Category: TCA Blog 2008 (Page 6 of 11)

TCA Press Tour, Day 4: Fox Reality Channel

July 14, 2008 /

A few days ago, I pondered whether or not I was getting Planet Green in my area. Well, I have since confirmed that Cox Communications does indeed offer the station (note to self: program Channel 102 to the Favorite Channels line-up). Unfortunately, I also confirmed that they don’t offer the Fox Reality Channel, so I’m now on a quest to get that added sooner than later.

David Lyle, President of the network, gave a nice synopsis of his baby for those of us who aren’t fortunate enough to have actually experienced it firsthand. “We’re not all Fox programming and we’re not all reruns,” he clarified. “Fox Reality Channel has the best of acquired programming from the U.S., like ‘Amazing Race,’ ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ ‘Last Comic Standing.’ In fact, what really distinguishes us and continues to make us stand out are the originals. We celebrate reality in all its styles, from the Really Awards, jam-packed with reality stars behaving as only reality stars can. ‘Gimme My Reality Show,’ where reality hams compete to win their own show. ‘My Bare Lady,’ it’s back for a new season. TV’s toughest competition, ‘Solitary.’ The documentary-style look at police training, ‘The Academy.’ These all fit our mandate for original shows on Fox Reality Channel, and that’s to be loud and to be real.”

Funny how Lyle didn’t clarify what “My Bare Lady” is, but since he didn’t, allow me: the series follows four American female porn stars as they take acting lessons and perform in scenes from classic drama alongside British actors in London’s West End. Or, at least, that’s what Season 1 was about. Whatever Season 2 involves, however, I think we can presume that it will still involve female porn stars, so I say bring it on.

Also worthy of your attention is “Long Way Down,” in which actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman hop on their motorbikes and take an epic ride ride from the north of Scotland to the southern tip of Africa. McGregor’s fascination with burning rubber is pretty well documented, given his appearance on “Top Gear” as well as his narration of the Mark Neale documentaries “Faster” and “The Doctor, The Tornado, and the Kentucky Kid,” but his fascination with bikes goes back much farther than that.

“My father was in a charity organization called The Round Table. My father’s called Jim, and he did this thing called ‘Jim’ll Fix It,’ where he tried to help people with kids who were ill or do something special for them. When I was about five,” McGregor said, “this little boy who was ill wanted to ride a motorbike, and they got this little tiny Honda monkey bike, it was called, and the kid rode it all around the field. And I was there, so I asked if I could have a shot afterwards. And I think it’s true to say I never got over the feeling of going like that. It’s a thrill that I still have to this day. I really love it. I can’t tell you how thrilling it is.”

“Long Way Down” is a trip which is less about the speed at which he and Boorman are traveling and more about their experiences along the way, something which was decidedly enhanced by their mode of transportation.

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Actors, External Entertainment, External TV, News, Reality TV, TCA Blog 2008, TCA Press Tour, TV

TCA Press Tour, Day 4: TNT

July 14, 2008 /

The USA Network has made a name for itself as the best place on the basic cable dial to find new dramatic series, but given TNT’s current slate, it’s beginning to look as though USA had better start watching their ass; they’ve already got two solid entries in “The Closer” and “Saving Grace,” and now that they’re bringing in “Raising the Bar” and “Leverage,” things are looking even more impressive.

“Raising the Bar” is the latest contribution from Steven Bochco, the man who brought you such television classics as “Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law,” “NYPD Blue,” and…yes!…”Cop Rock.” (Hey, he likes it.) As you may have guessed from the show’s title, Bochco is returning to the judicial system again, and he’s bringing another fantastic ensemble with him, including Mark-Paul Gosselaar (“NYPD Blue”), Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcolm in the Middle”), Gloria Reuben (“E.R.”), and J. August Richards (“Angel”).

“This is a show that’s not just about criminal attorneys or prosecutors,” clarified Bochco. “It’s a show about the judicial system. We wanted to access legitimate points of view, not just from the defense side or the prosecution side, but from the judge’s point of view as well; we felt that we really needed to have a consistent representative voice for the series.” Enter Kaczmarek, who’ll be playing a judge for the second time in her career…though she’ll be a little less animated this time. (Her previous judicial role was as Judge Harm on “The Simpsons.”)

Seeing Gosselaar in the cast isn’t as big a surprise this time as it was when Bochco hired him for “NYPD Blue” back in 2001, but Bochco stands by his decision then and now. “Mark-Paul is one of the small, handful of best actors that we have in television today,” he said. “I hate to talk about a guy who is sitting here, but Mark-Paul has a big heart, and it’s been evident in his work ever since we got together, so when David and I started working on “Raising the Bar,” we always had Mark-Paul in our heads as an image for this guy. I’ve never worked with anybody who gives more of himself to the work process. He’s a wonderful professional; the ego gets checked at the door. That’s very refreshing.”

