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April 2008 Archives
The Magic of Live TV: Paula Abdul Hears Double On "American Idol"
April 30, 2008 7:16 AM
Simon Cowell's assessment, as usual, was right on the money. This time, though, at the end of last night's American Idol, he was judging the program itself: "This is officially," he said with a smile, "the strangest show we've ever done."
In part, it's because the Idol producers tried something new last night that was a horrible idea from the start, and became a train wreck in the middle. The idea was to have the final five contestants sing two songs apiece -- standard for this point in the contest -- but to do it in a one-hour slot, rather than a more leisurely 90 minutes.
Why American Idol, whose weekly results shows have more padding than a mattress factory, suddenly decided to go sleek and streamlined is a mystery. But not a tough mystery. Ratings are off this year, so the producers have vowed to shake things up next season, and clearly are tweaking as they go this year as well.
This season's fall-off could be due to either the writers' strike, which clearly has reduced TV audience levels almost across the board, or the lackluster level of this year's contestants. Last night's performances, by and large, were painful to watch, except for one good performance by David Cook.
But the show's big error last night was to take the judges out of the proceedings until the midway point, after all five contestants had sung their first songs. That's just stupid. Without instant feedback, American Idol becomes a national karaoke bar. Besides, the task of taking, storing and reading notes, and summarizing them quickly, turned out to be much too daunting a task for Paula Abdul.
The dispatch that came from Planet Paula last night was the biggest live TV blunder since Miss Teen USA's South Carolina representative went on and on about "the Iraq." Paula, criticizing the two songs sung by Jason Castro, told him, "The two songs made me feel like you're not trying hard enough to get into the Top Four."
Problem is, at that point in the show, Castro had sung only once. Castro, the other contestants, host Ryan Seacrest -- everyone looked at her in mute, confused disbelief.
"Oh my God, I thought you sang twice!" Abdul said to Castro, when this error was pointed out to her by fellow judge Randy Jackson. "This is hard!"
Yes, and that was ridiculous. And live, so there was no escape. Judge not, lest ye be embarrassed on national television...
Speaking of being embarrassed on national television, tonight is the premiere of CW's Farmer Wants a Wife. It's the sort of show that sounds like it could be fun, but it isn't. This particular variation has been done on TV so many times, from Outback Jack to the spoiled-girls-in-heels-on-a-farm premise of the original The Simple Life, that there's nothing at all unfamiliar or entertaining here.
Yes, one of the young city women, walking across farmland in her high heels, steps in some manure. That's no surprise -- not only because we've seen it all before on other reality shows, but because, on Farmer Wants a Wife, the manure, once you tune in, is inescapable.
Special Guest Stars -- A TV Trick That Goes Back a Long Way
April 29, 2008 8:37 AM
Robin Williams is tonight's special guest star on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (10 p.m. ET), playing a tightly wound guy who manipulates people into doing sinister things. Eventually, he gets pulled into the court, defends himself -- and the story doesn't end there.
It's a big, showy part. A bit too showy, actually. In the world of SVU, which usually plays fairly realistically, Williams' character is more like a villain from the old Batman TV series -- thinking eight steps in advance, setting up elaborate traps and tests, always having an escape hatch nearby. There's even a scene where he gets famous enough to go on Joe Scarborough's Morning Joe, as a courtroom celebrity, with a sheep in tow. And the detectives from SVU watch him on TV.
It's nice that the detectives of an NBC series make a habit of watching an MSNBC morning talk show. It's not quite as implausible as when the terrorist-hunting experts on the Fox drama series 24 keep their TV monitors tuned to Fox News -- but still. Yet the guest spot itself, in a grand way, is show business, too. Watch for Williams to be nominated for an Emmy in the Guest Actor character later this year. Doubtlessly, it was written, and accepted, with that in mind.
When did this trend begin? Not recently. Williams himself did a similar showy guest shot in 1994, when Barry Levinson, co-executive producer of Homicide: Life on the Street, talked his old Good Morning, Vietnam star into appearing in an episode. (Williams was nominated for an Emmy then, for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, but didn't win.) And it goes back long before that.
Before those one-shot or recurring roles were given their own Emmy categories, actors could swoop in on existing series, knock a guest role out of the park, and walk away winning a Supporting Actor or Actress award -- competing against regulars who toiled for the entire year on their series and character. It may not have been fair, but it was fun. On St. Elsewhere, in its first season in 1982-83, both James Coco and Doris Roberts guest starred as homeless people in love -- and both of them won Emmys.
That same season of St. Elsewhere also introduced a recurring character and actor who didn't win an Emmy that year, but who played a very memorable role, has enjoyed a strong and multi-faceted career since, and has been a star of this blog recently: Tim Robbins. In the first episodes of St. Elsewhere, he played an angry radical bomber... very, very memorably.
And long before that, Robert Altman once told me that when he directed episodes of the 1960s TV WWII series Combat, and a script called for a new character -- a one-shot guest spot in more ways than one -- to be killed or wounded in action, Altman would hire the actor a few episodes earlier, and lace him into the stories and action just so viewers would get to know him a little. Then, Altman said, the death would be more surprising, and have more dramatic resonance.
Altman was on to something then -- and TV has been stealing from his playbook ever since.
Timely Advice for CBS: Be Good to "Your Mother" -- With Update!
April 28, 2008 8:30 AM
With House returning to TV tonight, the prime-time schedule as we know it is back, with original episodes for all its big shows, for the first time since the writers' strike. The May ratings sweeps period gives us almost nothing special, figuring fresh episodes of our favorite shows is good enough. And, for the most part, that's true.
But if we're so grateful, and so aware of the value of quality entertainment series, why aren't the networks?
Case in point, since it's televised tonight and its future remains in doubt: How I Met Your Mother, shown at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS.
This is a show that has done everything it can to earn renewal. It's presented a breakout character in Barney, the well-dressed womanizer played by Neil Patrick Harris. It's amassed lots of free publicity, and extra viewers, by casting Britney Spears in a guest role -- her one positive public activity in more than a year. And Jason Segal, who plays Marshall, has gotten extra mileage, and exposure, by starring in and writing the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
So with all that, why hasn't CBS given How I Met Your Mother a vote of confidence by renewing it for another season?
The same question could be asked of another CBS sitcom, the ill-treated The New Adventures of Old Christine -- another program that does its job wonderfully, is very funny, and showcases lots of strong comedic performances.
CBS announces its 2008-09 fall schedule May 14 at the upfronts, and we'll learn the fate of these two comedies then, if not before. But May 11, just a few days earlier, is Mother's Day. Why not give the cast and creators of How I Met Your Mother, and its fans, a timely Mother's Day present, and announce the show's renewal as a happy holiday bouquet?
--
Hours after today's blog was posted, I heard this from the folks at How I Met Your Mother:
Production begins today on a new episode, scheduled to air May 12, in which Britney Spears reprises her role of Abby, the smitten tattoo-removal receptionist. This time, she and Barney team up, for different reasons, to make Ted jealous.
