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September 2008 Archives
Sarah Palin May Be Slipping, But Katie Couric and Tina Fey Are Soaring
September 29, 2008 10:28 AM
The trajectory of Sarah Palin has been both accelerated and extreme.
When she steps to the podium Thursday to debate Joe Biden, it'll be only a month since she was introduced to the nation, making her first national appearance as John McCain's running mate. Since then, her political stock has risen and fallen with a rapidity that makes Wall Street look stable. But as her own image may be slipping, she's helping others to enhance their own reputations.
It started with Charlie Gibson, who, not too long ago, was roasted widely on the Internet for asking questions deemed irrelevant while co-hosting a Democratic debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Gibson got the first broadcast interview with Palin, who had wowed most observers with her prepared speech at the Republican National Convention.
Answering questions from Gibson, she seemed much less prepared -- and seemed especially clueless when asked about the Bush Doctrine. Gibson's ABC interview got tons of play, and was the first suggestion that limiting the Alaska governor's media appearances may be, at least partly, a defensive strategy.
Sean Hannity's Fox News interview with Palin came next, but was so loaded with softballs and puffballs, it veered between painful and laughable. (The laughs came courtesy of Jon Stewart, who excoriated Hannity, and drew huge laughs, merely by repeating the Fox News host's "fair and balanced" questions.
And when Katie Couric got to Palin, the woman whose strength is getting interview subjects to trust her scored the best -- and most important -- interview of her entire stint as anchor of CBS News. Merely by asking questions, sometimes repeatedly, that called out for clear answers and specific examples, Couric got something else instead.
If there were any lingering doubts that Palin, as a vice presidential candidate, had flubbed those two major media appearances, Saturday Night Live and Tina Fey obliterated them. After both appearances by Palin, Fey led that week's SNL broadcast with a scathing imitation of Palin. This past Saturday, Amy Poehler took the Katie Couric role, and all she had to do to make the audience howl was blink repeatedly in utter disbelief.
Fey, meanwhile, embarked on hilarious sentences to nowhere -- nonsensical filibusters that repeated words for the sake of repeating them. She looked wide-eyed and panicked, flashing a smile when all else failed -- and all else often did. It's the sort of bullseye comedy that can stick, and which Palin will have to work hard Thursday to overshadow and overcome.
Fey's caricature of Palin Saturday was, in essence, the political equivalent of that South Carolina Miss USA contestant's classic brain freeze about "the Iraq." The difference, of course, is that the teenager was just trying to explain foreign policy. Sarah Palin is asking to help shape it.
"Dexter" Returns -- Showtime's Killer Show is Back, And is Thrilling
September 26, 2008 7:26 AM
Showtime's Dexter series, starring Michael C. Hall as a serial killer who targets and kills other serial killers, begins its third season Sunday night at 9 ET. Please seek it out, and dive in.
Even if you don't subscribe to Showtime, didn't watch when CBS rebroadcast season one of Dexter this summer, and haven't seen seasons one or two on DVD, either sign up for Showtime before Sunday, or wangle an invitation to a friend's house who has it. The lengthy "previously on Dexter" summary at the start of Sunday's episode will bring you up to speed. Bring some wine or dessert, sit back, and enjoy.
Except you won't be sitting back for long. You'll be leaning forward, riveted by how Dexter's unusually serene and uneventful life is ripped apart by a single unexpected event. At that point, guest star Jimmy Smits shows up, the gloves come off, and Dexter shoots into the stratosphere. Again.
I could go on and on about how much I love this show, and why, but I already have. I reviewed the new season premiere of Dexter on Wednesday's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, which you can hear by clicking here. You can READ it by clicking there, too, because NPR has begun printing transcripts of reviews.
Of course, by reading it, you don't get to HEAR the clip from Dexter -- or my mellifluous tones. Hmm. Come to think of it, tough call...
McCain Bails on Tomorrow's Debate -- And on Last Night's "Letterman"
September 25, 2008 6:57 AM
Yesterday Republican presidential nominee John McCain not only announced he was temporarily suspending his campaign in order to return to Washington and focus on the financial crisis, but he backed out, at the very last minute, of a scheduled appearance on Wednesday's Late Show with David Letterman on CBS.
Letterman, venting his anger, was in top form. So was Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show an hour later, reserving most of his venom for the Wall Street fat cats who had generated the crisis in the first place...
All in all, it was a wild day.
First McCain made his announcement about suspending his campaign -- putting him at odds with Democratic nominee Barack Obama, who said the American people needed to hear from those who sought to be their next leader, now more than ever.
Friday's first scheduled debate between the two presidential nominees would have taken place on Sept. 26, exactly 48 years to the day since Richard Nixon and John Kennedy. It could have been just as memorable, and just as significant -- but if McCain doesn't show, then what? Is it rescheduled? Is one of the three presidential debates dropped? Is the vice presidential debate dropped instead?
And could Obama show up anyway, debating an empty lectern?
These are the questions that will be answered today and tomorrow. Meanwhile, here's what happened on TV last night:
President Bush appeared in prime time to urge passage of his administration's emergency plan to bail out Wall Street -- his first televised address in more than a year.
By that time, Letterman already had taped his Late Show, and, after praising McCain for his heroism, jumped on him for cancelling his appearance because he had to fly back to Washington.
"When you call up and cancel a show, ladies and gentlemen, that's starting to smell," Letterman announced.
"You don't suspend your campaign," Letterman continued. "Later on down the road, you might just suspend being president. We got a guy like that now... Are we suspending it because there's an economic crisis, or because the poll numbers are sliding?"
Letterman devoted his Top 10 to a hastily compiled, but pointedly hostile, "Questions People are Asking the John McCain Campaign." (Number 10: "I Just contributed to your campaign -- how do I get a refund?") And then, once he began the show, his fill-in guest was MSNBC's Keith Olbermann -- a liberal-substitution tweak in McCain's direction.
