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July 2008 Archives
TV's Digital Conversion: What Will Bugs Bunny Look Like Without Rabbit Ears?
July 31, 2008 7:59 AM
Yesterday I checked out, for the first time, the office I'll be using when I become a full-time college professor, teaching TV and film at Rowan University in New Jersey. It had enough room that I requested a media roller cart, so I could house my dad's first TV set there and do something I've wanted to do for 10 years as an adjunct professor.
Namely, I want to wheel a vintage 1946 TV set into the auditorium where we teach TV History, plug it in, and show these twentysomething students what it was like to watch TV on a small oval screen, pulling signals from out of the air as if by magic.
But I'd better hurry.
I'd better hurry, because I can pull this trick only twice: When the fall term begins in September, and after that, when the winter term begins in January. After that, TV broadcasters will stop broadcasting analog signals. At midnight on February 17, the way that television was first transmitted into homes will become one more thing of the past.
There are ways to prepare for this. You can continue to use old, over-the-air sets by attaching digital-to-analog converter boxes, and the government is issuing coupons, two to a household, worth $40 each toward the purchase of an approved converter box. Coupons can be requested by phoning 888-DTV-2009, or by going to the www.DTV2009.gov website.
Newer sets have digital tuners, and sets attached to cable TV will get those signals unaffected. But digital isn't the same as high definition -- and I worry about the poorest people in the poorest communities, where cable and Internet access are out of reach, and where even free government coupons aren't likely to reach them.
In those homes, over-the-air broadcasts such as Sesame Street on PBS are among the greatest gifts, and most valuable learning tools, TV and our society can offer. How unfair is it that the viewers who need Bert and Ernie the most may soon be the least likely to be able to watch them?
And speaking of unfair, I'm kind of really messed up by this. My basement office has so many TVs that when one friend, author Kent Rasmussen, visited, he not only photographed my television sets, but numbered them on the photo he sent back. That's the photo at the top of today's blog (he also took the other photos of random old TVs around my house) -- and except for the two big ones, almost all those tiny TV sets are analog.
Right now, I can watch 12 TV images at the same time (there's one set out of frame in Kent's sarcastically numbered photo). In a few months, unless I plan ahead, it'll be two. Even Elvis and LBJ could watch more TV images at a time than that...
I Come to Bury "EliteXC Saturday Night Fights," Not to Praise It
July 30, 2008 8:27 AM
I try, I really do, to take a positive approach to TV criticism -- to get more joy from finding and celebrating the good than from gang-tackling and mutilating the bad. But sometimes, a show is so bad that its failure is, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing.
Ladies and gentlemen, the CBS attempt to bring extreme fighting to broadcast prime-time TV can now be considered an undeniable, embarrassing failure. Hooray for our side!
The first outing for Elite XC Saturday Night Fights, back on May 31, was conceived and executed so poorly that the live broadcast's main event, with extreme fighter Kimbo Slice, took place more than 30 minutes overtime. Even so, curiosity attracted an estimated 4.8 million viewers, a good showing for a holiday weekend Saturday night.
But last Saturday's second edition drew only 2.6 million viewers -- a 43 percent drop, which is more like a plummet. CBS says it still plans to broadcast the third edition, scheduled for Oct. 4 -- but since that one will come when the TV season is in full swing and competition is fierce, it's a good bet audience levels for that one will sink yet again.
NBC's XFL experiment -- a horrid football hybrid supplied by the World Wrestling Federation -- started strong, then failed quickly a few years ago. Its tacky play, and tackier cheerleaders, disappeared in 2001 after a single sorry season. When it did, that was good for TV.
Considering how awful the CBS Elite XC show is, and how its success would have opened the door to other TV sports trash, its fast flop is another cause for celebration, at least for anyone who cares about quality television.
Of course, the summer success of ABC's Wipeout makes it more of a wash... But these days, let's take our little victories where and when we find them.
No, You're Not Delusional -- The TV in TV Worth Watching Is Flickering On!
July 29, 2008 9:54 AM
Part of me wanted to say nothing, so you'd all think you'd gone mad... especially since, until and unless a few more bugs are worked out, it may be a one-time thing. But today, TV WORTH WATCHING finally implemented something my website designer, Eric Gould of Helicon Design, worked up a few months ago.
Namely, that the TV in the banner logo on the main page of TV WORTH WATCHING -- the one with my picture -- now flickers on, and rolls horizontally a couple times, the way the old, cranky, over-the-air TV sets used to do.
As someone who is old, cranky and over-the-hill myself, I find this little animated visual endlessly amusing.
But it turns out, for now, it's NOT endlessly, at least for some people with some computers. For them, for now, the animation gets stored in some cache somewhere after a single usage, and won't reappear. It's up to my website computer guru, Rich Baniewicz, to figure this one out. So if you saw the TV flickering once, and never again, you're not crazy.
But maybe I am, for launching a website in the first place. Changes are happening slowly here because I'm also a) working for Fresh Air with Terry Gross, b) becoming a full-time college professor in a month, and c) having to write my Smothers Brothers book by November. But I love what this website is becoming, and especially the readership it's attracting, so I'm doing what I can, when I can, to make changes and additions.
While we're on the topic, I may as well ask: I have two ideas regarding the daily BEST BETS, which, along with BIANCULLI'S BLOG, I consider the cornerstones of this website.
One idea is to have only the photos, titles and times of the six chosen daily shows on the main page, with a handy click-to-read button to go to a separate page where I've written my reviews of each program. On the main navigation bar, you can click on BEST BETS now to see what that would look like. But I'm afraid of doing that if readers won't click through to the reviews, so I'll be writing for nothing. (And not just monetarily.)
The other idea is to have, on the main page, an EVERYBODY'S A CRITIC feature, where you could write in -- as you do now with comments on the blog -- and weigh in on what you liked, or didn't like, about something recommended in BEST BETS, or elsewhere on the site. For example, if you watched tonight's ABC Primetime special on Randy Pausch and were moved by it, it'd be a place to say so.
So, once again, I ask to be guided by my own readership. Should I keep BEST BETS intact on the main page, or have it bounce to a new page as does the daily blog? And would you welcome the opportunity to post your own reactions to shows you've seen, or would you rather read than type?
Of course, if you hate typing, I'll never know, will I? Because you won't type to tell me so...
For "X-Files" Movie Box-Office Returns, The Truth Is Out There - And It's Brutal
July 28, 2008 8:17 AM
Just as in Vegas: you bet too often, you get too cocky, you lose big. Buoyed by my relatively accurate predictions for the opening-weekend box-office totals for the Sex and the City and Get Smart movies, I returned to the table to bet again, on the summer's third and final TV-to-film offering, X-Files: I Want to Believe.
