Two Tivos To Paradise 10.05.07: Enough TV News To Last You Through The Long Weekend.
Posted by Al Norton on 10.05.2007
From J.J. Abrams to Charisma Carpenter to Hulk Hogan, Two Tivos To Paradise covers it all; if it's happening on the small screen and is worth your time, you'll read about it by clicking here now!
Hello Friends. I am all aglow from being at Fenway to witness Josh Beckett's amazing performance on Wednesday, and will be in attendance tonight for Dice-K's post season debut. I had a birthday this past Monday and received multiple quality gifts, plus lots of nice phone calls from friends and family. I got a great early present last Friday when I did a phone interview with James Marsters, better known as Spike. Look for it on 411Mania over the next few weeks.
Got some great new music via Amazon this week, including the new Bruce Springsteen and Annie Lennox cd's, but the unequivocal highlight was 100 Days, 100 Nights, the new disc by Sharon Jones And the Dap Kings. If you like old school R & B, with tons of horns and plenty of rough edges, this is a must own; it's the best of its kind since Ricky Fante's 2004 collection, Rewind.
The news side is coming now, nothin' is real.
This Just In
Right as TTTP was going to press, Wednesday night's ratings came in. Pushing Daisies won the 8:00 time slot easily, both in total audience and demos. Criminal Minds viewership grew by almost 2 million but it still finished third in demos behind Private Practice and Bionic Woman. Gossip Girl picked up a 1/4 million viewers in it's third week. The 10 hour played out the same as last week, with CSI:NY topping Dirty Sexy Money, with Life finishing third.
Just When I Think I'm Happy Somebody Asks Me, "What About What's Her Name?"
The industry was a buzz this week when the news broke that the potential Writers Guild strike, looming next spring, may actually happen next month. WGA members received an email on Monday announcing a strike authorization vote, meaning the work stoppage could began as early as November 1st, when the current contract expires. One of the major issues on the table is compensation for internet downloads.
If a strike happens – and that is a BIG if – you may see series that have already aired on cable networks make the jump to the major networks, NBC in particular could poach PSYCH, Monk, Burn Notice, The 4400, and Battlestar Galactica from USA and Sci-Fi, which are part of the NBC-Universal family. TNT has made the networks aware that The Closer is for sale if a strike occurs. While FX has multiple dramas that could potentially be for sale, they would require major amounts of editing since Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, Dirt, and The Riches have liberal amounts of the kind of sex and language that the big networks can't get away with. On the plus side we might finally see the unaired episodes of The Nine and Knights Of Prosperity.
Hey Boy, Don't You Know, I Got Something Going On 30 Rock kicked off its second season last night with a guest spot by Jerry Seinfeld, and that's only the start of the stream of stars expected over the coming months. It was revealed this summmer that Edie Falco will do a 3 episode stint, and this week David Schwimmer, Steve Buscemi, Meredith Vieria, and Carrie Fisher were announced as well. The biggest name signed was far and way former Vice President Al Gore, who will be playing himself.
Not too shabby a line up. Gore has proven himself to be funny with his SNL hosting duties and I can't wait to see him go head to head with Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy. Or for that matter, Tracy Morgan/Jordan. Falco will be playing a democratic senator from New Hampshire who dates Jack. There is a lot riding on this season for 30 Rock - it may have won an Emmy but it's ratings have been ok at best, so they are pulling out all the stops to try and ensure a long life.
They Were All Impressed With Your Halston Dress And The People That You Knew At Elaine's
Despite debuting to poor reviews and so-so ratings, ABC continues to invest in its new high profile series Big Shots. In September it was announced that Rob Thomas, executive producer of Veronica Mars, was brought in as a consultant, and that they had hired The Dresden Files' Paul Blackthorne in a recurring role. This week's new hires include Charisma Carpenter, Law And Order's Elizabeth Rohm, and Ryan Devlin.
Carpenter and Rohm worked together on Angel – never a bad idea to get those who worship at the alter of Whedon interested in your show, and Thomas' growing influence on the show is obvious in that Carpenter and Devlin worked for him previously on VM. It's not that Big Shots is all that bad, it's just that it's not very good. I really like Christopher Titus but they need to let him know there is a difference between acting and doing stand up. Another strong move might be to have Dylan McDermott take the perfect grooming down a notch or two; his stubble was practically a co-star in the premiere. Once they brought Thomas in I was willing to give the show a few weeks to hit its stride and the cast additions work for me. I can't wait to see if Rohm finally gets the chance to emote on screen.