And while Letterman was interviewing Olbermann, and continuing to moan about McCain stiffing him ("This just stinks"), Letterman suddenly saw -- and showed -- a CBS internal feed showing McCain being made up, preparing for a taped interview with Katie Couric for The CBS Evening News.
Letterman got angrier than ever, and suggested some questions HE would have liked to ask MCain. Such as -- "Hey, John, I got a question -- Do you need a ride to the airport?"
Then came Ferguson, who scrapped his planned "Late Late Show" opening and offered his own take on McCain's backout ("Apparently, he had time for a game of softball with Katie before he left").
"The campaign is part of the democratic process," Fergsuon said. "You don't say we're suspending the campaign. We didn't suspend it for 9/11, for Pearl Harbor, for the Nazis, for the British..."
"Capitalism and democracy are not the same thing," Ferguson argued, switching to the subject of the financial crisis. "Democracy creates equality. Capitalism creates inequality... Where's the government bailout of the 10 million uninsured children?"
And sympathy for the devils on Wall Street? Don't look to Ferguson.
"I hate this!" he screamed, explaining his analysis of what happened on Wall Street.
"They crashed their Ferrari, now they're crying like little bitches, and they want their Uncle Sam to buy them a new one," he said.
"No! No! That's not how it works here. Uncle Sam would be better off using the money to build them a nice prison."
Stay tuned...
More Premieres, More Season Returns, More Yawns
September 24, 2008 10:42 AM
If the broadcast networks are hoping to get us excited that they're back with new shows and fresh episodes of old ones, tonight's lineup isn't exactly an enticing pile of bait.
One new show, NBC's Knight Rider, is just awful. So awful, it's stuck at the same sludgy bottom of the barrel as the telemovie remake that inspired it. In terms of sexism, stupidity and blatant "product integration," Knight Rider is the dead horse to beat. Broadcast TV hasn't produced a series so easy to hate since ABC's Cavemen.
Gary Unmarried, on CBS, is better, but in form is disappointingly derivative. Jay Mohr has my blessing since his days as the star of Fox's Action, but squandered that affection a lot last season with his recurring role on Ghost Whisperer. And here, while Mohl is genial and funny enough, tonight's premiere episode is stolen by Paula Marshall as his acerbic ex-wife.
In the return category, the best news is The New Adventures of Old Christine on CBS. And that's about it. The worst news may be the unwarranted return of NBC's Lipstick Jungle, which dilutes the resume of Mary Tyler Moore by signing her on as recurring guest star.
As bad career moves by former TV legends go, it may be the worst booking since Sid Caesar signed on as special guest star on NBC's Pink Lady & Jeff. Trust me. It's an oldie but a baddie...
Network Series Premiere, But PBS Shines with "American Masters"
September 23, 2008 11:16 AM
Two new series premiere tonight: The Mentalist on CBS, which is okay, and Opportunity Knocks on ABC, which I'll see tonight for the first time as it airs nationwide. Neither, I suspect, will provide as much satisfaction as tonight's Fox lineup on House and Fringe.
But there's an additional option: the first two-hour chunk of a five-hour, three-night PBS American Masters documentary on the history of Warner Bros. It's like eating candy from a gourmet sampler -- one yummy treat after another.
Richard Schickel has been writing and directing outstanding documentaries on cinema for decades. (He is to sound films what Kevin Brownlow is to the silent era.) His knowledge and sensibility are tremendous assets, but what matters most is is ease with his interview subjects.
Some of the interviews, featuring Alfred Hitchcock and others, in You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story, which premieres tonight at 9 p.m. ET (check local listings) are culled from Schickel's The Men Who Made the Movies and other documentaries. Others are brand new. Taken together, they add grace notes and memorable stories to a long but strong narrative.
The birth and early maturation of the Warner Bros. studio, containing the first sound film, the emergence of screen stars Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney, and the Busby Berkeley musicals, is as wonderful as you'd imagine.
But just as you think, okay, we're into the 1960s and 1970s, the Warner story is just about over now, along comes a barrage of fabulous films. Bonnie & Clyde. All the President's Men. A Clockwork Orange. Dog Day Afternoon.
And there are still hours more of this documentary to go. My only complaint is that, as a history of the entire studio, TV is given annoyingly short shrift --- but fans of great films and intelligent TV documentaries, and I know you're both, will love You Must Remember This.
Emmys The Day After: Good Wins, Bad Hosts, Dull Presenters, Nice Surprise
September 22, 2008 1:23 PM
Since I'm on record already as having my Smothers Brothers book among my front-burner occupations these days, I'll say here what seems too personal to note anywhere else.
When Tommy Smothers was given his honorary Emmy last night, in recognition of his having unduly removed himself from the list of winning writers on the final 1968-69 season of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, that was my favorite moment of the entire night.
I was so happy Tom got a standing ovation, and so pleased that Steve Martin, who got his first break writing for the Smothers Brothers back then, introduced him. But I was most pleased that, in 2008 as in 1968, Tom Smothers was one of the few people standing up in prime time to say something, when those around him were either avoiding controversy or being cut off as soon as they began speaking.
Tom spoke of the stupidity of pursuing peace only through violence, and other things that, in essence, he was saying in his prime-time variety show 40 years ago -- until he was fired. Good for him then. Good for him now. And hey -- it makes for a nifty coda for the book, too.
Just in time.
As for the rest of the Emmys, I loved Ricky Gervais' drawn-out bit with a stone-faced Steve Carell, and also loved Jon Stewart's funny (and, like Tom Smothers' speech, bravely political) bit with prune-eating Stephen Colbert. The rest? Not so much... Most presenters were dull, and the reality-show tag-team host approach? Didn't work at all.
