Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2846

TV/Business Notes
A Network and Its Modern, Manly Goals
By Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times - Feb. 22, 2013

You can imagine the excitement among modern men when the announcement came last week that finally, more than 65 years into the television age, we are about to get a TV network intended just for us. So surprising was this news that we had not even prepared a suitable celebratory gesture. Chest bump? Too Neanderthalic. Forearm bash? Too steroidal. High five? Too unsophisticated. Fist bump? Too passive aggressive.

But celebrate we did, each in our own modern-manly way, because G4, a network that no one had ever heard of and apparently has something to do with video games, is going to be rebranded the Esquire Network. The new network, its general manager said, will be dedicated to “the modern man, what being a man today is all about.”

Whoo-hoo! Oh, wait; sorry. “Whoo-hoo” is too Cro-Magnon for a modern man. But we’re overjoyed, really we are. Because finally someone is going to explain what a modern man actually is.

The new network, an NBC property that will be a partnership with Esquire magazine, won’t go live until April 22. For now we have to be content with discovering what a modern man isn’t, by scrutinizing last week’s somewhat unspecific executive comments.

Bonnie Hammer, chairwoman of NBC’s cable group, described the new network as “an upscale Bravo for men,” which sounds great until you realize that Bravo is a trashier-than-it-used-to-be network with a female slant. So the comment is roughly like calling the new entity “a nonmusic CMT for Northerners.” Not very enlightening.

The new network’s general manager, Adam Stotsky, was more specific, saying that it will define us modern men as interested in something more than “tattoos or pawn shops or storage lockers or axes or hillbillies.”

Now we’re getting somewhere. The modern man, it appears, does not chop wood, frequent pawn shops or live like or near Jed Clampett. As for the tattoo thing, some of us wish we’d heard Mr. Stotsky’s clarifying remark before we got the “whoomp, there it is” tramp stamp back in 1993.

If we modern men are obsessed with learning what the Esquire Network is going to offer, it is because we have for decades been searching the television landscape in vain for guidance on what exactly it means to be a man in the postwar world.

Television has always broadcast shows geared to men of course. Live boxing was among the earliest types of programming, way back in the 1940s. Then came all sorts of shows — “Combat!” and “Rawhide” and the rest — featuring guys doing things guys do, like herding cattle and fighting. There was the genre known as jiggle TV, with attractive women in bikinis and such, and then in 1979 came ESPN and the sports explosion. Nowadays we have networks like Spike, with shows that include “Car Lot Rescue” — yes, it’s a TV show about car lots — and the recently announced “10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty,” which is just what it sounds like.

We modern men have watched all of this, but guiltily. It’s hard to shake the feeling that this programming is more premodern than modern, an effort to lure us back to the cave rather than into the glorious realm of higher possibilities that awaits us if we can just stop watching basketball, staring at bathing beauties and chasing possibly fictitious creatures through the woods.

Early indications are that the Esquire Network will be using a stealth approach to elevate our subspecies, because what has been announced so far is a type of television that, frankly, sounds an awful lot like the low-aspiration gunk that already exists.

One possible series, executives said, is “Knife Fight,” a cooking competition that seems as if it may be indistinguishable from the zillion other cooking shows already on television. Another is a travel show called “The Getaway,” which would be swell if there weren’t already an entire network called the Travel Channel.

Executives also suggested that a video feature from the magazine’s Web site called “Funny Joke From a Beautiful Woman” might have a place on the network. In the current installment of that feature, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, dressed as provocatively as any Charlie’s Angel ever was, tells a joke about nuns and hot dogs that will not be detailed here.

Presumably the strategy is to lure us modern men to the new network with shows that appeal to the familiar instincts, then gradually upgrade us to “Interesting Philosophical Discussion Point From a Plain-Looking but Extremely Intelligent Woman.” We’ll find out for sure in April. Which means there are only two months left to track down the elusive bigfoot. Hey, $10 million is $10 million.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/arts/television/the-esquire-network-has-manly-goals.html?ref=television&_r=0
Edited by dad1153 - 2/24/13 at 4:59pm

TV/Business Notes
Oscar Telecast To Be Available Online For The First Time
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Feb. 24, 2013

EXCLUSIVE: The Academy Awards will be breaking new Web ground this year. We have learned that for the first time, ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will make the full Oscar telecast available for streaming in the U.S. on Monday across multiple platforms. They include ABC.com, the ABC Player app, Hulu, Hulu Plus and some of Hulu’s official distribution partners, including ShareTV. The Oscars will be available to stream beginning tomorrow morning at 6 AM EST through Wednesday, Feb. 27 at midnight EST. Disney-ABC co-owns Hulu, having joined NBCUniversal and News Corp. in the online venture in 2009. This is the first time a major TV awards show is being made available online in its entirety.

Highlights from tonight’s 85th Academy Awards already will be available to watch online faster than ever. Oscar.com will put up buzzed-about musical performances, acceptance speeches and jokes almost instantly after they air live on ABC tonight. (You can watch them here.)

The live telecast remains the top priority for ABC as importance of televised live events that people want to watch in real time continues to grow in a DVR-dominated TV universe. It is ABC’s highest-rated telecast, and the network sold out this year’s Oscar ad inventory at $1.7-$1.8 million for a 30-second spot, the highest prices in five years.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/oscar-telecast-to-be-available-online-for-the-first-time/

I'd rather watch the Razzies!

TV Review
‘Burning Love,’ very much on fire
E! web-first series brilliantly spoofs the silliness of 'The Bachelor'
By Tom Conroy, Media Life Magazine

As an economist could tell us, resources aren’t always efficiently distributed. In comedy, this means that sometimes a low-budget series on the web can feature better writing and acting than something produced for a big cable or broadcast network.

“Burning Love,” a web-first series that is going to be airing on E! starting Monday, Feb. 25, at 10 p.m., is a spot-on spoof of “The Bachelor” that boasts an excellent cast of comedy pros and a production that shows no sign of budget constraints. Whereas most TV sketches run out of energy after a few minutes, “Burning Love” builds steadily through its half-hour and will leave most viewers eager to see who will go home brokenhearted next week.

The series opens with a scene from “last season on ‘Burning Love,’ ” in which its bachelor, Joe (Ben Stiller, who is one of the show’s executive producers), proposes to Symphony (Christine Taylor), who demands to see the ring while he tries to kiss her. Then we meet this season’s bachelor, Mark Orlando (Ken Marino), a firefighter whom we see sliding down a fire pole and posing in front of a burning building, wearing suspenders and a helmet but no shirt.

After Mark tells us that he’s looking for “Someone who can make me laugh but isn’t afraid of robots,” the show’s host (Michael Ian Black) then sets up Mark to welcome the 16 women from whom he may choose a wife. Although the bachelorettes are predictably outrageous, they’re not that far removed from some of the extreme cases who have appeared on various seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” in the last decade.

Mandy (Kristen Bell), a veterinarian’s assistant from Hawaii, introduces herself by saying, “I hope you don’t mind that I’m already in a committed relationship — with God.” Lexie (Beth Dover), a district attorney whom we’ve already seen posing in a bridal gown, recites Mark’s social-security number, adding, “I know a lot about you.”

Mocking the penchant of “The Bachelor” for including “diverse” candidates with no hope of winning, “Burning Love” features Agnes (Helen Slayton-Hughes), an 84-year-old grandmother; Tamara P. (Carla Gallo), a blind photographer; and Ballerina (Ken Jeong), an Asian-American transvestite.

