Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2610

The one issue I have with these "Rookie Police Officer" shows is telling the characters apart from each other. The problem is, they all wear the same patrol uniform, still have their "academy haircuts" and all get flogged by their training officers. We also generally learn nothing about their personal lives. They are cardboard cutouts stamped from the same mold that we're supposed to care about, but simply don't.

It's the very thing that makes me stop watching a show I might otherwise want to like.

It's also the opposite of what I got with NYPD Blue. Each character in that show had a unique look about them, from their physical presence to the clothes they wore. It allowed you to know exactly who everyone was at a glance and immediately apply new knowledge about their back story. There was no chance of mistaking Andy Sipowicz for Greg Medavoy.

That aspect allowed us to appreciate Andy's evolution from fat and drunk jerk to one of the most sympathetic characters ever in a police drama. We saw Medavoy go from the stuttering incompetent butt of everyone's jokes to a surprising case closer that used a sort of "Columbo" approach to allow suspects to underestimate him. Plus, he became Andy's confidant during his medical issues and earned a closeness to him he never had before. The simple act of Medavoy loaning Andy a spare pair of pants from his locker in one episode cemented their relationship with each other.

Even Southland works well, despite the fact that half the cast is in uniform. We would mistake any of the characters for each other. They have their own techniques and attitudes, a history and the age differences and mix of race and sex between them gives us the ability to tell who is who even when casually watching.

I think too often, the concept becomes the rule verses having memorable characters.

J.J. Abrams pilot "Revolution" Moves Forward
by Darren

"We're keeping tabs on Revolution, a new pilot with a possible science fiction twist. The potential series is being produced by J.J. Abrams (Alias, LOST, Star Trek) and Eric Kripke for NBC.

Actor Tim Guinee has been cast in the pilot. (Stargate SG-1, Iron Man)

Revolution is described as a high-octane drama that follows people struggling to survive and reunite with their loved ones after all forms of energy on the planet mysteriously cease to exist.
The pilot is being directed by Jon Favreau, with whom Guinee worked previously on the Iron Man films."

THURSDAY's fast affiliate overnight prime-time ratings -and what they mean- have been posted on Analyst Marc Berman's Media INsight's Blog

Nielsen Overnights
'Scandal' starts modest for ABC, 'Person of Interest' beats 'Grey's'
By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Apr. 6, 2012

Shonda Rhimes' latest ABC drama Scandal got off to a modest start in the ratings Thursday night, while CBS' Person of Interest beat ABC's Grey's Anatomy for the first time and NBC's Community hit an all-time low.

The ABC political soap Scandal launched with 7.4 million viewers and a 2.1 rating among adults 18-49, dropping 25 percent from its Grey's Anatomy lead-in (8.1 million, 2.8) and was slightly under par for what Private Practice usually delivers in the 10 p.m. spot. The critical consensus on Scandal is that the show gets better as it goes on, so hopefully this number will build. Scandal is notable for being, by a couple reports' estimation, the first major broadcast drama series to star a black woman in about 30 years. Opening ABC's night, Missing (7.2 million, 1.4) was down 7 percent.

Overall, Thursday was a rough night for broadcast, with TV usage down about 6 percent from last week from 8 to 10 p.m. Fox won the night with American Idol (13.8 million, 3.8) down 10 percent and Touch (7.4 million, 2.3) falling 15 percent.

CBS had Big Bang Theory (13 million, 4.2), down 11 percent to a season low, but it still ranked as the night's top-rated show. Rules of Engagement (8.8 million, 2.7) was steady. Person of Interest (13.5 million, 2.9) was off 12 percent (but, again, had some bragging rights) and The Mentalist (12.5 million, 2.4) fell 11 percent.

NBC aired Community (3.1 million, 1.3), down 24 percent to a series low (guess those feud headlines aren't helping the show's popularity?). 30 Rock (2.8 million, 1.2) was down 20 to also hit a series low, and Up All Night (2.6 million, 1.1) dipped too. At 10 p.m., few stayed up for Awake (2.5 million, 0.9), down 10 percent.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/04/06/scandal-ratings/

TV Review
'Magic City': Starz series about late-1950s Miami Beach moves at its own pace, but has some splendid tricks
By David Hinckley, New York Daily News - Apr. 6, 2012

Here's what to remember if you start watching “Magic City” and you think, “This is moving really slowly.”

It’s worth it.

After an episode or two, when you sort out the characters and how their lives bang together in the dark, elegant shadows of late-1950s Miami Beach, you’ll find rich drama, well written and beautifully styled.

Along the way you can enjoy a fine lead character in Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a villain to rival Tony Soprano in Ben “The Butcher” Diamond (Danny Huston), gorgeous colors and, if this happens to be your thing, a fair amount of gratuitous nudity.

In case you hadn’t noticed from “Spartacus” and “Boss,” that’s kind of a Starz signature.

“Magic City” will draw some comparisons to “Mad Men,” because it's a deliberately paced period piece with a conflicted central character whose actions, some of which he regrets, have complicated an already active web of plots and subplots spinning around him.

The comparison, a compliment to “Magic City,” is worth proposing, though the show will have to establish itself over a period of time before it gets to live in the same sentence.

Ike Evans owns the Miramar Playa Hotel, one of the first ultra-luxury resorts on the beach. He built it where there had been only dunes, and now it’s the place to go. Sinatra plays the New Year’s Eve show. The other entertainment, not all of it legally sanctioned, is also first class.

But Ike has a problem. He’s short on cash.

The good news is Ben Diamond can help. The bad news is that his fee is a cut of the hotel.

Ike knows this is a bad idea. He has no choice.

Meanwhile, Fidel Castro has just assumed power in Havana, throwing the Mob’s Cuban business into chaos, sending some bourgeois Cubans to Miami and leaving others desperately stranded in Cuba.

In fact, the wife of Ike’s right-hand man Victor Lazaro (Yul Vazquez) can’t get out. This also shakes Victor’s daughter Mercedes (Dominik Garcia-Lorido), who is working as a maid at the hotel but has the bold dream of becoming an airline stewardess and seeing the world.

Ike’s first wife died and he now has a second, Vera (Olga Kurylenko). He also has two sons, the good Danny (Christian Cooke) and the not-so-good Stevie (Steven Strait).

They’re all involved in the hotel. Ben, meanwhile, spends a lot of time sitting by the pool suspecting some of the sexual energy radiated by his glamorous wife Lily (Jessica Marais) may be attracting other men as well.

It sounds soapish on paper, but creator Mitch Glazer puts it together in a way that pokes into a lot of truths about the way people think and behave, now and then.

Slow? Yeah, maybe, like a good late-’50s lounge ballad. Once you click into the rhythm, you won't even think about it.

