Austin360 blogs > TV Blog > Archives > 2005 > July
July 2005
Random thoughts and quotes from TV press tour
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The press corps has gotten downright crabby in the waning days of the nearly month-long TV critics’ press tour.
My colleagues are grumbling about everything from the hotel to the fall shows to the pat answers bubbling up from every producer and star. It’s true, everybody is “excited” to be on their show, and every show, including the gross sitcoms and even grosser sci-fi shows, is “family entertainment.”
Me, I’m just grumbling about the Internet connection from my hotel room, which has been spotty to nonexistent for the whole week. I’m getting used to the press room though, except for the temperature, which hovers between 32 and 34 degrees thanks to blustery air conditioning.
But as I sit here amidst empty coffee cups and half-eaten bagels, I offer some random thoughts and quotes:
NBC staffers made reporters move from the back of the room during entertainment chief Kevin Reilly’s press conference, so he could see the TelePrompTer for his “off-the-cuff” remarks.
Jonathan Cake, last seen on ABC’s “Empire” and soon to appear on NBC’s fertility clinic drama “Inconceivable,” said it was nice to play a character creating life instead of “hacking people to bits.”
ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson said the network will repeat last year’s promos involving dry-cleaning bags to hawk “Desperate Housewives.” This year, some of the promo bags will have a free shirt in them.
Max Gail, late of “Barney Miller,” has a new midseason sitcom, “Sons & Daughter,” which will be a huge boost to his career, considering the fact that two years ago he was at the press tour transcribing recordings of executive press conferences.
Gail’s co-star on “Sons & Daughters” is Dee Wallace, late of “ET” and “Cujo,” who also hopes to enjoy a career resurrection. Lately she’s been running an acting studio and learning how to be a “healer.” She’s also recently started therapy, which makes you wonder why she can’t just heal herself. As for why she kept winding up in semi-horror flicks: “I scream and cry really well.”
On NBC’s lame “Friends” spinoff “Joey,” which may or may not make it through a second season, dimwit Joey will make it in Hollywood and get to mingle with real stars. Not former “Friends” stars, however. Probably NBC soap stars.
Of Adam Goldberg, who co-stars in Fox’s hourlong comedy-drama “Head Cases,” about a couple of lawyers who have had nervous breakdowns, a reporter asked if it is now politically correct to make fun of crazy people. “If anything, we may be making fun of normalcy,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg’s co-star, Chris O’Donnell, who used to play Robin in the “Batman” movies, allowed as to how it is “weird that I have a son now who is a Batman fan and who has an action figure that’s me.”
Darren Star, creator of “Melrose Place” and “Sex and the City,” has a new sitcom on Fox called “Kitchen Confidential,” based on real chef Anthony Bourdain. Asked why chefs have become such rock stars in popular culture, Star quipped, “As people stopped having sex, they started eating more food.”
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Fox squirms over Paula’s status on ‘Idol’
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Poor Fox. After finishing the season in first place in the coveted 18 to 49 demographic, the network started off its meeting with TV critics with a news conference that degenerated into an inquisition.
At issue is the fate of Paula Abdul on “American Idol.” You remember that little scandal that broke in the spring when former contestant Corey Clark claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Abdul? Well, Fox said at the time that it would investigate Clark’s claims and figure things out. Months later, with auditions set to begin Aug. 18 for the new season, nothing has been decided. Officially.
“The credibility of the competition is extraordinarily important to us,” said Fox entertainment President Peter Liguori. “We want to make sure there’s a thorough inquiry.”
Liguori said network execs have “sat down with” both Abdul and Clark. He said that an independent investigation is “winding down” and that the results will be released. He declined to say who was conducting the independent investigation or whether it focused on charges raised in that seedy “Primetime Live” report that had the tone of a “True Hollywood Scandal.”
Asked point-blank if an “Idol” judge having sex with a contestant would be a firing offense, Liguori had a bizarre response:
“In terms of our rules for fraternization, they’re all geared toward whether a judge is affecting the outcome of the show. I mean, ultimately America votes and decides who moves forward. But with all that being said, the credibility of the competition is ‘job one’ for us.”
Here’s the deal, folks. Unless it is proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Abdul raped Corey Clark, she won’t be fired. Fox put her on the network’s summer dance competition show, and Liguori had only nice things to say about her, um, nurturing nature.
“Look, the audience loves Paula,” he said, weary from the badgering. “She continues to light up our online sites and message boards. She is part and parcel of that show, and her specific style seems to be working quite well.”
In other Fox news:
The new season of “The O.C.,” starring Austinite Ben McKenzie, will find the young Southern Californians in their senior year of high school and pondering college.
Despite the very public collapse of their friendship, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie have both been signed for a new season of “The Simple Life.” Both women are engaged, and the show is likely to follow their respective wedding plans — separately, of course.
David Boreanaz, who lusted after “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” all those years, is looking forward to the possibility of real romance in his new drama, “Bones,” about a woman (Emily Deschanel) who is a forensic anthropologist: “I can actually go to bed with this one without fear of losing my soul.”
In an upcoming new episode of “House,” the producers were so confident in the all-around talent of star Hugh Laurie that they wrote a scene with him juggling with one hand, talking on the phone with the other and speaking Spanish at the same time. He didn’t disappoint. Now that’s a smart doc.
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ABC and ‘Desperate Housewives’ Party Down
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — ABC threw its all-star party at the Abbey, an ultra-chic lounge known as LaLa Land’s most elegant gay establishment. It’s a cavernous place where the waiters and bartenders are stunningly handsome and the Spanish mission decor is breathtakingly gorgeous.
The No. 1 network served up the entire cast of “Desperate Housewives,” plus 100 other stars from new and returning series. The paparazzi and local entertainment media crammed onto a skinny sidewalk to shout at the arriving celebs, while the nation’s TV critics, feeling very pampered indeed, waited on the inside — where the riff-raff was not allowed. It was packed tighter than a starlet’s spandex dress inside, and so noisy my ears are still ringing.
But it was vintage Hollywood, a feeding frenzy of stars and notepad-wielding reporters.
“It’s easier to handle now,” said serenely calm “Desperate Housewives” Marcia Cross of the remarkable crush. “It’s not all new any more.” She said she plays Scrabble to relax these days, and, yes, her TV husband Rex really is dead, thus making Bree a desperate widow.
Eva Longoria of “Desperate,” who truly is flea-sized (I’m not exactly huge, but I felt like a pro-wrestler next to her), arrived with main squeeze Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs. Due to her size, it was hard to hear her when the mob grew. She did say something about being a nervous wreck watching Parker play in the NBA Finals.
“Desperate” Teri Hatcher, who has claimed on talk shows that she really is desperate for romance, arrived solo in possibly the most tasteful outfit of the evening — pale pink sparkly skirt and sleeveless sweater. Hatcher is almost Zen-like, her resurrected career duly documented last season. (She was one missed mortgage payment away from losing her house when “Desperate” arrived.)
“It’s amazing to get a second chance,” Hatcher said, projecting like a stage pro so I could actually hear her. “I don’t take any of it too seriously, because at some point it’s going to end. This kind of success is crazy, unpredictable and rare.”
Hatcher insists all the “Housewives” get along splendidly, tabloid rumors to the contrary. She says it bothers her when articles mention four stars (herself, Longoria, Cross and Felicity Huffman) without mentioning Nicollette Sheridan.
“Nicollette is my Laurel of Laurel and Hardy,” Hatcher said. “All our funny stuff is together.”
While other stars were led around by anxious, overly made-up publicists, Hatcher, who has never hired a publicist, made her own way. She says she doesn’t need a “handler.” When she wants to go on Jay Leno or David Letterman, she calls the guys up and asks if they’d like her to come on the show.
Austin’s own Mehcad Brooks, added to the cast along with Alfre Woodard in the last episode of “Desperate,” seemed to be enjoying the media circus.
“It’s all so new, it’s fun,” he said. “But time will tell. We’ll see how the year goes. It’s been pretty low-key so far. But you know what? I’ve had enough of anonymity, really. I’m ready for this.”
Brooks has only been seen briefly on the show, so he wasn’t swarmed by reporters. His publicist steered him away from me and toward bigger-city papers, but the 24-year-old actor said he’ll never be too far from Austin. He seems to be holding up just fine.
Alfre Woodard, who plays Brooks’ mom on “Desperate,” couldn’t say enough nice things about him. “He’s like the sculpture I have all around my house,” she drooled. “You just want to touch him and lean on him. But people shouldn’t make such a big deal of him being a boy toy. He’s much more than that. He’s talented, and very well-grounded. He’s a golden boy.”
Woodard said in the fall opener, viewers will go inside her house on “Desperate” and find something “shocking … you’re gonna go, ‘Oh, my God!’ ” she giggled. Remember, in the cliffhanger, Woodard and Brooks blocked their neighbors from peeking inside.
