Posted Oct 6th 2008 12:03PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Smallville, Reality-Free
On KryptonSite, the producers of
Smallville have written an
open letter to all the fans of their show. This letter is about the potential upcoming spin-off or complementary series of
Smallville called
The Graysons, about the life of Dick Grayson and family before he put on the tights and became Batman's partner.
What disturbs me most about this letter is the fact that they mention a season nine of
Smallville. Can't they let this series die already? They lost Lana and Lex. Clark is currently working with Lois Lane at the
Daily Planet (despite his lack of college education) and rather than a reference to the town he grew up in,
Smallville is now a reference to Clark himself. What more can he do without actually becoming Superman?
I admit to a curiosity regarding what sort of storylines they could run in the show to accomplish this goal. I suppose that alone would keep me watching, even though I believe it should end this season.
Posted Oct 6th 2008 10:25AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
It looks like more period dramas (such as
The Tudors) are headed to pay cable. And this time, "Booth" will not refer to a character on the TV show
Bones.
Kevin Bacon will be executive-producing The Booths, a period drama about the Booth brothers, the most infamous of which, John Wilkes Booth, went on to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.
It sounds like an interesting project. I do like historical dramas, but I'm always disappointed at their tendency to sacrifice historical accuracy for the sake of drama. Of course, when it's good drama, nobody seems to notice.
The nicest thing about being Kevin Bacon, other than being a famous actor, must be that it takes the fewest amount of steps to be in a Kevin Bacon movie for that
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game (the total number of steps would be, I believe, zero). One can say with surefire honesty that Kevin Bacon has been in all of Kevin Bacon's movies.
Posted Oct 3rd 2008 9:25AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Reality-Free
Obviously, this is in the "rumor" category, but
Elizabeth Hasselbeck might be leaving The View for Fox News. It's probably just a stunt anyway to get a higher salary. It's not likely there aren't other women of conservative ideologies in the world who couldn't replace her. If it does end up being true, it would be a mistake for her to leave.
Even if you don't agree with her views, the mainstream publicity of her on-air feuds (such as the one with Rosie O'Donnell that made Rosie leave the show and
start her own variety show. Let's blame Hasselbeck for that one) make for great ratings. Actually, she represents a demographic of woman that could stop watching the show if she leaves.
Naturally, I'm not what you would call an avid fan of
The View. Quite the opposite. In fact, if I go to Hell when I die, I'd likely end up in the audience of
The View. But even I recognize a bad career move when I see one. At Fox, Hasselbeck would be one conservative voice among many. On
The View, she is unique.
Posted Oct 2nd 2008 12:06PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, TV on the Bigscreen, Reality-Free
It looks like Yogi and Boo-Boo are going to be introduced to a new generation. They're
getting the big screen treatment in a combination of live-action and CGI, a la
Alvin and the Chipmunks or
The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Unlike the aforementioned, one can only hope that a decent script will be done before anything is committed to the screen. However, being that I have no faith in Hollywood, I doubt it.
As a matter of fact, when I think of Hanna Barbera properties on the big screen, I automatically think of the 1994 movie version of
The Flintstones. Then I shudder. The script will probably be cliché and have very little in common with the original cartoon, and the new generation will lap it up like milk. It's another pleasant childhood memory flushed down the toilet in the name of the almighty dollar.
Enough of my rant. My big question is: who will be playing Ranger Smith?
Posted Oct 1st 2008 7:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
You have to admire Norman Lear. In his heyday of the 70's, he produced a lot of counterculture television that allowed the medium to mature. And now, his production company is
producing a show about pro-wrestling in the 1970's on a network known for mature content.
I have to say that this is as how that I would watch. Wrestling was very different in the 1970's than from today, made up of regional promotions rather than the single national promotion you see today (thanks to Vince McMahon for ending that). This show is a character-driven drama about a pro-wrestling family running a promotion in New York City. I wonder if they'll get any classic wrestlers making an appearance?
