Category: TCA Press Tour (Page 49 of 56)

TCA Press Tour: You know who needs his own talk show? The head of security from “The Jerry Springer Show.”

July 19, 2007 /

Okay, maybe Steve Wilkos doesn’t need his own show. But despite the inevitable skepticism that will result from viewers who cannot and will not disassociate Wilkos from his former employer, the brief look we got at “The Steve Wilkos Show” found a show much more rooted in the territory of folks like Montel Williams or Maury Povich. (Okay, maybe I should specify “early Maury Povich”; that guy’s practically another Springer these days.) Wilkos, a former Marine and a longtime veteran of the Chicago Police Department, doesn’t appear to be going for sensationalism; he seriously comes across as a guy who just wants to use his public forum to help people, and it’s hard not to root for someone with such a goal.

Mind you, it was a little disconcerting that the panel seemed to be led much more by the show’s executive producer, Richard Dominick, than by Wilkos himself. Once in awhile, though, Wilkos managed to get a word in edgewise…and, perhaps inevitably, much of that time was spent defining the considerable differences between himself and the show he’s just left.

“There are no similarities,” stated Wilkos, definitively. “You know, ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ was a crazy circus and, believe me, I’m going to miss working on that show because for 14 years…you know, I never considered it work. I went, and I had a great time, and I had fun with the guys. It was a lot of fun. But this is…when you are a policeman, you have to take it more seriously. And this show is dealing with people that are coming to me, calling the show, and asking for help. And we are going to try to help these people.”

But surely people will look at you and say, “Hey, it’s that dude from ‘The Jerry Springer Show,'” yes…?

“Hey, you know what? People are going to say that,” admits Wilkos. “People are going to do that. But (once) they tune in and they start watching my show, then they’ll get it. And some people have gotten it. They’ve seen, when I hosted ‘The Jerry Springer Show,’ especially the last 20 or 30 that I hosted, we didn’t do the typical Springer show. Like, we did this show on a guy where he was abusing his wife, the girl living with the guy in the van. And there was actually a really great
response, where people were like, ‘Wow, can you help me?’ So I think doing the show going forward, when people are always going to associate with me with Springer, which is fine with me, because I love Jerry and I loved working on his show. But my show is not ‘The Jerry Springer Show.’ It’s going to be completely different.”

External Entertainment, External TV, Interviews, News, TCA Press Tour, TV

TCA Press Tour: I am so totally pro-“Bionic Woman”

July 19, 2007 /

I know, you’re skeptical. You’re thinking, “It’s the freaking Bionic Woman! How good can it be?” It can be very good, my friend. It’s a dark re-invention of the franchise, and – like “Battlestar: Galactica,” it’s a re-invention so dramatic that, if my hazy memory of the original series serves me well, the only thing that’s made the transition from old series to new is the name of the lead character: Jamie Sommers, played by British actress Michelle Ryan. (Ryan also appears in BBC America’s new series, “Jekyll,” as it happens.)

Of course, this begs the question, “Why bother to re-make the series at all? Why not just create a brand new series that’s about a woman who gets bionic parts?” Accusations of the producers just trying to cash in on the vague recollections of children of the ’70s have been flying, but they swear that’s not the case. Then again, though, they don’t really do much to dispel the concept, either.

I’m sure the panel saw it coming that the reporters would eventually start throwing questions at them about Isaiah Washington’s upcoming stint on the show; if so, they weren’t disappointed. First, however, they had to get past the concerns that there was some ominous reason for Katee Sackhoff’s absence from the panel, possibly connected to the fact that doesn’t actually have a deal set yet. Smilovic calmed them down pretty quickly on that front, though, by stating matter-of-factly that “Katee is on the show. I’m not going to go into the specific natures of the deals. She’s on the show, and she’s not here today because of a scheduling conflict; that’s the only reason she’s not here today.”

