PM
Fred really surprised me when he decided to cover the ongoing Trump-O'Donnell media feud by posting a couple of stories about it on this thread. I feel the topic was beneath this thread's standards and stayed away from it. But now that our fearless leader has set the path, here's today's Donald-Rosie update! :rolleyes:
TV Notebook
Rosie Future
Take That Trump! She May Revive Old Show
By Michael Starr, New York Post - January 11, 2007
Donald Trump's attacks on Rosie O'Donnell may have backfired - now she's talking about hosting her own talk show again.
Sources say O'Donnell, 44, has been talking to Telepictures about reviving "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" - the popular, Emmy-winning chat show that ran from 1996 to 2002.
The news came as O'Donnell and Barbara Walters looked like BFFs again on "The View" yesterday - high-fiving each other and dismissing as "pathetic" Trump's attempts to drive them apart.
In a letter to O'Donnell The Post printed yesterday, The Donald viciously accused Walters of talking behind O'Donnell's back and lying to her face.
According to Trump, Walters told him, "Donald, never get into the mud with pigs," and "Don't worry, she won't be here for long."
O'Donnell and Walters took the high road as the show opened.
"How about that, Barbara? You OK?" O'Donnell asked.
"I'm OK, darling," Walters said. "You OK?"
"I'm OK, too," O'Donnell said. "We both OK? What can you say about that guy?"
"That poor, pathetic man," Walters said sadly - and the two high-fived.
Then they hit him where he hurts most: they never mentioned him again.
Trump, naturally, issued a statement.
"Barbara has taken the low road for the sake of her show rather than the sake of her morality," he said. "She lied with [past co-host] Star Jones and now she has chosen to lie again.
"They didn't even have the courage to mention me by name," he said. "It was sad to see Barbara read her statement off a cue card. Rosie just pushed her out like a 'pathetic' puppet."
Trump's feud with O'Donnell started after she criticized his handling of the Miss USA coke- and-partying scandal. Trump, who's new version of "The Apprentice" is conveniently just hitting the air, took the opportunity to call her "fat" and "a loser."
O'Donnell's show for Telepictures, a division of Warner Bros., was extremely popular before its ratings faltered.
Ratings for "The View" spiked when Rosie joined in the fall.
O'Donnell made it clear last year that she had issues with "The View" not being "her show."
Her deal on "The View" expires in September.
"We are not talking to Rosie O'Donnell," a spokeswoman for Warner Bros. said yesterday.
"Rosie's contract is with ABC Daytime and we don't know what her future plans will be at this time," said O'Donnell's publicist, Cindi Berger.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01112007/news/nationalnews/rosie_future_nationalnews_michael_starr.htm
____________________________________________________________ _____
I was under the impression O'Donnell's show was doing fine when she decided to end it while it was still doing fine to spend more time with her adopted children. Is that line about her show's ratings being on the decline when she left true? I know we're talking about the New York Post here but even a broken clock strikes the right time twice a day.
dad1153
01-11-07, 08:40 PM
Television Critics Winter Tour Notebook
TV Press Tour, minus the news
David Kronke's Los Angeles Daily News Blog - January 11, 2007
Members of the Television Critics Association have been sitting through the MTV Networks' (Comedy Central, Spike, VH1, et al) session for the past two hours, and, naturally, some of it has been particularly excrutiating. (A reality show about washed-up boy-band members living together, anyone?)
So, nothing else to do except surf the web, and discover that something you might imagine might've come up as a news item at some point during these alleged "press conferences" -- the resignation of the COO of MTV Networks Michael Wolf -- yet somehow has gone mysterious unmentioned.
Honestly, did it not occur to them that this actuall might qualify as news, rather than shows about guys fighting each other ("The Ultimate Fighter") or driving recklessly ("Bullrun")?
Instead, we have Mark Burnett, who'll produce the MTV Movie Awards, discoursing on his "Apprentice" colleague Donald Trump on his feud with Rosie O'Donnell: "Do I have any control over him? Are you #%$@ing kidding me? ... It's quiet today, and I''m really kind of happy it's quiet."