Some aspects of “The Bachelor” need little exaggeration to be ridiculed, such as the constant banal sound bites in which the women say how nervous they are and Mark says how tough the decision will be. The very nervous Julie (June Diane Raphael) tries to introduce herself with a quote from “a very wise man” that she immediately forgets. At the cocktail party preceding the first elimination, the women keep cutting in on one another and asking if they can borrow Mark for a minute.

Vivian (Morgan Walsh), a pregnant flight attendant who’s “on sabbatical,” has just enough time to ask Mark how the schools are where he lives.

“This is so unbelievable,” Mark tells the camera. “I feel like one of these women could end up being my wife, or at least my fiancée. For a while.”

Not all of the jokes are subtle. Since Mark is a fireman, instead of choosing his favorites via a rose ceremony, he has a “hose ceremony,” at which he asks each woman, “Will you accept my hose?”

The actors, who all capture the obtuseness or hysteria of the typical relationship-show cast, range from vaguely familiar to downright famous. One cameo will have TV casting directors turning green with envy.

“Burning Love” offers its lesser-known performers a chance to shine and its stars a chance to cut loose. They’re having fun, so we do too. Viewers should accept Mark’s hose.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/burning-love-very-much-on-fire/

TV Sports
Fox coverage of Daytona 500: More than passable
By Michael Hiestand, USA Today - Feb. 24, 2013

Fox's Darrell Waltrip, in the Daytona 500 prerace show Sunday, predicted "more eyeballs will be watching this race than ever before."

Possibly. And if that proves out in the TV ratings, with Jimmie Johnson's late push to get the victory, it's partly because Fox got lucky well before the race even started. But give the network credit: It also didn't blow it on race coverage.

Fox had promised not to overdo coverage of Danica Patrick, who finished eighth after her historic pole-winning start. That storyline gave Fox a publicity bonanza last week.

The race announcers Sunday -- Waltrip, Mike Joy and Larry McReynolds -- rarely mentioned Patrick during the first 60 laps and never really went overboard.

But then, it wasn't necessarily motivated solely by a passion for balanced coverage: Fox also has to sell lots of ad time to sponsors of other drivers -- who might not be thrilled if the network had turned Sunday's race into the Danica 500 or Go Daddy 500.

When Waltrip mentioned that Patrick hadn't lost race positions during a green-flag pit stop -- when she actually had -- it seemed more like an honest slip-up rather than some sort of effort at cheerleading for the biggest celebrity in the sport.

The only real Fox glitch with Patrick came after the race, when she wasn't asked about something even casual fans might have wondered: After hanging onto third place for most of the last 10 laps, did she sort of pull up in the last lap because cars had crashed and she anticipated a caution flag?

ESPN, of course, got in on the act -- as it does at every event whether it happens to be airing the action or not. Only minutes after Fox went off the air, ESPN had Patrick live in its on-site NASCAR Now studio. There Rusty Wallace asked this probing question: "Do you have any idea how good you looked today?"

Otherwise, Fox scored on the new wrinkles that will re-appear in its NASCAR coverage this season. Its Gyro-Cam, a stabilized camera showing viewers the driver's view of banked turns, gave a much better perspective than standard in-car shots.

Fox Sports president Eric Shanks, after the race, told USA TODAY Sports that he liked the shot and "Gyro-Cam is going to get really dialed in" on future coverage. Shanks also liked Fox putting a ground-level camera in the middle of the track -- giving viewers the look under cars as they zoomed by. The network had previously put such cameras just around the edge of the track.

"Those shots made me take a huge deep breath," Shanks said.

He also "loved so much" an overhead camera that zipped along the backstretch at speeds up to 85 miles per hour. But given it adds to the cost of coverage, he says, Fox will only look to use it at select tracks.

On last year's Daytona 500 coverage, Fox had just one commercial break that included side-by-side live action. In a long-overdue expansion of an idea that been kicked around for more than a decade, Fox offered several side-by-side ad breaks Sunday -- including all over the last 30 laps.

Fox did have one sequence (albeit unintentionally) that produced the most funny moment in the coverage. In the prerace show, Fox assigned Erin Andrews, who the network tries to include in all kinds of coverage since she left ESPN last summer, to take a sort of unscripted stroll through the pits. Using that casual approach brings risks, compared to the usual practice of being alongside interview subjects before going on-air.

Andrews reported that "the one cool thing about the Daytona 500 as we've been hanging out here is there are so many celebrities." Such as rapper 50 Cent, who appeared on-air and kissed Andrews, despite her efforts to bob and weave (although she avoided a direct hit to the lips). Then the pair went hunting for Patrick -- unsuccessfully.

The unscripted moment was more entertaining than hearing the umpteenth sound bite from America's celebrity-of-the-week.

As to Waltrip's prediction that this will be the most-watched Daytona, Fox probably won't break the record -- which comes with a big asterisk. The current record -- 19.4 million viewers for the 2006 race on NBC -- came when the Daytona 500 got a big lead-in and plenty of hype from the 2006 Winter Olympics, which surrounded the race.

But Sunday's Daytona 500 might come close to that record -- at the least, viewership should be way up from the 13.7 million for last year's race. It helps Fox going forward that superstars Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished first and second.

And Fox is on a roll. It is expected to announce, maybe as early as this week, that it has won TV basketball rights to the seven colleges that are leaving the Big East, including Georgetown and Marquette. That TV package will help provide on-air tonnage for the Fox Sports 1 general-interest cable sports channel that the network is expected to formally announce March 5.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2013/02/24/daytona-500-danica-patrick-darrell-waltrip-nascar-fox/1943449/

Critic's Notes
Oscar Host Seth MacFarlane Can't Please Everyone, but No One Could
By Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Bastard Machine' Blog - Feb. 24, 2013

The one thing that's important to remember when discussing the Academy Awards is that its relentless push to make the ceremony seem like the most important thing in the world is precisely what dooms its hosts. There is never 100 percent consensus that a host did a great job, or even that a host did a lousy job. But it's 100 percent true that this is the most over-analyzed three-hour job in Hollywood.

Despite what the Oscars thinks it means to the world, the fact remains that it's just an awards show. Nothing more. And that's why those who hosts, no matter the praise or the outcry, will live another day, even the infamous participants like Rob Lowe. It's why the modern-day nadir -- James Franco and Anne Hathaway -- means nothing a couple of years removed from the debacle. It means that as much as everybody loved Billy Crystal in his heyday, history also will forget the fact that he came back last year and seemed painfully out of place and out of time and the absolute wrong knee-jerk replacement to Eddie Murphy. Just as it forgets everything to do with what amounts to, in the judgment book, a trifle. And so let's not puff out our chests and bleat on too much about whether the host worked or not.

Because that is always a biased appraisal. And in week's time, it will mean nothing.

If anything, what this year's Academy Awards should be remembered for is a real mixed bag of winners, a triumphant victory for Argo that called into question Ben Affleck's directorial snub, a risky emphasis on song and dance and the surprise appearance of the first lady to read -- for the first time in history -- the best picture winner.

But the host is always the lightning rod. And you can be damn sure that the Academy got very, very lucky this year. It has been trying to skew younger for years, often with disastrous results (see: Franco, James). When they chose Seth MacFarlane, best known as the creator of Family Guy and about 63 other animated shows on Fox -- and the guy behind Ted, the talking bear on the big screen -- they must have known it was a polarizing choice. For starters, even people who love MacFarlane do so in part because he's fearless when skewering pop culture and has absolutely zero hesitation in crossing line after line of perceived good taste. Secondly, despite his high-profile awareness in the industry, the real world barely knows who he is. So giving him the reins was an almost unfathomable risk.

