Category: Fall TV Preview (Page 23 of 27)

TCA Press Tour: The Gossip on “Gossip Girl”

July 25, 2007 /

That’s right, CW: rub it in.

Be sure we completely and totally remember that you cancelled “Veronica Mars” by starting a new show called “Gossip Girl” (based on the popular series of teen novels) and, for the voiceovers provided by the never-seen title character, hiring the former Ms. Mars herself, Kristen Bell.

(Frankly, I was surprised that there wasn’t more of an uproar about that during the course of the panel, but, no, the big question people wanted answered was whether or not Bell’s voiceover was a one-off for the pilot…and, if you’re wondering that, too, the answer is, no, she’s supposedly here for the long haul.)

So the good news about “Gossip Girl” is that one of its executive producers is Josh Schwartz, late of “The O.C.” and also currently an executive producer on NBC’s “Chuck.” Schwartz has always had a wit about him, as well as a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, so that would appear to bode well. Unfortunately, from what I saw of the series, it really didn’t offer much in the way of that usual wit; it basically seemed to be yet another series about rich kids suffering through teen angst and shitty morals, despite (or possibly because of) having a buttload of money.

“Well, we’ll try to get funnier in the future,” replied Schwartz.

As to the despicable actions of some of these kids, from underage drinking to date rape, Schwartz says, “These are flawed characters, and they’re trying to do good, (but) in the environment that they grow up in, they don’t always have the best role models. They don’t always have an example set for them. But I think as long as we understand that they’re searching to do the right thing and that we see conquences for their actions, the world isn’t nearly as depraved as it appears to be. In fact, the Humphrey family (the main characters of the series) is an incredibly important component of that. I think they’re our audience surrogate. They’re our proxy, our way into that world, and they have a great perspective on that world.

“The sort of the money that those kids in Orange County grew up with was nice,” Schwartz continues, unabashedly referencing his former gig, “but compared to the these kids and these families, it’s chump change. This is really royalty, or the closest thing we have to it, these sort of young socialites-to-be. You have to be born into this level of wealth. So that’s a big difference. And these kids — you know, in Orange County, it was very suburban. It was very sort of protective. It was very safe. And those kids weren’t necessarily as well-traveled. And I think education is incredibly important to this crowd, and these kids are really worldly and very well-traveled as well.”

There is at least one moment within the plot that does seem to lend itsself toward amusing possibilities: Mr. Humphrey was apparently a member of a band that has been declared one of the Best Forgotten Bands of the 1990s. The name of the band? Lincoln Hawk, named after Sylvester Stallone’s character in “Over the Top.”

Okay, now that’s funny…

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Gossip, Interviews, News, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Dramas

TCA Press Tour: Random Announcements from ABC

July 25, 2007 /

* Your obligatory non-answer about “Lost”: “(The creators) would need to address where the show will head,” said ABC President Stephen McPherson. “They have not released whether it will take place with flash-forwards or flashbacks. They pitched where they’re going this year and where the next two years will take us, and I honestly think that, now that we have this specific end date, it allows them to craft that story in the next 48 episodes they want they want, and I think that running the episodes straight through will be best way to (display) that.”

* “Dance Acts” is a spin-off in the works from “Dancing with the Stars,” based on a similar spin-off in the UK. The judges have teams of dancers, competing against each other.

* Dana Delaney is joining the cast of “Desperate Housewives,” along with the already-announced Nathan Fillion.

* Harold Perrineau will be returning to “Lost” as Michael…and, on that note, let me tell you about a moment during this panel which really, really grated on my nerves:

When McPherson acknowledged that the creators of “Lost” would be making an announcement tomorrow at Comic-Con, in San Diego, several writers just went apeshit about the utter ridiculousness that they would dare to bypass the Television Critics Association gathering in favor of a “fan convention.” Um…how about the fact that the shows are about their fans and not their critics? I mean, I didn’t even blink when they said that was going to be the case. Of course the fans should hear the info first, if it’s do-able…and if that’s what the creators want to do, then what’s the big honking deal? But, no, people kept pressing and pressing, throwing out statements about the state of the newspaper industry and how their editors would be upset if they found out that breaking news was available but wasn’t going to be given to them, and so on. Finally, it reached the point where someone actually called Damon Lindelof to get his permission for McPherson to give us the news, which was that nugget about Michael coming back.