Well, it's quiet, but during this MTV Networks session, for all the wrong reasons.
*UPDATE: Well, once again, it fell upon Your Mayor to pose the question: "It’s my understanding that news is supposed to disseminated during a press tour. Why have we been here for two and a half hours and no one has mentioned that MTV Networks COO Michael Wolf resigned today? And what can you tell us about the particulars of his resignation?"
Shockingly, MTV's Brian Graden dodged the question.
http://www.insidesocal.com/tv/2007/01/tv_press_tour_minus_the_news.html
dad1153
01-11-07, 08:42 PM
Marc Berman's PI blog.
http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/63310451/m/11110272/p/7
Wow, nice link. Lots of cool info to look at here, thanks! :)
dad1153
01-11-07, 08:46 PM
TV Review
“24” is back with a vengeance
By Mark A. Perigard, Boston Herald - January 11, 2007
“24” Season premiere Sunday at 8 p.m. on WFXT (Ch. 25).
Grade: A-
Suicide bombers are killing thousands across America.
New president Wayne Palmer (DB Woodside) is so powerless, he’s driven to negotiate with one terrorist to find another.
And after two years of captivity in a Chinese prison, counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) finally returns to American soil - where the government expects him to make the ultimate sacrifice.
The Emmy award-winning drama “24” returns for a sixth season on Sunday (on WFXT, Ch. 25), with another two-hour bloc airing Monday.
It’s network crack, pure and driven, and if you want to keep your dreams clear and free, go watch VH1. Those who welcome an addictive rush, be warned. “24” is back with a vengeance.
How to top last season’s nail-biter of a season? Judging from the first four episodes, the creative team has plucked our subconscious national insecurities for an arc that goes where no “24” has gone before.
Bauer’s greatest enemy this round isn’t another terrorist (though there are plenty of those around). It’s himself. After two years of torture (and some horrific scars), he no longer believes in himself.
The nation is on the verge of becoming an armed camp. One presidential adviser (Peter MacNicol), derided for treating the Constitution like a list of suggestions, urges the president to move forward with detention camps for Muslim Americans.
Unusual for “24,” there’s a lot of talk about civil liberties, but the exposition is at odds with the visuals.
While sympathetic characters decry a repeat of the policy that detained thousands of innocent Japanese Americans during World War II, we discover the new camps apparently hold terrorists.
One family’s attempt to protect a Muslim neighbor (a miscast Kal Penn, “Van Wilder 2”) turns into the ultimate suburban nightmare from hell. The most heroic Muslim in the first four episodes is a terrorist responsible for the deaths of thousands who has now pledged to join the political mainstream. His involvement ultimately costs Jack dearly, but if I say any more Fox will napalm my house.
Those familiar CTU folks are in place, but everyone seems a bit rusty at their jobs. Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub), tech girl turned hottie, almost blows one operation with some surreptitious satellite spying.
I can say this: Monday’s conclusion ends with Jack beaten by his own demons, devastated by the depths of his actions.
“I don’t know how to do this anymore,” he says at one point.
But that’s not the worst of it. What is worse is what Jack sees when he looks up into the sky.
The clock starts ticking again Sunday at 8 p.m.
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/tvNews/view.bg?articleid=176598
dad1153
01-11-07, 08:50 PM
Television Critics Winter Tour Notebook
Taking a Pasadena
Peter Ames Carlin's The Oregonian Blog - January 11, 2007
Welcome back to the business. And the show. And the endlessly scheduled, highly-organized fun that is so very extravagant you almost don't want to admit it - not to the folks at home, anyway. Because if they really knew what you were up to during your weeks-long stints down here there's just no way they'd let you get away with it.
This because it's hard to explain. Until you're here, smack in the middle of another TV Critics Association Press Tour, where business has the flash and glam of a show and every show is actually part of a business. A big business. No, a really big business.
Except never mind the man behind the curtain, because isn't that Sting standing over there by the espresso bar? Probably, yes. And don't even ask who he's standing with. You'd scream. I just did.
