Austin360 blogs > TV Blog > Archives > 2005 > January
January 2005
Jacko’s really big show
The judge has ruled that no cameras will be allowed in the courtroom, but Michael Jackson’s trial for child molestation is going to be a television spectacle anyway.
Isn’t it odd that the trial, which begins today with jury selection, debuts during the February sweeps? The King of Pop’s sense of showmanship has no limits!
With nearly 1,000 credentialed members of the press on hand, the trial in an otherwise sleepy little town near Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County is going to be covered excessively by cable news and heavily by everybody else. Even the allegedly tasteful broadcast newscasts will drop in on the proceedings from time to time.
When cameras are barred from the courtroom, sketch artists take over on visuals, and reporters from all over the world will be describing the trial from their curbside perches.
Unlike the O.J. Simpson trial, which aired live on Court TV from start to dramatic finish, the Jackson trial, which is likely to carry on for five or six months, will not be a trashy, long-running, live “news” event.
But thanks to E! Entertainment, the cable network that gives us “True Hollywood Stories” and “True Hollywood Scandals,” has promised a brand-new take on the celebrity trial. Every day (excluding the current weeks of tedious jury selection), E! will have actors re-creating the day’s events.
Using court transcripts, the actors will present the prosecution and defense, presumably with Jackson’s eerily reconstructed, lily-white face looking on.
No word on who’s playing whom in the E! freak-umentary. Wouldn’t you love to sit in on the casting call for The Michael Lookalike? Wanted: 46-year-old male with a ghostlike countenance and a look of perpetual surprise.
Dave’s tribute to Johnny
David Letterman returns from his week-long, presweeps vacation tonight and will pay tribute to his friend and mentor, Johnny Carson, who died Jan. 23.
“The Late Show” (10:30 p.m. on CBS, KEYE Channel 42) will have former “Tonight Show” executive producer Peter Lassally and Carson’s music director Doc Severinsen.
But the star of the show should be Dave’s tribute, which is bound to be emotional and heartfelt — and, if he’s really singing Johnny’s praises, include some really funny moments.
Permalink | | Categories: News coverage
No. 1 on cable: ‘Monk,’ not wrestling
Either cable viewers are acquiring better taste or pro wrestling is simply losing its luster.
For years, the top-rated program on basic cable was wrestling, whatever version was the most outrageous at the time. Today’s televised grunt-fest is “WWE Raw,” seen Monday nights on Spike.
(On broadcast TV, UPN has “WWE Smackdown” on Thursday nights, which also, thank heavens, is in a ratings slump.)
The top-rated cable show last week was the award-winning “Monk,” which airs at 9 p.m. Fridays on USA. I feel like high-fiving the cable-viewing public and telling them to keep it up!
Rounding out the Top 15 on the cable Nielsens were various installments of the daytime kid faves “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “Fairly Odd Parents,” both on Nickelodeon, and reruns of NBC’s “Law & Order” on TNT.
I find it depressing when the most popular shows on TV are icky stuff like wrestling. And I find it encouraging when reality trash like “The Will,” which lasted only one week on CBS, definitively bombs.
I’m truly heartened that “Monk” is the top-rated show on basic cable, and the current broadcast Nielsen heavyweights include “CSI,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost” and “The West Wing.”
The taste of the American public has a direct impact on my professional life, not to mention my health and frame of mind. When the most popular shows are tasteless junk, more are bound to be coming, and that squeezes out any hope for the good stuff.
I have to watch it, good or bad, and, well, you should feel my pain when a half-dozen pilots come along that were clearly “inspired by” “My Wife and Kids” or “Fear Factor.” It’s excruciating.
Do I smell a whiff of a quality television trend? I’m holding my breath.
Ranch reality coming to PBS
It’s not the first time PBS has joined the reality craze, but it is the first time one has been steeped in Texas history.
“Texas Ranch House” will feature 20 participants ranching, roping and generally living life as American cowboys (and cowgirls) in the post-Civil War era. The eight-part series will film this summer at an undisclosed location in East Texas and is scheduled to air in spring 2006.
Executive producer Jody Sheff has said the show, which sounds similar to “Frontier House” and “Colonial House,” will dispel Hollywood’s often romantic stereotypes of life on the range.
If you have time to kill and want to live like a true citizen of the Old West, you can find applications and information about “Texas Ranch House” at www.pbs.org, beginning Tuesday.
Permalink | | Categories: Ratings
Help! My TVs Are Possessed!
My colleague and next-door-desk neighbor Katy Barron, who writes a column called “Homebody,” has a very funny piece today about those little robotic vacuum cleaners called Roombas.
What does this have to do with the television? Nothing, but Katy’s hilarious description of the Roomba — whirling around her house with a mind of its own, eating her throw rug and getting stuck under her stove — reminded me of a couple of bizarre incidents I’ve had with televisions.
As you might imagine, I put a lot of wear and tear on a TV set. Between recorded programming and broadcast/cablecast fare, I keep the TV humming for several hours a day. Well, several hours a night, actually, since I’m at work, often watching the suspended-from-the-ceiling TV above my desk.
But back to my original Katy-inspired point. I had a large TV in my den a few years ago that, in its waning years, would suddenly begin speaking in Spanish. We never did figure out why or how it would switch itself to the SAP channel, but it did. On a regular basis.
We would be watching a football game or an episode of “The X-Files,” and, through no overt action of our own, the announcers or Mulder would begin to habla español. It was jarring but educational. Before we leaped up to switch off the SAP switch, we picked up a few more words for our Spanish vocabulary.
When we traded in that TV for a new model, I sort of missed hearing Peter Jennings pop into Spanish. We can still use the bilingual switch on the TV, but this new-and-improved model doesn’t do it on its own.
A smaller TV we have in the bedroom is also possessed, which is making me think there’s something going on in our house that should be investigated by the “X Files.” Or ghostbusters. This TV doesn’t speak Spanish, but it does occasionally turn itself on.
My husband and I first noticed this when we were awakened at 2 a.m. to a loud man trying to sell us some sort of kitchen appliance. I staggered out of bed and turned the set off, trying to put out of my mind the chilling suspicion that a burglar was lurking in the house and had brushed against the TV, accidentally turning it on.
