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September 2009 Archives
CW's "The Beautiful Life" Is Cursed, But Not Kickoff Cursed
September 30, 2009 10:00 AM
CW's The Beautiful Life TBL, its glossy new drama starring Mischa Barton, was scheduled to present its third episode tonight, but don't look for it. Two strikes -- two telecasts -- and it's already out.
Its replacement, for tonight at 9 ET, is a rerun of Melrose Place. That quick-kill fate may seem like a curse, but The Beautiful Life is not the latest victim of The Kickoff Curse. The series that's cursed this season, if the Kickoff Curse is going to come true again, is none other than... Melrose Place itself...
What is the Kickoff Curse, who invented it, and how reliable is it? Good questions all. Here are the answers.
The Kickoff Curse says, simply, that the new TV series to beat the others to the starting gate in a given season -- in other words, the show that takes a calculated head start by premiering earliest among all new freshman series -- will fail to survive to see a second season.
Who invented it? I did, decades ago. I had more spare time back then.
How reliable is it as an indicator of first-year failure? Over one 12-year stretch, it claimed a dozen victims in a row. And in the 34 years since a network intentionally jumped the gun in hopes of giving a new series some early attention, only six series lived to fight another day. Or, at least, another year.
Last year, for example, NBC's America's Toughest Jobs was first to arrive. It's gone, and isn't coming back. The year before that, it was Fox's Nashville, which went Nowheresville. And the year before that, in 2006, it was Fox's Vanished, which... vanished. So the past three years, the Kickoff Curse is 3 for 3.
This season, CW's Melrose Place, premiering September 8, inherits the Kickoff Curse. With Heather Locklear coming aboard soon, maybe this series can survive the curse, but not many have. Most prominent among the survivors are the CBS sitcom Alice in the 70s, ABC's newsmagazine Primetime Live in the 80s, Fox's sitcom Roc in the 90s, and the Fox drama Prison Break in the current decade.
And except for a pair of fairly recent sitcoms from the now-defunct UPN network, Girlfriends and One on One from 2000-01, those are the only survivors of a curse that began way back in 1975, during the Gerald Ford administration.
The most famous victims of the Kickoff Curse include ABC's fabulous 1994 teen drama My So-Called Life, starring Claire Danes; 1984's Call to Glory, an ABC drama starring Craig T. Nelson that explored the Kennedy-era 1960s the way Mad Men is doing now; and 1990's Hull High, the NBC series that was the last show to attempt a weekly high-school musical series until the current Glee.
For the record, and for your amusement, here's the complete list of shows that faced the Kickoff Curse, along with their respective fates. Only shows which are underlined survived the curse.
Remember any of these? If most of the names don't ring a bell... well, that's the point.
YEAR.....NET.....SERIES
2009......CW.....Melrose Place (fate unknown)
2008.....NBC.....America's Toughest Jobs
2007.....Fox.....Nashville
2006.....Fox.....Vanished
2005.....Fox.....Prison Break
2004.....Fox.....North Shore
2003.....NBC.....Whoopi
2002......WB.....Family Affair
2001.....UPN.....One on One
2000.....UPN.....Girlfriends
1999.....UPN.....Grown Ups
1998.....Fox.....Holding the Baby
1997.....UPN.....Good News
1996.....Fox.....L.A. Firefighters
1995.....Fox.....The Crew
1994.....ABC.....My So-Called Life
1993.....Fox.....Front Page
1992.....ABC.....Covington Cross
1991.....Fox.....Roc
1990.....NBC.....Hull High
1989.....ABC.....Primetime Live
1988.....NBC.....Baby Boom
1987.....NBC.....Private Eye
1986.....CBS.....The Wizard
1985.....CBS.....Hometown
1984.....ABC.....Call to Glory
1983.....NBC.....We Got It Made
1982.....NBC.....The Powers of Matthew Star
1981.....ABC.....Best of the West
1980.....CBS.....Ladies' Man
1979.....ABC.....240-Robert
1978.....NBC.....Dick Clark's Live Wednesday
1977.....CBS.....The Betty White Show
1976.....CBS.....Alice
1975.....CBS.....Big Eddie
A Week Into the New TV Season, What Do YOU Think?
September 28, 2009 12:41 PM
There are more of us writing at TV WORTH WATCHING, dispensing more opinions all the time, and you can find our thumbnail summaries of our reactions to the new fall shows by clicking on the FALL PREVIEW banner on the main page.
But now that the fall 2009-10 TV season is a week old, and you've had a chance to sample most of the new shows, the ball's in your court. What shows hooked you enough to tune in? Which ones were disappointing, and which ones impressed you, and why?
Click on the banner for a refresher list, and comment away. Did Modern Family make you laugh? Did Flashfoward pull you in? In your estimation, was The Good Wife good? And so on...
It's time for US to read YOU for a change...
Park Yourself In Front of the TV for PBS "National Parks"
September 25, 2009 6:56 AM
Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET (check local listings), PBS presents the latest multi-night documentary by Ken Burns: The National Parks: America's Best Idea. You expect, and you get, endless arrays of stunning still and moving images of nature at its rawest -- gorgeous gorges, and so on. But what's so unexpected, and so uplifting and fascinating, are the human stories...
The National Parks runs nightly, Sept. 27-Oct. 2 -- Sunday through Friday -- and will gobble up more than a dozen hours of videotape, blanks DVDs or DVR time. Clear the room, because, just like a national park, this is a destination you'll be eager to revisit.
There's so, so much to learn here. If you're well-traveled, you'll smile at familiar sights, captured in period photographs and in swoon-worthy new film footage. But few people -- and an episode interviews one of them -- have been to all the country's national parks, so every episode is likely to transport you to a place you've never gone.
By the time National Parks is over, though, I'm betting there will be at least a few places you'll be busting to visit.
National Parks is produced by Burns and longtime collaborator Dayton Duncan (shown at right), and written by Duncan.
It's so clearly a labor of love for Duncan that, in the sixth and final installment, he shows his hand, and includes home-movie footage of his first family vacation to a national park, when he was nine.
He and his family, leaving their Iowa home to visit a few parks in 1959, arrived in Yellowstone Park two days after a serious earthquake hit, 50 years ago -- and, like many people interviewed in this documentary, considers his first brush with nature on that scale to be wholly transformative. (That's him waving in the picture above.)
Episode one explains how Yellowstone became the country's first national park, and the next three episodes detail the slow, amazing path in took for American lands to be set aside for posterity. And watch for such special treats as vintage footage from film's early years, of adventurers tackling the Colorado River and Mt. McKinley in the early 20th century.