Most awards went to really good performers and shows, though, so the only complaint there rests with the audience. As I point out on today's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, NBC's 30 Rock swept the major comedy series categories, yet it didn't even rank in the Top 100 for the entire season -- and ended up ranked lower than, sigh, ABC's Cavemen.
When people band together to make TV that good, and deliver performances so wonderful -- I'm talking about 30 Rock now, not Cavemen -- it's not their fault if the show doesn't find an audience.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves...
Emmy Voting Procedures Better, But Still Tricky to Predict
September 19, 2008 7:13 AM
Changes to the voting procedures for the Emmy Awards, in both nominations and final tallies, have improved things by widening the field and reducing the rote reappearance of certain nominees. But problems remain, and so does the unpredictability...
I'm still stung by the absence of major nominations for the stars of NBC's Friday Night Lights, and for the snubbing of ABC's Pushing Daisies among the Best Comedy Series nominees. But as we approach Sunday's 60 Annual Emmy Awards show (ABC, 8 p.m. ET), it's time to look ahead -- at the next choices, and possible mistakes, the final voters can make.
The rules have changed so that anyone casting votes has to pledge to have seen the TV episodes nominated. This may seem like a given, but it's heavier lifting than the academy has required in the past, and eliminates some glaring errors where voters were blinded by star power alone.
Even so, problems persist. TV critics and loyal viewers usually are aware of a show's entire season-long output. They can say, for example, whether last year's run of ABC's Lost was an excellent one (it was), or whether, overall, Gabriel Byrne's performance in HBO's In Treatment changed subtly but surely over the course of the season (it did).
In limiting themselves to only the episodes nominated, as many voters do, stand-alone performances and episodes are weighted unfairly. How do you make sense of the characters and intrigue in, say, Showtime's Dexter after an episode or two, or follow the season-long plot lines in HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm or FX's Damages?
On the other hand, this take-your-best-shot approach favors certain shows and performers. James Spader, who gets handed some especially juicy and lengthy courtroom summations on ABC's Boston Legal, may owe his mantel full of Emmys to this built-in bias. This year, Alec Baldwin may finally get his overdue Emmy for NBC's 30 Rock, simply because of that instant-classic episode in which he role-played an entire black family during an improvised therapy session.
Here are the major-category breakdowns, just for fun.
DRAMA SERIES: House, Dexter, Damages and Lost all had super-strong season endings, and Dexter and Lost may have done the best work overall. But AMC's Mad Men is an interesting dark horse here, and just might take it all. If not, network-TV sentiment might give it to House.
COMEDY SERIES: NBC's 30 Rock was even better than Curb Your Enthusiasm this year. If CBS wins instead for Two and a Half Men, it'll be because that sitcom draws a lot more viewers, period... but this should be 30 Rock's year.
ACTOR, DRAMA: Terrific field, wide enough to include Bryan Cranston from AMC's Breaking Bad and Michael C. Hall from Dexter. Hall and Hugh Laurie from House did the most astounding and consistent work last season (other than the snubbed Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights) -- but giving Jon Hamm the award here may be the way the academy finds to honor Mad Men.
ACTRESS, DRAMA: Connie Britton from Friday Night Lights should win, but isn't even nominated. (Let it go, David, let it go.) Of the ones who are here, the winner should be Glenn Close from Damages, in this year's closest thing to a lock.
ACTRESS, COMEDY: I love Tina Fey of 30 Rock and Mary-Louise Parker of Showtime's Weeds, but Julia Louis-Dreyfus did some fabulous work on The New Adventures of Old Christine. If that CBS sitcom presented the right episodes for judging (especially the male-hormone show), she should win.
ACTOR, COMEDY: Alec Baldwin should win this year. But he should have won every year, and he hasn't yet...
Three Quirky New DVD Sets, All Worth Watching (And Owning)
September 17, 2008 10:57 AM
One of the best TV series on the air right now, one of the classic children's series of all time, and a super-obscure import from England all have been released on DVD -- and all three qualify as TV WORTH WATCHING.
Pushing Daisies. Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre. Alfresco. Buy them all. Trade with friends...
ABC's Pushing Daisies doesn't begin its second season until Oct. 1, so there's plenty of time to buy this new Warner Bros. set and wallow in its delightful episodes. Especially since, because of the writers' strike, the "Complete First Season" consists of only nine episodes. But they're fabulous.
Pushing Daisies was the best new show of the 2007-08 TV season. Bryan Fuller of Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me created it, Barry Sonnenfeld directed the first two episodes, and such supporting players as Kristin Chenoweth, Swoosie Kurtz, Ellen Greene and Chi McBride lend as much sparkle to the series as charismatic leads Lee Pace and Anna Friel.
It's like an adult fairy tale, and looks as delicious as the pies served up by the show's baker hero. Pushing Daisies is about life and love, afterlife and afterdeath... and pie. Lots of pie. And it's perfect. Order it here.
For fairy tales aimed at younger folk, though adults can watch with their own sense of delight, there's Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre, a lavish Koch Vision reissue of the entire 1982-87 Showtime TV series. Long before HBO scored in the weekly series game, Showtime presented this charming anthology series, in which Duvall's friends and colleagues, from Robin Williams to Billy Crystal, popped in to populate retellings of their favorite fairy tales.
For me, you don't have to go past "Three Little Pigs" to justify the purchase of this entire set. Jeff Goldblum is the Big Bad Wolf; the three pigs are played by Billy Crystal, Fred Willard and Stephen Furst; and other pigs are played by Doris Roberts and Valerie Perrine. But there's also Liza Minnelli in "The Princess and the Pea," Paul Reubens as "Pinocchio," and Joan Collins as the wicked witch in "Hansel and Gretel." And SO many more.
