Category: TCA Press Tour (Page 50 of 56)

TCA Press Tour: Hey, ho, “Jericho”!

July 19, 2007 /

First things first: when we arrived at the “Jericho” panel, we were greeted with a bag on our chair from NutsOnline, including a bag of nuts and a t-shirt which proudly trumpeted the company’s role in saving “Jericho.” How cool is that? God bless those guys for their dedication…

* No-one on the panel – producer Carol Barbee and cast members Skeet Ulrich, Lennie James, and Ashley Scott – had any reason to believe the show would return. Even when the “nuts” campaign began, they really only had the slightest inkling of hope that it might work.

* The producers pitched the plot of the second season to the network, and CBS was quite happy with it. It originally was going to take place in Jericho, Cheyenne, and New York, which would have been revealed to have been survived, but things are being switched up a little bit now. They’re burning through ideas more quickly and having to compress the action more than they otherwise might have, since they’ve only got a 7-episode commitment at the moment, but they’re happy with how things are progressing.

* Skeet was beside himself with the news of the reprieve, calling as many of the cast members personally as possible to let them know about the show’s having been saved. “I love giving people shocking news,” he said, with a grin.

* The season opener will be a “big tent,” to help people understand the world of the series if they’ve never seen it before, but time will have passed since the season finale, so it’ll be new information for everyone, old and new viewers alike. But don’t worry: the big cliffhanger will be paid off. You’ll get the scoop on what happened with the battle, and then it’ll time-jump ahead.

* It was always the plan that Johnston Green would die, because his arc was tied directly to Jake’s arc, for the son to replace the father. It maybe happened sooner than had originally been planned, but when the season end came around, the opportunity arose, and the producers took it.

* Production schedule: they will start shooting this Monday, and, all things being equal, they’ll be finished shooting all 7 episodes by end of September.

* Random observation from me: fucking hell, I had no idea that the dude who plays Robert Hawkins was British!

* At the end of Season 1, right before the battle, Stanley said he was going to ask Mimi to marry him; it doesn’t exactly go down quite as easily as all that, but they do end up engaged, which is the big personal story of the new season. The bigger story, however, is that Hawkins and Jake will go on a mission to save the world. (Oh, no, not again!)

* The new government from Cheyenne has come in to stop the battle between Jericho and New Bern and are helping Jericho to rebuild, getting them their water and electricity back. There are revenge killings going on between the two cities, however, as lingering vestiges from the battle.

* It’s Barbee’s sincerest hope that everyone in the cast will be back. Titus Welliver, however, they wanted back, but scheduling prevented that; as a result, there’ll be another character coming in to fill the void left by Col. Robert Hoffman. Sprague Grayden will definitely be back as Heather. The budget was cut, says Barbee, but they’re trying to do their best to be creative in order to still deliver a quality product. Will Gerald McRaney be back in a flashback? “We’ll see,” says Barbee. “We loved him. But, right now, it’s not planned for these 7 episodes. We’ve pretty well got those laid out already.”

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Gossip, Jericho, News, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Dramas

TCA Press Tour: Point of Clarification

July 19, 2007 /

If you’ve noticed that my postings have slowed down a little since yesterday, it’s not for lack of panels; it’s because I unintentionally committed a TCA faux pas in my including of lengthy transcript excerpts. In fact, if you’ve noticed the slowing-down of postings, you’ve probably also noticed that I’ve been working my way backwards and trying to repair my damaged reputation. Lord knows I’m not out to cause a rift this early in my membership! So, anyway, stay tuned for continuing coverage; it’ll just be in a slightly different format!

Oh, and don’t worry: I’m gonna try and cover the “Jericho” panel as close to live as possible!

External Entertainment, External TV, TCA Press Tour, TV

TCA Press Tour: Live from Los Angeles, it’s “Saturday Night”!

July 18, 2007 /

The “Saturday Night Live” panel was a pleasant enough panel, but it’s funny how you can fill a stage with hilarious people and have the laughs be relatively sporadic. Then again, I guess that’s been a problem that’s plagued “SNL” for years, hasn’t it?

* A reporter had been quizzing Andy Samberg, and her second question was, “How do you feel about being in the hot new male demo, with guys like Seth Rogen?” Before Andy could answer, however, Fred Armisen piped up and acted as though he’d been asked the question, saying, “It’s weird, because…I mean, I’m just a person, you know?” It was a beautiful moment of comedic timing.

* Kristen Wiig on the development of the “Couple of Assholes” sketch: “It was a 5 a.m. sketch that we started writing very late at night, and we were both tired. And I know Jason and I have said this before. We just were chewing gum literally to stay awake, and I was in kind of a bad mood because I wanted to go home. So, yeah, but — just the characters just sort of came out of joking around and just wanting to write those kind of people.”

* Christopher Walken as a possible host next season? Lorne Michaels says he’s “very much on the list. He works all the time, but whenever he’s available, we want him.”

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

TCA Press Tour: Thursday = Comedy

July 18, 2007 /

One of the greatest mysteries amongst the critics here at the TCA Press Tour is why NBC’s completely kick-ass Thursday night comedy line-up – “My Name Is Earl,” “The Office,” “Scrubs,” and “30 Rock” – isn’t one of the highest-rated line-ups on any network. I mean, seriously, that’s about as solid a two-hour block as has come around in years; every single one of those four shows is must-see TV for me, so it’s nice to know that Bill Lawrence, producer of “Scrubs,” agrees with me.