As God as my witness, I hope Lindelof has more super secret info up his sleeve for the fans. If I was a fan, and it’d been built up to me that I was going to get exclusive info when I showed up for that panel, I would be pissed if I found out that, oh, sorry, the critics strong-armed us and made us give it to them first.

I’m just sayin’, is all.

UPDATE, 12:03 PM: I spoke to McPherson in the lobby a few minutes ago, revealed myself to be as much of a fanboy as a critic, and asked if indeed Lindelof had saved some exclusive information for the Comic-Con panel. He didn’t really confirm or deny – which I’d kind of expected, since he knows full well that my peers would probably pummel him if he they read such a thing – but he did acknowledge that the Comic-Con crowd would be getting far more access to Lindelof than the TCA is, since there’s no “Lost” panel at our press tour. Therefore, I think it’s reasonable to infer – if not an ironclad guarantee by any means – that, logically, the chances of the fans getting more information than the critics are pretty good.

Which makes me happy.

Actors, Actresses, Desperate Housewives, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Interviews, Lost, News, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Dramas

TCA Press Tour: More proof about that whole I’m-not-The-CW’s-demographic thing

July 25, 2007 /

I said it when VH-1 did a similar show, and I’ll say it about The CW’s new series, “Online Nation,” as well: with all the great writers in Hollywood who are putting their blood, sweat, and tears into new scripts, why in the hell must we waste time by putting together a half-hour show of what the new viral phenomenon is on the web? That’s why I go on the web; that’s not why I watch TV!

Nonetheless, that’s what “Online Nation” is about – hosted by Stevie Ryan, otherwise known as online sensation Little Loca – and it’s paired with another new series called “CW Now,” which focuses on the hottest new trends around the world and is hosted by Tanika Ray. But it’s what Lisa Gregorisch-Dempsey, who produces the latter show, said in the midst of her various comments about how “CW Now” will have advertisers but won’t have any traditional commercials during its 30-minute run time that made me feel really old.

“We don’t watch black-and-white TV anymore,” she informed the audience. “We don’t watch just scripted programming. Everything has evolved except for the commercials, and the commercials — we all know when they’re coming on because usually we TiVo through them. So we have to be really clever in the way that we do this. But the advertisers don’t have a say in content. I will never compromise the integrity of the content or a good story. It’s going to be very subtle the way we’ll do it. If Pantene, say, is an advertiser, I’m not doing a Pantene commercial in the body of the show. I may do something that flows out of it, like summer hair or holiday hair, which makes sense. When I was in news for so many years, if there was a plane crash, I would make sure I went through the entire show to make sure there was no American Airlines commercial. We have something called ‘the ick factor.’ We make sure that it just doesn’t feel icky. And there will be no overt, flagrant, blatant commercials because I wouldn’t be involved with something like that, and I wouldn’t watch something like that.”

Yeah, I dunno. Me, I don’t know if I’d watch something by someone who said that “we” don’t watch black and white TV anymore. But, then, I’m not actually in the same “we” that she is, so she probably doesn’t care whether I watch or not, anyway.

External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Interviews, News, TCA Press Tour, TV

TCA Press Tour: “Life Is Wild” makes bid to become the “Daktari” for the 21st century…

July 25, 2007 /

…but how long will it take The CW to realize that it’s been forty years since “Daktari” and that there might not be a market for such a series in 2007?

Oh, wait: do you people even know what “Daktari” is? Sorry about that. Sometimes, I let my inner TV geek out to play and forget how to interact around normal human beings. Long story short, it was based on the movie, “Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion,” and it focused on the family of Dr. Marsh Tracy, a veterinarian at the Wameru Study Center for Animal Behavior, in East Africa, as they protected animals from poachers and whatnot. Basically, it was a pleasant family drama that gave producers an excuse to trot out lots of jungle beasts…and, honestly, that’s exactly what “Life Is Wild” is shaping up to be.

The panel for the show was a unique one in that the show is filmed in South Africa, so the cast appeared live via video, courtesy of a satellite link-up, but the conversation proved a little stilted at times, due to the few seconds of delay between us, and, ultimately, the most interesting part of the conversation wasn’t even audio; it was visual. A couple of the show’s animals, including a sleepy lion cub and a cheetah, appeared during the course of the event, and they were nice moments, but they left you wondering, “So is this what we can expect from the show itself? Will the opportunity to see these animals be the only real reason to tune in?”