If two Spears appearances in a single season don't get CBS to renew the show, then something's really wrong at the network level.
One More Democratic Debate? Sure -- If Run By Some Good, Old Moderators
April 25, 2008 7:15 AM
Tonight on the PBS series Bill Moyers' Journal, the veteran journalist conducts the first TV interview with Jeremiah Wright since the recently retired reverend became embroiled in a controversy over some of his incendiary sermons, with Barack Obama caught in the crossfire. The questions posed by Moyers are certain to be one thing: substantive.
Regardless of your political leanings, or your opinion of Moyers, one thing you have to concede. Wright is talking to Moyers not because Moyers is the only TV journalist interested in interviewing him (Wright, right now, is one of the biggest journalistic "gets" around), but because Moyers will ask serious questions about Wright's faith, meanings and motives. (As they say, check your local listings.)
Moyers has done entire PBS series on faith and religion -- several of them outstanding -- so he's earned the right to challenge Wright to explain himself. But if you're measuring the intelligence of the man painted by most mainstream media outlets only in terms of fiery sound bites, one measure of that intelligence is where he went to discuss his ministry.
Some might say it's a case of Wright seeking out a "left-wing" platform to state his case. I see something else. I see Wright -- described by Obama the democratic candidate, in part, as someone "of a certain age" whose perspective is formed by volatile past experiences -- seeking out someone else with the same tenured perspective.
And maybe it's time for perspective, for experience, to play more of a part in this year's political debates.
Except for occasional primary-night appearances by Tom Brokaw, the broadcast networks have little use these days for those who helped build or maintain the reputations of their news divisions. But they're around, and active, and, in some news cycle instances, sorely missed.
Ted Koppel is laboring for cable's Discovery Channel, doing excellent work. Daniel Schorr, the only one of "Murrow's boys" still working, is cranking out pithy pieces for NPR's All Things Considered at age 90. Moyers is a PBS fixture again, and Dan Rather is toiling in the isolated but unfettered vineyards of HD Net.
The League of Women Voters may not be able to host a political debate this season -- with a woman as candidate, that may smack as much of perceived bias as the NAACP hosting one. But someone should step up, prior to the Indiana-North Carolina primaries next month, and give the most experienced journalists a chance to ask the questions.
Assemble a Mount Rushmore of veteran broadcast journalists, and see what happens. Mount Rushmore, in fact, has only four chiseled faces, but I can think of at least five for this hypothetical moderator table: Bill Moyers, Daniel Schorr, Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather.
Yes, they're all aging white men, posing questions to a woman, and an African-American, who aspire to be president. Isn't that a measure of change right there? And be honest: Wouldn't such a debate be must-see TV, for all the right reasons? And couldn't you guarantee 90 minutes of political discussion without a single mention of lapel pins?
Don't Look Now (Actually, Please Do), But Broadcast TV Is Back
April 24, 2008 8:01 AM
ABC's lineup returns with all-new episodes tonight, the first post-strike installments of Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy and Lost. The other broadcast networks present all-new episodes, too, continuing their post-strike rollouts of such shows as NBC's 30 Rock and CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. But now that the networks have rebuilt their normal schedules, will viewers return at the same levels?
In other words: If they build it, will we come?
Hard to tell. I'm thrilled to have new episodes of Lost over which to puzzle -- but even though it hasn't been that long since the previous episode, I still have a problem remembering where things stood at the last cliffhangers. Ben's daughter was surrounded by hostile forces and her mother and boyfriend were killed (or were they?), and Sayid, on the freighter, had outed Michael as a former castaway... but I'm hazy on the rest. And it's supposed to be my job to keep up with this stuff.
Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy, back after much longer hiatuses (hiati?), have me even more confused. More to the point, they have me a little less engaged and involved. In television land, absence doesn't necessarily make the heart grow fonder. Sometimes, it merely forces the heart to look elsewhere.
ABC's Desperate Housewives, for example, was stalled by the strike just as a tornado descended on Wisteria Lane, and the show was running in full creative stride. The series returned two weeks ago, picking up just where it left off (chronologically and creatively), but not all of the viewers returned with it.
Last Sunday's episode of Desperate Housewives was the fourth most popular program of the week, behind only two installments of American Idol and one of Dancing with the Stars. So that's good news, and a victory for scripted programming, right? Not necessarily.
While that Housewives episode was ranked fourth for the week, it also ranked as the lowest-rated episode in the series' history, attracting 15.7 million viewers. That's not a season low, but a low for the show's entire four-year run. That's a statistic the networks should be looking at very closely -- because it's a clue that viewers aren't watching them as closely in this post-strike environment.
And now, as I talk to people in Hollywood, what I'm hearing is that the threatened Screen Actors Guild strike, which would take place at the end of June if it occurs, is not as unlikely as it once seemed. In this climate, talk of a second Hollywood strike in the same one-year period is pathetically short-sighted.
If TV at its best can't lure viewers back to the tube at pre-strike levels, what will a second round of TV at its worst do? Sadly, we may all have the misfortune to find out.
American Idol, American Politics -- "America Has Voted, and..."
April 23, 2008 9:35 AM
Every week on American Idol, judges say the same thing to the remaining contestants: You have to bring your "A" game. At this level, you can't afford to make a mistake. Against the remaining competition, you have to do something to stand out. Before and after every set of political primaries, TV's pundits say pretty much the same thing...
Last night, CNN chief national correspondent John King broke down the votes, city by city and precinct by precinct, with his fancy-schmancy political touch screen, which is fast becoming to 2008 what Tim Russert's low-tech hard-held scribble board was to the presidential race of 2000. Meanwhile, on MSNBC last night, Russert himself was looking at Hillary Clinton's 10-percentage-point win over Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary as a setup for the next big contest, the May 6 primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, and all but smacking his lips in anticipation.
"These next two weeks are going to be unbelievable," Russert told viewers. "They are critical... Strap yourself in, America!"
Well, Pennsylvania was supposed to be do or die, too, for the Democratic candidates -- but after they both did, neither died. And long before Pennsylvania, other contests were described, in advance, as pivotal, only to emerge as just one more link in what is turning out to be a very long chain.
On the Fox series American Idol last night, Syesha Mercado sang in the leadoff spot, which Idol pundits (yes, there are such things) have proclaimed as cursed -- yet she did very well. And though, from very early on, David Archuleta's ascension to the ultimate Idol crown has been pegged as all but inevitable -- well, early on in the political campaign, so was Hillary Clinton's claim to the Democratic nomination.
In both cases, there's no predicting what voters will do, especially as we get closer to the finals. The only difference is that, when it comes to the political primaries, we don't have Ryan Seacrest standing there and saying, "America has voted, and...," before giving us the results.
Instead, we have John King.
A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Pennsylvania Primary
April 22, 2008 9:22 AM
Today is the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, the culmination of six weeks of media coverage and political moves, countermoves, gaffes and damage control. Tonight's coverage, especially on cable news, will dissect to the death the point spread, the implications, and what happens next.