I predicted an opening-weekend take of $50 million. I was off by... oh, about $40 million...
Yes, The Dark Knight continues to gobble up audiences at an amazing rate, but reviews for the new X-Files film were mixed at best, even from movie critics who were fervent fans of the series. But why the movie pulled only an estimated $10.2 million -- some $7 million below industry projections, and only 20 percent of my own guess -- is a mystery of sorts.
But that mystery may have been solved in advance by the TV WORTH WATCHING reader identified as Talbert, who was the only reader to come close. Only two others, Elisa and Phillip R. Crabb, offered guesses below the $20 million mark, and theirs were in the $19 million range. Talbert was much more pessimistic, and explained why:
"Have any idea how many flavors of the week have been on and off the cool menu board since X-Files charmed the fickle chasers of the trendy?" he asked. "Nor do I, but it's a lot." His prediction: "$12 million tops, and lucky if it gets that high."
The rules of the contest stated that the winner would be the person who guessed closest without going over. Since no one went under -- and since the prizes I'm offering are even cheaper than I am -- I'm announcing Talbert as the winner anyway. (No sense waiting for the adjusted totals on this one.)
Talbert, I'll contact you by email, so you can claim your prize from among such snazzy options as a Discovery Channel leather-bound writing journal and a Blue's Clues note pad. Two readers named Chris can verify that, eventually, I do send out these goofy little things.
Meanwhile, I have to slink back to my office with the realization that my imagined future career as an accurate predictor of movie grosses is not to be.
My dead-on guesses for Sex and the City and Get Smart? I now have to admit that, like one of the most memorable monsters of the old X-Files TV series, they were just a fluke, man...
AMC's "Mad Men" Returns -- And Once Again, It's a Blast from the Past
July 25, 2008 7:48 PM
I hope Matthew Weiner, the passionate and innovative creator of AMC's Mad Men, won't take this the wrong way, but I've found errors in his fabulous period drama about Madison Avenue ad-agency employees in the early 1960s.
Of course, to find them, I had to visit the set, poke around, and look closely. Very, VERY closely...
Mad Men, which begins its second season Sunday night at 10 ET, is a masterpiece of set design, period detail, wardrobe and all the other elements that immerse you so completely in that bygone era of three-martini lunches, overstuffed ashtrays and bullet bras. A week ago, Weiner invited TV critics to visit his set and enjoy the small details, down to the covers on the electric typewriters and the vintage desk calendars. So I went, eagerly.
The level of detail on that set is amazing. In the typewriters are pieces of letterhead stationery from Sterling Cooper, the ad agency employing Jon Hamm's Don Draper. TV Guides and old TV scripts from 1962, the year season two begins, are scattered on the desks. On the bulletin boards are charts showing "Sterling Cooper TV Placement," listing the shows on which the firm's clients advertise.
Surely, I thought, as I checked out the shows on that chart, this is where Weiner and company's legendary attention to detail falls apart. But no. The TV series listed -- including Mister Ed, Password, Combat and The Untouchables -- all really were on network television at some point in 1962. But peer even closer at that list, and finally, there's a crack in the veneer, a sign that someone young enough not to remember the original era, or shows, typed up this impressive but bogus list.
One of the other shows listed was called "Dobie Girls," when it should have been Dobie Gillis. And one of the top five shows on the Sterling Cooper TV Placement list was accidentally ghoulish: Instead of The Red Skelton Show, it was listed as "The Red Skeleton Show."
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy! Matt Weiner, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Not really. I'm goofing around to make a point of how accurate the show IS, and to find some way of writing something new about a series that, all of a sudden, is being discussed and praised everywhere. Emmy nominations. TCA Awards. Reams of rave reviews.
I'm adding to that pile of praise myself. You can hear my Fresh Air with Terry Gross review of the second-season premiere of Mad Men, which ran Friday, by clicking here. Or you can read my Broadcasting & Cable blog on the same subject by clicking here.
Only on TV WORTH WATCHING, though, will you learn about the Red Skeletons in the Mad Men closet...
One More Day for "X-Files" Contest Guesses -- and One More Round of News from TCA
July 24, 2008 11:41 AM
Because the contest to guess the opening-weekend box-office receipts for the new X-Files movie continues today, so will my blog (see yesterday's entry). The only new stuff is a collection of links to TV WORTH WATCHING contributor Diane Werts' reports from the TCA tour, done for another (but not rival) site...
So here, on Television Without Pity, are Diane's fun-filled, fact-filled recent posts on NBC, the CW, and CBS and Showtime...
Another Box-Office Guessing Game: X (Files) Marks the Spot, but Which One?
July 23, 2008 9:21 AM
Okay, gang. I've held dinky little contests to see which TV WORTH WATCHING reader comes closest to the opening-weekend box-office totals for the TV-to-movie versions of Sex and the City and Get Smart. Now it's time for the third and final small-to-big-screen effort of the summer, and another guessing game -- this time with The X-Files.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe opens Friday, and once again, I'm offering some piece of TV-related junk from my office floor to the reader who, in true game-show fashion, comes closest to guessing the opening-weekend grosses without going over. I'll accept guesses until, say, noon ET Friday, so you have two days to place your (free) bets.
I've been really close on my own guesses for both Sex and the City and Get Smart, but X-Files: I Want to Believe poses a formidable challenge. First, I Want to Believe it's going to do well. I loved the original series (most of it, anyway), and Frank Spotnitz, who co-wrote the new movie with Chris Carter, is a friend, so I'm rooting for him.
On the minus side, the Fox series began in 1993, and ended in 2002. For many of today's teen moviegoers, The X-Files is such ancient TV history, it may as well be The Outer Limits. The first movie version was released in 1998, and earned just over $30 million on its opening weekend, on the way to an overall U.S. take of approximately $83.9 million. Not exactly blockbusters.
On the plus side, sequels often outpace the totals for the originals, and the mammoth opening-weekend totals for larger-than-life action films this summer suggest there may be a big appetite for anything in the fantasy realm, and advance interest in I Want to Believe suggests that it may qualify as a have-to-see-on-opening-weekend movie event.
So let's see. Sex and the City earned $56.8 million on opening weekend (I guessed $55 million), and Get Smart earned $38.7 million (I guessed $40 million). I'm going to place my bet for the new X-Files movie as significantly higher than the first film's take, but less than I guessed for Sex, because The Dark Knight is still out there. Put me down for $50 million, even.