'MAGIC CITY'
Network / Air Date: Starz, Friday at 10 p.m.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of five)

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.1056525

TV Review
'The Client List,' trashy to its very core
Lifetime drama gets away with the most implausible nonsense
By Tom Conroy, Media Life Magazine - Apr. 5, 2012

As a rule, pure junk TV is more enjoyable than quality TV with junky tendencies or junky TV with quality pretentions.

A case in point is Lifetime's new series "The Client List," an absurd piece of TV-14 titillation that aims low and hits the target every time. The silliness and exploitation are woven into the show's very fabric, so elements that would be glaring flaws in a better show slip by in this one. Watching "The Client List" is like eating an entire bag of snack food that has been designed to disguise the taste of corn syrup and trans fat.

Premiering at 10 p.m. this Sunday, April 8 -- Easter, of all days -- the show stars Jennifer Love Hewitt's cleavage and co-stars her bare midriff and shapely behind. The actress plays Riley, a Texas mother of two whose husband, Kyle (Brian Hallisay), is on disability payments.

Riley, a trained masseuse, finds a job at a fancy-looking day spa where, she learns to her dismay, some of the male clients expect a little something extra at the end of their massage. Her boss, Georgia (Loretta Devine), assures her that she can work with the less demanding customers, but when Kyle abandons the family, Riley can't resist the bigger payoffs.

The show skates past this moral dilemma easily, treating it much more as an issue of shyness than of self-respect. As for the ick factor, a long montage of the regular non-happy-ending customers is a parade of hairy, fat bodies and Riley's disgusted grimaces.

The randier customers, on the other hand, are a slim, handsome bunch with killer abs, shot in flattering light. One almost thinks that Riley should be paying them extra.

The few members of this group who don't look like male underwear models are sensitive guys who have problems with their relationships. They just need someone to talk to, and Riley happily steps up. After one session, she tells a co-worker, "I feel like I made a real difference."

At times the show starts to feel like Hewitt's past series "The Ghost Whisperer," with her helping people with dead romances rather than simply dead people, but Riley has other issues. Her mother, Linette (Cybill Shepherd), meddles in Riley's life even though she can't handle her own, having been married five times.

Kyle's younger brother Evan (Colin Egglesfield) is constantly nosing around Riley. Their eventual flirtation is another thing that would be a lot ickier in real life than it is on the show.

In the second episode, Riley starts to learn that Kyle's reasons for leaving the family are more complicated than she originally thought. His issues may be serious, but they're impossible to take seriously in a show like this.

But whereas in a serious but soapy drama like ABC's "Scandal," we roll our eyes when the show slips in gratuitous sex or an implausible bit of melodrama, "The Client List" can get away with anything. We accept unthinkingly that the masseuses providing special services are a well-adjusted bunch with healthy relationships and that an angry wife will calm down and gratefully accept marital advice from the woman who helps her husband, er, relax.

Jennifer Love Hewitt is a showbiz trouper whose career hasn't quite matched all the effort she's put into it. If she's willing to work this hard to manipulate us in "The Client List," it seems almost impolite not to let her try.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...-very-core.asp

TV Notes
Could NBC's 'Smash' get a ticket to Broadway?
By Meg James, Los Angeles Times' 'Company Town' Blog - Apr. 5, 2012

Could "Smash" be headed to Broadway? When NBC developed the prime-time TV musical drama about cutthroat competition on Broadway, the network buttoned up the rights for a Broadway version of the TV show.

The series about the making of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, which NBC recently renewed for a second season, is a long way from getting to the real Broadway. Still, the show has been a passion project for NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt for years, and it boasts a large cast of executive producers with elite pedigrees and credentials in the theater world.

Steven Spielberg brought the idea for a TV show about a Broadway musical to Greenblatt about three years ago, when Greenblatt was head of entertainment at premium cable channel Showtime. But Showtime's tight budget provided little canvas for Greenblatt to paint an ambitious slate of programming.

"Smash" languished until Greenblatt moved to NBC early last year, where the show got an immediate greenlight. Greenblatt and Spielberg, who has invested in other Broadway shows, recruited producers with musical credits, including Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, part of the producing team behind the film versions of the musicals "Chicago" and "Hairspray."

Tony winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman were brought on board to compose the original songs that are performed on "Smash." The duo retains certain rights to that music -- and that ownership presumably would carry over to any Broadway version of the NBC series. (Shaiman and Wittman also wrote songs for Broadway productions of "Hairspray" and "Catch Me if You Can," in addition to the music for numerous feature films, and have won Grammys.)

By the end of the first season of "Smash," there will be at least 15 original songs written for the fictional musical around which much of the series' action revolves. In the TV show, the fake musical is called "Bombshell."

But does that mean it's Broadway-bound?

"Since our creative team has been writing songs and snippets of 'Bombshell' scenes only to tell the stories of our characters in 'Smash,' there is no fully realized 'Bombshell,'" Greenblatt wrote Thursday in an email to The Times.

"I'm not saying that it will never happen, but we are all focused at the moment on completing our [Season 1] finale episode and have already started talking about the macro ideas for Season 2," Greenblatt wrote, adding that next season will feature a second musical, as the fictional "Bombshell" heads to the fictional Broadway.

"So no one has thought twice about trying to find the time or energy to develop 'Bombshell' for the stage," Greenblatt wrote. "It takes several years to write and construct a big Broadway musical, and most of the hard work starts at the script stage before the songs are even conceived."

Greenblatt has long been interested in theater. Several years ago, Greenblatt persuaded his mentor Peter Chernin, former president of News Corp., to release the rights to the 1980 Fox movie, "9 to 5," starring Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.

From that, Greenblatt, while working at Showtime, produced the show, "9 to 5: The Musical," which opened in Los Angeles in the fall of 2008 and went on to have a five-month run on Broadway in 2009. (Megan Hilty, who played the Dolly Parton role of Doralee Rhodes in "9 to 5: The Musical," plays one of the prospective Marilyn Monroes on "Smash.")

Now some wonder whether "Smash" could eventually pave the way for a return engagement by Greenblatt on the Great White Way.

"I am working full time at NBC and it wouldn't make sense for me to be a producer," Greenblatt said -- but he added, "Maybe I could produce 'Bombshell' when I'm long gone from NBC, which would be about the time that [a Broadway project] would come to fruition."

NBC, controlled by cable giant Comcast Corp., has a more riding on "Smash" than a potential Broadway play. The ailing network banked heavily on the program to improve its anemic ratings and serve as a beacon for more sophisticated programming. NBC has spent nearly $70 million making and marketing the first season of "Smash."

The show has delivered only modest ratings. Six million viewers tuned in Monday night, although NBC executives have been encouraged that the audience grows by about 2 million people, who record the show and watch it after it airs on TV.

NBC announced last month that it would bring "Smash" back for a second season. The network noted that "Smash" draws one of the most upscale audiences in network television, coming in behind another musically themed series, Fox's "Glee."