My two kids were weaned on these shows, and adored them. You will, too. Order it here.
Finally, there's Alfresco, a vintage British series from 1982 and 1984. I'd never even heard of this sketch show before Acorn Video released it, but it's like the British equivalent of SCTV, with one sketch following another in rapid, outrageous fashion.
What makes it amazing, and worth watching, is the cast. Almost impossibly fresh-faced, the stars here include Hugh Laurie, Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry. From Thompson playing a teen punk to Coltrane playing a Bill Murray-type lounge singer, or Laurie as Robin Hood, it's all very, very funny.
"The boys in Section 6 will debrief you," Coltrane tels Laurie's neophyte spy. "Take no notice. It's just their way."
Get one or all three, and enjoy...
Tuesday's One-Two-Three Punch of Quality TV: "House," "Fringe," "Shield"
September 16, 2008 11:42 AM
Tonight, as the Fox series Fringe settles into its regular time slot, TV gives us a way to enjoy three straight hours of gripping, unpredictable, quality television simply by making one channel change.
From 8-10 p.m. ET on Fox, watch House (its excellent season premiere) and Fringe (its excellent second episode), then flip to FX at 10 p.m. ET for the season's tense third episode of The Shield.
Great TV, from start to finish.
House, as usual, presents a fascinating medical mystery -- a case that appears to be one thing, but never is. The core of tonight's show, though, has to do with House (Hugh Laurie) and his relationship with Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), which was severed at the end of last season when Wilson's girlfriend, Amber, died while coming to a drunken House's aid.
Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) tries to get the former friends back together, but their case proves as difficult as the medical one that House also is avoiding -- leaving his staff to try and interpret the symptoms for themselves. It's a wonderful hour, picking up just as strongly, and impressively, as House left off last May.
Fringe, in its second episode, is really encouraging. Like Lost, Desperate Housewives and Pushing Daisies, three other innovative series that arrived in recent years with boldly original pilots, its second episode confirms, and expands upon, initial expectations.
The character relationships are explored even more aggressively, and the father-son dynamic is a wonderful one. In one scene, harking back to last week's adventures with the cow, the former mad scientist is shown milking that same cow while chatting with his disbelieving son. It may not be the first time in TV history that a scene is played as a cow is milked, but it's got to be close. At any rate, I found it udderly charming.
And yet, in the same Fringe episode that milked that scene for comedy, there was a torture scene so horrific that, if it hadn't cut to black, I might have shut my eyes and induced the same effect. This is a show that can serve up dark and light at the same time -- and, like J.J. Abrams' Alias and Lost, keep you wondering, and leaning forward, the whole time.
Finally, there's The Shield, which is promising, as well as threatening, to put a satisfying end to the Vic Mackey story that it's told since the beginning. Tonight and over the next few episodes, long-hidden secrets are revealed, true motives and misdeeds are laid bare, and there's no turning back.
Watching the show, meanwhile, there's no turning off.
Tuesday's three hours of must-see television are what TV WORTH WATCHING is all about.
"Saturday Night Live" Returns Brilliantly -- For Five Minutes
September 15, 2008 8:25 AM
Expectations for the 34th-season opener of NBC's Saturday Night Live were high, and the show delivered brilliantly. For five minutes.
Once the opening sketch was over, SNL, for a variety of reasons, tanked more than it floated, and never again soared. But the cold open, with Amy Poehler reprising her Hillary Clinton and, yes, Tina Fey guest-starring to introduce her Sarah Palin, may have been the show's best political sketch of this entire political campaign to date.
The two women were shown together, making a bipartisan speech -- an inspired idea that allowed the former "Weekend Update" anchor team (a first! two women!) to reunite, capitalizing on their comfortable chemistry. (They also co-starred in the movie Baby Mama -- but this time, Poehler's pregnant look was for real, and hidden, in this sketch, by wardrobe and a podium.)
Fey nailed Palin's Fargo-like accent and sing-song speaking style, and was just a delight. As the sketch went on, and so did Hillary, she began vamping poses and cocking and firing an invisible shotgun, loving the spotlight.
Poehler's Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, got angrier and angrier, furious that the woman to her right actually had gotten on her party's ticket, while she herself had fallen short. And other than participating together in a history-making political year, they agreed to disagree on almost everything.
"I don't agree with the Bush doctrine," Poehler's Clinton said. Fey's Palin quickly added, with a sheepish smile, "...And I don't know what that is." Very funny, and very timely. Great, great sketch, and the ladies knew they nailed it.
And when they screamed "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!" together, it was the sound of pure joy.
Then came guest host Michael Phelps, who suggested that, like some aquatic amphibians, he couldn't function as comfortably on dry land. The dazzling Olympic swimmer, as an SNL guest host, was no Peyton Manning. The writers did everything they could to punch up his sketches -- inserting other celebrities, concocting reasons to keep him silent for long stretches -- but as comedy goes, Phelps didn't.
It also didn't help, I'm sure, that a reported appearance by Barack Obama was canceled out of concern for dire national news regarding Hurricane Ike hitting Texas. But, boy: TWO sketches climaxing with allegedly funny dancing? With all summer to plan, SNL came back weakly, and even "Weekend Update" had less punch than usual.
It did have Will Forte as a new character, the reactionary conservative Alaska Pete, who wasn't very strong overall, but did have two memorable lines. One was about Palin holding her infant child on stage at the Republican National Convention "like The Lion King." And the other was a wicked but memorable remark that Palin's daughter giving birth in a few months will change Palin's status, "officially making her a GILF."
That was the last big laugh, though, during the season opener. Better luck next week -- but what a great start.
Good for Viewers: Bad New Shows Are Rejected Quickly
September 12, 2008 7:57 AM
The ratings are in, and so far, the news is all good -- at least from the perspective of TV WORTH WATCHING.