“Zach flew here from New York, and I came here all the way from my house, because I could not be more proud than to be up here with these four shows,” said Lawrence. “Everybody’s saying comedy sucks right now. These are three other comedies that I actually watch regularly. So screw the ratings, man, and I’ll have it out with you outside afterwards.”

Here are a few more revelations from NBC’s Thursday night comedy line-up:

* What lessons did Tina Fey walk away with after surviving her freshman season at “30 Rock”? “I think we learned a lot about the tone of the show throughout the year and whether — you know, we want the characters to be believable enough that you still care about them but still be able to do crazy jokes with them. So I think we learned that as the year went. And think we, this year, are going to try to maybe — try to maybe do a little less, because the shows were so dense that sometimes we worried that it was almost going by too quickly for the audience. So we’re hoping to let things breathe a little bit.”

* The ever-sarcastic Lawrence got a big laugh when he said of his show’s upcoming final season, “I think this is the year that ‘Scrubs’ really becomes a big hit. We had always kind of geared our plan towards peaking in the seventh year. And now’s when we really roll out the promotional stops. You’re not going to believe some of the things we’ll be doing!”

* Braff, however, was decidedly less sarcastic when speaking of his last year as J.D.: “I think there’s something really cool about knowing it’s your last season. I mean, so many times, you know, by the time you get to the seventh season or the last, what could be the last season, you don’t know, and there’s something really invigorating about going, ‘All right. We’ve got 18 more.’ I think it’s really going to excite the crew and the cast. We’ve had almost the exact same entire crew for the entire run of the show, and you know, it’s cheesy to say, but it is a total family because we have grown up with these people essentially. I think to go in for the final 18 with knowing it’s we’re going out with a bang, we’re going out with the way Bill wants to end the show, I think, I’m really, really excited to do it.”

* Greg Garcia on the change in Earl on “My Name Is Earl”: “We were always worried about him changing too fast, the character, and so we tried to spoon it out a little at a time. But knowing where we were going to end last season with him going to prison, we weren’t afraid to go ahead and start giving him a lot of things that he wanted in life, and we did a little, you know, arc of three or four at the end where he actually started getting his life together. And the whole time, we knew we were going to take it all away from him and send him to prison, so that was kind of by design.”

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Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Interviews, My Name Is Earl, News, TCA Press Tour, The Office, TV, TV Comedies

TCA Press Tour: That’s “Life”

July 18, 2007 /

I gotta tell ya, I’m not exactly enamored of this new show, “Life.” There’s definitely an interesting concept at hand: cop gets thrown into jail for a crime he didn’t commit, gets cleared and earns a tidy settlement sum from the department as a result, then returns to the force, where he has to play catch-up with technology while trying to figure who actually did the crime for which he’d been accused. My problem with it is that the lead character is walking that line between eccentric and obnoxious, and he’s constantly teetering. I was quite glad, then, when someone else made the observation to the cast and creators…

…and, even more so, I was glad that the show’s creator, Rand Ravich, was aware of the concern.

“Well, we are aware of that,” he admitted. “There are some quirky shows and certain quirky characters. I don’t like to think of them as quirky. I think he’s been through an experience that has made him different. I read this great movie story about when the astronauts came back from the moon, everything was different about the world, everything they saw, everything they touched, everything they tasted. It was a completely unique experience that only they could touch, and that’s how I think of the Charlie Crews character. He’s been through something so unique that he experiences the world in a completely different way, but it is relatable. I want to feel when I watch him that if I had come through this, I would like to be able to react like he’s reacting. I would be able to understand what he’s understanding and all of the traits, as opposed to being quirks, are based in relatable characteristics.”

* Star Damian Lewis, who’s not unfamiliar with replacing his English accent with an American one (he utilized the latter when he starred in HBO’s “Band of Brothers”), says it’s pretty easy to “go American,” as it were. “I like to have a couple of dialect lessons just before I start each show, but after that, I find it’s very easy. I just stay in it. I feel confident. I stay in my American accent when I’m surrounded by American people, and it’s easier for me to do that then go back and forth from English to American…” At this moment, Lewis switched back to his native accent and closed, “So, no. I find it pretty easy.” (Co-star Adam Arkin offered mock awe at the transition, saying, “I have to say that was absolutely extraordinary.”)

* Why did Lewis finally decide the time was right to make the commitment to do an American TV series? “I love this script. It always starts with the script. I met Rand, find him to be an intelligent, witty, talented, intensely annoying individual. And I trust the scripts will remain that way, will continue in that vein. I think he and Far have a great partnership going. I think it really can be an extremely interesting series. I think you can do things in longform that you often can’t do or cannot do at all in two hours of feature-film making. And I read a lot of unbelievably crappy film scripts. So it was just nice to get a decent script.” And why are there a lot of Brits over here? “Because you keep asking us. Thank you very much.”

* When someone suggested that, with all the sci-fi shows on the various networks this season, Lewis might need a power other than to change accents at will, Ravich said, “He does fly.” Arkin added, “But only five feet up. We’re keeping it gritty. Real.”

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

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