I knew the Oscars were going to be a hot topic when so many people -- who seemed to be waiting for MacFarlane to fall on his face -- thought he was a disaster when he showed up to announce the nominees. Guess what? He was far from it. He was fine. He was himself. Only Hollywood, with agendas to the left and right, could have taken that amazingly brief appearance from MacFarlane and tried to spin it into a disaster.

It wasn't. And neither was his hosting gig Sunday night. In fact, MacFarlane was relatively tame if you know anything at all about his canon, and he was respectful through and through. As a guy who can actually sing and has recorded a successful album (fueling more jealousy and backlash from his detractors), his pick was more spot-on than anyone gave the Academy credit for. But they did get lucky. He didn't give up, like Franco. He took the job extremely seriously and put himself out there. Ultimately, he excelled at balance. The red carpet coverage of the Oscars is a particularly heinous thing to endure if you're a journalist or truly despise vapid people, and this year's tongue-bath of fawning was not much different. To prove his many detractors wrong - those people who were criticizing MacFarlane before the show was anywhere near ready -- he could have come out and been obsequious in his praise of those participating. What he did, however, was mix in plenty of niceties with a little bit of the Ricky Gervais bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you thing and worked the juxtaposition rather nicely.

While live-blogging the show, I could easily tell those who hated MacFarlane before he said a word and those who were pleasantly surprised. At least the latter kept an open mind. But how do you win at these hosting gigs, anyway? Yes, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were wonderful at hosting the Golden Globes (credit MacFarlane for working them into a bit with William Shatner, as a figure from the future who points out how awful MacFarlane was at hosting). But so was Jimmy Kimmel at hosting the Emmys -- he killed in the room, and a lot of people thought he did a fantastic job, but many of the reviews were not supportive. The hosting gig is highly subjective. And who would think Kimmel did a great job if they don't watch is late-night show? In many ways, MacFarlane was even a far less known entity for the general public, and maybe they will ultimately choose to reject him. But for a guy who had the deck stacked against him before he started, MacFarlane did a surprisingly impressive job. Not everything worked; it never does for any host. But he had just the right amount of spice in the jokes to give a sting to the recipients (Mel Gibson, etc.) without crossing lines.

What might ultimately be more important as an argument is whether the decision to go with so much singing and dancing -- musical numbers galore -- was the right move. There's certainly a contingent who think that the core Oscar audience would be up for that kind of thing, where others (and I'll count myself among those who could have done with fewer numbers) might have opted out. But listen, at least the Oscars seemed to have a plan this time: Celebrate music and dance and don't look back. That was the strategy, just as the earliest decision was to name MacFarlane and not shrink from the chatter that followed.

Besides, if we can agree that the host, like a quarterback, gets too much credit and too much blame, the onus is really on whether the movies that year were any good, popular or engaging. This year there seemed to be a wildly divergent collection and, by the end of award season, few clear slam dunks (Daniel Day-Lewis and Anne Hathaway to name two) and with the potential for surprises everywhere. Now that's the kind of awards show you want: one that breeds indecision and allows for shocks and surprises, which is what happened this year.

I'll leave it to the movie experts to debate the winners and losers. But as a show, the heavy emphasis on musical numbers ultimately might be more important than the choice of the host. We'll have to wait until the ratings come in before looking at it in cold, hard numbers. But I'd argue that with the deck stacked very much against him, MacFarlane did impressively better than one would have wagered. But here, again, let's keep perspective. Next year, someone else will likely do it. And nobody will be talking about what MacFarlane got right or wrong. In fact, the only wrong here at all is putting too much importance on the host and not enough on the categories, nominees and winners.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bastard-machine/macfarlane-wins-at-oscar-hosting-424058

I haven't watched any of these awards shows. I have no interest in them.

Thanks to the internet I can now ignore them all and their endless musical numbers and predictable results and go straight to the funniest moments and most newsworthy awards.

We all have our priorities, I guess.

As usual, the Blockbusters were snubbed in favor of the 'Artsy" films the Academy pushes. The younger crowd will see through this and fall away. What good is an award show when, time and again they put in something to root for and it gets snubbed. It was "business as usual" for my DVD player last night.

You keep repeating this mantra without any evidence as to how any credible films were ignored. So come on, what amazing "blockbusters" were worthy? Ignoring the fact that a movie like Brave was a major hit and Django Unchained was a massive hit and Tarantino has never been out of favor with any demographic.

Just to help you out here are the top ten earners for last year:

1 Marvel's The Avengers
2 The Dark Knight Rises
3 The Hunger Games
4 Skyfall
5 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
6 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
7 The Amazing Spider-Man
8 Brave
9 Ted
10 Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

And in case you didn't know AMPAS is an acronym for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, so yeah, "arty" films usually get the attention because they demonstrate, you know, artistic value.

I get a laugh out of people who want the Acadamy Awards to accomodate to a TV broadcast. Yeah, let's give out awards for movies based on what some 18 year old might tune in to watch ON TV.

I use a Mac at home. I suffer with a PC at work.

Technically a Mac is a PC. Keep in mind that PC means Personal Computer, It doesn't mean Windblows, even though many think that it does.

So, a PeeCee can run Linux, Unix, Mac OS (which is Unix) or Windblows.

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Feb. 25, 2013

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
Jeanette (Abby Elliott) and Ted (Josh Radnor) split up, with an exchange of precious possessions that also includes some precious exchanges. “Here's your grandmother's ring,” she tells him. Stunned and afraid, he replies, “She was buried wearing this.” And afterward, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) tries to help by consulting his playbook — the one that was supposed to be destroyed.

BEYONCE: LIFE IS BUT A DREAM
HBO, 8:00 p.m.
A week ago, the premiere of this HBO special drew 1.8 million viewers – for HBO, the most popular documentary since it adjusted its audience-measuring methods almost a decade ago. Just to put it in perspective, that’s three times the audience for HBO’s Girls. Then again Beyoncé knows all about being more popular as a solo than with other girls – though Destiny’s Child did reunite for the Super Bowl.

DALLAS
TNT, 9:00 p.m. ET
Two more episodes before this series addresses the sudden death of J.R. Ewing, necessitated by the equally sudden death of the iconic actor who played him, Larry Hagman. In the meantime, the other veteran vast members from the original series are beginning to rally, and share scenes together. Tonight, look for Bobby and Sue Ellen – Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray – to step forward. Next week, former Dallas and Knots Landing co-star Ted Shackelford shows up as brother Gary.

THE STAIRCASE
Sundance, 10:00 p.m. ET
Part 8. This is the “Verdict” installment of this series – the final chapter of this true-life murder story when this documentary miniseries was televised in 2005. But there’s more to come. The next two weeks, Sundance will show two new installments, updating the story as a special mini-sequel. So catch up now, and stay tuned.

INSIDE COMEDY
Showtime, 11:00 p.m. ET
Season 2 of this excellent talk show about comedy snuck up on me – why Showtime is relegating it to an 11 p.m. ET time slot is beyond me, since the season’s new shows already have featured the likes of Louis C.K., Tina Fey and Bob Newhart. Tonight’s new episode features host David Steinberg talking comedy with two more veterans of the form: Drew Carey and Martin Mull. I’m a big fan of Carey’s Cleveland-set sitcom The Drew Carey Show, and an even bigger one of Mull’s classic faux talk show, Fernwood 2Night, with sidekick Fred Willard. So I’ll be watching.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/

* * * *

TV Notes
General Hospital: Five Decades and It's Just Getting Started
By Ed Martin, TVWorthWatching.com - Feb. 25, 2013

General Hospital will mark its 50th anniversary in April. I’ll be marking my 35th anniversary as a steady GH viewer just a couple of months after that. One year ago, I was almost certain that neither anniversary would come to pass, what with the show in a death spiral after more than ten years of dreadful mob-based stories that had gutted virtually everything that had once been wonderful about it and turned it into a bargain basement version of The Sopranos.

