Two Tivos To Paradise 03.25.11: Sweet 16 Edition!

Posted by Al Norton on 03.25.2011

News on when Mad Men might return, whether Will Arnett might be the new boss at The Office, new TV projects for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Eliza Dushku, NBC's summer plans, raves for 30 Rock and more!



Hello friends. Hope you have been enjoying the first full week of spring. Here in Boston we had the traditional crazy weather, with temps hitting 70 last Friday and then a coating of snow on Thursday.

Here's the first trailer for NBC's The Voice…



The folks at National Geographic Channel are gearing up for their annual Expedition Week…


We had interviews with Marcel Vigneron (Marcel's Quantum Kitchen) and Joelle Carter (Justified) running last week and next week you can find chats with Ken Baumann (Secret Life of the American Teenager) on Monday and Deadliest Catch creator/executive producer Thom Beers on Tuesday, the same day his new show Coal premieres on Spike.

Then we lie beneath a shady tree, I love news and she's loving me.

THIS JUST IN - Fringe showrunner J.H. Wyman used Twitter on Thursday night to announce the show had been picked up for a 4th season by Fox.

Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss
Multiple outlets are reporting that Will Arnett will appear on the season finale of The Office, leading to wide speculation that he will be the new boss at Dunder Mifflin. Ricky Gervais, who was quoted earlier in the year as saying he thought Arnett would make a fine replacement for the outgoing Steve Carrell, has been confirmed by NBC to be taking part in the finale as well, reprising his role as David Brent from the original BBC version of The Office (he also did a cameo on the American version earlier this year).

I am a big fan of Arnett and think this could work quiet well for the show, especially since the writers for The Office aren't likely to just go the easy route and create a character that resembles ones he has already paid; I'd like to see someone different than who he has played before. My guess is that the plot of the finale will be Arnett and Gervais' Brent up for the job, perhaps along with a current Dunder Mifflin employee, and the last scene will be one of them getting the job. They may even go with a cliff hanger, where we see someone being told they got the job but not who.

Yes It's Gonna Be A Cold, Lonely Summer But I'll Fill The Emptiness
ABC announced their spring season finales this week, including news that both Desperate Housewives and Cougar Town would sign off with episodes twice their usual size. Here is a list of key dates…

May 8th – Brothers & Sisters
May 11th – Better with You
May 15th – Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives
May 16th – Castle
May 17th – Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution
May 19th – Wipeout, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice
May 20th – Shark Tank
May 24th – Dancing with the Stars
May 25th – The Middle, Modern Family, Cougar Town

Two shows on this list – JOFR & Wipeout - have yet to have their spring premieres but are due next month, and Better with You is probably the one most likely to have this episode be the series finale as well. Brothers & Sisters hasn't been renewed but it's looking good and with Housewives it's a matter of getting the leads signed up, which most expect will happen within the next few weeks.

The Spheres Are In Commotion, The Elements In Harmony
Syfy had their own upfront presentation this week, showing the press what new shows would be airing on the network soon as well as a bunch that were currently in development. The following are the highlights…

*Alphas (July) David Straitharn stars as the leader of a group of regular people with brain irregularities that give them special abilities that use them to help government agencies close cases they cannot.

*Haunted Collector (June) Reality show following John Zaffis and his family as they search for items that have spirits and/or ghosts inside them.

*Legend Quest (July) Reality series following a symbologist as he travels the world looking for powerful and mysterious artifacts.

*Paranormal Witness (September) Reality series where everyday people tell their stories of paranormal interaction.

The shows below are currently in development…

*Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome; BSG prequel following a young William Adama shortly after the start of the first cylon war.

*Three Inches; comedy about people with "kind of" super powers, like the ability to move any object with your mind, but only three inches.

*Me and Lee; comedy about a young man who is nursed back to health via bionics by Lee Majors.

*In The Dark; comedy about inept team of ghost hunters.

*Culture Shock with Tommy Lee; the rock star looks at the various secret societies in existence around the world.