After he shook off the compliments, Gosselaar addressed Bochco’s comments, revealing that his first encounter with the legendary producer was when he auditioned for Bochco’s short-lived ABC series, “Philly.” “I knew the name,” he said, “(but) I had never seen an episode of ‘NYPD Blue.’ I didn’t see ‘Hill Street.’ So I just did my work, and then I remember him saying right in the room, ‘You are good.’ He had such an honest quality about him. To say that to an actor…I didn’t know how to take that. And then from that, I didn’t get ‘Philly,’ but three weeks later, he said that he would think about another character on ‘NYPD Blue,’ and half a year later, I was on that show. I’m in shock from that meeting, that he is able to see a quality in an actor and take him through a process. I feel like I blossomed and developed on that show to do the work that I’m doing now. He creates an environment that allows actors to do that, and you feel safe being with him. That’s what he does.”

Okay, enough back-patting. Let’s talk about the show itself.

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Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, News, TCA Blog 2008, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

What did I ever do to you, Ray Richmond?

July 14, 2008 /

I almost hate to give this any attention whatsoever, but, y’know, if I don’t, it’s just gonna fester.

Yesterday, I was talking to my buddy Michael Jensen, editor of AfterElton.com, and he asked, “Did you hear about the column that Ray Richmond wrote?” I had not. Apparently, Richmond had written a column on July 6th about the then-impending TCA Press Tour, and the premise of the piece had involved the fact that there was precious little buzz about the tour for an event that hadn’t occurred in a year. (The winter tour had, of course, been canceled as a result of the WGA strike.) Beyond that, however, he vented about how the good old days are dead and gone, that the networks don’t pay to fly the writers out to the tour any more, and – worst of all – now that newspapers have been cutting back on their expenses, too, many of the spots in the TCA have been replaced by…horror of horrors…bloggers.

Now, it’s one thing to throw out this line:

…the sessions too often devolve into a two-pronged affair: those who are too consumed with their live-blogging to participate in an intelligent discourse and those repping lightweight blogs whose queries are of the trivial, “Have you always been so hot?” variety.

It’s quite another, however, to offer up this sneered sentence:

With several major newspapers refusing to send anyone to TCA because of the expense, the registered attendees now feature the likes of BuddyTV.com, Bullz-Eye.com, AfterElton.com, GirlPower.com and Visimag.com.

Now I see why Michael was up in arms…and I don’t blame him. Nor would I blame any of the other sites from getting miffed about finding themselves cited in Richmond’s piece. But right this second, I’m only going to respond on my own behalf.

Really, Ray? You’re going to call me out…and, yes, when you cite Bullz-Eye.com, it is me you’re calling out, since I’m the one who’s attending on behalf of the site…as an attendee who’s unworthy of attendance? Look, man, I went to college and earned my Bachelor of Arts in English, Journalism & Communications. I’ve spent the better part of two decades doing the freelance writing thing – sometimes paid, sometimes not – and I’ve finally found my way to an organization that’s sufficiently appreciative of my efforts to provide me with a full-time opportunity to write for a living. For that matter, I’m also a freelancer for The Virginian-Pilot, offering up articles about the local television market in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. In short, I’m a writer. Yes, I have my computer open during the panels, but calling my contributions “live blogging” is really overstating things; I’m a one-man operation, so I’m generally listening to one panel while writing about one from the previous day…or possibly two days ago, depending on how far behind I’ve fallen. I’m asking questions during the panels when I think they can add something to the conversation, and when the panels conclude, if there’s a panelist for whom I have additional questions, I’m hot on their heels. I don’t think I’ve ever asked anyone if they’ve “always been so hot,” though I admit that it was on the tip of my tongue when Ed Asner was talking about how well “Lou Grant” has held up over the years as a portrait of life in a newspaper bullpen and discussing his feelings on the possibility of an SGA strike. (Grrrrrrr, baby!)

Okay, I’m not going to spend any more time on this, except to close by saying this to Mr. Richmond: I think it was pretty crass of you to call out specific sites as examples of the lowered standards of the TCA membership. I get that you think that the good old days are gone, but yesterday I had the opportunity to listen to Joan Leslie discuss working with Gary Cooper on “Sergeant York,” and today I thrilled to Mark Oliver Everett chatting about his father’s work in the field of parallel universes. For me, the good old days are right now, and I hope to utilize them to educate and entertain both myself and the people who read my stuff.

Sorry if that doesn’t meet your rigorous standards.