Not to mention grievous mismanagement on the part of ABC Daytime, which had seen fit to cancel the network’s two other signature soap operas and seemed to be gunning for GH, as well. And while it was sad to see the somewhat played-out All My Children go, and distressing to see the still very vital One Life to Live die, it was damn near impossible to muster up any true outrage over the seemingly inevitable end of GH, because it had been so terrible for so long.

If you had told me in early 2012 that one year later I would once again be relishing GH the way I did in the Seventies and Eighties, and for much of the Nineties, I might have suggested that you were in need of a long rest. Like millions of other people, I was certain GH was a goner, and I wasn’t all that conflicted about it, since in many ways it had been dead for quite some time.

But with GH having been, during the last twelve months, in the very capable hands of executive producer Frank Valentini (far left) and head writer Ron Carlivati (left), the two people who were largely responsible for OLTL being as much fun as it was during its final years on ABC, something borderline miraculous has happened: It is once again pulsing with dramatic, romantic and sometimes humorous stories about the people who work at the title institution and their families and friends, many of them caught up in adventures involving larger-than-life villains, the likes of which once were a staple on the show. Refreshingly, there hasn’t been a mob-based story in months.

Much of the excitement surrounding GH at the moment has to do with the bumper crop of veteran characters that Valentini and Carlivati have brought back to the show, almost always in grand fashion, and never with the complete disregard for the history of legacy characters shown by previous production regimes, not to mention disrespect for viewers who had invested years in their past stories. The cavalcade of returning fan favorites in advance of the show’s 50th anniversary celebration has been glorious to see.

A.J. Quartermaine (Sean Kanan, right) has returned, undoing the corrosive impact of a particularly dreadful story six years ago that seemed to end with his death, and thrusting the long-sidelined Q family back into the spotlight. Felicia Jones is back, reunited with her former boyfriend Mac Scorpio and her troubled daughter, Maxie. Her secret agent ex-husband Frisco Jones is back as well, awkwardly attempting to reconnect with his ex-wife and daughter after shutting them out for almost 20 years. Duke Lavery is back from the dead (he was actually in a Turkish prison) and after a false start, courtesy of the veteran super-villain Cesar Faison, is trying to rekindle his relationship with former super-spy Anna Devane. (The Faison fondue face melt was an instant classic moment the likes of which this show hasn’t delivered in decades.)

There have been appearances by Robert Scorpio, Holly Sutton, Noah Drake, Kevin Collins, Skye Quartermaine and Scotty Baldwin. The returns of Bobbie Spencer and Audrey Hardy are right around the corner, hopefully with Lesley Webber in tow. Murderous Eighties super-loon Heather Webber is now an integral part of the narrative, as is long-time vamp Lucy Coe. Even the long-absent Laura Spencer has returned to town. She was, in fact, reunited with ex-husband Luke outside the ship-turned-floating nightclub the Haunted Star, which they once owned. The actors who play Luke and Laura, Anthony Geary and Genie Francis (at left), have lost none of the chemistry that made them pop-culture superstars more than three decades ago.

The show is suddenly loaded with fresh details from past storylines that may be a bit jarring to newer viewers, but have long-time fans smiling from ear to ear. Like the Pickle-Lila relish with which the late Lila Quartermaine once saved the fading fortunes of ELQ, and the Ice Princess diamond that brought the Cassadine family onto the canvas and kicked off the legendary story about the weather machine that caused a blizzard to cripple Port Charles in the summer of 1981. If Luke and Laura pay a visit to Beecher’s Corners or run into Hutch the Hit Man, the old-timers in their aging fan base just might expire from nostalgia overload.

Even as they have thoroughly revitalized it, Valentini and Carlivati have skillfully used GH to keep alive their previous series, One Life to Live, having brought three characters (Todd Manning [Roger Howarth, left], John McBain and Starr Manning) from it to GH on a full-time basis, and three others (Cole Thornhart, Blair Cramer and Tea Delgado) in limited capacities. With the exception of Cole, who came and went in two episodes before he was “killed,” they have all brought a great deal to what has been their new home, all the while keeping other OLTL characters alive through conversations they have with each other and the new people in their lives. This has been a bold experiment and a surprisingly satisfying one, though much of it is in jeopardy now that Prospect Park has reactivated OLTL as an online series and is staking claim to its characters. (Prospect Park has suggested in a statement that it will agree to share the Todd, John and Starr characters with GH as scheduling permits.)

As if fixing past mistakes and making essential corrections to GH and keeping OLTL alive aren’t challenges enough, Valentini and Carlivati have also taken it upon themselves to address the madness that surrounded the 1997-2003 GH spin-off Port Charles, an epic fail of a show that in its later years added vampires and other supernatural entities to its canvas in a desperate attempt to attract new viewers, only to drive away the few it had left. Caleb Morley, the villainous head vampire on that series, has resurfaced on GH, and because he was played by Michael Easton (right), the same actor who played Det. John McBain on OLTL and has continued the role on GH, the writers are having a field day with the old mistaken identity thing. It looks as if Caleb will be exposed as a simple serial killer and cult leader who made it look as though he was a vampire, but I’m not sure how Valentini and Carlivati will explain away the near-insanity of Lucy Coe as a manic vampire slayer, or Sam McCall's resemblance to Livvie Locke, or the death ten years ago of Scott Baldwin’s daughter Karen in some kind of supernatural scenario.

For all the wonderful surprises they have brought to the show, and despite having once again made it an essential five-day-week viewing experience, not everything Valentini and Carlivati have done has been worth shouting about. For example, consider the strange story of Maxie Jones (Kirsten Storms, left), which so far hasn’t worked on any level. Maxie was a surrogate for her friends Lulu and Dante, but lost their baby on New Year’s Eve, and then in her grief had sex just a few hours after her miscarriage with her ex-boyfriend Damian Spinelli. Now she’s pregnant again and trying to pass off her pregnancy as the one initiated for Dante and Lulu, ostensibly to keep everyone happy, including Spinelli, who is deeply in love with another woman. But she’s setting Dante and Lulu up for massive heartbreak down the road once the medical history of the baby’s parents inevitably comes into play, and she’s preventing sweet Spinelli from experiencing the joys of impending fatherhood. She was being blackmailed by the evil Dr. Britt Westbourne (so far a very poorly developed character), who threatened to expose her secret if Maxie didn’t do her bidding, which involved destroying the career of innocent young nurse Sabrina Santiago, but the visiting Frisco put a stop to that. Nothing about this story has been all that interesting or entertaining.

And speaking of stories that don’t feel quite right, I can’t help but wonder why there has been no mention of the late Edward Quartermaine’s illegitimate son, Jimmy Lee Holt, in the ongoing drama over Edward’s estate. Jimmy Lee was a big part of Edward’s life -- for a while, anyway. This oversight doesn’t wash with the show’s sudden rich respect for its history. I keep waiting for Monica Quartermaine to ask, “What about Jimmy Lee?” After all, he had a torrid affair with her cousin, Lorena Sharpe.

Still, these are relatively minor quibbles given the big fun that GH now provides almost every day of the week. I’m already wondering what Valentini and Carlivati will do with it once they wrap up the sweeping stories of the Nurses Ball and the return of Caleb Morley. I’m hoping they might continue to work their magic at reviving past characters and repairing the damage done to them by previous writing teams.

