Category: Reality TV (Page 98 of 118)

TCA Press Tour, Day 7: Fox’s Executive Session

July 16, 2008 /

You know how these executive sessions work, so I’ll just do a quick run-through of the tidbits offered up by FOX’s President of Entertainment, Kevin Reilly:

* On the origins of “Fringe” coming to Fox: “We knew J.J. (Abrams) had made his new deal at Warner Bros. last year. We knew he was coming out with a show. Before he even started, Peter Liguori and I talked about who’s at the top of our list. We made the call, like, day one. We offered him a series day one. We knew the logline, that it was sort of an ‘X-Files’/’Indiana Jones’ kind of thing. Sounded good to us. And, you know, he was going to write it with Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci. We brought Jeff Pinkner in now to run the show. And I’m happy to say that this show just feels right. You know, sometimes with these big showrunners, it’s all hype and no delivery. I actually am very happy to say that I think this one is going to deliver the goods.”

* Coming to Fox sooner than later: “Lie To Me,” created by Sam Baum and starring Tim Roth, “Courtroom K,” created by Paul Attanasio (executive producer of “House”), and “Boldly Going Nowhere,” a sitcom from Rob McElhenney (creator of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”).

* On Joss Whedon coming back to Fox, even though he’s been burned before: “Joss was a gift. The only reason Joss wasn’t on my list is because I thought there was no way he was coming back. And every time I’ve called about him, they said, ‘He’s busy. He doesn’t want to do it.’ Joss will tell you himself that he got hit in the head with a lightning bolt of an idea. He’s respected Eliza Dushku as an actress. He’s wanted to work with her. They got together. He left that lunch and said, ‘Dammit, I’ve got an idea. Now I’ve got to do it.’ And he just showed up, and the answer was yes. And I have not seen any skittishness. In fact, I’m really enjoying working with the guy. His reputation is well-earned. We’re having a good time.”

* The upcoming “24” movie – not the theatrical one that’s been rumored for awhile, but a TV movie – will be a self-contained entity which encompasses a separate day’s events…specifically, the day of the swearing in of America’s first female President. It will, however, help to set the scene for the upcoming season.

* On the controversy about there originally being no black voice actors on “The Cleveland Show” (and the subsequent addition of three black voice actors): That was the intention going in. I mean, the Cleveland character pre-existed, you know. They’ve been doing that…Mike (Henry’s) been doing that character for a long time, so we knew going in that was a fix: we’re going to have a white guy. But clearly, the idea was just to make an ethnically diverse show in front of and behind the camera, which we are. We’ve got a diverse writing staff. We’ve got an African-American guy playing a redneck character in the show. So the whole intention here was just to cast it, you know, with the best people we have, but clearly to create a largely African-American cast for the family.”

* On the negotiations with the writing staff of the new animated series, “Sit Down, Shut Up”: “I don’t mean to be evasive because I can’t really comment on it because I was hoping to have 100 percent finality on the thing by this meeting today. There are still T’s being crossed. It’s been a very, very tricky situation trying to resolve a deal on this. My presumption, what I believe is going to happen…? I know that Mitch Hurwitz is going to stay with the show. A couple of writers will probably exit the show. A couple of new writers will join or remain with the show. I’m very hopeful that, even by today, we will be moving forward with a writing staff and resolve this.”

That was the 14th, and today’s the 16th. Since there’s been no formal announcement as of yet, it seems that hope alone was not enough to score a resolution…and, frankly, I’m getting more and more depressed about it. Hurwitz’s name is, thanks to “Arrested Development,” an instant mark of quality; as far as I’m concerned, Fox should do everything in its power to get this thing wrapped up quickly, so we can see this show!

UPDATE: Nikki Finke just broke the story at Deadline Hollywood Daily that some – but not all – of the writers on “Sit Down, Shut Up” have indeed signed off on the Animation Guild’s offer, with the others “holding out for the ability to have their pension contributions applied to the WGA plan.” Hey, it’s a start, anyway…

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TCA Press Tour, Day 6: PBS, Pt. 2

July 16, 2008 /

“Frontline”: “The Choice” and “Heat”: Well, this’ll be short, as I was up in my room, writing blog posts when this panel was taking place. As to “The Choice,” you may have seen previous editions of this special in 2004 and 2000, as it’s become a regular tradition on PBS to provide a dual biography of the Democratic and Republican Presidential candidates, so if you’re a political junkie, you’re probably gonna want to check out the latest entry in the series of specials. “Heat,” as it happens, is produced by Martin Smith, who served as producer on an earlier edition of “The Choice,” but his latest work is all about global warning. with twelve countries from around the world participating in the special. That’s all I’ve got. Check it out if it sounds interesting to you.

