Two Tivos To Paradise 12.04.09

Posted by Al Norton on 12.04.2009

Simon Cowell goes to PPV, a review of Men of a Certain Age, Lie to Me hosts a reunion of The Shield, Sons of Anarchy gets a new ratings high & a third season, awards season begins, Syfy greenlights a new Steven King series, raves for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert, the TV Pick of the Week, tons of news + notes and more, all in the latest edition of Al Norton's Two Tivos To Paradise.

Hello Friends. Hope everyone survived Black Friday and Cyber Monday, coming away with some good deals. I got most of my holiday shopping done over the weekend although I was not thrilled when Mrs. TiVo bought herself the new Anne Rice book as it was en route to me from Amazon.

The interviews keep coming fast and furious; use the links below to find my chat with Margaret Colin (Gossip Girl) that ran on Monday as well as a one-on-one with Caterina Scorsone (the lead in Syfy's new mini-series Alice, which is running on the site tomorrow). Next Monday will find my conversation with Emmy winner Andre Braugher going live on 411mania.com.

I know this has been going around for a while but just in case you missed it…



Congratulations to Will Dailey, the official singer/songwriter of Two Tivos To Paradise, for being named Singer/Songwriter of the year at this week's Boston Music Awards. You can get updates on his music, find out when he is coming to your town, and read our on-going chats at www.willdailey.com.

I mentioned recently that Katee Sackhoff and Regina King were my choices for the new Charlie's Angels that ABC is working on and I want to add Natalie Morales as my third, with Mark Sheppard as Bosley. I would be all over that show, which would have three ass-kicking leads who know what to do with a good script.

In the twilight glow I see her blue eyes crying in the news.

Until You've Been Beside A Man You Don't Know What He Wants, You Don't Know If He Cries At Night, You Don't Know If He Don't
Men of a Certain Age, a new dramedy from TNT that marks Ray Romano's return to series television, makes its debut Monday at 10 pm following a new episode of The Closer. Created by Romano and Mike Royce, who worked together on Everybody Loves Raymond, the show tells the story of three male friends dealing with the issues that come with hitting mid-life. Scott Bakula and Andre Braugher co-star, and the pilot is directed by multiple Emmy winner Scott Winant.

How much you like Men will be greatly determined by your expectations going in; this is not a straight comedy by any stretch of the imagination so lets get that straight right now. Yes, the show does generate some genuine laughter but its focus is real life so frequently those laughs are bitter sweet, or even the "so you don't cry" variety. Something else to keep in mind is that the pilot is actually the weakest of the first three episodes, so if you are even remotely interested you should keep watching.

What does Men having going for it? First of all, it's just nice to see a show that gives an honest look at the real issues men in their 40's face. These guys aren't cops tracking murderers or…well, frankly, that's most of the male characters in prime time right now…These are a car salesman, a small business owner, and a struggling actor, all trying to find their way in the world while wondering what happened to those plans they had for how their lives would go. Romano in particular excels at conveying his character's (Joe) befuddlement at how he ended up where he is; Joe is nothing like Ray Barrone and Romano deserves major credit for not playing it safe.

The show's main selling point is Braugher, who creates a compelling and realistic family man in Owen that anyone who works in sales will immediately relate to. Gone from his performance is the confidence and arrogance that made his Frank Pembleton one of the best TV characters of the last 20 years, replaced by a noticeable paunch and an outlook on life that is slowly but surely shifting from pragmatism to cynicism. The third episode in particular gives him a huge spotlight as he deals with trying to improve his standing at work, selling cars at a dealership his Dad owns. Don't be surprised to see Braugher up on stage accepting a Best Supporting Actor award at the Emmys next September.

Bakula's is the least drawn of the three leads but it kind of makes sense because his Terry seems to have the least idea of who he is. Much like Terry, Bakula gets by on charm and a wry smile.

The show is at its best when the three leads are together, usually on an early morning hike or meeting at a diner for lunch. The digs they throw at each other as well as the support that is offered up ring true and their friendship is utterly believable. Also giving the show a level of authenticity is the relationship between Braugher's Owen and his wife, played by Lisa Gay Hamilton; the stress they are under as a married couple with children will be recognized by a large portion of the viewing audience, as will the way they communicate with each other.