Don't Lose You Grip On The Dreams Of The Past, You Must Fight Just To Keep Them Alive
NBC announced that Hulk Hogan has signed to host the new American Gladiators. Expected to premiere mid-season, the updated Gladiators will feature the same format, with regular people competing against a team of athletes – the network is still negotiating with various retired professionals to take part – for cash prizes. New twists include more of a focus on the contestants back story as well as new special effects and some high text challenges.
A dead solid perfect choice by NBC on this; who better to help capture the nostalgia of this 80's show than one of the biggest "sports" stars of the decade? If you had told me while I was in high school back in 1987 that 20 years later I would be writing stories about new shows for David Hasselfhoff (see last week's TTTP) and Hulk Hogan, I would have thought you crazy. Truth be told, I would have though you crazy if you told me that last month, too. The network's stated goal of having the 8:00 hour be reality programming all week long is moving full speed ahead; they already have Deal Or No Deal, The Biggest Loser, The Singing Bee, and 1 Vs 100 with established audiences, and I can see how AG, if scheduled correctly and run through NBC's massive promotional machine, would be a hit. Can't wait for celebrity week!
PS - For those of you not familiar with the wonder that was American Gladiators, ESPN Classic shows reruns every weekend.
There Really Isn't Need For Bloodshed, You Just Do It With A Little More Finesse
CBS is going full steam ahead in its plan to swap the writers of CSI and Two And A Half Men for one episode later this season. Chuck Lorre, co-creator of Men, the top ranked sitcom on TV, has confirmed that their team's CSI episode will focus on a murdered sitcom diva and that they are in talks with Emmy and Tony winner Christine Baranski to guest star. While nothing is official about the CSI writer's script, Lorre did tell TV Guide that the episode would revolve around a dead body.
As far as ratings gimmicks go, this is pretty interesting, and may lead to me actually watching the Charlie Sheen innuendo fest, at least for this episode. If it goes well maybe next year How I Met Your Mother and NCIS could do a similar exchange. If it leads to other networks, wouldn't you love to see Friday Night Lights written by the folks from The Office?
Everybody Be Glad Because The Sun Is Shining Just For Us
Multiple new shows were announced and/or picked up this week, including a new series that team JJ Abrams' production company with Jill Soloway, one of the writer/producers of Six Feet Under and currently working on Grey's Anatomy. Their untitled ABC drama focuses on a mobile notary who becomes heavily involved in the lives of those she is working with. HBO ordered two new dramatic pilots while at the same time renewing Tell Me You Love Me for a second season. 1% is set in the world of biker gangs and is written by Oscar nominee Michael Tolkin (The Player), and Patient 2344 is a medical drama set in the near future at a ground breaking medical research facility. The show will have multiple big names in the world of cutting edge medicine working as consultants.
I am somewhat disappointed by this news as it means that HBO probably isn't going to pick up this andthe medical series Abrams was working on based on the writings of Jerome Groopman; it seems highly unlikely that they would have two medical shows considering their limited original schedule for original programming. Tolkin is a fantastic writer and I could see 1% being a real eye opener – The Sopranos meets Stone Cold. Wait, you don't remember the movie that launched The Boz?