TCA Blog 2008, TCA Press Tour

TCA Press Tour, Day 4: TBS

July 13, 2008 /

TBS is such a mixed bag of comedy. I’ve become a huge fan of “My Boys” after scoring a review copy of the Season 1 set and blowing through it in about two days, and I’m excited at the prospect of “10 Items or Less” getting a DVD release so I can finally get in on that show from the ground up. But “The Bill Engvall Show” is a little too pedestrian for my tastes (I think Engvall’s a great stand-up, and Tim Meadows never fails to make me laugh, but even his stuff on the show rarely earns more than a light chuckle from me), and to each their own, but if I never see another episode of “House of Payne,” it’ll be too soon. (Reviewing the first DVD release of the show was quite enough of that particular Tyler Perry production for me, thanks.)

Somewhere in the middle of these shows lies “Frank TV.”

I’ve always been a huge fan of impressionists. I mean, I can’t tell you how excited I’d get as a kid when I’d hear that Rich Little was going to be making an appearance on this show or that. Frank Caliendo definitely falls into the tradition of the greats, make no mistake, but despite all the love the guy has received for his spot-on impression of John Madden, he earned a major, major backlash as a result of the absolutely ceaseless promos for “Frank TV” that aired during the baseball playoffs last year.

So how is he going to handle the advertising blitz this time around?

“I’ve actually asked them to tone it up, just to make people angrier.”

In truth, Caliendo didn’t know anything about the constant promoting of his program…though he has already apologized in advance for the fact that it’s almost certainly going to happen again. “It was the weirdest thing in the world,” he said, “because I actually had called over to Steve Koonin and Michael Wright, and I said, ‘What’s happening?’ And they’re, like, ‘It’s working. People are talking about it.’ The thing that you probably don’t know is that — and this is their belief in the show — we had not shot a single sketch before those things aired. So the baseball playoffs were going on with all those promos, they believed in the show and thought it was going to work, but we hadn’t put (together) anything other than a pilot.”

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Actors, External Entertainment, External TV, News, TCA Blog 2008, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Comedies

TCA Press Tour, Day 4: Cartoon Network

July 13, 2008 /

And, of course, by “Cartoon Network,” we really just mean “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.”

You no doubt saw my non-chronological posting a few days ago, when I just couldn’t wait to praise the full-length episode that Cartoon Network and LucasFilm surprised us with, but I knocked it out so quickly that I didn’t wait to offer up any of post-viewing comments from Dave Filoni, the supervising director of the “Clone Wars” series. I also didn’t mention how downright giddy Filoni was, both before and after the episode, about the mere fact that we were getting to see it!

“I am real excited, and I’m really thrilled that we get to share an episode with you,” he said, prior to its airing. “The secrecy is really top form with ‘Star Wars,’ so this is really exciting for me to share with all of you.” As he said it, I had this vision of George Lucas, sitting in his office, rotating his hand between thumbs-up and thumbs-down, keeping Filoni in suspense as to whether he was going to let us lowly TV critics get a gander at the episode before the diehards down at Comic-Con, but, man, I’m so psyched that he opted to allow it. You may remember (though you probably don’t) how there was a battle last year in mid-panel over ABC wanting to hold onto to purportedly critical “Lost” information and reveal it at Comic-Con rather than during the TCA Press Tour, and many of the critics essentially bullied ABC into giving us the info. I totally didn’t agree with the way that went down, and, frankly, I expected a backlash from shows with a major Comic-Con presence, so I definitely didn’t expect us to score a “Clone Wars” coup.

But we did.

SCORE!

You may have seen a preview for the upcoming animated “Clone Wars” film, but to put things in perspective, the movie is standalone from the series, according to Filone. “It sets up the major characters we know, like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, and the new character, Ahsoka,” he explained, “so it’s made to stand alone and introduce everybody to the universe we’re showing in the ‘The Clone Wars.’ Then you come to the series, which has its small arcs and shows you the war from across a broad spectrum of episodes.”

You could tell the “Star Wars” fans from the non-fans in the audience, with the former camp generally asking the kind of questions that only geeks would care about…like, for instance, how long the series will go on, given that the Clone War has been established as lasting for a specific length of time.

“We’re not just telling Anakin Skywalker’s story,” Filoni reminded us. “If we were doing that, we would be stuck on one single arc. I look at the episodes where we have him and Ahsoka, which is his student, and I know that there is an arc there, because something has to happen to her, since we don’t see her in ‘Revenge of the Sith.’ So we use those kind of points to show the progression of the war. Because we can kind of go left or right of that plot and deal with characters that we have never seen, there’s a lot of material, so I can stretch it and, you know, keep making episodes about things that George would like to see or I would like to see. That’s one of the things I have been amazed at. It’s a three-year period, the Clone War, in the history of the ‘Star Wars’ universe, but in that period, there are so many stories to tell that I’ve been amazed that just in the first season what we didn’t get to, you know, and what I would still like to get to, and what stories we would still like to explore. So for me, the longer it goes, the more chance we all get to tell fascinating stories in that galaxy.”

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External Entertainment, External TV, News, TCA Blog 2008, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Action, TV Sci-Fi

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