As I have mentioned before, I would like to see them bring Emily Quartermaine and Georgie Jones back from the beyond, mainly because the serial killer storyline in which these once important characters were killed off was so bloody pointless. (Emily is a no-brainer, as she briefly returned in the form of Rebecca, an unconvincing long-lost twin nobody knew she had. Georgie might take a little more work.) Having Alan Quartermaine (Stuart Damon, right) also return from the dead might be too much to ask for, but at least we have occasional visits from his spirit or ghost to remind us of how much he brought to the show (and how much the show lost when he left). And I would be thrilled if they could somehow correct the legendary Rick Webber mess from 2002.

Just thinking about everything that has happened on GH in recent months, and everything yet to come as its special anniversary storylines play out, is enough to make one’s head spin. I’m not sure what anyone who has come to the show during the last ten years might make of the tsunami of nostalgia currently washing over it, but those of us who have been around for the long haul can only be delighted. There is literally something for anyone who has watched GH during any of the last five decades, not to mention fans of OLTL and Port Charles. Talk about a long tail. GH today is the finest example of something that only broadcast television can do — that is, tell a story that lasts for 50 years and yet feels like it’s just getting started.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/BlogPostDetails.aspx?postId=4347

SUNDAY'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 (18-49)
‘Amazing Race’ is tops opposite Oscars
Averages a 1.8 in adults 18-49, off 28 percent from last week
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Feb. 25, 2013

With ABC airing the Academy Awards last night, the other networks were largely in reruns.

CBS was the only Big Four network that aired an original show, “The Amazing Race.”

Not surprisingly “Race” was broadcast’s highest-rated show against the awards program, though it sunk to a series-low rating.

“Race” averaged a 1.8 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, falling 28 percent from last week’s season premiere.

The dip was, of course, no surprise since the show aired against a half hour of red carpet coverage and the first half hour of the ceremony on ABC.

But it was easily the top non-Oscars program on the Big Four. The No. 2 show was a repeat of Fox’s “Family Guy,” the program created by Seth MacFarlane, who hosted the Oscars on ABC.

Ratings for the Oscars won’t be available until later today, and Media Life will post them as soon as they are available. The very early numbers indicate the show bettered last year’s rating in 18-49s.

ABC was first for the night among 18-49s with a 10.1 average overnight rating and a 25 share. Fox was second at 1.3/3, CBS third at 1.1/3, NBC and Univision tied for fourth at 0.8/2 and Telemundo sixth at 0.4/1.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback, which includes shows replayed before 3 a.m. the night before. Seven-day DVR data won’t be available for several weeks. Forty-seven percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 7 p.m. ABC was first with a 5.8 for Oscars red carpet coverage, followed by CBS with a 1.3 for “60 Minutes.” Fox was third with a 1.1 for repeats of “Bob’s Burgers” and “The Cleveland Show,” NBC fourth with a 0.8 for “Dateline,” Univision fifth with a 0.6 for “Aqui y Ahora” and Telemundo sixth with a 0.5 for the end of a Mexican league soccer match.

ABC increased its lead at 8 p.m. with an 11.5 for more red carpet and the first half hour of the Oscars, while CBS remained second with a 1.8 for “Race.” Fox was third with a 1.5 for reruns of “The Simpsons” and “Cleveland Show,” Univision fourth with a 0.9 for “Lo Qu Mas Quieres,” NBC fifth with a 0.8 for repeats of “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers” and Telemundo sixth with a 0.3 for the movie “Jade Warrior.”

ABC led again at 9 p.m. with a 12.1 for the Oscars, with Univision second with a 0.9 for more “Quieres.” Fox was third with a 1.4 for repeats of “Guy” and “American Dad.” CBS and NBC tied for fourth at 0.7, CBS for a repeat of “The Mentalist” and NBC for a “Saturday Night Live” clip special, and Telemundo was sixth with a 0.4 for the end of “Jade Warrior” and start of the movie “Death Race 2.”

At 10 p.m. ABC was first with an 11.1 for the Oscars, with NBC and Univision tied for second at 0.9, NBC for its “SNL” special and Univision for “Sal y Pimienta.” CBS was fourth with a 0.6 for a repeat of “The Good Wife” and Telemundo fifth with a 0.4 for its movie.

ABC also led the night among households with an 18.7 average overnight rating and a 28 share, with CBS second at a 3.6/5, NBC third at 1.8/3 and Fox fourth at 1.7/3. Household rating for the Spanish-language networks weren’t immediately available.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/amazing-race-is-tops-opposite-oscars/

No more Arrested Development

Netflix's 'Arrested Development' to Run Just One Season

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I'm sorry about that! Here's the article:


Netflix Inc. said there will be no subsequent seasons of "Arrested Development" after the company releases a slate of episodes of the cult hit in May.

At an investor conference Monday, Chief Executive Reed Hastings said the show would be a "one-off" and "non-repeatable" event for the Los Gatos, Calif., company. He didn't give further details, though a spokesman said it would be "extremely difficult to get the cast together."

Netflix is turning to exclusive shows such as the latest season of "Arrested Development" and the recently released "House of Cards" to help lift subscriber rolls and retain existing customers as it faces increasingly fierce competition from Amazon.com and Hulu. The streaming video-and-DVD-by-mail company will roll out a handful of original and exclusive shows to subscribers of its $8-per-month service.

"Arrested Development," which aired for three seasons on Fox, stars Jason Bateman and Will Arnett as members of a formerly well-to-do family. Despite critical acclaim and several awards, the show was canceled in 2006 as a result of low ratings.

Tech/Business Notes
Are Big Media Companies Too Lax About Mobile Streaming?
By David Lieberman, Deadline.com - Feb. 25, 2013

Needham & Co analyst Laura Martin says they are — and her new report making that case should rattle media execs. Martin thinks more deeply about corporate strategy and game theory than any analyst I know. And she warns traditional content providers that streaming infotainment companies including Google, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft and Vevo are shrewdly sneaking up on them by focusing on young people who like to watch videos on mobile devices including tablets and smartphones. The tech companies are “creating short-form premium videos that are difficult to monetize, and therefore largely ignored by incumbents,” who’d rather create hit TV shows, Martin says.

The big guns have to pay attention to conventional programming: Attractive shows help to keep pay TV subscribers attached to today’s high-priced packages. “Unbundling threatens up to 50% of the total revenue of the TV ecosystem,” Martin says. But media money follows time, and as mobile devices become more popular we could see “advertising share shifts away from TV and toward the new premium-video online ecosystem.” The big producers are “fighting over the 0-2% viewing growth pie rather than the 50% viewing growth pie.” Martin says that she’d “feel better” about the long term prospects for Big Media “if they were allocating 10% of their budget increases to short form premium video…designed to push young viewers toward their hit TV shows.”

http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/are-big-media-companies-too-lax-about-mobile-streaming/

Nielsen Notes
Oscars Climb to 40.3M, Draw Younger Viewers
By Tim Molloy, TheWrap.com - Feb. 25, 2013

In adjusted numbers, Sunday night's Oscars ceremony drew 40.3 million total viewers, its largest audience since 2010, and grew to a 13.0 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, an 11-percent improvement in the demo over last year.

The show performed particularly strongly with younger viewers -- which was no doubt the goal when "Family Guy" boss Seth MacFarlane was tapped to host this year -- growing 20 percent over last year among viewers 18-34 to an 11.3 rating, its highest performance in that demo since 2007.