You can actually see me in the lower left-hand corner of this shot. Note how hard I’m working.

Theoretically, the answer is “no.” At the very least, if the enthusiasm of South African actor Atandwa Kani is anything like his acting ability, he’ll be worth watching.

Of working on a big Hollywood production, Kani says, “It’s pretty amazing, because I think the only thing we see of Hollywood in South Africa is on TV and on the big screen. So when you have it, when you become part of it, and it becomes right in your face, it’s out of this world. It’s sort of surreal. I don’t think it’s hit me yet that I’m in this production. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet. And when it does, I think I’ll just faint, because it’s every actor’s dream to get to that standard, to the level in production that they produce. There’s a lot of South African actors that would love this opportunity. And to be in a production like this, it’s magnificent.”

I’m sure it is. And I’ll even give it a chance, because it really does look gorgeous. But I just don’t know if my interest will last…and I’m even more skeptical that the viewing audience’s will.

Actors, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Interviews, News, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Dramas

TCA Press Tour: Aliens Walk Among Us…And They’re Surprisingly Funny.

July 24, 2007 /

Okay, I admit it, I was totally not interested in checking out “Aliens in America” when I first heard about it. Neither The CW nor its originating networks – The WB and UPN – have ever been very good at their attempts to make me laugh; in fact, the only exception to that rule in recent memory has been “Everybody Hates Chris.” Even when I heard that the show was going through the dreaded re-casting process, replacing the show’s original dad with Scott Patterson, late of “Gilmore Girls,” I just thought, “Oh, God, if they’re retooling it, that can’t be good…”

But, then, I saw the talent working behind the scenes: co-executive producers Richard Day (“Arrested Development,” “The Larry Sanders Show”) and Michael Glouberman (“Malcolm in the Middle”).

Suddenly, I found myself reconsidering my initial brush-off.

I haven’t seen the entire pilot episode yet, and even doing so wouldn’t give me the full picture, since the original actor playing the dad – Patrick Breen – is in the pilot, but what I saw in the preview leads me to believe that “Aliens in America” might actually be worth watching. The premise involves Justin Tolchuck (Dan Byrd), a shy teenager, being thrust into a new friendship when his parents, desperate for their kid to develop social skills, decide to host a foreign exchange student; instead of getting the Nordic youngster they’re expecting, however, they end up with Raja (Adhir Kalyan), a Muslim from Pakistan. Justin’s parents – played by Patterson and Amy Pietz – are originally hesitant about this change, but, as these things work in sitcoms, the end of the episode finds Raja here to stay.

Will American / Muslim relations make for good comedy in this post-9/11 world of ours? Producer David Guarascio doesn’t see why not.

“I think that we’re sort of actually excited to push the envelope a little bit,” he says. “The best way to be funny is to not be afraid to be edgy and to take some chances and not be afraid to miss. But when you hit it, maybe you can sort of be funny and poignant at the same time. It’s not an indictment of the American psyche, but it might be helpful for some people to sort of potentially think about their own prejudices and whether they really know something or whether it’s just sort of ingrained. I think you’ll probably see, over the course of the series, that we’ll have people react to Raja in a variety of ways…and, certainly, we start with the Tolchuck family, where they’re all sitting around the dinner table together at the end of our 22 minutes. So I think we’re sort of making sure that all viewpoints are being expressed in that way.”

Guarascio also acknowledged a debt to one of the best high-school shows of all time, one which definitely places “Aliens in America” in good company. “‘Freaks and Geeks’ has definitely been a show that we thought was fantastic and admired and loved the honesty with which it sort of portrayed the high school experience, and that was definitely an influence in how we approached ‘Aliens’ and just wanting to be honest about the high school experience and still be funny. And that’s why — you know, it’s, looking back on it, some of the things that seemed quite terrible 20 years ago, you can sort of laugh at now, and that’s sort of the approach that we took.”

I’m withholding final judgment ’til I see how Patterson works within the context of the show – he’s absolutely nothing like the guy he’s replacing – but, at the moment, “Aliens in America” is looking to be amongst the best new sitcoms of the fall season.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Interviews, News, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Comedies

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