 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
December 2009 Archives
GUEST BLOG #69: Diane Holloway Wishes For a Very Terry New Year... As in Terry Kinney
December 31, 2009 10:36 AM
[Bianculli here: One of my New Year's resolutions is not to let columns by my TV WORTH WATCHING contributors sit in waiting until I get organized enough to post them. So, with apologies, here is Diane Holloway's latest, a still-timely salute to a wonderful supporting actor who, as she argues, more than deserves a leading role...]
TV Needs More Terry Kinney
By Diane Holloway
You may not know the name, and depending on the role he's playing, you may not even recognize him right away. But Terry Kinney is a pervasive player, and brings purpose and gravitas to every supporting role he graces on TV.
Who is Terry Kinney? He made his first impression on me years ago, back when he had hair in the late 1980s and played Ellyn's romantic interest on thirtysomething. His character was named Woodman, which I always assumed was a sex-tinged joke from the writers.
But Kinney is probably best-known to hard-core drama lovers for his role as unit manager Tim McManus on HBO's rough-and-tumble prison series Oz. It's hard to forget some of those characters, no matter how hard you try, but Kinney played a good guy.
More recently, Kinney wrapped up a six-episode run on CBS's lightweight crime series The Mentalist, starring impish Simon Baker. As Sam Bosco, Kinney locked horns with Baker's character over how to pursue serial killer Red John. Apparently the main guy won, because Bosco was "killed off."
Kinney is one of those rare actors who can tackle just about anything and bring extra credibility to an entire cast. One of three founding members of Chicago's prestigious Steppenwolf Theater (along with Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry), he's got the chops. He always supports, never stars, but he shines no matter how minimal or short-lived the show.
Three seasons in a row, he had smallish roles in three network dramas. Producers and casting directors seem to want him as tough guys - like cops and prosecutors. In 2006 he had a small part in NBC's Kidnapped, starring Timothy Hutton, Jeremy Sisto and Dana Delany. The next year he played a deputy attorney general in Fox's Canterbury's Law, starring Julianna Margulies (above). And last spring he was in ABC's comedy-drama The Unusuals, with Amber Tamblyn.
Kinney handles dark and serious well, hence all the cop roles. But he can also give characters a sly comedic twist. I'm not sure Bosco was supposed to by funny on The Mentalist, but sometimes he was. A show that silly (a psychic turned cop?) shouldn't be taken seriously anyway, so Kinney was a terrific addition. And his departure is a major loss.
But we probably won't have to be without Kinney for long. As midseason approaches, there will be new shows to cast, guest and recurring roles to fill. I'll be looking for him in all the old familiar places. Yet it sure would be nice to see him play a main character, wouldn't it?
------
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.
CBS "Kennedy Center Honors" Special Is So Good, You MUST Watch -- And Take Notes, Because Afterward, There's a Quiz
December 29, 2009 9:57 AM
[I'm keeping this blog up for another day, so those of you who saw the Kennedy Center Honors special can post your own reviews. So far, they've been a delight to read. I swear, the writing and the comments are so good, TV WORTH WATCHING may be a site written AND read by TV critics...]
[ORIGINALLY POSTED TUESDAY:]
Slipped into the dead TV week between Christmas and New Year's is one reliable annual treat: The CBS Kennedy Center Honors, which salutes, each year, a quintet of powerful performers from various arenas in the arts. It's always one one of my favorite TV shows of the year -- and tonight, with its amazing list of honorees and artists, it's the best Kennedy Center Honors presentation in years.
From rock 'n' roll, you've got Bruce Springsteen. From jazz, Dave Brubeck. From comedy, Mel Brooks. From the movies, Robert De Niro. And from opera, Grace Bumbry.
What a lineup. And what people have gathered to honor them, in the two-hour special televised tonight at 9 ET on CBS.
De Niro, for example, gets Meryl Streep, Harvey Keitel, Martin Scorsese, among others. Springsteen gets John Mellencamp, Eddie Vedder, Melissa Etheridge and Sting. Caroline Kennedy hosts, the Obamas sit with the honorees, and every reaction shot of the crowd catches another familiar celebrity in the black-tie audience.
But what I love about this special, each year, is how inspirational it is. Grace Bumbry's biography is a story of triumphing over racism -- particularly moving, with Barack Obama presiding over the festivities for the first time (and becoming, in the process, the sixth President to do so). And Brubeck is so surprised by the unexpected appearance of a familial jazz quartet, with his four sons at the instruments, that it's easy to read his lips uttering a stunned, delighted "Son of a bitch!"
And when Jon Stewart introduces the tribute to Bruce Springsteen, he does so with writing so precise, it's delightful, whether it's comic ("I believe that Bob Dylan and James Brown had a baby") or analytical (every time Springsteen performs, or commits to anything Stewart says, "he empties the tank").
I also love the sheer variety of acts presented -- a variety missing from TV since the demise of The Ed Sullivan Show. Every year, watching these specials, I learn something new, see and hear something breathtaking, and am reminded of how beautiful TV can be, when it allows itself to reach for the skies, and salute the best.
So please, please watch... and if you do, here's your assignment: Come back and post your very favorite moment, and why.
The range, and the descriptions, I suspect will prove my point... and second my enthusiasm.