The bedroom TV may turn itself on and off during the day, when nobody is home, but the times we’ve seen it happen were always in the middle of the night. The thing just clicks on all by itself and blasts away until somebody turns it off.
This mind-of-its-own appliance isn’t as endearing as the Spanish-speaking TV. In fact, it’s downright creepy, and I’m going to purchase a replacement soon.
Permalink | | Categories: Random thoughts
One ringy-dingy … Hello, ‘24!’
There’s devotion, and there’s obsession.
I’m not sure which one applies to the more than 50,000 fans of “24” who called a phone number that flashed on a cell phone during last week’s episode.
The Fox thriller has always inspired attention to detail, and online fan clubs hash and rehash every minute of every hour. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
In the Jan. 17 episode, “11:00 AM-12:00 PM,” Dina Araz had poisoned Behrooz’s girlfriend, Debbie. As the terrorist family scrambled to cover up the murder, Debbie’s cell phone rang, and Behrooz picked it up, saying it was Debbie’s mother calling.
Viewers noticed that the camera briefly zeroed in on the cell phone. Even my husband, who often sleeps through his “favorite” TV shows, noticed and realized that, unlike most made up numbers, it did not have a nonfunctioning 555 prefix.
By the time the next commercial rolled around, hawk-eyed fans with DVRs had gone back to the scene and paused it to jot down the phone number. Calls began pouring into the number, which belongs to the show’s prop master. Crew members and a few of the actors took the calls, too.
Fox’s publicist declined to repeat the number, and since I didn’t record the episode, I can’t pass it along. But if you have last week’s “24” recorded, you can join the throngs of folks yammering with the poor prop master. Although, in the interest of maintaining production schedules, I bet the number has been disconnected.
Where’s Dave?
After Johnny Carson’s death on Sunday, I expected to see Dave Letterman pay tribute to him on Monday’s “Late Show.”
But there was no Dave on Monday and no Dave on Tuesday. Turns out the show was scheduled to halt production and air reruns the week before the February sweeps.
Letterman has long been a huge Carson fan, and Carson apparently wrote jokes for him from time to time. Although he never said anything negative about NBC’s decision to give his “Tonight” job to Jay Leno, Carson was widely believed to consider Letterman his rightful heir.
Nothing official, beyond Letterman’s initial statement (“We’ll never see the likes of him again”), has been released from the CBS host’s office. But insiders expect he will pay tribute to his late friend and mentor when he returns to the air Monday.
Sunday is no longer THE big TV night
A new survey by Nielsen Media Research shoots down the long-held notion that Sunday is the most-watched night of the TV week.
In fact, Sunday is only the fifth-watched night of the week.
Monday is now the most-watched night, followed by Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is sixth and Saturday, as usual, is the least-watched night.
Sunday’s slide may turn around after surveys catch up with the popularity of “Desperate Housewives.” Sunday’s dominance used to be based on the blockbuster TV movies each network aired, but the demise of the made-for-TV movie did away those huge ratings.
Now “Monday Night Football” and regular series are more popular. Personally, I think it’s sad that a night featuring “Fear Factor” is bigger than a night with “American Dreams.” But that’s just me.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
Big deal … Oscar show NOT better than Emmys!
Be truthful … How many of this year’s five best-picture Oscar nominees have you seen? A couple? Maybe three?
In case you haven’t heard-seen-read, the Academy Award nominations were announced today. The best picture nominees are: “The Aviator,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Finding Neverland,” “Ray” and “Sideways.”
I’ve seen three of them.
I’ve always found the popular hysteria over the Oscars — and the relatively ho-hum attitude about the Emmys — a bit weird. People don’t have Emmy-watching parties, do they?
Year after year, opinion polls find that most people haven’t seen most of the movies contending for Academy Awards. And yet it’s safe to assume, although I’ve never seen any polls, that most people have seen every sitcom and ever drama series nominated for an Emmy.
The 77th Academy Awards, which will be telecast Feb. 27 on ABC, will undoubtedly be the top-rated show for the week — and one of the Top 10 for the year. The 2004 Emmys were ranked 12th. And that was a good year ratingswise.
Movie stars have always been considered more glamorous and important than TV stars, which is increasingly odd since so many movie stars started out on TV — Jamie Foxx (“In Living Color”), Clint Eastwood (“Rawhide”), Johnny Depp (“21 Jump Street”), Thomas Haden Church (“Wings”) and Leonardo DiCaprio (“Growing Pains”), just to name a few.
And many stars happily bounce between the big and small screens. Don Cheadle (“Picket Fences,” numerous TV movies and miniseries) is a prime example, along with ex-“Friends” star Jennifer Aniston and current “Alias” headliner Jennifer Garner. Alan Alda, best known for “MAS*H” and currently appearing on “The West Wing,” is nominated for a supporting actor Oscar in “The Aviator.” He’s a frequent bouncer.
The sense that working in television is a step down for movie actors is a thing of the past. Most of the cast of HBO’s “Angels in America,” including Meryl Streep and Al Pacino, are big-time film actors.
So why are viewers more excited about the Oscars than the Emmys?
Maybe it’s because we see TV stars every week. They come into our homes and make us feel like we already know them. Mystery and glamour are not as often associated with Patricia Heaton and Jane Kaczmarek as they are with Hilary Swank and Annette Bening.
Maybe people watch the Oscars to find out about what they haven’t had time or money to see. Watching television, after all, is free — unless you’ve got top-of-the-line cable, in which case it’s still cheaper that seeing several movies a week. The average flick ticket these days goes for $8. That’s not counting $10 to $15 for snacks.
In my humble opinion, the Emmys put on a better show. There are more clips, more stars and better pacing. I’ve never seen an Emmy show drag on for four hours, but the Oscars routinely eat up that much time. And the Oscars move at a glacial pace.
Chris Rock, whose comedy career was launched on “Saturday Night Live” and “In Living Color,” will host this year’s Oscars, so maybe we’ll at least have a chuckle or two. But don’t expect a scintillating show. The Oscars are star-packed but painfully dull.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
Johnny, we hardly knew ye
Funny how we think we know people when we don’t, especially people on TV.
They come into our living rooms, make us smile or cry, sometimes even enlighten us. When they visit us as often as Johnny Carson did — most weeknights for 30 years — we feel a personal connection.