But don't let me influence your own prediction. This is one that could fluctuate wildly either way without surprising me. Dark Knight momentum could carry over to another weekend action film (holy synergy, Batman!), and shoot the new X-Files film to stratospheric totals. Or not.
So place your bets. And, I recommend, place your order: The new two-disc X-Files: Revelations set is out, collecting eight terrific episodes that serve as a primer, and a reminder, of the X-Files core characters and issues -- without all the mythology thrown in to distract.
You get the 1993 pilot episode, the 1994 episode that introduced the ultra-creepy Flukeman, the 1995 episode featuring Peter Boyle in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," and lots more. There's even a coupon offering up to $8.50 off the price of a ticket to see I Want to Believe. All by itself, that may be more valuable than the prize I'm offering.
You can order X-Files: Revelations here... but don't forget to post, and explain, your box-office guesses.
A Personal History of, and Farewell to, TCA Press Tour
July 22, 2008 9:29 AM
I'm back -- a little early since it ends today, but I'm back. Back from the latest Television Critics Association press tour, the highlight of which was the 24th (and, so far, best) TCA Awards show Saturday night. I'm a little fatigued, a little proud, and, since this most likely was my last time on press tour, a little nostalgic...
I attended my first television critics press tour in 1977. The tour, and the event, was organized by the networks then, but I arrived just as newcomers to the beat were lobbying for more independence and input. The Television Critics Association was formed the following year, its charter and ideals hammered out in a tiny conference room at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
When I started on the tour, and became a founding member of the TCA, I was the young turk from the Ft. Lauderdale News -- the youngest kid on the beat, at a time when idealism was high and programming was low. I remember, in particular, asking CBS Entertainment President Bud Grant how he could sleep at night after having put The Dukes of Hazzard on the air. He replied, with a smile, that the show averaged a 40 share, so he slept just fine.
The beat, and the way of covering it, was quite different then. Other than for those on stage being interviewed, there were no microphones at press conferences. Reporters outshouted and outmaneuvered each other to get their questions in (my favorite trick was to say, "If I could follow that up with a completely unrelated question...").
Programs were unveiled in mass screenings. Sessions were not transcribed, so reporters were on their own to record or write down quotes. And the delivery of news, at that point, was strictly a once-a-day affair. No Internet. No blogs. No cable, other than little things called TBS and HBO, and a lot less deadline pressure.
It's evolved to an amazing extent in the decades since, and I'm proud to have played a small part in TCA press tour history.
As a TCA secretary in the very early days, I launched the TCA newsletter, then a printed magazine -- author and former TV critic Harlan Ellison contributed one of the first cover stories -- and now delivered by email.
Also in those early days, I got the approval of the TCA officers and board to poll members, at the summer 1983 press tour, on what they considered to be the best new show of the 1982-83 TV season. The winner was Cheers -- which, that first season, was so underappreciated by most viewers that it once ranked as the least-viewed show of the week.
The TCA informed NBC of our vote, NBC put out a press release, and presto: the first TCA award was given. The following year, the concept was widened to a more complete roster of categories, and the TCA Awards as we now know them were born.
But in 2008, they're a lot more impressive. This weekend, current TCA President Dave Walker slipped me into the onstage program (thanks again, sir) to introduce the night's guest hosts, The Smothers Brothers, whose appearance I had helped arrange. (Now that I'm back from TCA, writing my book on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour becomes my full-time day job for the next few months.) They did great, and got the warmest of receptions both during and after the awards show.
I also got on stage one other time, to accept an award for The War as a favor for Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, who couldn't attend. They sent an email of thanks for me to read on awards night, and I got a laugh I will always treasure by joking of that email, "It's in 12 parts."
But the real treasure, now that I'm back, is to think of what television, and the TV beat, and the TCA have given me. I grew up watching Tom and Dick Smothers on TV, and have ended up being entrusted with literally writing the book on them. Ken Burns considers me enough of a friend to handle his acceptance speech. And my friends at the TCA put me on stage, one last time, as a sort of farewell appearance that meant a lot -- at least to me.
I've made a career of enjoying, and thinking and writing about, television for 33 years now. Thanks to NPR's Fresh Air, Broadcasting & Cable magazine and you wonderful readers of this website, I'm not through yet. But on this particular day, at this particular point in my life, I feel very lucky. And very grateful.
TCA Awards Presentation: The Makers and Watchers of Quality TV Share the Love
July 20, 2008 9:58 AM
Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, the 24th Annual Television Critics Association awards were handed out in a memorable, enjoyable ceremony that isn't televised -- and is all the better, and rowdier, for it.
Paul Giamatti, an early winner for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Drama, set the playful tone by calling his demanding title role in HBO's John Adams -- and I quote -- "a nutbuster." Repeatedly.
Tina Fey, who won for Individual Achievement in Comedy for NBC's 30 Rock, self-deprecatingly joked about her show's low ratings, thanking the critics for helping to make 30 Rock "the most successful cable show on broadcast television."
She added, with mock enthusiasm: "It's a great time to be in broadcast television! It's exciting! It's like being in vaudeville in the Sixties!"
And actor John Slattery, one of several people dispatched by generous Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner to collect awards for his wonderful period AMC drama, noted dryly how happy he was "that the show's message of drinking and smoking and whoring has resonated with the TCA."
Lots of things, actually, resonated with the TCA, the winners and the invited guests Saturday night. The evening's guest hosts were The Smothers Brothers, who opened with a well-received mini-set -- I had the honor of introducing them -- that reminded everyone of Tom and Dick's crucial place in TV history.
(One of my favorite immediate dispatches from the event came from John Kubicek of BuddyTV, who wrote: "Opening the ceremony were the Smothers Brothers, the classic comedy duo that raised serious issues and fought the status quo back in the 1960s. As someone born well after their time, I now find myself eagerly awaiting the eminent release of their variety series on DVD. Pioneers for most of the political comedy we see on cable and network late night shows, the Smothers Brothers blazed the trail for being politically incorrect." Read his full article here.)
(Another is from Bill Brioux of the delightful blog TV Feeds My Family, whose account of the ceremony, and enjoyment of the Smothers Brothers, you can read here. I hope to have Bill contributing to TV WORTH WATCHING soon, so stay tuned.)
It was a night for putting things in context, and for celebrating both TV excellence and the appreciation and support of that excellence. Tom Hanks, one of the executive producers of John Adams, showed up to accept the award for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials, and also to joke about the parade of former TCA presidents who were presenting many of the awards.