Jimmy Kimmel's post-Oscars show also improved over last year, growing 15 percent in total viewers with 5.8 million -- making it the most-watched post-Oscars episode ever of Jimmy Kimmel Live" -- and 9 percent in the demo with 2 million viewers 18-49.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/are-big-media-companies-too-lax-about-mobile-streaming/

Washington/Legal Notes
FCC's Authority to Regulate Cable TV Competition Under Attack
By Eriq Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Hollywood Esq.' Blog - Feb. 25, 2013

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit could be on the verge of a big decision that limits the ability of the Federal Communications Commission to make decisions that promote competition and diversity in cable programming.

On Monday, the circuit judges reviewed an FCC decision that held that Comcast discriminated against the Tennis Channel by limiting the independent network to a premium sports tier instead of a more broadly distributed basic tier enjoyed by Comcast-owned sports networks, Golf Channel and Versus (which is now known as the NBC Sports Network). The FCC decision was cheered by Bloomberg LLC, a business channel that has similarly been at odds with Comcast over the media conglomerate's alleged favoring of CNBC.

But by most accounts of the Monday hearing, the D.C. Circuit was highly critical of the FCC's decision and appears ready to reverse it.

The FCC's decision, which became final last summer, came in the wake of Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal. Applying authority vested under the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, the FCC took the unprecedented step of ordering Comcast to pay a forfeiture of $375,000 and carry the Tennis Channel at the same level of distribution as Golf Channel and Versus.

Comcast appealed the ruling, arguing among other things that it represented a violation of the First Amendment in that the FCC order "dictates the content of protected speech and rewrites a private contract... It nullifies statutory requirements in order to insulate government-chosen speakers from competition."

On Monday, Comcast found sympathy from the judges on this argument.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh said the FCC "has a serious problem with the First Amendment," according to a report from Legal Times, The judge also expressed concern about ordering companies to "carry the speech they don't like."

Miguel Estrada, the attorney for Comcast, encouraged the other judges to see this viewpoint, comparing it to The New York Times being ordered to give the front page to a freelance reporter. He also blasted the FCC's decision as being "one of the most outrageous invasions of the First Amendment since the Sedition Act," the early 20th Century law that forbade abusive language directed towards the U.S. government.

In court papers, the FCC defended itself.

Tennis Channel’s ability to “compete fairly” was restrained in an unreasonable manner, the FCC's lawyers wrote. As for the First Amendment, the FCC argued that "the agency’s purpose -- to ensure that Comcast does not leverage its position in a way that unreasonably restrains Tennis Channel’s ability to compete -- is unrelated to the content of expression."

Comcast also attacked the FCC's decision on other grounds including that the agency had ignored market considerations such as whether it really had financial interest to discriminate. The media giant also wanted the agency to investigate how other cable and satellite distributors were treating the Tennis Channel.

If the appeals court reverses the FCC's decision and remands it for more reconsideration, it could be with broad direction that curtails the agency's broad authority to regulate competition. The appeals court also could strike the ruling on more technical grounds such as the fact that the Tennis Channel didn't file an objection until several years after it agreed to a sports tier in a 2005 contract and arguably past the statute of limitations.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/fccs-authority-regulate-cable-tv-424351

TV Notes
Amy Sherman-Palladino hopes 'Bunheads' gets a callback
The ABC Family show about a Las Vegas chorus girl's fresh start is about to finish its first season with no guarantee of a second.
By Meg James, Los Angeles Times - Feb. 25, 2013

Amy Sherman-Palladino is trying to get a scene just right.

She is directing the season finale of her show "Bunheads," an episode that could determine whether the ABC Family network returns the series for a second season. "Bunheads" is a sweet drama about a Las Vegas chorus girl starting over in a small town by teaching ballet. Sherman-Palladino, a classically trained dancer turned television writer, is trying to start over too.

The pivotal scene of this episode, which airs Monday night, is being filmed on location in Hollywood. The main character has just auditioned for a stage production only to discover that she might not have a shot. Her crushed expression, a look of rejection, captures the episode's emotional underpinnings.

But shooting is interrupted by laughter and shrieks of children playing outside.

"How do we get them to shut up?" Sherman-Palladino implores her startled crew. "C'mon, I'll pay them. Five bucks a kid, and I am not kidding. Welcome to Hollywood."

Sherman-Palladino, who garnered a cult following for her coming-of-age drama "Gilmore Girls,"started her career 23 years ago as a writer on ABC's raucous "Roseanne." Writers on the show were encouraged to "make the small big, and the big small." Life's little travails provided fodder. But television has changed dramatically in the last decade, and producing "Bunheads" has been an adjustment.

The rhythms are different. Sherman-Palladino had eight days to shoot an hour-long episode of "Gilmore Girls." Now she must pull together a "Bunheads" episode in seven days. Budgets for cable shows are much smaller than those for network shows and cable seasons often are interrupted by months-long hiatuses.

For "Gilmore Girls," Sherman-Palladino wrote episodes that consisted of three acts. Now episodes have six acts. Scenes have to be quicker and involve more action, and writers must devise ways to create tension before the end of each act to keep viewers hooked during extended commercial breaks.

Sherman-Palladino would write 75 pages of dialogue for a single episode of "Gilmore Girls," which was famous for witty, rapid-fire banter and frequent winks at pop culture. Sherman-Palladino writes 77 pages of dialogue for "Bunheads," but even then, episodes sometimes come in a little short.

"More plot now is pushed into shows," Sherman-Palladino told television writers last month. "If you look at the pilot of 'Roseanne,' it was about nothing. Somebody cut a finger, they had a fight. But it was a story, it was about a family and it was about love."

Now, Sherman-Palladino said, "The actual structure of television has changed." She worries that the demands for heightened drama, and more action, will take a toll.

"If you burn through all of your plot points in one episode, how do you get five years out of a show?" Sherman-Palladino asked. "Longevity is important for somebody with my Neiman bills."

"Bunheads" revolves around Michelle, who is in her mid-30s and struggling after her once-promising dance career stalls out in Las Vegas. During a night drenched in booze, Michelle marries a nerdy scientist and agrees to move with him to Paradise, his California hometown. By the end of the pilot, he is dead and Michelle must come to terms with her new role as a widow — and with her mother-in-law, who runs the dance studio. Michelle becomes a teacher for the "bunheads," a dance world term for ballerinas who wear their hair in tight buns.

"Bunheads" would be an ode to the world that she once hoped to inhabit — "I was supposed to be a dancer," she said — before she and a writing partner submitted some spec scripts and landed the gigs writing for "Roseanne." "It was just a fluke," she said. "They needed someone to write for the teeny-boppers. We were chicks, and we were cheap."

The ABC Family show was to be something of a comeback. After "Gilmore Girls," Sherman-Palladino's previous attempt was "The Return of Jezebel James," a half-hour Fox comedy that lasted just three episodes.

The star of "Bunheads" is Sutton Foster, who won two Tony Awards for her work on Broadway. The show was Foster's debut in a prominent TV role. Up to now, she had scant TV credits, appearing in three episodes of HBO's "Flight of the Conchords," an episode of NBC's "Law & Order: SVU" and singing opposite Elmo on "Sesame Street."

Sherman-Palladino had just sold the concept for "Bunheads" to ABC Family in 2011 when she saw Foster perform in "Anything Goes," which earned Foster her second Tony. Sherman-Palladino began to envision her for the lead of "Bunheads."

Both show and star won attention. Amid a burst of publicity, the launch of "Bunheads" last summer was praised by critics for stretching beyond ABC Family's traditional fare. More than 1.6 million viewers watched the pilot in June, including 250,000 teenage girls, according to Nielsen ratings data.