Carson’s death Sunday came as a surprise, even though it had been well-reported that he was suffering from emphysema. In our minds, Johnny was the perpetually puckish “Tonight” host who gave us bedtime chuckles for decades. We might have been vaguely aware that he was 79 years old and sickly, but that wasn’t the image we retained.
When he retired from “The Tonight Show” in 1992, Carson retired from the public eye. Famously private even during the heyday of his career, Carson was determined to avoid the limelight completely as an “everyday” citizen.
Today’s celebrities seem to relish revealing every intimate detail of their lives. We know who’s dating whom, who’s trying to get pregnant, who’s having an affair, who’s having plastic surgery. Kirstie Alley even has a TV series coming next month about her extraordinary weight gain (Showtime’s “Fat Actress”) and the humiliation of being chunky in super-slender Hollywood.
Carson was an old-school celebrity who revealed very little of his offscreen life. It was better that way. The less we knew of his real life, the more real his “Tonight Show” persona became. And that was a geniunely lovable guy.
We knew he had been married four times and divorced three, but that was about all we knew. NBC staffers sometimes muttered that Carson could be cold and aloof when the cameras were off.
But he stayed so far from the Hollywood circuit that even the tabloids had trouble concocting stories about him. The end result was that his legions of fans fell in love with the Johnny he wanted us to know. Television reality is an illusion, after all, and Carson made sure we weren’t disappointed or distracted by his real life.
Trump’s gaudy extravaganza
I can’t wait for tonight’s “ET” coverage of The Donald’s wedding.
In case you’ve been living an actual life and don’t know, Donald Trump tied the knot yet again Saturday in West Palm Beach, Fla. The entire nation, if we are to believe the groom, was atwitter.
Count on the “reporters” panting all over the excess at Mar-a-Lago, the 24-carat gold ballroom decor, the 50-pound wedding cake, Melania’s gazillion-dollar Dior dress.
The Donald overdoes everything, and he’s been hawking his wedding for weeks. If we are to believe the gossip columnists, he tried but failed to persuade his bride to tape the nuptials for broadcast as an NBC special. Darn.
Why do I care? Because it’s a spectacle of gaudiness masquerading as glamour. Because it’s a parade of superficiality and because it’s a silly distraction from real news, like the war in Iraq and the soaring deficit. It’s a foolish fairy tale.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
KXAN’s DeSilva reports from Sri Lanka
It took him 39 hours to get to work when KXAN’s R.J. DeSilva flew to Sri Lanka to cover the relief efforts after the tragic tsunamis washed away thousands of people and their homes.
In case you’re wondering, the route to halfway-around-the-world took them from Austin to Chicago to Paris to Dubai to Sri Lanka. DeSilva and photojournalist Frank Martinez spent a week there before returning last weekend.
Talk about jet lag . . .
The weekend anchor/weekday reporter, whose father is Sri Lankan and who still has relatives living there, filed reports via e-mail, posted on KXAN.com under the title “Dispatches From the Disaster,” and filed voice reports by phone.
The KXAN newscast reports started Tuesday of this week and continue tonight and Sunday at 10 p.m.
DeSilva said he and Martinez were prepared for the worst, after seeing all the television coverage that preceded their trip.
“But we actually saw less than we had expected,” DeSilva said. “Burial of the dead was mostly done before we got there. We were braced for that, but didn’t get it. Of course the extent of the devastation and the debris was shocking.”
Most of their stories were filed from the southern city of Galle, where long stretches of coastal dwellings were wiped out.
“The governor of the province pointed out that what we were seeing was about a quarter of what was there before — and that’s frightening,” said DeSilva, adding that he agrees with one U.S. Marine’s assessment of the situation as “humbling.”
DeSilva, 37, was born in Washington, D.C., but lived in Sri Lanka for several years in the ’80s. KXAN, which is owned by Rhode Island-based LIN Television, suggested he cover the disaster not long after it happened Dec. 26. His reports were available to all of LIN’s 24 stations, but it is unclear which ones used them.
This isn’t DeSilva’s first overseas assignment for KXAN. He went to Bosnia to cover the peace-keeping troops that were sent from the Austin area a few years ago. The University of Maryland graduate came to KXAN as a reporter in ‘96 from a station in Dover, Del.
Permalink | | Categories: Local news
TV’s snowy day in D.C.
All morning and into the afternoon, images of a snow-covered Washington, D.C. will blanket our televisions as President George W. Bush officially begins his second term.
Before President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, the swearing-in and subsequent festivities were merely brief clips on the nightly news.
Now inaugurations are covered live and extensively, starting before the early morning prayer service and, for the broadcast networks, concluding with the parade. Cable news networks will find something to cover right up through the balls tonight.
Such coverage is television at its public-service best. No matter who got our votes in November, the inauguration of a U.S. president is an awesome event that stirs patriotism in even the hardest of hearts.
News anchors generally try to keep meaningless chatter to a minimum and let the proceedings play as they may. Although the TV folks do help out with people-watching, which is half the fun of tuning in.
Today, for example, a couple of well-known politicians were virtually unrecognizable at first because they were wearing “cattleman” cowboy hats: Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). I bet the folks in Philadelphia and Salt Lake City had trouble recognizing them, too.
When I lived in Washington, D.C., inauguration day was an official holiday. Everybody either attended some portion of the inauguration or watched it on TV. All day. That’s all we did, no matter who was being sworn in — although I admit the mood was considerably darker than usual during Richard Nixon’s second swearing in.
I still can’t get used to catching just a few minutes of inauguration coverage during work. It seems weird and borderline unpatriotic.
We’re fired (up)
The Donald is back. Do we care? Probably. We can’t help ourselves.
“The Apprentice” returns tonight at 7:30 on NBC, with a new twist that just might help invigorate the wearing-thin format. It’s Book Smarts, starring college grads, versus Street Smarts, starring high school grads. The teams are Magna Corp. and Net Worth, respectively.
It’s just a guess, but I’m betting the alleged intellectuals won’t come off as smart as the streetwise group.
The first task is to manage a pair of Burger King franchises and promote one of the chain’s new sandwiches. Heroes and villains will emerge, and Donald Trump, along with his trusty allies, will sift through the mogul wannabes.
At 90 minutes, the first episode is too long, but “The Apprentice” remains one of the most watchable and least insulting of the reality shows.
Permalink | | Categories: News coverage
Will a quartet replace a solo on CBS News?