Moving on from the “Desperate” gang … “Boston Legal’s” William Shatner admits he’s having the time of his life. “The new generation all know me as Denny Crane,” said the former “Star Trek” icon. “What they yell at me now is, ‘Beam me up, Denny Crane!’ “
Jorge Garcia, who plays lovable lump Hurley on “Lost,” is happily surprised that he has lots of fans. He won’t go so far as to call them groupies, but that’s what they are.
“It feels good that you can make someone’s day just by showing up,” Garcia said shyly. “I’m always happy to greet people.”
“Grey’s Anatomy” star Sandra Oh said she was stunned by her recent Emmy nomination.
“Oh, dude, I didn’t even know they were coming out, and when my phone rang at like 5 a.m., I thought someone in my family must have died,” she said. “I’ve really had a pretty terrific year. It’s a whole different ballgame since ‘Sideways’ and ‘Grey’s.’ “
The featured drink of the evening, by the way, was the Desperate Housewives Martini — a blend of passion fruit and vodka, reportedly strong enough to knock the notes out of a reporter’s notebook. I was too chicken to try one.
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Creepy things are coming to fall TV
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Creepy things are coming to TV this fall, thanks to the blockbuster success of “Lost.”
Every network has a new sci-fi drama, and ABC has two: “Invasion,” set in post-hurricane Florida where some people begin to act — and smell — differently, and “Night Stalker,” a semi-revival of the campy old show “Kolchak” with Darren McGavin.
“Invasion” creator Shaun Cassidy, former pop warbler and “Hardy Boys Mysteries” star, first turned to creepy TV with the bone-chilling but short-lived “American Gothic.”
Why does he like the dark side? “I’m Irish,” he said.
Cassidy prefers to think of “Invasion” as a mystery, not a sci-fi drama. And he won’t even cop to the show as being about an alien invasion.
“The title trumpets a lot of expectations, but nobody said any aliens have landed,” he said in an annoyingly coy press conference. “That’s a possibility, but this really is about the aftermath of a terrible tragedy, about survival from the hurricane and ultimately about the survival of the species.”
In the pilot, the aftermath of the hurricane brings a meteor shower of lights that apparently only a few people see. They’re kind of pretty. Then more ominous lights lurk beneath the water of the Everglades. And some of the residents of tiny Homestead, Fla., begin to act strange and, according to one small child who sniffs her mommy, smell strange.
“It’s a primordial place on the edge of the Everglades,” Cassidy said. “Water is a theme, but it’s not about sea monsters.”
The cast includes Eddie Cibrian as a good guy and William Fichtner as an apparently evil sheriff, although nobody would own up to the pilot’s hints that the lawman had been, you know, invaded.
“I don’t know that I’m evil,” Fichtner said. “At this point, I’m just wondering why I’ve got webbed feet.”
The good news, for those of us who wonder whether sci-fi writers ever think about where they’re going when they set up a premise like “Invasion,” is that Cassidy says he has thought through the entire mythology and has a storyline through four seasons … assuming the show lasts that long.
Meanwhile, Frank Spotnitz, who started out as a UPI reporter and wound up writing for “The X-Files,” tried to convince a skeptical bunch of TV writers that his revival of “Kolchak” will be “great family viewing.” This came as a big surprise to those of us who have seen the pilot, which features a woman being dragged off by glowing-eyed, wolf-like creatures that then tear her to shreds and rip the fetus from her womb.
“I like to be scared,” Spotnitz said. “It’s cathartic. And I think at the end of the hour, you’ll feel safer.”
Or not.
Madame President, I presume
Geena Davis stars in ABC’s “Commander In Chief” (no hyphens, the publicists say) as the first woman president, an independent who assumes the leadership of the free world after the Republican president dies. Nobody wants her in the West Wing, but she decides to take the oath of office and stick it out.
“For Thelma to become president is delightful,” said Davis, who co-starred with Susan Sarandon in the movie “Thelma and Louise.”
The Quote of the Tour … So Far
Heather Graham, who stars in ABC’s midseason sitcom “Emily’s Reasons Why Not,” said she identifies with her characters search for Mr. Right.
“I feel like I’m seeking … trying to find that self-empowerment thing,” she said vacantly.
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‘Boston Legal’ retools for return
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — When “Boston Legal” returns to ABC in September, it will have a new time slot, an extra-long season and a shift in direction.
But if the clips shown to critics are any indication, it will still be outrageous law, and we’ll still have glib and slippery Alan Shore and deviously befuddled Denny Crane to look forward to.
“Boston Legal” underwent a humiliation last season after ABC “temporarily” gave its Sunday night time slot to the new midseason medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” When the ratings for “Grey’s” soared, the network decided to keep “Grey’s” on Sunday nights and send “Boston” into an early hiatus.
“No, we weren’t very pleased,” said “Boston Legal” creator-producer David E. Kelley. “We felt we were just coming into some of the best shows of our season, so it was a big disappointment.”
Plot-wise, the show was in the middle of a multi-episode story line featuring Heather Locklear as a woman on trial for murder. It was a bum deal, and especially surprising because Kelley has been one of TV’s most highly regarded writers since he worked for Steven Bochco on “L.A. Law” in 1986. He went on to create “Picket Fences,” “Chicago Hope,” “Ally McBeal,” “Boston Public” and “The Practice” — which spun off “Boston Legal.”
But Kelley said after the initial sting, he decided to take the long hiatus as an opportunity to polish last season’s unseen scripts and concentrate on spiffing up the show’s focus.
“We’ve discovered this series really wants to be more of a comedy,” Kelley said. “There will still be dramatic stories, but I guess you could call it a comedy-drama or a dramedy … or maybe a comma.”
It’s not like “Boston Legal” was ever pure drama. James Spader’s Alan Shore is an ethically challenged lawyer who will do anything to win a case, including lie. He also seems to have little control over his sex life. And Denny Crane, played by William Shatner, is almost beyond description. He weaves in and out of an Alzheimer’s fog, alternately brilliant in the courtroom and buffoonish everywhere else.
“Huh?” Shatner responded when asked about Denny’s battle with lucidity. “It’s an interesting dilemma, you know. As an actor, you have to walk a fine line because he’s on his game sometimes and then he’s not.”
Candice Bergen, who joined the cast last season as founding partner Shirley Schmidt, said she just loves to say her character’s name. And she enjoys the ridiculous cat-and-mouse play she has with Denny Crane. One of last season’s best lines came from her after she congratulated Denny for winning a case, and he asked her if that meant they could have sex.
“Allow me the dream just a little bit longer,” Shirley whispered seductively in Denny’s ear.
The core of this comedy-drama has always been Alan Shore and Denny Crane, and the alchemy is due to genius casting of these totally opposite actors — a classically trained stage actor and, well, Captain James T. Kirk.
The end-of-show cigar puffing scenes between Denny and Alan have become the show’s trademark, a funny, often poignant moment that puts a punctuation mark on the night. But the first time one was shot, Shatner was a mess.
“I started out with the long ones, figuring the longer the cigar, the less likely the smoke would get in my eyes,” he said. “But that didn’t look as good as the short, stumpy ones. After 20 cigars, I was ill, with a sheen of oily sweat covering my brow. They had to put rouge on me to cover the green.”
It’s been mentioned in past episodes that Denny is a pal of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas. Might he guest star on the show?
“We haven’t gone there yet, but it’s not beyond the pale,” Kelley said.
Hmmmm …
**The TV blog now is set up to receive your comments, so zap me a few and tell me what you think of the press tour so far — and what else you want to know about it.
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Gail & Freddie: Good People, Bad Shows
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Life would be so much easier if only awful people made awful shows.
But that’s not the case, and today the nation’s TV critics were faced with back-to-back press conferences featuring really nice, talented people who will star — for a short time, at least — in truly stinky ABC sitcoms. It’s such a shame, and it makes for really difficult Q&A sessions.
First up this afternoon was a session for “Hot Properties,” a painfully unfunny show about four women working in a Manhattan real estate office who are in various stages of desperation about their sex lives. Gail O’Grady, who first got our attention as soulful Donna Abandando on “NYPD Blue” and then melted our hearts as the wonderful mother on “American Dreams,” plays a 40-something former party animal devoted to her 25-year-old husband — and trying to conceive a kid.
The pilot is rife with ribald sex talk among the women, including a super-saucy Latina (Sofia Vergara), a social loser (Nicole Sullivan) and a naive virgin (Christina Moore). The creator may have had “Sex and the City” and “Designing Women” in mind, but that’s not what “Hot Properties” is.
When stars arrive for these press sessions, their green room preparation by network staffers has included a sense of how critics received their show. In the case of O’Grady, she was told that most of us were not laughing our heads off, so she walked in with an icy stare and a chip on her shoulder. It didn’t help matters when the first question was a rudely worded quip about how she had gone from playing a sweet Catholic mom to — what was the word used? oh yeah — a “slut.”