But after 10 episodes, "Bunheads" went on a network-imposed hiatus. When it returned last month, the show had lost ratings momentum. It now averages just more than 1 million viewers an episode.

ABC Family executives have not decided whether to bring "Bunheads" back for a second season. They were encouraged by an uptick in younger viewers, particularly as stories centered on the younger "bunhead" characters. Some wonder whether older characters, along with the breathless dialogue and cultural history references — recent episodes have been titled "I'll Be Your Meyer Lansky" and "There's Nothing Worse Than a Pantsuit" — have missed the mark with the channel's target audience of viewers under age 34.

Scenes for the season finale were shot on a chilly February day at the United Methodist Church in Hollywood. Sherman-Palladino was well acquainted with the space. Years ago, it was a premiere venue for dance auditions. She spent hours there waiting for her chance.

This time it was Michelle who was going through a cattle call to win a part she hopes will revive her career. Undercurrents of rejection laced the episode.

"It comes from life," Sherman-Palladino explained later. "You wake up and you get rejected. You walk outside, and you get rejected. You smile at the nice young man and he looks at you like you are 110 and a troll."

Sherman-Palladino and Foster are grappling with not knowing whether ABC Family will bring back the show. They are striving for what's most elusive in show business: success and longevity. "This could be the last job, the last moment," Sherman-Palladino said. "This could be it."

Foster asked Sherman-Palladino how her character would develop in a Season 2: "Will Michelle ever find success?"

Sherman-Palladino hesitated, then said: "She's going to find a different way to measure success."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-bunheads-sherman-palladino-20130225,0,422621,full.story

TV Review
Redefining Women’s Work
By Anita Gates, The New York Times - Feb. 26, 2013

Gloria Steinem is the star. She always was.

We see her in “Makers: Women Who Make America,” with her center-parted, straight, chest-length streaked hair; her aviator glasses; her youth; and her ravishing common sense, as a founder of Ms. Magazine. And there she is again, now in her late 70s, looking back on things with a philosophical, wearily amused clarity: “It was heady and exciting and naïve, imagining that if we just explained it to people, that it was so unjust, that surely it would change.”

“Makers,” a three-hour documentary on PBS stations on Tuesday, is the story of the last 50 years of the American women’s movement, from the publication of Betty Friedan’s book “The Feminine Mystique,” which reassured housewives and mothers that they had good reason to feel unfulfilled, to the paradoxes of 2013.

Most of us have seen the old television commercials before, those 1950s ads that marketed products by telling women how stupid and disappointing they were. So, in the beginning, this program feels like old news (one generation has seen it all before, and the other doesn’t care), but the narrative quickly comes together and still has the power to astound.

None of Oprah Winfrey’s words of wisdom are as memorable as the story about her television job in Baltimore, where she was paid $22,000 a year, and her male co-host $50,000. Nora Ephron, who died in June, notes that the initial act of feminism for many women was their first divorce. Hillary Rodham Clinton appears and shares her opinions, but not nearly often enough. (The show’s Web site, makers.com, is chock-full of additional, often fascinating interviews.)

Some of the old film and videotapes have not been shown widely in a while, and the 1973 battle-of-the-sexes tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs looks strangely out of the Eisenhower era. But then the look of real life always did lag a decade or so behind movie images. The shocker is the 1967 Boston Marathon, then an all-male event. Its director reacts to a woman who had entered (using her first initial in registering) by running into the street and trying to remove her physically himself. Seriously. There are pictures.

Women have made progress, as we know, so the show’s more mature talking heads, reflecting on their experiences, include corporate chief executives, Supreme Court justices and powerful politicians, as well as authors, actresses and one coal miner.

They are joined by younger leaders, some of whom display brilliant logic. Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, recalls her brother-in-law mentioning that he was baby-sitting. “Dude, you’re not baby-sitting,” she told him. “You’re the father.” But Marissa Mayer, the chief executive of Yahoo, says she is not a feminist because she doesn’t have that “militant drive” or a “chip on her shoulder.”

Eleanor Holmes Norton urges us not to worry about the next generation of women, concluding, “They are not about to march back.” But the third hour of “Makers” deals with a present reality that includes campaigns to recriminalize abortion and even deny women access to birth control.

It all makes me miss Bella Abzug.

MAKERS: WOMEN WHO MAKE AMERICA
On PBS stations on Tuesday night (check local listings).

http://tv.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/arts/television/makers-women-who-make-america-on-pbs.html?ref=television&_r=0

TV Review
The Battlegrounds of Love and War
By Dorothy Rabinowitz, Wall Street Journal - Feb. 26, 2013

As no admirer of "Parade's End" will dispute, the Ford Madox Ford tetralogy never won much of a readership. The reasons aren't difficult to fathom. Demandingly cumbersome, with a narrative that lurches back and forth with impossible suddenness—a feature that brought Ford acclaim for a kind of breakthrough modernism—the novels are a challenge. They are also and above all works of extraordinary psychological depth, the products of a novelist who saw human nature with the keenest—the coldest—of eyes and created characters accordingly. To know this is to grasp all the better the size of Tom Stoppard's triumph in this adaptation, which delivers those Fordian characters in full voice. Not to mention a narrative of wonderfully un-Fordian cohesiveness.

No character emerges in fuller voice, for all his silence, than the novel's hero, Christopher Tietjens (Benedict Cumberbatch), son of a Yorkshire country gentleman, who clings stubbornly to old values—as Tietjens saw the world, you didn't talk about your feelings or, for that matter, think about them. He's a believer in monogamy, he flatly asserts, and he holds the view, as well, that any man who divorces his wife is a rotter—a great many pronouncements for a man otherwise of few words. These—in particular his opinion on divorcing a wife—have been wrested from him by circumstance.

He'd been tricked into marriage after a brief encounter with the beautiful and soulless socialite Sylvia (Rebecca Hall), the ceaselessly disparaging virago of a wife who will haunt his life. She had been impregnated by someone else, as even Tietjens strongly suspects—and says as much to his close friend, on the way to the wedding ceremony. Still, for all his grimness, the groom-to-be recalls the fire of that first sexual encounter with Sylvia—it took place on a passenger train—and that there was something magnificent about the woman.

Moment after moment the drama deepens, the rich complexity of Ford's characters make themselves felt in all their strangeness and variety. Nowhere more compellingly, perhaps, than in the case of Sylvia, a conniver and liar bored with all the world, not least with the husband whose very work she cannot bear, she says—he's employed by the Imperial Department of Statistics. There he sits making corrections to an encyclopedia, she shrieks—a sight that fills her with such rage she hurls crockery at him.

It isn't his work, of course, that Sylvia can't stand in her husband. It's her sure sense of the decency in him, his trustworthiness and principles—powers that keep her in thrall to him, that make the lovers she runs off with for a few days look like fools and undesirables, that send her running home to Tietjens. All this she clearly recognizes without losing a trace of the malign disposition that drives her to wreak havoc on his life.

It is that life that is the core of this saga, set in the years prior to, and through, the Great War. Part of the story and one or two of its characters roughly mirror those in Ford's own notably complicated personal life, replete with affairs and devoted mistresses. The same could hardly be said of his hero, Tietjens, forever loyal to the young suffragette Valentine (Adelaide Clemens), who wins his heart.