Dan Rather isn’t likely to be replaced by a single “voice of God” when he steps down in March, according to CBS president Les Moonves.
Instead, “CBS Evening News” may switch to a multianchor, multicity format. Moonves described the solo format as an “antiquated” way to present the news.
Moonves made this revelation to TV critics meeting in Los Angeles. A transcript of that gathering indicates that my colleagues in the media likened the plan to the “infotainment” format of CBS’s “Early Show,” which features a quartet of grinning anchors — one of whom, Julie Chen, is married to Moonves.
But CBS’s switch wouldn’t be the first time a network newscast broke with the solo anchor setup. And it wouldn’t have to be any less authoritative.
From 1978 to 1983, ABC’s “World News Tonight” ruled the Nielsen ratings with an impressive anchor trio: Frank Reynolds in Washington, D.C., Max Robinson in Chicago and Peter Jennings in London.
The ABC troika seemed awkward when it debuted, but viewers quickly warmed to the notion of having an anchor in the nation’s capital, another one in the heartland and still another wrangling overseas news from (what a concept!) overseas.
CBS toyed unsuccessfully with a co-anchor format in ‘99, pairing Rather with Connie Chung. But NBC had legendary success for years with the duo of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley.
Probably what set critics off in the Moonves news conference had less to do with the possible format change than the fact that Moonves acknowledged that the goal was to lure younger viewers to the newscast. He lamented the aging news audience (over 45 and heavily 50 and 60-ish) — which includes a sizable chunk of the TV critic population.
A multianchor format for CBS News would end ongoing speculation, rampant since Time magazine recently gave it credibility, that NBC’s Katie Couric was being courted. It’s hard to imagine the star of one network becoming a co-star of another.
If a trio or quartet does replace Rather, it’s likely to be a mix of hard-news, featurey-news and maybe even fake-news anchors. Moonves declined to rule out Jon Stewart, whose faux newscast “The Daily Show” airs on Comedy Central. Both CBS and Comedy Central, by the way, are owned by Viacom.
Whatever happens, it’s definitely time to shake things up at CBS News, which has languished in third place behind NBC and ABC for years. The solo anchor may not be “antiquated,” but the time is ripe to try something new.
Weird ‘Idol’ wannabes
Is it just me, or did some of the people auditioning for “American Idol” on last night’s season premiere seem seriously weird? Maybe even mentally ill?
One girl was completely disconnected from reality, a glassy-eyed guy appeared to be channeling several voices and still another confessed he had just discovered “two weeks ago” that he could sing. Which, of course, he really couldn’t.
Delusional is a word that comes to mind when describing these would-be contestants. Some of them are desperately out of touch and painful to watch. Although Fox presents them as comic relief, you’ve got to wonder how they’re going to handle the disappointment and rejection. I for one am worried.
But apparently bizarre is what viewers want, because the season opener shot Fox to the top of the Nielsens, attracting more than twice as many viewers as second place CBS on Tuesday night.
Permalink | | Categories: News coverage
‘American Idol’ — how much is too much?
“American Idol” is back tonight, and that means my personal TV viewing time is shot all to pieces again.
As a TV critic, I have to keep track of this singing competition. It’s a major pop-culture phenomenon and generates near-deafening buzz when the final voting gets under way.
But I’ll confess that, unlike most reality shows, I actually watch this one because I enjoy it.
I like watching fresh talent. And the trio of judges — nasty Simon Cowell, sweet Paula Abdul and “Yo-Dawg” Randy Jackson — is usually amusing, especially when they snap at each other and act like children. Although I have to say Simon should stop criticizing female contestants’ weight. It’s stupid, unprofessional and sexist.
I’m not as enamored of the early rounds of tone-deaf contestants as some people are. About 15 minutes of screeching and leaping is about all I can handle. There’s something inherently tragic about people who think they’re talented when they aren’t. And almost as sad when people turn in ear-splitting performances just to get on TV in the painful early rounds. Most of these folks can not be serious.
As much as I like “American Idol,” it sure gobbles up a lot of time. I’m not in the habit of devoting two nights to a single series. And the new season promises to gobble up even more time.
Check it out: Tonight’s fourth season premiere (at 7 p.m.) is a two-hour show. The Wednesday episode this week is whittled back to an hour, thankfully. For the next two weeks, the content of the two weekly episodes will consist of clips from the nationwide auditions.
After that, the eliminations begin in earnest, and as two dozen contestants are winnowed to a single dozen, Fox will increase the weekly schedule to three episodes, Monday through Wednesday. That may be too much to ask of even the most ardent fans.
In an effort to avoid a ratings dip, “American Idol” is shaking up its rules a bit. The qualifying age for contestants has gone from 16 to 25 to 16 to 28. Cowell is on record as opposing any top limit for contestants, but Fox, of course, thinks a 35-year-old crooner would destroy the show’s strong 12-to-34 demographics.
Producers also have fiddled with the elimination rules to maintain an even gender balance. The male gene pool was so weak last time there was concern that only the female contestants would make it to the finals. This time around there will be separate votes for guys and gals until we get to the dazzling dozen.
Are viewers hungry for another season of “American Idol”? It will depend on the personalities and talent of the contestants. If a true pop star or two rise to the top — like the Ruben Studdard-Clay Aiken duel of 2003 — the show will be hot.
Permalink | | Categories: Reality TV
Who will win a TV Golden Globe?
The television nods at the Golden Globe Awards don’t have the cachet that the movie categories have. The TV awards aren’t considered precursors to the Emmys, possibly because they’re a half-year away…
But the Globe show, which airs Sunday night on NBC, is tons of fun nonetheless. And what critic doesn’t enjoy pretending to know who will win — or who deserves to win?
So, for what it’s worth (and the answer is: probably not much), here are the contenders in the top TV categories that I think are worthy of a Globe and likely to be favorites of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
DRAMA SERIES NOMINEES:
“24,” Fox
“Deadwood,” HBO
“Lost,” ABC
“Nip/Tuck,” FX
“The Sopranos,” HBO
Winner: “Lost”
Much as I love “24” and “Nip/Tuck,” the hot new drama right now is “Lost.” It bucks any notion of formula, it has compelling characters and storytelling that grabs you by the eyeballs.