Candidates appeared everywhere up to the last minute, including appearances on Today this morning. Last night, via satellite, Hillary Clinton was on CNN's Larry King Live, and Barack Obama on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. But the most memorable appearance, as has happened so often during the campaign, came on a comedy show.
Obama, courting the youth vote, appeared via satellite on Comedy Central's Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night. Unlike last week's debate, both the questions and the responses were a delight, and revealed more about Obama than his more conventional grilling in other media venues.
"Do you have a concern," Stewart asked Obama, "that you could win the nomination at the convention, could defeat John McCain in the general [election], and go to your inauguration, and Hillary would still be running?" At first, before calling his opponent "formidable," Obama said nothing -- but beamed such a wide, delighted smile that you know he adored the question.
And when Stewart asked, were Obama elected President of the United States, if he would "pull a bait-and-switch, sir, and enslave the white race?," Obama again reveled in both the absurdity and the subtext.
"That is not our plan, Jon," he said with mock seriousness. "But I think your paranoia might make you suitable as a debate moderator."
It was a terrific, smart, funny appearance on a show very important to, and trusted by, young people. Last week, both Obama and Clinton appeared the same night on another such show, Comedy Central's The Colbert Report -- but the surprise scene-stealer that day was John Edwards, who showed up on Stephen Colbert's last show from Philadelphia to turn "The Word" into "EdWords." Edwards, with the May 6 North Carolina primary one of the few remaining contests, tried to turn his clout as a former senator there into some tangible measures of respect. Like a jet ski or two. Edwards was a riot, and seemed to enjoy himself there more than at any point when he was on the campaign trail.
When a politician appears on a comedy or talk show and acts like a regular guy or gal, and gets laughs or does something different, people take notice. It may be no more revealing or significant than downing a shot or a beer, rolling a bowling ball or donning a baseball hat -- but it's no less significant, either. Bill Clinton knew that when he played the sax on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1992, and his wife knew that when she popped in recently on Saturday Night Live. Politicians ignore or downplay these shows, and their audiences, at their peril.
That's why all three presidential candidates -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain -- all showed up on the Idol Gives Back installment of American Idol. And why even the current President pops up on entertainment shows on occasion, as he did in yesterday's NBC Deal or No Deal.
What? You expected George Bush to visit The Daily Show? McCain has been a visitor several times, but Bush? In Deal or No Deal terms, that's a No Deal all the way...
More on My Newsmaking Conversations with Kyle Chandler and Tim Robbins
April 21, 2008 7:02 AM
A few weeks ago, I recorded an interview for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross with Friday Night Lights star Kyle Chandler, in which he revealed that the NBC show had struck a deal to return for a third season -- news I broke on this very website. Last week, I moderated an NAB panel with another actor, Tim Robbins, in which he made news of his own by delivering a provocative speech he had been advised not to give. Today, more on both.
Today's the day I'm scheduled to guest host Fresh Air and play that interview with Chandler. I'm providing a link to the Fresh Air website here, but the interview and show won't be available until about 3 p.m. ET. If your local station airs it earlier, just tune to public radio today at its regular Fresh Air time. As they say, check your local listings.
Also today, Broadcasting & Cable magazine prints a column I was asked to write, providing even more behind-the-scenes details about how the Tim Robbins Q&A turned into the Tim Robbins speech. That's available now, by clicking here.
So aside from keeping my promise to let you know when the Kyle Chandler interview would run, I'm mentioning and combining these two newsworthy subjects to provide a personal update: I've joined Broadcasting & Cable as a print columnist and online blogger, and am being kept busier than ever by Fresh Air.
For which, I just wanted to say, I'm grateful. Today, you can check out my latest efforts for both. Please do. Meanwhile, I'm off to Philadelphia, to play radio host.
Murrow, Minow, Chayefsky, Sorkin, Kelley and Robbins -- Six Degrees of "Mad As Hell"
April 17, 2008 3:37 PM
Paddy Chayefsky wrote a movie. Edward R. Murrow, Newton Minow and Tim Robbins made speeches. Aaron Sorkin and David E. Kelley wrote TV shows. All six of them have looked at TV and said, in essence, the same thing: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!"
Those were the words screamed by Peter Finch's Howard Beale, the newsman turned "prophet of the airwaves," in Chayefsky's brilliant 1976 film, Network. That movie not only decried the slipping standards of broadcast news and entertainment, but eerily predicted their further erosion. If there truly were a mad prophet regarding the future of TV, it was Chayefsky himself.
Earlier, in real life, Murrow begged news directors to use TV for a noble purpose in his 1958 speech, and Minow all but threatened broadcasters to do the same in his own 1961 "vast wasteland" address. Earlier this week, actor-director Tim Robbins carried on that tradition, delivering a speech so full of sarcasm, outrage and undiluted disappointment, it could have been a remake or a a reboot: Howard Beale 2.0. (Read speech here.)
And just as Chayefsky, one of TV's all-time best writers (the Golden Age live drama Marty alone is enough to earn him that accolade), railed against his own machine, so have today's quality-TV dramatists. What Robbins said this week about the current state of television, Kelley essentially said on Boston Legal last week, and Sorkin said on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip two years ago. Both, it should be noted, mentioned Network by name.
Sorkin's 2006 Studio 60 pilot on NBC had Wes Mendell, the late-night TV producer played by Judd Hirsch, going on his live sketch show to give a very serious, impromptu, Beale-like rant: "We're all being lobotomized by this country's most powerful industry," he told his viewing audience. " There's always been a struggle between art and commerce, and now I'm telling you, art is getting its ass kicked...
"People are having contests to see how much they can be like Donald Trump. We're eating worms for money!"
Last week on ABC's Boston Legal, Kelley placed James Spader's Alan Shore in the middle of a court case essentially putting TV on trial.
"I doubt even Chayefsky could ever have imagined putting contestants on a program to eat worms or raw animal parts -- or women humiliating themselves to marry fake millionaires," the attorney Shore argued. Television is a noble beast, isn't it?
"Well, the shame is," he continued, "it once was. To many, it still should be. Television took us to the moon. It let us cry together, as a nation, when a beloved president was assassinated. Its unflinching and comprehensive coverage of Vietnam served to end that war. Television gave us Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Rod Serling, Ernie Kovacs. We had shows like The Defenders, All in the Family...
"Not so long ago, broadcasters had a real sense of responsibility. They took their statutory obligation to operate in the public interest very seriously. Now, the networks look for our guilty pleasures, and morbid curiosities, and pander to those, with the hope that they'll get us addicted... Psychologically damaged people are paraded on stage to be exploited, ridiculed, taunted... And we stand to get a lot more of it, because it sells, and it costs almost nothing to produce."
He then tells the jury -- and, by extension, the national TV audience:
"The most memorable part of the movie Network was when Howard Beale started shouting, on national television, 'I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it any more!,' and the country joined in with him. You need to join in now.
