Category: TV (Page 419 of 595)

TCA Press Tour: Finally back on track…sort of.

Okay, I’m not REALLY caught up. But at least I’m writing up yesterday’s panels now, as opposed to the Showtime panels from Saturday.

First up on Sunday were the very heavy back-to-back CNN panels: “God’s Warriors,” a look at the religious aspect of war, hosted by Christiane Amanpour, and “Planet in Peril,” where Anderson Cooper explores the world and, basically, looks at how it’s all gonna fall apart if we don’t do something about it.

Warning: I’m not kidding, this is pretty heady stuff. Just so there’s no claims of false advertising…

Continue reading »

TCA Press Tour: Those ESPN Panels

Yeah, good thing I passed the buck and had Senior Editor David Medsker handle the editing-down process for these transcripts. His declaration: there was a whooooooole lot of filler…so much so, in fact, that he only excised two bits from the entire proceedings.

Would Keyshawn Johnson ever bail out on his ESPN commentator gig to go back to the game? “I could do a lot of different things,” he says, “but that’s not going to happen. I know you have to ask that question, but it’s almost a question that is just a wasted question, because it’s not going to happen. I’m not even thinking about going back to play football at all. My mind’s made up. I’m done. My kids love it. I love it. I live up the street. I love the weather here. It’s great.”

(Yeah, don’t put too much stock in that confidence. Ron Jaworski posed the hypothetical question, “What if it’s Roger Clemens money?” Johnson’s immediate response: “Well, that’s different.”)

A few minutes later, Jaworski was posed a question himself, one that’s been asked of just about every sports person who’s popped up on a panel: what’s the deal with NFL not having a franchise in L.A.? “There should be an NFL franchise in Los Angeles,” declared Jaworski. “The four years I spent here, ’73, ’74, ’75, and ’76, were magnificent seasons. Chuck Knox was the head coach. We were in the playoffs all four years, three NFC Championship games, the Coliseum was packed every week. It was a great place for football. You see it at USC. You see it at UCLA. The fans love football in this area. It is mind-boggling, to me, that there’s not an NFL franchise in Los Angeles. There should be.”

TCA Press Tour: It’s Showtime!

So I’m officially more than 24 hours behind at this point. So sue me. (Note to readers: this is, in fact, should not be considered to be a legitimate suggestion that you incur legal action towards either myself or PremiumHollywood.com.)

Anyway, I enjoyed four consecutive Showtime panels – “Dexter,” “Weeds,” “Brotherhood,” and “Californication” – and, frankly, what I got out of it was that I really ought to be subscribing to Showtime rather than HBO. I know, them’s bold words, but it’s true. “The Sopranos” and “Deadwood” are both gone ’til their respective creators get off their respective arses and put together movies, “John in Cincinnati” hasn’t done anything for me as of yet, “Tell Me You Love Me” is officially the running joke of the press tour (although, to be fair, I haven’t actually seen it yet, personally), and God bless ’em, but “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Flight of the Conchords” are both funny shows that will inevitably come out of on DVD, at which point I watch them at my discretion. Meanwhile, Showtime is offering new series like “Californication,” returning series like “Dexter,” “Weeds,”” and “Brotherhood,” and, in the future, will be bringing back “The Tudors” and “This American Life.”‘

Seriously, what’s not to like about Showtime?

Anyway, here are some highlights:

Dexter:

* Michael J. Hall describes the world of his character, the serial-killing Dexter, as “pretty rocked.” Expect him to encounter an unexpected visitor, says Hall, “someone who sees him for who he is, accepts him as such, and he really has no choice but to do him in. And so, yeah, I think — I think when we meet Dexter at the top of season two, he’s still reeling from that, and — and any footing he’s able to establish for himself is pretty much immediately pulled out from under him.”

Executive producer Clyde Phillips explains, “We’re sort of playing the beginning of the season, picking up obviously where the first season left off. And then, it’s maybe four or five weeks later in the world in which these characters inhabit. So all of the emotional resonance of what each of them went through, particularly with what Dexter went through, will continue as if that were the actual passage of time, so they’re still dented and rocked by what has happened.” (Adds fellow associate producer Daniel Cerone, “The nice thing with Dexter is it’s actually the lack of emotional resonance. So in episode one of the second season, he discovers his sort of emotional vacancy and his reaction to the death of his brother.”)

Continue reading »

A few one-liner newsflashes from NBC to get you started.

* Isaiah Washington will be appearing in a 5-episode stint on “The Bionic Woman.” (Co-chairman Marc Graboff said, “He’s a wonderful actor, and he became available…” Naturally, the audience burst into laughter. “…and, just to address that laughter, we did start talking to him about appearing before he ‘became available.’ He met the writers, the role was thought of for Isaiah, but it’s now been more specifically tailored to him.”)

* Norman Lear is returning to TV, overseeing a new, as-yet-uncast sitcom. (Graboff: “His belief in telling great stories and drawing attention to issues that are real inside American society through emotion and comedy are what inspired me to go into television. Potentially, Norman would write as the show gets going.”)

* The network’s upcoming new reality series: “Phenomenon,” starring Uri Geller and Criss Angel.

* The network is forging a new association with Charlie Corwin, executive producer of “The Squid and the Whale.”

* Donald Trump will indeed be returning with another season of “The Apprentice,” but it’s going to be done with celebrities this time, with all challenges and winnings being done for charity. (Graboff: “Donald has personally asked me to extend an invite to Rosie (O’Donnell).”)

* Both Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan are committed to “30 Rock” and will be back.

* It sounds like “Friday Night Lights” was saved partially because the network execs liked it, but mostly because it’s a fiscally solid show, i.e. it’s a hell of a lot cheaper to produce than, say, “Heroes”; as such, they could afford to believe in the show a little longer. (Hey, whatever. As long as it’s still on, right?)

* NBC’s adaptation of the Australian series, “Kath & Kim,” is on the fast track, and both Graboff and his fellow chairman, Ben Silverman, are both aware that it’s gonna depend on the casting as far as whether it’ll be another “Office” or another “Coupling.”

* NBC is definitely looking to keep Jay Leno within the network after his departure from “The Tonight Show.” (Silverman: “We love Jay, and we’d love him to stay with NBC forever.”)

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Premium Hollywood

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