*Monster Man; reality series showing the work of Cleve Hall, expert sci-fi prop maker for Hollywood.

*Dinner with Deepak: Deepak Chopra sits down with some of the smartest and most interesting people in the world to eat dinner and discuss matters of intellect an emotion.

Obviously I am excited for another series in the Galactica universe, and Me and Lee could be really funny (Lee Majors showed he has not lost any comic timing in his season one Community guest spot), but the one that could either be fantastic or truly awful is Dinner with Deepak. I love the idea of smart people sitting around and talking about the world in a way that doesn't pander to some sort of lowest common audience denominator but at the same time, it could be boring as hell.

Rolling Through These Hills I've Known I'd Be Coming, Ain't A Man Alive Who Likes To Be Alone
Another week, another network unveiling their summer line up. Here's what NBC will be up to as the weather gets warmer…

April 11th – Law & Order: LA returns (episodes running through June)

April 15th – Friday Night Lights (final season premiere)

April 26th – The Voice (series premiere)

May 1st – Law & Order: Criminal Intent (final season premiere)

May 31st – America's Got Talent (season premiere)

June 26th – The Marriage Ref (season premiere)

TBD – Still Standing, Love in the Wild

Not sure if NBC is just airing the premiere of Criminal Intent (it's also running that same night and time on USA) to widen the audience or if they are grabbing the entire season from USA. AGT is the top show of the summer five years running and there's no reason to think that will change. What's interesting is the network has the comedies Love Bites and Friends with Benefits waiting to air and while neither has any shot of being renewed, you'd think they'd at least try to get something back for the money they spent on making them.

Sunny Day, Sweepin' The Clouds Away, On My Way To Where The Air Is Sweet
Our newest feature here at TTTP – the Sesame Street video of the week…



Like A Coin In Your Mint, I's Dented And I'm Spent With High Treason
This is the time of year where news on network pilots flies fast and furious so it makes sense to carve out a new section for updates…

ABC
Interesting that Bad Mom seems to have had a bit of a plot change; originally it was about an absentee Mom who has to play a larger role in raising her kids when Grandma says she wants her life back but now it's about a working Mom whose already hectic life is thrown for a loop when Grandma announces she is no longer available to babysit. Jenna Elfman is the Mom, Frances Conroy is the Grandma, and Tom Everett Scott is the Dad…Undercovers's star Boris Kodjoe is part of the cast of Georgetown…Tom Arnold has joined Jesse Bradford, Bonnie Somerville, and Judith Light in Other People's Kids…Michael Green, creator and executive producer of TTTP fave Kings, has been signed as showrunner for The River's first 13 episodes (if the show gets picked up), with Zack Estrin (Prison Break, The Good Guys) taking over showrunning duties after that (again, if the show gets picked up) as Green has a development deal with 20th Century Fox to get back to. The River is from the writer/director of Paranormal Activity and follows the search for a missing person along the Amazon…

CBS
Heather Locklear will play half of the celebrity couple whose lives are run by a young staff in The Assistants…Michelle Trachtenberg will star in an untitled workplace comedy…Kevin Dillon's first post-Entourage TV gig will be in How to Be a Gentleman, a comedy co-starring David Hornby and 24 alum Mary Lynn Rajskub…Damon Wayans and Eliza Dushku will star in the comedy based on the life of ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd…Elizabeth Perkins (Weeds) will star opposite Michael Chiklis in the comedy Vince Uncensored…Law & Order vet S. Epatha Merkerson has joined the untitled supernatural themed drama directed by Jonathan Demme…

FOX
Daman Wayans, Jr. is now on board of the untitled comedy (formerly Chicks and Dicks) starring Zooey Deschanel…