As you might imagine, it was more or less downhill from there.
“I’m thrilled to be doing a half-hour show with a live audience and lighter material,” O’Grady said through clenched teeth. “I’m excited to be working again.”
You’ll recall that NBC bumped “American Dreams” from its comfy Sunday night perch last season, tossed it onto Wednesday nights where it was ignored and then axed it without airing the final episodes. It may not have attracted a massive audience, but the show was superb and O’Grady was a major reason why. Now she’s doing her best to make “Hot Properties” not stink. But it does.
Moments after that cold-hearted session ended, Freddie Prinze Jr. arrived to tout his new ABC sitcom, “Freddie.” I’ll say this for young Mr. Prinze: He knows how to charm a crowd. He was smart, funny and ready for the lion’s den. Even those of us who will pan his show will wind up saying nice things about him.
Prinze, who is Puerto Rican on his father’s side and Italian on his mother’s, is married to Sarah Michelle Gellar, formerly of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” He happily talked about the Puerto Rican culture that has informed his life, from his late father (who died of a drug overdose when young Freddie was a baby) to his extended family.
The sitcom is about a chef who winds up with a house full of female relatives after his brother dies and his sister gets divorced. Poor writing and overacting made for more groans than grins. Prinze, who grew up in Albuquerque, said the show is semi-autobiographical. He is creator, writer, executive producer and star. You’d think he’s be even more cranky than O’Grady about the less than warm reception of his personal show, but he wasn’t. He was open and unruffled.
“The Puerto Rican side of my family is hard-core Catholic that borders on voodoo,” Prinze said. “There are massive spiritual differences between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. It’s an ‘inland versus island’ mentality. And we Puerto Ricans are not known as the hard workers in the Latino community. We’re more laid-back. We don’t take things too seriously.”
That explains it.
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Top-rated ABC faces ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood’ flap
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Now that NBC is finished eating crow, it’s time for ABC to crow … about its No. 1 ratings.
You’d think ABC would be especially puffed up about suffering such Mickey Mouse ratings in previous seasons, but the network’s entertainment president, Stephen McPherson, told TV critics this morning that he just hopes to keep building on current success of hits such as “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Being humble in the face of victory didn’t spare McPherson from addressing the “Welcome to the Neighborhood” flap. The reality show, which was filmed in Austin’s Circle C subdivision, sparked a slew of prebroadcast criticism about the concept of having three conservative white families picking the winner of a house in their cul-de-sac from seven wildly diverse families. Promos focused on negative comments from one judging family about a gay couple. Civil rights groups and fair-housing advocates howled, and ABC pulled the show 10 days before its scheduled debut.
But McPherson said the show was not axed because of outside complaints.
“If I stopped running shows because of advocacy groups, we’d have nothing but a test pattern,” he said. “The show just wasn’t right. It was a challenging show that we knew would be provocative, but we just did not anticipate that the episodic nature would be such a problem. After seeing it, we realized that viewers might be confused by the message that was intended.”
McPherson insisted he still hasn’t decided whether to repackage “Welcome” and air it. It’s hard to imagine how that would be feasible, since the rumor is all but confirmed that the gay couple won the house. Nobody has moved into the Alberta Cove residence yet, but ABC has said it will give the house to the winner.
McPherson also addressed a controversy that bubbled up after the finale of “Dancing with the Stars,” when many viewers felt ABC soap star Kelly Monaco shouldn’t have won over John O’Hurley. The buzz was that the judges’ final perfect 10s for an obviously flawed final dance by Monaco was proof positive.
“I love it that people are so wrapped up in the show,” McPherson said. “The judges sit where they can’t see everything the camera sees, but fans are going to root for who they want, regardless of the performance. And you can’t underestimate the power of the daytime audience.”
“Dancing with the Stars” will return with new contestants and the same annoying three judges.
Jennifer Garner, who is pregnant in real life (recently wed to Ben Affleck), will be pregnant on “Alias,” raising the specter of the first-ever pregnant action hero. The goal will be to make the situation realistic, not campy, while not endangering Garner or creating the perception that her pregnant character is in danger. (Viewers can’t always tell the difference, you know.) She’ll still run, kick and jump — at least in the prehuge stage — but she probably won’t get hit as much. Good thing.
The prospect of life without “Monday Night Football,” which moves to cable in the fall of ’06, is not all desperate, McPherson said. It might mean a dip in Monday ratings at first, but programming regular series will have its advantages.
“It’s difficult to re-launch Monday nights every six months, which is what we were having to do,” he said. “At least we’ll have the opportunity for some consistency there.”
As for the grumbling after the May finale of “Lost,” when once again we were denied entry to the hatch, McPherson said he does know what’s in the hatch, “And it’s definitely worth the wait.”
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NBC hopes for pregnant possibilities
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Thematically, NBC’s new shows are either sweetly hopeful or downright desperate, depending on your point of view.
The fourth-place network has two new series about winning the lottery (the fall sitcom “My Name Is Earl” and the midseason replacement drama “Windfall”) and a reality series that will grant three wishes in one small town each week (appropriately slugged “Three Wishes”). Oh, and a midseason drama about an Episcopal priest with a dysfunctional family who talks to a visible Jesus (“The Book of Daniel”). Could the development execs be hoping for a miracle?
Another new show NBC feels is, um, pregnant with possibility is “Inconceivable,” a comedy-drama set in a fertility clinic.
One of the stars is Ming-Na, who left “ER” at the end of last season and just happens to be pregnant. Her second child is due in October. She told critics this morning that she loved the pilot script but almost turned it down “because there were lab coats involved.” She also liked the mostly upbeat storylines.
“Instead of killing people each week, which is something ‘ER’ did — not every week but often — this is about creating life,” she said.
Also in the cast of “Inconceivable” is Dallas’ own Angie Harmon, who left “Law & Order” several years ago to concentrate on having a life. She has since had two children with hubby Jason Sehorn of the New York Jets, the most recent addition arriving just last month.
“I had no intention of coming back to series, but I was 8 1/2 months pregnant when I read this script and just loved it — maybe because of raging hormones,” said Harmon, sporting a set of diamond rings so huge and blinding that some of us worried she would set fire to her dress under the spotlights. “Every time I get pregnant, my career gets better. I hope I’ll have twins next time.”
Harmon and Sehorn are raising their daughters in Dallas and commute to L.A. and New York for their respective careers.
Dick Wolf howls
The always cantankerous Dick Wolf met with critics to chew us out about not writing enough about the successful NBC “Law & Order” series — the “brand” responsible for most of NBC’s ratings lately. Wolf, who produces the original and two spinoffs (“Special Victims Unit” and “Criminal Intent”), not-so-gently pointed out that his three series have a combined episode tally of 600 and crowed that the trio generated $1 billion in ad revenue from telecasts on NBC and TNT.
“We’re not looking to be the hot show,” Wolf grumbled. “It’s about longevity and profitability.” And, presumably, quality.
NBC still has the richest
NBC may be fourth in total households and all the swell age demos (18-34 and 18-49), but it’s still No. 1 in one audience category: income.
The network has the most upscale audience, with $100,000-plus incomes in abundance, along with college degrees. Advertisers like smart, wealthy viewers, which means NBC isn’t in as bad a shape as ABC was when it was in fourth place — and attracted the blue-collar crowd.
Jeff Zucker, NBC’s president, told a small group at breakfast this morning that “The West Wing” is the top attraction for the rich, followed by “The Apprentice” (guess rich folks wanna be like The Donald, too) and “ER.” Rich-appeal comedies include “Scrubs” and “Will & Grace.”
So what’s the least upscale show on NBC? Acccording to Zucker, it’s (ta-da!) “Fear Factor.”
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‘Las Vegas’ and Lara Flynn Boyle party down
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — What better way to unwind after a nine-hour stretch of screenings, news conferences and interviews than attending a “Las Vegas” pool party, where publicists make it clear you should “casually chat” — on the record, of course — with more stars, producers and network executives?
I’m not really complaining. This is Beverly Hills, after all; the temperature is a scorching 80 degrees and there are worse things than hobnobbing with the glitterati.
So, in anticipation of the third season of NBC’s cheesy drama “Las Vegas,” the gang arrives trumpeted by a horde of screaming paparazzi, to wow the media.
“Over here! Jimmy! Over here!” photographers shout as star James Caan arrives.
Now, I’ve loved Caan since his “Godfather” days, but “Vegas” isn’t exactly art. Rather than embarrass myself by asking why he would stoop so low, I commend him on his blinding white sports coat and stare drop-jawed at his multicolored hair. It’s orange, brown and white. Like a tabby cat.
The big news (OK, it’s a stretch to call it news) is Lara Flynn Boyle, who will join the cast in the fall as the new casino owner Monica Mancuso. If you watch “Las Vegas” at all, you know that they blew up the old casino in the season finale. For no apparent reason, other than they wanted to build a bigger, fancier new set. And Boyle, previously seen as steely assistant district attorney Helen Gamble on “The Practice,” is the new boss.