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 last week…Both ABC and CBS were happy with Thursday night's big CSI – Grey's Anatomy showdown; CSI won the overall battle with a sizeable increase from last year, while Grey's (down from last spring) was the 18-49 winner…All of CBS' Friday night line up was down from last year, 20% for Ghost Whisperer and 14% for Numb3rs. How could Moonlight be down when it had never been on before? Simple, the numbers were significantly lower in total audience AND key demos than Close To Home, the timeslots previous occupant…Desperate Housewives won Sunday night handily, with it's 19 million viewers being in-line with that size of audience who watched the finale…Brothers And Sisters topped Shark by almost 2 million in their first head-to-head match up…Aided by Showtime's free weekend, the season two kick off of Dexter became the network's first premiere to pull in over a million viewers. The overall numbers were up 40% from season one's average and 67% from the series premiere…Everybody Hates Chris debuted to stronger number than it's spring finale, and the new Aliens In America had solid numbers following it on Monday night…As expected, Monday night was dominated by Dancing With The Stars to the tune of over 20 million viewers…Chuck finished second in the 8:00 hour, and apparently a million TV viewers came to their senses and abandoned The Big Bang Theory, which still somehow managed to outdraw the vastly superior How I Met Your Mother…Heroes was down 15% from week one…The finale of Rock Of Love gave VH-1 it's second largest 18-49 audience of all time…People really do love Mark Harmon- NCIS kicked ass in the 8:00 hour on Tuesdays to the tune of over 16 million viewers, an almost unheard of 19% increase from last week…House topped the Dancing With The Stars results show in both total audience and key demos…The much maligned Cavemen-Carpoolers double bill on ABC averaged about 9 million, good enough for second place…Cane's numbers dropped enough in week two to finish behind Boston Legal, which in turn came in behind Law And Order: SVU…
All The Young Dudes Carry The News
Industry Notes, Pilot Updates, & Casting News…The above mentioned Rob Thomas is working with ABC to redo his cult classic show Cupid for the network. The drama, which starred Jeremy Piven as a guy who truly thought he was sent by Zeus to earth to help get couples together, stood out because Piven's performance was note perfect and the show never tipped it's hat about if he was truly Cupid or simply insane. While the lead role will be recast, the show itself will stay the same…Jon Stewart is producing a new show for Comedy Central. Important Things With Demitri Martin will debut in 2008 and be in the same format of sketch comedy & stand up that worked so well with Chappelle's Show and Mind Of Mencia…George Michael will appear as himself on two episodes of ,i>Eli Stone, ABC's mid-season replacement about a lawyer who believes he has become a profit. As you might guess, Michael's appearance revolves around his 80's classic, Faith…Best news of the week is that Eureka got renewed for a third season…Fox has ordered a pilot for a new mystery series about an ex-cop who can always tell when people are lying…All your parents out there can mark your calendars – Handy Manny's season premiere is October 27th…Lourdes Benedicto (The Nine) is joining the cast of ABC's upcoming Cashmere Mafia…Jingles, a new reality show from Mark Burnett where contestants try to make up songs for real products, got a 7 episode order from CBS. Gee, think it will be hard for them to sell advertising for that?...NBC is bring Robinson Caruso to the small screen, with a 13 episode order and fall of 2008 as a likely premiere…Season four of Project Runway will hit the airwaves on November 14th…Lorraine Bracco's first post-Sopranos project is starring in the Lifetime pilot, Long Island Confidential, as the Mother of New York cop…HBO acquired the right to Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness And The Shameful Injustices Of The Duke Lacrosse Case with plans to make it into a movie…Billy Ray Cyrus will premiere a duet with his daughter Miley (aka Hannah Montana) on next Tuesday's Dancing With The Stars results show…Malcolm In The Middle star Frankie Muniz will be showing off his dramatic chops in a November episode of Criminal Minds…Kal Penn, Peter Jacobson, and Olivia Wilde are the new team on House, meaning they are now series regulars…Comedy Central did not renew The Showbiz Show With David Spade for a 4th season…
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…I thought the 90 minute season premiere of Boston Legal was fantastic, mixing lots of comedy, the introduction of new characters, and a big murder case into a highly entertaining episode. While I was not enamored with John Larroquette's first couple of scenes, the pay off of him in bed with Shirley was worth it, especially since it seemed to be David E Kelly paying homage to the classic LA Law moment when it was revealed that Leland McKenzie and Rosalind Shays were sleeping together – I should check to see if Kelly wrote that episode, too. The moment with William Shatner and Candice Bergan on the couch was worth the price of admission, showing that Shatner's multiple Emmy nominations were about the work, not the reputation.