NBC
Lenny Clarke will play Laura Prepon's Dad in Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea…Ron Moore's 17th Precinct became even more BSG universe centric when Esai Morales joined the cast…Christina Applegate will star in an untitled comedy from SNL writer Emily Spivey…Donald Sutherland is a part of the comedy My Life as an Experiment…This doesn't happen every day but Laura Allen (Terriers, Dirt, The 4400), who had been cast in a supporting role on REM, got recast as the female lead. Michaela McManus (Law & Order: SVU, One Tree Hill) will play the role Allen was going to, and Tony winner Cherry Jones (24) is now part of the cast as well. This may be the pilot I am most looking forward to…Kathryn Hahn has been cast opposite Hank Azaria in Free Agents…

The CW
Natasha Henstridge (Eli Stone) is now a part of The Secret Circle, which also has new executive producers before the pilot has even been shot…

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 7 days…

THURSDAY
The blanket coverage paid off as viewership for day one of the NCAA's was up 24% from last year and at the best totals in 20 years…As with the rest of last week, everything on at 8pm was down, with Wipeout falling 9%, Community down 6% (season low), and American Idol dropping 16% for its two hours, although Idol still dominated the night…Bones was up 9% in demos and 13% in totals…Private Practice, airing at 9pm, dropped 17% from its last new episode to hit a series low…It wasn't just Community that hit a new low for NBC; Perfect Couples lost 14% to a new low, Parks and Recreation was down 25% to tie a series low, 30 Rock dropped 26% for a new series low, and Outsourced tied a season/series low…

FRIDAY
Fringe hit a series low in the demos while lead-in Kitchen Nightmares had only a slight drop…The series finale of Supernanny had a slight increase…Dateline was top demo performer of the night…

SUNDAY
Shark Tank's special Sunday night time slot led to a series high in viewers while lead-out Detroit 1-8-7 did not perform well in its season (and likely) series finale, dropping from last Tuesday's numbers…CSI: Miami was the night's most watched show with 11.5 million although it was topped in the demos at 10pm by Celebrity Apprentice, which surged in hour two for the third week in a row…America's Next Great Restaurant hit new total and demo lows…The Big Love series finale hit a series high…

MONDAY
Chuck hit another series low in the demos…How I Met Your Mother was down 15% in the demos…Dancing with the Stars was up in totals from last September and won 8 and 9 pm in totals and demos. The bad news was it was down in a big way from last March and set a new demo season premiere low…Castle won 10pm in totals and demos, with season highs in both…Hawaii 5-0 finished second in the demos at 10pm but was still up from the previous new episode…Harry Law dropped to a season/series low…The Chicago Code dropped 12% in totals but stayed even in the demos… The season finale of Pretty Little Liars was the second most watched episode in totals and demos in season/series history…Skins jumped 9% in its season finale and, based on numbers the second half of the season, stands a decent shot at getting renewed…

TUESDAY
No Ordinary Family took advantage of a Glee rerun to jump 23% in totals and demos, although the show is still pretty much dead in the water in terms of a renewal…NCIS was the night's most watched show in totals and demos, with lead-out NCIS: LA winning 9pm in both as well…The Biggest Loser finished second in totals and demos at both 8 and 9pm…

WEDNESDAY
As you've come to expect, American Idol crushed all comers in totals and demos from the night…The Middle fell to a season low…Mr. Sunshine was up 22% thanks to a new Modern Family as a lead-in…Survivor dropped to a series low in the demos…Law & Order: SVU was up and won 10pm in demos…Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior lost 12% of its previous demo audience, most likely due to a Criminal Minds rerun as a lead-in…America's Next Top Model was up 10% in total audience and 22% in demos…