"You need to go back to that room, and say you're not going to sit quietly and let these networks assault decency for profit. You're not going to stand for the exploitation of the disenfranchised.
You're sick of the networks debasing a medium they're supposed to be guardians of. Don't take it any more! Please. Please! Get mad as hell... and don't take it any more."
In essence, that's what Robbins was saying this week. Every once in a while, either on television or in front of its employees and executives, a little outrage is a good thing. Sometimes, it makes for good TV. Other times, it might even make TV good.
Latest Democratic Debate Provides No Fireworks -- And Maybe That's Okay
April 17, 2008 9:13 AM
Last night's ABC debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the first such verbal duel in almost two months, left them with lots of ground to make up -- seven weeks of "he said, she said" reiterations. But after all the shots were fired, by the candidates and by moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous, no one fell. And maybe that's okay.
Both Democratic presidential hopefuls came armed, and left nothing in their chambers. Whenever a personal issue or controversy was raised, Clinton was at the ready to pile on with additional facts or allegations, and Obama was just as ready to offer his own additional observations and information. But the overall tone, for such an important debate, was cordial. Coldly cordial, sometimes humorously so, but cordial nonetheless.
Stephanopolous, straining to ask several "gotcha" questions, at one point got a gentle scolding from Obama, who said his question was an example of the diversionary, unnecessary political game-playing he was hoping to avoid. In so many words, what Obama was saying, and the tone in which he said it, was a familiar Ronald Reagan refrain: "There you go again."
Gibson, though, was classy and on point all the way. The more you see him in action (and this includes his time in the saddle during Good Morning America, reacting professionally and astutely to the initial events of 9/11), the easier it is to believe that ABC's first-place standing in the news ratings is no fluke.
The debate's highlight came right out of the gate, when Gibson repeated Mario Cuomo's recent suggestion that the two candidates fight it out to the last primary and beyond, but pledge now that whichever of the wins, the other becomes the vice presidential running mate. Gibson asked them if they'd make that pledge right there and then -- and the long silence in the hall led to laughter, then to awkward talk of that being "premature." On that issue, at least, both candidates agreed completely.
More Tim Robbins, and Other News, from the NAB: What Happens in Vegas Isn't Staying There
April 15, 2008 9:00 PM
Word of Tim Robbins' somewhat defiant keynote address at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas Monday continues to spread. Two days later, you can not only hear the complete speech in audio form -- but can read it and see it, too, all thanks to the Internet.
(For background and to set the scene, since I was there as the purported but essentially unneeded moderator, read my most recent BIANCULLI'S BLOG.)
To assess Robbins' remarks in full context, there are three different ways to go.
To hear the speech, you can go to the Broadcasting & Cable website, which posted full audio shortly after Robbins delivered it Monday morning.
To read the speech, Tim Robbins himself spread the word -- and the words -- by publishing the entirety of his text on The Huffington Post.
And you can see Robbins deliver the speech, too. An Internet Boswell, recording the event for posterity, captured and posted full video and audio yesterday. ("Shot off the video screen on a $100 FLIP camera by AR&D's Steve Safran.") Robbins didn't give NAB permission to distribute footage of his appearance, so the four clandestinely recorded parts of his speech, posted on the AR&D website, may or may not be up there for long. But like Stephen Colbert's infamous performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner, this speech may become more notorious the more often it's posted, seen and shared.
By the way, though the tsunami of interest in Robbins' speech washed away my duties as moderator of my scheduled Q&A with Robbins, I am in evidence at one point, and one point only, in part two of the video. Right after Robbins made a raw but very funny joke about Edward R. Murrow, using language that would draw FCC fines if broadcast, he said to the audience, "Listen, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right?"
Unaware that my mike was still live (I was sitting at the downstage chair next to the one Robbins had vacated to make his speech), I said, "Oh, yeah, that'll happen."
Robbins looked up as though trying to pinpoint a voice from above, and asked quizzically, "Did someone just say something?"
Then he saw me and said, "Oh, it was you," and smiled. I explained, "I was just laughing at the idea of this staying in Vegas. But you go right ahead, Mr. Robbins."
And boy, did he.
--
Meanwhile, there was other news coming out of the NAB. I moderated two sessions Tuesday. One was a Pushing Daisies panel with creator Bryan Fuller, pilot director and co-executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld, and director of photography Michael Weaver. The other was a solo session with Sonnenfeld, talking about the future of the media as well as his outstanding past work. In neither case did I have to fill time by asking any leftover questions from my Tim Robbins session... though I had lots.
The talk at those sessions largely was more technical, playful or humorous than newsworthy, though Sonnenfeld gave a delightful (and relatively short) speech that, among other things, questioned whether today's teens were capable of "singleplexing" -- watching TV without simultaneously conversing, searching or interacting on other electronic devices.
We did learn, though, that the visually dazzling Pushing Daisies had just drawn a 25 percent audience share in Great Britain, that the Pushing Daisies first-season DVD set would be out in September, and that one of many actors considered originally as the show's narrator was Kyle MacLachlan.
And backstage, Fuller and Sonnenfeld told me the much-awaited musical episode of Daisies would have to be awaited much longer (probably until next May), and would incorporate familiar standards rather than new songs.
Finally, in my last bit of NAB dispatch before heading back home, I attended Tuesday's Lost panel with co-executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. No news there, either (big surprise, the way these guys protect their plans), but some good quotes, including the following.
Lindelof, on how John Terry, the actor playing Jack's dad, has gotten more and more screen time in flashbacks even though his character was deceased as the story began: "He's one of the hardest-working dead people in show business."
Lindelof, on the decision to add flash-forwards to the show's design as a way of teasing and pleasing the show's hard-core mystery-solving fans: "Let's let them flip to the back of the book."
Cuse, on what he saw as obvious budgetary constraints on Fox's Sarah Connor Chronicles: "It would have been better with more money."
And finally, Lindelof on what's special about enjoying a show such as Lost as it airs, rather than after the entire series is finished and out on DVD: "Having time to talk about a story only exists during the initial run."
At NAB Convention, Tim Robbins Speaks His Mind -- And His Speech
April 14, 2008 6:41 PM
Actor-writer-director Tim Robbins, who has been known to speak his mind when standing in front of an audience, was asked the give the keynote opening speech at Monday's National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas.
Then he was asked not to give it -- or, more accurately, advised that the speech he had written might be a little too preachy, scolding and negative to go over well before the 1,000-plus broadcasters in attendance.
In the end, Robbins gave it anyway, delivering important remarks, before an important audience, which bore echoes of newsman Edward R. Murrow's 1958 "wires and lights in a box" speech and FCC Commissioner Newton Minow's 1961 "vast wasteland" address -- thoughtful, prescient speeches beseeching news directors and broadcasters, respectively, to raise the standards of their pervasive and influential medium of television. (Minow's address, like Robbins', was at an NAB convention.)