Actually I didn't. If only because Sting - and Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller and Ben E. King, I think, and more, music legends the lot of them - won't be here for another couple of days. Helping to promote shows that will soon appear not on CBS or MTV or even A&E, for God's sake, but on PBS. Who knew educational TV could be that glam?
Oh, but everything here is somehow bright and shiny, and/or loud and/or produced or part-owned by Jennifer Lopez (she's here right now!). Which is only impressive until you remember that Hollywood in general and the TV biz in particular are really factories like any other, stamping out products for consumption in the marketplace. And so all your favorite celebs? The actors, musicians, comedians, celebrities, stars and super-duper stars? Salespeople. With really nice skin, it's true, and an aggregate charm and sexiness that could eclipse the electrical grid in a mid-sized American city. But still.
And yet I'm happy to be back at another TCA press tour. It's fun, for one thing. But mostly fascinating to be neck-deep in the entertainment industry. To have such an up-close-and-personal perspective on the ways and means of modern American entertainment. Which, last time I checked, was dominating all media south of the planet Neptune. If you 're interested in pop culture, there's nowhere else to be in the next ten days.
I'm happier still to be covering the fun in a whole new way - blogging it, most immediately, and then distilling the most interesting of that stuff into newspaper columns. What results will be more fractal than the usual essay-style pieces I produce. But more immediate. More vivid. And just jam-packed full of fun.
The real blogging starts tomorrow. I'm just warming up now. So watch this space.
http://petercarlin.blogs.oregonlive.com/default.asp?item=428942
dad1153
01-11-07, 08:58 PM
TV on DVD
'Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series'
By Larry Roberts, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - January 11, 2007
RATING: Three Stars (Out of Four)
When the long-running "Doctor Who" left the BBC airwaves in 1989, it wasn't really the end for the Doctor, who continued to appear in books and radio programs marketed on compact discs. The Doctor had also gained a foothold in the United States, where PBS stations broadcast the campy series, complete with cardboard sets and a history that had seen the title figure regenerate (fresh appearance, different actor) seven times.
Even in the face of an ill-fated network TV movie made in the United States, highlighted by yet an eighth regeneration, the BBC launched an entirely new series, this time with modern production techniques. With Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as his companion Rose Tyler, the first season was a solid hit in the U.K. before landing on the Sci Fi Channel last year.
The second season brings a new face for the Doctor, now played by David Tennant, and a wonderful series of adventures. Tennant is one of the most exhilarating and exuberant actors to take on the role of the Time Lord, and his energy leaves his associates and the viewer breathless as he confronts old enemies like the Cybermen and runs headlong into a traveling companion from the years of the third (John Pertwee) and fourth (Tom Baker) Doctors.
What is compelling about the series and its new six-DVD package set, "Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series" ($99.98; BBC Warner) is that it is edgy television that is not dependent on the earlier broadcasts. For aficionados, what's remarkable about the second season is the emotional entanglements and the rise of passions, which never seemed to involve the impassive Time Lord over the years.
The cherry on this earthly sundae are the special features, including video diaries by Piper and Tennant, a view of the technical construction of the stories and special effects, truly funny outtakes, deleted scenes and a detailed look at the Eccleston Doctor becoming the Tennant Doctor -- creating a bridge between the first and second series.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07011/752729-237.stm
dad1153
01-11-07, 09:00 PM
Television Critics Winter Tour Notebook
ESPN: Not Playing Hardball Anymore
James Poniewozik's Time "Tuned In" Blog - January 11, 2007
ESPN's presentations--the funny promotional ads, the energy, the explosive graphics--are almost enough to make me wish I actually cared about sports. Even the opening panel in ESPN's morning, about NASCAR--which I should have identified with having survived the slog up the 110 to Pasadena list night--didn't quite do the trick for me, however. Broadcasting legend Brent Musberger, on stage for the panel, marvelled at the number of laptops he saw in the audience. I hope he will take no personal offense to learn that I was using mine, at least part of the time, to check stock quotes.