Geographically, the program spans the entire country, from volcanic Hawaiian lands and northwest glaciers to Florida's soupy Everglades. And in terms of including ideas, National Parks is just as all-inclusive.
Themes, obsessions and subjects from previous Burns works keep threading it and out of this narrative: slavery, baseball, Mark Twain, race, Abraham Lincoln, WWII, even Scott Joplin's ragtime music. But there are new figures to learn about here, in great and unforgettable depth.
John Muir. Stephen Mather. These people and their ideals are brought back to life, just as the issues facing the parks are brought to life in such uncomfortably timely segments as President Jimmy Carter's standoff with frontier-mentality dissidents in Alaska. Corporate Industrial interests and their designs on ravaging nature for profit is by no means a new story -- but, sadly, it's no less relevant today than when the giant sequoia were being felled and logged.
The National Parks, over its six powerful nights, shows us America the Beautiful.
In so doing, Burns and Duncan show us Television the Beautiful as well.
GUEST BLOG #54: Diane Holloway Thinks "Dexter" Is Bloody Good
September 24, 2009 10:40 AM
[David B. here: I'm going to let the TV WORTH WATCHING ladies, the two Dianes, fight over this one. Showtime's Dexter is one of my favorite drama series on TV, but Dianes 1 and 2 have different ways of expressing their emotions about this fabulously different television antihero. Diane Werts reviews the new season of Dexter, which starts Sunday at 9 ET, on her blog -- while on today's guest blog, contributing critic Diane Holloway sums up the three seasons to date.]
TV Serial Killers and the Women Who Love Them
By Diane Holloway
Oh, Dexter, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Come to think of it, perhaps I should explain why, instead of how. Loving a serial killer -- no matter how endearing he may be when not wielding a syringe, knife, piano wire or hacksaw -- requires some explanation.
Seriously, folks, I'm not some sicko. I'm a calm, rational little woman who loves children and dogs and who volunteers for a couple of charities. But I love this cold-blooded killer, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I don't love to hate him; I love him.
In anticipation of the fourth-season debut of Showtime's magnificent Dexter (Sunday night at 9 ET), I watched the entire third season on DVD in a self-imposed marathon of three days. The saturation helped me justify to myself why I have such a soft spot for Dexter Morgan. The submersion also reminded me why the dark side of the character can leave me chilled to the bone.
The No. 1 reason Dexter is inherently lovable is Michael C. Hall, a baby-faced actor with big brown eyes, a sweet smile and enormous talent. Soft-spoken and mild-mannered in real life, Hall gives Dexter an undeniable vulnerability and guilelessness. He's almost cuddly.
Without Hall, Dexter wouldn't be Dexter. Based on the novels by Jeff Lindsay, the series scripts are first-rate, but Dexter is all about the actor who plays him. When Showtime presented its first press conference touting the show, Hall smiled and shrugged when asked how he came up with his portrayal.
"There isn't a lot of opportunity for research," he said.
In other words, the fully realized Dexter springs from the creative mind of Hall. And that portrayal has evolved.
In the beginning, Dexter came across as more of a clueless sociopath. But in a Forrest Gump kind of way, he has been forced by circumstance to become more human and simpatico. He's always been a caring, protective big brother to the hilariously foul-mouthed Deb (played by Hall's real-life wife, Jennifer Carpenter). His feelings for girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz) may have waxed and waned, but his dedication to her two children has never wavered.
And Dexter certainly works hard at his job as a blood-splatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department.
By the end of the third season, Dexter has overcome any feelings of reluctance about his romantic relationship and has happily tied the knot with Rita, who is pregnant wit his child. He promised at the wedding to be the "best husband and father possible." And we believed him.
Fans of the show worried that Dexter had left himself open to trouble by letting his new "friend," Miguel Prado (brilliantly played by Jimmy Smits) into his secret life. We knew that would not end well, and it didn't. But Miguel turned into such a fiery, mean-tempered villain that Dexter came off as the good guy -- even while choking Miguel to death.
The fourth season, which features Jonathan Lithgow as a legendary serial killer, will attempt an even trickier balance between Dexter's dark side and his new life as a family man.
Can he really be a good husband and father while dispensing with the evil-doers who meet his late father's "code"? Will he successfully wipe the blood off his hands before bouncing his new baby boy on his lap? And after getting burned by his failed friendship experiment with Miguel, will he shut himself off a bit more to outsiders?
Dexter is one of those shows, like Perry Mason and Seinfeld, that simply couldn't exist without its star. Michael C. Hall makes Dexter Morgan an inherently bad guy who really is lovable -- in a psychotic, deeply weird kind of way. He is loyal, well-mannered, neat, clean and hard-working. If it weren't for that little homicidal streak, he would be perfect... but he wouldn't be nearly as compelling.
I love him just the way he is.
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Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout. She's now sniffing out other possibilities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.
GUEST BLOG #53: Tom Brinkmoeller Takes A Critical Look... At Critics
September 23, 2009 10:04 AM
[Bianculli here: Once again, I'd like to encourage you to click on the Fall TV Preview banner above the Best Bets and check out TV WORTH WATCHING's constantly updated analysis of the new fall shows. And today, keep reading to check out contributing columnist Tom Brinkmoeller's advice about taking advice, at least from critics...]
TV Star Ratings and Critical Raves: Don't Necessarily Believe Everything You Read
By Tom Brinkmoeller
Along with the ads for Christmas layaway and robocalls from political wannabes, another sign of early fall has hit the atmosphere: reviews of the new TV shows.
Like computer-model hurricane predictions, these reviews serve the valuable purpose of telling readers when to run for cover. But just like the weather reporter who howls frantic warnings when anything monumental ever will hit land, some reviewers aren't to be taken seriously.
A few points to consider as we're immersed in the new fall TV premiere week:
1) Beware of the bite. When you see a review quote in an ad for a TV show, squint hard and look for the attribution. If the quote is from someone or some source you've never heard of, your faith in this new show should be guarded. If you can search the Web and find the source, see if it has any credibility.
If it's nothing but a site that spits out bite-sized quotes in the hopes they will be appropriated by an ad-writing flack, the site has all the credibility of a litter box. This reviewer has more enthusiasm than the show's executive producer. Ignore the hype. Far as I'm concerned, this rule applies to anything good said in a review of Hank or Brothers.
