Two Tivos To Paradise 10.21.11: The Walking Dead, The Punisher, Once Upon a Time, Community, The Soup, and more!

Posted by Al Norton on 10.21.2011

News on Fox making a Punisher TV series, The Walking Dead setting ratings records, and casting news for Justifed, plus thoughts on the premiere of Once Upon a Time, the new season of Community and more!



Hello friends. Welcome to the cold open! Some weeks these things write themselves, other times I stare at the screen…Guess which I experience this week? Since I seem to have nothing I thought I could at least give you one of the best cold opens I have ever seen…





Here's a trailer for Showtime's dark comedy House of Lies. Come on – Buck Swope, Veronica Mars, and Jean-Ralphio?!?!? I am SO there!





This is one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time (there are at least 7 similar videos if you want to keep it going)…






Use the link at the bottom of the page if you didn't catch my interviews with Nancy Travis (Last Man Standing) and/or Paul Adelstein (Private Practice) that ran here on the site this week.

Not a ton of big news stories this week so today's column is heavier on news and notes than lead items; some weeks I am swimming in headlines, other weeks nothing bites no matter what I put on the hook.

Sunday's on the phone to Monday, Tuesday's on the phone to news.

Once Upon A Time, Once When You Were Mine, I Remember Skies, Reflected In Your Eyes
Usually all the network series have premiered by mid-October but ABC still have one high profile new show in their holster, with Once Upon a Time debuting this Sunday at 8pm. Set in a small town in Maine, this drama takes its inspiration from well known fairy tales and features folks who may indeed be those characters come to life, whether they realize it or not. The show's cast includes Jennifer Morrison, Gennifer Goodwin, Robert Carlyle, Giancarlo Esposito, Joshua Dallas, and Lana Parrilla.





I have very high hopes for Once Upon a Time, based as much on who is making the show as who is in it; the two creators, Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, came up with the show 7 years ago after working together on Birds of Prey, Felicity, and Popular, but had to put it in the backburner when they both began working as writers and producers on Lost. Also serving as producers is Jane Espensen (Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel. Dollhouse, Warehouse 13) and Liz Tigelaar (Life Unexpected, Brothers & Sisters, American Dreams). Lost…BSG…Buffy…that's some rarified television air right there.

Horowitz and Kitsis have been deliberate in their interviews about making clear that this won't be a mythology heavy show (other than the basic story of the fairy tales, of course) and more about the characters and their journeys, and to me that's what two guys coming off of writing for Lost really ought to say in order to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. How bizarre is it that we live in a world where saying your show would have complex plotlines would be viewed as a bad thing?

I am quite excited to watch Once Upon a Time on Sunday as it seems to have the chance to be a show that makes you go, "oooh, cool", and those doesn't come along all too often.

Come On Over To My Yard, Sit Around, Let Your Troubles All Disappear
Not a lot of big news stories the last seven days but there was a flurry of well known and/or talented folks booking multi-episode runs on shows this week so I thought I'd break them out into their own item.

*Carla Gugino has joined the cast of Justified for the upcoming third season, playing a former co-worker of Raylan's from his days with the Miami office. I find this interesting because Gugino starred in the short lived but much loved Karen Sisco, playing a character created by Elmore Leonard, which is exactly what Timothy Olyphant does on Justified. It's also interesting because she is one of the sexiest women alive.

*Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica) has signed for multiple episodes of Body of Evidence, playing a love interest for Dana Delaney's character.

*Amy Sedaris will do multiple episodes of The Good Wife.

*CSI had the busiest week, signing Grant Show, Titus Welliver, Annabeth Gish, and Matt Lauria for guest roles. Show is becoming a top-level television character actor; I would have never thought the guy who played Jake on Melrose Place would be the same guy whose work I admired on Six Feet Under, Private Practice, Big Love, Swingtown, and Burn Notice. Based on the range showed by his performances on Friday Night Lights and The Chicago Code, Lauria has a big, big future. Welliver is a longtime TTTP fave, dating back to his role on Life.

*Kelli Williams (Lie to Me, The Practice) and daytime legend Susan Lucci will both do arcs on the upcoming season of Army Wives, heavily rumored to be the Lifetime series last.