Having worked behind-the-scenes in a pro-wrestling promotion once upon a time, I think this premise has a lot of potential. It certainly has the correct name behind it who understands the culture of the time. With that and the fact that HBO is its home, I think we may have a winner on our hands.
Posted Sep 29th 2008 11:05PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Episode Reviews, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Reality-Free
(S02E04) This story focused more on the individual members of the Connor team, particularly Cameron. I was glad about this for two reasons. First, more Summer Glau. Second, I think the flash forwards make for very good, interesting episodes.
At first, I was a little taken aback by Cameron's display of emotions. Since when can Terminators shed tears? I suppose it sort of makes sense given that she's an infiltration unit, but it seems kind of a stretch.
Continue reading The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Allison from Palmdale
Posted Sep 22nd 2008 10:41PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Episode Reviews, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Reality-Free
(S03E03) Is it me, or have the Terminators gotten more sophisticated since Arnold's day? Arnold never would have set a trap. He would have just pursued until terminated.
The opening of this episode was reminiscent of the closing of the first
Terminator movie when Linda Hamilton was driving in the desert.
It's funny how the actor whose life Cromartie stole ended up being (sort of) famous. Usually they try to keep a low profile. Also, despite being the future savior of humanity, John Connor is not above stealing cable. This is a lesson for the rest of us.
Continue reading The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Mousetrap
Posted Sep 17th 2008 11:06AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Doctor Who, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
The
Times of the UK has a couple of articles about departing
Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies.
The first is about his upcoming book, in which he writes about the trials and tribulations of returning the Time Lord to television.
The second is about some tidbits from his run and his choice for the eleventh Doctor.
Of course, since Davies is departing he probably has little say in who will play the eleventh Who. Having never seen
Wonder Boys, I couldn't tell you if Russell Tovey would be a good choice for the eleventh Doctor. I feel it's time to shake up the formula and have a woman play the role. But that's just me.
Why did Davies even try to get J.K. Rowling to write for the show? She must be way out of his budget. If she wrote for television, she'd probably want to create something that she would own. Having her appear as a character seems feasable since she's already done so for
The Simpsons.
Both articles are pretty interesting. If you're a fan, check them out.
Posted Sep 15th 2008 10:45PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Episode Reviews, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Reality-Free
(S02E02) The plot for the series has become convoluted very quickly. I take that as a good thing since it means the series can potentially last a few years. My favorite part remains the flash forward in this episode, brief as it was. The rest of it was good but not particularly memorable.
Who else spotted
Busy Philipps as the pregnant landlady? I keep wondering if the kid is James Franco's from her previous series. I admit she's looking a bit chunkier in the face and I'm wondering if that's make-up for the character pregnancy or the effect of her real-life pregnancy.
Time travel has certainly become a revolving door in this show. It used to be more difficult now people are falling through time-doors that are powered by jet engines much more easily. Maybe they've improved the technology in the future. This is getting to be a bigger time war than the one in
Doctor Who.
Continue reading The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Automatic for the People
Posted Sep 15th 2008 12:03PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
It was reported way back in 2006 that
Spaceballs was being made into an animated series. Well, the wait is over.
The promo is available online (It's definitely NSFW. It's also in Quicktime format and not embedded in a Flash application like you usually see nowadays). Further details of the show can be found on the
official G4 site (Please note the series has already been shown on
Canada's Super Channel).
I have a sick mind that laughs at things aimed at the lowest common denominator, so I found the promo to be funny. The animated Princess Vespa is certainly more, uh, accented than Daphne Zuniga was in the original movie (talk about
Major Boobage).
I'm ecstatic that Mel Brooks himself is providing the voices of his characters from the movie in the animated version. This has been in development for a long time. I'm a tremendous fan of the original movie (and of Brooks' work in general) so I can only hope and pray that this doesn't suck on the level of the animated
Clone Wars.
Posted Sep 12th 2008 1:01PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
With
Battlestar Galactica wrapped and done with, Katee Sackoff is moving on with her career. She has been cast in
a detective drama for NBC called Lost and Found about a cop who is sent to the basement as punishment to handle cases that nobody else wants.