2) Too many stars is a sign of turbulence in the cosmos. Film reviewers who reward stars do so for a completed package. TV reviewers who award stars are doing so for a work-in-progress. On a five-star scale, no series ever has been born with all five. Five stars, if they are indeed a reflection of near-perfection, is something into which a TV series grows.
No matter how much one loves the current state -- or the memory of -- a series, a viewing of the pilot and the first season will show how much that series has grown. If a good series doesn't grow, it's like an artificial bouquet. It doesn't age, it just gathers dust.
3) Adopt a critic. You're here, probably, because of Bianculli. Doesn't mean he's the final word in quality judgment, but he's near the top in your (and my) mind. You've tested his reviews against your tastes and found a good match. (If anything I've written has resonated well in your taste area, you'll seriously consider my endorsement of The Good Wife and The Middle.)
Use the same criterion with others who review television. If your tastes match, give that critic your equivalent of five stars. If you never agree with a critic, that's valuable, too. Anything that gets positive comments from that person is almost automatically to be ignored. If that reviewer dislikes something, it may have some great redeeming values. (Avoid The Good Wife and The Middle if my writing causes you to shut down your computer.)
4) Believe in television's love of the mundane: If you like something new on TV and most critics hate it, know the show has a great chance of surviving. Conversely, if you hate something new and the best critics like it, know it is airing on borrowed time and almost surely will disappear very soon.
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Tom Brinkmoeller is ever mindful of the fact that "critic" and "cynic" can share more than similar-sounding syllables, if one is not very careful.
Big News, and Lots of It: Emmy Reaction, Breaking News of Exciting Fresh TV Import, and TVWW's New Fall Preview!
September 21, 2009 11:38 AM
Busy, busy day. Reaction to Sunday's Emmy Awards, news that one of my favorite TV shows screened at RomaFictionFest is coming to the U.S., and -- just in time for the television season -- TV WORTH WATCHING presents its annual overview of the new fall season. Strap on your seat belts. Here we go...
My reaction to the 61st Annual Emmy Awards on CBS, as well as my personal overview of the fall season that starts officially today, can be heard (and read) at the Fresh Air with Terry Gross website after about 5 p.m. ET today by clicking HERE.
Basically, it boils down to this: Neil Patrick Harris is a keeper. So is the idea of bundling all but the major awards by genre. (How the heck did THAT idea elude awards show producers for so long?) And though I loved the idea of introducing stars almost perversely, by citing one of their least remembered credits, I'd up the ante next year by adding video as well. Make it REALLY embarrassing for them, and enjoyable for us.
Nothing I saw last night altered my opinion that Justin Timberlake could bring back the variety series genre if given a chance, and if so inclined. And now, I'm starting to think, so could Neil Patrick Harris. By the way: What Matthew Weiner said at the very end while receiving the evening's final award, when his Mad Men won Outstanding Drama Series for the second straight year, is absolutely true. What's bad for broadcast TV, as the cable universe expands and viewers seek programming elsewhere, is good for fans of quality TV. So long as SOMEBODY pays for it, that is.
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When I covered RomaFictionFest, I enumerated some of my favorite series, and expressed hope that some of these intriguing international TV productions eventually would find their way to our shores. Well, I was just informed, by one of the executive producers of one of those productions, that a deal was just struck to bring Underbelly, Australia's home-turf, reality-inspired reply to The Sopranos, to the United States.
The series, as I described it upon my return from Rome, is about the rise of organized crime, and sometimes not-so-organized crime, in Australia. Underbelly has won as Best Drama Series in that country, and currently is in production on season three. All three seasons have been contracted for U.S. telecast by DirecTV, which will unveil the series on its 101 Network early in 2010, just after its new run of Friday Night Lights episodes has concluded.
According to my Roma festival Deep Throat (nothing untoward implied there), DirecTV's presentation will begin with season two, which is a full-season flashback to the 1970s, before presenting the more modern era dramatized in season one. Both seasons, though, are full of sex, violence, drugs and rock 'n' roll. A good time should be had by all. And, just as Weiner said at the Emmys, it's one more case of enjoying quality TV wherever you can find it.
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Finally, since this is the day after the Emmy Awards, it's also the day of the launch of the 2nd Annual TV WORTH WATCHING Fall Preview. (As all good journalist students know, there can't be a FIRST Annual anything, because the tradition hasn't been set.)
Last year, we had three TV critics contributing. This year, we have more than twice that -- and even (especially?) when we disagree, the more the merrier. We'll be updating often, so click daily on the colorful Fall Preview banner, and it'll take you to the fall wrapup. The next three new shows to premiere are listed up top, and the whole batch is listed alphabetically beneath that first row. As the shows evolve, so may our opinions, so keep visiting.
And thanks, publicly, to all you TV WORTH WATCHING scribes, you loyal wretches, you abused Bartlebys. Today, the Fall Preview. Tomorrow -- or, at least, in the next few months -- a full site redesign, with column space you won't have to share.
Craig Ferguson: Amusing, Honest, Literary Autobiography Author -- on Purpose
September 18, 2009 7:07 AM
Craig Ferguson's autobiography hits stores next week -- and his American on Purpose, subtitled The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot, vaults instantly to the top of its narrow but rarefied genre: it's the best memoir ever written by a late-night talk-show host.
And if that doesn't sound like high enough praise, it's meant as quite the compliment...
Johnny Carson, who had decades of fabulous inside stories to tell, never told them between the pages of a book. But Steve Allen, the original host of the Tonight! show, turned out tons of them, almost as prolifically as he wrote songs. But his books, at least the ones about his own life and career, seemed dictated as much as written. Jack Paar, who succeeded Allen on Tonight, had a conversational writing style in his memoirs, too, but both its style and content were up a few notches.
Other prominent late-night show hosts have either been notoriously silent in terms of autobiography (David Letterman, Conan O'Brien), or have worked with co-authors (Dick Cavett). But Ferguson, who already has penned movies and a novel (2007's entertaining Between the Bridge and the River), is as much a writer as a standup comic or TV host.
In American on Purpose, which you can buy at a substantial discount by clicking HERE, he proves it -- on almost every page.
Ferguson has the detachment to see his past without apologies or nostalgia, and the literary talent to make memorable observations about the various triumphs and mistakes in his life, and the environments around him.
As a "plump" young boy getting the chance to travel from his native Scotland to the United States for the first time, he recalls the simple thrill of getting his passport ("I felt like James Bond"). He remembers the time, while running from a gang of kids intending to do him harm, he came within a few yards of being flattened by a railroad train ("I still have dreams where I see the driver's face").