"How many former presidents ARE there?" Hanks asked. "I'm counting this down, it looks like there are at least three per table. What did you serve, two two-week terms?"
David Simon, whose brilliant HBO series The Wire won the coveted Heritage Award, noticed who WASN'T in attendance -- and tied it in to his show's final season, which focused on the slow demise of newspapers.
"I really worry because of what is happening in newspapers," he said. "There's a lot of faces that are missing here at the TCA this year, and I have a feeling that that trend is going to continue. And I really worry about who's going to do the hard job of social and cultural criticism. So it's worrisome."
It's true that several of the presenters -- Susan Young, Diane Werts and myself, to name three -- all worked for print publications at last year's TCA Awards, and now were identified by their respective websites. (TV WORTH WATCHING got a lot of shout-outs. Great product placement!)
But it's also true that it was a happy, energizing ceremony, presided over by TCA President Dave Walker. It featured funny, well-written introductions, and witty acceptance speeches with no band rushing them to finish. As noted by Tom Jicha of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel -- yes, another former TCA president -- there's no band, period.
Except that this group, on this night, is a band of brothers, and sisters, all reveling in, rewarding and nurturing TV excellence. Mad Men won Program of the Year, New Program of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Drama. 30 Rock, in addition to Fey's award, also won for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy. PBS's outstanding The War, by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, won for Outstanding Achievement in News & Information, and the same network's playful WordGirl won for Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming.
And finally, NBC's Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels received the Career Achievement Award, thanking critics for his career itself -- which, as Jicha noted in his intro, gave birth to dozens of TV and movie star careers, including multiple 30 Rock winner Tina Fey. More degrees of separation: Hanks has been a frequent guest host on Saturday Night Live, and SNL itself carries on the spirit launched in prime time by The Smothers Brothers.
It all came together beautifully, in a night that moved briskly and -- despite all the other star-studded evening events presented at press tour -- turned out to be the biggest and best of all. Thanks, Dave Walker, for letting me be part of it.
"Desperate Housewives" Time-Jump Inspired by "Lost" Flash-Forward
July 18, 2008 10:57 AM
Of all the news emanating from the Television Critics Association press tour after the Emmy nominations were announced and dissected, the nugget I found most interesting came from Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry, who admitted he got the idea for last May's season cliffhanger by watching another ABC show.
"I was so impressed," Cherry said, "with the bold stroke that Damon [Lindelof] and Carlton [Cuse] had done with doing the flash forward in Lost the previous season finale. And I was kind of looking for something for my show. I felt the 'soap' had really started to build up, and I kind of wanted to pare it down to where everyone's problems were small but very relatable.
"And I thought, 'How am I going to do that?' And I thought, 'Oh! Let's just go forward in time. Let me change everyone's lives completely!'
"I was originally going to do an eight-year jump," Cherry continued, "but then when someone explained to me how the actresses would react to the idea that they were eight years older, I thought, 'Maybe five. Maybe I could get away with five.' " Presto: Bree is a Martha-Stewart type success, Susan has a new man, and Gabrielle has two young daughters, and has sort of let herself go.
Lost co-executive producer Cuse acknowledged Cherry's confession good-naturedly, but not without throwing a playful jab in his direction.
"He's also going to have a polar bear on the show next year," Cuse joked.
Reviving continuing series is no laughing matter, though. Lost reinvented itself brilliantly with that flash-forward device, and even worked its way back into best drama series Emmy contention as a result. Desperate Housewives already was doing a fine job of reviving itself last season, and time will tell if this Lost-inspired time jump is another step forward creatively as well as chronologically.
Time will tell, in fact, in a few months, unless someone can figure out how to time-jump ahead to September 28, the night Desperate Housewives returns. Meanwhile, Lost won't return until midseason, in 2009. Stay tuned, and be patient.
Emmy Nominations Are Out, "Mad Men" Is In, and "Friday Night Lights" Was Robbed
July 17, 2008 12:07 PM
Nominations for the 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards were announced this morning, and the verdicts are clear. AMC is latest cable-network darling to catch the eye of the voters, with Mad Men getting more than twice as many nominations as any other drama series, and with Breaking Bad being noticed, too.
Meanwhile, NBC's Friday Night Lights was, in a word, robbed.
The family drama series, in its second season, was given just a single nomination, for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series. Yet if the cast is so outstanding -- and it is -- how in the world do you ignore the work of the show's brilliant stars, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton? You shouldn't. But the Emmy voters did.
Why? I suspect, in part, because of a long-standing, simmering, but wholly unnecessary inferiority complex. When Emmy voters are confronted with too many talented actors or actresses in a given category, movie stars always seem to be favored over stars from TV itself.
In the Lead Actress in a Drama Series category, for example, Glenn Close from Damages and Kyra Sedgwick from The Closer ae movie stars who deserved their nomination, but did Holly Hunter of Saving Grace, or even Sally Field of Brothers & Sisters, given the other possibilities? Especially since Connie Britton was overlooked?
And while the Lead Actor in a Drama category is loaded with perhaps the strongest field in the race this year -- Michael C. Hall from Dexter, Hugh Laurie from House, James Spader from Boston Legal, and category newcomers Jon Hamm from Mad Men, Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad and Gabriel Byrne from In Treatment -- Kyle Chandler really, really deserved to be in there.
Other shifts, spurns and surprises?
The Wire, in its final year, was dismissed again, given only one nomination, for the script for the finale. Rescue Me got nods only for cinematography and guest actor Charles Durning -- even though Denis Leary is another actor deserving of a best-actor nod. And David Duchovny from Californication didn't get a comedy Lead Actor nod, even though Charlie Sheen from Two and a Half Men did.
Where are Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard from The Riches? How in the world did Ken Burns' The War fall through the cracks, nominated as neither Outstanding Nonfiction Special nor Outstanding Nonfiction Series. Clearly, it was one or the other, so where is it? And how and why did Desperate Housewives fall so far out of favor? It had a very strong year, yet drew performing-category nominations only for guest actresses Polly Bergen and Kathryn Joosten.
The same category, though, did make room for Edie Falco, Elaine Stritch and Carrie Fisher, all from 30 Rock. And while Alec Baldwin has been nominated before for that show, as he was again this year, this year he absolutely deserves to win.
Then again, so does Kyle Chandler, and he's not even in the running...
Update: Evil Triumphs, "Dr. Horrible" Back Up and Running
July 16, 2008 9:41 AM
Yesterday I raved about Joss Whedon's new online musical serial comedy, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and urged people to check it out. Boy, am I influential. An hour later, because of a flood of interest overwhelming the site's servers, the website crashed...