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe, which adds attention to efforts to bring her story to life. (DreamWorks Television and series creator playwright Theresa Rebeck also have an ownership interest in the television version of "Smash.")

And there could be competition if NBC decides to trundle "Smash" to Broadway. Last fall, producer Harvey Weinstein said he was interested in turning his company's Oscar-nominated feature film "My Week With Marilyn" into a Broadway musical featuring Katy Perry.

It would not be the first time that NBCUniversal dabbled on Broadway. The company has an ownership interest in one of the most successful productions of all time, "Wicked." That musical is produced by former Universal Pictures production executive turned Broadway producer, Marc Platt.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...-broadway.html

Critic's Notes
The 25 Shows Fox Won’t Be Calling Attention to at Its 25th Anniversary
By Josef Adalian, New York Magazine's 'Vulture' Blog - Apr. 5, 2012

Later this month, Fox will mark its 25th anniversary with a clip-filled special paying tribute to its biggest hits, but the network's official silver anniversary is today. It began its first prime-time broadcast on April 5, 1986; after a short promo film featuring the famed 20th Century Fox fanfare, Fox aired the premiere of its very first series, Married ... with Children. It was developed under the working title Not the Cosbys, and the show spoke to Rupert Murdoch's desire to upend the traditional Big Three broadcasters with fare that was louder, younger and more interesting than what was currently on the air.

Over the quarter century that followed, Fox would launch a slew of successful shows, from populist hits like Beverly Hills, 90210 and American Idol to critical faves that also drew big ratings, such as The Simpsons, House, and The X-Files. But Fox's penchant for experimentation has also resulted in a whole bunch of ... less successful efforts. Stuff that was weird (a nuclear holocaust comedy!), offensive (adoptees compete to find their birth father, The Chevy Chase Show), and just plain forgettable (two words: Karen's Song). There will be plenty of love for Fox's best later this month, but today, Vulture has decided to honor Fox's rebel spirit with a look at some of its less well-remembered shows: twenty that fall into the categories of "bizarre," "bad," or "baffling", and five that were actually kind of good, but never broke through. Get as comfortable as Al Bundy on a couch, grab a Duff beer, and join us as we sing "Happy Birthday" to what's arguably Murdoch's best contribution to society.

Women in Prison (1987)
As its title implied, this series from Fox's first year revolved around the females of Cell Block J, including one who murdered her husband (The Shield's CCH Pounder) and a former hooker. Sounds like a provocative drama … and yet it was a zany comedy, featuring eighties sass-meister (and Bosom Buddies alum) Wendie Jo Sperber and the acerbic, shrublike Denny Dillon (Dream On).

Mr. President (1987)
Long before Aaron Sorkin thought about it, Johnny Carson (yes, that Johnny) sold Fox this White House-set half-hour about the First Family. George C. Scott (known for his comic chops!) played the president and Madeline Kahn was First Lady. Carson described the show to one reporter as a dramedy, and it boasted sitcom legend and unexpected-period enthusiast Ed. Weinberger as creator. Alas, the show was recalled after less than a season in office.

Werewolf (1987)
Supernatural creatures are the mother's milk of any young network. The WB had Buffy, UPN had its Star Trek aliens, and the CW has The Vampire Diaries. No shocker, then, that one of Fox's earliest shows was this half-hour drama about a college student trying to rid himself of the hairy curse. It lasted one season, but amazingly, the show boasted a fan website until just last month. Perhaps the last remaining enthusiast finally sold out to the giant Teen Wolf-fandom online industrial complex.

Kindred: The Embraced (1996)
Speaking of now-hip supernatural beings, Fox also once had its own vampire series that came before its time, lasting only eight weeks in the spring of 1996. Aaron Spelling produced the campy hour, in which nineties hunk C. Thomas Howell stars as a San Francisco cop who discovers the city is lousy with bloodsuckers.

Babes (1990)
Three years after Women in Prison vanished, Sperber found herself sentenced to another awful Fox comedy about bawdy women. In this case, they weren't in prison; no, they were all just zaftig and zany. It was like Mike & Molly, minus Mike, plus 63 percent more jokes about ice cream sundaes.

Woops! (1992)
What if a nuclear war destroyed all but six people in the world, and those six lived together in a farm house and tried to start a new civilization? Why, hilarity would ensue, of course! Or so thought the Fox suits who bought the pitch for this post-apocalyptic "comedy" starring no one you would recognize except for Sex and the City's Evan Handler. In the final episode Fox aired — a very special Christmas edition — Stuart Pankin played a widowed Santa Claus, still bummed because Mrs. Claus and his elves didn't get to the North Pole shelter in time. Ha ha, grieving Santa and nuclear fallout!

The Chevy Chase Show (1993)
While it's well-remembered as a flop, it bears revisiting to be reminded just why it was so bad: Chase distractedly fumbled and fumbled his way through six weeks of train-wreck TV, unfunnily resorting to the pratfalls he had perfected on SNL and heading over to the band to play extended piano solos. The head of Fox at the time told the AP that Chase was "uncomfortable and embarrassing to watch" — and that was while he was still on the air.

Roar (1997)
Sure, Game of Thrones is a hit for HBO now, but where were the fantasy geeks when Fox launched this short-lived summer adventure series in which a young Heath Ledger played an orphan Irish prince battling bad guys in 400 A.D., with co-star Vera Farmiga? Waiting for lots of gratuitous nudity and gore, apparently.

Man vs. Beast (2003)
Rupert Murdoch may have launched Fox, but there's a case to be made that longtime head of reality programming Mike Darnell is the exec who best defines the network: He's smart, shameless, and just a little bit crazy. Usually, Darnell's mind has produced monster success, from American Idol and Hell's Kitchen to Temptation Island and The Swan. But we prefer the Darnell shows that were so nuts that they seemed like they were created by pulling random words out of a drum, like this 2003 series of specials in which humans competed against wild beasts in various athletic endeavors. A world-class sprinter racing against a giraffe? Oh, we miss you, old Fox!

Mr. Personality (2003)
Darnell is good friends with Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss, but that didn't stop him from ripping off his buddy's best idea. In this creepy dating show, a woman tried to find true love from a group of masked men. (Because if there's one thing that Fox taught us early with Married … with Children, it's that you shouldn’t judge people by their looks.) And just to cover all of his "how do we lure in the curious viewer?" bases, Darnell got Monica Lewinsky to host. The first episode was a hit, but viewers didn't like what they saw when the curtain was pulled back and ratings for subsequent episodes dropped quickly.

American Juniors (2003)
The overwhelming success and longevity of American Idol has almost erased this failed kiddie spinoff from memory. Almost. After all, we can't completely forget the sight of very small children having their dreams dashed at Hollywood Week. Or watching innocent cuties forced to dance with Ryan Seacrest to bad eighties songs. It actually drew decent ratings, but even Fox execs knew it was harming the image of the mother ship and pulled the plug on a planned second season. But even though it's gone, at least we still have America's Kids Got Singing.