All The Young Dudes, Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors…Arnold Schwarzenegger will announce his involvement with an international TV project on April 4th at the annual MIPTV Festival in Cannes. It's assumed he will be serving in some sort of producer capacity as opposed to acting but all details are being kept very top secret, although there is growing speculation he may be lending his voice and/or likeness to an animated series…Multiple news outlets are reporting that Matt Weiner, Lionsgate, and AMC are all close to signing contracts, meaning production on the new season of Mad Men could begin somewhat shortly. Based on the original timeline and what happened the last time there was a delay, we might not see new episodes until late August-early September…Connie Britton has signed on for one of the leads in Ryan Murphy's upcoming FX series American Horror Story. Details on the project are hard to come by but it's been reported that the entire cast of the show would turn over every season, meaning she could still be available to be a part of the FX drama she is producing with David Fincher… Jeff Daniels is in talks to star in More as the Story Develops, Aarons Sorkin's HBO pilot set at a news network talk show…Torchwood's newest season – Torchwood: Miracle Day – will premiere in the states via Starz on Friday, July 8th…L.A. Reid has left his position as chairman of Island Def Jam Records to serve as a judge/coach on the first season of Simon Cowell's The X-Factor for Fox this fall…TNT renewed Southland for a fourth season…Comedy Central picked up a 7th season of Futurama on the same day that FX announced it would not renew Lights Out...Becoming Chaz, a documentary about Chastity Bono's transformation, will air on OWN on May 10th…Jonathan Cake will appear in four episodes of Desperate Housewives this season and be a series regular in the fall…TTTP fave Steven Weber will guest on the season finale of Parenthood and possible reoccur in the fall…HBO picked up the rights to Eating with the Enemy: How I Waged Peace with North Korea from my BBQ Shack in Hackensack, with James Gandolfini signed to star…The first annual Comedy Awards, which will air across all the MTV networks in April, is trying to go big in their debut, with Eddie Murphy confirmed to accept the Comedy Icon Award…TV Land picked up a 10 episode second season of Retired at 35 as well as first seasons from Happily Divorced (created by and starring Fran Drescher) and an untitled comedy starring Kristen Johnson, Donald Faison, and Wayne Knight…Rumors abound that Glen Beck may attempt to launch his own network or at least make his show available via some sort of pay streaming system. These stories come amid reports that Fox may not renew his contract, which expires in December…NBC is pulling Perfect Couples in April with two episodes left in its run and replacing it with The Paul Reiser Show, a fictional look at the comedian's personal life…Connie Nielsen will play Kelsey Grammer's wife in the Starz series Boss…Adult Swim picked up two more seasons of The Venture Bros.….Ed Harris has been cast as John McCain opposite Julianne Moore's Sarah Palin in the upcoming HBO movie Game Change…MTV has picked up a 27th and 28th cycle of The Real World; 25 is currently on the air and 26 is in the casting stage, so the show is guaranteed to stay on the air until at least 2013…

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…
One of frequent bits of praise for Community is the way they both mock and embrace the traditional sitcom format with many of their episodes; making fun of something while throwing yourself into it head first is tough to pull off, which is why last week's Queen of Jordan episode of 30 Rock was so brilliant.

From the credits to the editing to the confessional cutaways to the subtitles as people talked quietly in the background, it was like the hired editors from Bravo to cut the half hour, but kept their regular writers to guarantee hilarity. Even better, there was more than the usual amount of general silliness, Jack's verbal miscues and the guy with blurry face syndrome in particular.

When 30 Rock is at its best it is among the best comedies on TV and last Thursday was among their top episodes ever.