The second half of the conference, however, was almost entirely dedicated to queries about Washington’s appearance and how much re-writing of the role – which existed before it was ever pitched to him – was required to fit him into it (the only change is that the character was originally sketched out to be around for an indefinite period of time; now, he has a definitive exit) and if casting Washington is an insult to the gay community. (Said producer Jason Smilovic, “Absolutely not. We embrace the gay community, we are hoping that they are going to watch the show, and we are in no way making any judgments or statements or assignations about what was said or what was done.”)

Is Isaiah Washington really worth all this discussion? I think the situation is abundantly clear: the guy’s great in front of the camera, but, when he’s off-camera, he’s got a nasty case of foot-in-mouth disease. So just get him to shut the hell up and stick to acting.

Anyway, Washington or no Washington, “Bionic Woman” looks awesome to me. It’s dark, it’s action-packed, and it has Miguel Ferrer in it. (Albert Rosenfeld rules!)

My only concern is that it was revealed that Jamie’s sister is being completely retooled from what we saw in the pilot; once, she was deaf, but now she’s not. She’s also now got a background in computer hacking. On the whole, I think the deaf angle was far more interesting. Plus, count on a lot of really annoyed deaf people wanting to know why the character was changed…

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Interviews, News, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Action

TCA Press Tour: They call him…Tin Man.

July 19, 2007 /

The idea of updating L. Frank Baum’s classic “The Wizard of Oz” isn’t exactly a new one. Since the hard-to-top version with Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr…oh, hell, you know who’s in it. Anyway, point being, there have been several attempts at re-doing it, but most of them have fallen flat. I will say that “Tin Man,” Sci-Fi’s take on the story, has a few elements that make me cringe – Dorothy Gale (Zooey Deschanel) is referred to as D.G., and the land of Oz is constantly referred to as “the O.Z.” (ugh!) – but, damn, it sure looks awesome…and the fact that the cast includes the aforementioned Ms. Deschanel as well as Alan Cumming, Richard Dreyfuss, and others doesn’t hurt any, either.

(Don’t bother looking for Cumming and Dreyfuss; the latter apparently had a scheduling conflict, and the former, while represented, actually appeared via video, in a satellite link-up.)

The writers of “Tin Man,” Craig Van Sickle and Steven Long Mitchell, tried to deflect the references to the musical “Wicked” that several reporters wanted to throw at them, but they seemed legitimately enthusiastic about their script.

“For us, it was a labor of love,” said Van Sickle, “because the books were such a big part of our childhood. When SCI FI said, ‘Go, give it a shot, and let your imaginations run wild,’ we did, and it was just — I mean, it was just a labor of love. I mean, it was something we have always dreamed of doing.” Added Mitchell, “Since the book itself is such a classic, it allows itself to be re-interpreted or re-invented, and I think that we knew when we were attempting this that we were going to be compared to the original book and any other interpretations, but our feeling was the source material was so strong, the iconic nature of all those characters were so strong that we could bring it to a whole new generation in a new way, hopefully.”

There’s definitely been a considerable amount of re-envisioning of characters. In this case, the Tin Man is completely human; he’s so called because he’s a policeman…with a tin badge. Says Neal McDonough, who plays the character, “He was a sheriff in the outer zone, and I was then captured and put into this pod for eight years and watched my wife and son be murdered in front of me through this hologram for eight years. And that was the torture that I was put through. And then I come out of it, and I’m going to seek revenge. My character in particular — well, all of us, actually. We’re all very, very human…and very real.”

Yeah, but how will it work with such a dramatic re-imagination? Time will tell. (It doesn’t air ’til Decemember.)

Let’s close with the best throwaway line from the conference: one of the reporters asked Deschanel if there were any similarities between D.G. and her next role, Janis Joplin, and while Deschanel couldn’t imagine there were any, her co-star Raoul Trujillo quipped, “They’re both looking for the poppy fields.”

