Two Tivos To Paradise 10.12.07: The Sopranos Of TV News Reports!
Posted by Al Norton on 10.12.2007
From brand new shows (Samantha Who?) to just just picked up shows (Gossip Girl) to shows that may not be around much longer (Journeyman), Two Tivos To Paradise is chock full of news! Click here now and you (probably) won't regret it!
Hello Friends. I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend as much as I did; when you start it off with Manny's walk off homerun at Fenway (which took place at 12:45 am), it's pretty tough to not be stellar, although it's also downhill from there. I am about ½ way through The Nine, Jeffrey Toobin's excellent new book about the Supreme Court. Sure, I bought it because I thought it was about the short-lived ABC series, but it's really good anyway.
Baseball? Books? Where the frak is the TV coverage?
Don't news twice, it's alright.
Oh Yes I'm Wise, But It's Wisdom Born Of Pain
Backstage turmoil continues at NBC's Bionic Woman, where according to a report at Aintitcool.com, Roswell creator and current Friday Night Lights show runner Jason Kattims is now in charge. Glen Morgan (X-Files) is no longer working with the freshman series, and Jason Smilovic (Kidnapped) has left after a 12 week stay as well. Executive producer David Eick continues to play a leadership role but has had a lot on his plate, producing Battlestar Galactica as well as this weekend's Lifetime mini-series, The Gathering.
This is a good news, bad news thing as Kattims is clearly a pretty talented fellow but I don't want FNL to suffer so Bionic Woman can live. Before anyone can suggest that his absence is what led to the body dumping story in last Friday's FNL premiere, let me assure you Kattims was around when that went up on the drawing board. I like Bionic Woman so far and while I wonder if it's a little too dark for the big 3, I think ratings will grow if it gets the chance to find its legs.
Everybody's Talkin' At Me, I Can't Hear A Word They're Saying Gossip Girl became the first new show of the fall to get a full season pick up on Tuesday when The CW ordered nine more episodes, bringing it's total to 22. While the show's Nielsen numbers have been low, the network feels there is buzz building, with an example being the last two episodes of GG being in the top 5 most downloaded shows on itunes. In other new series renewal news, NBC ordered three more scripts for all of its new dramas (Bionic Woman, Life, Chuck, and Journeyman>), and while that is not the same thing as ordering the episodes, it's a good sign. Also getting new script orders were CBS' Cane and the CW's Aliens In America.
I am on the record as greatly enjoying Gossip Girl for the way it embraces its ludicrousness. Let's run down the list: actors who look at least 5 years too old to be playing high school students? Check. Teens spouting off dialogue that rings of what a writer wishes they talked like when they were 15? Check. Enough sex and drinking to make Paris want to party with this bunch? Check. There is always room on television for pure mindless entertainment, where you know it's bad but you watch it anyway because it's fun, and where the people making the show aren't trying to define a generation as much as provide an hour long diversion from the real world. Currently that slot on my Tivo Season pass is filled by Gossip Girl.
Revvin' Up Your Engine, Listen To Her Howlin' Roar
Less than a month into the new fall season and rumors of cancellation are already circling around several shows. Fox was the first to pull a new show, yanking the reality series Nashville after just two airings. ABC's Big Shots has not had a good first two weeks, including a huge loss of viewer ship during the second half of last week's episode. Back To You has had a steadily decreasing audience over it's first few weeks, but the network show with the greatest chance for an early benching is NBC's Journeyman, which was down 16% from week two and lost 35% of the lead-in provided by Heroes.
If Fox stayed with Till Death and The War At Home for more than a full year, there is no way they are pulling the plug on the high powered cast of Back To You. The same goes for Big Shots – you read in this space last week about ABC continuing to tinker with the show (the first Rob Thomas penned episode is later this month). Considering how frustrated NBC was with Studio 60 last year constantly unable to take advantage of the Heroes lead-in, I would think they might have a quick trigger finger this year, although the news mentioned above about the script order shows they are not ready to give up just yet.
Touch Me, It's So Easy To Leave Me
Even thought we're already in mid-October, ABC is still bringing out new shows. Women's Murder Club, based on a series of best selling novels James Paterson, debuts tonight at 9, and the Christine Applegate amnesia comedy, Samantha Who? premieres Monday at 9:30.
Much to my surprise, Women's Murder Club is actually pretty entertaining. These stories of four professionals (a cop, a DA, a medical examiner, and a reporter) don't break a ton of new ground in terms of the mysteries themselves but what is noteworthy is the show has four female leads without making a big deal about it; the show isn't about these characters being women, it's about these four characters who are women. Angie Harmon finally gets to prove she can do more than carry Sam Waterston's briefcase and Laura Harris is also a stand out. Yes, there are some Grey's Anatomy moments but since this is based on Patterson's novels, the gruesome crime scenes to balance them are never far off.