Episode one of Fringe did well, while episodes two of 90210 and Hole in the Wall didn't.
For now, all is right with the world...
CW refused to send the premiere episode of 90210 to critics, but couldn't hide it from viewers. Eventually, the fans who most eagerly anticipated this Beverly Hills, 90210 reboot had to be allowed to watch it -- and when they did, they yawned collectively. It was the correct reaction.
90210 premiered to 4.91 million viewers -- 2.6 of them in the coveted 18-49 demographic. For CW, that's a hit. But Tuesday's second installment fell to 3.31 million in the Nielsen ratings, a 33 percent drop. The 18-49 slide was just as steep, dropping to 1.7, a 35 percent reduction.
So after all that promotion and all those shell games, 90210 managed to lose one-third of its audience in the span of one week. At that rate, it'll be gone by October. Ratings aren't the only thing that matter in this multi-platform universe -- but it's nice to know quality still does.
Hole in the Wall, on Fox, was slipped on the schedule almost at the last minute, and the curiosity factor was enough to get Sunday's sneak preview special 7 million viewers, half of them in the 18-49 demo. Solid start. But Tuesday's second episode, which had the strong lead-in the premiere of Fringe, managed only 5.1 million (a 27 percent drop), and, among the 18-49 viewers so treasured by Fox, a drop to 2.1 million (a hefty, scary 40 percent).
Hole is digging itself a big hole, and quickly.
Finally, there's Fringe itself, which premiered on Fox with 9 million viewers, 3.2 million of which were 18-49. That's a healthy start, and if the numbers hold for next week's episode two, the intriguing Fringe will have been embraced by viewers, just as swiftly and justifiably as Hole in the Wall and 90210 have been rejected.
Fox is repeating the Fringe pilot Sunday night at 8 ET, so there's still time to hop aboard. As for the others, there's still time, for the moment, to hop off...
Craig Ferguson Goes All Howard Beale, In A Good Way
September 11, 2008 10:29 AM
Last night's edition of CBS's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson featured the host getting all incensed as soon as the show started. He began to rant and rave (more ranting than raving) about American political coverage, the presidential campaigns and national apathy about voting.
He was like Howard Beale in Network, talking directly to the American people, as Peter Finch's character did in that classic 1976 Paddy Chayefsky film. Telling them he was mad as hell, and telling them why.
And you know what? It made for great television.
What's wonderful about Ferguson -- and I've said this about the guy since the beginning, since he was trying out for the job -- is that he's such a natural broadcaster. He not only thinks on his feet, he talks on his feet. Bouncing from topic to topic, pouncing on punch lines, ad libbing his way through more cleverness in one nightly monologue than many standup comics do in an entire cable special.
But there are times when Ferguson quits clowning and speaks honestly, passionately, unguardedly. He did it when his father died, when Johnny Carson died, when he became an American citizen, and on a few other occasions. On Wednesday's show, he did it again.
Ferguson used all his tricks -- funny faces, screaming voices, walking towards and hitting the camera -- in a freeform address that left no constituency ungored. Democrats, Republicans, MSNBC, Fox News, politicians, voters and, most especially, non-voters. Some memorable Howard Beale-ish excerpts include:
ABOUT TV COVERAGE OF THE CAMPAIGN: "My belief and my hope is that the American people are smarter than the media that are meant to be serving them."
ABOUT THE CANDIDATES' FAMILIES: "If their families are off limits, why are they on stage, profiled in People magazine? The children are seen marching around. Shame on you, you manipulative hypocrites -- I'm talking both sides."
ABOUT THE CULT OF PERSONALITY: "Politics is covered like showbiz now. On the Today show this morning, 'Which candidate would you rather have dinner with?' Here's an easy answer: None. They're politicians. I don't want dinner with you, and I don't want your friendship. Here is what I want to know: What are you going to do for the country, pal?"
ON COVERING THE CAMPAIGN LIGHTLY: "I like The Daily Show. I like Jon Stewart. He does a bang-up job. He does a great job, but let him do it. The rest of the TV news people, take this thing seriously! This is important!"
ON WATCHING TV NEWS: "We, all of us, have a responsibility - you have to get your news from actual news sources. Not just one, cause they are all biased. Especially cable channels. MSNBC, very liberal. FOX News, very conservative. The Animal Planet -- always meerkats, never badgers."
ON VOTING: "it's your duty to vote! The foundation in this democracy is based on free people making free choices. So, young people, if you can't take your hand out of your bag of Cheetos long enough to fill out a form, then you can't complain when we wind up with President Sanjaya."
The "Hole" Truth About Fox's "Hole in the Wall"
September 10, 2008 9:17 AM
Last night Fox presents Fringe with very limited commercial interruptions -- class upon class. Then, the second that fine new series is over, Fox presents a sneak preview of Hole in the Wall, based on the Japanese game show about people trying to squeeze themselves through cutout shapes in giant walls sliding towards them.
Enjoy your gourmet meal, folks? To follow it up, here's a Twinkie.
Hole in the Wall is on the Fox lineup this fall because the network had an unexpected Hole in the Schedule. Moment of Truth was supposed to return for a second season, but that mean-spirited, exploitive series was rejected swiftly and steadily even by those viewers morbidly curious enough to tune in when it premiered.
It's the carnival barker approach to TV programming. Find something outlandish enough, promote it heavily, and watch the rubes come into the tent. The difference with TV is, unless the rubes come back, you ultimately fail. They stopped coming back for Moment of Truth -- and even though the Sunday sneak special edition of Hole in the Wall drew 7.2 million viewers (after football), expect that number to dwindle quickly in weeks to come.