“I’ve never been so in love with Las Vegas,” Boyle bubbled of the extraordinary new set that cost millions of dollars to build. “It’s the real deal, it’s Bugsy Siegel.”
Boyle has been in the spotlight lately less for her acting than for her weight. Startling photos have been seen of her in a bikini, looking like a skeleton with bones protruding at every angle. I’m here to report that Boyle, though still about 10 inches wide from behind, has no visible bones and was eating a large plate of risotto and drinking a big frothy brown thing that looked like one of those million-calorie coffee drinks from Starbucks.
Want more superficial, up-close details? Boyle’s forehead actually moves when she talks, unlike most Hollywood women, so it’s evident she hasn’t resorted to Botox. Her puffed up lips, on the other hand, are uneven and a little scary, which is likely evidence of bad collagen.
She said her role on “Las Vegas” is the opposite of the uptight, conservatively dressed Helen Gamble. The casino boss Monica will be hard-edged but glamorous.
“I get to have a lot of padding and lots of cleavage,” Boyle said.
Caan has a reputation for being difficult on the set, but Boyle isn’t worried. When your ex-boyfriend is Jack Nicholson, how much trouble could Caan be?
Boyle, a Chicago native, grew up loving old movies and watching “The Love Boat.” But asked by a teen magazine reporter who her star role model is, she said Diane Sawyer. Yes, the ABC newsie.
“She’s as sexy as they come,” Boyle said. “She has to wear her real skin. We get to go into someone else’s skin. I just think she’s incredibly sexy.”
One last thing about last night’s soiree … Fergie, the lovely lady from the Black-Eyed Peas, was there, and it took a while to figure out why she was attending a cocktail party for the cast of “Las Vegas.” Seems she’s engaged to hunky “Vegas” star Josh Duhamel. They arrived separately, but when they were seen together, the photo flashes were blinding.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
NBC’s “Earl” gets real, “The Office” boss gets jerky, etc.
LOS ANGELES — Long after Lance Armstrong had doffed his sweaty yellow jersey on Sunday, NBC stars and producers were touting the sagging network’s hoped-for new hits.
Jason Lee, who looks remarkably like Nicolas Cage, said he was inspired by Cage’s character in “Raising Arizona” when he was developing his lead wacko in the new sitcom “My Name Is Earl.”
“Earl is ignorant and naive, but he’s not evil,” Lee said of the guy who decides to try to make amends for all his crooked deeds after winning the lottery. “I’m walking a fine line between real and caricature.”
Lake Bell, who left David E. Kelley’s “Boston Legal” to star in NBC’s new sci-fi drama “Surface,” made little to no sense trying to explain why she left the ABC drama. After using the word “actually” seven times in one sentence, she ACTUALLY gave up trying. Producers of “Surface,” which changed its title from “Fathom,” describe the show about invading alien sea critters as “emotional realism with magical elements,” not sci-fi. Got that?
Dennis Hopper, best known for rebel roles such as “Easy Rider” and infamous for a lifetime of hard living, was asked how he planned to change his image to play a hard-line Pentagon officer in “E-Ring.” He donned dark glasses, squinted at the questioner and said, “I’ll stand a little straighter and get a haircut.”
Sexy Benjamin Bratt confessed to being less than thrilled with the whole sex-symbol image, but he’d better get used to it. In the pilot of “E-Ring,” his character was a family man, married with baby. But at the request of NBC, the pilot is being “reconfigured” so that Bratt will be a bachelor.
“I’m not approaching it with that (sex symbol) in mind,” Bratt said, squirming a bit. “It’s maybe more compelling to have him be a lone wolf. I’ll get the opportunity to play opposite some tremendous actresses, but I’m not really comfortable with that image. It’s pretty one-dimensional.” Too bad, Ben.
NBC’s version of the BBC hit comedy “The Office” didn’t exactly catch fire with viewers in its brief spring run, but it did get picked up for a full 22-episode season this fall. Executive producer Greg Daniels said viewers should think of the show as “an American sitcom now. … We’re not using any BBC scripts.”
Considering that the BBC version had only 12 episodes plus a Christmas special, that’s no surprise.
Steve Carell, who took over the role of “Office” boss Michael after Brit Ricky Gervais made it famous, is all over the place these days. He’s to have carved a niche for himself playing oddballs and, specifically, jerks in movies such as “Anchorman,” “Bewitched” and the upcoming “40-Year-Old Virgin.” He’s never been more dead-pan jerky than he is in “The Office,” where he improvises much of his character’s insensitivity.
“So far, I have accepted every acting job I’ve ever been offered,” Carell said. “Basically, I am a jerk. But I do hope someday to play a part that is less of a jerk. Hopefully, as this character evolves, I will make you cry.”
The first season of “The Office” will be out on DVD on Aug. 16 with a full hour of improv hilarity that didn’t make it into the broadcast version.
And by the way … During one Q&A session today, a producer let it slip that 30-minute sitcoms on network TV now run 21 minutes. That means hour-long shows, with more promos in the middle, are probably a skinny 40 minutes or less. No wonder it’s so much quicker to zap ads and watch them on TiVo.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
A clean start for NBC?
It’s not the way you want to start your Sunday morning, listening to a network executive discuss success in terms of bodily functions, but, well, there it was.
“OK, we’re in fourth place (in the ratings),” NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly told the assembled crowd of the Television Critics Association. “Last season was tough, but it was sort of like a colonic. It’s not fun to go there, but it’s going to be healthy for us in the long run.”
Alrighty then …
After dominating prime time through most of the past 20 years, NBC took a precipitous Nielsen dive last season, and Reilly insists that the drubbing has awakened the network to the need for better shows. After losing long-running hits such as “Friends” and “Frasier” with nothing of similar quality to replace them, the network, Reilly, said, is finally ready to ditch its “sense of entitlement.” Good thing, because nobody has found much to praise about NBC in quite a while.
Reilly pointed to three new NBC shows that he hopes will generate buzz and ratings: “My Name Is Earl,” a comedy about a petty crook who wins the lottery (the pilot actually was funny); “E-Ring,” an overly earnest drama about life at the Pentagon (which was tedious but did have Benjamin Bratt going for it); and “Surface,” a sci-fi drama about aliens springing from the ocean (which was really pretty darn silly).
The new version of “The Apprentice,” with Martha Stewart interviewing potential domestic divas got a promotional push, too, with Reilly promising that the lady would be “tough but vulnerable.” Asked repeatedly why Stewart wasn’t participating in the press tour, Reilly reminded us that, well, she’s still under “house arrest” in Connecticut. Logistical difficulties, don’t you know.
In news of old shows, which, really, we care more about:
“The West Wing” will not resolve the election right away. Look for a winner to be declared during the November or maybe even the February sweeps. And Jimmy Smits is NOT a shoo-in.
“Scrubs” will not return until midseason. Bummer.
“ER,” Reilly feels, is still a fabulous show. Guess he really does need that colonic.
The Winter Olympics, which NBC will have live from Turino, Italy, could pull the fourth place network out of the dumper. That’s the hope and the Peacock’s prayer.
More to come from the low-rated but increasingly media-loving NBC network.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
Critics heap love on ‘Housewives’ and ‘Lost’
LOS ANGELES — Crabby critics often shy away from the most popular shows, but this year’s Television Critics Association Awards heaped praise on ABC megahits “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost.”
Cleaned up (briefly) for the occasion, critics gathered Saturday night in a glittery ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to honor television’s best.
“Desperate Housewives” won the program of the year award, and “Lost” won for best new show and best drama.
Not wanting to stray too far from our favorite less-popular shows, we gave the comedy award, for the second year in a row, to Fox’s sublimely wacky “Arrested Development” and, for the seventh time, to PBS’ hard-hitting “Frontline” for news.
Bob Newhart was on hand to receive the career achievement award. Past career winners include Walter Cronkite, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Fred Rogers and Bill Cosby.
Other TCA award recipients were “Degrassi: The Next Generation” for children’s programming, “The Office Special” (BBC version) for movies and specials, Jon Stewart (“The Daily Show”) for individual achievement in comedy and Hugh Laurie (“House”) for individual achievement in drama.
“The last time I won an award,” said Laurie, who plays the cranky doctor on “House,” “my parents were in the audience.”
The heritage award, given to a program that has had a significant impact on television, went to “Nightline.”
The ceremony got off to a good start with wisecracking Craig Ferguson, host of CBS’ “The Late Late Show.”
“I smell power,” Ferguson said to the assembled critics. “And sex and clashing after-shave. That, my friends, is Hollywood.”