I do care about TV series, though, so I was eager to see clips from the summer miniseries, The Bronx Is Burning, based on the Jonathan Mahler book about how the 1977 New York Yankees became a shining light for a city suffering through a blackout and the Son of Sam killings. The series looks promising, with John Turturro as manager Billy Martin, Oliver Platt as George Steinbrenner (he may finally have found a part he can't overact) and Daniel Sunjata of Rescue Me as Reggie Jackson. (Only Sunjata showed up for the panel.)
But I was surprised to see ESPN describing The Bronx Is Burning as the network's "most ambitious" scripted show ever. I think most critics would consider that title to belong to Playmakers--the outstanding, scathing pro-football series a few years back that critics loved, audiences watched, and ESPN cancelled--essentially, because the NFL hated its portrayal of steroid and drug use. Since most of the (mostly male) TV writers in the room actually seemed to know something about sports and asked questions involving points of baseball history, I took it on myself to ask the party-pooping question: were Bronx (and Ruffian, an inspirational horse-racing movie coming up) indications that ESPN's scripted shows had to be more positive about the sports they covered, post-Playmakers?
To his credit, ESPN senior VP Ron Semiao gave me a straight answer: Yes. "Playmakers was a work of fiction," he said, "and it upset a very important rights-holder." I was surprised, having spent years hearing TV execs weasel out off questions like this. But maybe they just prefer their straight talk in the sports world; or, maybe in the sports world, where there's a more collusive relationship between the networks and the leagues they cover, there's just not as much shame in rolling over to appease a big partner.
Either way, kudos for ESPN for being unafraid to tell the ugly truth. Except on, you know, the actual shows.
http://time.blogs.com/tuned_in/2007/01/espns_presentat.html
dad1153
01-11-07, 09:07 PM
TV Notebook
Success at 'Office' leads to rewarding work
By David Bianculli, New York Daily News - January 11, 2007
When Ricky Gervais starred as office manager David Brent in the British version of "The Office," he and co-creator Stephen Merchant wrote 12 episodes over two seasons, a holiday special, and then pulled the plug.
They plan the same finite run for "Extras," which stars them both, and which begins its second season of six episodes Sunday night at 10 on HBO.
"You've got to give it your best shot, and get in and out," Gervais told the Daily News. "You've got to jab and move.
"I don't know if I can brag about the body of work because I have only done 15 hours of TV," he added. "But what I can be proud of is the batting average. I knew the batting average would be higher if I didn't do as much."
The NBC version, for which Gervais is one of the executive producers, has a tougher go of it. The BBC "Office" came from nowhere and got out after 12 episodes and a special. The American version, starring Steve Carell as the office manager, already has logged 40 episodes.
"The more they left us behind, the better they got," Gervais said of the U.S. variant.
"Even when the ratings weren't too good, they stuck to their guns," he said. "Every other remake [of a British show] I've heard of was canceled after episode three - and NBC didn't do that."
"Extras," too, has grown as it has continued. Last season, Gervais' Andy Millman was a struggling film and TV extra trying to land a speaking role. This season, he has gotten what he wished for, and is starring in the production of a sitcom he wrote himself - but it's being diluted and rewritten to the point where he's miserable.
Guests this year, playing exaggerated versions of themselves, include Orlando Bloom, Daniel Radcliffe, and David Bowie, who hears of Andy's sad plight and writes a blistering song about him. In real life, Gervais wrote the proposed lyrics and sent them to Bowie, who agreed to appear on "Extras" and come up with a suitable tune to play on the piano.
"I spoke to David on the phone," Gervais said, explaining he suggested Bowie write something "anthemic" like "Life on Mars."
"And he went, 'Oh, sure, I'll just knock off a "Life on Mars" for you.' And what he came up with was perfect. We wanted uber-Bowie ... and he did that."
And in mounting an intentionally bad sitcom within the good comedy that is "Extras," Gervais and Merchant get to indulge in another pet passion: the stunning absurdity of unfunny sitcoms with loud laugh tracks, their favorite example of which is "The Flintstones."
"It's incredible," Gervais said. "It's a cartoon of cavemen. Where is the audience? And the strange thing is, me and Steven are obsessed with it ... because Fred gets bigger laughs than Barney."