But problems are fixed, supposedly (I connected successfully Wednesday morning), so if at first you didn't succeed, try, try again. The 14-minute treat is that good, and you have to get up to speed quickly, because part two premieres tonight at midnight.
Here's the blog I posted yesterday on Broadcasting & Cable's website about the first episode, and its crashing. And here's the site itself, the place to see Whedon's newest charming effort: www.drhorrible.com -- and it ought to work. Good luck.
Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible" Is Just What the Doctor Ordered
July 15, 2008 10:59 AM
After a day devoted to Fox -- where we saw what's likely to be the best new show for fall from the broadcast networks (Fringe), sat through a surprisingly civil Fox News press conference (featuring Karl Rove) and tried to pry plot points out of largely reluctant representatives for 24 and The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- an entertaining jolt arrived from outside the TV press tour umbrella.
It arrived courtesy of Joss Whedon, who today unveils the first of a playful three-part Internet serial called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It features original music, as did his classic "Once More with Feeling" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which makes it, more specifically, a serial musical. And it's wonderful...
Neil Patrick Harris, whom I've seen sing and act very charismatically on Broadway in both Cabaret and Assassins, stars in the title role. His Dr. Horrible is a villain with a mission: to perfect his freeze ray, which can stop time, while winning the heart of a sweet young woman (played by Felicia Day) he knows from the local laundromat.
Yes, even though Dr. Horrible has a minion, he does his own laundry. And answers his own email, which contains annoying challenges from wannabe bad guys even lower on the Evil Totem Pole than he is.
"I'm just trying to change the world, okay?" he whines into the camera, rejecting yet another offer for a villain-on-villain duel. "I don't have the time for a grudge match with every poser in a parka."
The episode, some glorious 14 minutes long, is delivered crisply -- looks great, sounds great, and features Nathan Fillion, a Whedon discovery from Firefly, as the hero of the piece, Captain Hammer, who instantly sort of saves the day while also attracting the eye of the bad doctor's possible paramour. Two more episodes will roll out within the week, and you can watch them all on www.drhorrible.com -- and you really, really should.
Meanwhile, to condense the other, less entertaining new stuff that's circulating:
The new stand-alone 24 event, coming in September, condenses a typical Jack Bauer day into one two-hour telemovie -- and the day in question, which involves unrest in Africa, is the day on which the first woman takes office as President of the United States. Why not, since 24 was way ahead of the curve in showing a black man in the Oval Office?
And Fox News executive John Moody defended his network's ugly doctored caricatures of reporters televised recently by saying the morning show Fox & Friends is "an entertainment show that does some news." And yes, some found the doctored photos offensive, "but that's the nature of humor." Oh.
Karl Rove, presidential advisor and current Fox News political analyst, talking about defying a subpoena by not appearing before Congress, told reporters, "I have not asserted any personal privilege. This is between the White House and Congress. This is a longstanding battle over the principle of executive privilege and the ability of a President to receive advice from senior advisors, and for those advisors nor to be at the beck and call of Congress for testimony." Oh.
And about the press: "Have you read some of the ugly things they say about me?" Rove asked, referring to The New York Times, which he says he reads every day. "I mean, who cares?... I know who I am. I'm not the myth that I've been developed into, and there's nothing I can do.
"I'm like Grendel in Beowulf." Oh. Wow.
"Fringe" Is Fabulous: J. J. Abrams and Company Do It Again, This Time for Fox
July 14, 2008 4:16 PM
Fringe, the new paranormal Fox drama series from J.J. Abrams and company, finally was screened for TV critics, long after an incomplete rough cut surfaced on the Internet. After seeing the finished pilot and interviewing the show's creators and cast, I can report the good news that Fringe is off to a fabulous start, and seems to know precisely where it's headed.
The bad news? There is no bad news...
Fringe, is fabulous. Starring Joshua Jackson and Australian actress Anna Torv (pictured), it's the story of a team of researchers dealing with cases and phenomena that would have been right at home on The X-Files. Abrams and the show's other co-creators cite such other key influences as the TV series Twin Peaks and the movies Altered States and Real Genius -- and Abrams, creator of Alias and co-creator of Lost, hasn't turned his back on television at all since doing big-screen work (on, ironically, such taken-from-TV properties as Mission: Impossible and Star Trek).
"I love TV," Abrams said today. "I feel so lucky to get to do it."
Fringe, most likely, will be the highest-profile drama show in an underpopulated post-strike fall season -- not just at Fox, where Joss Whedon's similarly anticipated Dollhouse, starring Eliza Dushku, won't show up until midseason, but for all of broadcast TV. The Fringe pilot should hold up to expectations, but Abrams tried to downplay things a bit.
"I don't think any one show can save the fall," Abrams said. "But I think a great show is something that we all want."
Fox plans to promote the show heavily, as ABC did when launching Lost, and has pledged to reduce the ad time in each Fringe hour so that dramatic content will fill 50 minutes, not just 43.
"We have no excuses," said co-executive producer Roberto Orci (Transformers). "It's our fault if it doesn't work."
And while the debt to The X-Files is obvious, another co-executive producer said after the press conference he saw a distinct difference.
"X-Files, in our opinion, was spectacular," said Jeff Pinkner, who directed the Fringe pilot, "but was made at a time when there was a lot of information about 'What don't we know about our own government?'
And in today's day and age, it's the corporations that really have grown so large and are multinational, and very much are acting like their own unfettered, in many ways, governments. And with the power to hire police forces and deal with international conflicts, all of which serves their bottom line, ideally."
When asked about the massive corporation that may or may not control things in Fringe," Pinkner replied with a chuckle, "You mean G.E.?"
Perhaps, because the makers of Fringe clearly have as their mandate the old familiar General Electric slogan: We bring good things to life.
Reopening "The Closer," Trying to Save "Grace," Diving Into TCA Press Tour
July 14, 2008 9:36 AM
Before lunch in Los Angeles today, Fox is holding a press conference tied to the most anticipated series of the fall: Fringe, the new series co-created by J.J. Abrams of Lost. So check back around 3 p.m. ET, and I'll provide breaking coverage of what I expect will be the biggest hit of the opening half of the 2008-09 TV season.
Meanwhile, tonight's best TV news is about the fourth-season return of The Closer on TNT...
To prime the pump, and stoke the appetites of viewers, TNT is preceding the season premiere with a nine-hour marathon, beginning at noon ET, of previous Closer episodes. Then comes the new one, which has a fire in the hills around Los Angeles raging out of control, and turning into one basic hell of a crime scene.