Robbins hadn't planned to read the speech. Instead, after a short sampling of clips from his movies, Robbins was to join the moderator on stage and sit for an impromptu Q&A session. I was that moderator. In the picture shown here, if you look to Robbins' left, that's my clipboard, and that's my shoe.
What happened instead is that Robbins opened by mentioning the speech he'd written, but was asked not to read. He said its text would be available, eventually, elsewhere, in some other medium. Then, as a segue to the Q&A presentation, I pointed out that I had read the speech in the green room backstage, likened it in terms of content and setting to the Murrow and Minow speeches, and pointed out that a few years ago at the Oscars, Robbins had gotten a lot of heat for speaking out against the Iraq war.
At that point, many of the attendees applauded in support, and I looked over and saw a gleam in Robbins' eyes. Then somebody in the crowd yelled out "Speech!" (The guy who approached me afterward and said he was the culprit was Jim Sardar, assistant news director for WLNS in Lansing, MI -- but there may be as many claimants to this particular crowd shout as to the call of "Judas!" when Dylan went electric.)
Robbins reached into his pocket and pulled out the speech he had written, and asked if he should. The crowd applauded. I pointed out, jokingly but accurately, this would markedly reduce my role as moderator -- and that was that. Robbins left his chair, went to the podium, and was off.
--
On the 50th anniversary of Murrow's speech before the Radio-TV News Directors Association, with the same RTNDA group also convening in Vegas, Robbins carried on in that same tradition.
In 1958, Murrow said, "This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it is just lights and wires in a box."
In 1961, Minow's "vast wasteland" was his description of any TV channel's offerings across an entire 24-hour broadcast day. Watch without interruption, he told the NAB then, and "you will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And, endlessly, commercials -- many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom."
In 2008, Robbins said this: "I'm here to tell you that we don't need to look at the car crash. We don't need to live off the pain and humiliation of the unfortunate. We don't need to celebrate our pornographic obsession with celebrity culture. We are better than that."
And this, with lots of sarcasm: "We love distraction... I don't know about you, but show me a starlet without panties getting out of a car, and suddenly the world seems like a better place. Show me 'Knight Rider' drunk on the floor eating a hamburger, and I won't ask why my kid has no health insurance. Let's stop burdening people with facts."
And this, as his opener, with even more sarcasm, "apologizing" to Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and other right-wing broadcast pundits:
"A few years ago they told America that because I had different opinions on the wisdom of going to war, that I was a traitor, a Saddam lover, a terrorist supporter, undermining the troops.
"I was appealing at the time for the inspectors to have more time to find those Weapons of Mass Destruction. I was a naive dupe of left-wing appeasement. And how right they were. If I had known then what I know now, if I had seen the festive and appreciative faces on the streets of Baghdad today, if I had known then what a robust economy we would be in -- the unity of our people, the wildfire of democracy that has spread across the Mideast -- I would never have said those traitorous, unfounded and irresponsible things.
"I stand chastened in the face of the wisdom of the talk radio geniuses, and I apologize for standing in the way of freedom."
--
It was a speech Variety described approvingly and at length, calling it "laced with wry irony and winking sarcasm." Other reports from those covering the convention, at this writing, characterized it as "electrifying," "a humorous, profanity-laced attack," and "an historic moment." A few people walked out. At the end, the majority of the crowd gave Robbins a standing ovation.
Much of Robbins' speech urged an increased diversity of voices, allowing minority viewpoints and artistic expressions to have their day, and their say. By booking Robbins as their keynote speaker, the NAB ended up doing precisely that. Perhaps accidentally, but the outspoken actor hardly was an unknown quantity, and the results should speak for themselves.
Just as Robbins did.
April 14, 2008 - Extras! Extras! Read All About Them -- Finally!
April 13, 2008 10:34 PM
When I was TV critic at the New York Daily News, I instituted a recurring feature called "Extras" -- my name for in-jokes hidden within TV shows, and unearthed by either me or my sharp-eyed readers. Most of the time, it was the readers who deserved the credit -- and got it, for some 14 years, as I showcased the best Extras and identified the viewers who caught them.
Well, good news: The Daily News has given me official permission to continue the Extra search over here at TV WORTH WATCHING. And with the interactivity of the Interweb, you don't need to wait for me to cull through the mail any more. You Extra detectives can just post your finds, and see what others are catching and posting, in a much faster way of sharing secrets.
Beginning today, you can find the place to read about, or write about, Extras at the top of the FEEDBACK page. We've redesigned things so the other questions on FEEDBACK -- about your first favorite TV show, and first memorable TV sex symbol -- can also be commented on, and read, in their own dedicated areas.
One of the Extras you'll find on the FEEDBACK page is a then-and-now visual joke on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, with Neil Patrick Harris, as Barney, writing his blog in the same thoughtful manner Harris used to type his computer diary on Doogie Howser, M.D., a very long time ago. Here's an extra part of that Extra: The direct references extended not only to the expression on Harris' face, and to the Doogie Howser theme music, but to the primitive white-letters-on-blue-screen computer monitor.
Except, of course, Barney's blog had a slightly cockier message than little Doogie's pubescent musings...
So enjoy the Extras, and the rest of the FEEDBACK page. And check out the JUKEBOX page and the additions to the FRESH AIR FAVORITES page, if you haven't seen them already.
They're all part of the slow but sure changes underfoot here. And not to be too mysterious, but the biggest and best change is just around the corner...
Stay tuned.
April 11, 2008 - Talents of 12 of 16 Stars Remain Secret: CBS Mercy Kills "Secret Talents" After One Telecast
April 10, 2008 10:34 PM
CBS took one look at its new live, unscripted competition series Secret Talents of the Stars -- or, more precisely, took one look at the overnight ratings -- and killed it immediately. My question is: What took CBS so long?
This is a show that sounded awful from the start, and, once it started, got even worse. CBS was smart to jettison the series, but stupid to present it in the first place. As for the network's quick trigger finger, you can look at that as either a hasty overreaction or, as I do, a dream come true.
It was a dream, after all, I dreamt only two nights ago. Here's a paragraph taken directly from my BIANCULLI'S BLOG that ran Wednesday, the morning after Secret Talents of the Stars was unveiled live.
"Host John O'Hurley announced, at the start, that Secret Talents was a six-week series. That's a pretty nasty threat, but apparently that's how long it takes to showcase four stars per week out of a field of 16, then present the semifinals before crowning a winner. Well, that's one way, anyway. Another way would be just to cancel the show immediately, after one smelly showing, as CBS once did with its ghoulish compete-for-an-inheritance reality series, The Will. (Remember, CBS: Where there's a Will, there's a way.)"
Ask, and ye shall receive. If ye watched, ye know why.
One of my other complaints about that first (and now only) Secret Talents installment was that the only true talent on display, Mya and her tap routine, didn't receive enough votes to survive to the next round. Other than tastelessness on the part of the voting viewers, that oversight could be explained by the show's swiftly hemorrhaging audience. By the time Mya performed, there may not have been enough viewers left to cast a winning number of votes.