As I mentioned, the pilot is the weakest of the first three episodes of Men, mostly because a subplot about Joe running over an animal in the road really doesn't work in any way, shape, or form. Stick with Men of a Certain Age though and the rewards will be great.

TNT is being very smart by using new episodes of The Closer, their best and top rated series, as a lead-in to Men for the next three weeks. Hopefully that will allow them to build an audience worthy of a show that is looking to take on such real life issues as I'd like network programmers to get the message that we don't need another forensic drama as much as we need to see more people like us on television.

Well I Bet I'm Gonna Be A Big Star, Might Win An Oscar, You Can Never Tell
Simon Cowell announced plans to bring his hit British TV series The X Factor to the internet via pay-per-view, airing two shows a week from Las Vegas. The major hit has aired in England for four seasons and there are spinoff's in 19 different countries. Cowell told British GQ that he has teamed up with billionaire Phillip Green on the project and they are in negotiations with a major Las Vegas hotel and casino that would be the home of the show. Cowell said the idea came to him after a YouTube clip of Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent made her a worldwide sensation. Cowell is in talks to renew his contract with Fox for his judging gig on American Idol and an American version of The X Factor was rumored to be a part of that discussion.

The next bad business decision Simon Cowell makes will be the first so I am not really in a position to question but it would be one thing if he were doing the series on the web OR on PPV but there is no model for doing both and making money. On the other hand anything he does generates massive amounts of free publicity so maybe history will look back at this venture as a trendsetter.

Fox certainly can't be pleased as getting The X Factor for their line-up would have been huge, especially if they plugged it into the summer so they could go from So You Think You Can Dance to American Idol to The X Factor seamlessly.

They'll Be Parties For Hosting, Marshmallows For Roasting, And Caroling Out In The Snow
Since December is upon us that means the start of the annual awards season has begun, with two organizations offering up their picks for the best in TV in 2009. First up the Producers Guild of America announced their nominations for the best comedy, drama, and reality series, with winners to be announced on January 24th.

Comedy
30 Rock
Californication
Entourage
The Office
Weeds

Drama
Breaking Bad
Dexter
Lost
Mad Men
True Blood

Non-Fiction
60 Minutes
The Deadliest Catch
Intervention
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List
This American Life

Live Entertainment-Competition
America Idol
The Amazing Race
The Colbert Report
Project Runway
Top Chef

The Satellite Awards are given by the International Press Academy – not to be confused with the Golden Globe Awards given by the Hollywood Foreign Press – and include both film and television. Here is a rundown of the major TV categories, with winners announced later this month…

Best Actor (Comedy or Musical)
Matthew Morrison, Glee
Jermaine Clement, Flight of the Conchords
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steven Colbert, The Colbert Report
Danny McBride, Eastbound and Down
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Best Actress (Comedy or Musical)
Lea Michele, Glee
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Toni Colette, United States of Tara
Brooke Elliot, Drop Dead Diva
Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

Best Actor (Drama)
Bill Paxton, Big Love
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Nathan Fillon, Castle
Lucian Msamati, The #1 Ladies Detective Agency

Best Actress (Drama)
Juliana Margulies, The Good Wife
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Jill Scott, The # 1 Ladies Detective Agency
Glenn Close, Damages
Stana Katic, Castle

Best Series (Comedy or Musical)
Glee
30 Rock
Weeds
How I Met Your Mother
Flight of the Conchords
The Big Bang Theory

Best Series (Drama)
Mad Men
Breaking Bad
In Treatment
Damages
The Good Wide
Big Love

I'll give the IPA credit for not nominating the same familiar list of names we see every season, that's for sure. Huge props for recognizing The # 1 Ladies Detective Agency, and in particular Jill Scott's brilliant work on the show. Not sure these awards are influential enough to sway voters on the bigger ballots but I am sure the folks over at Castle and The Good Wife were thrilled with a bit of the spotlight.

