Posted Nov 19th 2009 2:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
There's something a little unnerving about the fact that the
Primetime Emmys float. Not the award statuette itself. No, that would be like an anchor in the water. I'm talking about the date for the Emmys.
The 2010 Primetime Emmys will be on Sunday, August 29, on NBC. The 2009 Primetime Emmys, lest you forgot already, were September 20. The date of the Emmys floats around depending on which network is broadcasting the show.
NBC has a steady date with the NFL on Sunday nights during football season. NBC
Football Night in America in the network's top-rated show. The top. Number one. That means there's no way that the Peacock was going to give up a Sunday night game for the Primetime Emmy broadcast.
So, using their power, the network simply declared that the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards will be held in August. They pulled this same stunt in 2006, so the folks at NATAS (the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences) weren't stunned.
Continue reading The Emmys are coming, the Emmys are coming ... in August
Posted Nov 13th 2009 9:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Casting, Emmys, Reality-Free
There's reason to be hopeful about
All My Children's move to Hollywood. Oh, yes, Thorsten Kaye has decided not to go -- bye, bye Zach -- but there's a list of stars lining up for the anniversary that's pretty spectacular.
In honor of
All My Children's 40th Anniversary, Julia Barr is coming back as Brooke English. Also
slated to appear are a bunch of other former AMC stars, including Eva LaRue, Taylor Miller, Laurence Lau, Eden Riegel, Leven Rambin and the previously announced Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.
Julia's return is a big get because she was such big part of the soap for so long. The two-time Emmy winner was on
AMC from 1976 to her exit in 2006. This anniversary show will be a chance for fans to hear what Brooke -- Erica's rival for all those years -- has been up to.
Next in line is Eva LaRue. She's become a prime time star with
CSI: Miami. She did two stints with
AMC as Dr. Maria Santos Grey.
Continue reading For All My Children's 40th anniversary, Julia Barr and more will be back
Posted Oct 28th 2009 8:03AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Casting, Emmys, Reality-Free
Tuesday was
Jonathan Jackson's first day back on General Hospital in the role of Lucky Spencer. It's a role he originated (as a youngster), coming onto the show in 1993 when Luke and Laura -- Anthony Geary and Genie Francis -- made their much-heralded return. Jonathan stayed on
General Hospital till 1999, winning three Daytime Emmys in his tenure, and basically stamped the character as his own. That's why when he decided to return now, it's been a big deal.
Continue reading Lucky's back ... Jonathan Jackson's terrific return to General Hospital
Posted Oct 26th 2009 6:36PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Celebrities, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
During the recent broadcast of the
Primetime Emmys, one of the funniest presenters was
Ricky Gervais. It's not surprising that Ricky was funny that night. He's a brilliant comic actor, writer and director. I say this even after suffering through
The Invention of Lying, a film that had a wonderful premise but was a crappy movie. Nevertheless, I still think he's fantastic. And I will watch the
67th Annual Golden Globes with Ricky Gervais as host.
The NBC censor's finger will surely be on the button January 17, the night of the broadcast, because you could imagine Ricky getting a wee bit close to the line of what you can and cannot say on TV. Although he's probably clever enough to say or do something that the censors wouldn't get till after it airs.
Continue reading Brilliant! Ricky Gervais to host the Golden Globes
Posted Oct 15th 2009 10:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Music and Variety, Emmys, Reality-Free
It's been too long since Kathy Griffin has been on Bravo!
My Life on the D-List ended in August, but it seems much longer since we've had some Griffin humor. That drought will end next month. On November 3,
Bravo will air Kathy Griffin's new stand-up special, Balls of Steel.
I'm smiling already. Kathy is hilarious, by far the funniest woman on Bravo... and unlike the females on the
Real Housewives, she is intentionally funny. Her stand up concerts are especially well-done because she gets to really dish about pop culture, skewering the likes of Oprah, Rosie, Cher, Paris, et al.
Continue reading Watch Kathy Griffin's Balls of Steel in November
Posted Oct 13th 2009 7:26AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
Before
Dallas and
Dynasty and
Falcon Crest and
Knots Landings captured the imaginations of American viewers, there was a British soap import that was even more compelling.