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…Moonlight was just plain awful, despite Jason Doohring doing his best to give the show some semblance of energy. I know I listed off the Angel similarities last week but forgot that the lead on Moonlight also drives a convertible. The special effects were bad, the mystery obvious, and Alex O'Loughlin's lack of passion in the role was almost laughable. Too bad they didn't switch Doohring and O'Loughlin – that might have made for a better show. To make matters ever worse, Mrs. Tivo liked it! Most of it is because it was about a vampire, but still, it was not our relationships strongest moment…Andy Samberg's digital short on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live was the funniest thing I have seen in months. The rest of the episode was decent, including a solid High School Musical sketch and a fake infomercial for The Best Of The Solid Gold Dancers where the concept was much better than the execution…Carpoolers started very strong – the opening scene with the boys singing along with Air Supply took an old joke and pushed it even further – but was all downhill from there. Too many different styles of humor mixed in to be consistently funny. What was odd was that it made me think of both Sons And Daughters and In Case Of Emergency, two vastly superior comedies that ABC gave less than a season to…House is off to a very strong start, with this week's episode that found House searching for his new team a nice mix of medicine and humor. I was thrilled that Two Tivos favorite Jacobson made the cut…Gossip Girl is terrible but in a way I am enjoying so far. It's every teen soap cliché turned up to 11, but it's funnier because it's not a parody….Hope you all enjoyed Aliens In America as much as I did – gentle, funny, and smart are all things I look for in a TV show, not to mention a timeless soundtrack…I have said it before and will say it again; Patrick Warburton can make anything funny. Rules Of Engagement is the definition of mediocre yet he makes it worth watching…Loved Ted's meltdown at finding out his date was from New Jersey and not New York. Explain to me how more people are watching The Big Bang Theory than How I Met Your Mother…Chris Rock did an excellent job on Everybody Hates Chris this week in balancing playing a role in the episode with his narration of the series without making it seem weird…Hope all the hype for Pushing Daisies didn't diminish the wonderful hour of entertainment the show provided…I enjoyed episode two of Life even more than the premiere, especially the pace at which they are revealing info about the case that put Charlie in jail for 12 years…Episode two of Reaper was a lot like episode one, which is good since that means "well written" and "clever" but I am hoping that the souls they battle each week will vary a bit more in the future...This is the secomd week in a row I am raving about Donald Sutherland in Dirty Sexy Money. It must be nice for an actor to know they have their Emmy submission tape done and it's only the first week in October...Wow, there was so much man on man kissing on this week's My Name Is Earl I thought I was watching Brothers And Sisters. Craig T Nelson is a steller cast addition, and Michael Rappaport shows up next week...Isaiah Washington showed his spring of controversy did not cost him an ounce of charisma in his Bionic Woman debut. Personal feelings aside, the man has presence, and he, Miguel Ferrer, and Will Yun Lee help make up an incredibly interesting and diverse group of actors for this intense new drama...
TV Pick Of The Week
Tonight is the return of Friday Night Lights, last fall's best new show and one of the top five dramas on TV. The move to Fridays should help grow the audience but the truth is FNL will never be a ratings bonanza; frankly it's just too smart to have any sort of huge mainstream success. This doesn't mean it couldn't – and shouldn't – have a long life on network TV, but if they were going to go for Nielsen gold they would have to dumb it down, and then it wouldn't be the same weekly slice of life that we have come to know and love. Tonight's premiere contains a twist that has some critics thinking Fonzie has gone looking for water skis, but my take is that it's just a couple of teenagers making a very bad decision, and I think we all know how realistic that is. Fans of high quality television should not miss Friday Night Lights tonight on NBC.
Two Tivos To Paradise, Weekly Update 30 Days, The 4400, Aliens In America, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Antique Roadshow, The Apprentice, Battlestar Galactica, Best Week Ever, Big Love, Bionic Woman, Bones, Boston Legal, Brothers And Sisters, Burn Notice, The Closer, Criss Angel Mindfreak, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Dead Zone, The Deadliest Catch, Desperate Housewives, Destination Truth, Dirty Sexy Money, Entourage, Eureka, Everybody Hates Chris, Flipping Out, Ghost Hunters, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, The Hills, House, How I Met Your Mother, Jericho, Kid Nation, King Of Cars, Last Comic Standing, Law And Order, Law And Order: Criminal Intent, Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, Lost, Mad Men, Medium, Moonlight, My Name Is Earl, The New Adventures Of Old Christine, Next Food Network Star, The Office, One Tree Hill. Project Runway, Pushing Daisies, Psych, Real Time With Bill Maher, Reaper, Rescue Me, The Riches, Rules Of Engagement, Saturday Night Live, Scrubs, Shark, Shear Genius, The Soup, Supernatural, Top Chef, Top Design, Ugly Betty, Welcome To The Parker
So we've got 9 new shows in the cue, although two of them (Kid Nation and Moonlight) are for Mrs. Tivo. I haven't made a final decision on Chuck or Private Practice, so they aren't on the list.
People Love You When They Know You're Leaving Soon
Here ends another edition of Two Tivos To Paradise. Let's keep our fingers crossed that by the time we meet up again next Friday, The Red Sox will have moved into the ALCS. Have a great holiday weekend - the Monday holiday is a great time to catch up on all those shows building up in your Tivos!
Feedback is encouraged at twotivostoparadise@yahoo.com.
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.