The Littlest Groom (2004)
The Darnell factory also produced this Bachelor clone featuring a wee single guy and his wee suitors. Everyone involved insisted they were simply trying to show that small folks need love, too, and that this was nothing more than a well-intentioned documentary with a game show element. But this was not the predecessor to cable's Little People, Big World. It was really just, "Ha! Look at that little dude trying to get some action!" Ick.

Who's Your Daddy? (2005)
The concept of this twisted game show had an adult who had been put up for adoption trying to pick out his or her biological dad from a group of 25 men. Outrage was understandably provoked, and Fox canceled the show after one episode, burning off the remaining five filmed hours on its now-defunct Fox Reality sister network.

Karen's Song (1987)
Long before Cougar Town, and long before the term "cougar" existed, sixties sweetheart Patty Duke played a 40-year-old woman who starts dating a 28-year-old man, much to the chagrin of her daughter, a college-age Teri Hatcher. Lainie Kazan was the acerbic best friend–yenta, the type of role that was apparently in her contract. Only nine episodes of the show's thirteen-episode order ever aired, which isn't too much of a surprise: The pilot was so bad, it was directed by Alan Smithee.

Second Chance (1987)/Boys Will Be Boys (1988)
At least half of the Friends showed up on Fox before they hit the big time. As noted, Jennifer Aniston was on The Edge, while Matt LeBlanc appears later in our list (don't change that channel!). But a very baby-faced Matthew Perry gets the honor for starring in the weirdest before-they-were famous effort, here playing the younger version of a man named Charles (Kiel Martin) who dies in a 2011 hovercraft accident. (Speaking of which, where are those goddamned hovercrafts we were promised!) Anyway, St. Peter decides dead Charles isn't right for heaven or hell, so he's sent back to Earth to live with his teenage self. Crazy! So crazy, in fact, that viewers rejected the show, and after just a couple months, Fox pulled it from the air, dropped the whole old-young Charles thing, and with little explanation turned the show into a teen buddy comedy called Boys Will Be Boys. Shockingly, it didn't last either.

Booker (1989)
After spending a year as a "special guest star" on 21 Jump Street, Richard Grieco's Dennis Booker graduated to his own spinoff (launched via a November 1989 episode of Jump Street). His cop character was now working solo, fighting bad guys wherever they popped up, though not in schools. Alas, nobody cared: The show was dumped after one season. Worse, nobody even invited him to be part of the 21 Jump Street film.

Top of the Heap (1991)/Vinnie & Bobby (1992)
And speaking of Friends, Matt LeBlanc co-starred in Married ... with Children spinoff Top of the Heap, which began as an episode during the latter show's fifth season. Plot: Young Vinnie Verducci (LeBlanc) and his dad (Joe Bologna) try to become one of the one percent. Fun fact: Soon-to-be Kevin Smith muse Joey Lauren Adams played a stalker-ish neighborhood gal in love with LeBlanc's character. Top had a short, seven-episode run in April and May 1991 before being dumped. But Fox execs obviously liked LeBlanc, since they recruited him to reprise his Vinnie role a year later in Vinnie & Bobby, in which he was now a construction working living with roommate Bobby (Robert Torti). The show was burned off in the summer of 1992; two years later, he was cast in Friends.

Harsh Realm (1999)
The least successful of Chris Carter's four Fox dramas, this nine-episode flop featured Scott Bairstow as a soldier sent to do battle ... in a virtual reality simulation game. His mission: Kill the evil general who rules the alt-world, played by Lost's Terry O'Quinn. Wait, now that we think about it … maybe the alt-world was limbo! IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!

Night Visions (2001)
After their success with The X-Files, Fox suits tried to cash in on viewers' love for the supernatural by greenlighting an anthology series packed with tales of the bizarre (but none of that Scully-Mulder 'shipper stuff). Henry Rollins got to play the Rod Serling host role, but Fox lost faith in the idea almost immediately after it ordered the show: It was burned off in the summer, with only ten of its thirteen episodes airing on the network.

Celebrity Boxing (2002)
You think Dancing with the Stars is campy? At least the only injuries are dip-inflicted. On this one, the bruises came from has-been actors and media figures beating on each other in the ring (Tonya Harding vs. Paula Jones! Todd Bridges vs. Vanilla Ice!). Well, frankly, very few punches were legitimately landed. But no doubt there were some contusions to self-esteem.

* * * *

Profit (1996)
These next five shows fall into the category of out-there shows which were actually pretty good — and some might even argue, great. First up: this drama featuring Adrian Pasdar as a smooth sociopathic corporate climber who sleeps in a cardboard box (his dad made him do so as a child). It sounds weird. It was weird. But it was also actually really, really good — a sort of Breaking Bad without the drugs. Its lead-in was Melrose Place, and those who stuck around were not exactly looking for complicated psychological drama.

The Edge (1992)
In Living Color, Mad TV, and The Ben Stiller Show get all the love when folks talk about Fox's history of rebel sketch comedy shows. But one of our favorites remains an utterly insane half-hour featuring one-time MTV sensation Julie Brown (the blonde one, not the Downtown one), a pre-Seinfeld Wayne Knight, a young Paul Feig, and somebody named "Jennifer Aniston." It lived just long enough to provoke the wrath of producer Aaron Spelling for its vicious parody of Beverly Hills, 90210.

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993)
Carlton Cuse will likely be best remembered for Lost, but some of us will always have a soft spot for his 1993 sci-fi–western, which saw Bruce Campbell playing the titular Harvard lawyer turned bounty hunter. It mixed Western romanticism with futuristic technology and a heavy dose of humor. Fox had high hopes for the show, which was developed by a young network exec named Bob Greenblatt (the same man who now runs NBC). But like this year's Terra Nova, after a strong start it quickly faded, and died after just one season.

House of Buggin' (1995)
Until we got lost in the rabbit hole that comes from searching for "Fox" on YouTube, we'd honestly forgotten about this John Leguizamo sketch comedy series. Debuting right after In Living Color had left the air, the show boasted a largely Latino cast (a young Luis Guzman) and was written and produced by many of the same folks who'd go on to create the network's much more enduring late-night franchise MadTV. It lasted ten episodes, but the Chicano Militant Minute, and Leguizamo's oh-so-nineties opening credits dancing, will endure forever.

The PJs (1999)
Fox gave Eddie Murphy a lot of money to produce and voice the starring role in this stop-action animated show, one of the network's many attempts to expand its Sunday animation franchise over the years. It was set in an urban housing project, with Murphy playing the grumpy superintendent. Not everyone appreciated the depictions of poor people: Spike Lee and some black political groups thought it presented negative stereotypes. Only 42 episodes were produced, with the final season airing on the WB Network.

http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/25-we...-25-years.html

TV Notes
Bryan Cranston: 'Breaking Bad' will split final season
By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Apr. 6, 2012

The question of whether AMC will indeed split the final season of Breaking Bad is close to an official verdict.