With every passing scene—whether at home, comforting the child who is probably not his but whom he dearly loves (unlike Sylvia, who despises her son), or at the front, amid the horrors of the trenches—it becomes harder to imagine a more perfect Tietjens than the one Mr. Cumberbatch provides. As Ford conceived him he was a man of few words, whose intense emotional life lay hidden from the world. In Mr. Cumberbatch's Tietjens, that inner world is on eloquent display at every turn, wordlessly for the most part. It's a portrayal enchanting in its delicacy, moving in its passion and one—like the series itself—unfailing in its power.

PARADE's END
Begins Tuesday, Feb. 26, at 9 p.m. on HBO, and continues Wednesday and Thursday at 9 p.m.

* * * *

"Golden Boy" looks, at first sight, like one of those happy novelties that sometimes come along in television—in this case, a police series, created by Nicholas Wootten, whose tone and characters aren't instantly predictable. That it's a lot more than that novelty—an imaginative enterprise distinguished by skillful writing, with a cast to match, reveals itself quickly. The impressively explosive opening scene, involving extraordinary heroism by a young patrolman, sets the stage for the story to come. On the job for just three months, beat cop Walter Clark (Theo James) is, by way of reward, promoted to the rank of detective and offered the assignment of his choice. He chooses the Homicide Task Force, to the consternation of veteran detectives who view him as presumptuous and unready.

This choice we learn, via periodic flash-forwards to the future, had begun the career of the man who would become the youngest police commissioner in New York City. Here he is, telling the story of his rise to a reporter. So persuasive is the semidocumentary tone, viewers not up to speed on New York's police commissioners could well come away with the impression that Clark had been one of them.

It would be hard to mind if he had been. Clark is an immensely appealing character, portrayed altogether convincingly by Mr. James. (Viewers of "Downton Abbey," season one, caught a glimpse of him as Mr. Pamuk, the devilishly handsome Turkish visitor whose uninvited night visit to Lady Mary's bedroom nearly ruined her life—and, of course, ended his own.)

Young Detective Clark's life is burdened by interesting family problems—not least a troubled younger sister, Agnes (Stella Maeve), who's keeping dangerous company and for whom he's assumed responsibility—and memories of his drug-addicted mother, who abandoned her children.

His life on the job is complicated by the hostility of fellow Detective Arroyo (an admirably menacing Kevin Alejandro). It's enhanced, in important ways, by the stern fatherly guidance of his soon-to-retire partner, Detective Owen, played by Chi McBride, who brings a refreshing edge to this stock character.

"Golden Boy" is packed with fine performances, but no amount of actorly talent could have done for this series what its intelligently twisty plots, its nuanced dialogue bearing a distinct resemblance to human exchange—even from the mouths of TV police detectives—has done.

GOLDEN BOY
Begins Tuesday, Feb. 26, at 10 p.m. on CBS.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323549204578317973458049146.html

Nielsen Notes (Cable)
Discovery Hits Friday Primetime High With ‘Gold Rush’ Finale & ‘Yukon Men’ Premiere
By Dominic Patten, Deadline.com - Feb. 25, 2013

The Discovery Channel ended last week on a high. Thanks to its big hit Gold Rush and Yukon Men, the network saw its highest rated Friday primetime ever with a 2.18 in the Adult 25-54 demographic. Discovery renewed Gold Rush for a fourth season on Friday just before the season finale aired.

Coming in at number one on cable on February 22, Discovery’s night was fuelled by the third season finale of Gold Rush at 8 PM. The two-hour Gold Rush Live pulled in 2.53 among the 25-54 demo. Overall, the mining reality show got 4.46 million viewers on Friday. Following that, the second season debut of Yukon Men got a 1.44 among the 25-54 demo for a series high. The return of the Alaska-based unscripted series was seen by a total audience of 2.6 million at 10 PM. Before February 22, the highest end of week primetime for Discovery was on January 18th when the network scored a 1.91. On that night last month, Gold Rush pulled in a 2.7/0 and Bering Sea Gold got a 1.6/2 in the 25-54 demo. The previous high was on February 3, 2012 when Discovery’s primetime got a 1.86 in the demo.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/tv-ratings-discovery-channel-hits-friday-primetime-high-gold-rush-finale-yukon-men-premiere/

TV Notes
‘Golden Boy,’ CBS playing it safe
The latest in a long line of procedurals on the network
By Bill Cromwell, Media Life Magazine - Feb. 25, 2013

One in a series of Media Life previews of new midseason shows.

Show
CBS’s “Golden Boy”

Timeslot
Fridays at 9 p.m.; premieres Tuesday, Feb. 26 at 10 p.m.

Plot summary
Walter William Clark Jr. (Theo James) is a smart, hard-working cop who will one day go on to become New York City’s youngest police commissioner, as an early flash-forward shows. Right now, though, he’s just been promoted to homicide detective, becoming the youngest guy in the department.

He’s been paired with Don Owen (Chi McBride), a veteran who’s two years shy of retirement and proves a valuable mentor to Clark.

Clark clashes with other co-workers, like the morally questionable Christian Arroyo (Kevin Alejandro), while trying to maintain a sane home life that includes caring for his younger sister, Agnes.

Greg Berlanti (“Everwood”) and Nicholas Wootton (“NYPD Blue”) are the show’s executive producers.

Outlook
Friday has been a brutal night for new CBS shows this season, with two new programs being canceled after just two episodes.

“Golden Boy” seems like a better quality program than “Made in Jersey” or “The Job,” the two previously axed shows. But “Boy” will have to show ratings potential to earn a spot on the schedule next fall, where it would presumably replace the fading “CSI: NY.”

“Boy” is getting a tryout in the “CSI: NY” timeslot after the latter aired an early season finale last week.

The show fits the traditional CBS mold. It’s a procedural with a male protagonist, and like “Blue Bloods,” the show it will air before on Fridays, it’s got a family aspect lacking from many cop dramas.

The problem is that “Boy” could be too generic to draw a following on Fridays, when TV viewing is minimal to begin with.

CBS is attempting to drum up interest in the show by airing two sneak preview episodes on Tuesday at 10 p.m. this week and next. It will get a sizeable lead-in from “NCIS: Los Angeles” that should lead to good sampling.

But keeping up that momentum on Friday will be the real test of whether “Boy” returns next spring or if “CSI: NY” comes back for a 10th and likely final season.

“CSI: NY” has averaged a 1.4 adults 18-49 Nielsen rating this season. If “Boy” can do better, it should get renewed.

What media people are saying
Buyers are most concerned about “Boy’s” tough timeslot. Friday night scripted series are always a dicey idea, and already this fall CBS has had a legal drama fail on the night, “Made in Jersey,” which lasted only two outings.

Plus the network was forced to bring back “Undercover Boss” from hiatus earlier than expected after its midseason replacement, “The Job,” flopped.

“Boss” is “Boy’s” lead-in, and its early return means that CBS may not have enough original episodes of the reality show to avoid airing repeats, which would result in a weaker lead-in for the new drama.

Still, media people applaud CBS for continuing to schedule scripted dramas on Friday.

“I think it’s an interesting concept and sounds like it would fit in as a lead-in to ‘Blue Bloods.’ The night and time period, however, are just generically tough, so I think a lot could depend on whether or not the network will be running original or repeats of lead-in ‘Undercover Boss,’ particularly as they had to bring it back sooner than expected,” says David Scardino, entertainment specialist at the Santa Monica, Calif., agency RPA.

Our TV critic’s take
“Fans of CBS’s usual procedure-heavy procedurals will likely tire of all the personal drama, while fans of the psychologically complex series that this show is trying to imitate will probably find it too straightforward.”
– Tom Conroy, Media Life

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/golden-boy-cbs-playing-it-safe/