And he talks candidly of the early experiences with religion-generated violence that formed his political viewers as a young teen: "I believe in a constitution which separates church from state," Ferguson writes. "I've seen what happens when they get in cahoots."
Ferguson's story is compelling enough on his own: his rambling path from construction work and odd jobs (including being a bouncer at a club) to acting and comedy, his alcohol and drug-fueled "Lost Weekend" that lasted more than a decade, and his often tempestuous relationships with friends and lovers.
One genuinely entertaining, and genuinely nice, aspect of Ferguson's writing is that, while he is very hard on himself throughout the book, he is quite forgiving of others. In Hollywood memoirs, not many ex-lovers and ex-wives get off as easily, or are recalled as fondly.
He's also got some very vivid show-biz stories, from doing standup as a bellowing character he called Bing Hitler to getting cast as the ineffectual boss on The Drew Carey Show. But Ferguson downplays most of his skills and achievements, except for the times when he himself is shocked by how far he's come. He admits this feeling readily, whether he's taking his parents to the Grand Canyon or hosting the White House Correspondents' Dinner, with President Bush as the guest of honor.
But it's the writing that gets me -- the way he writes so lovingly about an uncle, "Gunka James" -- and, as well, about his son, Milo, and about his parents. Long-time viewers of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS surely remember the stunningly emotional and honest show in which Craig reacted to the death of his father. After reading American on Purpose, you'll get an even better sense of what a loss that was, and his mother's death as well.
In fact, this autobiography, while being the opposite of boastful, manages to explain a lot. It explains how Ferguson developed the gifts that allow him to improvise, night after night, the most entertaining and unpredictable monologue on television. It explains why he puts such a premium on friendship, why he became such a voracious reader and readable writer, and, most germane to the book's title, why he sought, and is so proud of, his American citizenship.
The only flaw with American on Purpose, as I see it, is that HarperCollins made the painful error of accidentally omitting Craig's acknowledgments at the end of the book. Ouch. Even though Ferguson announced that on his show, and mined it for humor, every author can imagine what a sinking feeling that must have caused.
So here's the deal, Craig: If you want to send your acknowledgments to TV WORTH WATCHING, we'll print them here, in full. For your memoir, as well as your place in American TV history, you've more than earned it.
GUEST BLOG #52: Tom Brinkmoeller On a New Way to Appreciate Old TV
September 17, 2009 10:37 AM
[Bianculli here: With the new fall TV season about to arrive, contributing columnist Tom Brinkmoeller checks out the revamp of a website devoted to old TV, and the preservation of its oral history. Warning: The site, like the columnist, may prove addictive...]
Repackaged Website Provides User-Friendly Access to Priceless Interviews
By Tom Brinkmoeller
A premise of which I'm so sure, I'm smug about it:
If you're a regular visitor to this site, your interest in television stretches way past buying vowels or Atlanta housewives. If that's correct, and you love and are fascinated by good television, go to this site soon: emmytvlegends.org
Been there before? You'll be pleased with the improvement. New to you? If you're a fan of TV WORTH WATCHING, you'll think you've discovered a new mother lode.
More than a decade ago, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation started recording interviews with most of the people who have contributed to television's history. To date, more than 600 interviews have been completed.Not the talk-show-interview type, which can last about five minutes, including the obligatory clip for the product being promoted. No, there are interviews of depth and interest, with intelligent questions prompting interesting answers.
In essence, you're part of a wonderful chat. Not since Dick Cavett's show ended has this kind of interviewing been seen so easily.
In 2005, the interviews started showing up on the Web. But finding what you were looking for was clumsy, and interest in tapping into this collection easily could be deflated. The just-launched, redesigned site lets visitors search by people, shows, professions and topics. The former labyrinth has been dismantled. Ease of use clearly is the successful main motivator of the redesign.
Go to the site and click on Interviews in the menu bar, and then on People in the sub-menu, to get an idea of the diverse collection of people, from in front of and behind the camera, who have shared their time and wonderfully explored reflections and opinions.
Some of the interviews have yet to be added to the site, and their names don't link to the interviews. But a spokesman for the Foundation, asked about this, says, "They're working to get everything uploaded as quickly as possible." And though there is no time line, completing the site is an obvious high priority.
Sid Caesar to Milton Berle. Grant Tinker to Ted Turner. Leonard Nimoy to Mary Tyler Moore. And many more, enough to tailor-fit any taste. And those whose interviews offer a longtime insight into their extraordinary lives, lives which have, sadly, recently come to an end: Walter Cronkite, Don Hewitt, Larry Gelbart, Tim Russert and others.
The interviews have been around for a while, but this repackaging is so, so much more than regifting. Visit, explore, and enjoy.
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Tom Brinkmoeller wishes the content of commercial television were as imaginative as the Web site that gives such great insights into its history.
GUEST BLOG #51: Diane Holloway Offers a Dissenting "Idol" Opinion
September 16, 2009 9:26 AM
[Bianculli here: When the announcement was made that Ellen DeGeneres would be replacing Paula Abdul as a judge on American Idol, TV WORTH WATCHING contributing critic Diane Werts registered and explained her disapproval. Now another TVWW contributing critic named Diane -- Diane Holloway -- respectfully but forcefully disagrees, and thinks Ellen should do just fine. Fight nicely, ladies, or at least duel with feather pillows at 20 paces. I'll pull this website over if I have to...]
Ellen Replacing Paula?
Diane No. 2 Applauds the Switch
By Diane Holloway
As much as I admire and respect my TV Worth Watching colleague Diane Werts, I have to respectfully disagree with her recent posting about Ellen DeGeneres heading to American Idol.
Diane No. 1, as I call her (I'm lowly Diane No. 2, by the way) doesn't see how DeGeneres will fit into the Idol judging panel. And she believes the show will suffer without the replaced Paula Abdul.
After eight seasons of watching the show and grimacing over some of Abdul's head-case antics, I'm relieved that she's gone. I do agree that her nurturing comments provided a refreshing respite from Simon Cowell's sometimes cruel reality.
But I think DeGeneres can provide the same positive commentary to the young contestants while also serving up some smart fun. The genius of DeGeneres is her ability to connect with people and to see the wacky humor in just about everything. She will be able to lighten any caustic Cowell moments AND make us laugh at the same time.
Of course Abdul made us laugh, too, but not intentionally. She made us laugh and cringe at the same time, when she remarked on a song that hadn't been sung, or lost track of what she was saying, or showed up decked out in a leftover costume from Moulin Rouge.