Emmy-winning series star Bryan Cranston says AMC will break the award-winning drama’s final 16-episode season into two separate runs, as reports have speculated for months. “We’re splitting it,” says Cranston, who’s currently shooting the fifth season premiere in New Mexico. “We’re going to shoot the first eight, then take a four-month production break, then the rest will air next year.”

The network has not announced a premiere date for Breaking Bad, though actors on the show say the drama will return in July.

AMC and Sony Pictures TV have maintained radio silence on the show’s return and distribution plan. A studio spokesperson says the four-month production hiatus is “one scenario” that’s being considered. The network wants to divide the final 16 hour so it has a strong summer drama airing this year and the next (it would also presumably allow Breaking Bad to be eligible for two award-season cycles). With Breaking Bad production underway and summer right around the corner, obviously the schedule should get firmed up soon, though AMC has shown a willingness to engage in some production brinksmanship in the past.

Cranston, who’s directing the upcoming April 11 episode of ABC’s Modern Family, is expected to direct the ninth episode of Breaking Bad’s final season (the 2013 premiere, assuming all goes according to plan).

“We pick up right where we left off,” Cranston says of the fifth season opener. “We’re cleaning up the pieces from last season’s huge ordeal where It’s not as easy as Walter thought. And as we’ve discovered over the years, you don’t really know who Walter White is. I’m still discovering who he is and I’m trying to allow myself to be open to him going darker and darker. There’s physical danger to himself and his family, plus there’s the emotional danger due to his anger and hubris. It’s about the evil that men do and where that takes him.”

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/04/06/br...inal-season-2/

Glad to see Person of Interest come out ahead of Grey's. POI has become a very entertaining show. Grey's is another long line of tired shows, even my wife stopped watching it. And she doesn't give up on many shows.

grey's has basically run its course. POI started out a little rocky the first 3-4 episodes but the last 4-6 have been exceptional.

I hope Grey's still has more life. My GF and I still enjoy watching it.

Mr. Adalian forgot one show in his list of Fox clunkers: 'Skating with Celebrities'.

Oh, I'm sure there are plenty more he left off...he just stopped at 20!

This is the network that used to have a huge audience for some great programming. Now its programming is so bad its audience rivals that of less popular cable channels. It should take its own advice from a few years ago when it over-promoted going green. Save a lot of electric power on Thursday evenings by turning the transmitters off at its affiliate stations.

I liked Brisco...

Me too. That was a great show.

1:58 PM PDT 4/6/2012 by Alex Ben Block

NBC Universal Studios president and COO Ron Meyer said Friday that some of his recent remarks about "******" movies were taken out of context.

I was quoted as saying Hollywood make ****** movies, says Meyer. What I said is we make some good movies and some ****** movies. Nobody ever sets out to make a ****** movie.

Meyer was referencing a widely quoted Movieline interview he gave in November at the Savannah Film Festival in which he offered an extremely rare and candid assessment of Hollywood and his own studio. We make a lot of ****** movies," Meyer was quoted saying. "Every one of them breaks my heart. He then went on to trash specific Universal films. "One of the worst movies we ever made was Wolfman. Wolfman and Babe 2 are two of the shittiest movies we put out. Cowboys & Aliens wasn't good enough. Forget all the smart people involved in it, it wasn't good enough. All those little creatures bouncing around were crappy. Land of the Lost was just crap. I mean, there was no excuse for it. The best intentions all went wrong."

Meyer made his clarifying remarks Friday during a question-and-answer session that kicked off the 2012 Pulse Conference, put on by the Anderson Business School at UCLA. Meyer, in his first major speaking engagement since the November comments, was interviewed by Sanjay Sood, an associate professor of marketing at UCLA, and then took questions from the audience.

He talked about the difficulty in making a great movie against more and more obstacles. Some of those obstacles are matching the right creative people with the right material. Sometimes a great director will do a bad job and an OK director will do a great job, said Meyer. You never know.

Sometimes the surprises are good ones, he explained, as was the case with the family movie The Lorax, which opened in March. Meyer said it did more than twice the box-office business than the studio expected.

However, he said there are no plans to make a sequel to the animated 3D musical comedy because the movie was a self-contained one-off story that had a happy ending. It does have us thinking about doing more Dr. Seuss movies, said Meyer, adding that Universal is already working on a new animated version of the late writer's The Cat in the Hat.

Meyer said it is important to develop franchise movies because they have brand recognition, which makes them easier to explain to potential ticket buyers and less expensive to market (since the audience already knows the brand).

He did admit that Universal has not had franchise brands based on comic book characters like Warner Bros with DC Comics or Disney's Marvel.
Hasbro is the closest to it, said Meyer. Hasbro brought us Battleship, referring to a big-budget movie Universal will release May 18 domestically.
Lacking franchises, Universal has had to manufacture its own, said Meyer, citing Bourne, The Mummy, Fast & Furious and American Pie, for which a fourth sequel opens this weekend. Meyer said he believes American Reunion is actually a better movie than the first sequel.

Meyer said that while the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman doesn't appear to lend itself to a sequel, Universal thinks it can do more movies based on the character of the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) if it is successful.

Meyer cited the animated Despicable Me as an example of where Universal executives had a surprise hit that they were able to turn into a franchise. He said the studio is working Despicable Me 2. And hopefully, added Meyer, there will be a lot more to come.

While The Lorax was in 3D, Meyer said it has to be used sparingly, when it makes sense, but that many movies are still better enjoyed in 2D. I'm not a fan of 3D as an audience member, he said. I'm too old for it. I don't like wearing the glasses over my glasses.

:

Universal's 'Battleship' Deployed to Fight U.K. Piracy

Still, he added: There is a place for it, an important place. I just don't think we should kid ourselves that it is an end-all for the business.

Meyer said the decline in the DVD business has been overstated and that though it is down, it is still important. He said it is maturing and the studio is looking to other methods of delivery from Ultraviolet to downloading to reach consumers.

Asked about an attempt to do premium VOD with the movie Tower Heist, Meyer quickly noted it never happened. He called it a failed experiment and said he was surprised that theater owners didn't understand it was just a test in a limited number of markets.

Part of it was a communications problem, said Meyer, predicting that he'll try it again some time in the future. "There is no question it is coming. We don't want to cannibalize our business. We have to be responsible. We're going to find an accommodation.

Meyer said he believes in the movie business and that theaters will continue to be the first place to play, but he said exhibitors have to step up as well. The theater owners, said Meyer, have to make seats that are comfortable and offer food that is edible.