“Nature: American Eagle”: Eagles are beautiful, beautiful creatures, and “Nature” is a gorgeously filmed program. Two great tastes that taste great together. ‘Nuff said. (Can you tell I was still up in my room for this panel, too?)

“Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business Of America”: Even though the film buff in me is admittedly psyched about that Warner Brothers story doc, I’m way more excited about this series, which, per filmmaker Michael Kantor, “starts with Charlie Chaplin and ends somewhere in the Jon Stewart world.” I’ve been a huge fan of comedy for as long as I can remember – we’re talking TV, film, albums, and, God help me, I was even a dedicated “Dr. Demento” listener until his program stopped being aired in my area – and I positively foaming at the mouth with the clips they showed us. The breaking news came at the beginning – Billy Crystal has been signed to provide narration for this six-part series – and, from there, we were treated to some extremely funny comments from the panel, which included Richard Lewis, Anne Beatts (an original “SNL” writer as well as the creative mind behind “Square Pegs”), and Larry Wilmore (otherwise known as the Senior Black Correspondent for “The Daily Show”).

Richard Lewis on the appropriate use of profanity in comedy: “Listen, you know, when I would listen to a double album of Lenny Bruce at Berkeley, I mean, I had no idea I was going to become a comedian. I was about 18. But a bar was set, and it wasn’t the expletives that I was focused on. It was, like, these insanely brilliant routines in that double album, and it had a lot of his great bits. And once I, two years later, became a comedian and Pryor was already a star, basically, and he’s a genius. He’s arguably the greatest, to me, stand-up comedian. Lenny may be the most important, and Jonathan Winters in a lot of ways perhaps more spectacularly open-ended, hilarious human being I’ve ever known, but he was worked very, very clean…in fact, totally clean, Jonathan. The other two guys didn’t, but it was more street talk and character stuff for Richard. And for Lenny, the same. But, you know, there are a vast majority of comedians who use expletives almost as a punch line to get laughs at clubs or at a concert, and as a comedian myself…and I’m a little blue from time to time, it sneaks out, but it’s never a premise, or it’s never a punch line. Tragically, it cheapens the art form.”

Larry Wilmore on Bill Hicks: “He probably didn’t get a chance to really get into the mainstream, but all of the comics at the time during the ’80s respected Bill Hicks. I remember working with him in Houston, I think, in the mid-’80s, and I couldn’t believe how just raw and funny he was.”

Anne Beatts on Tina Fey: “She’s great, hilarious, wonderful, talented, pretty, good legs, everything. She’s terrific. But I did misguidedly tell her not to wear her glasses on television. I was so wrong.”

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TCA Press Tour, Day 5: PBS, Pt. 2

July 15, 2008 /

Once I reached lunchtime and realized how long I’d been going on, I realized that it was just going to make good sense to split the first day of PBS into two parts (I’ll do the same for Day 2 as well), so we now rejoin PBS Day 1 immediately post-lunch, as we loosen our belts and are introduced to…

“American Masters: You Must Remember This – The Warner Brothers Story”: This is one of those panels that started out with a ho-hum line-up, and then – BAM! – it suddenly became awesome. I was always interested in seeing it, since I’m a film buff, but two days before it took place, we suddenly got an E-mail from PBS saying, “Oh, by the way, that Warner Brothers panel? We just added Frank Darabont (director of ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’ ‘The Green Mile,’ and ‘The Mist’), Richard Donner (director of ‘Superman,’ ‘Lethal Weapon,’ and ‘The Goonies’) and Jon Voight (star of ‘Midnight Cowboy,’ ‘Deliverance,’ and ‘Coming Home’) to it.”

WHAT? Oh, HELL, yes, I’m gonna be there!

And in addition to those names, also in attendance were actress Joan Leslie (‘Yankee Doodle Dandy,’ ‘Sergeant York,’ and ‘High Sierra’), Lauren Shuler Donner (producer of ‘Dave,’ ‘You’ve Got Mail,’ and ‘Free Willy’), Greg Orr (grandson of Jack Warner), and Richard Schickel, the film critic of Time Magazine since 1972 and the creative mind behind this historical retrospective.

Oh, yeah, I was excited.