Sackoff was excellent in her Starbuck role in
Battlestar Galactica and I'm very much looking forward to the final episodes in January. She put on such a good performance, in fact, that I hope she isn't typecast as an unstable woman (her role in
Bionic Woman was somewhat reminiscent. Her episodes of
Nip/Tuck haven't been broadcast yet so I can't comment on them).
There is also the premise of this show. It's one which I've seen before, most notably with
The X-Files. Maybe NBC is trying to get that demographic. Will this be another one of those subtle sci-fi shows, such as
Lost? If so, I can understand the casting choice since they'd want to pull in the sci-fi fans and Katee would be a familiar face to that bunch. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Posted Sep 11th 2008 4:40PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Doctor Who, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
This is being reported by the British "newspaper" The Sun, so I urge you to consider the source before going mad with anticipation. The Sun first reported that
Catherine Tate, Bernard Cribbins and John Simm would revisit their roles as Donna, Wilf and The Master respectively in one of the upcoming
Doctor Who specials slated for 2009. Later, it reported that
Paul McGann would return as the Doctor in a flashback capacity.
I would love for any of that to happen. Particularly McGann's return. But, it's The Sun. They're made it standard operating procedure to publish unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources. Much as I wish these were true, I'm not going to hold my breath unless I hear it from some sort of official source. Preferably the BBC.
Still, considering that I'm mentioning the articles here and including links back to the originals, we can conclude that this method of cheap publicity works. Bravo to The Sun! Thanks for eventually disappointing millions of
Doctor Who fans worldwide.
Posted Sep 11th 2008 1:23PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Reality-Free
The MPAA has warned the FCC
against allowing cable subscribers a la carte pricing for their cable channels. This was done in reaction to several consumer rights groups feeling that the current bundling method of pricing was against the spirit of the First Amendment.
The television networks (and, by extension, the cable companies) and the MPAA have been in bed with each other since the word "television" entered our lexicon. I learned in a marketing class that the majority of advertisements for any movie are found on television and they tend to be broadcast on Thursday nights when people are deciding what to do with their weekend.
Continue reading The MPAA doesn't want you to pick your cable stations
Posted Sep 10th 2008 9:23PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Reality-Free
In a move that will cause cardiac arrest in the millions of Joss fans out there, production has
temporarily halted on Joss Whedon's new series Dollhouse so the man himself can work on some scripts.
The production is only halted for two weeks, so it's hardly going to affect the proposed premiere in January 2009. It's interesting how close this event occured to Fox's
temporary shutdown of the new season of 24. The two shows are even going to be on the same channel on the same night. I wonder if the two shutdowns are related?
I admit I was worried about the future of this series when the Writer's Strike happened. I thought it would be lost in the shuffle. For that matter, I was worried that Joss Whedon would stick to other projects and never create another television series again. And I'm
still worried that this is a sci-fi show on Fox and that's a dangerous combination.
I'm looking forward to this show. Hopefully, Fox won't prematurely cancel it.
Posted Sep 10th 2008 1:22PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free
In a move that should come as no surprise to anybody, Pamela Anderson has stripped off her clothes yet again. This time on
The Ellen Degeneres Show. No, she didn't get completely nude (or even wear a flesh-toned swimsuit as she did on
Saturday Night Live). She remained in a somewhat television-safe bikini
to show off her rockin' 41-year-old body.
Um, how do I react to this? She's still got the curves, but the move smacks of desperation. She's trying to generate publicity for herself and whatever current project she's working on. Or maybe she's trying to get more work. She is getting up there in age. In Hollywood years, she's ancient. The whole "Hollywood beach bunny blonde" image doesn't work so well when you're in your 60's. At that point, she may have to rely on her talent.
The video is after the jump. I leave it to your discretion as to whether or not it's safe for work.
Continue reading Pamela Anderson takes off her clothes for Ellen - VIDEO
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