*While it's only a one episode appearance for each, Sarah Silverman and Jeff Goldblum guesting on the Thanksgiving episode of The League is certainly noteworthy as both can be very funny and should really enjoy the dark comedy at which the show excels.

Sunny Day, Sweepin' The Clouds Away, On My Way To Where The Air Is Sweet
The Sesame Street video of the week…






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
Community was up 13%, with lead-out Parks and Recreation enjoying a 5% gain…Whitney and Prime Suspect were both down 13%...Grey's Anatomy jumped 10% to be the top scripted drama of the night in the demos…Private Practice was up double digits and won 10pm in the demos again…The Mentalist won 10pm in total viewers and was the night's most watched drama…The Big Bang Theory was again the night's top show in terms of demos and total viewers…Person of Interest won 9pm in total viewers, with a slight increase in the demos…The Bruins-Flyers game from October 6th was the most watched regular season game in Versus history…

FRIDAY
CBS dominated the night in total viewers, with A Gifted Man, CSI: NY, and Blue Bloods each winning their time slots, and the latter two winning in demos as well…Bloods won both categories on the night for the fourth week in a row…ABC re-aired the first two Last Man Standing episodes and they did quite well, outdrawing anything not on CBS for the night…

SUNDAY
The season two premiere of The Walking Dead had the largest 18-49 and 25-54 demo audience for an episode of cable series in history. The episode was up 38% in total viewers from season one's debut and combining with the two replays later that night, the total audience for the episode was 11 million. AMC was quite pleased with the 1.2 million viewers the premiere of The Talking Dead drew as well…Desperate Housewives tied last week's demo series low while lead-out Pan AM dropped a bit again to hit a new series low…X-Factor's special Sunday night airing had the highest demos of the night for a non-sporting event…NBC's Sunday Night Football was not helped by the game being a blowout but it still topped the night in demos and total viewers…Homeland was up 15% from week two, not easy for a new show…

MONDAY
It was pretty much good news across the board on Monday, with Two and a Half Men the only show to take any noticeable drop (-10%), although in its defense it still was the top demo performer of the night…Despite the Men drop, 2 Broke Girls matched last week's numbers…How I Met Your Mother continues to be posting its strongest numbers ever in its 7th season, an almost unheard of achievement…Hawaii 5-0 rebounded from last week's 19% drop to jump up 15% and win 10pm in demos while Castle was up 24% in total viewers to win that 10pm title…Hart of Dixie continues to shine, up 11% in total viewers and 17% in demos…The top demo performer for all of TV on Monday night was ESPN's Monday Night Football…Bachelorette Party: Las Vegas was the most watched reality series premiere in Oxygen network history…

TUESDAY
90210 dropped 6% in total viewers and 12% in demos, making lead-out Ringer's 14% demo gain that much more impressive…NCIS was the most watched show of the night and tied X-Factor for best Tuesday night demos…Unforgettable was up in totals and demos, winning both at 10pm…Body of Proof was again last at 10pm in the demos and may be getting closer to the bubble, although I think ABC will stick with it through sweeps…Last Man Standing was down 23% in total viewers and 17% in demos from its ultra-strong debut, with the premiere of Man Up losing 20% of its demo lead-in…The Biggest Loser finished in 4th at 8pm in totals and demos…5.5 million tuned into the Republican Presidential Candidates Debate on CNN, making it the second most watched debate of the political season…American Horror Story had a strong week 3, which was up from week two in every measureable way, including series highs in 18-34…

WEDNESDAY
Game One of the World Series was down 12% in the demos from last year and was the second most watched program of the night with just under 13 million viewers...Modern Family was the night's top demo performer while Criminal Minds was the evening's most watched show...CSI won 10pm in total viewers (by a LOT) and demos (by a little)...SVU finished third in totals and demos at 10pm...