Star citings included Will Arnett (Gob) and Tony Hale (Buster) of “Arrested Development,” Felicity Huffman (Lynette) and Doug Savant (Lynette’s husband, Tom) of “Desperate Housewives,” Dominic Monaghan (Charlie) and Yunjin Kim (Sun Kwon) of “Lost.”
Biggest star? Brenda Strong, who plays dead Mary Alice on “Desperate Housewives.”
“Yes, I’ll be back next season,” she said. “It’s not like they can kill me off.”
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
Fall sitcoms: Chris Rock, funny. Eating disorders, not.
You’ve probably heard that comedy is, if not dead, at least gasping for air on TV these days.
But I have good news to report: I actually laughed out loud watching a sitcom pilot the other night. I had gone through so many sitcoms without making a peep that my near-deaf dog was startled when I suddenly began to guffaw.
It’s the first time I’ve laughed at a sitcom pilot since “Arrested Development” arrived on my desk in 2003.
The show is UPN’s “Everybody Hates Chris” a more or less autobiographical comedy overseen and narrated by standup comic Chris Rock.
Think “Wonder Years” in the ‘hood, and you’ve got the picture.
Contrast “Chris” with FX’s new sitcom “Starved”, about a group of friends suffering from eating disorders. I rave about FX’s dramas all the time — “The Shield,” “Nip/Tuck,” “Rescue Me,” and, coming soon, “Over There.” But really, a comedy about anorexia and bulimia (there’s actual barfing, people!) just isn’t funny.
“Everybody Hates Chris,” on the other hand, is. Set in the 1980s when Rock was a nerdy middle-school kid, the show blends edgy family humor with racially tinged comedy based on Chris’ experiences at an all-white school.
In real life and in the show, Rock’s mother decided that an all-white school would give her son a better education than a Bed-Stuy neighborhood school. So he was bused across town to attend a junior high where he was poked, picked on and forced to defend himself with .44 caliber humor.
Adorable Tyler James Williams, 12, plays 13-year-old Chris. The humor, like Rock’s stand-up, is sometimes raw (yes, there’s an N-word or two) but definitely funny and more than a little bit poignant.
“Everybody Hates Chris” is already generating enormous buzz among critics, which will be important when the show joins UPN’s Thursday night lineup on Sept. 22. Count on me to tout it to an annoying degree.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
‘Dancing with the Stars’ to return midseason
Surprise, surprise … ABC has picked up another season of “Dancing with the Stars,” the summer’s smash hit. The dance competition will air sometime during midseason, which means January or beyond.
Before it returns, the show may have to address the controversy that has been bubbling ever since the July 6 finale when clumsy Kelly Monaco and her pro dance partner beat the elegant and graceful John O’Hurley and his partner.
Fans of O’Hurley, the top-vote getter through most of the show’s six-week fun, immediately accused ABC of rigging the finale so that Monaco, a star of the ratings-challenged ABC soap “General Hospital,” would win.
I have to say that never entered my mind. I just assumed the three judges suffered from temporary insanity (or hysterical blindness) when the each gave Monaco’s final performance the only perfect 10s of the competition. Didn’t they see her whack her partner in the head with her foot during one of those Las Vegas show-girl moves? Didn’t they notice that she was constantly trying to spit out her unkempt mane that kept flying into her mouth?
If there was any kind of corporate conspiracy, it was well-hidden behind inept judges who apparently fell in love with spunky Kelly for reasons other than dance talent.
Where’s Larry? He’s back Sept. 25 on HBO
Larry David’s hilarious comedy series “Curb Your Enthusiasm” has been gone so long (way more than a year) that most of us thought it had been canceled. Or that Larry David was still pondering its fate.
HBO has announced that “Curb” will return for a fifth season in September. Suddenly, my chuckle possibilities are considerably brighter. To prepare, you can take a refresher course on Season 4.
PR war begins over Supreme Court
President Bush’s nomination for the Supreme Court is already getting the TV ad tug.
John G. Roberts, a federal appeals court judge with a conservative record, might not set off the kind of ruckus that Robert Bork did years ago, but partisans are lining up pro and con for the small screen.
On the right, Progress for America came out with a pro-Roberts ad on Wednesday. On the left, People for the American Way and the National Abortion Reproductive Rights Action League will respond next week with their own spots.
Since members of the U.S. Senate, who will confirm or reject the nominee, are unlikely to be sitting around watching TV in the evenings, this seems like a big waste of time. But partisans are hoping couch potato constituents will contact their political representatives.
Permalink | | Categories: Reality TV
‘The Apprentice’ wants you (maybe)
Want a chance to be humiliated in front of millions of people and then maybe go to work for The Donald?
“The Apprentice” is holding open auditions in Austin on Saturday, July 30 at the Omni Hotel downtown.
If you’d rather skip ahead of what promises to be a mile-long line, KXAN, Austin’s NBC affiliate that airs Donald Trump’s job competition show, is holding an online preaudition contest that could guarantee you a place in the later cattle-call audition.
On KXAN’s Web site, write a very brief (as in 30 words or less) explanation of why you should be the next “Apprentice.” Authors of the 10 best entries, as chosen by KXAN, will then tape 30-second segments with morning news anchor Kate Weidaw.
KXAN.com readers will watch the clips online and vote for five finalists, who will then receive wristbands and guaranteed auditions at the Omni on July 30. These five finalists will be featured on KXAN’s morning news program Wednesday, July 27. If you can’t wake up early enough to be at the station between 6 and 7 a.m., don’t bother to enter.
“The Apprentice” is possibly the most conservative of all the reality shows, with a high-paying job for the Trump organization at stake. Which means applicants should consider wearing business attire and not trying to look like “Real World” wannabes. The Donald prefers corporate types.
TiVo says, ‘Watch these ads!’
Most people buy digital video recorders for two reasons: to record shows for more convenient viewing and to delete commercials.
Now TiVo, the original digital recording device, wants viewers to watch commercials.
This week TiVo announced plans to insert symbols identifying advertisers during what is supposed to be commercial breaks. So when viewers are zipping and zapping through them, the advertisers and their products will be more visible.
The theory is viewers will be intrigued by some products and want to pause to watch them or download a “long-format” commercial.
Sounds like a hard sell, but TiVo is frantically looking for ways to stem the tide of its ongoing revenue decline. The company, founded in 1997, has more than 3 million subscribers but has yet to turn a profit.
Permalink | | Categories: Reality TV
‘Miami Ink’ — oddly compelling!
Just when you thought the saturated reality genre couldn’t possibly come up with a new twist, “Miami Ink” arrives.
This new reality show, set in a Miami tattoo parlor, debuts tonight at 9 on TLC. Unlike most reality shows, “Miami Ink” is neither silly nor profound. But it is oddly serious — and, even more oddly, rather compelling.
I know, I know. You probably think I’ve finally succumbed to reality brainwashing. And maybe I have. But these shows are everywhere, and it’s my job to check out the new stuff.
“Miami Ink” didn’t make me want toquit my job — as most of the icky dating and humiliation-producing shows have. For one thing, its edginess doesn’t come off as manufactured. It seems genuine.
People who chose to permanently decorate themselves are either supremely confident or foolish. Either way, they’re an interesting lot.
In tonight’s opener, clients pop into the shop, owned by philosopher/tattoo artist Ami (“Everything can be fixed,” he tells a distraught customer who tatt has been misspelled), for various reasons.
Most, like a young woman wanting to etch a tribute to her brother who committed suicide, have serious intentions. I expected to see drunken kids wanting an obscenity or the name of a current boyfriend/girlfriend emblazoned on a bicep.
But sober tributes rule. And the execution of the tattoo itself is presented as art.
“Miami Ink” might not be as fascinating to everyone as it was to me … I have a feeling I was influenced by a long-held, secret desire to have a tiny, multicolored armadillo on my lower back.
‘Sopranos’ Indecision: 2005
Is this really it for Tony Soprano? Not even HBO knows for sure.
At the Television Critics Association summer press tour, HBO executives were grilled about whether the upcoming sixth season of “The Sopranos” would actually be the last one. It’s scheduled to return in March 2006, but these folks definitely move at their own pace.
HBO chief Chris Albrecht said in a news conference that he really, really doesn’t know.
“Sopranos” creator David Chase hasn’t decided what he wants to do, although he did say last year that the sixth season is the last. Of course Chase also said the fifth season would be the last and then changed his mind.
Permalink | | Categories: Reality TV
‘The Closer’ a worthy hit on cable
Who says there are no instant hits any more?
Of course “hit” has a slightly different definition on cable than it does on broadcast networks.
TNT’s “The Closer” is a bona fide hit on basic cable, debuting June 13 in the No. 1 spot on cable ratings with close to 7 million viewers. That would be a marginal performance for a show on NBC or CBS.
But on cable, it’s better than the much ballyhooed “Real World: Austin” on MTV and the critically hailed “Rescue Me” on FX.
The gritty TNT crime drama, starring Kyra Sedgwick as ace Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, already has been renewed for a full season of 15 episodes.