Hole in the Wall is less like a TV show than a screen-saver. It's totally watchable -- in fact, it's greatly improved -- with the sound off. People either fall in the pool or they don't. That's it. Who needs sound? In act, who needs a brain?
Eric Gould, the Boston architect (and designer of this site), called me last night while Hole in the Wall was on, in disbelief. "Is this the whole show?" he asked. Or maybe he asked, "Is this the 'Hole' show?"
Either, way, yes, it is. For now.
Among the New Broadcast Series We've Seen, Fox's "Fringe" Is the Best
September 9, 2008 8:33 AM
Right from the start, two things are wonderful about Fox's new drama series Fringe. It's the best new broadcast series among the fall shows we've seen (though many have not been provided for preview) -- and Fox also deserves credit for the manner in which Fringe is being broadcast.
The show, which premieres tonight at 8 ET, is being run with limited -- very limited -- commercial interruptions. Not just for tonight's premiere, but for at least its initial half-season order. For viewers, that's a great deal. As a result, tonight's two-hour pilot fits easily into a 90-minute slot, and this less-is-more approach may well prove to revitalize both the economics and aesthetics of broadcast TV.
Now to Fringe itself.
Newcomer Anna Torv stars as an FBI agent who ends up reuniting, then teaming with, a father and son. The father, played by John Noble, has been locked away in an institution for almost 20 years, and it's been that long since his son, played by Joshua Jackson of Dawson's Creek, has seen him. Yet as part of an investigation into a mysterious, fatal flesh-melting plague, the trio ends up working together -- and making the arrangement a continuing one.
J.J. Abrams, along with Transformers writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, is the co-creator of Fringe, and fans of Abrams' work on Alias and Lost won't be disappointed. Abrams is a hard-core, well-informed fan of TV and movies, and though the obvious template for Fringe is The X-Files, it also owes a great deal to two of Abrams' all-time favorites, the TV series The Twilight Zone and the movie Altered States.
That's borrowing from Rod Serling and Paddy Cheyefsky, respectively -- and back in the Golden Age of TV, when Serling wrote Patterns and Chayefsky wrote Marty, they were among the first to demonstrate how great, and how entertaining and memorable, TV could be. Abrams has set himself a very high bar, and it'll be fun to see whether he clears it, or even comes close.
Certainly, he and his collaborators have made some fine early choices. The pilot of Fringe begins with a flight-from-hell scene, just as Lost did -- and the supporting cast includes not only Lance Reddick of The Wire, Kirk Acevedo of Oz and Mark Valley of Boston Legal, but Blair Brown, who co-starred in Altered States -- and who has been a personal favorite ever since The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.
Bottom line: Fringe is likely to be talked about tomorrow, and remembered the day after that. That's a good start, especially in a very stripped-down TV season.
TV Season Is Rolling Out New Stuff -- And So Are We
September 8, 2008 8:41 AM
Last week, CW finally unveiled 90210. (Yawn.) Last night, HBO premiered True Blood (cool). Tomorrow night, Fox presents the first episode of Fringe (exciting). After a summer enlivened mostly by politics and the Olympics, things finally are starting to pop.
And here at TV WORTH WATCHING, we're trying to keep pace...
If you subscribed to this site's mailing list at any time in the past 10 months, yesterday you got the first email blast message ever. Yeah, it took a while. And now that we can do it, that doesn't mean we'll abuse the trust. BEST BETS are updated daily, and BIANCULLI'S BLOG is fresh every weekday, so to send emails about those updates would feel like pestering.
But from time to time, when something's especially noteworthy or interesting -- the premiere of Fringe tomorrow night, say, or just to check in with other updates, you'll hear from us. And by us, I mean me. And by you, I mean you -- and I'm thrilled to have you along for this ride.
Some things to point out, with quiet pride, to help newcomers and prodigal readers navigate this site:
1) Clicking on the TV WORTH WATCHING FALL PREVIEW banner, just below BIANCULLI'S BLOG, will take you to a handy-dandy separate page listing all the new fall shows, and commenting on them as they come in. The top row highlights the next three shows to premiere. Below that are all the new shows, in alphabetical order, with comments from regular contributor DIANE WERTS and new contributor (from Canada, yet) BILL BRIOUX.
2) Diane, formerly TV critic for New York Newsday, writes FOR BETTER OR WERTS, a regular column just beneath BEST BETS on the main page. Remember to scroll down and check it out, because she updates it frequently -- and she's really good.
3) Speaking of BEST BETS -- If you click on the BEST BETS button in the navigation bar, you get transferred to a separate page where the print is bigger, and the type is easier to read. I'm not accusing you of bad eyesight, just trying to help.
The other buttons on the navigation bar lead to other places, and are fun, too. But more on them later.
For now, thanks for being here. I couldn't do this without you. Well, I could... But why would I?
Coagulations! HBO Bounces Back with "True Blood"
September 5, 2008 6:27 AM
One thing HBO needs is another Sopranos, a show that can drive the national conversation and define the network as first among quality-TV equals. True Blood, which premieres Sunday, isn't that show. Not quite, or at least not yet.
But it's a good one, no question about it. Alan Ball, who also created Six Feet Under, returns to HBO with a series that gets more interesting, and original, as it goes on. By episode five (the last one provided for preview), you can really sink your teeth into it.
Based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, True Blood stars Anna Paquin as Sookie, a small-town waitress tending bar in a moody Louisiana area dotted with foggy bayous and gothic plantation mansions. It's a spooky setting already, made more spooky by the central premise of the books and this series: vampires, formerly hidden from society, have, as Sookie says excitedly, "come out of the coffin."
A Japanese invention, synthetic blood, has allowed the vamps to reveal themselves and try to mainstream, but it's not an easy transition for either side. Some vampires, like biker gangs with fangs, still like to roam free and plunder. And some humans, having discovered that small drops of vampire blood act as a mind-bending drug and sexual stimulant, have begun hunting the hunters.