Repeating that nobody ever sets out to make a bad movie, Meyer also admitted that about 65 percent of all the movies Hollywood makes fail.
He said some movies need stars but there are very few who can really put butts in seats. He citedWill Smith as one who is bankable and said Tom Cruise was an important factor in the success of the Mission: Impossible movies, so he was worth what he was paid.

STORY: Universal's Battleship' Deployed to Imax in China and Russia
Meyer was an agent before he took the helm of the studio and admitted he was one of those who helped pump up star salaries. I don't rue it now, he said, but I get punished by it some days.

When you wake up on Saturday morning and your newest movie is a hit, said Meyer, that's when the business is fun. But it's not fun when you have a flop." When a movie flops, for days after, he said, You are sure all the people are pointing at you everywhere you go.

Meyer said during his 17 years at the studio, he has been under six different ownerships, but the core group of executives around him have stayed together through much of that change.

Each owner comes in with a new set of rules and a new vision for the studio, said Meyer. But there has to be a balance -- between what has been done and what they will do. But it's their studio. They can do with it what they want."

He praised the current owner, Comcast, as the best of the bunch. He said that unlike General Electric, Seagram's or the Japanese or French owners, Comcast needs the product and wants to produce. They're very supportive of what we do. They really get it. It's been a very satisfying relationship.

As an example, he pointed to the deal with Netflix to license some Universal library titles. Even though in some areas Comcast competes with Netflix, Meyer said the company approved that transaction. They all want to make money and not look stupid, said Meyer. We all want to make money.
Otherwise, he noted, he would be out of a job.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...9173?page=show

TV Notes
With a little help from me, TCM finally unloosens 'The Iron Petticoat'
By Lou Lumenick, New York Post

One of the highest profile classic movies that's never been shown on U.S. television, much less released on video here -- "The Iron Petticoat'' (1956), a Cold War comedy starring the unlikely team of Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn -- will finally be making its premiere on Turner Classic Movies in September, I can report exclusively today.

TCM, which has exclusive U.S. and Canadian TV rights for five years, is also in negotiations with the film's owners, Hope Enterprises, to release this notoriously elusive title (available on DVD in the UK) on DVD and Blu-ray through its TCM Vault Collection says Dennis Millay, TCM's director of programming.

He also shed some light on the mystery behind the film's complete unavailability here (except for a 1976 showing at MoMA) since its original theatrical release, and detailed how decades of efforts to clear what he calls a "Holy Grail title'' finally bore fruit -- something that I'm thrilled to say I had a small but crucial role in.

Filmed in England's Pinewood Studios under the direction of Ralph Thomas, "The Iron Petticoat'' is a "Ninotcha''-like comedy centering on a Soviet air force jet pilot (Hepburn) who defects to a U.S. base in Germany after being passed over for a promotion.

Because she remains an ardent communist, a womanizing major in the U.S. air force (Hope) is assigned to take her to London and convert her to capitalism. Of course, they eventually fall in love.

Ben Hecht's script was reportedly written for Cary Grant and Hepburn, who had made four previous films together. After Grant passed for unknown reasons, the role was taken up by Hope, who at the time was appearing in more sophisticated films like "Beau James,'' his biopic of New York City Mayor James Walker.

The independent production was sponsored by a complicated partnership that included Hope, screenwriter Ben Hecht, producer Harry Saltzman (later of the "James Bond'' series); and Romulus Films, the UK outfit that also partnered on "The African Queen'' with Hepburn.

Independent Film Distributors released a 95-minute version of "The Iron Petticoat'' in the UK, but Hope, who had sole possession of the American rights, turned over a shorter 83-minute edition that was that went out via MGM beginning in December 1956.

Hope, who produced many of his own movies beginning in 1947, distributed all of them to this point through his longtime employer Paramount Pictures. Millay speculates that Hope went with MGM instead of Paramount because he was afraid of an infringement suit over MGM's "Ninotchka.'' Indeed, the studio released "Silk Stockings,'' its musical remake of "Ninotchka'' just six months after "The Iron Petticoat.''

But MGM's release was preceded in October by a nasty public exchange between Hope and screenwriter Hecht, who was so unhappy with the U.S. cut that he had his name cut from prints released in this country.

“My dear Partner Bob Hope,” Hecht wrote in a full-page ad in The Hollywood Reporter. “This is to notify you that I have removed my name as author from our mutilated venture, ‘The Iron Petticoat.’ Unfortunately your other partner, Katharine Hepburn, can’t shy out of the fractured picture with me. Although her magnificent comic performance has been blowtorched out of the film, there is enough left of the Hepburn footage to identify her for her sharpshooters. I am assured by my hopeful predators that ‘The Iron Petticoat’ will go over big with people ‘who can’t get enough of Bob Hope.’ Let us hope this swooning contingent is not confined to yourself and your euphoric agent, Louis Shurr.”

Hope responded with his own full page ad.

“My dear Ex-Partner Ben,” he wrote. “You once wrote ‘The Front Page,’ and now you’ve followed it up with the back page…I am most understanding. The way things are going you simply can’t afford to be associated with a hit. As for Kate Hepburn, I don’t think she was depressed with the preview audience rave about her performance. Let’s do all our correspondence this way in print. It lifts ‘The Iron Petticoat.’ ” The comedian signed his letter as “Bob (BlowTorch) Hope.”

When it arrived in theaters two months later following this unfortunate pre-release publicity, the film was generally torched by American reviewers. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times dismissed it as "something grotesque'' and the film quickly disappeared.

Though Hecht was credited only on the UK release, Crowther mentioned Hecht in his notice. Mike Wallace brought it up again in a fascinating 1958 interview with Hecht, asking, "Why did you get involved in such trash?'' Hecht blamed Hope for reducing Hepburn's role by what he claimed was 50 percent.

Hope's deal with MGM provided an option for TV sales, but for some reason, Millay says, this never happened. The studio's rights lapsed in 1966, and all its materials for the U.S. version were returned to Hope Enterprises in 1970. Some 16mm prints were struck for MGM's non-theatrical distributor, Films Incorporated, but they didn't circulate after 1966 though they remained in the vaults.

Though "The Iron Petticoat'' wasn't included in the huge MGM library acquired by Turner Entertainment in 1986, Turner was interested in "The Iron Petticoat.'' But Hope, who had renewed the film's U.S. copyright in 1984, rebuffed all inquiries.

"I think the film left a bad taste in everybody's mouth,'' Millay says.

* * * *

My involvement in this saga began in the summer of 2003, when Hope and Hepburn died within weeks of each other, and I reported that a gray-market DVD dub of the UK version could be ordered from a Canadian website.

I was surprised to get a call from Hope's longtime spokesman, Ward Grant, asking if I had any information about where they could get a copy of the film.

"I thought Hope Enteprises owned U.S. rights to 'The Iron Petticoat,' '' I said.