Only 4.6 million viewers, on average, watched the first episode, which is why there will be no second episode. Clint Black and Sasha Cohen, who advanced to the semifinals, will see no semis, and that's final.
So who won, besides the viewers?
Danny Bonaduce. He was scheduled to ride a unicycle. By not doing that, he avoided embarrassing himself on national television. At least this once.
April 10, 2008 - Welcome Back, NBC Thursday Night -- Especially "30 Rock"
April 10, 2008 9:42 AM
How long does it take for NBC's 30 Rock to re-establish itself, in its first fresh post-strike episode, as the funniest comedy on TV right now? One second. Literally, one second.
That's because the new episode, shown tonight at 8:30 ET, begins with a fake promo for the finale of the fake show mentioned once before on 30 Rock -- a show that Alec Baldwin's smarmy NBC exec, Jack Donaghy, was developing with 30 Rock guest star Jerry Seinfeld. The show concept, a tossaway punch line in that 30 Rock episode, has been expanded in this new episode into a TV phenomenon of Survivor proportions, with all the 30 Rock writers and staffers gathered together to enjoy the finale of the show within the show.
What's the name of this ersatz Survivor-style reality show? See for yourself. Here's the image, the false promo for the faux program, that opens tonight's hilarious 30 Rock:
Audacious? You bet. Especially since, in the subsequent scenes from "MILF Island" inserted into 30 Rock, the obvious target of the satire is not only reality shows in general, but NBC and its on-air promotional style in particular. And it goes without saying -- or it would, if I didn't say it right now -- that the fake reality show on 30 Rock displays a lot more imagination than many of the real reality shows on NBC.
The episode is a riot from start to finish, and three cast members -- Alec Baldwin as Jack, Tina Fey as head writer Liz, and Jack McBrayer as Kenneth the NBC page -- get a chance to really shine. Kenneth is relentlessly and hilariously moral, Jack reacts to an unfavorable story in the press by adopting a stutter, and Liz, to save her job, adopts some of the same scheming tactics of the "MILF Island" contestants.
Fey, I'm sure, always will think of herself as a writer first, but she's gotten so good as Liz that she's blossomed into one of the best comic actresses on TV. Only Julia Louis-Dreyfus, whose testosterone-fueled antics on the season finale episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine were absolutely brilliant Emmy-worthy material, performs with as much self-deprecating confidence and commitment.
So welcome back, 30 Rock. And welcome back, too, The Office, Scrubs and ER, which also return tonight. Added to My Name Is Earl, which returned last week, it puts most of NBC's good shows in one easy-to-find, easy-to-watch place. Without changing the channel, that's five entertaining shows in a row.
Six, if you count "MILF Island."
April 09, 2008 - I've Got a "Secret" I Don't Want
April 9, 2008 8:31 AM
The CBS celebrity competition series Secret Talents of the Stars sounded like a horrible concept, but I didn't want to prejudge -- and couldn't, because it was televised live last night. Well, now I've seen it, and it's time for the postjudging...
Secret Talents of the Stars wasn't as horrible as it sounded. It exceeded those low expectations, by being even worse. It's the sort of series that shouldn't have made the cut at a third-tier cable network, much less a broadcast operation once known as the Tiffany Network. If CBS puts on a few more shows like this, it should be known as the Dollar-Store Network.
Host John O'Hurley announced, at the start, that Secret Talents was a six-week series. That's a pretty nasty threat, but apparently that's how long it takes to showcase four stars per week out of a field of 16, then present the semifinals before crowning a winner. Well, that's one way, anyway. Another way would be just to cancel the show immediately, after one smelly showing, as CBS once did with its ghoulish compete-for-an-inheritance reality series, The Will. (Remember, CBS: Where there's a Will, there's a way.)
Last night's featured artists were Olympics skater Sasha Cohen doing gymnastic dance contortions (not much of a stretch, except for all the stretching); George Takei from Star Trek singing "On the Road Again" (and butchering it in William Hung fashion); Clint Black trying standup comedy (barely passable); and singer Mya showing off a genuine passion, tap dancing.
Mya was truly impressive, the only one of the four who had any business asking for the audience's time to showcase a "secret talent." Broadway producers should look her way, immediately, and cast her in something like Chicago or a Busby Berkeley musical remake. (Update: Heard from one sharp-eared person already, who noted that Mya has been in Chicago -- that fabulous film version -- as one of the "Cell Block Tango" girls. How cool is that? I'd forgotten that completely.)
She and Black were the favorites of all three judges, who were cloned almost laughably from the American Idol mold. Instead of genial Randy Jackson, goofy Paula Abdul and surly Simon Cowell, Secret Talents of the Stars gives us R&B singer Brian McKnight as the affable music guy/black guy, actress Debbie Reynolds as the "I love everybody" enabler, and producer Gavin Polone as the judge with all of Cowell's attitude, but none of his tact.
"It's your voice," he said to Takei, "that I think kind of sucked."
I could say that of this show, but there are other ways to say it. Especially in broadcast TV prime time.
The talent and judges, except for Mya, were a total waste of time. And here's the kicker: The viewers, given a few minutes after each performance to vote for their favorite, ended up rejecting Mya and advancing Clint Black and Sasha Cohen instead.
But maybe that's good news for CBS. If the only viewers who would sit still for Secret Talents of the Stars are people who wouldn't know actual talent if it hit them in the face, CBS appears to have found them. Coming up soon... Danny Bonaduce on a unicycle!
I'm not kidding. And after last night, I'm not watching, either.
April 08, 2008 - Broadcast Showings of Cable Series: Something Borrowed, Something Blew
April 8, 2008 6:42 AM
The ratings are in. The first outing for NBC's Sunday-night duo of recycled Monk and Psych episodes (first seen on USA Network) drew only 5.6 million and 4 million viewers, respectively, and only a fraction of that in the coveted younger demographic. So should the strike-induced move be considered a failure, or a success?
Yes.
It's a failure because, by broadcast network standards, those aren't exciting numbers. NBC's own Friday Night Lights averaged more than 6 million viewers for the season, yet was renewed by the network only because it found a way to share costs with DIRECTV. Even Dexter, the Showtime cable series now shown on CBS on Sundays, does better than the NBC recycled offerings. Last time out, the recycled CBS showing of Dexter drew 7.1 million viewers, a much healthier showing.
So when Monk and Psych wind up a distant fourth in the young demographic, and don't even do that well overall, that's an outright failure, right? Not necessarily.
First of all, the broadcast audiences for Monk and Psych, relatively small as they are, are much bigger than the audience levels they earn on cable. Dexter on CBS is seen by about seven times as many people as the number that watched season one on Showtime. In terms of exposure, and crossover audience back to the cable sister network, that's publicity you can't buy. And NBC's chosen Monk opener was a good one, showcasing guest star Andy Richter and presenting both the comic and dramatic elements of Tony Shalhoub's disordered detective.