It was like watching those overweight folks falling off the big balls on Wipeout. It's sad, embarrassing and funny at the same time.
Heading into its ninth season, American Idol could stand some change in the judging booth. Fox attempted to do that last season by adding Kara DioGuardi as a fourth judge, but that was a mistake.
The commentary after the performances took way too long with four rambling judges, and DioGuardi was by far the most rambling. Three judges are better than four. I wish DioGuardi had been bumped, too, but she probably comes cheap compared to the others.
Diane 1, like many other fans and critics, questions DeGeneres' qualifications as a singing judge. She probably has a point there, but American Idol judges aren't exactly evaluating the fine points of singing.
"Dog, you really did your thing." -- Randy Jackson
"I just felt your emotions pouring out. I have chills." -- Paula Abdul
"To be honest, that was like bad karaoke." -- Simon Cowell
Seriously, folks, how much more credible does DeGeneres need to be? DeGeneres is a self-described music junkie. She loves pop and rock music, and she loves to dance. How is that different than Abdul, who can dance but has debatable vocal skills?
DeGeneres persuaded a very reticent Barack Obama to "bust a move" on her daytime talk show during his presidential campaign. Doesn't that speak volumes about her motivational skills?
With deepest apologies to Ms. Werts, I'm looking forward to DeGeneres on Idol. I predict she will be smarter, funnier and more supportive than the oft-daft Abdul.
And I can't wait to see her take on Simon! THAT'S going to be TV worth watching.
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Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout. She's now sniffing out other possibilities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.
GUEST BLOG #50: P.J. Bednarski on Leno, The Day After
September 15, 2009 12:58 PM
[Bianculli here: My own review of the premiere of NBC's The Jay Leno Show can be heard today on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, or on the Fresh Air website after about 5 p.m. ET by clicking here. Meanwhile, here's contributing writer P.J. Bednarski's take on Leno's move Monday from late night to prime time...]
First Night Out, "Jay Leno" Digs Own Grave
By P.J. Bednarski
America may still be able to fall asleep watching Jay Leno.
His 10 p.m. premiere showing on NBC Monday night was a showcase for bad television and an embarrassment for a network trying so hard to create a marketing "event" that it forgot Leno's talents: A powerful gimmick in the variety show/talk show toolbox is real or illusionary spontaneity, not a video screen featuring a "surprise" appearance by Oprah Winfrey. God, that was painful.
The first show was bad enough to get a network-TV-watcher a little peeved. If this is what we're going to get every night, NBC will have failed to launch a programming experiment that could have been interesting, and should be kicked around for wasting the moment. One night does not a massive failure make, but NBC and Leno too eagerly began digging their own grave Monday night.
Even the monologue wasn't very crisp. Leno cracked wise about the University of Wyoming's decision to name its center for international students after that great world Kumbaya-chanter Dick Cheney, and Leno couldn't resist the irony of the item. Trouble is, Conan O'Brien did exactly the same joke last week, and The New York Times repeated it in its Laugh Lines feature in Sunday's Week in Review.
The funniest moments in the show all involve Kanye West. He was supposed to to be creating an instant headline with the celebrity heartfelt apology of the week, that for rudely dissing Taylor Swift on an MTV awards show Sunday night and leaving her on stage humiliated.
Leno managed to get West at least squeamish -- or at least looking squeamish -- by asking what West's recently departed mother would have thought of his MTV appearance. West's response has to be boiled down to a paraphrase -- if you DVRed the premiere, and have the time, transcribe West's reply and try to find the full, coherent sentence. I don't think it's there.
Anyway, he said she wouldn't have liked it, in so, so many words. It was pathetic to watch Leno try coax this emotional crescendo, but after West did a lackluster shame bit, it was time to move on. Said Leno, all bubbly-like, "Hey, you ready to sing? Give it a shot?" Somehow, West pulled it together.
Unfortunately, Leno did not. This was one bad hour of television.
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P.J. Bednarski is a veteran TV critic and former executive editor of Broadcasting & Cable magazine.
TV History All Over the Place: Larry Gelbart Friday, "Bonanza" Saturday, Leno Tonight
September 14, 2009 11:12 AM
TV history seems to be everywhere all of a sudden. News broke Friday of the death of Larry Gelbart, whose TV triumphs go back to the Golden Age with Sid Caesar. Saturday marked the 50th anniversary of the Ponderosa clan. And tonight, Jay Leno takes the TV talk show into very significant virgin territory...
I know of only a few members of the Television Critics Association, and I was one of them, who lobbied especially hard for Larry Gelbart to be honored with the TCA Career Achievement Award this year and last, to no avail. Now the only way to honor him is posthumously -- but in the history of TV, few writers spanned as many eras, or created as many out-and-out classics, as Gelbart, who died last week at age 81.
Movie fans will, or should, know him for such screenplays as Tootsie, and Broadway audiences for the book (with Burt Shevelove) of Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. But on TV, check out Gelbart's impeccable career highlights:
In the 1950s, he wrote for Sid Caesar on both Caesar's Hour (with Mel Brooks) and The Chevy Show (with Woody Allen). Most obituaries credit him with writing for Caesar's Your Show of Shows -- but they're wrong.
In the 1970s, Gelbart developed, for CBS, the TV version of the movie M*A*S*H, presiding over one of the best TV series ever made.
Also in the 1970s, he created NBC's United States, a "romantic dramedy" with no laugh track, starring Beau Bridges and Helen Shaver, that was decades ahead of its time.
Then, in the 1990s, he wrote an HBO telemovie called Barbarians at the Gate, starring James Garner as a tobacco tycoon in a comic dramatization of the ruthless battle to buy out a major tobacco company.
In short, Larry Gelbart achieved TV greatness in the 50s, 70s and 90s, and that's just for starters. What other TV writer, living or dead, can make that claim? I don't think there is one.
Goodbye, Larry.
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More TV history: Saturday was the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Bonanza on NBC, a series that made its first appearance on September 12, 1959. By 1961, it was TV's number two show. By 1964, it was number one -- a position it held for years, until, ahem, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour managed to eat into some of its audience and dent its TV supremacy.
Bonanza was presented in color from the very start, and scheduled initially on Saturday night so that families out on the town could see this color Western on the new TV sets demonstrated in hardware and appliance store windows -- and, as a consequence, eagerly line up to buy color TV sets made by RCA, which was NBC's parent company.
By the way: When Bonanza premiered in 1959, the Western already was TV's dominant prime-time genre, overwhelming the schedule even more than reality shows do now. In 1958-59, for example, eight of the Top 10 TV shows were Westerns, with the top four spots going to Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Have Gun Will Travel and The Rifleman.
