Category: TV Comedies (Page 47 of 154)

Details on banned “Family Guy” episode

August 13, 2009 /

Late last month, it was announced that Fox would not be airing an episode of “Family Guy” dealing with abortion. Instead, it was announced that the episode, entitled “Partial Terms of Endearment,” would only be available on DVD. Always aiming to please, creator Seth MacFarlane hosted a table read of the episode last night in Hollywood to members of the press.

Thanks to The Hollywood Reporter and Paul Cullum for the story. It would have been great to see the cast read the show in its entirety.

After listening to the jokes that produced some restrained laughter from the audience, it’s obvious the episode would have caused an uproar from countless groups involved with abortion. Of course, “Family Guys'” fan base couldn’t care less. Something — though I’m sure there are well-researched studies that have the answer — has happened with today’s younger generation that makes them immune to offensive material. Perhaps it’s the power of the Internet. There’s too much of everything, and that will be the case in America until we’re run by some totalitarian regime. That will never happen, and in the meantime audiences can have their fill of vulgarity on YouTube, Hulu, and countless other websites that supply comedy. It’s all over the place. Jokes, ideas, and issues are all up for grabs on the Internet. For these creators, whether they be aspiring Hollywood writers or a group of junior high school kids with a camera, there’s no line they can’t cross. They can’t “push the envelope” because there’s nobody watching over their shoulders.

If you listen to Seth MacFarlane in interviews, he advocates this form of DIY comedy. If he weren’t as successful as he is, he would be out there posting comedy bits on YouTube. He worked hard enough, reading scripts at the Writers Guild, learning the history of television, and creating his own content. It paid off. Now he works for one the major networks and he isn’t able to get away with everything. Nevertheless, “Family Guy” is the first cartoon in decades to be nominated for “Best Comedy Series” at the Emmys. Controversial and unsavory, his show still has some of the funniest jokes on television.

So, MacFarlane and crew read the script, along with a 16-piece orchestra, mainly to voters from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He admitted this was intended to score more votes and I hope it does. Whereas Fox’s advertisers might have pulled their support if the show aired, members from the Television Academy love to see shows takes risks.

You can watch clips from the reading after the jump.

Humor, News, TV, TV Cartoons, TV Comedies

TCA Tour – “The Office” set visit

August 13, 2009 /

During my time at the TCA Press Tour, I was fortunate enough to visit the sets of two CBS series (“NCIS: Los Angeles” and “Three Rivers“), two Fox series (“Bones” and “Dollhouse“), and two ABC series (“Castle” and “Private Practice”), but when you get right down to it, my excitement level about all six of those sets probably still didn’t equal out to how psyched I was to visit the set of just one NBC show: “The Office.”

It was an absolutely surreal experience to pull up in front of a building in Valencia, CA, and see a sign which read, “Scranton Business Park,” but it got even more bizarre as we stepped into the Dunder-Mifflin warehouse and immediately saw members of the cast milling about. We were quickly divided into small groups and taken on a tour of the actual Dunder-Mifflin office by cast members, and I was fortunate enough to be part of the group led by Angela Kinsey, who plays Angela Martin on the show.

My wife and I met Angela in 2007 when we attended our first TCA Awards ceremony, as “The Office” had taken home the award for Best Comedy Series that year, so I was already well aware that her real-life personality is the polar opposite of her character’s. She’s constantly laughing, and you could tell that, although she was no doubt drafted into the task of giving us this tour, she loves her job and doesn’t mind talking about it in the slightest. It was incredibly cool to be able to see the intricacies of the various certificates on the walls of the office, as well as the personal photos on each of the desks, but I think my favorite moment was when she told us that Brian Baumgartner, who plays Kevin, still has a post-it on his desk that was written during the very first episode of the show. No, wait, I take that back: it might’ve been when she recited back to us the way she used to have to answer the phone when she was an operator for 1-800-DENTIST. Well, either way, it was a real treat to have her give us the tour personally. We were also given the opportunity to take our photo at Michael Scott’s desk, which I absolutely took advantage of, but all things considered, I think I actually might like this shot from Pam’s desk better:

After the set visit, we returned to the warehouse, where we were each presented with our own nameplates which declared us to be Assistant to the Regional Manager of Dunder-Mifflin…and you can bet that mine sits on my desk at this very moment. From there, we were offered coffee and pastries as we sat down for a Q&A with the cast (minus Rainn Wilson, who wasn’t feeling well) and producers of the show.

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External Entertainment, External TV, Interviews, News, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, The Office, TV, TV Comedies

Black on “Big Bang”

August 13, 2009 /

CBS has let slip…and by “let slip,” I mean that they’ve released a formal press release…that comedian Lewis Black will be appearing on the second episode of the new season of “The Big Bang Theory.”

