Category: External TV (Page 125 of 419)

Amanda Tapping finds “Sanctuary” — but leaves her “Stargate” open

For all the cool TV/Web hybrids that broadband technology has hinted at, the history of entertainment crossing over from the Web to the boob tube is actually fairly short and grim. (Anyone remember the “quarterlife” TV series? No? Didn’t think so.) But there’s an exception to every rule, and so far, that exception is “Sanctuary,” the Web series-turned-Syfy Network hit. With the first season of “Sanctuary” arriving on DVD, Bullz-Eye’s Will Harris thought now would be a great time to talk to one of the show’s stars, Amanda Tapping.

With time served in the “Stargate” universe — Tapping debuted with the original “SG-1” series cast in 1997, and has stayed with her character ever since, bringing her over to “Stargate: Atlantis” — she’s definitely got the geek cred to draw an audience with the Syfy crowd, not to mention enough mojo to help make a Web phenomenon. And attracting all those eyeballs is what helped “Sanctuary” make the jump from monitor to screen so successfully. As Tapping tells us:

We made this kick-ass web series for a lot of money, and that was great, and we got a huge number of eyeballs watching it. 3 or 4 million people ended up watching the web series, I think, which created a huge amount of buzz. But we ultimately ran out of money, and we went, ‘Uh-oh, this is cool, but what now?’ But because of all the buzz we got, television networks started calling us, saying, ‘You know, it may not work on the web, but what about doing it as a TV series?

But even though “Sanctuary” is finding success, that doesn’t mean Tapping is done with “Stargate” — in fact, as she makes clear in the interview, she’s planning on popping up in “Stargate: Universe” soon. To read more about plans for her character — and for the second season of “Sanctuary” — click on the above image or follow this link!

The Biggest Loser Season 8 premieres tomorrow night on NBC

One of the top rated reality TV shows begins a new season tomorrow night as NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” resumes with its 8th season. The theme of this season is “second chances,” and features a former contestant getting another shot for the first time in the show’s history. That contestant is Daniel Wright, who competed in Season 7 and began, at 454 pounds, as the heaviest entrant to date, and he starts at a comparatively svelte 312 pounds.

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Mad Men 3.5 – You can’t kill an idea (updated)

First, I have to comment on the irony that real-life father Will Harris is busy documenting tonight’s season finale of “True Blood,” while non-family guy me gets to write-up the episode where Don and Betty Draper finally have their third child.

Of course, that’s only one of the key events on tonight’s show. We also witness a financial squeeze from the new British overlords of Sterling Cooper while a mercenary variation of civil rights awareness descends on Pete Campbell. Also, Herman “Duck” Phillips returns to attack from the outside and prompts some proactive behavior from cash-deficient Peggy Olson.

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“The Fog” opens as Don and the extremely pregnant Betty have a conference with Sally’s teacher prompted by a nasty fight with a schoolmate. Betty’s revelation of the sudden passing of Grandpa Gene last episode, however, causes the teacher to become upset and cut the meeting short. She mentions, however, that the death might explain Sally’s unusual interest in the murder of African-American civil rights leader Medger Evers.

Things aren’t too smooth at work, either. Don walks in late to a meeting in which Sal Romano is being grilled about the details of his expense account on his and Don’s nearly fateful trip a couple of episodes back. When he realizes that British honcho Lane Pryce is going to be discussing excess spending on pencils, he leaves abruptly. Later, Pryce appears in his office and, after some brief snippiness, complains about people drinking at work — reasonable enough by today’s standards. Don responds that creative people tend to be nonproductive, until they are productive, which is equally reasonable to anyone who knows anything about creative people.

Don pours a couple of Scotches and suggests a more proactive stance towards making money by working with Bert Cooper and Roger Sterling, rather than harming morale by cutting back on expense accounts. The meeting ends on a surprisingly cordial note.

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True Blood 2.12 – If A Tree Falls In The Woods, It’s Still A Tree, Ain’t It?

Was it just me, or did the conclusion of tonight’s “True Blood” season finale feel somehow…anticlimactic? After spending the majority of the season waiting for the grand conclusion of the great and powerful Maryann’s storyline, only to have those matters wrapped up by the time the episode reached its halfway point, I felt a little cheated. Not that it necessarily needed to be dragged out any longer than it already had been, but, still, it felt like things ended not with a bang but a whisper, which is exactly what we haven’t come to expect from this series.

