Posted Aug 19th 2008 10:03AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Children, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
Let it be known that my son knows a good thing when he sees it. He's 14 now, but between the ages of six and 10, he was obsessed with
Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, a
Cartoon Network show that just earned an Emmy. Character designer
Ben Balistreri won in the
juried award category for individual achievement in animation for the "Mondo Coco" episode.
I would see the show in passing and think, what the heck is this? It just looked so weird, and the animation is practically primitive compared to today's CG standards. But the concept is somewhat more complicated.
In the
Foster's universe, imaginary friends become physical beings the instant a child imagines them. An Imaginary Friend is completely real and can be seen, heard, and felt by all under most circumstances. The only problem is that children outgrow them, and they're left to fend for themselves.
Continue reading Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends wins Emmy, kudos from my son
Posted Aug 17th 2008 1:04PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Programming, OpEd, Survivor, Early Looks
I was searching around for something interesting to write about tonight and came across a piece on
Human Wrecking Balls, a new series premiering on
G4 this fall.
According to
the G4 Web site, the show features brothers Craig and Paul Pumphrey (combined weight: 550 lbs.), who demolish everything from boats and cars to houses and bars using Only Their Bare Hands. (Picture
Tim the Tool Man doing his "Arr, arr, arr" here.)
"Guys seem to have an innate fascination with watching demolition," says Neal Tiles, President of G4. "Add to this the science behind it and the idea of two brothers doing all the demolition physically, and we think
Human Wrecking Balls is an excellent addition to our programming line-up."
Continue reading Human Wrecking Balls -- What's next? The Coliseum?
Posted Aug 15th 2008 10:39AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, OpEd, Grey's Anatomy, Short-Lived Shows, Criminal Minds, Cancellations, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free, Army Wives
I can't decide if this is good news or bad news.
Moonlight star
Alex O'Loughlin is staying at CBS.
Unless you've been in another galaxy for the past year, you know that the Aussie actor cultivated an enormous fan base with his role as vampire P.I. Mick St. John on CBS'
Moonlight. The uproar caused by the cancellation of the show in May can still be heard, well, in another galaxy.
At the
Television Critics Association press tour in July,
CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler said the popularity of
Moonlight was
due in large part to O'Loughlin's fan base. So I can appreciate the fact that CBS wants to keep him around. But it's what they'll do with him that has me worried.
Continue reading Alex O'Loughlin inks deal with CBS...now if they could just create a show like Moonlight...
Posted Aug 14th 2008 9:38AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Programming, OpEd, Celebrities
Oh, boy! Another opportunity to watch the rich and famous doing rich-and-famous stuff! Well, you know what? I talk to enough celebs to know that most of them are a lot like us. Only with more money, more problems, and way less privacy.
But I digress ... The object of my thoughts is a new celebreality show from
NBC and Granada America. Each episode of
Celebrity Come Dine With Me (working title, subject to change)
will feature a big star hosting a dinner party for four of their fabulous friends. At the end of the evening, the party will be judged by its presentation, food, and entertainment value.
The show is based on a format owned by Granada and has aired in 16 countries, including the U.K., where it's aired for four seasons since 2005. But most of those shows have featured non-famous contestants. What fun is that? It'd be like eating dinner at your neighbor's house.
Continue reading Dinner with a celeb! Ok, not really, but you can watch it on TV
Posted Aug 13th 2008 9:01AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Programming, OpEd, Ugly Betty, Reality-Free
This seems like an odd one.
ABC is bringing the 2002
Jennifer Lopez movie
Maid in Manhattan to the small screen.
I'm a sucker for romantic comedies, and I actually liked the movie (probably one of the few who did). But even I think it's a weird project to be
adapting into a TV series.
The movie features Lopez as Marisa Ventura, a struggling single mom from the Bronx who works as a maid at a posh Manhattan hotel.
Ralph Fiennes plays a rising politician who mistakes her for a wealthy socialite. They fall in love, yada, yada, yada. Those two stars had very little chemistry (and yet I still liked the movie).
Continue reading Maid heads to ABC: Are there no new ideas in Hollywood?
Posted Aug 12th 2008 8:03AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV Royalty, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
Ed Bernero is such a big
Hawaii Five-0 fan, he has the show's theme song as his ringtone. But that's not all.
The
Criminal Minds exec producer is also creating a new version of the classic show that starred
Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett, head of an elite branch of the fictional Hawaii State Police. The show won two Primetime Emmys and ran on CBS from 1968 to 1980 (Really?! It ran that long?!).
According to
The Hollywood Reporter, the new version
will feature McGarrett's son as top cop. Bernero says he won't try and re-invent the series, and will "keep as much of the original show as possible."
Okay, let's think about this. Who looks enough like Jack Lord to play his son? (Of course, he'll have to have the same immovable, thick mane.) Jake Gyllenhaal? Kyle MacLachlan? How about Peter Krause?
Dirty Sexy Money can't last much longer, can it?
Continue reading Book 'em, Danno! Hawaii Five-0 2.0 on the way
Posted Aug 10th 2008 10:03AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, The Office, Reality-Free
You know, I've always wondered about Creed's background. We know he was with the 1960's band The Grass Roots, he runs a fake I.D. business with a laminating machine stolen from the police department, he faked his own death so he could get benefits, he keeps bean sprouts in his desk, and he's been homeless.
Now maybe we'll get to learn even more about his background. In a major time-slot coup, it looks like a one-hour episode of
The Office will air
directly following the Super Bowl on Feb. 1, 2009. Exec producer
Paul Lieberstein said these longer eps offer a great opportunity to delve into the characters:
Continue reading The Office: Will we learn more about Creed's background?
