Category: TCA Press Tour (Page 41 of 56)

TCA Press Tour, Day 1: BBC America

July 9, 2008 /

When the BBC America panels began, we were pleasantly surprised to be blessed with a heretofore-unmentioned appearance by Ted Koppel, who has joined the BBC World News America team. Granted, Koppel’s appearance was via satellite, and it only lasted for a few minutes (he had to get back to other activities which were, we can reasonably presume, far more important than talking to a bunch of lousy TV critics), but let it be said that the man left an impression one simple exchange…

Reporter: How did all this come about for you? How did you get involved with these guys?
Ted Koppel: Well, I was off in a sleazy back alley, buying pornographic magazines…

And here I thought I couldn’t respect a newsman more than Brian Williams, who was heard to say during last year’s tour how such-and-such “really made my sphincter tighten.” But I think I’ve gotta give the title to Koppel now. (The reporter who asked the question thanked him for that quote, by the way…as well she should have.)

But, really, you have to like a guy like Koppel, anyway, if only because he’s not afraid to speak his mind, an opportunity he was given on a silver platter when he was asked why American viewers were being denied the kind of news coverage being provided by BBC America.

“Well, as you all very well know, that’s the subject of a very long discussion,” he admitted, “but the simple answer is economics. As there have been more and more outlets and the competition has become greater and the audiences have
become smaller and the amount of money that news divisions are making still has to remain high, there’s been a tendency to focus more on that demographic that brings in the largest amount of advertising dollars, and that’s the young demographic…and for reasons I never quite understood, the assumption is that young people don’t care about overseas news. And the other half of the answer is that the bean counters decided that one way to save money for the news divisions was to close down these very expensive foreign bureaus which are not necessarily on the air every day. And so, where in my heyday as a foreign correspondent, ABC, for example, may have had 30 or 35 correspondents, now they’ve got maybe five or six. And that’s the same with NBC and the same at CBS. There are just far fewer correspondents, far fewer bureaus, and that’s the one area in which the BBC remains preeminent.”

Preach it, Ted. Oh, and if you’re wondering, Koppel still considers the Discovery Channel to be his primary employer these days…but given how enthusiastic he sounds about working for BBC America, I’m left wondering how long that will prove to be the case.

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Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, News, TCA Blog 2008, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

TCA Press Tour, Day 1: HDNet

July 9, 2008 /

If you’re not familiar with HDNet, it’s time for you to get informed. Mark Cuban, chairman of HDNet (not to mention owner of the Dallas Mavericks), came out and gave the assembled audience a brief summary of the network’s “Sneak Preview” program and Ultra Video On Demand program, which provides a unique opportunity for indie films to be seen both theatrically and on cable simultaneously.

“We’re particularly proud of this not only because of the great movies that we’re showing and the opportunity to really take on independent film and create a home for them when the market for independent film is so bad,” said Cuban, “but more importantly because it’s unique. We also own Magnolia Pictures Distribution and Landmark Theatres, (which) puts us in a very unique position. We’re the only organization that can do this, and the reason is that the big movie chains, AMC and Regal, will not play a movie once it’s appeared on TV or once it’s appeared on a cable channel of any sort. So despite the fact that people want to be able to see movies where they want them, when they want them, how they want them, the big chains aren’t going along with it, but Landmark Theatres and Magnolia and HDNet Movies are.”

HDNET’s big-ticket flick at the moment is “Humboldt County,” co-directed by Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs and starring Fairuza Balk, Brad Dourif, Madison Davenport, Francis Conroy, and – perhaps most awesomely – Peter Bogdanovich as Professor Hadley. IMDb’s description of the film reads thusly: “A disillusioned medical student is stranded for a summer in a remote community of counterculture pot farmers, the last place in the world he imagined he would discover himself.”

Said Grodsky, “Danny and I have long been influenced by our favorite era of filmmaking, which is Hollywood filmmaking from the ’70s, so for us to be able to work with Peter, whose films we have long admired was, A) sort of a dream come true, and B), a great link for us to have to the era of filmmaking and the era that we really tried to emulate in terms of tone of making a film.”