After Sookie was forced by Lafayette to slip into a bridesmaid dress but before all Hell broke loose, we found out from Maryann that Sookie is “beyond human,” though we didn’t make any particular headway in discovering what that actually means. Sookie did, however, finally break down and ask the question that the majority of the viewers had been wondering since last week: “Okay, what is with the egg? Did you lay it?” Nope, it’s an ostrich egg, and it represents fertility. Fair enough.

Jason and Andy once again scored a couple of classic comedic moments, with the best being Jason’s recitation of great movie quotes, concluding with, “I love the smell of nail polish in the morning.” I was surprised, however, to see both of them quickly slip over to the dark side. (I really thought that Andy was immune to Maryann’s powers, and that we were going to find out this week why he hadn’t ended up as one of her minions.)

As for Maryann’s marriage ceremony, I dug the off-kilter wedding march, but the nuptials themselves were a letdown. After Sam and Bill had their discussion at Merlotte’s, we knew that Bill wouldn’t just give Sam over to Maryann, so it was obvious that the two of them had concocted a plan of some sort. I admit to being surprised that Sam was actually stabbed…I didn’t know what their plan was, but I figured it would kick off before the knife hit flesh…but when the ox (I guess that’s what it was) turned up, my immediate thought was, “Okay, I’m not sure how, but that’s got to be Sam.” And it was, thanks to Bill having provided him with enough vamp blood to kickstart his healing process. I question the expediency of the healing, but, hey, Maryann and her mole claws (that’s what they looked like to me, anyway) got their just desserts, and the actual moment of impact, as it were, looked good and probably earned a few cheers from various viewers. Too bad it happened at the 27-minute mark of the episode, leaving us with way too much time to wrap up loose ends and throw out a few new threads to linger ’til Season 3 kicks off.

But, okay, fair enough, let’s talk about what happened in the post-Maryann portion of the episode.

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Entourage 6.9 – Security Briefs

Talk about wasted opportunities. Just when it looked like the writers were cooking up an interesting storyline for Vince involving a potentially dangerous stalker, it turns out to be a rush week prank by a bunch of sorority girls. Turtle is a little surprised that it’s his underwear they were after, but considering he’s dating Jamie-Lynn Sigler, he was bound to start getting more attention from ladies. Unfortunately, that’s only going to spell trouble for Turtle, who will likely find a way to screw up a good thing as Ms. I Only Wear Thongs continues to flaunt herself in front of him.

Getting back to the whole stalker subplot, it really did feel like a big fat waste of time. It might have been different had the storyline been contained to a single show, but the fact that it was drawn out over three episodes really made it seem like they were trying to turn it into something bigger. Perhaps that was the point, and the punch line is supposed to make light of how serious everyone has been reacting to it (namely Drama, who decides to interrogate Vince’s stalker himself), but it just didn’t have as much of an impact as it would have if the stalker really was a threat.

In fact, the only good thing that came of it was a funny little inside joke involving the caller ID on Eric and Drama’s phones. Instead of coming up “Vincent Chase” when he calls, it reads “Rupert Pupkin,” in reference to the lead character of Martin Scorsese’s 1982 film, “The King of Comedy.” For those of you who’ve never seen it, the movie is about an aspiring stand-up comic played by Robert De Niro (and named Rupert Pupkin) who begins stalking his idol (a late-night talk show host played by Jerry Lee Lewis) in an attempt to get his foot in the door. Admittedly, it’s a bit of a sick joke considering Vince could have really been in serious danger, and it’s ultimately going to prove even more troublesome for Eric. Ever since lying to her about Sloan, Ashley has been obsessing about every little thing Eric does. This isn’t going to help matters, as she now thinks Eric was speaking to someone named Rupert Pupkin when he told her he was talking to Turtle and Drama. Oh well, they weren’t going to last anyway.

While the stalker subplot ate up everybody else’s time, some progress was finally made between Ari and Lloyd involving the latter’s impending promotion. After Ari steals Zac Efron away from Adam Davies right in front of his face (well, technically, it was over the phone), Davies decides to fire back by offering Lloyd a job at his agency. Lloyd remains loyal at first, but after Ari goes all Principal Gleason on his ass by tacking on an additional 60 days to his original 100 Days of Hell, Lloyd decides that he’s had enough mistreatment and crosses over to the dark side. Ari can’t blame anyone but himself – he’s been a jerk in the past, but tonight he was a straight-up douche – and he’s already second-guessing his behavior. Can Ari even operate without Lloyd by his side? That’s what he was worried about when Lloyd first brought up the idea of becoming an agent, and it looks like we’ll finally get to see how he handles it.

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