Category: News (Page 220 of 401)

TCA Tour, Jan. 2009: “Spartacus”

January 16, 2009 /

For as long as this write-up may be, I don’t personally have a whole lot to say about Starz’s “Spartacus,” mostly because Starz didn’t have a whole lot to offer up about “Spartacus” except a lot of talk from the show’s creative team.

Executive producer Rob Tapert describes it as “our reinterpretation of the famous Stanley Kubrick movie,” calling it “a hard-core, testosterone-driven action drama unlike anything on television right now” and “a totally R-rated, hard, hard show that still has all the things that you need in storylines but that delivers the action component that theatrical audiences expect from their entertainment.” Sounds great…but it would sound a lot more impressive if they actually had anything at all to show us or, indeed, had even cast Spartacus yet.

“Goddammit, I said I’M Spartacus!”

Granted, it’s promising that the show is being produced by Tapert and his longtime associate, Sam Raimi, and to have Steven S. DeKnight as head writer and show-runner is certainly good news for those who’ve followed his work on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” and “Smallville.” (He’s also a major player in Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse.”) But you’d be a fool to be but so optimistic when you’ve not seen a single frame of the series, and the fact that it’s going to be extremely CGI-heavy makes me a little nervous, but here are a few quotes from the creative team to help get your hopes up.

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TCA Tour, Jan. 2009: ABC newsflash

January 16, 2009 /

Stephen McPherson, President of ABC Entertainment, just emerged onto the stage – after having the Jonas Brothers as his opening act, no less – and offered up the following tidbits of information:

* McPherson wouldn’t commit to when or if the remaining episodes of “Dirty Sexy Money,” “Eli Stone,” and “Pushing Daisies” would air. Maybe this is just my perception, but his comments about his regret that they couldn’t give the producers enough time to wrap up their series properly made it sound like he was saying, “If we had, then we’d probably work a little harder to get them on the air, but since we didn’t…”

* As to the “Scrubs” ratings, he’s thrilled for Bill Lawrence and all the guys on the show. “It’s been great for us,” he said. “Another year…? It’d be tough without Zach (Braff), but Bill and I are talking about it.” The talks, however, would seem to be contingent on how the ratings continue to be, so if you’re watching, don’t stop!

* ABC is not going to be picking up “King of the Hill.”

* “Samantha Who?” has frustrated the network with its numbers, but they’re trying to figure out a second series to serve as a solid comedy block.

* The odds of “Life on Mars” returning for a second season seem to be slightly better than even money. McPherson admits that, as far as his ratings expectations for the series, “the bar is not very high,” given that they’ve always battled with getting ratings in the post-“Lost” timeslot.

* As for the end of “According to Jim,” McPherson thinks this is probably the final run, “but we should probably leave that open.”

* With “Private Practice,” he thinks they’ve “really found the show” this season. “I think we’ve really upped the stakes as far as the quality of the medical stories we’re telling,” he said. “We’re really pleased with the numbers.”

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TCA Tour, Jan. 2009: “Party Down”

January 16, 2009 /

Ever since the demise of “Veronica Mars,” I think most die-hard Rob Thomas fans have been following the development of his remake of “Cupid” for ABC, but he’s got another new series in the works as well, as this one – “Party Down,” which focuses on the lives of a bunch of “cater-waiters” who came to L.A. in search of careers in the entertainment industry and haven’t gotten very far with their dreams – has actually been in the works for more than five years.

“When the original British ‘Office’ started airing on BBC America, Dan (Etheridge) and John (Enbom) and I and Paul Rudd started gathering each week to watch the show and just became very intrigued about the tone of the show,” said Thomas. “And we started talking about wanting to write something that had a similar comedic tone, and we decided if that show was about people who had given themselves over entirely to the rat race that it would be interesting if we took our stab at people who had perhaps chased the dream for too long, people who had refused to join the rat race. And so we came up with this idea about a show about cater-waiters in Los Angeles, people who came here to make it as actors, writers, musicians, comedians and find themselves in their mid-30s and perhaps, uh, having chased the dream for too long.”

Thomas likens “Party Down” to “Taxi,” in that “you start off following the ongoing lives of these characters who are doing some other job while pursuing the thing they really want to do. Each week, we take an opportunity to lampoon some facet of society, some different party idea. So each episode is one catered event, and these range from a senior singles mixer to a mobster-release-from-prison party to a super sweet 16 to an adult video awards after party, each one sort of giving us a unique group of people that we can have our characters interact with.”

Cast members Jane Lynch and Lizzy Caplan have at least a little bit of first-hand experience in the show’s subject matter; Lynch did some time as a waitress in Chicago, while Caplan catered a few premiere parties. (Adam Scott, meanwhile, claims to have never worked a day in his life.)