Posted Aug 8th 2008 8:08AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: TV Royalty, Programming, OpEd, American Idol, Music and Variety, Celebrities, Talk Show, Host, Emmys, Reality-Free
In the Lame Title Department,
ABC's annual New Year's Eve show will now be called
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest.
I dunno...couldn't they have come up with something snappier? Like maybe
Dick and Ryan's New Year's Rockin' Eve ... oh never mind.
Anyway, it's old news that
Ryan Seacrest has been co-hosting the show for the past three years with
Dick Clark, who
suffered a stroke several years ago. But now
Seacrest has his name in the title, so I guess it's official.
Continue reading Ryan Seacrest's name added to New Year's Rockin' Eve
Posted Aug 6th 2008 8:03AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, CSI, Casting, Reality-Free
CSI fans have been clutching their hearts in agony upon learning that
William Petersen would be
leaving the role of brainy crimebuster Gil Grissom. I don't watch
CSI regularly, and even
I know that he's the heart of the show.
Petersen will be returning for occasional guest appearances, but will the show ever be the same? Maybe not, but it doesn't have to die a slow, painful death either.
Laurence Fishburne is in talks to
succeed Peterson as the star of the show, and I think he has the chops to do it. His monologue in the feature film
Bobby gave me goosebumps and turned me into a diehard fan.
Continue reading Laurence Fishburne in talks for CSI
Posted Aug 5th 2008 7:33AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Weeds, Reaper, Reality-Free, Mad Men
Hey, let's all mark our calendars, because it's a big day in the TV world. Now all the people who aren't watching
According to Jim on TV can
not watch it on DVD.
Season one of the
ABC comedy (it's a comedy, right?) will be released on Oct. 21, 2008. It's part of a deal ABC Studios inked with Lionsgate Home Entertainment to distribute select titles on DVD. Season one of
Reaper is next on Nov. 4, followed by
Boy Meets World (which was
discontinued in 2006),
Hope and Faith, and
8 Simple Rules.
That's interesting, because I've got Season one of
8 Simple Rules here (no, I didn't buy it, a publicist sent it to me), and it's from Buena Vista Home Entertainment. So Lionsgate must be taking over distribution.
Continue reading According to Jim on DVD. Yippee.
Posted Aug 2nd 2008 2:13PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Lost and Found is one of those projects that's been swirling around in the ether for the past couple of years. Chris Levinson penned the one-hour script for
NBC a year and a half ago. When the network's old regime passed on the project, it got lost in the shuffle. But now it's been found again, because
the network recently gave it the green light.
The story, from Wolf Films and Universal Media Studios, centers on Tessa, a quirky, offbeat female LAPD detective who gets sent to the basement to work on John and Jane Doe cases. That's what happens to cops who butt heads with the higher-ups.
But Levinson says don't expect another slick
CSI-type drama. "There are exposed pipes, it's grimy and dingy, and can't be further from the glossy '
CSI' shows."
Continue reading NBC picks up Lost and Found
Posted Jul 30th 2008 12:05PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Casting, Reality-Free
Josh Lucas has been working in the film and TV industry since 1990, but he first came into my line of vision with 2002's
Sweet Home Alabama, where he traded barbs with
Reese Witherspoon. He shot to the top of my list with 2006's
Glory Road, a great film in which he played Don Haskins, the Texas coach who shepherded an all-black team to the NCAA championship.
Now I'll get to see more of Lucas, because
he's been tapped to star in Possible Side Effects, a
Showtime drama pilot written and directed by
Tim Robbins.
The show centers on the Hunts, a dysfunctional family running a pharmaceutical company enmeshed in controversy. Lucas will play Max Hunt, who tries to keep the family and business together as the drug industry falls under more and more scrutiny.
Continue reading Possible Side Effects for Josh Lucas
Posted Jul 28th 2008 5:39PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Sparkly dresses, disco tunes, platform shoes, Studio 54... it's all about the 1970's in
Showtime's new drama,
Studio, which centers on
the iconic New York nightclub that brought it all home.
Bryan Singer -- undoubtedly one of the busiest guys in Hollywood -- is in talks to direct the pilot, with writer Chad Hodge and
Hairspray producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron helming the project.
Studio will begin in the months leading up to the club's April 1977 opening. Though fictional, the series will revolve around the real-life co-founder of the club, the flamboyant
Steve Rubell.
Continue reading Bryan Singer in talks to direct Studio 54 pilot
Posted Jul 27th 2008 9:02AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, OpEd, Cancellations, Reality-Free
I watched
Tell Me You Love Me a few times, but it never had enough
oomph to bring me back every week. I guess a lot of viewers felt that way, because
HBO decided not to renew it for a second season.
The sex-drenched show followed the lives of couples in therapy and was probably one of the most sexually explicit shows on TV. I have friends who watched it religiously, and some say they felt uncomfortable not so much with the sex, but because it felt like they were eavesdropping on peoples' darkest secrets.
Continue reading HBO canceling sex-drenched Tell Me You Love Me
Posted Jul 23rd 2008 9:42AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, 24, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
I don't know about you, but I'm suffering from serious
24 withdrawal. Like, to the point where I'm ready to start watching the entire series from the beginning again.
But maybe there's a little glimmer of light there. I'm not talking about the
24 movie this fall to tie us into next year -- although that certainly qualifies. I'm talking about the new series,
Night and Day, from
24 co-creator Joel Surnow and Todd Robinson.
TNT has just
given the green light to the series, a fast-paced, gritty drama about the life of an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Hmmm, sounds strangely familiar...
Continue reading Joel Surnow's Night and Day picked up by TNT
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