Black will guest star as Professor Crawley, a brilliant professor of entomology – he even has a dung beetle named after him – who works at Caltech with the guys. Unfortunately, Crawley’s life is falling apart: his department’s being shut down because of budget cutbacks, his wife left him for someone who studies birds, and he’s moving in with his daughter in Oxnard…not Oxnard on the beach, but Oxnard by the onion fields. None of these things, however, prove nearly as aggravating as Sheldon, who keeps pestering him to settle a bet with Wolowitz about a cricket.

The third season of “The Big Bang Theory” premieres Monday, Sept. 21, at 9:30 PM, so Black’s episode should – at least in theory – air on the 28th.

In tribute, here’s a clip of Mr. Black talking religion with Bob Schieffer, followed by my favorite moment in “Big Bang” history:

Actors, External Entertainment, External TV, News, Stand-Up Comics, TV, TV Comedies

TCA Tour – “The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson”

August 13, 2009 /

When it comes to late-night hosts, I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but…I have almost reached the point where I prefer Craig Ferguson to David Letterman. When it comes to my all-time favorite, I don’t think I’ll ever see a day when Dave will be topped, but there’s just something about Ferguson that comes closer to matching my current sensibilities. In particular, I love the way the guy speaks off the cuff and from the heart. It’s not that other hosts can’t and don’t step outside of the standard talk-show mold to address specific issues of the day, but Ferguson does it every day of the week and throughout the majority of his show, creating a feel of spontaneity where you truly have no idea what he’s going to say next. Plus, he has such a “real person” vibe that you know that, when he does say something, it’ll sound like something that you might say.

Well, you know, if you had a Scottish brogue. And were funnier.

The TCA has had a long-standing relationship with Mr. Ferguson, but I swear to you that his ongoing gesture of buying us pizza whenever we hold our organization’s business meetings has nothing to do with my enjoyment of his show. With that said, however, I can’t say that the messages that he includes with the pizza – like the one below – haven’t made me respect him more. I mean, as someone who has an affinity to the printed word (as opposed to the online word), I have to give him props for this:

Craig stopped by the TCA tour for what was described as an “informal press conference,” which is no doubt why he started the proceedings by saying, “First of all, let me say my wife is standing by me through this very difficult time,” adding that “Buenos Aires is lovely at this time of year.” From there, he was willing to tackle any and all questions that were thrown at him, but before I offer up some of my favorite moments, I must drop this bombshell: he’s considering getting rid of the puppets.

Yes, I know: I’m as upset as you are. And so were many of the others in attendance, several of whom immediately gasped in horror.

“That reaction right there?” said Ferguson. “That’s what I’m looking for: controversy. ‘No puppets? That’s it! To the presses…that don’t exist anymore!’ I don’t know, I’m getting bored with puppets. If I can’t think of anything else to do with them, I’ll have to let them go the way of all flesh.”

As you can imagine, we did our best to pretend that he never made this comment…I don’t think I want to live in a world where “The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson” doesn’t provide me with my weekly puppet quota…and instead chose to focus on the funnier and more thoughtful bits of the “press conference.” Here, then, are ten of my favorites…

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External Entertainment, External TV, Interviews, News, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Comedies

TCA Tour: “Glee”

August 12, 2009 /

During his executive session at the TCA Press Tour, Fox President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly announced that they’ve finished 13 episodes of “Glee,” assuring us that “the show delivers. It’s fantastic.” While this is exactly the sort of thing you’d expect a network president to say, those of us who caught the pilot episode of the series when it aired earlier this year couldn’t be much more hopeful that Reilly isn’t just talking out of his arse.

It was an interesting experiment for Fox to air the series pilot months before the series was to make its proper debut, but it created the kind of buzz that makes network executives giddy.

“We didn’t really think that a one-time-only play was going to be about ratings,” said Reilly. “It was really a marketing stunt to a certain extent, and it’s something that has ended up being very successful. In fact, it could be the marker for something we’re going to employ more frequently, because our marketing effort in these things get wedged into such a narrow window from the time they’re ready to put out there to the time they air. We wanted people to talk about it and take time to get their heads around it. It did a 4.3 rating ultimately in the Live-Plus-Seven. It’s been sampled by 25 million people between TV, the online site, and Hulu, which has been unbelievably strong. We’re going to repeat it again. We’ve heard the chatter, and the talk continues to get more and more positive.

“We were at Comic-Con last week, which was a stretch for this show,” he admitted. “We were nervous nobody was going to show up. It wasn’t even in the main venue. There were thousands of people out the door, and it was like The Beatles were there. There’s something happening with the show. With that said, we’re both very confident there is a core audience for this show that is going to be there and it will be successful. How much the upside is…? I don’t think we’re looking for this to be necessarily the biggest phenomenon of the fall. It is a little bit of an offbeat show, but we’d certainly love to have it in that square success category. We know it’s a creative success because we’ve now seen the work. So all in all, we like that strategy. It worked very well.”

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External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Interviews, News, Pilots, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Comedies, TV Dramas

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