DRAMA ACTRESS NOMINEES:
Edie Falco, “The Sopranos”
Jennifer Garner, “Alias”
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Christine Lahti, “Jack & Bobby”
Joely Richardson, “Nip/Tuck”
Winner: Edie Falco
If it weren’t for Falco, an argument could be made that the acclaimed HBO series would have fine stereotyping but very little acting. Falco is the backbone of this show, and just about any time she’s nominated for an award for “The Sopranos,” she deserves to win.
DRAMA ACTOR NOMINEES:
Michael Chiklis, “The Shield”
Denis Leary, “Rescue Me”
Julian McMahon, “Nip/Tuck”
Ian McShane, “Deadwood”
James Spader, “Boston Legal”
Winner: James Spader
These really ought to be divided into sub-categories. Leary should win for tragic dramatic actor, McShane should win (hands down) for creepy villain and Spader should win for crafting the most bizarre, slippery character in recent memory. His Alan Shore is the quintessential do-anything-for-the-client lawyer, and Spader is simply slick and brilliant in the role.
COMEDY SERIES NOMINEES:
“Arrested Development,” Fox
“Desperate Housewives,” ABC
“Entourage,” HBO
“Sex and the City,” HBO
“Will & Grace,” NBC
Winner: “Arrested Development”
According to overseas publications, “Desperate Housewives” is the hottest American export in years, so the hour-long comedy is likely to win. It’s a tough call, I’ll admit, but minute for minute, it’s hard to beat “Arrested Development” for sheer hilarity. Other shows that claim to showcase dysfunctional families simply fade in comparison.
COMEDY ACTRESS NOMINEES:
Marcia Cross, “Desperate Housewives”
Teri Hatcher, “Desperate Housewives”
Felicity Huffman, “Desperate Housewives”
Debra Messing, “Will & Grace”
Sarah Jessica Parker, “Sex and the City”
Winner: Teri Hatcher
This is a tough category, but nobody combines perfect comic timing and fall-down slapstick with the genius of Hatcher. And it’s about time she was recognized. But I’ll go out on a limb and guarantee that someone from “Desperate Housewives” will win.
COMEDY ACTOR NOMINEES:
Jason Bateman, “Arrested Development”
Zach Braff, “Scrubs”
Larry David, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”
Matt LeBlanc, “Joey”
Tony Shalhoub, “Monk”
Charlie Sheen, “Two and a Half Men”
Winner: Zach Braff
Those overseas reporters have got to be kidding nominating LeBlanc, don’t you think? Sheesh. The other guys are funny, in an extraordinarily low-key kind of way, but Braff has a way with a line, a look and even a stroll down the hall that puts him a level above.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
Bad shows: Ignore them and they will go
Take note, all you couch potatoes who complain, complain and complain about awful TV shows.
If you don’t watch them, they will go away. Proof positive is the quick axing, after only one episode, of CBS’s “The Will.” It pitted family members against each other in a competition to inherit a ranch. The show debuted Saturday, after weeks of sleazy promos, and was yanked three days later.
The same fate befell Fox’s godawful “Who’s Your Daddy,” the reality show that had adoption supporters up in arms. It came and went in a single episode. Goodbye, good riddance.
I get calls all the time from folks telling me they hate certain shows, and then they describe in great detail every episode of the season. Dozens of people have called whining about “Fear Factor” and “The Swan.” But they keep on watching. And complaining.
The fast hook applied to “The Will” and “Who’s Your Daddy” is a hopeful sign that just maybe viewers really won’t put up with completely tasteless reality shows.
If it sounds gross, don’t even try it. If you watch it once and are disgusted by it, don’t watch again. It’s that simple. The bad stuff will go away.
She’s a lesbian?
Most “Law & Order” fans probably knew that last night’s episode was the farewell of Elisabeth Rohm, that dangerously tall woman whose flat-toned portrayal of assistant district attorney Serena has been a thorn in the side of the show for three seasons. She just cannot act. At all.
But who knew the character would “out” herself in the show’s final moments? There have been no previous references to Serena’s sexuality, so the scene came as a bolt from the blue.
In the episode, Serena was a passionate supporter of a young rapper accused of murder. The district attorney fired her because she let her passion get in the way of an objective prosecution.
“Is it because I’m a lesbian?” Serena asked, catching millions of viewers — and apparently the slack-jawed D.A. — off guard.
Readers have called and e-mailed me today about the episode, with reactions ranging from surprise to disappointment. Some folks said the remark was gratuitous and out of character.
I’m still perplexed about it myself, but I certainly agree it was out of the blue. And made no sense whatsoever.
Next week, stage and screen (“National Treasure”) actress Annie Parisse joins the cast as a new assistant district attorney.
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It’s Must-See Wednesday!
Wednesday night has become my Must-See TV night.
Thursdays are deadly dull, and Tuesdays, which used to be packed with favorites, have pretty much dropped off my radar.
Watching three hours of network TV for fun is sort of embarrassing, so I try not to be too obvious. I don’t turn down social engagements to stay home, which I’ve been known to do to watch “24.”
If no one in my house is paying attention, I’ll plop down for ABC’s “Lost” at 7 p.m., graze right over to NBC’s “The West Wing” at 8 and then wind up with a New York crime drama, either “Law & Order” or “CSI: New York,” depending on which one is a rerun.
The lineup makes for a good mix of entertainment.
“Lost” is an old-fashioned adventure yarn, with suspense and otherworldly elements to spice things up. I like the way the show peels back layers and reveals the past lives of each character. We haven’t seen the airline pilot-noshing polar bear lately, but the feral pigs were exciting and there’s still an ominous growl in the forest that indicates big critters are lurking.
As for “The West Wing,” I know some TV critics and viewers who bemoan the show as way past its prime. And that President Bartlet’s health problems have been a big downer. But I think the current season has been terrific.
Of course Jimmy Smits, a personal favorite, has a lot to do with my opinion. If the ratings continue to improve, Smits’ character, a Democrat from Texas running for president, will be brought back for a new administration. As long as he keeps CJ as chief of staff, I’ll be back for another season.
The last hour of Must-See Wednesday is less thrilling since (a) Jerry Orbach left “Law & Order” and (b) subsequently died. It was bad enough that he left the original for a smaller role in the upcoming spinoff, “Law & Order: Trial by Jury.” But since Orbach’s unexpected death last month from prostate cancer, it’s a bit harder to watch his replacement, Dennis Farina, on Wednesday nights.