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Finally, INSTANT television history. Jay Leno isn't the first Tonight Show host to take his act to prime time after leaving his late-night nest. Steve Allen did it, and so did Jack Paar (and so, for completists, did Ernie Kovacs). But those were either as specials, or weekly shows. No one else has stripped across the board, Monday through Friday, the way The Jay Leno Show is, beginning tonight at 10 ET on NBC.
Even here at TV WORTH WATCHING, we have different opinions about whether this is a good move or a bad move. My position is that, if you're a fan of quality scripted TV, it's bad, because it eats up so many hours of prime time. But the flip side is, NBC of late is so infatuated and infested with bad programming anyway, five hours of Leno could be a marked improvement.
His success, though, would be copied by other networks, resulting in even FEWER hours available for such already precious gems as ABC's Pushing Daisies and NBC's Life, neither of which could survive past two seasons in the current, stifling TV climate. So make no mistake: What happens this week, and in the near future, will impact television history greatly.
And it's no laughing matter.
GUEST BLOG #49: Ed Martin Checks Into CW's New "Melrose Place"
September 10, 2009 12:03 PM
[Bianculli here: The CW unveiled its remake of Melrose Place earlier this week, and is repeating the pilot Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET. Contributing critic Ed Martin has seen next week's episode as well, and has some thoughts about how to amp it up quickly...]
Martin's "Melrose" Mantra: A Whore Should Never Be a Bore
By Ed Martin
There hasn't been a column written about The CW's continuation of the '90s pop-culture fave Melrose Place that did not include a mention of Heather Locklear. Everyone seems to think that if Locklear would agree to reprise her role of ferocious businesswoman Amanda Woodward on the new show, its future would look brighter.
Putting aside the question of why Locklear would even want to do such a thing, the fact is that the new Melrose Place doesn't need her. What it needs is Marcia Cross! More specifically, it needs a Marcia Cross Moment -- as soon as possible.
I'm referring, as you might imagine, to what may be the most famous scene in Melrose history -- one that did not include Locklear. It was the sequence in which Cross' Kimberly Shaw, the brilliant young doctor who had been gravely injured in an auto accident, returned to the life she had known after a long recovery period seemingly as good as new.
Until, that is, she slipped out of sight and pulled off her wig, revealing a monstrous scar along the side of her head that called to mind the Frankenstein movies of yesteryear.
Yes, Locklear was so contagiously energizing as Amanda that her addition to the series late in its first season saved what had been a turgid twenty-something drama, and instantly transformed it into irresistible top-drawer trash. In other words, once Melrose stopped pretending to be something other than what it should have been from the start, it was a hit.
But it took more than the addition of a super-bitch to make Melrose so memorable. Locklear's Amanda got everyone talking, but the show didn't explode until Kimberly went wacko, determined not simply to ruin the lives of her former friends and neighbors, but to kill them all by blowing up the titular apartment complex (in a storyline that was rightly compromised at the time, out of respect for the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing).
To their everlasting credit, the writers and producers of Melrose didn't rest on their laurels after adding Amanda and Kimberly to the canvas. They also gave grievously put-upon good girl Jane Mancini (Josie Bissett) a slutty kid sister named Sydney, played by a then-unknown Laura Leighton. We all know Melrose Place was not a show that was ever spoken of in the same breath as the word "Emmy," but there were times during Leighton's run when I honestly thought she deserved a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
The writers put Sydney through all manner of hardships (she became a prostitute, endured a number of failed relationships and was briefly institutionalized against her will, among other trials), but even at the character's worst, Leighton always made the audience aware of her internal turmoil. More often than not, Sydney was the personification of self-loathing. Leighton made her so surprisingly sympathetic that I was genuinely bugged when she was hit by a speeding car on her wedding day and died.
When The CW announced that Melrose Place would be revived this fall, just as 90210 had been last year, we learned that Sydney had faked her death. (A full explanation has yet to be offered within the storyline.) This was good news for the new show, I thought, because Sydney was the most complicated character in the history of this franchise. Her wild past history and vivid emotional depth would provide the foundation necessary for Melrose to be successfully re-established.
Then we learned that Sydney would be killed off again at the end of episode one and that the rest of her involvement in the story would be presented via flashbacks. Sure enough, there she was, stone cold dead, floating face down and bleeding profusely in the pool before the end credits rolled.
Not good. The first two episodes excitingly establish that Sydney was the new landlady of the apartment complex and had become intimately involved in many of the characters' lives, and that shiny red-head Violet (played by singer Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, she of the legendary Saturday Night Live fail) might either be her long-lost daughter or a scheming brat pretending to be such. How much fun would it have been to watch Sydney deal with a monster daughter while spiraling downward into some of that old self-loathing again for having given up her only child all those years ago?
Oh, well, there's only so much they can do with Sydney at this point -- unless she's once again faking her own death as the means to get out of multiple messes of her own making. Now THAT would be vintage Melrose.
By the way, I think it's strange that the characters in the apartment complex blithely go on about their business in episode two, which begins the day after Sydney meets her violent demise. They go so far as to hang at the pool, even though Sydney's corpse was gushing blood in it just a day or two before. Is that enough time for it to be properly cleaned and sterilized? It's all very gross -- and very Hollywood.
Seriously, if it weren't for Katie Cassidy (a beautiful young actress, seen at the top of this column, who might eventually be spoken of as the new Heather Locklear), the new Melrose would be in as much trouble as the old Melrose was during its first forgettable episodes.
Cassidy's portrayal of bisexual bitch Ella Simms, a cut-throat Hollywood power publicist in the making, is razor-sharp and as much fun as every portrayal by every actor of every character on this show really ought to be. (Next week Ella lands an impossible-to-get actor client by convincing him to expose himself at a party and -- well, you'll see.) But the other female characters aren't at all interesting. Not even good girl medical student Lauren (Stephanie Jacobsen), who has started sleeping with men for money to pay her medical bills. When it comes to trashy primetime serials, a whore should never be a bore.
And speaking of boredom, none of the young men on the scene make memorable impressions during the first two episodes, either. Interestingly -- and alarmingly -- they are eclipsed by two guest stars: Victor Webster as Ella's boss Caleb, and Nicholas Gonzalez as Detective Marco Rodriguez. Executive producers Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer would be wise to keep these two around, at least for a while.