In the cable world, buzz doesn't always equate to ratings anyway -- or is relative to that smaller universe. Friday's final-season premiere of Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica, for example, attracted 2.1 million viewers to its initial airing. For cable, that's a hit. For broadcast, that'd be an embarrassing, instantly cancelled miss.
But while these "repurposed" cable shows help the cable networks that originated them, do they really help the broadcast networks? When they're better shows, you'd like to think so. But what the networks aren't considering, much less measuring, is critical and audience perception of these shows.
TV critics aren't going to pay much attention to the CBS Dexter or the NBC Monk, other than an initial story on what's edited for broadcast standards. They've literally seen it all before. And viewers, too, I suspect, perceive the shows as reruns, just from another source. What broadcast TV needs, now more than ever, is originality -- not repackaging and repurposing.
Here's a prediction. This fall, when DIRECTV gets to televise episodes of Friday Night Lights months before NBC shows them, TV critics will review the DIRECTV premieres, and all but ignore the shows once they're repeated on NBC. The broadcast ratings will be even lower than they were this season, because any of the show's fervent fans with access to DIRECTV will have seen the episodes already. And NBC will look at the ratings and conclude they should have dumped the series in the first place.
That's the wrong lesson. Making that show in the first place -- like making 30 Rock -- is one of the few good moves NBC has made the past couple of years. Showing them in, and as, the second place, is a lot less commendable.
April 07, 2008 - More Shows Returning! Another Strike Looming?
April 7, 2008 7:59 AM
How long has it taken for things to return to normal after the writers' strike? This long... and longer.
Scripted prime-time series began to check in with their first post-strike episodes during the past two weeks, but there are plenty left to come. This week, we finally get fresh episodes of ABC's Boston Legal (Tuesday); NBC's 30 Rock, The Office, Scrubs and ER (Thursday); and ABC's Desperate Housewives (Sunday).
That's a total of six quality shows, five of which I watch faithfully each week. Or would, if they were on TV. (These days, I can take or leave ER... so I left.)
But talk about loss of momentum. (Okay, I will.) I never missed one of these series, but I'm hard-pressed to remember where things left off. I remember the tornado that hit Wisteria Lane, and that Carlos was blind -- but ask me what happened to Edie or Bree, for example, and I'd fail that pop quiz. As for Boston Legal: I'm not sure that it matters, but exactly who was obsessed with whom the last time we saw these oversexed attorneys?
I'm glad these shows are back, and that others are waiting in the wings to make their own post-strike entrances. (Hurry up, Lost!) But some shows, because of the strike, won't be seen again until the fall (ABC's Pushing Daisies, NBC's Chuck). The Fox action series 24 will skip 2008 entirely, and won't appear again until 2009.
That's presuming the Actors Guild doesn't mount its own strike at the end of June, and much things up even more. Let me be clear about this, with two months to go before that prospect begins looming seriously: The actors should not, must not, strike. Two work stoppages in a one-year period wouldn't just cripple television. It would cut the medium off at the knees.
There's only one kind of prime-time entertainment TV show that doesn't need writers, who struck last November, OR actors, who are thinking of striking this summer. That's the reality show -- and we need more of them like we need more global warming.
April 04, 2008 - "Battlestar Galactica" Returns with Frakking Strong Episode
April 4, 2008 7:18 AM
It's always dangerous, when you're talking about TV, to think in terms of firsts, onlys and absolutes, but Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica holds, arguably, a very distinctive place in TV history. It may well be the best series ever made based on one of the worst series ever made.
The original Battlestar Galactica, an ABC attempt to rip off Star Wars, premiered in 1978 and was cancelled in 1980. Even at that, it outlasted its welcome by two years. Lorne Greene, finally off the Ponderosa and out of his Bonanza saddle, played Commander Adama -- and played him with about as much commitment and conviction as Marlon Brando played Jor-El in Superman. And Greene was the best actor in the fleet.
(Trust me on this -- I reviewed it at the time, and remember every painful episode, including the clunky Cylons, who ambled like Swamp Things in robot suits.)
So when Lana Kim at the Sci Fi Channel (bye, Lana! I'll miss you!) told me her network was mounting a remake of Battlestar, I literally laughed in her face. After I saw the pilot, I sheepishly phoned her and apologized. This new version wasn't just updated with new technology. It was wholly reimagined, and was a darker, smarter, more challenging TV drama.
Though Edward James Olmos smolders with righteous hostility and desperation as the new Adama, it's the women who drive this show, though not the ship. Katee Sackhoff, who as a guest star on NBC's Bionic Woman was the only good thing about that recent remake, plays the fighter pilot nicknamed Starbuck (a male role in the original show). Mary McDonnell plays the education secretary thrust into the role of President, as the ragtag fleet tries to evade genocide at the hands of the Cylons they created, and who turned on them and wiped out their world and civilization.
There are Cylons who look like humans -- a dozen "models" in all, and we now know what 11 of them look like. They include Number Six (Tricia Helfer) and D'Anna (recurring guest star Lucy Lawless, who I hope returns this year), who always knew they were Cylons, and "Boomer" (Grace Park), who, like some of the recently unveiled shadow Cylons, did not. Figuring out the identity of the secret Cylons, on this show, is like a Lost fan identifying the Oceanic 6. It's all part of the mystery, and part of the fun.
But there's deeper stuff at work here. The very idea of secret cells and shadow identities plays into our post-9/11 world of global terrorism, and the theme of this final year seems to be seek a definition of humanity, and God, and even the planet Earth. Not bad, for a show so bad in its first incarnation, it was laughed at derisively.
And yeah, that was my laughter then, too. But this time, I'm just smiling -- at how frakking good this series has become.
April 03, 2008 - NBC Plans, God Laughs
April 3, 2008 8:39 AM
What I love most about NBC's "52-week" schedule plan, announced yesterday, is the unbridled optimism of it. It's actually a 65-week plan, more than a dozen weeks longer than a full-year strategy, and carries all the way to the end of the summer of 2009. It's the brainchild of relatively new NBC Entertainment and Universal Studios co-chairman Ben Silverman, who laid out the plans of his fourth-place network with pride and enthusiasm.
I didn't attend the press conference, but had I been there, my first question would have been: Mr. Silverman, given your network's standing and general prospects, what makes you think you're still going to be at NBC by the summer of 2009?
To paraphrase an old saying: NBC plans, God laughs.
Jeff Zucker, Silverman's supportive boss at NBC-Universal, has made a series of moves more disastrous than inspired since his high-rated flagship comedies -- Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier -- ended their runs, and NBC's long-running Thursday-night supremacy. With such awful attempts at "innovation" as Father of the Pride, Zucker failed to replace his retiring heavy hitters. Silverman, by backing such shows as Bionic Woman and, for next fall, turning his Knight Rider telemovie into a weekly series, has demonstrated the same sort of quality TV tone-deafness.
Tonight on NBC's My Name Is Earl, Jeff Zucker actually appears at the top, playing himself in an allegedly funny way to welcome viewers back after the strike and catch us up on where the show left off. It's nice to feel welcome, but we viewers never went anywhere. It's the TV shows that went away.