“And,” added Bogdanovich, “they paid us in pot. I have no memory of the entire thing.” He was probably just kidding…but I’m pretty sure I saw him wink when he said it.

Well, with that being the case, let’s jump back to Cuban, who’s clearly quite happy about the way HDNet’s plans have been working out, based on the fact that their film “Flawless,” which starred Michael Caine and Demi Moore, did more than a million at the box office but actually did more than that via Ultra VOD. Nowadays, an Ultra VOD film has the potential to pull even bigger numbers.

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

TCA Press Tour, Day 1: Hallmark Channel

July 9, 2008 /

You’ve got to love David Kenin, the Hallmark Channel’s Executive VP of Programming. Like his boss, Henry Schleiff (Hallmark’s President and CEO), who emceed the network’s panel last year and introduced their new dog mascot, Herschel, by saying, “Herschel is seven years old…which, even in dog years, would bring our demographic down,” Kenin had his own self-deprecating wit ready to roll for the crowd.

“You will not see on our channel ‘Confessions of a Call Girl’ or ‘Bachelor Threesomes,’ said Kenin. “But I have TiVo, so I’m okay on that.”

What’s not to like about the Hallmark Channel? Whether you watch the network personally or not, they’re very much a name that you recognize and a place that you know you can go to get a certain kind of entertainment. Perhaps more importantly, though, they’re keeping a lot of actors working who might not otherwise be getting work…but let me clarify that, because it sounds like an insult, but it isn’t intended as one. I think we can all agree that prime-time broadcast television is a virtual wasteland when it comes to providing programming for any demographic over the age of the mid-40s, and drawing a line at that particular spot in the sand is probably pushing it. There have been countless jokes over the years about shows like “Matlock,” “Diagnosis Murder,” and “Murder She Wrote” and how they cater so specifically to an older, gray-haired crowd, but the older you get, the more you begin to realize that the familiar faces from your own era are being shuttled off the broadcast networks and onto cable. (The best possible proof of this: Molly Ringwald is playing the mom of a pregnant teenager on an ABC Family Channel series.) So when you look at the Hallmark Channel and you see that they’re providing clean, wholesome entertainment that makes our parents and grandparents happy and provides work for the actors of their generation that have been demographically driven off ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and The CW, what else is there to do but applaud their efforts?

Here are some programming highlights that should help you keep Hallmark under consideration in the future weeks and months to come…

* “Dear Prudence,” where Jane Seymour plays a Martha-Stewart-styled advice columnist who helps to solve a murder. (“She’s not supposed to be solving murders,” explained Seymour. “She just happens to stumble across one that needs to be solved and manages to do so.”) It’s perhaps no surprise that the first question asked of Ms. Seymour was not about her new movie but, rather, about the one and only “Dr. Quinn.” Okay, fair enough, the show’s in reruns on Hallmark, so it wasn’t so out of line to wonder if the network might consider doing a new “Dr. Quinn” movie. It’s probably not going to happen, though. “Les Moonves (President and CEO of CBS) does not want to make any more ‘Dr. Quinn”s,” she said. ” But I have all the clothes, (so), you know, Prudence could pretend to be Dr. Quinn. And, you know, I think Sully is available…” Nice try, Jane. But, hey, it could happen: Hallmark is viewing this movie as having serious franchise potential, and given Seymour’s fanbase, there’s every reason to believe that they’re right.

* “For the Love of Grace,” a film about the relationship between a firefighter and a woman he saves, starring Chandra West (“John from Cincinnati”), Corbin Bernsen (“Psych”), and Mark Consuelos (“Husband for Hire”). And if you thought a room full of TV critics was going to miss a chance to quiz a former “John from Cincinnati” cast member on just what the hell that show was about, you’re sorely mistaken. “God, people ask me that all the time,” said West, “and I think the only person truly who can respond to what the show is about is David Milch, of course. But you know what? I think, to put a fine point on it, the short answer is no.” This line of questioning eventually led to a discussion about how Milch is an incredible speaker, to the point where you may have no idea what he’s talking about but you still believe him unequivocally. “I spent New Year’s 2000 with him,” admitted Bersen, “and he convinced me that the world was coming to an end in the following week. New Year’s Eve 2000 celebrations everywhere, and this man had me in a corner with my wife completely freaked out that we had one week left to live on this planet…and I believed it.” With testimonials like that, is it any wonder that “John from Cincinnati” was as weird as it was?