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/story/487714p-410669c.html
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TV Review
An 'Extras' special show
By David Bianculli, New York Daily News - January 11, 2007
"Extras" Sunday, 10 p.m., HBO.
Rating: Four Stars (Out of Four)
One scene from the new season of "Extras," the HBO comedy series starring Ricky Gervais as an actor-writer trying to make it in show business, is already in heavy rotation on Youtube.com - and deservedly so.
In the series, returning Sunday night at 10, Gervais' Andy Millman has tasted just enough success, in a featured role on a BBC sitcom he wrote himself, to talk his way into a club's cordoned-off VIP area. There, he strikes up a conversation with David Bowie.
Bowie listens to Andy's heartfelt confessions about selling out his artistic vision, and embarrassing himself, by diluting his character and sitcom just to taste a bit of fame and success. Andy expects Bowie to be sympathetic.
Instead, Bowie is inspired to improvise a new tune to the delight of everyone - everyone, that is, but Andy.
"Pathetic little fat man," Bowie sings, "no one's bloody laughing/ The clown that no one laughs at/ They all just wish he'd die."
That episode arrives next week. The week after that is an episode featuring Daniel Radcliffe, the "Harry Potter" star, as a fumblingly lecherous version of himself, and Dame Diana Rigg in a cameo that provides the most memorable introductory scene of her long career.
On Sunday, for the second-season opener, the A-list guest star is Orlando Bloom, playing himself - or a riotously vain version of himself - as headliner of a movie in which Andy's best friend, Maggie (Ashley Jensen, now of "Ugly Betty"), works as an extra.
Meanwhile, Andy, through little or no help from his agent (a hilarious Stephen Merchant, Gervais' co-creator of both this series and the original British "Office"), has sold his sitcom script for "When the Whistle Blows" to the BBC.
It's his big shot. But while season one of "Extras" was about Andy trying to get noticed, this season is about him getting what he wished for - and regretting it as much as enjoying it. It's a clever spin on the series, and Gervais is as good a comic actor as he is a writer - which is to say, he's brilliant.
As with the Gervais-Merchant "The Office," the more time you spend with the characters in "Extras," the more you feel their pain as well as laugh at their expense.
"Extras" is a comedy with a heart - yet the empathy feeds, rather than detracts from, the humor. Bowie's lyrical assessment notwithstanding, if you watch "Extras," you will indeed find yourself bloody laughing.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/story/487709p-410662c.html
dad1153
01-11-07, 09:18 PM
TV Review
The True Meaning of ‘Au Naturel'
By Brendan Bernhard, New York Sun - January 9, 2007
In a city in which animal life is largely confined to dogs, cats, pigeons, squirrels, and rats, pretty much any episode of the venerable PBS series "Nature" is apt to strike the viewer as a cornucopia of the exotic. In that sense, "The Best of ‘Nature': 25 Years," the 90-minute anniversary episode airing on PBS this coming Sunday, may paradoxically seem like the same ol' same ol'. You know, Madagascar moths with tongues like whips, pregnant male seahorses, lovelorn elephants, melancholy chimps, cute polar bears, and the usual array of snuff-film predators.
And of course there are also human beings, those anthropomorphizing creatures that make documentaries like this one. That we can fall in love with practically anything that moves is not in question, but the jury is still out as to exactly what, and how much, the movers feel for us.
This anniversary episode gets off to a rollicking start with nature's version of a high-speed car chase. The cheetah, we are told, is the fastest creature on the African plain; the gazelle is the secondfastest. Unfortunately for the gazelle, it's also the cheetah's favored prey and has been for millions of years. Talk about bad luck. Still, there's a kind of gentleman's agreement at work, since it seems the cheetah (the cat as serial-killer, face like a death-mask), doesn't begin to chase until the gazelle (bulbous, long-lashed eyes, quivering snout) begins to flee. But after that it's really no contest, like a race between a steroidal sprinter of today versus one of 50 years ago. The end is clinical: a repeated artful tripping of the gazelle's back legs, much like a dirty soccer player, followed by a thrusting two-pawed takedown and a ferocious bite to the neck.