You Touched My Soul With You're Beautiful Song, You Even Had Me Singin' Along
Spectacle: Elvis Costello with… returns for a second season on Sundance Channel this coming Wednesday at 10 pm with guests Bono and The Edge as guests. Building on the critical success of the first season producers have lined up an amazing array of talents for this go round…

12/16: Sheryl Crow, Ron Sexsmith, Neko Case, and Jesse Winchester

12/23: Levon Helm, Nick Lowe, Allan Toussaint, and Richard Thompson

1/6: Elvis Costello (Mary-Louise Parker takes over hosting duties as Elvis steps across the stage)

1/13: Lyle Lovett, Ray LaMontagne, and John Prine

1/20: Bruce Springsteen (Part One)

1/27: Bruce Springsteen (Part Two)

If you are at all a fan of songwriting in the last 30 years of American music than you more than likely recognize quite a few of the names above. What makes the show so great – the best I have ever seen involving musicians talking about their craft – is that by having a host who is a top flight songwriter in his own right, the guests feel much more comfortable talking about what they do in the language they usually speak, not feeling the need to dumb it down as they might do if they were sitting on The Tonight Show couch. For those of you who haven't seen the show, it's not all talk; each show has 3-4 songs (sometimes more), usually performed in stripped down, acoustic versions.

But You Were Up To Your Old Tricks In Chapters Four Five And Six
All you need to know about the Nielsen's for the past week or so…

Friday
Ugly Betty hit a series low in totals and demos…Monk topped every show in primetime other than 20/20 in demos, putting up season highs in all major categories…White Collar improved in demos for the third week in a row, putting up the best totals since the series premiere…

Sunday
Fox's animated comedies recovered from an off week to post an overall 18% increase in total audience, with The Simpsons being the tops in total viewers for the network and Family Guy winning demos…While Desperate Housewives continued to be the night's top scripted show with 12.4 million, lead-in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and lead-out Brothers & Sisters came in under their season averages…While the CBS original movie A Dog Named Christmas did well in totals (12.2 million), its demos were the lowest for any primetime show on Sunday…The Amazing Race put up another strong number with 11.6 million…An overtime Steelers-Ravens game helped NBC handily win the night with over 17 million viewers…

Monday
The season premiere of Intervention was up 39% in total viewers from last season's start…Not only did lead-out Hoarders top Intervention in total audience but it set A&E records for season premiere demos…Viewership for season two of History's Pawn Stars was up 66% from season one…The Saints-Patriots Monday Night Football match up was not only the most watched program of the night but 21.4 million viewers it placed in the all-time top 10 for cable telecasts…House won the 8:00 hour in both total audience and demos…CBS put up very strong numbers despite a line-up of all reruns, including 11.3 million for Two and a Half Men and 10.1 million for The Big Bang Theory…

Tuesday
Numbers for the night will be skewed by the President's speech, which helped some shows and hurt others…The penultimate episode of The Biggest Loser's current cycle pulled in 10 million viewers, their best non-finale total in four years…A rerun of NCIS: Los Angeles drew a strong 13.2 million…CBS coverage of the Presidential Address was tops with 10.1 million, followed by NBC (8.1), ABC (6.5) and Fox (5.1)…Scrubs two episode season premiere averaged about 4.5 million overall and very respectable demos that were up from last season's average…The Sons of Anarchy finale pulled in a series best 4.3 million…Bad Girls Club was the most watched season premiere in Oxygen network history

Wednesday
Steven Seagal Lawman was watchhed by 3.5 million viewers on Wednesday night and set A&E records in every key demo group for a series premiere...Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer was the night's most watched show in totals and demos, posting a remarkable 10.7 million viewer average over the hour. It more than doubled the demos of NBC's Christmas in Rockerfeller Center which aired opposite...Most of the night's programming was reruns, allowing Glee to score much higher than average numbers, winning the hour in totals and demos pretty easily...