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 …



Why do I love Glee so much? A whole host of reasons, with one of the main ones being I was never someone who was comfortable in high school – sure I had a great group of friends but I always felt out of place in some way – and I would have loved it if TV had a show about other kids in high school feeling the same way, so when I sit down to watch I am doing so as a 39 year old adult, with the awkward 15 year old I used to be and the singer I'll never be with me on the couch. I very much enjoyed the way they did the much discussed kiss as it just sort of happened, without a ton of build up in the moment, making it more like real life…Last Thursday's Private Practice was just plain awful, with almost everyone behaving totally out of character and revealing themselves to be both unlikable and uninteresting, a terrible combination in life and in television. Only Charlotte and Cooper escaped unscathed…I know a lot of people focused on how terrible The Situation was on Comedy Central's Donald Trump Roast – and he was TERRIBLE – but to me the most interesting moment came when Lisa Lampanelli told a joke that was only slightly different than the same joke Whitney Cummings had used at the Hasselhoff Roast, with Cummings sitting there on the dais. The joke, in this case about The Situation's book being so bad that on Amazon under "other items people who bought this book purchased" were rope and a stool. Last time out the punch line was, "a shotgun." Snoop Dog was far and away the funniest roaster, Anthony Jeselnik made a great first impression, and Cummings was easily the most disappointing…The last few weeks of Justified have been phenomenal, from Raylan confronting the bank robber and asking, "do you know where I'm from?" to the hysterically funny run for the plane to Mama Bennett breaking her sons hand to teach him a lesson. I'd be hard pressed to name more than four or five shows I think are better…Loved the way How I Met Your Mother went with Barney's Dad, making him the total opposite of who Barney was hoping for. John Lithgow was great, getting many laughs throughout and then showing his chops in that scene at the end in the driveway. Also fantastic was the running bit about the blind spot in each of their knowledge…I wish America's Next Great Restaurant was doing better in the ratings as I am really enjoying it. Yes, I was somewhat disappointed that they were launching more of a fast food type restaurant as opposed to a sit down, table service chain, but the appeal of the show remains the same and the judges being the investors makes a huge difference. Perhaps not enough drinking and hooking up to make it as a reality show hit…Shark Tank returned last Sunday night with an episode that showed why the show is so highly entertaining, with some folks getting great offers and others making serious strategy mistakes that cost them financial backing. I am not saying the show is perfect but I would be surprised if someone said they watched and didn't enjoy…Jay joining Mitch & Cam and friends for drinks on Modern Family was one of the comedic highlights of the TV season. Nathan Lane was SO much better used than his first guest spot; I would totally watch a spinoff about Pepper and company…Watching American Idol on Wednesday night I was struck by how shocked I would be if any of these folks really hit it big. Somewhere between the audition rounds and now the wheels fell off the current season and the judges not being able to drop the hammer when needed is playing a large role. For God's sake, someone tell Scotty to stop trying to find the camera and then smirking…The first two segments of The Daily Show's Monday edition should be more than enough proof to those who don't think they go after the left as much as they do the right. Their dead-on commentary about getting involved in Libya and how America chooses which fights for democracy we take part in was as biting as anything those on the conservative right threw at the current administration. And, even better, it was still damn funny...Color me truly stunned that Mike is in the Top Chef All Stars finale; sure, for the last few weeks he has been hotter than Sofia Vergara in a Catwoman costume but can you honestly tell me you had him as one of the favorites going in?!?!...

TV Pick Of The Week
I am sure that the concept of a musical episode of Grey's Anatomy bring to mind the words "jump" and "shark" but I must confess I'm quite excited. I know, I know – Al is pumped for a musical, shocking – but the concept they are using – the musical numbers will take place in the imagination of one of the characters - and that the songs sung are ones that have been made famous by the show over the years make it so the show won't really be leaving the reality it has created for itself, which is to me what "jump the shark" is all about. Some think it means when a show that was good becomes bad but I've always interpreted it to be when a show changes its own reality, i.e. taking Fonzie, a guy who was just generally cool, and giving him almost superhero like powers. I've always thought the fencing episode of Happy Days was way worse than him water skiing in shorts and a leather jacket but you can't really create a catchphrase out of fencing gear.

Anyway, good or bad, this Thursday's Grey's Anatomy is sure to be talked about, so don't miss it!

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

*Norm Macdonald: Me Doing Stand-Up (Saturday, 11:30pm, Comedy Central) is, as you might guess, a stand-up comedy special featuring Norm Macdonald.

*Season 24: Oprah Behind the Scenes has been far and away the most interesting thing about OWN so far and Sunday's episode is part one of two looking at the trip to Australia that Oprah took with her studio audience.