Original Melrose Place cast member Thomas Calabro is also part of the new show, back in familiar form as scumbag Dr. Michael Mancini. Remember what a bland good guy Michael was during the pre-Locklear days, before he went bad? He's still rotten, but he's gotten boring again with age. Josie Bissett and Daphne Zuniga (as sullen photographer Jo Reynolds) will reportedly make guest appearances in the weeks to come. But I'm concerned about what may happen to their characters, given the seeming waste of Sydney Andrews.
All these complaints aside, I would like nothing better than for the new Melrose Place to follow in the tracks of the old, and become the trashiest serial on prime time television. (Though The CW's new drama The Beautiful Life: TBL, about young men and women exploited by the modeling business, might get there first if it loosens up). I'm good with Melrose stumbling and fumbling around for a while but I won't wait forever for it to bring in the crazy.
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Ed Martin is the television critic and programming analyst for the media industry Web site JackMyers.com. The former senior editor of the award-winning, much-missed television and advertising trade magazine Inside Media, Ed has also written for USA Today, Advertising Age, Television Week, Broadcasting & Cable and TV Guide.
Beatles Fans, Repeat After Me: "Number Nine, Number Nine, Number Nine..."
September 9, 2009 10:48 AM
Today is September 9, 2009. It's no coincidence, given how much stock Yoko Ono Lennon puts in numerology, that this is the day the Beatles and their surviving heirs have selected to release the biggest batch of Beatles merchandise in a generation.
The day breaks down, by day, month and year, to 09/09/09. Or, to quote the opening moments of "Revolution No. 9" from The Beatles, a.k.a. the White Album: "Number nine, number nine, number nine..."
So why is this newsworthy on a site called TV WORTH WATCHING?
Arguably, because the conclusion of The Beatles Anthology is shown tonight at 9 p.m. ET on both VH1 and VH1 Classic.
But that's a weak argument.
A better argument is because The Beatles: Rock Band, the interactive musical video game that is released today, has been peppering its song elements as "videos" on MTV. Less of a surprise, when you realize that MTV also owns the Rock Band game franchise.
Finally, no matter where you turn today -- network news, entertainment newsmagazines, even CNN -- you're likely to see coverage of the release of this new videogame, and of the boxed-set CD remastered re-releases of the entire Beatles musical catalog.
Two members of the Beatles are dead. The group itself stopped recording 39 years ago. And yet, today, they're generating the kind of fuss last seen by which rock group?
It's a rhetorical question.
And here's another: Are the Beatles, today as well as they were in 1965, the Kings of All Media?
Answer: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
GUEST BLOG #48: Diane Holloway Rides Along with FX's "Sons of Anarchy"
September 8, 2009 12:03 AM
[Bianculli here: Labor Day is over, and the TV WORTH WATCHING squad is back at work. (Not that we ever stopped.) Today, contributing critic Diane Holloway admits to another TV pleasure about which she is no longer guilty: the raucous rebels of FX's Sons of Anarchy...]
That's When I Fell For the Leader of the Pack
By Diane Holloway
Crude, raw and supremely politically incorrect, Sons of Anarchy returns to FX for a second season tonight at 10 ET. Rev up the violence and beam down the biker brawls. This season looks like it's going to be even better -- and certainly more shocking -- than the first.
Last season I was initially embarrassed to admit that I was riveted to this dark and often disturbing drama. No more. I'm out and proud. It's all in the execution.
On the surface, a show about the outlaw world of a Northern California motorcycle club would seem to have limited appeal. But Sons of Anarchy exploded that myth.
Thanks to tight scripts, brilliant performances by Ron Perlman and Katey Sagal, and a distinctive B-movie look, the series became must-see by the end of its brief first-season run. Think of it as Deadwood without the F-words. It began perhaps less focused and well-honed than FX's Rescue Me and the late, great The Shield, but it improved and heated up quickly.
You wouldn't want to hang out with any of these characters, and you certainly wouldn't want to live in a small town like Charming, where the gun-dealing gang keeps what passes for peace among the denizens. But these folks sure are engrossing (in a seedy kind of way) to watch from a distance.
For newcomers to Anarchy, Clay Morrow (Perlman) is the growling gorilla-like president of the biker club. An angry guy with a big chip on his shoulder, he is married to tough mama Gemma (Sagal), whose son Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), also an outlaw biker, has frequent and dangerous conflicts with his stepfather.
Jax's late father, John, was the club's co-founder, a Vietnam vet who came home disillusioned and hoped to establish a free-wheeling alternative society. In his memoir, which Jax reads from time to time, John expressed regret over what the club evolved into, and Jax senses the disappointment that emerged from his father's lost idealism.
It was unclear last season whether Jax was truly pulling away from Clay's violent ways, especially after he and girlfriend Tara (Maggie Siff) had a baby. Was Jax seriously challenging Clay's leadership? If so, what different direction would he take the club? Did he think the biker club and Clay were old-fashioned and useless?
In the second season, conflicts continue, and now we have more odious folks to deal with than the bikers or their gun-buying gangster customers.
Now we've got a group of white supremacists in Charming, who lock horns with Clay's club over their sale of weapons to "coloreds." New cast regular Adam Arkin is chilling as Ethan Zobelle, an alleged businessman who opens a cigar shop where he mostly sells a racist agenda. Henry Rollins also joins the cast as A.J. Weston, one of Zobelle's more intense cohorts.
Explosions lurk around every corner, domestic and otherwise. Charming and the families of the Sons of Anarchy are at war, with each other and with the new population of white supremacists. Nobody will mistake this drama for comfy escapism. It's uncomfortable to watch, but it's also superbly executed and compelling fare.
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Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout. She's now sniffing out other possibilities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.
15 TV Things to Look Forward To This Month
September 4, 2009 7:12 AM
This TV season hasn't generated a lot of buzz, but there are plenty of reasons to come back to the TV set. This month alone, without breaking a sweat or making an exhaustive list,or including AMC's ongoing "Mad Men," I counted 15. Here they are, in order of telecast. Mark your calendars, and plan accordingly...
Sept. 9 -- Glee premieres. This Fox series just repeated its sneak-preview pilot, and next week launches for real as a regular Fox series. It's a dance-filled, music-filled, smile-filled story about a high school performing arts troupe, and it's edgier and funnier than that might sound.
Sept. 13 -- True Blood season finale. I can't wait. This HBO series has provided me as much viewing joy as any TV series this summer. Make that this year.
Sept. 14 -- The Jay Leno Show. His first night on NBC in prime time. You HAVE to watch, just to see whether he pulls it off. At least I do.