The prime suspect for Sedgwick's Brenda? A previous adversary from season one, a pyromaniac murderer who was seen on the other side of the police tape as the fire raged. He's played by Jason O'Mara, who's about to star in the American remake of Life on Mars... and his scenes with Sedgwick are tantalizing, like Vincent D'Onofrio's many heated interrogations with Olivia D'Abo, as the murderous Nicole, on Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
There are plenty of nice grace notes in tonight's episode -- Brenda complaining about her lover's shower usage, hiding her cat from her landlord, and asked, in an icky sequence, to slip on the rehydrated skin from two fingers of a burn victim, like a death glove, to literally flesh out some fingerprints. All of it works for, and is true to, the character, and makes the show lots of fun to watch.
The grace notes in Saving Grace, however, which follows at 10 p.m. ET on TNT, are worthwhile only to watch the way Holly Hunter, as the troubled Grace, attacks her role with a vengeance. Tonight that's literal too, as she imprisons the priest (Rene Auberjonois) who molested her as a child, and torments her captive in a variety of often twisted ways.
For me, this whole series never has, and still doesn't, fall together well. The guardian angel conceit isn't presented persuasively or convincingly, and the show, like the title character, has little or internal logic or dramatic consistency. All that said, Hunter does a lot with her material, tonight especially.
But in this TNT doubleheader of female leads, it's The Closer who comes out way, way ahead.
HBO's "Generation Kill" Caught between Iraq and a Hard Place
July 11, 2008 6:50 AM
Generation Kill, the new HBO miniseries beginning Sunday night at 9 ET, aims to do for the current war in Iraq what the same network's Band of Brothers miniseries did for WWII: dramatize it from the ground up, from grunt level, to approximate the confusion, boredom, bravery, fear, humor, tension, ineptitude, trust, triumph and tragedy of war.
And for the most part, its aim is true.
Generation Kill is based on the Rolling Stone reports and subsequent book by embedded reporter Evan Wright, who is played in the miniseries by the drama's most familiar face, Lee Tergesen of Oz. And it works, in no small part, because it focuses intently on the initial ground assault of what became Operation Iraqi Freedom, and on one unit of the Marines: the U.S. First Reconnaissance Battalion, the first to put boots on the ground in the march to Baghdad.
The drama is produced (and, with Wright, co-written) by David Simon and Ed Burns of The Wire. Fans of that show -- and I'm one of them, big-time -- will recognize and enjoy the familiar grace notes of understatement and unpredictability, and the sensibility that moments of quiet and boredom, as well as conflict and action, can yield lots of dramatic and comic treasure.
And, for sure, there's the familiar, and powerful, major theme running through everything Simon says: That bureaucracies hinder as much as they help, and that even those with the best of intentions can be thwarted by rules, fools and the status quo.
Those themes are hit hard, often and very successfully. Less successful in Generation Kill is a clear delineation of characters, much less character. We follow a small caravan of vehicles, each with its own quirky occupants, across Iraq -- yet after after watching all seven hours, you'd be hard-pressed to pick more than a handful out of a police lineup.
Some performances and characters do sparkle, though, including, from the main vehicle, Tergesen as the reporter, Alexander Skarsgard as team leader "Iceman," and James Ransone as the very verbose driver. Also, the gravelly voiced commander nicknamed "The Godfather," played by Chance Kelly, really stands out, too.
But in the end -- an end that nicely uses a haunting Johnny Cash recording -- Generation Kill is not as visceral or successful as Band of Brothers, though it's an impressive and ambitious enough effort to both watch and applaud.
As for the larger question, whether HBO audiences are ready to embrace a drama about a war already rejected in so many movie and TV retellings, I've already addressed that question in my latest Broadcasting & Cable column, which you can read here.
And finally, as to what HBO is planning next, TV WORTH WATCHING's Diane Werts has filed a tantalizing report from the Television Critics Association press tour, recounting HBO's new shows and plans. Read all about it here.
And hang in there, Diane. I'll be joining you Monday...
TCA Press Tour: Canaries in the Coal Mine, with Note Pads?... And an Update!
July 10, 2008 7:25 AM
Since I'm not joining the Television Critics Association press tour until Monday, I've been relying on phone calls, press accounts and dispatches from TV WORTH WATCHING's own Diane Werts to learn about the Big Buzz this year. And so far, by all accounts, the Big Buzz appears to be generating around... wait for it... the TCA Press Tour itself...
Traditionally, press tour is a semiannual event -- three weeks in summer, two in winter -- at which more than 200 TV critics from the U.S. and Canada converge in Los Angeles to witness and interrogate an endless parade of stars, producers, writers and network executives, all of whom try to promote their new projects while confronting the realities of their previous ones.
Stars and reputations can be made almost instantly on press tour, if the talent or program is impressive enough. Ken Burns brought an early taste of The Civil War to press tour, and presto: He became "Ken Burns."
And in front of a roomful of critics who had never heard of him, Robin Williams performed such a manic stand-up while promoting a silly new sitcom called Mork and Mindy that everyone ran from the room shouting, and writing, about this amazing new comedian. And so on, through the years and decades, from Hill Street Blues to Lost.
But as the July 2008 tour begins -- on the heels of the January 2008 tour being cancelled because of the writers' strike -- dispatches from those front lines have been unusually, and justifiably, self-absorbed. Like bees and bats, or canaries in a coal mine, TV critics seem to be falling victim to some unseen but serious malady. Laid off, downsized, fired, transferred, redefined, devalued. It's happening to enough of us, in such rapid succession, that it's becoming news.
Take for example, two very recent dispatches from Canadian TV critics, both of whom are recent or current members of the TCA board. Bill Brioux, an excellent writer, explains it all here -- and even uses me as Exhibit A. Or, at least, Exhibit C or D. (he also provides the photo seen here, which shows three former tenured TCA print critics: Ed Bark, Dusty Saunders and, sigh, myself.)
Then there's Rob Salem of The Star, who likens the press tour's current shakiness to that of TV in general, and makes a sadly persuasive case. Read his story here.
These guys aren't the only ones looking up at the sky and wondering whether it's falling. Another Canadian writer, Andrew Ryan of The Globe and Mail, writes this. Closer to home -- right, in fact, in Hollywood's back (and front) yard, Ray Richmond of The Hollywood Reporter wrote an advance story on the press tour, and quoted me, among others, in doing so. Read any of these stories, and you'll get a sense of the smell of change (or is it fear?) in the wind.