From 1971-75, PBS aired the British upper crust soap Upstairs Downstairs. And now
Upstairs Downstairs is going to be remade. It'll be filmed and shown in England first before coming to America in 2011.
What made
Upstairs Downstairs classic television – it won Emmys, BAFTAs and Golden Globes – was the way it depicted of the British class system. Upstairs you had the rich, privileged Bellamy family. Downstairs there were the servants who worked for them. The lives of all these characters intertwined in a well-written, brilliantly acted drama series.
Continue reading They're remaking Upstairs Downstairs
Posted Oct 12th 2009 1:38PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free, Mad Men
Last month,
Mad Men was celebrating winning a slew of Emmys. One of them was for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, the episode entitled
"Meditations In An Emergency." When
creator Matthew Weiner went onto the stage to grab the Emmy, with him was Kater Gordon, the co-writer of that episode. Today,
Kater Gordon was let go from Mad Men.
Are you shocked? Apparently, the industry press is. Gordon had risen from personal assistant to writer's assistant to member of the writing staff. After the Emmy, you would think that she was in like Flynn.
However, something must have gone awry or why has she been given her walking papers? And if you think it's not a dismissal, listen to this announcement from the show:
Continue reading Emmy-winning writer let go from Mad Men
Posted Oct 9th 2009 10:57AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Interviews, Emmys, Reality-Free, Mad Men
It's hard to say that a show that's already won a small U-Haul's worth of Emmys and other awards can be having a breakout season, but that seems to be what's happening with
Mad Men during its third season. The buzz around the show has been as loud as we've heard since
The Sopranos went to black, and that's not a coincidence; the man who created the early-1960s world of Sterling Cooper, Matt Weiner, was a writer on the landmark HBO drama.
Weiner just completed shooting season three, and he took time out of his post-production process to sit down with me on Monday and talk about how the season has been going so far. I tried to get him to talk about what seems to be the show's inevitable roll towards the cataclysmic event of 1963, the Kennedy assassination, but Weiner was tight-lipped as usual. However, his observations on how he approaches events like that is an interesting read. Oh, and we also touch upon how he came up with the idea to run over a British ad exec's foot with a lawn mower, which is a good story by itself...
Continue reading Matthew Weiner of Mad Men: The TV Squad Interview
Posted Sep 30th 2009 5:31PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Interviews, Celebrities, Emmys, Reality-Free
For someone who is, as she recently pointed out, unemployed, Kristin Chenoweth is popping up in some pleasant places on TV. She won an Emmy for best supporting actress in a comedy for her work on the now-canceled
Pushing Daisies, for which she seemed genuinely surprised in her acceptance speech. That's also when she made her plea to
The Office and
Mad Men and a couple of her other favorite shows, mentioning he current work status.
Tonight, Chenoweth, a veteran Broadway performer, appears on
Glee as Will's old friend and former classmate whom he brings in to help give his crew a bit more edge. Chenoweth had to cancel a conference call interview with the press last week for health reasons, but I got a hold of her by e-mail.
How's your voice? I'd heard you weren't feeling well.Thanks for asking! I've been trying my hardest to rest my voice... but it's tough! I'm taking a couple days off before my singing dates kick in to get it strong again, but overall, I'm feeling better!
Didn't take long to find employment, how did you hook up with Glee?I'd worked with Ryan Murphy before on
Running with Scissors and new he was a genius. So when he called and said he'd written a park for me in
Glee, I was ecstatic!
What's your character, April Rhodes, like?April Rhodes is a woman who was kind of "the deal" in glee club in high school. She is a little past her prime, but she still has a voice and Matthew Morrison's character gets her to come back and try to finish. She was unlike any other role I've played, so it was really fun for me!
Continue reading Kristin Chenoweth on Glee and... The Dog Whisperer?
Posted Sep 30th 2009 11:00AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Casting, Emmys, Reality-Free
Is it even possible to imagine
The Young and the Restless without Eric Braeden as hero/villain Victor Newman? You would think not, but then
Days of Our Lives moved on without
Deidre Hall as Dr. Marlena Evans, didn't it? Still, Braeden and his alter ego Victor is still a front and center presence on the show, an integral part of the storytelling. Therefore, the news that
The Young and the Restless is contemplating killing off Victor if they cannot resolve the contract dispute with Braeden is a shocker.