“The Closer,” which airs tonight at 8, is a rich-looking production that is well-written and well-performed, highlighted by Sedgwick’s turn as an Atlanta detective relocated to Los Angeles and slightly befuddled in the process.
The gruesome murders are counter-balanced by Brenda’s uncanny ability to get lost on the way to a crime scene and by the slow revelations about her personal romantic history. Which appears to be considerably less conservative than her little button-up sweaters and headbands.
While most broadcast crime dramas are nestled in the procedural genre, “The Closer” is a character drama — with a fascinating character in the spotlight.
‘Rock Star,’ so far, is sinking
Wonder if CBS programming execs are beginning to shake in their Guccis … I would be.
In a rather pathetic attempt to duplicate the fervor of “American Idol,” CBS coughed up “Rock Star: INXS” and gave it a prime-time berth three nights in a row — Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
So far, “Rock Star,” which is searching for a new band member for the no-longer-popular Aussie group INXS, has a 2.4 rating. That’s barely 5.5 million viewers. If you’re going to experiment with a rock reality show, it’s probably best to not turn over such an enormous chunk of the schedule to it. At least not until you know whether anybody wants to watch it.
The competition has more than a dozen wannabe rockers, with multiple piercings and unnatural hair colors, screeching for viewers, judges and INXS band members.
There’s a long, sad history of broadcast TV trying to attract young rock fans. The problem always has been that young viewers who buy hard rock music aren’t watching network TV. If they’re watching any TV, they’re watching MTV.
The CBS audience, which skews considerably older than NBC, ABC and Fox, isn’t the most likely audience for a “Rock Star” contest. It doesn’t help that the show itself is uninteresting and has a whiff of desperation about it.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
Pondering Emmy noms, one last time
Now that we’ve had time to digest yesterday’s Emmy nominations, I have some actual thoughts (as opposed to, you know, absent-minded babbling).
If the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is determined to play the sentiment card and recognize the last season of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” why not give “NYPD Blue” its final-season due?
Come on, people, what were you thinking? “Six Feet Under” had a really droopy season but got a best drama nomination anyway. “NYPD Blue” should have filled that slot. No question.
At the very least, multiple winner Dennis Franz, who created one of TV’s most classic Everyman heroes in Andy Sipowicz, deserved a nod. The more I think about that snub, the angrier I get.
And how can those pointy-headed Emmy folks recognize only three of a four-person comedy ensemble? “Will & Grace” is a team effort. Despite a not-so-hot season, the show does boast one of the best chucklefest ensembles on TV. But the Academy, in its infinite wisdom, excluded one — Debra Messing — who has won the award in the past.
As usual, the supporting actor/actress categories had some of the best entries, including Jeremy Piven for comedy in “Entourage,” Holland Taylor for comedy in “Two and a Half Men,” Alan Alda for drama in “The West Wing” and (yippee-hooray) Sandra Oh for drama in “Grey’s Anatomy.”
But wait! These categories were far from perfect. Why did Alda impress the Academy but not Jimmy Smits, who was equally good (if not slightly better and certainly better-looking) as a presidential candidate on “The West Wing?”
In the deadline crunch of yesterday, we didn’t have time to mention the relatively new categories aimed at TV’s hottest trend: reality shows.
In the plain old “reality program” division, the nominees are “Antiques Roadshow” (PBS), “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (ABC), “Penn & Teller: Bull——!” (Showtime), “Project Greenlight” (Bravo) and “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” (Bravo).
Talk about a hodge-podge. Comparing “Antiques Roadshow” with “Queer Eye” is nothing short of ridiculous. We don’t care about this one.
The other reality category is “reality-competition program,” which nominated “The Amazing Race” (CBS), “American Idol” (Fox), “The Apprentice” (NBC), “Survivor (CBS) and “Project Runway” (Bravo).
Do you think there are actual qualities Academy members consider when judging this reality competition? Silly outtakes (“American Idol”), outrageous competitors (“Survivor”) and manufactured suspense (“Amazing Race”) would be at the top of such a list.
OK, that’s enough talk about the Emmys — until Sept. 18, when they’re handed out.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Lost’ score big Emmy nominations
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has spoken — or yawned, as the case might be.
Any list of best drama series that excludes FX’s superlative “Rescue Me” and “The Shield” is suspect, don’t you think?
And the Academy voters seem to be having a hard time differentiating between comedy and drama. How else to explain the nomination of William Shatner, the infamous Denny Crane of “Boston Legal” fame, in the supporting drama category?
But we get ahead of ourselves. In the wee hours of this morning, the prime-time Emmy nominations were announced in Los Angeles.
Fulfilling everyone’s expectations, freshman mega-hit “Desperate Housewives,” a dark satire of suburbia, pulled in 15 nominations, including best comedy and best actress nominations for Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman. (Eva Longoria and Nicollette Sheridan were left stranded on the outside looking in.)
Veteran sitcom “Will & Grace,” which many critics and fans felt had a weak year, shared front-runner status with “Desperate Housewives,” also earning 15 nominations, including best comedy and best actor for Eric McCormack (Will) — but not best actress for Debra Messing (Grace). Go figure.
The other comedy series nominees are Fox’s “Arrested Development,” which was the surprise winner last year; CBS’s long-in-the-tooth and recently departed “Everybody Loves Raymond” and (at last!) NBC’s superb “Scrubs.”
Comedy acting nominations also went to Jason Bateman (“Arrested Development”), Zach Braff (“Scrubs”), Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton (“Everybody Loves Raymond”), Tony Shalhoub (“Monk”) and Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcolm in the Middle”).
In the drama series category, ABC’s freshman entry “Lost,” a surreal saga about plane crash survivors, earned a whopping 12 nominations. HBO picked up multiple nominations for the gritty western “Deadwood” and the imaginative funeral parlor drama “Six Feet Under.”
Other best drama series nominees were NBC’s venerable “The West Wing” (revitalized by a presidential campaign season) and Fox’s “24,” which had perhaps its most day-long crisis ever.
In the dramatic acting nominations, last year’s winner James Spader was nominated again for “Boston Legal,” which reprises his winning role from “The Practice.” Ian McShane received another nod for “Deadwood” and Kiefer Sutherland was once again recognized for having the worst day of his life on “24.”
There were good and bad surprises in this category, too — stone-faced Patricia Arquette was nominated for “Medium.” What a shame. But Glenn Close, fantastic as a vulnerable but hard-nosed police captain, was recognized for “The Shield.”
Other drama acting nominations went to Hugh Laurie for “House,” Hank Azaria for Showtime’s “Huff,” Jennifer Garner for “Alias,” Mariska Hargitay for “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and Frances Conroy for “Six Feet Under.”
Good news lurked in the supporting acting categories: Terry O’Quinn (Locke) and Naveen Andrews from “Lost,” Sandra Oh for “Grey’s Anatomy” and CCH Pounder for “The Shield” in drama;
Jeffrey Tambor and Jessica Walter for “Arrested Development” in comedy.
As usual, premium cable channel HBO ruled the made-for-TV movie category with two of its films: “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers” and “Warm Springs,” with 16 nominations each. Other movies nominated were “Lackawanna Blues” (HBO), “The Office Special” (BBC America) and “The Wool Cap” (TNT).
In the weak-as-water miniseries category, the nominees are “Elvis” (CBS), “Empire Falls” (HBO), “The 4400” (USA) and “Lost Prince” (PBS).
The 57th Emmy Awards, which have been postponed in the past by war, terrorism and labor strikes, are scheduled to air Sept. 18 on CBS.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
KEYE’s Fred Cantu signs on for five more years
CBS-owned KEYE announced Tuesday that the station has signed a five-year contract extension with anchor Fred Cantú.
“We are thrilled to know that we will have the benefit of Fred’s extensive knowledge and expertise for another five years,” said KEYE General Manager Mike Reed in an e-mail. “Fred will continue to be a key part of our commitment to provide our viewers with coverage they can count on.”
Stations don’t normally announce contract renewals. Nor do they announce firings, contract cancellations or anything else of a negative nature.
So why announce a new agreement with Cantú? Because Ron Oliveira, formerly of KVUE Channel 24, was added to the station in the spring. Due to a noncompete clause in his KVUE contract, Oliveira will not be on the air until next spring, even though he is already working in KEYE’s newsroom.
When Oliveira was hired, questions arose about Cantú’s place in the co-anchor team with Judy Maggio. Neither KEYE nor Cantú, who joined the station in 2002 with 30 years in the Austin news business to his credit, will clarify the situation.
Some insiders insist the duties have not been sorted out yet, but KEYE must have had something in mind when the station hired Oliveira.
Will there be a new troika at 5, 6 and 10? Will Fred anchor just the 5 p.m. and turn over the 6 and 10 p.m. news to Ron and Judy, who co-anchored for years at KVUE? We might not know until Ron’s noncompete clause expires in March — but we’ll keep asking. And speculating.