All The Young Dudes, Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors…There will be a reunion of cast members from The Shield on Lie To Me this spring. Shawn Ryan, executive producer of Lie to Me and creator of The Shield, is having Catherine Dent, Kenny Johnson, David Marciano, David Rees Snell, Benito Martinez, and Cathy Cahill Ryan guest on an episode titled Pied Piper… FX surprised no one when they gave Sons of Anarchy a 13 episode third season that will air starting in September 2010. Season two was up 66% in total audience and 75% in demos…Swift Justice with Nancy Grace will begin airing daily in syndication in the fall of 2010. Early reports have this new show in a courtroom setting, with Grace in some sort of judge role… TNT announced that they had cancelled Raising the Bar while CBS pulled Three Rivers from it's line up, a huge step towards a similar fate…Nicole Ritchie is the star of a sitcom in development at ABC, with a pilot scripted by Californication writer Daisy Gardner…Haven, a drama based on Stephen King's The Colorado Kid, got a 13 episode pick up from Syfy. The executive producing team from The Dead Zone is in charge of the project…Fox is working on a 13 episode first season of Bob's Burgers, an animated comedy from alumni of King of the Hill and Dr. Katz. Since animated shows take much longer to produce, early 2011 is the estimated arrival period…Speaking of Fox animated comedies, Matthew McConaughey is working with the network on a series based on his brother Rooster's life. Rooster Tales tells the story of a hard drinking Sheriff from a Southern state who marries a much younger women from Mexico only to discover her entire extended family (100+) is part of the package…Callum Keith Rennie (Battlestar Galactica) will star and produce Shattered, a drama about a homicide detective with multiple personalities. The show is not currently attached to a network…Season three of Bravo's Shear Genius premieres on February 3rd at 10 pm…ABC is moving Ugly Betty to Wednesdays at 10 pm in January in what was the Eastwick timeslot and replacing it on Fridays with new episodes of Shark Tank…Bravo is launching Kell on Earth, a reality series following fashion PR expert Kelly Cutrone as she does her job. The series premieres on February 1st…Barry Sonnenfeld is executive producing and directing the ABC pilot Funny In Farsi, based on the memoir of a young man whose family moved from Iran to Newport Beach, NY in the 1970's…FX announced its winter lineup, with the final season of Nip/Tuck premiering on January 6th, and the new season of Damages kicking off on Monday, January 25th (the show aired on Tuesdays for its first two seasons). The new animated comedy Archer will debut on January 14th…NBC is developing Tommy Supreme, a drama series based on the life of attorney Tom Goldstein, who has argued over 20 cases before the US Supreme Court…Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) and Jane Curtain have joined David Tenant and Jeffrey Tambor in the NBC pilot Rex Is Not Your Lawyer…I mentioned the Epix network series Tough Trade last week and now comes word that Lucas Black and Cary Elwes have signed on to the pilot (Sam Shephard came on board previously) and that music producer extraordinaire T-Bone Burnett would executive produce the series, set in the world of country music…Grant Bowler, late of Ugly Betty and Lost before that, will play a werewolf/biker gang leader (how's that for a kick-ass combo) on the upcoming season of True Blood…Comedian Kevin Pollack will host the new Fox game show Our Little Genius… Jason Lee got some Delta Blues co-stars this week when Celia Weston, DJ Qualls, and Abraham Benrubi signed on…Look for Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) to appear on an episode of Brothers & Sisters next month…MTV picked up a 6th season of The Hills and a second of The City…

Turns Out Not Where But Who You're With That Really Matters
The top thing I watched since the last column went to press AKA The Best Of What's Around…My expectations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert were pretty high going in. I mean, how do you get a collection of that much talent in one place and not hit a home run? Well, even with the bar set that high I was blown away. The major highlights included a stunning set from Simon and Garfunkel, with both showing vocal chops I was no longer sure they had, David Crosby and Graham Nash doing harmonies for Paul Simon's beautiful version of Here Comes The Sun, and Bruce Springsteen and U2 dueting on I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.

The biggest surprise of the night for me was the Metallica set. I have never been a fan of theirs – I don't dislike them, just not my kind of music – but when they back Lou Reed singing Sweet Jane it was rock and roll is supposed to sound like.