Ball does some genre-bending, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans will be right at home with the mix of terror, comedy and character. Paquin, as Sookie, is one of this show's secret weapons. As a character, Sookie has a secret weapon of her own -- she's telepathic -- but Paquin's secret weapon is her appealing, naturalistic acting.
There are other secret weapons in True Blood, too. Stephen Moyer, as the brooding vampire who enters the restaurant and instantly captures Sookie's curiosity, is another. And among the supporting cast, Ryan Kwanten as Sookie's brother, and Rutina Wesley as her best friend, are just as enjoyable and interesting to watch.
It takes a few episodes for True Blood to really kick in. But by the time Moyer's vampiric Bill is embraced by the community and invited to a town meeting to share his war stories -- Civil War stories -- the series has found its own voice and direction. And by making room, in that same episode, for music by the Tuvan throat singer Ondar, True Blood sold me completely.
Republicans Get Message Across Unfiltered
September 4, 2008 6:40 AM
Last night the Republicans made history, and not just by nominating the first woman to be part of their presidential ticket. They made history by being the first party at either of the 2008 conventions -- and, if my memory serves, the first party at any presidential convention ever -- to get across its prime-time message totally unfiltered on commercial broadcast TV.
This happened, in part, because ABC, CBS and NBC have limited themselves to one hour of prime time nightly at these conventions. But even so, all previous nights have allowed room for the networks to skip one speech while replaying parts of another, give room for its anchors and commentators to comment, and settle in for the night's one big speech.
Not Wednesday night. Wednesday night, Republicans filled the entire hour, and then some.
CBS, NBC and ABC joined the cable and PBS coverage at 10 p.m. ET, and said hello to viewers, setting up the speakers to follow: Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin. And that was it. At 10:01, Giuliani began speaking, with a New York skyline image, notably bereft of the World Trade Center towers, towering behind him.
As soon as Giuliani was through, he introduced Palin. The biographical video that had been scheduled was scrapped, in an undeniably canny move that allowed the Alaskan governor to, in essence, introduce herself to the American TV public.
Palin spoke until 11:08, at which time she was joined on stage by John McCain, who made his first appearance at the convention. At 11:15, local stations took over with local news at most stations, and that was it.
Both speeches were presented whole.
And both were accompanied by memorable visuals, including one of Palin's daughters cradling Palin's youngest child, and licking her palm to smooth his hair. The images, like the speeches and the evening, went by mostly unremarked -- except on cable, where there was room to speak afterward.
On commercial broadcast TV, all those anchors and correspondents, all that money and expertise, and they got to say nothing except a few minutes of observations at the end.
At CBS, Jeff Greenfield said Palin's speech had "perfect populist pitch." At ABC, George Stephanopolous said that McCain "broke free of George Bush tonight." Chris Wallace, on Fox News, called Palin's address "a heck of a speech," And on PBS, Jim Lehrer observed of Palin, "To say that she was well-received in the hall would be an understatement."
A lot of Palin's speech, as with Giuliani's, focused not only on attacks on Barack Obama, but on the media, and its treatment in covering and uncovering the various stories about the national neophyte Sarah Palin. Thrust upon the national stage, she is the first governor nominated for vice president since Spiro Agnew in 1968.
Agnew, of course, was the first vice president to make a name for himself by attacking the media, which he dismissed as "nattering nabobs of negativism." As another Republican said more recently: Here we go again...
Palin Takes Stage, "Daily Show" Takes Aim, "90210" Takes Off (Barely)
September 3, 2008 8:44 AM
There's a lot to cover today: How the networks covered last night's convention, and what to expect tonight. How good The Daily Show is doing at these conventions. And how the two-hour premiere of CW's 90210, not available for preview, measured up last night.
So let's get right to it, in order:
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION -- Day 2 of the Republican National Convention, the first real day of speeches and TV coverage (because of Hurricane Gustav), was a mixed affair in terms of cable and broadcast coverage. When Orson Swindle (he being one of the POWs held captive the same time as John McCain) spoke during the 9 p.m. ET hour, C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC and PBS all televised the speech intact -- but Fox News, oddly, only joined it in progress.
That network was on board with everything the rest of the night, though, as were all the cable news operations. They were there for Laura Bush, who was there in person to introduce her husband, who wasn't -- but who spoke via satellite, in an eight-minute speech that was over at 10:01 p.m. ET, just as the broadcast networks came aboard for the night. (CBS, NBC and ABC did offer tape-delayed coverage of President Bush's remarks.)
All the broadcast networks, including PBS, ignored the Ronald Reagan video tribute, and, except for PBS, presented Fred Thompson on a delayed or truncated basis. Anyone watching public TV or cable, though, could see and hear, live, Thompson's playful endorsement of Alaska vice presidential presumptive nominee Sarah Palin: "I think I can say, without fear of contradiction, she's the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose."
Joe Lieberman's speech was the evening's only clean sweep, covered live by everyone. Tonight, the one speech guaranteed to be covered by everyone is Palin's acceptance speech, Be there, and flip through lots of channels afterward to taste a wide sampling of reaction.
THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART -- How I love this show. Last night, its first night in St. Paul, the correspondents covered the delegates "stranded" at the convention center on day one as the white, pampered equivalent of Hurricane Katrina's huddled, ignored victims three years ago. Deadly, hilarious counterpoint.
Barack Obama didn't escape unscathed, either. Stewart offered a mock visual of Obama in New Orleans, holding back the water as a modern Moses. And later, Stewart interviewed Brian Williams, and the two, as usual, got along great, even as Stewart asked questions so direct -- especially about the dysfunctional family of colleagues over at MSNBC -- Williams had to sheepishly sidestep them.