The stories on “Law & Order” are still good — better by far than any of the spinoffs. And usually better than “CSI: New York,” which has Gary Sinise, another favorite of mine, but a pacing that is sometimes simply glacial.
Nevertheless, winding up the night with a good crime drama is a good way to realize that however annoying my day has been, it’s better than anything these folks have faced.
Sad days at Black Rock
Speaking of bad days, CBS News certainly had one yesterday as it dealt with fallout from the investigation of its botched story about President Bush’s National Guard duty.
None of the principals — the four executives fired, news chief Andrew Heyward or anchor Dan Rather — commented, so it was left to network president Leslie Moonves to try to plug holes in the sinking boat.
Observers inside and outside of CBS today are describing the mood at CBS News as dark and depressing. The House That Edward R. Murrow Built has taken a serious credibility hit, and folks are speculating that a thorough house-cleaning will be needed to put it back on track.
I’m guessing Heyward will not be around more than a few months, and Rather could step down before his scheduled March 9 departure. An in-house anchor replacement now seems unlikely, too.
A complete cleansing may include bringing in an outsider, which CBS historically has not done with the anchor job, who has clean credentials and strong popularity. Names floated include Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Diane Sawyer and ABC’s current White House guy, Terry Moran.
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Local guy stitches onto ‘Biker Build-Off’
Will Cascio is one tough hombre — who wields a sewing machine at his South Austin home off William Cannon Drive.
He custom designs leather seats for motorcycles. His company, Heavy Magic Fine Leather Customs, was created in 1995 and has been based here since 2001.
Turning out intricate leather designs is quite a change from Cascio’s earlier careers, which include nine years as a rodeo cowboy, four years as a jockey, eight years as a graphic and Web designer and 13 years as an actor/stuntman.
His handiwork — and the designer himself — can be seen on tonight’s season opener of “Biker Build-Off,” at 9 on the Discovery Channel.
On tonight’s third-season opener of the bike-building reality show, Cascio is on the team that’s souping up a motorcycle for Warren Vesely, who competes against bike-maker Jerry Covington.
The building portion of the episode, including making the seat, was filmed in Indiana in July; judging took place in Pennsylvania; and the “reveal” took place in front of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
As you might imagine, this isn’t just any old motorcycle seat. It’s top-quality leather with scarlet stitching and 24-carat goldleaf trim. If you were in the market for such a chopper seat, it would cost you about $1,200. Cascio’s most expensive seat so far cost $3,000.
“It was my first ‘Biker Build-Off’ show, and I sure hope another one comes up because it was a lot of fun,” Cascio said. “I got to do something extreme. This is pretty intricate stuff.”
Cascio, 41, came to Austin to work on the film “Secondhand Lions” and liked it so much here he decided to stay. He was born in Houston and grew up in different areas of the Southwest.
Permalink | | Categories: Reality TV
Rather’s tainted legacy
Would Dan Rather have been fired if he hadn’t already resigned?
Probably. The CBS News anchor was the correspondent of record on the flawed story about President Bush’s National Guard duty. Although the investigation made public Monday did not overtly blame Rather for the “60 Minutes” story, the firing of four CBS execs and producers — just about everybody but Rather who worked on the story — seems suspect.
The report aired Sept. 8 and immediately stirred controversy when documents that were used appeared to have been forgeries. But Rather and CBS News stood behind the story for two weeks, until all semblance of credibility had collapsed.
Then Rather apologized on the air, but the damage had been done. On Nov. 23, he announced he would remain with “60 Minutes” but step down as anchor in March. Although he insisted his resignation had nothing to do with the controversy, CBS president Leslie Moonves indicated otherwise on Monday when he said Rather wasn’t punished because he had already apologized and resigned.
There are many troubling aspects to this mess, not the least of which is Rather’s apparent lack of involvement in the final broadcast. He certainly knew the content of the story, and he had certainly worked with producer Mary Mapes, who was fired Monday, on the piece.
But if Rather had in fact not seen the final product before it aired, that’s shocking. It doesn’t matter if he was busy with the Republican National Convention and Hurricane Frances. If a report is broadcast under his name as the primary correspondent — and he did actually conduct the primary interviews — he should have been intimately involved with its preparation.
Although Rather has been criticized over the years for a stiff anchoring style, especially compared with his avuncular predecessor Walter Cronkite, he has been credited as a hard-charging, hard-news reporter.
Now he’s damaged that positive part of his legacy, and it will interesting to see if he can make some repairs before his departure from the “Evening News” in March.
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Austin guy on ‘Bachelorette’
Collin the Sports Agent From Austin makes his wooing debut on tonight’s third-season opener of “The Bachelorette.” The 27-year-old guy lists his hometown as Austin, but we don’t know how long he has lived here.
ABC’s alleged reality romance airs at 8 p.m. on KVUE Channel 24. Why anyone would choose to watch “The Bachelorette” over back-to-back episodes of “24” on Fox tonight is anybody’s guess. The new season of “24” is shaping up to be fabulous — and you don’t have to be embarrassed to admit you’re watching it.
Collin, whose last name won’t be revealed until he’s either sent packing or proposes to Jennifer Schefft, was chosen to be one of 25 suitors. Jen is a recycled contestant from the third installment of “The Bachelor.” Tire heir Andrew Firestone broke her heart, but she’s on the prowl again.
What kind of reaction will an up-and-coming sports agent get to having “The Bachelorette” on his resume? One can only wonder. Will sports celebrities ridicule him or be jealous of him? Will this potentially humiliating public courting scenario help or hurt him?
Most members of this new pack of suitors come from California or New York. Collin is one of two Texans. Jason, 29, who lists his occupation as “motivational speaker,” is from Fort Worth.
Fans of “The Bachelor/Bachelorette” who want to root for the home guy had better check out tonight’s two-hour premiere, because the number of contestants will shrink by half. With only a 50-50 chance of survival, Collin’s shot at fame could be brief.
Rooney’s rear end rejected
The man suing NBC over an episode of “Fear Factor” that (he claimed) made him throw up should be deeply grateful to Fox for rejecting a potentially nauseating ad for the Super Bowl.