‘Real World’ debates war … sort of
Last night’s “Real World: Austin” featured a blow-up about the Iraq War between Nehemiah, who said he doesn’t believe in war, and Rachel, who served in Iraq as an Army nurse.
They yelled and huffed — and then kissed and made up. Nehemiah apologized with a note left on Rachel’s pillow. Rachel accepted the apology, and the two hugged.
How come the rest of us can’t just get along? Who’d a thunk there’d be life lessons on “The Real World”?
Brats on parade
Joining the seemingly endless parade of summer reality shows tonight is ABC’s “Brat Camp”.
Nine out-of-control kids — none from Austin or even Texas — are shipped off to a remote Oregon disciplinary camp to get slapped into shape.
Not surprisingly, the kids are not happy when they discover that their wits-end parents have turned them over to “counselors” that make Marine drill sergeants look sweet.
Presumably during the show’s seven-week run some or all of the bratty nine will see the light and reform. In the meantime, viewers are expected to view this anguish as entertainment. Seems like an exploitation of the worst kind to me.
Permalink | | Categories: Local news
Fox shifts gears for fall
Fox has emerged from its programming strategy fog and decided to premiere most of its fall series before the baseball playoffs.
For two years, Fox held its fall premieres until after Major League Baseball wrapped up its season in October. And while the network had nothing but sports and reruns, ABC, NBC and CBS built a following for its series. Last fall, before the end of September, Fox had sunk to fourth place.
No more. Network prez Peter Ligouri announced yesterday that only two Fox series will be held until after baseball — “That ’70s Show” and “Stacked.” And, really, who cares about those two anyway?
Of course the two series that are the backbone of Fox’s strong ratings — “24” and “American Idol” — are midseason entries, so they won’t arrive until well after the fall launch.
Fox officially kicks off its 2005-6 season on Aug. 29, with the premiere of the new series “Prison Break.”
Here are a few debut dates that viewers might look forward to:
“The O.C.” on Sept. 8
“The Simpsons” on Sept. 11
“House” on Sept. 13
“King of the Hill” on Sept. 18
“Arrested Development” on Sept. 19
“The Bernie Mac Show” and “Malcolm in the Middle” on Sept. 23
Whither ABC News?
What appears to be a plain old cheesy reality show is the product of ABC News and is billing itself a documentary series.
That’s “Hooking Up”, which debuts Thursday at 8 p.m. The five-part docu-reality will explore Internet dating by following 12 frustrated single women in Manhattan. That’s a tiny selection of the reported 40 million Americans who currently engage in online dating.
Among the Manhattan dozen: a really horny real-estate broker, a saleswoman, a health-food store owner, a grade school teacher, an ad exec, a gynecologist, a photographer, an opera singer and a yoga instructor. Log on …
Emmy wish list ticks off readers
OK, not a horde of readers, but I’ve had several e-mails and phone calls about today’s TV column, wherein I presented my wish list for Emmy nominations. (The real ones will be announced Thursday morning.)
Nothing from HBO, one learned reader wrote? Let me re-emphasize: This is my wish list, not what I think the Television Academy will announce Thursday. Of course HBO series will get nods — probably actors from “Deadwood” and possibly “Six Feet Under,” too.
Yes, I left off “Lost” and “24.” I loved “Lost” through most of the season, but the cliffhanger left me cold. Ice cold. It revealed nothing and signaled the distinct possibility that the writers really don’t know where the surreal saga is going.
And although “24” had its best season ever, I felt a tug of loyalty to the late-great “NYPD Blue” that could not be denied. I make no apologies.
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Cable news over-hypes the hurricane
Scarier world syndrome … Know what that is? It’s a free-floating fear, produced by bad news, heard repeatedly and with considerable exaggeration from the news media.
You hear stories about murder, fires and other mayhem every day on TV, and you begin to think murder is everywhere and is practically bound to strike you personally any minute. When, in fact, murders and mayhem are rare. Horrible, but rare.
Anyone watching cable news Sunday as Hurricane Dennis came ashore would have had a near-terminal case of scarier world syndrome. Listening to the wind-whipped reporters on CNN, Fox and MSNBC, you’d think this was a natural disaster of historic proportions.
“This just might be another Andrew!” CNN’s Anderson Cooper shouted into his foam-rubber covered microphone, referring to the killer storm that practically wiped out south Florida in 1992.
Not to diminish the damage and injury that Dennis did inflict yesterday, this storm was decidedly not another Andrew. The meteorologists who occasionally updated the reports from the National Weather Service tried to calm the hysteria — several times remarking that the winds were diminishing and the storm was weakening — but to no avail.
Apparently all the TV reporters were huddled next to the same Ramada Inn sign that was blown down, because every channel had video of the sign and a shrieking reporter/witness nearby.
“I’ve never seen anything like this! Don’t come out in this! Stay home and hunker down!” CNN’s Cooper said repeatedly, warning viewers — who were probably not in a position to watch TV coverage if they were in the vicinity — that this was a horribly dangerous storm that could quite possible signal the end of the world.
OK, Cooper didn’t go quite that far, but the panic in his voice and the hysterical warnings left that impression. Of course, if you were stupid enough to be standing under a sign that’s clearly about to fall, you certainly would be in a life-threatening situation.
But TV reporters were the only folks putting themselves in the middle of the storm and whipping up a big ol’ scarier world to fill the long hours of the cable news day.
Tattoos, piercings, Mohawks … INXS wants you!
Tired of sappy-sweet crooners? CBS hopes to draw crowd with a rock ‘n’ roll competition.
The new reality competition, “Rock Star: INXS” debuts tonight at 8 on KEYE Channel 42. Another episode airs tomorrow night and another on Wednesday night.
In other words, if “Rock Star” isn’t a huge hit, CBS had doomed its prime-time lineup on three nights of the week.
Reality guru Mark Burnett (“Survivor,” “The Apprentice”) is convinced otherwise and presents 15 amateur rockers, male and female ranging in age from 22 to 36. The goal is to find a new lead singer for the Australian band INXS, which hasn’t been popular for well more than a decade.
Guitarist Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers) co-hosts the competition with a pretty celeb named Brooke Burke (“Wild On”).
Like “American Idol,” viewers will help the current INXS members pick the winner.
Permalink | | Categories: News coverage
ABC News needed Jennings for London bombing coverage
Thursday’s London bombing coverage on ABC suffered miserably from the absence of Peter Jennings.
The calm, cool anchor has been off the air battling lung cancer for months.
When news breaks, especially tragic news such as this, Jennings is unflappable. But Diane Sawyer was brought in to anchor the network’s prime-time coverage last night, and she was clearly unprepared and more than a little rattled.
After getting one of the subway survivors on the air, Sawyer couldn’t come up with a single question that made any sense.
“So, you must have been terrified,” she said, furrowing her brow and shaking her platinum locks. The poor guy muttered something, and Sawyer repeated the same lame phrase, which was definitely not a question.
Quick on his feet and smart as a whip, Jennings never fails to come up with cogent comments and enlightening questions. His anchoring post-9/11 was arguably the best on network television. Not without occasional bouts of emotion but mostly controlled and informative.
Maybe Sawyer was a last-minute choice, but if ABC’s bench is that shallow — what about Charlie Gibson, Ted Koppel or Elizabeth Vargas? — there’s a problem.
Speaking of ABC, the network had to quickly scrap its prime-time lineup last night because the movie “Reign of Fire” was on the schedule. The film depicts a future London attacked by dragons and includes scenes of explosions in the Underground. The comedy “Big Fat Liar” aired instead.
Viewers swarm to dancing and awards
Kelly Monaco, the “General Hospital” star who shimmied her way to victory on “Dancing with the Stars” on Wednesday night, drew a huge audience to ABC.
The show’s finale attracted 22.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched program this summer and the most-watched summer show in three years.
And in other rating news, BET, the cable channel that seems always struggling to survive, had the most-watched show on cable last week, “The BET Awards”, hosted by Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett-Smith.
The awards program, honoring African American performers in music, movies, TV and sports, drew 6.58 million viewers. The show’s ratings boosted BET from its customary low place in the cable Nielsens to a Top 5 finish among all basic cable networks in prime time.
As usual, TNT was first, followed by USA, Disney and Fox News. At least wrestling was bumped from the top slot for a week!
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Boo! Kelly wins ‘Dancing with the Stars’
Kelly Monaco should have been crowned Most Improved Las Vegas Show Girl. Instead, she beat out the elegant and graceful John O’Hurley to win ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” contest last night.
The “General Hospital” fireball and her partner, pro dancer Alec Mazo, got three perfect 10 scores from the apparently sight-challenged judges on their freestyle dance. Oh, please. That was not dancing.