UPDATE: Aaron Barnhart, one of the original TV critics on the web and a TCA board member also, shot me his recent column and poked gentle fun at me for overlooking it. Point taken -- it's a really good take on the subject, and here it is, worth reading in all its detail and glory.
And, of course, there's the latest from our own Diane Werts, soldiering on, as are all the TCA attendees, to find and report actual news and nuggets about what's happening, and about to happen, in the world of television.
But that world, and the world of TV critics, may be changing as I write this. And out on press tour, there are enough good reporters to take note -- and to take notes -- as the world around them trembles a little.
Breaking News from TCA Tour, Courtesy of Diane Werts
July 9, 2008 4:50 PM
As they say, this just in... Diane Werts, who writes for TV WORTH WATCHING these days, just filed her first missive from the Television Critics Association press tour, which runs for the next two weeks in Los Angeles.
I won't be going out until Sunday, so check out Diane's first, and first-day, impressions. Click on "Diane Werts" in the navigation bar to read today's column, or scroll down and read her in her regular spot, underneath BIANCULLI'S BEST BETS...
AFTRA Votes to Settle, Fellow Union's Hopes SAG
July 9, 2008 8:50 AM
The biggest news coming out of Hollywood right now isn't coming from the press tour, but from the union halls. The American Federation of TV and Radio Artists (AFTRA) has announced that more than 60 percent of its 70,000 members voted last night to accept the proposed three-year deal, and thus avoid a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP).
This is not what many in the larger Screen Actors Guild (SAG) wanted, because the deals negotiated thus far -- by the Writers Guild of America (WGA), whose strike action crippled TV and movie production for much of last season, and by the Directors Guild of America -- have been fairly weak. But since so has the economy, there's been sagging support for a SAG strike at this time, despite its long-term implications.
What it means, though, is that while SAG now will return to the table to negotiate with AMPTP, the final resolution is more likely to be a grudging acceptance of the WGA-DGA-AFTRA terms than a defiant stand-alone work stoppage. Once the writers settled for less than stellar terms, the rest of this round of strike talks has played out pretty much as predicted.
The good news: As we hear more and more from the Television Critics Association press tour the next two weeks about what's coming up on TV, at least we can be more assured it will come up on TV.
Minisodes, Mini-Seasons and Mini-Press Tours
July 8, 2008 9:55 AM
Tonight at 10 p.m. ET, the FX series Rescue Me presents the latest self-described minisode, featuring star Denis Leary and company in a short stand-alone segment. How short? The closing credits run at 10:05...
The two minisodes that have run so far have been delightful. The first was a long firehouse dialogue about the joys and travails of fasting, and the second was a dream sequence that had Leary's Tommy Gavin fantasizing about a threesome with Callie Thorne's Sheila and Andrea Roth's Janet -- then devolving into something a lot less enticing to him.
But just like a dream, the Rescue Me minisodes, created to placate fans until new post-strike episodes are produced and televised, are over too soon, leaving behind a tantalizing taste for more. That's what the entire 2007-08 TV season was like -- and, perhaps, what the 2008-09 TV may shape up to become as well.
By tonight, we should know the results of the ratification vote for the proposed AFTRA strike. If there's a vote to strike, or enough dissatisfaction so that the larger SAG guild organizes a strike on its own, then we're in for another truncated, frustrated TV season. A mini-season, with fewer scripted series, fewer episodes, and, overall, fewer reasons to get excited about television.
Meanwhile, starting today, the Television Critics Association press tour gets underway, beginning with four days devoted to offerings from the cable networks. I'm not out there from the start this time -- I'm arriving Monday, the day Fox begins -- but intrepid TV WORTH WATCHING contributor Diane Werts is there, and will send dispatches as time permits and newsworthiness dictates. Next week, I'll do the same, though the tour is a week shorter than usual. It's a mini-tour -- which, this season, seems only fitting.
So read Diane's daily blog -- she's displayed on the main page beneath BEST BETS, and also has her own button on the navigation bar -- and stay tuned. And speaking of staying tuned, I've updated (after a long fallow period) the READ HEAR SEE ME page, which you reach by clicking that button on the navigation bar. It's got my upcoming schedule for Fresh Air appearances, but also collects, and provides links to, all the Broadcasting & Cable columns I've written for that magazine since March.
TCM Stays True to Its Identity -- A Cable Rarity These Days
July 7, 2008 7:06 AM
True story: A decade ago, I was in Diana Rigg's New York hotel room, concluding an interview with her regarding her hosting and acting chores on the PBS Mystery! series, when she said she wanted to show me something, and ushered me into her bedroom. (Sigh...)
What she wanted to show me, it turned out, was her TV set. (Double sigh...)
It was tuned to a particular channel she'd been watching, she said, since she checked in, and to which she quickly had become addicted. "What is this?" she demanded, with a tone that was equal parts enthusiasm and incredulity.
It was Turner Classic Movies, which had launched five years earlier, in 1994. She'd never seen it, and was simply amazed by its nonstop lineup of vintage dramas, classic musicals and other Hollywood fare.
I explained to Miss Rigg (now Dame Diana), who had simply amazed me when I watched The Avengers as an impressionable teenager (for proof, see the TV WORTH WATCHING FEEDBACK page), that TCM was another brainchild of maverick moneyed TV executive Ted Turner, who also gave us 24-hour cable news with CNN.
For any reporter on the TV beat then, Turner was an absolute pleasure to cover. Not only was he bold and outspoken, he was intuitive and smart. The same year Diana Rigg discovered TCM, Turner was presenting a news special about abortion on another of his cable networks, TBS. Turner was openly liberal, and was asked -- at a press conference, not privately -- whether anti-abortion forces would be given air time to respond to the essentially pro-choice special.
"I'll tell you what," Turner replied. "We'll give the other bozos a chance to talk back, but they'll look like idiots anyway."
You couldn't be more politically incorrect, or more quotable, than Ted Turner.
But what Turner said when he launched TCM is equally true today. No matter what the delivery system, he said, the people who release and distribute Hollywood entertainment and the audiences who watch it are in need of the same thing: product. It doesn't matter what the delivery system or the hardware is, Turner insisted. The software -- the movies and TV shows themselves -- will always be in demand.
Almost 15 years later, TCM remains true to Turner's original vision. Robert Osborne dispenses nuggets of interesting information while introducing each film, and invites guests to display their own affection for the classic films TCM calls "The Essentials." (Note to TCM: Dame Diana Rigg probably would love to co-host if asked.) Well-made specials celebrate the work of memorable actors, writers, directors and producers. Unlike, say, AMC and A&E, which are almost unrecognizable from their original popular-arts roots, TCM, in tone and content, has stayed the same. It wasn't broke, so no one fixed it.