“It was interesting, because the whole experience made me so angry,” said Caplan. “Like, having to go around and serve these people because I was so convinced that, like, ‘It should be me. You should be serving me.’ You’re positive that you can do it better than anything you’re seeing on any screen. There’s nobody really cockier than the unemployed actor.”

“Party Down” premieres on Starz in March 2009.

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TCA Tour, Jan. 2009: “Head Case”

January 16, 2009 /

For me, the best part about the TCA tour isn’t learning about the new shows; it’s being reminded about existing shows that I just haven’t had the time or opportunity to check out. In the case of “Head Case,” I swear I thought I’d watched the first episode and hadn’t been very impressed, but when they showed us a clip reel from Season 1 before the panel for the upcoming second season, it was pretty damned funny. Maybe the series found its feet really quickly…? Well, whatever the case, I’m clearly going to need to re-investigate the show.

“Head Case” is yet another comedy that’s completely unscripted – seriously, there are so many on the air these days that I’m wondering if we’ll ever have another writer’s strike – but Alexandra Wentworth is damned proud of that fact. “We call upon talent and they show up on our set, they have no idea what they’re going to be saying or doing, we have no idea what we’re going to be doing with them, and it’s a process that seems to work really well for us,” she said.

The show revolves around Wentworth’s character, Dr. Elizabeth Goode, a Los Angeles psychiatrist who treats celebrities; the premise lends itself to guest stars, of course, and “Head Case” takes full advantage of the opportunity at every turn. Season 1 featured appearances by…wait, let me take a deep breath first…Jason Priestley, Ione Skye, Andy Dick, Shelby Lynne, Traci Lords, Tom Sizemore, Ralph Macchio, Liz Phair, Dana Ashbrook, Jonathan Silverman, Sean Hayes, and Alanis Morissette. Season 2, meanwhile, will offer up the following guest stars: Jeff Goldblum, Richard Kind, Lea Thompson, Nicole Sullivan, Ahmet Zappa, David Allan Grier, Stephen Root, Christopher Lloyd, Monica Potter, Trudie Styler, Cindy Margolis, and…Jerry Seinfeld?!?

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TCA Tour, Jan. 2009: “Mistresses”

January 16, 2009 /

At first glance, BBC America’s new series, “Mistresses,” would seem to be a perfect candidate for this year’s guiltiest pleasure…a 2009 equivalent of “Footballers’ Wives,” if you will…and when BBC America’s President, Garth Ancier, described the series as “a story of friendship and infidelity,” that seemed to cinch the comparison. But then he added a wrinkle by throwing out this comparison: “If you think of ‘Sex and the City’ as sort of a fanciful look at modern life, then ‘Mistresses’ can, I think, truly be described as an intimate, honest, and provocative one.”

Creator S.J. Clarkson admitted that the name “Mistresses” actually wasn’t intended to be anything other than a working title, but it stuck because they couldn’t think of anything else that summed it up as much. “It’s a red-flag word, so it makes people sit up and take notice,” noted Clarkson, “but inevitably it was always about truthful performances and to try and — all the storylines, performances and the look of it needed to feel truthful, cinematic and grounded, I suppose, because I’ve actually directed ‘Footballer Wives’ as well. So I knew I didn’t want it to be like that. This was more in the vein of — you know, I don’t know, films we looked at for reference was ‘Three Colors: Blue’ and ‘Unfaithful’ and ‘L’Apartement,’ which is a French film. And we looked at a lot more films for reference for it, rather than sort of lighter television.”

Clarkson tried to show the reality of being a mistress, as opposed to the usual television exaggeration. “I don’t think it’s necessarily all stiletto-heeled secretaries hanging around in hotel bars,” Clarkson said. “It’s often you meet somebody, you have a connection, you fall in love, and suddenly you realize they’re with somebody else…and what do you do in that situation? You’re told, ‘Follow your heart.’ Or the fairytale is, you know, you love someone, fall in love, get married, have children, have a happy lifetime together…but what happens if the person you fall in love with is already married? I think that’s a real dilemma and a truthful dilemma for many women today.”

“What we wanted to do (with ‘Mistresses’), I think, is reflect the kind of truthfulness and honesty that women have between each other,” said executive producer Douglas Rae. “Particularly at an age in their 30s, when their families may have moved to another city and the girls are becoming family in a way that, you know, has moved on from the ’50s and ’60s. So the girls themselves are a family and they share the stresses and strains of everyday life with each other. The series is not about promiscuity; it’s about how people can bond together and share secrets together.”

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