Hip-shaking, breast-shimmying, trick-performing (Alec spun her over his head after she did a back-bend “walk” down a flight of stairs), she looked like an ice skater. But the judges didn’t care. She beat out O’Hurley and his pro dancer partner Charlotte Jorgensen for the title.
O’Hurley, aka J. Peterman from “Seinfeld,” was by far the best of the amateurs. Paired with Charlotte, he was magnificent, from waltz to samba to cha-cha.
Pause. Deep breath: Can you believe I got so invested in this silly thing? I can’t believe it either. And here I am, embarrassing myself be admitting it in public …
I got hooked on “Dancing with the Stars” by accident, as I was spinning through channels searching for something — anything — to watch on Wednesday nights. When I landed on the show, I was mainly attracted by how cheesy it looked and by how ridiculous the “competition” seemed.
Former heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield, gamely plodding through ballroom dances (he lasted two weeks), was a hoot. And so was Monaco. She was so stiff and terrified at the beginning that she was painful to watch. And those glittery, midriff-baring costumes were soooo tacky.
“Is there a death in the family?” quipped Bruno Tonioli, the snappish choreographer who quickly became the most outrageous judge. “Your face, it’s like somebody died. “
That was cruel, but it was also an understatement at the time. Kelly was clumsy and grim.
From the get-go, John and Charlotte were deemed “the couple to beat” by two of the three judges. Their scores were consistently high, and they were definitely crowd-pleasers.
But then so were the previously eliminated Joey McIntyre (New Kids on the Block) and supermodel Rachel Hunter. Trista Sutter of “The Bachelorette” received a barely lukewarm reception, perhaps because she couldn’t dance her way out of a high school prom.
Kelly definitely had drama on her side. During one dance, she snapped a strap and nearly had a major wardrobe malfunction, but she gamely hoofed on.
“All my life I’ve been the underdog,” she said, eyes welling, chin quivering after last night’s triumph. Good lord.
“Dancing with the Stars” has been the surprise hit of the summer, finishing No. 1 in the ratings several times. Nearly 20 million people tuned in last week, and last night’s numbers should soar.
ABC has not said so yet, but don’t be surprised if a second edition of “Dancing” pops up before Labor Day. Maybe I’ll be able to resist.
Permalink | | Categories: Reality TV
Week 3: ‘Real World: Austin’ staggers on …
Well, that was a relief, wasn’t it? Danny pulled through his face-saving surgery on “The Real World: Austin” last night.
Melinda’s muttered fear, before he was rolled into the operating room, that she might never see him again rang just a tad hollow, didn’t it? I mean, we saw Danny before the production left town in May. There really wasn’t much credible suspense on that score.
People who are longtime fans of “Real World” tell me that this, the Austin-filmed edition, is better than the Philadelphia edition and several others. Apparently fans of the show are taking to the current cast of characters in a big way.
I’m not a big “Real World” fan, so I’m watching the show for professional reasons rather than, you know, fun. But I have to admit I’ve been riveted by how gorgeous these kids are and by how completely devoted they are to getting drunk. Don’t they know their beauty will fade quickly if they’re forever pickled?
On the gorgeous meter, I’d put Melinda first, Johanna second, Nehemiah third and Danny fourth. Wes, Lacey and Rachel are more cute than gorgeous, but certainly better looking than the rest of us.
You’d think after all the trouble this little gang got has gotten into — Danny breaking his face in a Sixth Street fight and later Johanna getting busted by cops for getting into an altercation with a flower vendor — these folks would choose sobriety from time to time.
But they don’t. They take shots at home to “relax” before going out, and then they get really plastered at the bars. (Wonder if Johanna and Dizzy Rooster bartender Leo are still an item … ) Why don’t these kids get headaches? Last night, Wes nearly stumbled through a glass door.
You’ve got to wonder what was really going through Danny’s dad’s mind last night when he arrived to check on his son’s broken face. Danny is 21, old enough to drink and certainly old enough to know better. And he clearly is close to his dad — who must have been wondering why he gave his son five months off from their construction business to wallow around Austin.
“Live 8” dead in prime time
“Live 8” might have been a fabulous batch of concerts, but it died a miserable death in prime time Saturday night on ABC.
The highlights special — including performances by U2, Paul McCartney, Coldplay, The Who, Green Day and Pink Floyd — averaged less than 3 million viewers.
It finished a distant fourth, almost 2 million viewers behind Fox’s third-place combo of “Cops” and “America’s Most Wanted.”
What happened? Well, Saturday night is traditionally the lowest-rated night of the week, and this just happened to be the Fourth of July weekend, making viewership even lower.
But perhaps more importantly, the people who might has wanted to watch “Live 8” probably already saw the marathon daytime coverage of the concerts on MTV and VH1.
Permalink | | Categories: Reality TV
Celebrating weirdness
I’m a huge fan of oddities, so imagine my happy surprise when I stumbled upon HGTV’s new oddity-celebrating series “Offbeat America” Sunday afternoon at 5.
The intended focus is “the spunk, tenacity and imagination that people express in their homes and lifestyles,” according to the little niche cable network.
Sounds a bit stuffy, so let me tell you that this breezy series includes people who knit sweaters out of their dog’s hair and a round house that rotates every 30 minutes atop a mountain.
Al Johnstone owns the aforementioned spinning home in La Mesa, Calif., that was seen in the debut episode. The wacky mountain-top dwelling came about because the owner couldn’t decide which way to face his home to take advantage of a spectacular view. So he designed a house with 7-foot tall glass outside walls in which every room has an exterior view — which shifts every half-hour.
Also featured in the premiere was the home of Bill Swets, a retired farmer in Tinmath, Colo. Known as the Swetsville Zoo, it boasts a yard filled with dinosaurs, enormous beetles, windmills, flowers and other assorted fantastic creatures — all welded from leftover farm equipment. The yard has more than 150 sculptures.
There were other assorted oddities in the half-hour show, all of which celebrate whimsy on a grand scale.
Next week’s edition promises a trip inside the cave home of a couple who apparently don’t mind scaling cliffs just to get to the grocery store. Also coming next week: a visit to a giant tree house made of glass. I’m all over this one.
CBS’s Pope vs. ABC’s Pope
Warring pope TV biographies are on the way, with Sir Ian Holm cast to play John Paul II in a CBS miniseries](http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|96139|1|,00.html).
ABC also is working on a project about the late pope, who became head of the Catholic Church in 1978 and died this past spring.
Two actors will be cast to play John Paul II for the CBS mini. Holm, who is 73, will play the pontiff in his years as pope. A younger actor, yet to be cast, will play him as Polish priest Karol Wojtyla.
Not surprisingly, both CBS and ABC are hoping to rush their projects onto the air for the November sweeps, but ABC has yet to cast its film.
Holm’s credits include “Chariots of Fire,” “The Day After Tomorrow,” “Garden State,” “Lord of the Rings” and “The Aviator.”
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
Cooling it with TV on July Fourth weekend
If I lived in Maine, I would probably look forward to outdoor fun on the Fourth of July. You know, clam bakes, volleyball, picnics and fireworks. Lolling around in comfy chairs on a deck. Sipping lemonade (OK, sangria, not lemonade).
But I don’t live in Maine, where people wear sweaters on summer evenings. I live in Austin, Texas, where it is expected to be 100 degrees for the entire Fourth of July weekend.
Our family tradition tends to be movie rentals, indoor picnics, a quick trip to see fireworks in some nearby small town and an even quicker return (panting and sweating) to the air-conditioned comfort of the car.
Television frequently plays a part in my Fourth of July weekend. (OK, it’s practically my whole life.) I like controlled environments — cool and bug-less places. This year’s TV options are many, and I’m not going to feel one bit guilty that I’m not witnessing a parade or watching potato salad go bad in the noon-day sun.
Here’s the plan for this year:
“Breakfast at Wimbledon” on NBC. The women’s tennis championship from lovely England is 8 a.m. Saturday, the men’s championship is 8 a.m. Sunday. Strawberries and coffee but not champagne. Really, it’s just too early for bubbly, even for champagne-loving me.
“Live 8” on MTV and VH1. This mega-concert revs up Saturday at 11 a.m and goes until 7 p.m. I’m long-past my drunken, outdoor concert, wallow in the mud days. I did Woodstock; I don’t have to do anything else. Except watch such musical wildness on TV.
“A Capitol Fourth” on PBS. Since Fourth of July fireworks in Central Texas tend to be held on days other than the Fourth (several small-town displays this year are Saturday night), the televised celebration from the lawn of the U.S. Capitol (Monday, 7-10 p.m.) is a must for me. The National Symphony with magnificent fireworks popping all over the Washington sky caps my patriotic weekend.
What to avoid? How about “Nick & Jessica’s Tour of Duty” Monday night (7-9 p.m.) on ABC? The toothy couple visits Iraq and performs for our soldiers. If that doesn’t make the soldiers go AWOL, nothing will.
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