Braeden is working now under a contract that lasts till 2010, and his reps have said that he would take a pay cut once the term is up. However, producers are asking him to take a pay cut now. That, my friends, is the rub. Braeden wants to help the show stay on the air, but he's not ready to take an economic hit until he has to. That's understandable.
Continue reading Will The Young and the Restless really kill off Victor Newman?
Posted Sep 22nd 2009 9:33AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
Estelle Getty, the matriarch of
The Golden Girls and general wise-ass of the bunch passed away last year. Now, her family has put the Emmy she won for her role of Sophia Petrillo in that show
up for sale on eBay. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences have strict rules about such things. If the family no longer wants the award, they are supposed to return it to the Academy.
Ms. Getty's family would hardly be the first to try and raid the treasures of a dead celebrity relative for some cash. It does seem in somewhat bad taste to sell such an honor.
On the other hand, the item hasn't even received any bids yet according to the
Variety article (although that may have changed given the increase in publicity). Is it a bigger insult to sell an Emmy or that the Emmy in question hasn't received any interest from the buying public?
Posted Sep 22nd 2009 9:00AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Cancellations, Emmys, Reality-Free, Glee
The good news is the
Kristen Chenoweth won an Emmy Sunday night. But the bad news is the she was so ill backstage she needed to be checked out by paramedics. Here's what happened.
Early during the Primetime Emmys, when Kristin's name was announced for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy, I don't know about you, but I let out a whoop! She won for
Pushing Daisies, a show – as she pointed out in her tear-filled speech – was no longer on the air. At least one of the fine actors on that wonderful, fanciful show was recognized!
Continue reading Kristin Chenoweth's Emmy night, the good and bad
Posted Sep 21st 2009 7:03PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: The Amazing Race, Survivor, Celebrities, Awards, Emmys
Survivor host Jeff Probst won Best Reality Host last night, but the big news was when he told reporters that
The Amazing Race has already won for Best Reality Competition Show seven times and
should take itself out of the running!
So, is this just sour grapes or does Probst have a point? Maybe Probst should go on
The Amazing Race and Phil Keoghan should go on
Survivor and see who can last the longest.
Posted Sep 21st 2009 1:27PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Video, Celebrities, Emmys, Reality-Free, Joss Whedon
In case you missed our
live blog of the event and you haven't been checking around the Interwebs, Emmy host Neil Patrick Harris did a quick skit starring his character Doctor Horrible from
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. The sketch guest-starred Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer and a couple of other cast members. Oh, and by the way, that particular Internet series
won an Emmy itself.
One can only wonder if Joss Whedon had a hand in the sketch. It certainly seems that way. The sketch used his sort of style and humor, particularly the bits where the screen was "buffering".
Fortunately, and perhaps in appreciation of the existing rabid fanbase of anything Whedon-related, a clip of the segment has already made it to YouTube (so TV Squad itself cannot be sued for taking someone else's intellectual property. You hear that CBS?). Hopefully it remains up there for a little while. The clip of the Dr. Horrible appearance at the Emmys follows after the jump.
Continue reading Dr. Horrible's Emmy appearance
Posted Sep 21st 2009 11:00AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Commercials, Obituaries, Emmys, Reality-Free
I'm not saying that I necessarily think Billy Mays should have won a posthumous Emmy, or even that his show
Pitchmen should have been included in their "The Year in Reality" segment. But leaving him out of the "In Memoriam" segment? You have people from every facet of the television industry, and you leave out the most famous infomercial personality ever. Infomercials are television programming.
Yes, they're annoying at times and yes, they're not as exciting as
Lost or
The Amazing Race, but it's still television. Billy Mays was famous
because of television. And he was famous. Virtually everyone in this country recognizes "Hi, Billy Mays here!" and that almost patented way of
shouting talking he had.
But hell, even if you don't buy any of those arguments, he was one of the stars of
Pitchmen, a successful reality show. You honor reality shows, right? I'm just saying, It seems to me that one of the most famous faces of the modern era
on television, and one of the most powerful men in the commercial industry, could have maybe earned a quick mention upon his passing.
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