Category: TV (Page 276 of 595)

“Kitchen Nightmares” returns, sort of

January 16, 2009 /

Last night FOX aired a partial episode of “Kitchen Nightmares” that was a rerun (following President Bush’s farewell speech), and then the conclusion of Season 2 with a new episode. This was sort of odd because this show hasn’t aired since before the holidays, so it’s almost like they kept this show in the bank when they didn’t know what else to air. It was also a good way to promote the upcoming new season of Gordon Ramsay’s other show, “Hell’s Kitchen,” which kicks off on January 29.

With that, here is what happened in the new episode last night. The restaurant is Cafe 36 in Lagrange, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Owners Terry and Carol are semi-retired and it was Terry’s dream to open an upscale, French-themed bistro. So this was it. But little did the owners know that their head chef, Pinto, was running their business into the ground by cutting huge corners and serving stale food that was still taking too long to come out of the kitchen.

Gordon Ramsay arrived and couldn’t believe that on some nights this place was turning over something like 6-8 dinners a night. Not tables, DINNERS Continue reading »

Kitchen Nightmares, Reality TV, TV

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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Actors, Actresses, Celebrities, External Entertainment, External TV, News, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Comedies

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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Actresses, Celebrities, External Entertainment, External TV, News, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Dramas

TCA Tour, Jan. 2009: “Skins”

January 16, 2009 /

If I hadn’t been out here in L.A. for the last week and a half, you would’ve seen my review of the first volume of “Skins” on DVD, but when it finally does make it onto Bullz-Eye, you can count on it being a rave. I’ve groused on many occasions about the portrayal of American teenagers on television, how it always feel so terribly unreal and thereby presents a version of reality that they feel obliged to live up to. In the case of “Skins,” however, I’m torn by what I’m seeing: on one hand, there’s no denying that it feels really, really real, but, indeed, it’s so real that, unlike “Gossip Girl,” it makes me go, “Oh, my God, maybe this really is what my daughter’s going to be doing when she gets to be a teenager.”

(For what it’s worth, I’ve checked with my sources in the UK – hi, Claire! – and I’m assured that the Brit teen experience is far wilder than the US teen experience, so I’m feeling at least a little bit better about it.)

Those who’ve watched the first two series of “Skins” have been a little bit twitchy about the news that the father-and-son creators of the show, Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain, are basically doing away with the entire cast of kids – except for Effy and Pandora – and starting fresh with a whole new bunch of young’uns.

“We feel like…each cast has a kind of two-year life span, mainly because we are mostly interested in the ages of 16 to 18,” said Brittain. “That’s the format of the show. We felt that, looking at shows that have been before, like ‘Dawson’s Creek’ and ‘The O.C.,’ they tend to go downhill a little bit when the characters all go off to college or a university because, you know, then you have to contrive convenient endless ways to get them to meet up again. They’re always coming home for a party or something like that. Also, we sort of felt like, in the first series, we took the characters quite a long way and sort of took them to their conclusions, really. So any more of those original cast would be, you know, not needed.”

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Actors, Actresses, Celebrities, External Entertainment, External TV, News, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Comedies, TV Dramas

TCA Tour, Jan. 2009: “Ashes to Ashes”

January 15, 2009 /

You know ABC’s “Life on Mars”? Okay, forget about it for a moment and jump back in time to the original BBC version of “Life on Mars.” After that series left the air in April 2007, rumors immediately began to swirl that there would be a sequel to the story, and in February of 2008, those rumors became a reality with the premiere of “Ashes to Ashes.” Sadly, however, we poor Americans have been stuck waiting around for the show to make its debut on BBC America ever since.

Thankfully, that wait will come to an end on March 7th.

If you’ve somehow managed to restrain yourself up ’til this point and don’t already know the storyline of “Ashes to Ashes,” here’s the deal: just as Sam Tyler was a modern-day cop transported back to the ’70s on “Life on Mars,” now it’s single mother and Detective Inspector Alex Drake who finds herself back in 1981…and, yes, she’ll be facing everyone’s favorite politically incorrect cop, Gene Hunt.

Music-wise, I’m particularly excited to hear what tunes will be offered up, given how many ’80s songs have been part of the soundtrack of my life, and it sounds like co-creator and writer Ashley Pharaoh has got quite a treat in store.

“In actual time, I was 21 in 1981, so I sadly was a New Romantic and had too much makeup and ribbons in my hair, so it was very dear to me, that stuff, and it was always going to be the soundtrack of ‘Ashes to Ashes,'” said Pharaoh. “Actually, we recreate a very famous New Romantic club from Soho: The Ritz Club. And Steve Strange, who ran the Ritz Club, guested in the episodes. Steve very Strange, we think he is, though.”

One of the first things Pharaoh wanted to do with a “Life on Mars” sequel was to change the male-male dynamic of the original series and bring a woman right into the heart of things.

“‘Life On Mars’ references back to sort of very male, British cop shows in the ’70s,” he explained, “and we wanted more sort of a ‘Moonlighting”’ feel, a brighter sense. And we thought it would be really good fun to take Gene Hunt on a journey with a very strong woman, feminist, intellectual from our time. The actress, Keeley Hawes, I’d worked with her before; I did a Thomas Hardy adaptation with her, ‘Under the Greenwood Tree,’ and I was knocked out. Whenever we met the producers and the writers with our little short list of actresses, she was always on the top, so it was a no-brainer, really, and I think it was a wonderful performance she gives as Alex Drake.”

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Actors, Actresses, Celebrities, External Entertainment, External TV, News, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

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