My favorite moment of the show was when Paul Simon brought out Little Anthony and the Imperials; a rowdy, sold out Madison Square Garden crowd was brought to complete silence to soak up every ounce of these legend's beautiful voices

Do yourselves a favor and check out the show on-demand or during HBO's replays as it is a keeper.

People Say I'm Crazy Doing What I'm Doing. Well, They Give Me All Kinds Of Warnings To Save Me From Ruin
What's flashed before my eyes the last seven days…Scrubs returned with two pretty funny, if a tad familiar episodes. Not to get too specific but the first five minutes of episode one had me thinking the worst but it got significantly better from there and I like the new cast members. The smartest thing they did was have Cox take an interest in a student; as much as I love John C McGinley, the ever so slight change in Cox's style will go a long way towards keeping his rants fresh…I am very upset at myself for somehow missing the premiere of Fox Reality's The Academy. After a couple of excellent seasons documenting recruits at the Police Academy the series has shifted to focusing on newbies at the Orange County Fire Department, and the show is just as entertaining. I used TiVo to catch up on the five episodes I had missed and urge you to do the same; reality television is at its best when it gives you insight into something you wouldn't get to see otherwise, and in this case seeing the training that firemen and women go through before being allowed to do the job is fascinating, as are the stories of how the various plebes ended up there…Last Wednesday's Gary Unmarried was as good as the show has ever been, with a solid laugh in every scene and Jay Mohr's mugging working to excellent effect. Slowly but surely Gary is doing its best to get out of the guilty pleasure category (I mean that in a good way)…Last week's Glee wasn't the best of the season but I'll take that performance of Imagine over David Archuletta's any day of the week. I must admit to being disappointed with their use of the song Hair, not because I don't like the song but because I love it and wanted them to do it justice…Great to see Elizabeth Rohm back on screen in Heroes lately. I always thought her work on Law and Order was much better than she was given credit for, plus I enjoyed her on the first season of Angel as well. The Thanksgiving day dinner scene was a keeper…A nice change of pace episode for House this week, with Wilson getting the spotlight and Robert Sean Leonard turning in a great performance. Even if the episode had been awful, House's cover of George Michael's Faith in the first few minutes would have made the episode worth watching…Desperate Housewives really seems to be simply going through the motions right now but thankfully the cast is strong enough to make it bearable until some better writing comes along…The last new episode of The League – the one where the guys went to the spa for the weekend – was easily the best of the series so far, and it's not a coincidence that that honor occurs in a week in which none of the regular female characters appear. I am obviously not anti-female in any way, it's just that the writers ability to script quality, realistic trash talking between male friends is in direct contrast to their utter inability to have women talk in a way the remotely resembles real life…At this point I am up to at least three Late Late Show episodes a week, sometimes deleting right before the first guest as Craig Ferguson is why I tune in. This past Tuesday Joel McHale stopped by for a wildly entertaining 10 minutes that was one of the best talk show segments of the season…Brothers & Sisters offered two major highlights on Sunday; the opening scene feature the familiar scene of the Walker siblings checking in with each other on the phone at the same time, done to great comic effect, while the second was a truly brilliant piece of writing featuring Robert telling Justin about the lies couples tell each other for their own good…I have really enjoyed The Wanda Sykes Show so far, with the Wanda's Bar segments getting better each week…I can't say that Steven Seagal: Lawman is high quality but it is high comedy and a very fun way to spend a half hour, although I am not quite sure that is the review they were going for…I am still digesting the incredibly intense - and violent - Sons of Anarchy finale. I like keeping Zobell alive as he can come back down the line and the best part of the whole thing may be that my two favorite characters - Unser and Jemma - are off on on a crazy, on the lam road trip. The layered storytelling and criss-crossing plot lines are unrivaled on television right now and I am thrilled that the show found an audience in its second season...

TV Pick Of The Week
One of the best sitcoms to air in 2009, Better Off Ted was criminally under watched during its first season. My guess as to why would be because the ad campaign tried to make it look too much like The Office while in reality its really more of a mix of parts of that show along with 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother, featuring some great performances, sparkling dialogue, and a wonderfully absurdist send up of corporate America.

ABC was kind/smart enough to give the show a second season to try and find its audience and I urge you to give it a shot.