Tonight at 8 ET, TCM presents its newest series: Elvis Mitchell: Under the Influence, in which the former New York Times film critic conducts half-hour chats, in front of an unseen audience, with various Hollywood luminaries. Tonight's opener, taped shortly before his death, is with the late Sydney Pollack, whose insight into acting includes a simple yet valuable secret: "relax."
The director of Tootsie, The Way We Were, Jeremiah Johnson and Three Days of the Condor also explains why An American in Paris is one of his favorite movies of all time. And tonight, after Mitchell's conversation with Pollack, TCM presents both Tootsie (8:30 p.m. ET) and An American in Paris (11 p.m. ET), letting viewers enjoy anew, or for the first time, some of the key movies the two menelvis were discussing.
Great idea. Great night of TV. Great cable network. Thanks, Ted.
Linda Ellerbee, As Always, Treats Kids Like Adults
July 4, 2008 8:19 AM
Looking for family specials keyed to the 4th of July weekend? One of the best is the latest Nick News with Linda Ellerbee special on Nickelodeon (9 p.m. ET Sunday), titled Coming Home: When Parents Return from War. It explains a lot. It speaks clearly and cleverly. It never condescends.
Ellerbee has been taking that approach for a long time. First on NBC in the 1970s and early 1980s, presiding over Weekend and NBC News Overnight with equal helpings of insight and attitude. Then, in 1986, presenting one of TV's best documentary series with ABC's Our World. (Why isn't the History channel repeating this?) And by 1992, when talking plainly to adults was becoming unfashionable on prime-time TV, Ellerbee went to cable, and Nickelodeon, and kids.
For more than 15 years now, she's presented Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, tackling every serious missue you can imagine, and many playful ones, too. Sunday's edition about the war isn't her first on the topic. It isn't even her first war, because Nick News was there to talk about kids' perceptions and fears during the first Gulf War. She was there, too, right after 9/11, when young viewers (and, arguably, lots of older ones) needed her most.
So for Sunday's special, Coming Home: When Parents Return from War, Ellerbee presents herself -- and has earned the right to do so -- as a comfy TV friend, wearing jeans, orange high-top sneakers, and a welcoming smile.
This time, instead of talking to a small collection of kids, she lets kids, and their parents, speak for themselves. About what it's like to worry whether your mom or dad is coming home from battle. What happens if they do, including such sensitive topics as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and what happens when, as one kids says, dad is both "a hero and a jerk."
And despite the title, Coming Home: When Parents Return from War also covers when happens if they don't. It's a superb half-hour show, a stimulating start for discussion, and I can't imagine any family touched by the military not being touched by this program in turn.
"Most of you," Ellerbee tells her young viewers at the end, "have far more courage than you ever dreamed possible." Plain speaking, quiet reassurance, acknowledgment of young people's concerns -- Linda Ellerbee is great at all of them. Fred Rogers would be proud. And, in her own comfy shoes, she looks no less at ease than Rogers always did.
What's Right with This Picture?
July 3, 2008 6:35 AM
Tonight at 10 p.m. ET, ABC presents the second installment of its excellent documentary series Hopkins, NBC presents the latest installment in its creepy suspense anthology series Fear Itself, and CBS presents another new episode of its period drama series, Swingtown.
So I ask you: What's right with this picture?
What's right, in a very easy-to-crack nutshell, is that this is an hour when all the major broadcast networks are presenting fresh, non-rerun programming. And when not one of them is presenting a reality or competition show.
Yes, I know, Fox is into local programming at this hour, so it's a field of three networks, not four. But even at that, can you guess how many other weekly slots in prime time are populated entirely by fresh, non-reality broadcast programs?
This week, there aren't any others. Not one. Tonight's Hopkins-Fear Itself-Swingtown combo is the only such troika. And next week, Fear Itself is being bumped for an expanded Last Comic Standing telecast, so next week there won't be any.
Strike-related erosion isn't the only reason TV viewership is down this summer. If the networks aren't even trying, why should audiences be visiting?
A few more years of polluting the airwaves with unimaginative, unwatchable reality shows and endless reruns, and Last Comic Standing may well translate to Last Viewer Watching...
If You Don't Dive Into "Mad Men" DVD, You're Crazy
July 1, 2008 8:39 AM
Lionsgate's first-season DVD set of Mad Men, AMC's first, fabulous weekly drama series, comes out today -- and if there's one thing that will make this long, hot summer of TV doldrums more tolerable, this is it...
Mad Men is set at a Madison Avenue advertising agency in 1960 -- when men were chauvinists, women wore bullet bras, and everyone smoked like the chimney tops in Mary Poppins. Three-martini lunches were common. So were office affairs, ambitious jockeying for position, and secrets. Lots of secrets.
Matthew Weiner, a talented writer on The Sopranos, created this series, and started out by getting the cast and look exactly right. Jon Hamm stars as Don Draper, a dashing ad exec with a beautiful blonde wife (January Jones as Betty), more than one woman in his peripheral orbit, and some deep, dark secrets in his distant past.
He and his new secretary, Elisabeth Moss as Peggy, are at the core of Mad Men, but it's populated by an office full of captivating characters. There's John Slattery from Desperate Housewives as Don's boss, Roger Sterling, and Vincent Kartheiser (the wayward son on Angel) as Don's office nemesis, Pete Campbell.
Most arrestingly of all, there's Christina Hendricks as Joan, the woman who rules the office using a variety of ploys and weapons -- sex appeal being no small part of her arsenal. At least a half dozen other actors and characters also shine in this series, which captures, with delicious wit and delightful details, 1960 in all its glory and folly, up to and including the Nixon-Kennedy presidential election.
The grace notes, throwaway lines and period-perfect props all add to the fun. If you're old enough, you may gasp with recognition, seeing once again items you'd long forgotten -- aluminum beer cans that you pierce with sharp-pointed openers, IBM electric typewriters with unwieldy plastic covers, plastic transistor radios. And if you're too young to remember them, you're the right age to be amused and fascinated by them.
After an overly obvious pilot episode, Mad Men evolves quickly into a brilliant, subtle TV show, a multilayered character study and an incisive social commentary all at once. Weiner has created a wonderful window into the past, and watching Mad Men on DVD, from Lionsgate (four discs, $49.98 retail), is the ultimate way to enjoy it.
Buy it here, at a substantial discount. Then, when it arrives, mix some martinis, sit back... and wallow.
