Category: TV (Page 579 of 595)

Let’s all hope Showtime isn’t crazy like a Fox

January 2, 2006 /

In the final episode of “Arrested Development,” creator Mitchell Hurwitz and crew went for broke with a hilarious episode about the Bluth family throwing a Save Our Bluths fundraiser named after the real-life website campaign (www.SaveOurBluths.com) designed to save the comedy series from cancellation.

The episode includes tons of ingeniously blatant cries for help, including narrator Ron Howard’s plead to “tell your friends about this show.” Later in the episode, Michael Bluth (played by Jason Bateman) says this: “Our backs are against the wall… It’s just hard for me to accept that it’s really come to begging… [but] we’ve had plenty of chances. Maybe the Bluths just aren’t saving. Maybe we’re not that likeable. Who’d want to spend a half-hour with us if they didn’t want to?” The character is of course only talking about the fictional family that the series revolves around, but we all know what he REALLY means, don’t we?

Other brief jokes include the possibility of other networks picking up the series, including a moment when George Sr. says that HBO won’t be able to make the party, but it doesn’t matter because it’s still show time! (read: Showtime, as in the premium channel that has expressed interest in buying the rights to the series). Touche, cast and crew of “Arrested.” Fox, it’s your move…

TV, TV Comedies

Coffee is for closers…soldier!

January 2, 2006 /

Acclaimed playwright and screenwriter David Mamet (“Glengarry Glen Ross”) has signed on as executive producer for his first-ever TV series. CBS drama ‘The Unit’ will premiere in March, and features Dennis Haysbert as the leader of an elite U.S. military team–a slight demotion from his former role as Commander-In-Chief David Palmer on Fox’s “24.” Also attached are former T-1000 Robert Patrick (hot on the heels of his acclaimed performance in “Walk the Line”) and former Jennifer Garfleck arm candy Scott Foley–who might just finally be poised to outshine his ex-wife’s career luster, now that she’s on the downswing and all.

No word yet on whether the munitions carried by the team of elite operatives will include Mamet’s standard array of f-bombs.

Actors, News, TV

New Year’s Mockin’ Eve…?

January 1, 2006 /

Did anyone else turn on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” last night solely out of morbid curiosity…?

I mean, I didn’t.

Well, not really, anyway. I would’ve turned it to ABC, anyway, out of habit as much as anything…but I DID really want to see how Dick Clark looked. It totally didn’t seem like a proper New Year’s Eve without Dick Clark hosting last year’s festivities, so I was glad to hear he was coming back this year…but then there was all that controversy about how they doctored up a photo so that they could have one of Clark with his “co-host” Ryan Seacrest together, and people wondered, “Well, geez, how bad off IS he?”

Well, he looked pretty much just like Dick Clark…but, man, as soon as he opened his mouth, there was no question that the man had had a stroke. At the party I was attending, people were, like, “Oh, my GOD, he sounds AWFUL!” And, okay, he didn’t have that booming, confident Dick Clark voice, no…but, still, the guy fought his way back from a stroke and, only a year later, he had accomplished enough in the way of recovery to be able to appear on camera (albeit in a studio rather than out on the street) and address the audience sporadically throughout the night. You almost wanted to applaud the guy. And, yet, lots of people at this party just kept going, “Oh, that’s so SAD!”

I don’t think it’s sad; I think it’s awesome.

Dick Clark has been a staple of my life for as long as I can remember, and I’m just glad he’s back…because when he’s really gone for good, I don’t forsee a need to turn on the TV on New Year’s Eve ever again.

TV

Most depressing fact in a “Simpsons” episode commentary EVER.

January 1, 2006 /

“The Simpsons‘ 138th Episode Spectacular” came during the show’s 7th season. It’s a glorified clip show, basically, but there was some hilarious new material courtesy of the late Phil Hartman as Troy McClure.

(“Right about now, you’re probably saying, ‘Troy, I’ve seen every Simpsons episode. You can’t show me anything new.’ [menacingly] Well, you got some attitude, Mister.”)

When listening to the audio commentary, however, one finds out that Hartman so loved the character of Troy McClure that he was fully committed to and incredibly excited by the idea of doing a live-action Troy McClure movie.

Damn, damn, damn.

TV, TV DVDs

Hollywood Highlights, week of 12/26

December 28, 2005 /

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s name removed from hometown stadium over death-penalty flap: Death-penalty opponents in the California governor’s birthplace of Graz, Austria–“the City of Human Rights”–decried the politician’s refusal to block the execution of a convicted murderer. At the governor’s request, his name was removed from a local soccer stadium and from the city’s promotional web sites.

Apparently, Schwarzenegger’s hometown fans picked up not a hint of his pro-death stance via his roles in movies like “The “Terminator,” “Commando,” “Predator,” and “Conan the Barbarian.”

Food is the new ‘Sex:’ Gourmet magazine editor, bestselling author, and former New York Times food critic Ruth Reichl will produce a new TV show for HBO about a glamorous newspaper columnist who finds herself entangled in a series of complicated romances. The plotlines will be based on Reichl’s own life story, and she and her co-producers reportedly hope the program will become the heir apparent to previous HBO hit “Sex and the City.”

Of course, Reichl herself is a bit more Miranda Hobbes than Carrie Bradshaw in the attractiveness department…but central casting will presumably find a swan to play the story’s less-than-hot duckling. Whom would you cast as the bohemian foodie? Jenna Elfman’s got the bohemian part down, but is sorely lacking the necessary Jewish vibe. Other suggestions?

Mike Myers and wife Robin Ruzan to divorce after 12 years of marriage. As Myers’ cult Saturday Night Live character Linda Richman (who was based on Myers’ real-life mother-in-law) would say, “It’s coffee talk, no big whoop. I’ll give you a topic: Wedded bliss is neither wedded nor bliss. Discuss.”

Dick Clark takes on Regis Philbin in “Smackdown of the Dorian Grays:” Committed to appear on ABC’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve special for the first time since his stroke last December, 76-year-old Clark will face off against 74-year-old Philbin, who will headline FOX’s show after filling in for Clark last year. Third wheel in the mix, NBC’s New Year’s Eve host Carson “Does he still have a show?” Daly admitted for the record that even his father would probably be watching the cage match between Clark and Philbin.

Will Smith identity thief sent to prison. Carlos Lomax was arrested after opening 14 credit card accounts at Pittsburgh-area stores using the legal name of the “Men In Black” star. Lomax was apparently tripped up when a clever sales clerk questioned his Pittsburgh address, remembering that the Fresh Prince had moved from Pennsylvania to Bel-Air many, many years ago.

Actors, Actresses, Gossip, News, TV

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