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

TCA Press Tour, Day 1: TV One

July 9, 2008 /

There’s a good side and a bad side to being the network that starts off the TCA Press Tour. The good is that you’re catching the TV critics in your audience at their absolute freshest, but the bad is that that audience is almost certainly going to be the smallest of the tour, since not all of the critics have even arrived yet and many of the ones who have arrived simply don’t care enough to attend. But even though I’m not personally part of TV One’s primary demographic – Johnathan Rodgers, President and CEO of TV One, dropped the stat in his opening remarks that 93 percent of the network’s viewership is African-Americans – I didn’t fly from Virginia to L.A. for nothing, you know. And, besides, just because I’m not the droid they’re looking for doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a certain amount of the programming they have to offer.

Take “Murder in Black and White,” for instance.

Hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton (who was originally scheduled to be in attendance but bowed out in order to be near his longtime friend Rev. Timothy Wright, who is recovering from injuries sustained as a result of a recent car accident), “Murder in Black and White” is a series of four one-hour documentary specials which were spearheaded by filmmaker Keith Beauchamp (“The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till”) and filmed in cooperation with the FBI in an attempt to help solve civil rights murders from the 1940s and the 1950s. I haven’t seen a full-length episode yet, but I was thoroughly impressed by the clip that was shown during the panel, which was, appropriately enough, filmed in black and white. The story would be horrifyingly gripping either way, given that it’s about Willie Edwards, a 24-year-old truck driver, husband, and father of two children who was forced by Ku Klux Klan members to jump off a bridge 50 feet high, but the starkness of the black and white film most certainly adds to the effect.

Beauchamp was in attendance for the panel, and he defended the arguably sensational nature of the re-enactments contained within the specials.

“After you see the documentary itself,” he said, “you will find that I have a way of telling stories. I like to tell the stories from the people who were there, who actually lived this atrocity. And the most important thing is for us to make these victims human. So often, we hear about these murders that occurred throughout the Civil Rights era, and you think it’s just a murder and we move on with our lives. But we have to understand that these people were also human beings as well. So using a reenactment, I really wanted to use the tools of this generation to capture the tension of this generation, and the way to do that is by visuals. Filmmaking to me is a new way of activism. No more should we rely on our leadership and our community to talk about these atrocities and bring certain issues forward. Nothing hits you more than a visual.”

Actually, facts do a pretty good job of smacking you in the face, too, as proven by Rodgers’ initial introduction of the panel, when he mentioned that the individuals who had been arrested for Edwards’ murder had their charges dismissed because “merely forcing a person to jump from a bridge does not naturally and probably lead to the death of such person.”

Though “Murder in Black and White” may be rough to watch, I’m confident that Beauchamp’s dedication to this project will make it a must see.

There’s another upcoming series on TV One that has caught my attention as well: “Unsung,” described by Rodgers as chronicling African-American music artists who deserved to earn superstar status but never made it. I don’t know that I necessarily agree with all of their choices (the first four programs will focus on Donny Hathaway, Phyllis Hyman, the DeBarge family, and the Clark Sisters), but the premise is sufficiently interesting for me to be curious about how the program will turn out.

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

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends: The TCA Press Tour

July 8, 2008 /

Here I am in L.A., sitting in my first panel of the Television Critics Association press tour for Summer 2008, and, man oh man, it’s been a long wait for me to get back to one of these things.

I’d had every intention of attending the Winter 2007 tour, but as you may recall, the Writer’s Strike put the kabosh on that event…and with the battle between the SGA (Screen Actors Guild) and their brethren in AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), it looked for a while like this tour might not happen, either. Heck, it’s still not impossible that this thing could stop dead in its tracks if it turns out that the members of AFTRA haven’t accepted the contract offered to them by the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers), as you can read about here. But I think the general presumption is that AFTRA will accept the contract, and if they do, then it’s far less likely that the SGA will decide to strike.

There are a lot of really great panels this time around, and I look forward to bringing you info about just about every single one of them, so stay tuned!

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

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