All The Young Dudes, Carry The News
Industry News, Notes, and Hot Rumors…Fox has ordered a pilot for The Punisher, an adaptation of the iconic Marvel comic that will be executive produced Ed Bernero, creator and former showrunner of Criminal Minds…FX picked up a 13 episode fifth season of Sons of Anarchy…ABC cancelled Charlie's Angels, although the current plan is to air all the episodes that were completed…Peter Tolan, fresh off of Rescue Me, is adapting the novel Angela's Bachelor's for ABC. The comedy follows a top NYC chef who moves to Boston to overcome a major public embarrassment and ends up working as a cook at the fire station by her house…TNT cancelled Memphis Beat after two seasons…Shonda Rhymes is executive producing Wildwood, a dramedy set in the 80's about a teenage girl who lies about her age to work at a popular Jersey Shore resort. The pilot is written by Dianne Ruggiero (Veronica Mars, The Ex-List)…Ryan Phillippe makes his series TV debut with a big role in Damages upcoming 5th season…Stephen Bochco and David Milch, who previously teamed to create NYPD Blue, are working on a legal drama pilot for NBC…NBC has set Monday, December 12th as the return of Fear Factor, which will take the 8-10pm timeslot between the end of The Sing Off and the start of The Voice…Aasif Mandvi, currently seen on The Daily Show, is writing and starring in a CBS comedy pilot about a marriage counselor recovering from a divorce…HBO is working on adapting the Oscar nominated movie The Kids Are Alright into a series…Jamie Kennedy is the host of the TruTV pilot Guinness World Records Gone Wild, where average folks try to break records…NBC won a bidding war for a comedy pilot from Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story) and Allison Adler (Glee, Chuck, Family Guy) about a gay couple and the women who agrees to carry their baby…Brandon Jay McLaren, who played the high school teacher/murder suspect on The Killing, will appear on the second season of Falling Skies…Eion Bailey, who recurs on Covert Affairs, will do multiple episodes of Once Upon a Time…Law & Order: SVU is known for its high quality of guest stars and just announced that Carrie Preston, Natasha Lyonne, and Timothy Busfield have signed to appear later in the season…Scar Tissue, a drama about the teen years of Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Kedis, was in development at HBO but is now over at FX. At one point John Sayles was writing the pilot but I don't know if that is still the case…MTV picked up a second season of Ridiculousness…W Merritt Johnson, who wrote the Emmy, SAG, and Golden Globe winning HBO movie Temple Grandin, is working with the network on a drama series that would star Don Johnson as a suicidal game show host trying to find a way to turn his life around. Johnson would also be an executive producer…Mark V Olsen and Will Scheffer, who created Big Love together, are working on China Doll, a new HBO series that focuses on a husband from California, his Asian-America wife, their families, and their humanoid robot…Mike O'Malley has written the Fox pilot Prodigy Bully, about a super smart teen who uses his intellect and also his muscle to get whatever he wants. John Wells (Southland, ER, The West Wing) is executive producing…Marlon Wayans is creating and starring in an ABC comedy pilot about a down on his luck cop who moves in with his brother (also a cop) and his brother's family…TTTP fave Donal Logue has joined the cast of the TNT pilot Gateway, a western…Danielle Panabaker (Shark) landed one of the leads in ABC Family's Intercept…CBS had already cancelled How to be a Gentleman, putting it on Saturdays at 8:30pm to finish airing the already completed episodes, but after a poor showing its first time out in the new timeslot they pulled it from the lineup altogether…ABC won a bidding war for a comedy pilot written by Bob Fischer (Wedding Crashers) and starring Mandy Moore. The show is about a newlywed couple trying to separate from their families and make their own way in the world…Oscar winners Chris Cooper and Diane Wiest are in talks to star in the HBO pilot The Corrections, an adaptation of the Jonathan Franzen novel of the same name…Chord Overstreet will return to Glee for an episode in December and is in negotiations for several more appearances later in the season…Judy Greer will executive produce and star in a comedy pilot for ABC. She was last seen on CBS' Mad Love…Spike picked up a 4th season of 1000 Ways to Die…A&E renewed The Glades for a third season…Is there anything Syfy can find haunted?!?!? School Spirits is their latest, with a six episode first season coming later this year. You can tell one of the creators of Celebrity Ghost Stories is an executive producer as the stories of haunted schools will be told in the first person by teachers, parents, and current and former students and will feature dramatic re-enactments…GSN will air reruns of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?…Conan O'Brien's production company is working on Fat Chance with TBS, a comedy about two best friends, one very overweight, the other very handsome, and how their lives change when the meet a beautiful woman…Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry is working on Devious Maids, an adaptation of Televista series The Disorderly Maids of the Neighborhood, which focuses on four Latina women who work as maids in Beverly Hills…Tony winner Marissa Jaret Winokur is joining the cast of TV Land's Retired at 35…Trevor Munson, who co-created the one season cult favorite Moonlight, has sold Vanish to NBC, a drama pilot script about a mysterious man who helps good people in danger disappear…

Turns Out Not Where But Who You're With That Really Matters
(The Best of What's Around aka The Best Thing I've Watched In The Last Seven Days)…
My love and admiration for Community is not news to anyone who frequents this column but I was thinking that after Louie's brilliant run this summer, there might be a new title at the top of our year end Best Comedy list; now, after this past Thursday's Remedial Chaos Theory episode, I'm not so sure.