Ultimately, precious little about the program itself ended up being revealed, aside from Schickel’s confirmation that the animation of Warner Brothers will be covered in a four or five minute segment. Most of it was the various actors and directors recollecting about their experiences for the company, plus a bit of reminscining from Orr about his grandfather and his reputation. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. It was still pretty damned awesome.

Here are some highlights…

* Frank Darabont revealed that, whenever he makes a film, he’s always checking to see what other films have been made on that lot. “When we were shooting The Green Mile, for example, we were shooting on the Formosa lot, which was Warner Hollywood at the time, and it was the same sound stages where they shot ‘The Black Swan,’ going back to the silent days,” said Darabont. “If you love movies, you go in, and it’s not just a place where you are showing up. You start looking around the nooks and crannies of these places and asking questions, and I actually had some of my staff sneak into their offices and talk to their people and pull their files out, and we would start getting lists together of what had been shot on that sound stage. We started lobbying for them to start, you know, putting up plaques in the sound stages with the titles with some of the great movies. That’s now true at Warner Brothers. I like to think that me bitching about it had a little something to do with it. Maybe they were planning it anyway and I’m just humoring myself.”

* Joan Leslie spoke of how different the studio system was in her day than it is now. “I was signed in 1939 when I was 15 years old,” she revealed, “and they said, ‘We’ll groom you.’ In two weeks I was testing for ‘High Sierra,’ and I got the part, and I did five more pictures that year while I was 15. And I was going to school and doing publicity. Quiet wonder was like how I felt about the studio. These enormous stages, and glamorous people. The makeup department in the morning was busy and fun and talking, charming. And on the set, great feeling of teamwork. I think everybody on the set felt good when we made a good take. It wasn’t just it’s a take. We all felt like, ‘Gee, we did good.’ But I think that some of that has changed. And that doesn’t mean they’re not making great pictures, but it’s changed a lot. And I’m glad I was there then. I’m glad they did that purposely for me. I’m grateful to Warner’s for what they did. They took care of me. They gave me my identity.”

* There was mass praising of what a great studio Warner Brothers used to be, with discussions about how you’d meet after a film had done well and have the studio head throw you the keys to a brand new car. Once, according to Richard Donner, Christopher Reeve had rented a car on the studio’s dime, and when he asked if he could keep it a few extra days so that he could see the sights, studio head John Calley asked, “What’s his favorite color?” And the next thing you knew, Reeve had his own car to see the sights with. This trick backfired on them at least once, though, according to Richard Donner. ” When ‘Lethal Weapon’ hit, I don’t know, whatever mark, a lot of money, Bob Daley and Terry Semel asked us to have a little lunch in their office to celebrate,” said Donner. “And he said, ‘Would you come, and (Joel Silver) and Mel?’ I said, ‘Of course. And you’ve got to have Danny (Glover).’ He said, ‘Oh, yeah, sure, Danny.’ And then I said, ‘You’ve got to have Jeff Boam.’ And Bob Daley said, ‘You know, this is just a little lunch.” I said, ‘Well, you’ve got to have them.’ He said, ‘Okay.’ By the time we were done, we had Rene Russo, Joey Pesci…every time I called Bob to add a name, he was very curt about it. So lunch was going on, and I said, ‘You know, in the old days, before you, after lunch they would have thrown some keys on the table, and everyone would have gone outside and got a Ferrari or a…’ Bob Daley looked at me and threw some keys on the table, and they were all brand-new Range Rovers…but he only started with three. Every time (I added a name)…well, the last two had to come down from San Francisco in a truck!”

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TCA Press Tour, Day 5: PBS, Pt. 1

July 14, 2008 /

PBS?!?

Oh, don’t look so shocked: my wife and I are PBS contributors, and if it wasn’t for the beautiful, beautiful entity that is PBS Sprout, our 2-year-old daughter wouldn’t be half the kid she is today. I won’t be spending a tremendous amount of time on each show, but since we had two days’ worth of presentations, it would be thoroughly unfair if I didn’t offer up at least a little bit of a look at them all.

“The Electric Company”: It’s back! Sort of. It’s not really ‘The Electric Company’ you remember…or, at least, most of it isn’t. There’ll be certain elements from the original series which will return, such as Paul the Gorilla, the silhouettes who each say half of a word and then put the two halves together (“Ch.” “Ange.” “Change!“), and – after the epilogue of each episode – animation clips from the old days. But for the most part, the phrase “this is not your father’s ‘Electric Company'” will be apropos. We saw a few segments which looked pretty funny and will no doubt have the same effect on kids today that the original did for my generation, and there will be guest stars popping up to aid in the learning process (we saw Jack McBrayer in one of the clips, and other names cited were Mos Def, Lyn Manuel Miranda, Sean Kingston, Mark Linn-Baker, Mark Ecko, Cory Booker, Jacky Woodson, and Wyclef Jean, who’s doing the music for the series), but I have to admit that I was disheartened by the total lack of confirmation that any of the folks from the original “Electric Company” will be making appearances. Maybe they just don’t have that confirmation yet and they’re waiting to get it, but it would’ve been nice if they could’ve at least said, “We’re trying.”