Finally, a quality new sitcom! After sitting through Back To You, Carpoolers, Cavemen, and The Big Bang Theory, I had started to think that this was going to be the worst year ever for adult comedies (Aliens In America is fantastic but more of a family show), and then along comes a charming surprise like Samantha Who?. Applegate, who proved her TV chops with her Emmy winning Friends guest spots (we're pretending Jesse never happened), stars as the title character, an amnesiac struggling to balance who she thinks she is with the bitch she keeps finding out she was; think Regarding Henry played for laughs. The supporting cast shines, in particular Kevin Dunn and Jean Smart as her parents, What About Brian's Barry Watson as her ex, and the wonderful Melissa McCarthy as her wanna-be best friend. Samantha Who? gives cute a good name and is the best new sitcom of the year.
I'm Looking For A New Love, Baby, A New Love, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
With the looming writers strike in the coming months, the networks are getting aggressive in their development of new shows. HBO followed up last week's two new shows by ordering a pilot for Intelligence, a comedy about two elite spies (Alias' Bradley Cooper and King Of Queen's Patton Oswald) who go undercover as civil servants. FX signed Forest Whitaker to executive produce and direct a new drama about an arms dealer and Kurt Sutter (The Shield) to executive produce Forever Sam Crow, set in the world of Northern California biker gangs. ABC is working with Stranger Than Fiction writer Zach Helm to do Rockville 2020, a quirky comedy about a small town that hopes to make it big by making a bid to host the Olympics, and NBC got into the act by ordering a pilot script for Outsourced, a sitcom where a recently fired customer support rep goes to India to help the guy who took his job.
Anything that gets Patton Oswald on my TV screen more is ok by me. Look for a lot more of these deals in the next few weeks as the threat of a strike is taken quite seriously. Also expect more stories about networks stocking up on new reality programming as well. I will gladly chip in a few bucks towards a contract settlement if it means I won't have to watch Deal Or No Deal every night. 30 Rock may have been frighteningly close to the truth with last week's MILF Island and Are You Stronger Than A Dog. What's up with two biker shows in two weeks (last week I told you about HBO's new 1%)? Has all of Hollywood been Netflixing The Born Losers all of a sudden?
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…Top Chef 3's finale was up 25% from season two…Law And Order: Criminal Intent's USA debut was the most watched cable show on Thursday…CSI topped Grey's overall, with Grey's winning the demos. Why do I get the feeling this will be the same story all year?...The season premiere of 30 Rock was up 53 % from last fall's finale. Winning an Emmy helps, although not as much as Jerry Seinfeld…While Moonlight topped Friday Night Lights for total volume, they tied in the demos, and FNL as up over 200,000 from last Spring's finale…All of CBS Friday night line up saw an increase in their numbers, while the second Las Vegas featuring Tom Selleck dropped 18%...The Naked Brothers Band movie on Nickelodeon - Battle Of The Bands – was the week's most watched show for kids between 2 and 14…Desperate Housewives continues to be the Sunday ratings heavyweight champion, while the premiere of the CW's Life Is Wild was the Peter McNeely of the night…The How I Met Your Mother-Big Bang Theory combo continues to do well for CBS on Mondays, with Chuck finishing second in the 8:00 hour, and Prison Break in at third…<>bHeroes has lost almost 25% of it's total audience from the season premiere but is still winning it's time slot in the key demos…ESPN's <>bMonday Night Football telecast of the Bills-Cowboys game topped High School Musical 2 as the most watched cable broadcast of 2007…House continued to dominate Tuesdays, topping Dancing With The Stars in both total audience and key demos…Thanks to Cavemen and Carpoolers dropping 20%, Bones jumped back to second place for the 8:00 hour, trailing the ratings juggernaut that is NCIS…
All The Young Dudes Carry The News
Industry Notes, Pilot Updates, & Casting News…ESPN bought the rights to show the first two days of The Masters. Seen on USA for the last 26 years, the Thursday and Friday rounds of the golf tournament will air on ESPN before switching over to CBS for the last two days of coverage…Seth Green will appear in two episodes of Grey's Anatomy later this year…TNT's new advertising drama got a new cast member this week when Boston Legal's Monica Potter signed on…In celebration of (and as a lead in to) it's 100th episode, Fox will air a Family Guy retrospective on Sunday, November 4th…Gary Sinise signed a one year contract extension and will now be with CSI: NY thorough 2011. That last season will pay him roughly $5 million, or over $200K per episode…With Dr. Tancredi's severed head in a box (a la Seven), it's a safe bet that Sarah Wayne Callies is not returning to Prison Break…If I wasn't already a major Brothers And Sisters fan, word that Lyle Lovett will guest as himself puts it over the top…Speaking of B & S, Chevy Chase has signed on to play Nora's high school sweetheart…The final and best bit of news about the Walker clan is that Two Tivos favorite Steven Weber is going to be joining the show as a romantic interest for Sarah (Rachel Griffiths)…Sofia Vergara (Knights Of Prosperity) is doing multiple episodes of Dirty Sexy Money…The Sci-Fi network has ordered a season of International Ghost Hunters…Carly Pope (Dirt, Popular) is the latest to jump on to 24, which continues to have the largest cast of any show on TV…ABC Family picked up a third season of Kyle XY. In other Kyle XY news, Ally Sheedy will be appearing in the last three episodes of this season…USA is developing a series based on the movie/book, Thank You For Smoking, although it will most likely have a different title…Possible Side Effects, written and directed by Tim Robbins, got a pilot order from Showtime…Bradley Whitford and Neve Campbell are staring in Burn Up, an upcoming mini series on BBC that focuses on global warming by way of a thriller…FX picked up a second season of Damages…Live With Regis And Kelly will go 3-D for it's upcoming Halloween episode…