I can't imagine how difficult this half hour was to put together, making sure everything lined up just right while at the same time making those events we saw over and over again seem fresh but it was truly flawless execution. My own personal favorite timeline was this one…





The final scene of the episode got a LOT of people talking on the internet, chattering about the possibility of an evil study group vs. study group paintball challenge in the season finale. There was also a lot of talk about which thread was the real one and essays written about how this episode actually came before the previous one on the timeline. Honestly, I haven't seen this much thought put into a show by its fan base since Lost went off the air. Considering Community pulled this off and did so while still being laugh out loud funny is a testament to just hot talented a cast and crew work on the show. The only thing better than actual episode for fans was that ratings were up double figures, which bodes well for the show's future.


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…





Damn, that was well done…I got about 20 minutes into the second episode of American Horror Story and gave up on it. The pilot was fun from a purely "WTF?!?!" standpoint but dark for dark's sake doesn't work. That opening sequence from last week was the definition of gratuitous and turned me off to the point of turning it off…Great bounce back week for The Office; the garden party episode was as good as the lottery episode was bad, with great jokes coming fast and furious, some wonderfully uncomfortable moments, and just the right amount of heart. I don't know what I liked more, Mose lining up the cars for a jump or the pageantry of the closing ceremonies…1) Be a man…So very happy that Derek and Meredith haven't simply made all better on Grey's this season. Don't mean to sound insensitive to the characters but the issues they are dealing with are serious enough that they warrant some time put in to the resolution. We may know they are going to stay together but it's much more like real life because we seem them struggling to make all the pieces fit…This is the first year I have season passed Family Guy and so far I have laughed a bunch but also felt like there were a number of dead spots. Since I have not been a regular viewer before I have no context in terms of how this compares to previous seasons but so far I would say I am mildly entertained but with high hopes for the coming weeks…I know it's just a comedy but Ted is supposed to be a really good guy so having him run away from a woman because she used to be fat was more than a little out of character. Overall just a decent episode of How I Met Your Mother, one where the concept (dating in a Google/Facebook world) was much better than the execution…I've enjoyed Terra Nova as a bit of a guilty pleasure but it's odd that so much of the show looks so good and then for some of the jungle scenes this week it looked like they were walking around an old Gilligan's Island set…Every year I think there is no way Sons of Anarchy can match the previous seasons slow build and incredible level of tension and every year they prove me wrong…Fantastic flashback episode of Up All Night this week, with the cast in top form and the right emphasis put on lead and supporting characters…It was a joy to have The Daily Show back after a week's worth of withdrawal. I have become seriously addicted to the show in such a short period of time…Ringer continues to make huge strides forward, not necessarily an actual good show yet but more than entertaining enough to qualify as a guilty pleasure…Some episodes of Boardwalk Empire are better than others but it's always clear that everything we see is exactly as they wanted it to be, and not a ton of shows can say that…I am still watching Revenge but I was really hoping that it would be more a thinking person's nighttime soap but it seems heavier on the soap than the thinking. Also, it really is a downer. I mean, does no one in this universe like their lives? It's amazing to me how few happy rich people there are in the world of television…The question at this point is really how many Norty nominations Homeland gets…Suburgatory looks like a keeper, fitting in perfectly with ABC's Wednesday night comedy block. Each week the scripts seem to give the talented cast more room to play with their characters and the show gets funnier each week because of it...I've got lots to watch every week and frequently am a few days behind, so if there a show you loved or hated that I haven't mentioned, use the comments section below to have at it!...