Sept. 17 -- Fringe season premiere. Last season, this Fox series ended with a history-warping alternate timeline setting, a world in which, among other things, the Twin Towers remain standing. What's next? No idea -- which is why you need to tune in.
Sept. 17 -- Community premieres. This NBC ensemble comedy, featuring Chevy Chase as one of many people looking for new directions at a community college, has a way to go, but it's good enough, at the start, to sample and support.
Sept. 18 -- Dollhouse returns. This Fox series by Joss Whedon got better as its freshman season progressed, so a new year should begin on a high note. Here's hoping.
Sept. 20 -- Curb Your Enthusiasm season premiere. The much-promoted Seinfeld story line doesn't kick in for a few episodes, but no matter: This HBO Larry David series is TV comedy at its highest watermark. Welcome back, Larry. I've never missed an episode, and don't intend to start now.
Sept. 21 -- House returns. And he's still in that mental institution, playing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to the clinic's staff. Great premise -- and a great starting point for another fine year with Hugh Laurie and company.
Sept. 21 - Heroes returns. Last season, this NBC drama was very dissatisfying, but maybe there will be an instant course correction this season. I'll tune in to see... but my patience is wearing thin.
Sept. 22 -- The Good Wife premieres. Julianna Margulies stars as the wife of a politician (Chris Noth) who is imprisoned for various nefarious misdeeds, and the opening hour of this new CBS series has you empathizing strongly with her, and eager to see more. Not many new dramas this season achieve that successfully.
Sept. 23 -- Modern Family premieres. This ABC series may be the one new broadcast TV comedy that breaks out quickly, and with good reason. Three very different families, each with its own characters, problems and lovable quirks. Stars include Ed O'Neill.
Sept. 24 -- Flash Forward premieres. Is this ABC series, pictured at the top of this column, the next Lost? No one knows yet. But if it is, you'd better be around from the beginning. It's hard to jump on these TV trains once they've left the station.
Sept. 26 -- Saturday Night Live returns. It's not an election year, but still...
Sept. 27 -- Ken Burns' The National Parks premieres. The most beautiful, inspiring documentary series since Planet Earth. And it's not just about the parks and its creatures, but also about the people responsible for setting aside these lovely lands for public use.
Sept. 27 -- Dexter returns. It's about time -- and, like HBO's True Blood, this Showtime series is all about diving into a weekly dose of TV wow.
GUEST BLOG #47: Diane Holloway's Whiff of Fall TV
September 3, 2009 7:40 AM
[Bianculli here: Last week we heard from Tom Brinkmoeller about his initial expectations, and reservations, concerning the upcoming fall TV offerings. Today, weighing in on the same topic, we hear from another contributing critic, Diane Holloway...]
When a critic's thoughts turn toward the fall season
By Diane Holloway
This is the time of year when the smells of pencils, crayons and gum erasers waft through the air. There's something about that scent of school starting. It's the whiff of new possibilities, of redemption and reinvention.
For those of us who are no longer going to class, but do serve as professional couch potatoes, this is also a time for anticipating the return of favorite shows and the arrival of promising newcomers.
No longer a daily TV critic, I'm not currently churning out dozens of capsule reviews, assigning grades, and fiddling with a new TV grid likely to make little sense. Seriously, does anybody want to see Jay Leno in prime time five nights a week?
But thanks to TV Worth Watching guru David Bianculli, I have already seen previews of most of the new series. In my guest blogger role, I'm looking forward to a more leisurely review process, sharing space with distinguished colleagues who may not agree on anything. But we'll have fun disagreeing.
I must confess, I haven't seen much that truly thrilled me. That's why I'm more excited about the return of NBC's Southland than anything else. This little spring series -- a super-raw cop drama set on the mean streets of Los Angeles (and co-starring Austin's own Ben McKenzie) -- hit it out of the park last season and promises to pick up steam in the new season.
I'll probably check out new episodes of ABC's Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters and Desperate Housewives (to see if they time-travel this fall till the glamorous gals of Wisteria Lane are menopausal). And I'm curious to see how far Fox's Lie to Me can go in revealing falsehoods through facial expressions.
Without going into detail (which we'll happily do closer to premiere dates), I will admit believing that NBC had by far the best pilots, including the only sitcom that actually made me laugh. In fact, Community, about the misfits in a community college, had me howling like a maniac. On the other hand, CBS's Accidentally on Purpose, with Jenna Elfman getting pregnant by her boy-toy, was simply putrid.
NBC also has a couple of promising new dramas. The medical rescue drama Trauma [photo at top] is more action than melodrama, a plus for me. And I hadn't wanted to like Parenthood, but sort of did. (Too bad the latter has been pushed back to midseason because of costar Maura Tierney's illness.)
CBS's The Good Wife, starring Julianna Margulies, starts off exceedingly well, but I don't think the teases reflect how the series will unfold. This is not a political drama, despite featuring Christopher Noth as a scandalous politician (a la South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford). It's actually about the pol's wife, who must forge ahead alone and reestablish her career as an attorney. So it's a legal drama, which is a bit disappointing.
Oh, and I'm really looking forward to seeing former U.S. House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay twirl around in satin and sequins on Dancing With the Stars.
Maybe it's just a Texas thing, but the thought of the disgraced DeLay (he was indicted in 2005 on criminal charges that he conspired to violate campaign finance laws) doing the paso doble and the jitterbug has me all atwitter. Ballroom pro Cheryl Burke has worked miracles on the dance floor before, but "The Hammer" could prove too big a challenge. Viewing parties are planned in this neck of the woods for what we anticipate being the most hilarious TV event of the season.
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Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout. She's now sniffing out other possibilities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.
Themes to Me, And to Others, That TV Is Missing a Musical Best Bet
September 1, 2009 9:55 AM
I love TV theme songs. Always have, and always will, even if more and more networks and TV production companies seem to hate them.
This week, I've been quoted, along with TV music master of all knowledge Jon Burlingame, in an article by Mark Dawidziak of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. What Mark has to report about the state of the TV theme song of tomorrow, and remember about the state of them yesterday, is well worth reading...
You can read his main article in yesterday's Plain Dealer by clicking the link HERE. Then you can read his enjoyable sidebar, where he collects the best TV theme songs of all time in various categories, by clicking HERE. That one ought to jog a few memories, and start a few arguments.
And finally, you can click to our TV JUKEBOX page right here on TV WORTH WATCHING, and listen to some of my favorite theme songs, by clicking HERE.
I hope it's all music to your ears. Or eyes...