They're a great team, Stewart and Williams -- the "real news" guy going for jokes, and the "fake news" guy raising serious points in a funny manner. Watch them, and you'll laugh. But if you listen closely, you're also likely to learn something.
90210 -- Because the CW neglected to send out preview copies of their small network's biggest new show, I expected the worst. Last night, I saw it.
Actually, 90210 fits right in at CW, where Gossip Girl, its allegedly "hit" show, has more press mentions than viewers, and whose dramatic intensity and credibility is about on par with an Archie comic book. The new 90210 is that way, too, only the sweet Betty is a brunette, and the nasty Veronica is a blonde.
The reunions scenes between Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty, from the old Beverly Hills, 90210, were one highlight. If there was a second one, I missed it. And I watched both hours.
Gustav Storms Gulf Coast, TV News Networks Storm Storm
September 2, 2008 8:47 AM
Brian Williams, returning to the site of his impressive Katrina reporting from three years ago, climbed atop one of the precarious levees separating New Orleans from another devastating flood. Determined and defiant, he was like Jack Nicholson at the end of A Few Good Men.
You want him on that wall. You NEED him on that wall...
Even though Monday was the scheduled first day of the Republican National Convention, and TV news organizations are very cognizant of charges of unfair and unbalanced coverage, moving to the site of Hurricane Gustav was the right call. Williams, Katie Couric at CBS, Charles Gibson at ABC -- all of them headed to Louisiana instead of St. Paul, and all did very well.
Anderson Cooper of CNN -- who, like Williams at NBC, gained notice for his strong reporting during and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 -- was there again, and perspective and experience was one of the best things TV had to offer yesterday. One of the worst things, as always: The idiotic insistence upon throwing reporters into the center of the storm, bending like human palm trees. Ann Curry, on NBC, was one of the ridiculous rag dolls on display this time.
What I'll never understand is why the networks don't simply anchor remote-controlled cameras at key location, and use time-lapse photography and simple editing to show rising storm surges and wind-force levels as they change from hour to hour -- and from hurricane to hurricane.
The one truly intelligent use of TV technology on view this time was John King's computer maps over at CNN, used to stunning effect. Not only did he use his satellite-eye views to show where the places from which CNN reporters had been reporting, but just seeing the Mississippi River and the various levees from a clear series of satellite photos made it all seem very understandable. And very scary.
Away from the storm, the Republicans used the convention site to raise money for victims, in a plea by Cindy McCain and Laura Bush. But there were storms of a sort to weather in St. Paul as well, as news surfaced about vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her pregnant unmarried daughter.
And, finally, there was other storm news, and it wasn't good -- just as Hurricane Gustav was losing strength after making landfall, the Atlantic Ocean was playing host to Hurricane Hanna, rapidly moving towards Florida, with other storms in its wake.
Looks to be a busy TV news month, and not just for politics.
Republican Convention, Hurricane Season, Fall Season -- Split-Screen Scrambles Everywhere You Look
September 1, 2008 10:10 AM
Last Wednesday night, while most network anchors and analysts were focusing on the evening's Democratic National Convention speeches by Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, NBC's Brian Williams looked ahead to the Republican event, and to the threat of Hurricane Gustav bearing down on New Orleans -- and warned of the very real possibility of the Republicans having to deal with "a split-screen convention."
Very prescient. Very smart. And for the Republicans, potentially disastrous...
So instead of a split-screen convention today, with shots of Republican speakers and delegates on one side and hurricane-force winds on the other, John McCain has called off his own party's party, at least for day one. The last thing the Republican party needs is to convene with funny hats in the Twin Cities while water levels in New Orleans rise again, reminding everyone of government inaction in 2005.
McCain's instincts, in this case, are correct. Anderson Cooper already is reporting from the streets of the French Quarter, rather than from St. Paul -- and on tonight's evening newscasts, all three anchors are expected to follow suit. The RNC, at least on the day Gustav makes landfall, is not the "A" story.
C-SPAN will cover the stripped-down, basic parliamentary necessities occurring today at the convention, beginning at 4 p.m. ET. But by prime time, the hall should be quiet. No speeches, no speakers. No one-hour summations and addresses for the broadcast networks to present. And for McCain, that's a plus, not a minus.
Tonight's speakers were scheduled to include President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sen. Joe Lieberman. Because of Hurricane Gustav, alll four of those speakers have been erased from the schedule. Not postponed. Erased.
Presto! The current administration's most powerful leaders -- the ones most responsible for both the response to Katrina and and the invasion of Iraq -- are no-shows. Schwarzenegger and Lieberman, neither of whom pleases the conservative side of the Republican base, are silenced. McCain and company, I'm guessing, are celebrating (but only in private) like little kids on a snow day from school. Bush, too.
But where does this leave the broadcast networks covering these events? CBS, NBC and ABC should devote their convention-reserved hours tonight for news specials, but if one of them blinks and presents an entertainment-show rerun instead, that'll say a lot about that network's priorities, and greed.
Finally, at the same time, the broadcast and cable networks are paving the way to launch a new fall TV season. TNT's new legal series from Steven Bochco, Raising the Bar, premieres tonight at 10 p.m. ET, but it's too tepid and clunky to get or deserve much notice. The CW presents season premieres of Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill tonight, Fox devotes its prime time to the return of Prison Break -- and NBC promises the first-ever million-dollar winner on Deal or No Deal. (So much for suspense. And it had to stack the deck with five $1-million slots to do it.)
But the split-screen effect is at work here, too. All these TV events -- storms, politics and entertainment -- are fighting for attention on this particular Labor Day. And on this day, Gustav wins. But by cancelling the most problematic lineup of his convention, McCain wins, too.