The network nixed a 15-second spot that Fox was willing to pay $1.2 million to air on the Feb. 6 mega-sports event, for a cold remedy called Airborne. No, there was no icky mucus involved. It was a shot of 84-year-old actor Mickey Rooney’s bare behind.
Although I haven’t seen said commercial, I’m betting Janet Jackson’s bare breast on last year’s Super Bowl was a remarkable display of decency compared to Rooney’s rear end.
What in the world would Rooney’s rear have to do with the common cold? The spot, as described by the Associated Press, features the wee octogenarian — known as Andy Hardy in a previous era — fleeing a sauna when a man sitting near him begins coughing.
Fox dubbed the ad indecent; Rooney countered that it was “family entertainment.” I’m glad Fox stepped in on this one, not because I believe in censorship but because I fear it would be, oh, how shall I put it …aesthetically unappealing?
Permalink | | Categories: Reality TV
Viewer says NBC made him vomit, sues for $2.5 million
A man filed a lawsuit against NBC on Thursday, accusing the network of making him throw up. The Associated Press insists it is not making this up.
If this doesn’t hand the Republicans all the ammo they need to pass tort reform, I don’t know what will.
Austin Aitken claims, in his handwritten lawsuit, that a “Fear Factor” episode in which contestants consumed rats whipped up in a blender made him vomit. Right there in his television living room.
The man is asking NBC to fork over $2.5 million for causing him to lose his dinner.
I thought that was the point of “Fear Factor.” It is gross-out television at its grossest, and the ads make it perfectly clear that participants will be consuming all manner of plant and animal goo. There is frequent hurling on the show and, although surveys have yet to be done, probably a good deal of hurling at home.
Aitken, a 49-year-old part-time paralegal who has way too much time on his hands, told the Associated Press that he’s a regular viewer of “Fear Factor,” and that worm and bug eating has never bothered him. Apparently he enjoys a gag or two with his reality TV.
But he said eating liquefied rats from a blender simply went “too far.” In his lawsuit, Aitken claims the scene caused him to become dizzy, disoriented and to vomit. At some point during this TV-induced trauma, he also ran into a doorway, “causing suffering, injury and great pain.”
Why didn’t Aitken change the channel or turn off the TV? He told AP he would have done that, but he couldn’t get to the remote quickly enough.
To tell you the truth, I wondered how the rat-in-a-blender episode made it through NBC’s standards and practices. I didn’t actually see it, mind you. I’d have to have a gun to my head before I would watch even one minute of “Fear Factor.” But promotions ran on the network for an entire week, and the vision of pulverizing animals, no matter how creepy the critters, was unusually vile.
Nevertheless, watching television is a choice, and Aitken, a self-confessed regular viewer of the disgusting series, chose to tune in. He got what he deserved, but he’s trying to blame the TV show for accomplishing its gross-out goal.
NBC responded to the lawsuit with an appropriately terse statement: “We believe that the claim is completely without merit.”
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Tucker and the loudmouths: Bye-bye!
Preppy-looking Tucker Carlson bids farewell on today’s edition of “Crossfire” (3:30 p.m. on CNN). Perfect hair and cute bow ties notwithstanding, the 35-year-old conservative is annoyingly smug.
But then so is “Crossfire,” which assumes four men shouting at each other somehow raises the level of public discourse in this country. It doesn’t, and CNN chief Jonathan Klein finally realized the obvious and plans to ditch the 30-minute hostilities.
At some unspecified point in the next couple of months, the concept will be turned into a 10-minute debate and folded inside Judy Woodruff’s “Inside Politics” (weekdays at 2:30 p.m.)
Another conservative will replace Carlson and join Robert Novak on the right; the left will continue to be represented by Paul Begala and James Carville. They all proudly exhibit rude, boorish on-air behavior.
For those who are weeping over Carlson’s departure, look for him to turn up soon as host of a prime-time show on MSNBC.
Last fall Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart appeared on “Crossfire” and got into a verbal slap-fest with Carlson, during which the fake news host dubbed the CNN show nothing more than “partisan hackery.” For once, Stewart wasn’t joking.
“Crossfire,” which debuted 22 years ago on CNN, was inspired by the old “Point-Counterpoint” segments that wrapped up “60 Minutes” in the 1970s. The CBS newsmagazine tried to revive the format a few years ago, with Bill Clinton and Bob Dole debating a single topic each week. The result was civility bordering on boredom.
“Point-Counterpoint” was good when passions erupted, but there’s a big difference between a heated political discussion that lasts a few minutes and a shouting match that drags on for half an hour. “Crossfire” has become all heat and no light, thrust upon us in a decibel level that is simply excruciating.
It will be a relief when it’s finally gone.
A sweet farewell to Jerry
At the end of last night’s episode of “Law & Order,” creator Dick Wolf and company paid a brief, heartfelt tribute to Jerry Orbach, who died last week from prostate cancer.
All of Wolf’s shows have carried a simple word memorial at the conclusion: “For Jerry …” “In memory of Jerry.”
But last night’s tribute, at the end of the show for which Orbach became famous as Detective Lennie Briscoe, a short montage of photos was accompanied by music from one of Orbach’s many Broadway musicals: “Try To Remember,” from “The Fantasticks.”
There wasn’t a dry eye in my house …
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‘O.C’ returns with a new plot twist
Chrismukkah is over (Merry mazel tov!), and “The O.C.” returns Thursday (7 p.m. on Fox) for weeks of consecutive non-reruns.
There’s a plot twist coming that just might boost the show’s ratings, which dipped by 1 million viewers against the final episodes of CBS’ “Survivor” last month.
What’s the twist, you ask? Marissa, played by Mischa Barton, will dabble in an experimental lesbian relationship with Alex, played by Oliva Wilde. Fox is already teasing to the romance, which, producer Josh Schwartz has promised, will be handled with great taste and delicacy.
Maybe Marissa’s sexual identity crisis is at least partly responsible for her frequent descent into drunkenness. If so, we hope she finds herself quickly.
Anyway, the relationship will start slowly and probably never come close to being explicit. Even though “The O.C.” is on Fox, which is known for stretching boundaries, it’s still broadcast television, and there will be no lesbian sex on an FCC-regulated network.
Barton has portrayed this kind of relationship before. On the late-great ABC drama “Once and Again,” she guest starred as a lesbian school friend of Rick’s daughter Jessie, played by Evan Rachel Wood. Their intimate friendship, which was more sweet and tentative than sexy, never fully developed.