Don't miss the season premiere of Better Off Ted, Tuesday at 9:30 pm on ABC.

Hope You Need My Love, Babe, Just Like I Need You
Here is some other noteworthy programming of the next seven days…

*Dollhouse returns to finish off its run with the first of several Fridays of back-to-back episodes. Tonight features Summer Glau guesting.

*Monk closes up shop after seven Emmy & Golden Globe winning seasons tonight at 9 pm on USA, followed by a very good episode of White Collar with a legitimately shocking ending.

*Saturday is a big day for college football, with the SEC Championship on CBS at 4 pm followed by the ACC Championship (ESPN) and Big 12 Championship (ESPN) games at 8 pm; who you will see playing in the major bowls games in January will be greatly impacted by the outcome of these contests!

*The Ultimate Fighter: The Heavyweights wraps up its season Saturday at 0 pm on Spike.

*Being the HUGE Kristin Chenoweth fans that we are we are highlighting her leading role in the Lifetime original movie The 12 Men of Christmas, premiering Saturday at 9 pm.

*Robin Williams newest stand up special – Weapons of Self Destruction – premieres on Sunday at 9 pm on HBO.

*Both Million Dollar Listing (Bravo) and Rita Rocks (Lifetime) bring their current season to a close Monday night at 10 pm.

*The Biggest Loser crowns its latest big winner Tuesday at 8 pm on NBC.

*Teen Moms, a new reality series featuring alumni for 16 and Pregnant, debuts Tuesday at 10 pm.

*Top Chef's latest – and in my opinion, best – season reaches its culinary climax Wednesday at 10 pm Bravo.

*Barbara Walters Presents (Wednesday, 10 pm, ABC) reveals the grande dame of television journalisms annual picks for the 10 most fascinating people of the year.

*Julianne Moore guests as an old flame of Jack's on Thursdays 30 Rock (9:30 pm, NBC).

Two Tivos To Paradise
30 Days, 30 Rock, The Academy, Accidentally on Purpose, American Idol, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Antiques Roadshow, Better Off Ted, Big Love, Bones, Bored To Death, Breaking Bad, Brothers & Sisters, Burn Notice, Celebrity Apprentice, Cake Boss, Chopped, The Chris Isaak Hour, Chuck, The Closer, Community, Cougar Town, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Daddy's Girls, Damages, The Deadliest Catch, Desperate Housewives, Destination Truth, The Dish, Entourage, Eureka, Flipping Out, Gary Unmarried, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters Academy, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Lab, Glee, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, The Hills, House, How I Met Your Mother, Hung, Iron Chef America, Law And Order, Law And Order: Criminal Intent, Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, Lost, Mad Men, Make Me A Supermodel, Man v. Food, Medium, The Middle, Modern Family, The New Adventures Of Old Christine, Next Food Network Star, Next Iron Chef, The Office, One Tree Hill, Paranormal State, Party Down, Private Practice, Project Runway, Psych, Real Time With Bill Maher, Rescue Me, Royal Pains, Rules Of Engagement, Run's House, Sanctuary, Saturday Night Live, Scrubs, Shark Tank, Shear Genius, So You Think You Can Dance?, Sons of Anarchy, The Soup, Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…, Sports Soup, Supernatural, Table For 12, Top Chef, Top Design, Torchwood, True Blood, Ugly Betty, V, The Vampire Diaries, Warehouse 13, Web Soup, Will Work for Food

People Love You When They Know You're Leaving Soon
Here ends another edition of Two Tivos To Paradise. Only a few weeks until our annual Top Ten Series of 2009 column as well as the big reveal of the coveted Two Tivos To Paradise 2009 TV Entertainers of the Year.

Don't forget to come back next Friday for all the news, and while you're at it, why not just bookmark the movies/TV page here at 411mania.com and make it that much easier for you to find your entertainment industry hook up! You can also follow us on Twitter!

Feedback is encouraged at [e-mail] as well via the comments section below.

Sources for this week's column include Daily Variety, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, and Hollywood Reporter (plus the web sites for those publications) as well as Aintit.cool.com.