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…Lifetime's Side Order Of Life is overall a pretty solid show but the ongoing storyline of Vivy's cancer and the incredible performance of Diana-Maria Riva are taking it to shockingly good levels. The episode before this weeks two hour season finale found Vivy having trouble dealing with friends who can't understand what she's dealing with and attending a support group for people in their 20's and 30's with cancer, and there wasn't even a trace of a false note. From practical things like wigs because of hair loss and new shoes because of how weak chemo can make your body to some bigger issues, like holding on to your sense of sexuality and how to tell your friends that they are smothering you with support, Riva's Vivy is breaking new TV ground every week. You'd have to go back to 30something to find a TV show having one of it's characters live with cancer, as opposed to dealing with it as a death sentence or having a cancer scare as a one episode plot device, and I don't know of any television show that has done it better, 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…Boston Legal is off to it's best start in years, with a strong mix of good cases and the outrageousness that the show is famous for…I love Brothers And Sisters, in particular Dave Annabelle, but Sally Field's Nora has become more screechy, more annoying, and more unrealistic with each passing episode. That aside, Annabelle's scene with Rob Lowe, talking about his adjustment to post-Iraq life, was top quality…Heroes is having some issues this year, in particular with too much going on each week. They need to focus some of the episodes to move the stories along; are the brother and sister really not in the US already?!?!? As I mentioned two weeks ago, Cheerleader's Creek is uninteresting to me, and the reprisal of the famous Christopher Reeve-Margot Kidder flying scene from the first Superman movie was frankly pretty bland…Everybody Hates Chris had a great Spenser For Hire reference this week…The fact that Barney had an actual championship belt is what makes How I Met Your Mother so funny. Boy, Winnie Cooper grew up good, huh?...Chevy Chase made a car wreck of an appearance on the SNL's Weekend Update this week, although that segments clear highlight was "Really with Seth And Amy". The overall episode was not fantastic but I have been saying, "I said WE" all week, so that must mean something…I can't be the only one loving the Frank TV commercials during the baseball playoffs, can I? He does a GREAT Pacino, and while I am not exactly sure how he will work all of the voices into an entertaining weekly series, I laugh every time the ads come on…Nice dramatic turn by Melissa Joan Hart on this week's SVU…Reaper still needs to break out of the generic villain of the week thing but the bugs this week were pretty damn creepy, especially the cockroaches on the toothbrush. Also love Ray Wise's devil as a life coach…I could not have been the only one a little weepy when the patient's guide dog got into bed with him on House. By occasionally having the team unable to solve a case, it heightens the overall drama. Not really sure what the point of House electrocuting himself was but maybe they will deal with it later on…
TV Pick Of The Week
I have been throwing compliments Will Dailey's way for a few months now, with his Back Flipping Forward being my favorite CD of 2007, and now all of you get to judge for yourselves; on Wednesday morning he is doing his new single, Rise, on The CBS Morning Show, and that night appears as himself, jamming with Gary Sinise, on CSI: NY. In the past few weeks he's songs have been on Army Wives, NCIS, and The Hills, so if you've been flipping around, you may have heard him. He's doing the same song on both shows, and it's not my favorite from the album (that honor goes to Undone), but he's as quality a new artist as I have heard in some time, so do your ears a favor and don't miss The CBS Morning Show and CSI: NY on Tuesday!
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
Additions :None Deletions :None
People Love You When They Know You're Leaving Soon
Here ends another edition of Two Tivos To Paradise. Next week's column will be a bit smaller than usual but will have the bonus of being written on location from Treasure Island hotel in Las Vegas! Mrs. Tivo and I are vacationing with her folks, heretofore known as the Tivo-Inlaws, leaving on Monday to enjoy a week away from it all. I will be taking in an Elton John concert as well as Love, the Cirque Du Soleil show that uses Beatles music. Of course before I head out I will get to take in games one and two of the ALCS at Fenway! Have a great week. See you here next Friday!
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.