Executive Session: We received several interesting announcements, including a documentary series entitled “Latin Music USA,” a new kids series about a chatty canine named Martha (“Martha Speaks”), and the new Ken Burns documentary (honest to God, it’s called “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea”), but the greatest controversy during this session came from PBS President Paula Kerger hemming and hawing about the upcoming production of Royal Shakespeare Company’s staging of “King Lear” and whether or not it would feature the notorious nude scene by the gentleman playing its title character, Sir Ian McKellen. Again, I’ve been trying desperately not to offer too many back-and-forths this year, but this one’s a must-include, I think…

Q: How are you going to deal with that on the screen?
Paula: The film is just being…it’s just been shot and…I haven’t actually seen the final version yet, and it will be broadcast next year. We’re actually going to bring it to press tour in January, so you’ll have a chance to see it then.
Q: That’s a pretty talked-about moment in the stage production where he’s fully nude. How do you feel about showing that in its entirety?
Paula: Well, again, I haven’t seen the taped version yet, so I can’t tell you…
Q: But would you be okay with that?
Paula: About the full-frontal nudity?
Q: Yes.
Paula: Let’s talk about this in January, okay?
Q: Oh, come on. You’re familiar with the scene, though, right?
Paula: I saw the production, yes.
Q: And what do you think about showing that on PBS?
Paula: Well, it’s not…it’s what I think about it and also what the FCC will allow. So we’ll cross that bridge…we’ll bring it to you in January. Ask me the question again, and I promise you…
Q: My readers can’t wait that long.
Paula: Oh, yes, they can.

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TCA Press Tour, Day 4: Lifetime

July 14, 2008 /

Sorry, but this won’t be as quick an entry as you might think.

First off, I have to announce the Lifetime news that made me legitimately happy: they’ve already committed to a third season of “Army Wives.” Yes, I really am a fan of the show, and I’m psyched to hear that Lifetime is going ahead with Season 3, though given the absolutely crazy ratings success of the early episodes of Season 2, it’s certainly one of the least surprising revelations of the tour. Still, it’s nice to have the confirmation. Stay tuned to Bullz-Eye for my Q&A with Sally Pressman, who plays Roxy LeBlanc on the show and was more than happy to answer my question, “Why should guys watch ‘Army Wives’?” (Unsurprisingly, though, the first words out of her mouth were to point out that there are four females leads and not a one of them is hard on the eyes.)

Okay, on to the three panels.

First panel: the second season of Carson Kressley’s series, “How to Look Good Naked.” Great concept, wonderful for helping women build their self-esteem, but ultimately not really something that I need to talk up but so much.

Second panel: “Rita Rocks,” the new sitcom from executive producers Stan Zimmerman and James Berg, last seen as consulting producers on “Gilmore Girls.”

Okay, with credits like that, we’ll give this panel a little bit more love. Nicole Sullivan (“Mad TV,” “The King of Queens”) stars as Rita, an overworked mother in the middle of a full-blown identity crisis. She’s happily married to Jay (Richard Ruccolo, a.k.a. the guy in “Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place” who wasn’t Ryan Reynolds), but while juggling her marriage, her job, and her maternal duties, Rita realizes that to reclaim her sanity, she has to carve out time for herself. At the encouragement of her nosy postal carrier, Patty, (Tisha Campbell-Martin), Rita forms…a garage band? Okay, c’mon, how are we defining “garage band” here? Because when I think “garage rock,” I think of Little Steven’s radio show, and what we see in the pilot – Rita kicking out a not-bad version of “Try A Little Tenderness” – only falls into the descriptor of “garage rock” because it’s actually performed in a garage.

“We’d love to do a lot of covers,” said Zimmerman, “and then maybe eventually she’ll put a song up maybe that she’s written when she was 17 and be real exciting.”

“We don’t want it to become kitschy in that it’s all ’80s music,” clarified Sullivan, “because that tends to lead to that sort of feeling. We don’t want it to all be silly. We want it to be emotional.”

At this point, a writer asked Sullivan what she listened to while growing up?

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