Grant's reply: "Well, we've been trying to figure this out for years.''

I had several conversations with Hope's representatives over the next few years and have blogged about it periodically.

Farran Smith Nehme and I suggested including "The Iron Petticoat'' in "Shadows of Russia,'' a series we helped programmed that ran on TCM in January 2010, but we were told by TCM's senior vice president for programming, Charles Tabesh, that the network just couldn't get ahold of the rights.

Last fall, out of the blue, I got an e-mail from a lawyer representng Hope Enterprises, who said he heard about my interest and knowledge about the title. He said his clients wanted to put 'The Iron Petticoat' back into circulation but their papework establishing ownership was incomplete.

As it happened, few months earlier, I had dinner in Hollywood with Lee Tsiantis, a legal analyst for Turner Entertainment and a major film buff who served as my talent escort when I introduced a film at last year's TCM Classic Film Festival.

Among the many films we discussed was "The Iron Petticoat.'' Lee told me that though Turner didn't own any rights to the film, they had all the paperwork for the U.S. version as part of the voluminous MGM legal files that came with MGM's pre-1986 library.

So last fall I e-mailed Lee Tsantis and suggested someone at Turner might want to get in touch with Hope's lawyer.

It turned out that Millay, who had been obsessed with "The Iron Petticoat'' for two decades had been searching for the right contact at Hope Enterprises. And now Lee handed it to him.

"So with Charlie Tabesh's permission, I had that conversation, and thank you, because you made that happen,'' Millay says. "And the timing was finally right. If we had gone to them a year or two earlier, when [Hope's widow] Dolores was still alive, it might not have gone anywhere.''

It took a while to locate a good version of the film. Hope Enterprises has no record of what became of the materials that MGM returned in 1970 and only had a soft-looking 35mm reduction print they acquired from a collector. There's another print at the Library of Congress, but it's the cut 83-minute U.S. release version that so infuriated Ben Hecht.

Eventually arrangements were made for a high-resolution scan of the original negative for the 95-minute UK version (the one with the Hecht writing credit). A hard drive containing the scan recently arrived in the U.S. and will be used for TCM's video master. The video release, if it happens, it may also include the notorious U.S. version.

Millay thinks "The Iron Petticoat'' is better than its checkered reputation and that audiences will especially appreciate Hepburn's lively performance with her most unlikely co-star, even if her Russian accent is all over the place.

The actress herself dismissed the film in an interview with biographer Charlotte Chandler, complaining that Hope's jokes "overwhelmed my character. I didn't care. I wish he would have overwhelmed me right out of the film.''

For the first time in 56 years, American audiences will be able to decide the film's merits for themselves.

Millay says TCM is planning to show the film as part of a night of Cold War comedies -- including the eerily similar "Jet Pilot'' with Janet Leigh as a Russian pilot thawed out by American flyer John Wayne. Josef von Sternberg's film, made for RKO but now owned by Universal, notoriously ended principal photography in 1950 (years before "The Iron Petticoat'') but was not released until October 1957 because of endless reshoots of aerial photography ordered by that studio's owner, Howard Hughes.

After selling the RKO library to General Broadcasting in 1955, Hughes bought back "Jet Pilot'' and another Wayne title, "The Conqueror.'' Following the eccentric billionaire's death, his heirs eventually sold these as part of his personally-owned film library to Universal, which coincidentally had released "Jet Pilot.''

TCM also plans to accompany the belated debut of "The Iron Petticoat'' with "Silk Stockings,'' "Ninotchka'' and the Hecht-written "Comrade X.''

Update: I got an e-mail from Leonard Maltin, who adds this tidbit: "I borrowed a 35mm print [of 'The Iron Petticoat'] and screened it publicly at MoMA in 1976 as part of our American Comedy retrospective. My memory is dim but I think we got it from the Bob Hope archive!"

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/movies...nSxCn1B5RbvIMM

TV Sports
Warren Sapp files for bankruptcy, claims he lost Super Bowl ring
By Sporting News Staff - Apr. 6, 2012

Warren Sapp, a future Hall of Famer and current NFL Network analyst, has filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Florida on claims he racked up millions in debt to several creditors.

Most surprising about Sapp’s filing is that he notes he lost his 2002 Super Bowl ring from a championship with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the 1999 National Championship ring he won as a collegiate with the Miami Hurricanes, according to a TMZ.com report.

Sapp owes more than $6.7 million in debt to creditors and back child support and alimony. The outstanding amount outweighs Sapp’s 6.45 million in assets, which will be liquidated as a result of his filing for Chapter 7.

Sapp lists his current income as $45,000 per month from NFL Network. His contract with the network expires in August 2012. Over a 12-year NFL career, Sapp made well over $40 million with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/stor...6pLid%3D149962

How much does he make from his duties on Showtime's Inside The NFL?

^^^ Private contract info not readily available to the public, which is why I highlighted Warren's salary from NFL Network. It's a rare reveal of financial info (which Sapp was forced to make when he filed public documents with the FL court) about what these guys make as talking heads based on how much they're perceived to be worth. And it's not like we know ESPN, TNT, MLB Network or NBC Sports Network pays their studio talking head guys the same dough. There is no base salary that a sports network pays a talking head, just what they perceive the jock/sportscaster/retired player/expert/etc. is worth to them. Also, Warren's $45K a month doesn't mean he gets paid every month of the year, maybe he just gets paid during the regular season (including pre-season) which is about 6 1/2 months. Or maybe Sapp does get paid every month because he appears on NFL Network year-round, someone who has NFL Network can confirm whether Sapp is a year-round talking head (I don't have NFL Network, and 'Inside the NFL' is that SHO sports show I click away the moment I realize it's on ).

TV Notes
PRIMETIME PILOT PANIC: The Early Buzz
By Nellie Andreva, Deadline.com - Apr. 6, 2012

Back by popular demand: Deadline's Pilot Buzz lists. We're earlier than normal this year while pilots have generally been late, with only a handful of them having cuts by now and the vast majority still in various stages of production. Therefore, everything on this list has to be taken with a gigantic grain of salt as a lot could change between a table read and a final cut. Take NBC's comedy pilot SAVE ME for example. After some mixed and even negative chatter early on, mostly related to the tone of the show, originally developed for Showtime, the tide changed completely over the last two days when people saw the completed pilot, which is getting high marks. The list also doesn't cover every pilot as some of them have not gotten into production yet or feedback has been insufficient:

NBC:

The network already has one new scripted series on tap for next season, HANNIBAL, which I hear may go for midseason. With the network in such bad shape after years of neglect and bad decisions by previous regimes, NBC seems to have cast a very wide net this season, developing a vast range of projects that are all over the map, making it harder to handicap. On the drama side, mystery MIDNIGHT SUN, the Jekyll & Hyde-esque DO NO HARM are getting some solid early buzz. The Jason Katims/Jason Ritter medical drama COUNTY, which just wrapped, also has been getting positive feedback. Western-esque THE FRONTIER, which is shooting in Australia, is getting notices for its rich look. Comedy-wise, ANIMAL KINGDOM is hot, as is White House family comedy 1600 PENN, despite a last-minute recasting, as well as the Matthew Perry starrer GO ON and Greg Daniels' FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER. The network also is high on a couple of multi-camera comedies, LADYFRIENDS and the untitled JIMMY FALLON, with TABLE FOR THREE also looking encouraging so far. The Ryan Murphy/Ali Adler blended family comedy THE NEW NORMAL is still shooting but, with the auspices involved, it is considered a strong contender. NBC brass seem to like the SARAH SILVERMAN pilot, which had an early order, but Silverman is considered acquired taste, so a lot will depend on on testing.