TV Pick Of The Week
Kelsey Grammer is one of the most decorated actors in TV history, with 5 Emmys (14 nominations) and 2 Golden Globes (8 nominations) on his mantel, but he's never stuck his foot in dramatic series waters until now…






If that trailer didn't pull you in enough, Oscar winner Gus Van Zandt directed the pilot. Starz is so high on the series they picked up a second season before the first episode ever hit the airwaves. I enjoyed the pilot quite a bit; the cast is excellent and the show has the weight that something with this subject matter should carry.

Don't miss the series premiere of Boss, tonight at 10pm on Starz.

Hope You Need My Love, Babe, Just Like I Need You
Other viewing options from the next seven days…

*PBS' American Masters (Tonight, 9pm) latest outing is a two and a half hour look at Pearl Jam's 20 years as a band, directed by Cameron Crowe.

*Cult favorite Robot Chicken (Sunday, 11:30pm, Cartoon) is back with a new season.

*A&E's latest entry into the reality series world is Monster In-Laws (Monday, 10pm), where couples who have big issues with their in-laws seek counseling to help heal the wounds.

*Joe Maganiello, who looks about as good with a shirt off as any man on TV right now, guests on Two and a Half Men (CBS) this Monday at 9pm.

*Who doesn't love a good crossover; NCIS' Agent Blye visits the residents of Hawaii 5-0 (CBS) on Monday at 10pm.

*Spike TV's latest entry into the reality series world is Flip Men(Tuesday, 10pm), where a couple of experienced real estate guys try to make money by buying foreclosures cheap and selling for a big profit.

*Eddie Murphy doesn't do a lot of talk show appearances so his stopping by Late Night with David Letterman (Tuesday, 11:35pm, CBS) is a noteworthy occasion. Of course, moments after I wrote this sentence I got the news that President Obama would be guesting on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at the same time, so it's a big night for late night talk.

*Top Chef: Just Desserts (Bravo) brings their incredibly disappointing second season to a close Wednesday at 10pm.

*It's a vampire themed episode of PSYCH (Wednesday, 10pm, USA) when Corey Feldman and Kristy Swanson guest star.

*Whitechapel may be old news to those of you from across the pond but this mix of crime and journalism will hit the states for the first time on Wednesday at 10pm on BBC America.

*Last year's Halloween episode of Community (Thursday, 8pm, NBC) was pretty damn incredible, so the expectations for this year's outing has some pretty major trick-or-treat bags to fill.

Two Tivos To Paradise
24 Hour Restaurant Battle, 30 Rock, After the Catch, American Idol, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Antiques Roadshow, Archer, Auction Hunters, The Big C, Boardwalk Empire, Being Human, Bones, Bored To Death, Breaking Bad, Burn Notice, Celebrity Apprentice, Cake Boss, Chopped, Chuck, The Closer, Community, Cougar Town, Crave, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Deadliest Catch, Desperate Housewives, Destination Truth, Entourage, Eureka, Fact or Faked, Falling Skies, Fairly Legal, Family Guy, Flipping Out, Food Feuds, Food Network Challenge, Food Network Star, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters Academy, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Lab, Glee, Gossip Girl, Great Food Truck Race, Grey's Anatomy, Happy Endings, Haunted Treasure, 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, The Killing, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, Louie, Mad Men, Man v. Food Nation, The Middle, Mike and Molly, Modern Family, Necessary Roughness, New Girl, Next Iron Chef, The Office, One Tree Hill, Outside the Lines, Parks & Recreation, Private Practice, Project Runway, Psych, Raising Hope, Real Time With Bill Maher, Restaurant Impossible, Revenge, Ringer, Rocco's Dinner Party, Royal Pains, Rules Of Engagement, Sanctuary, Saturday Night Live, The Secret Circle, Shear Genius, So You Think You Can Dance?, Sons of Anarchy, The Soup, Suits, Suburgatory, Supernatural, Table For 12, Terra Nova, Top Chef, Top Chef Just Desserts, Top Chef: Masters, Top Design, Torchwood, Tosh.0, True Blood, Up All Night, The Vampire Diaries, The Voice, The Walking Dead, Warehouse 13, Web Soup, Wilfred, Worst Cooks In America,

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





Next Wednesday is my 9 year wedding anniversary. I love you more every day, Tina…





We'll be back next week with all the news from the last seven days.

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, TVline.com & Deadline.com.