I’m guessing we can expect the Marissa-Alex bond to be similar.
In other midseason developments among Newport Beach’s rich and flaky, Kim Delaney will guest star as a former U.C.-Berkeley radical who was the first serious love of Sandy (Peter Gallagher). She fled the country for some mysterious reason at the height of their affair, and her return sets off tension between Sandy and wife Kirsten (Kelly Rowan).
Speaking of Gallagher, the sometime Broadway musical star (“Guys and Dolls”) will sing in an upcoming episode. No word on how that will be worked into the plot line.
‘Lost’ Is Found
The early-December episode of ABC’s “Lost,” promoted as the “season finale,” had me choking on my eggnog. How could one of the most popular new series disappear in the middle of its first, critically lauded, Top 10 season?
Turns out it didn’t disappear. It was just resting, and it’s back tonight (at 7) for the second half of its triumphant debut season. Maybe ABC just wanted to get us riled up. Or maybe the network meant to say the pre-holiday rerun episode was the ” ‘04 finale.”
Whatever. Tonight we get the backstory on Boone, the hunky brother of whiney, self-centered Shannon. Maybe we’ll find out why she’s such a spoiled brat.
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TV news swarms the tsunami disaster
Slowly but surely, the Big Guns of TV News are finding their way to the tsunami devastation in Asia.
Cable and broadcast newsies swarmed all over the Dec. 26 disaster last week. The three network newscasts devoted more than half their broadcasts to the story each night, according to ADT Research, which tracks TV news coverage. The images, at times, were overwhelming and rendered the spoken words nearly unnecessary.
While coverage was extensive, the main anchors stayed home. Of the Big Three, two were on vacation at the time.
NBC wanted to keep Brian Williams on the air during a week when the competition was on vacation. So far, his newscasts have held onto the top-rated spot established by the recently retired Tom Brokaw. At the end of the competition-free week, Williams traveled east for two days, arriving in Indonesia on Monday and anchoring “Nightly News” from there.
The knock on Williams, when NBC announced that he would replace Brokaw, was that his reporting experience was featherweight. The tsunami disaster is his first big on-site story as an anchor, and critics will be watching closely.
Already in place overseas for NBC was Ann Curry, who had been substituting for the vacationing Katie Couric on “Today.”
CBS’ Dan Rather jetted off to Thailand at the end of last week. He will anchor the “Evening News” and file a report that will air on Wednesday’s edition of “60 Minutes.” Disasters get his blood pumping, and this one could be his last before he steps down as anchor in March.
ABC’s Peter Jennings is the only member of the network trio who is not anchoring from abroad, but it wasn’t an editorial decision. The normally globe-trotting Jennings has been battling an upper respiratory infection, and doctors told him not to travel. When he’s not coughing and wheezing, he’s anchoring “World News Tonight” from New York.
But ABC is quick to point out that Charles Gibson hosted a prime-time special on the tsunami disaster last week, and Diane Sawyer is currently reporting from Thailand. On Sunday, Bob Woodruff anchored the evening newscast from Sri Lanka.
Among the cable news networks, CNN has the biggest overseas presence and was therefore the first and best in tsunami coverage last week.
Mideast and Southeast Asia-based reporters and production personnel (totaling 50) were on the scene the day after the disaster, and anchor Aaron Brown is at the helm from Indonesia. Soledad O’Brien and Anderson Cooper also are in Thailand and Sri Lanka, respectively.
With its searing images of human tragedy and devastation, the tsunami story isn’t going away any time soon. It has even managed to push the war in Iraq to the back burner — for the time being.
Permalink | | Categories: News coverage
Really, ‘Medium’ isn’t good
Did NBC send a different “Medium” pilot to other critics than the one sent to me?
I was starting to wonder … Or maybe I’ve just lost my critical faculties. How can the hallowed New York Times look favorably upon something that I think, well, stinks? I was so riddled with self-doubt after seeing several glowing reviews of the silly psychic drama that I went back and screened the DVD again.
Nope. I was right. It really is an amateurishly written, cartoonishly acted hour of twaddle. Anyone expecting a domesticated version of “The X Files” or a supernatural version of “Cold Case,” as the endless network promos suggest, is going to be horribly disappointed.
The show debuts tonight at 9 on NBC (KXAN Channel 36).
Although the show is based on “Don’t Kiss Them Good-Bye,” the autobiography of real-life psychic Allison DuBois, the plot — or at least television’s rendering of it — is absolutely ludicrous.
In the pilot, Allison decides to drop out of law school and leave her internship in the District Attorney’s office to help law enforcement agencies solve crimes. That’s because she realizes that the dead people she sees either have been murdered or are about to be murdered. She’s got to step up and do something.
When Allison tells her boss about this phenomenal plan, he doesn’t bat an eye. Neither does her aerospace husband or her new boss in the cop world.
One colleague does think she’s nuts, but that woman is portrayed as nuttier than paranormal Allison. And in the main story of tonight’s pilot, the Texas Rangers, whom she flies off to assist, are presented as doubting hayseeds without a lick of crime-solving sense.
Worst of all, “Medium” rests on the shoulders of star Patricia Arquette, whose psychic credentials include the movies “Stigmata” and “Bringing Out the Dead.” When she’s not screaming at the top of her lungs, Arquette is babbling in a monotone that would annoy even dead people.
Maybe this midseason show will turn out to be spectacular later on, but the pilot is definitely awful. I’ve watched it twice and groaned both times.
Come back, Dick Clark!!
New Year’s Eve was sorely lacking the boyish enthusiasm of Dick Clark. ABC’s “Rockin’ Eve,” filled with good cheer for more than three decades by the grinning “Bandstand” leader, took an odd turn with daytime talker Regis Philbin at the helm.
Reege seemed oddly nervous and grumpy Friday night, snugly locked in his heated studio above the raucous celebrations in Times Square. He managed to get excited when the ball dropped, but he seemed way too glad (disdainful even?) to be floating above the cheering crowd most of the time.
Clark is recovering from a mild stroke and is expected to be back in the saddle by the time 2006 rolls around. Let’s hope so, because I don’t think I can stand another “Rockin’ Eve” with sourpuss Reege.
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