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Interviews, News, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Action

TCA Press Tour: James Woods is my new motherf***ing hero

July 19, 2007 /

I’ll tackle the “Shark” panel in greater detail later, but I had to share these two moments of James-Woods-ian brilliance with you:

1) When one of the reporters bemoaned the panel – Woods, his co-star Jeri Ryan, and producer / creator Ian Biederman – for not giving them anything that made for good copy, Woods stepped up to bat. “Okay, well, I honestly hate these mother fuckers, but I’m getting paid so, you know, what am I going to do. That fucking Jeri Ryan bitch. She shows up in a fucking Borg suit and says, “Hey, remember me when I was hot?” One more fucking time and I’m done!” At this point, he finally gave in to laughter, saying, “Okay, I think we’re done now.”

2) In the last moments of the panel, Woods tackled the issue of his character’s questionable moral decision in the season finale, when he knowingly sent a man to prison for a crime he didn’t commit because he knew that he that he was guilty of other crimes. As it happens, Woods didn’t really agree with Biederman’s decision to have Sebastian Stark do what he did. “I don’t believe in vigilante justice,” he said…then, after a moment, added, “Except if I were pissed off about something. Then I would believe in it. I mean, you know, I get lousy customer support, I want to get involved in a workplace killing.”

At this point, Woods began to mime speaking into a phone. “‘Where in India are you, mother fucker? Where exactly in Sumatra are you, you fucker?'”

A beat.

“Oh, boy, that wasn’t politically correct,” said Woods. “I wouldn’t want to see that get out.”

Right. That would explain why he then proceeded to make the international hand signal for jacking off…and also why tried to give the publicists at CBS a heart attack with his next words:

“Hey, Isaiah Washington’s back. So that’s good.” With a wicked grin, Woods continued. “Let’s have some controversy. I’m so tempted. I’m so tempted to say it, but I’m not…”

The reporters, of course, were egging him on, even as Biederman was nervously suggesting, “Let’s wait ’til Season 4, can we?”

In the end, Woods demurred. “I’m sure we could do it and kid around and have a good time,” he said, “but, no, somebody would take it the wrong way. All the CBS people back there, they’re shitting themselves right now.”

And with that, “Shark” publicist Barbara Abseck got the biggest laugh of the panel: “Sooooooo…this concludes our session.”

Yeah, but what a way to go…

Actors, External Entertainment, External TV, Gossip, Interviews, News, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Dramas

TCA Press Tour: Law & Order & stuff

July 19, 2007 /

If you haven’t heard already, when NBC’s fall season begins, there will only be two “Law & Order” series still on the network: the original and “L&O: Special Victims Unit.” But don’t cry for “L&O: Criminal Intent” just yet: the show will continue with new episodes on the USA Network, which is also part of the NBC-Universal family.

“L&O” creator Dick Wolf showed up with a statement in hand to clarify how the network would handle it if Senator Fred Thompson ended up making a run for the White House (long story short: don’t count on seeing D.A. Arthur Branch show up on any episodes during the campaign…and that goes for re-runs, too), but the majority of his time was spent answering questions about whether or not the original “Law & Order” would beat “Gunsmoke” for the longest-running drama in television history.

“I sure hope so,” admits Wolf. “I think that the show is going through one of its major renovations of the past 10 years. Jeremy (Sisto) is joining the cast. I think it was this year’s cast, in a sense, (but) I’m pleased to announce that Linus Roache will also be joining as the new prosecutor. So the show has a very different look than it had two years ago. I think that Sam (Waterston) is going to be a terrific DA, but if you look at a cast that, as I said, two seasons ago had Sam as the chief prosecutor, Fred as the DA, and Dennis Farina as essentially the lead cop and you look at the way it’s going to look this year, that is a very, very large shift and also a very deliberate shift to hopefully reignite or further penetrate a younger demo. The show has been skewing older, and we would love it to skew a little bit younger.”

Sisto and Roache, together again? Two “Kidnapped” alumni on “Law & Order”…? “I thought ‘Kidnapped’ was an incredibly well produced show,” says Wolf. “Shows that may not have necessarily worked are very rarely the fault of the actors.” There’s not much that can be said about Roache’s character – he was only signed right before Wolf made the announcement, apparently – but Sisto at least acknowledged that his “L&O” character is completely different from his role on “Kidnapped.”

Continue reading »

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Gossip, Interviews, News, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Dramas

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Premium Hollywood

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