*I am a huge fan of the lost of art of the TV mini-series; some stories need more than two hours but not a full season, and I grew up watching some of the classics like Roots, Chiefs, North and South, and The Winds of War. HBO gives us the first two (of five) hours of Mildred Pierce this Sunday at 9pm, directed by Todd Phillips and starring Oscar winner Kate Winslet, Guy Pierce, and Rachel Evan Wood.

*Army Wives. Sunday at 9pm on Lifetime. Bring your Kleenex.





*Chopped All Stars has been fantastic so far and Sunday's outing finds four of the regular judges getting out from behind the table and into the kitchen.

*The current season of Showtime's Californication and Shameless come to a close Sunday night.

*Monday is a big night of cable season premieres, with The Secret Life of the American Teenager (8pm, ABC Family), Nurse Jackie (10pm, Showtime), and The United States of Tara (10:30pm, Showtime) back with new episodes.

*Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss joins the cast of Parenthood (Tuesday, 10pm, NBC) for the last four episodes of the season as a producer who wants to put on Sarah's play.

*Body of Proof premieres Tuesday at 10pm. Dana Delaney may be a fine actress but I really don't think TV needs another show where weekly criminal/medical mysteries are solved with the help of a team led by someone who is caustic yet brilliant.

*Thom Beer's latest reality docu-series Coal premieres Wednesday at 10pm on Spike.

*Oscar winner Jeremy Irons returns for his second Law & Order: SVU (Wednesday, 10pm, NBC) of the season.

*Top Chef All Stars crowns a champion on Wednesday night with what looks like a very cool spin on their restaurant wars concept.

*Wednesday's Late Show with David Letterman (11:35pm, CBS) features a musical performance by Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, and Wynton Marsalis.

*A TV special about flash mobs? Wouldn't that make more sense if this were 2009? Anyway, Fox gives us Mobbed this Thursday at 9pm, hosted by Howie Mandell.

Two Tivos To Paradise
30 Rock, After the Catch, American Idol, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Antiques Roadshow, Archer, Auction Hunters, The Big C, Big Love, Boardwalk Empire, Being Human, Bones, Bored To Death, Breaking Bad, Brothers & Sisters, Burn Notice, Celebrity Apprentice, Cake Boss, The Chicago Code, Chopped, Chuck, The Closer, Community, Cougar Town, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Daily Show, The Deadliest Catch, Desperate Housewives, Destination Truth, The Dish, Entourage, Eureka, Fact or Faked, Fairly Legal, Flipping Out, Food Feuds, Food Network Challenge, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters Academy, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Lab, Glee, Gossip Girl, Great Food Truck Race, Grey's Anatomy, The Hard Times of RJ Berger, Hawaii 5-0, Hollywood Treasure, House, How I Met Your Mother, How To Make It In America, Hung, If You Really Knew Me, Iron Chef America, Justified, Kate Plus 8, Last Comic Standing, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Launch My Line, Law And Order: Criminal Intent, Law and Order: Los Angeles, Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, Life Unexpected, Lights Out, Live to Dance, Mad Men, Man v. Food, Men of a Certain Age, The Middle, Mike and Molly, Mr. Sunshine, Modern Family, Next Food Network Star, Next Great American Restaurant, Next Iron Chef, The Office, One Tree Hill, Paranormal State, Parks & Recreation, Private Practice, Project Runway, Psych, Raising Hope, Real Time With Bill Maher, Rescue Me, Restaurant Impossible, Royal Pains, Rules Of Engagement, Sanctuary, Saturday Night Live, 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 Chef Just Desserts, Top Chef: Masters, Top Design, Torchwood, Traffic Light, True Blood, V, The Vampire Diaries, The Walking Dead, Warehouse 13, Web Soup, Worst Cooks In America,

People Love You When They Know You're Leaving Soon
Here ends another Two Tivos To Paradise.



We'll be back next week with a review of AMC's new series The Killing plus an update on all-things-TV. Use the comments section below to sounds off on anything you've read above as well as anything you watched the past week. See you next Friday!

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 and TVline & Deadline.com.