But now that NBC is back, and getting a jump on its rivals in revealing plans for fall (and winter, and spring, and summer), some of those plans are indeed welcome. The confirmed return of Friday Night Lights is the network's best move, even if NBC, to cut costs, is letting DIRECTV show the episodes first. That's a little short-sighted, because reviewers will flock to where the program first appears, and NBC won't benefit from any of the buzz. But when a show is this good, having a third season under any circumstances is a wonderful thing.
Other highly noteworthy announcements are two risky spinoffs. One is a spinoff of The Office, which might not be able to sustain the split. The other is a three-week offering, in October, of SNL Thursday Night Live, a prime-time, politically themed mini-version of Saturday Night Live, complete with"Weekend Update" reports and topical skits. Doing this the month before the presidential elections looks good on paper -- but will this weaken the impact of, and expectations for, the actual Saturday Night Live?
The NBC mega-month-long plan also includes a new series by Tom Fontana (one of my favorite TV producers, ever since St. Elsewhere). But you know what? Like much of this NBC schedule, I'll believe it when I see it. I may not like it, but at least I'll believe it.
April 02, 2008 - This Just In: 2007 Peabody Awards Announced, and It's Another Discerning Roster
April 2, 2008 10:28 AM
The University of Georgia just released its list of the 2007 Peabody Award winners for excellence in broadcasting... and what an amazing, discerning, inspiring list it is. These folks sure know excellence when they see it.
Planet Earth, the jaw-dropping nature series from Discovery Channel, got a Peabody. So did Bob Woodruff's series of touching, insightful "Wounds of War" reports for ABC News. So did Scott Pelley's 60 Minutes report for CBS about "The Killings in Haditha," a superbly reported and edited piece.
Stephen Colbert is a winner for Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, and the list of entertainment TV shows honored by the 67th Annual Peabody Awards list looks like a printout of my personal TiVo Season Pass list of series favorites: 30 Rock. Mad Men. Dexter. Even Project Runway. That's fierce!
There are 35 winners in all, ranging from local TV reports to national radio shows. The range and breadth are impressive, but so is the depth. The fact that the Peabody judges "get" such shows as Dexter and The Colbert Report means they really are infinitely more tasteful and daring than Emmy voters, and earn, every year, more of the unparalleled regard in which their awards are held.
April 02, 2008 - Networks Missing the Value of Reliability
April 2, 2008 9:51 AM
If you're watching broadcast network TV these days, you've been inundated with the various ways they're letting you know their scripted programs are about to come back. NBC plays the theme from Welcome Back, Kotter. CBS has gone from "All Gnu" to letting you know, like ABC, that you have only a week or two until your favorites will be back!
What all these silly promos are too dense to recognize is that they're boasting about something that TV audiences have a right to expect as a given. "Look at us!," the networks are saying. "We've got fresh programs! Aren't we terrific? Aren't you excited?"
Well, no. Not necessarily. It's like a restaurant putting a sign in its window boasting, "Fresh food!" You know, that's sort what we expect. And just as with a restaurant, customers have an expectation that what they're being served not only will be fresh, but will be palatable, even tasty. Otherwise, why come back?
The networks and studio heads blew it by forcing the writers' strike, and if the actors go out in June -- which they shouldn't -- it'll be another suicidal move for Hollywood. One of many, sad to say.
This afternoon, NBC is announcing its new "52-week" schedule, an expansion upon Fox's disastrous effort a few years ago to announce, at the May upfronts, programming plans for fall, winter and spring all at once. My theory is, nobody cares about anything past the fall. And if the networks aren't careful, viewers will stop caring about the fall, too.
TV viewers are creatures of habit. "Appointment programming" only works if you can count on a show being there when it's supposed to be. And while there's a certain acceptance of second-season scheduling -- Fox fans know to expect both American Idol and 24 in January (although this year, because of the strike, 24 vanished) -- the anticipation of a fall season is a half-century-long tradition that shouldn't be minimized.
It may not be the same as when hard-core TV fans, myself included, would wait eagerly for the Fall Preview issue of TV Guide to arrive in the mail, so you could choose which new shows to sample and how to plan your viewing nights. But even casual TV fans know to expect a publicity blitz, and lots of new shows, in September. Take that enthusiasm away, with a "52-week" approach, and you'll never get it back.
TV critic Robert Bianco, in yesterday's USA Today, warned, "Anyone who would destroy that tradition for the sake of cost-cutting efficiency should be in a business other than show." If viewers can't rely on the networks to be there, the networks should understand that prospect is a two-way street.
April 01, 2008 - Broadcast Networks Bounce Back from Strike With Ambitious New Scripted Series... April Fools!
April 1, 2008 6:59 AM
More scripted shows are trickling back into prime time in their post-strike incarnations -- both My Name Is Earl on NBC and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on CBS return Thursday. But as some shows return, and others are benched until fall or buried forever, what's next?
Maybe it's better not to ask...
The selection process for new fall shows is quite different this year, because of the strike, but that's led, in part, to some decisions being made more quickly. That's not necessarily a good thing: NBC is expected to bring back an updated series version of Knight Rider, based on the telemovie the network aired in February. Maybe NBC didn't watch the movie. Or didn't watch its own woeful Bionic Woman update. Otherwise, if NBC is determined to bring back an automobile that talks, it probably would do better by reviving My Mother the Car. (Trust me, kids. That's an insult.)
NBC will announce its fall plans -- and, in fact, its plans for the entire 52-week year -- in a special presentation tomorrow it's calling an "infront." That's because it's "in front" of the traditional May network presentations known as "upfronts," where networks show clips from their new wares to potential advertisers. How clever of you, NBC. Considering NBC's fourth-place standing in the ratings, and the tackiness of so much of its recent programming, maybe the "infront" should have been called an "outhouse." But the network is expected to announce officially tomorrow that Friday Night Lights is returning for year three, and that forgives a lot of sins.
Similarly, I'm very excited by the prospect of a new Joss Whedon series called Dollhouse, starring Eliza Dushku, who played the wayward Faith on his Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Fox is excited, too, and committed to a fall slot without Whedon shooting a frame. Don't blame them a bit. Wow: Something new on TV I can't wait to see...
More imminently, we have the spring and summer seasons with which to contend. Don't expect great news. ABC just announced eight original summer series, all of which are unscripted and only one of which (a new season of the fine medical documentary series Hopkins) sounds worthwhile. The others include new cycles, or recycles, of The Mole and The Bachelorette, and such fresh (?) offerings as I Survived a Japanese Game Show.
It could be worse. And it will be.
Beginning April 30, the CW network presents a Bachelor sort of dating show with a rural twist: Farmer Wants a Wife. Not Farmer GETS a Wife, mind you. These days, when not even The Search for the Next Pussycat Doll has to bother finding the next Pussycat Doll, it's not the destination that matters. It's the journey.
This spring and summer, maybe it'll be the viewers who go on strike. Or star in their own series: I Survived an American TV Strike.