FOX:

The KEVIN WILLIAMSON project was very strong at the script stage, got even stronger with the casting of Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy, and seems to be sailing through production. Meanwhile the untitled KARYN USHER teen-spy drama, which also was an early standout during the script phase, then hit a speed bump in casting the lead, which took a very long time, now appears to be in great shape, with newcomer Saxon Sharbino getting strong reviews. Kevin Williamson and Karyn Usher seem to be the top contenders at the moment, with Fox's other female CIA agent drama, THE ASSET, right behind them and GUILTY and BERMAN/WRIGHT further down at the moment. Off-cycle pilot LITTLE BROTHER, whose plug almost got pulled after difficulties casting one of the leads, is making early waves on the comedy side. I hear Fox brass are impressed by John Stamos and his chemistry with TJ Miller. Also getting solid early buzz is the comedy EL JEFE, about a privileged young man moving in with his Latina nanny, and the MINDY KALING medical office comedy, mostly because of its star/creator Kaling. I've been hearing mixed early buzz on half-hour pilots LIKE FATHER and LIVING LOADED, but with A-level auspices Bill Lawrence and Rob McElhenney behind them, judgement has to be reserved until they are completed.

CBS:

High-profile drama pilots RALPH LAMB and ELEMENTARY look very good early on. In addition to strong buzz, period drama Ralph Lamb boasts a cast that includes Dennis Quaid, Michael Chiklis, Jason O'Mara, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Elementary already has fans buzzing about the tweaks the network is making to the classic Sherlock Holmes franchise with this contemporary update. Despite the difficulties casting the lead (Rachelle Lefevre eventually got the role in second position to A Gifted Man), I hear mom-turned-PI drama pilot APPLEBAUM has strong support at the network, with another female procedural, the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced TROOPER, about a mom-turned-state trooper, also getting early buzz. On the comedy side, after a casting tweak after the table read, PARTNERS looks good, while reaction to DORF/FALCONE has been mixed. Most of CBS' comedy pilot are very late, so not much intel here.

ABC:

Like NBC, ABC may already have a series for next season. Soap MISTRESSES, which was ordered straight-to-series for summer 2013, is filming a pilot episode with the regular ABC pilots, and I hear it will get consideration for launch next season, which is what ABC did with midseason entry Missing, originally ordered for summer. When Mistresses will premiere may depend on how ABC's five soapy pilots, SCRUPLES, AMERICANA, NASHVILLE, DEVIOUS MAIDS and GILDED LILYS turn out. So far, I hear strong buzz on Gilded Lilys, though all five boast top auspices and/or big-name actors. ABC's fantasy/supernatural pilots 666 PARK AVE, GOTHAM and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST look in good shape early on, especially 666 Park Ave, which is hot. The question is whether the network will pick up only one of them as a companion for Once Upon A Time. In the testosterone minority of ABC's drama slate, the Shawn Ryan/Karl Gajdusek's LAST RESORT is showing promise, while buzz on the Roland Emmerich/Harold Kloser project has been mixed. On the comedy side, PRAIRIE DOGS, the raunchy AWESOMETOWN and Claudia Lonow's family comedy HOW TO LIVE WITH YOUR PARENTS FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE are getting strong early buzz. Also, Reba McEntire is a big audience draw, making her sitcom MALIBU COUNTRY an automatic contender.

THE CW:

If there is such thing as sure thing so early, the CW's ARROW and THE CARRIE DIARIES would be it. They have pre-sold titles and are already making a lot of noise. Both were strong pre-production, received mostly favorable reaction to the fist images of the title characters released last month, and the strong buzz continues. Another pilot with a instantly recognizable title, BEAUTY & THE BEAST, also has been garnering buzz, while medical drama FIRST CUT has has people raving about Mamie Gummer who plays the lead and is Meryl Streep's daughter. And then there is a pilot, whose chances improved over the last two weeks completely unrelated to the actual pilot THE SELECTION. In picking it up, the network took a page from its own playbook several years ago, when, on the heels of the success of the first Twilight movie, the network ordered to pilot the similarly-themed Vampire Diaries. This year, the CW did the same with the Hunger Games-esque THE SELECTION in anticipation that the movie would be big. The film indeed has been an instant smash, boosting the chances of The Selection.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/prim...uzz-edition-2/

First of all Sapp was in the NFL in 1999 and the Miami Hurricanes didn't win the national championship in 1999 regardless. He was actually on the 1991 national championship team. These are very easy facts to find out. Does anyone ever double check things anymore in journalism?

Nope. I think all the fact-checkers were laid off during the recession. Smaller staffs, now, so the error rate has skyrocketed across just about all media platforms.

Yeah Right ! I lost it Or THEM !
He'd better not ever show them to anyone in the future , as his creditors can file a claim to them at any date , if he sold them to a family member they still can go after them .
Look what happened to O.J.'s mom they tried to take her house that O.J. gave her . She kept it but only because all the bad press toward the creditor ,by law they could have kept it .

Sapp has even more problems now as with the Bounty-Gate fiasco of him outing Shockey as a supposed snitch . I always thought highly of Sapp when was playing in the NFL but after seeing him on as a Sports Talking Head , my personal opinion of him dropped to a very low level . To me he comes off as a buffoonish clown now .

It only occurred to me last week that ABC is now a glossier version of Lifetime. If CW aims for teenage girls then ABC is aiming for the late-20's and 30+ female market. Almost every show they have has a female dominating lead and more often than not skews to soap and romance. Modern Family is the only show off the top of my head that I can recall which has a few malecentric plots and that's only because its an ensemble.

I'm finding less and less reasons to tune in to ABC with each year.

You're not far off.

Lifetime is owned in part by Hearst and Disney, among others. Hearst also owns a share of ESPN.

That's why you've seen ESPN WNBA games on Lifetime in the past.

FRIDAY's fast affiliate overnight prime-time ratings -and what they mean- have been posted on Analyst Marc Berman's Media INsight's Blog