Your Own "Top 10" Lists and Additions -- Keep 'Em Coming!
December 24, 2009 7:26 AM
The previous post, my own Top 10 List for 2009, generated a lot of enjoyable and well-informed responses. Keep them coming -- it's a fun holiday activity.
It also keeps me from having to write something new today, when I have to make 18 tons of spaghetti sauce, run a zillion errands, and prepare about 100 pieces of mail.
So here or there, let me know what YOU liked most about TV this year. What ELSE did I overlook?
More "Fresh Air" Today, With My Year-End Top 10 List -- But Here's a Preview, and an Exclusive Bonus, My Bottom 5
December 23, 2009 9:13 AM
Today on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Terry will interview me for the second time in a month. Last time it was for the launch of my book, and today it's to recap the year in television -- including my Top 10 List for 2009, which I'll share here -- and my Bottom 5, which will be presented here exclusively...
(To hear our entire conversation, check out the Fresh Air website after about 5 p.m. ET by clicking HERE.)
BIANCULLI'S TOP 10 FOR 2009:
1) Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO
2) Mad Men, AMC
3) The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, COM
4) Lost, ABC
5) Friday Night Lights, NBC/DirecTV
6) 30 Rock, NBC
7) Dexter, SHO
8) Breaking Bad, AMC
9) True Blood, HBO
10) (tie) Damages, FX
60 Minutes, CBS
--
And here are the ones that only barely missed the cut, but are absolutely deserving of Top 10 placement:
Rescue Me, FX
In Treatment, HBO
Glee, FOX
House, FOX
Modern Family, ABC
Battlestar Galactica, SYFY
Fringe, FOX
--
And now, for my Bottom 5 of 2009, and why:
1) The Jay Leno Show, NBC. The stakes are so high, the results so low. A generation ago, NBC stood for TV quality, thanks to NBC Chairman Grant Tinker. Now, thanks largely to NBC/Universal tinkerer Jeff Zucker, it stands for inexpensive, mostly unwatchable TV tossaways.
2) Obsournes Reloaded, FOX. Fox produced this series of variety specials, broadcast one and changed its mind, yanking the others. Better late than never, I suppose.
3) I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, NBC. Six years after ABC presents this horrible reality series, NBC revives it, and gives an additional dollop of fame to the likes of Heidi and Spencer. What tripe.
4) Octomom: The Incredible Unseen Footage, FOX. Would that it would have remained Unseen.
5) Harper's Island, CBS. The network's one glaring misstep of 2009? Deciding that a summer show mixing an Agatha Christie-style whodunnit with a gory-killer Saw-type franchise would make for a fun summer soap opera. This isn't what we meant when we lobbied for cutting-edge television.
--
What did I miss? Besides Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, which Terry already chastised me about...
Let me know.
Today, "Fresh Air"... Tomorrow, "Fresh Air" Again, Maybe... Two Chats, With Two Different Terrys
December 22, 2009 10:16 AM
It's a busy week for us here at TV WORTH WATCHING.
Diane Werts has just outdone herself, again, with ANOTHER Christmas-related treat, this time a new FOR BETTER OR WERTS blog about skillions of holiday-related offerings you can find online. Link to it HERE, and prepare for hours of distraction. (And woman, get some sleep...)
And, with the book out of the way, I'm doing a lot more NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross these days. Today I interview Terry Gilliam, whose new movie, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, is the final film to star Heath Ledger -- in a role that was completed by Johnny Depp and others...
And of course, being a TV critic, I also ask Gilliam about Monty Python and other things. It was a fun conversation. Tune in today on your local NPR station, or you can hear it after about 5 p.m. ET by linking HERE.
And speaking of fun conversations, Terry and I just recorded an end-of-year wrap-up chat about the year in television. Right now, it's tentatively scheduled to run tomorrow. So listen for it, if you like -- same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.
Only Four Shopping -- and Viewing -- Days Until Christmas
December 21, 2009 7:09 AM
We're down to the holiday crunch time. Most online merchants no longer guarantee delivery by Christmas, but you can still refer to our shopping guides as suggestions for your "real-life" shopping trips. (Click on the banner links just above BEST BETS on the home page).
And indefatigable holiday TV chronicler Diane Werts is still at it, and has just updated, for the skillionth and most massive time, her list of holiday specials, movies and series to watch over the next week or so. (Go to Diane's FOR BETTER OR WERTS blog on the home page.)
And finally, if you're shopping at, say, a bookstore, here's one more blatant plug, or plea, for you to pick up a copy -- or more, if you're the radiantly generous sort -- of my newly published Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
Go forth and view, and shop, and be merry...
GUEST BLOG #68: Tom Brinkmoeller Samples Two Very Different TV Cooking Shows: Pot Roast vs. Truffles
December 19, 2009 8:24 AM
[Bianculli here: Contributing writer Tom Brinkmoeller's specialty is finding, enjoying, and finding out more about shows on the fringes, especially on public television. In his latest column, he presents two more, both of which sound delicious...]
City- and Country-Mouse Food Shows Light Up
Public-TV Schedules from Different Perspectives
By Tom Brinkmoeller
They're extremely dissimilar, these two worth-watching public-television food programs: America's Test Kitchen, soon to begin its 10th season, rarely leaves the kitchen and its staff works long hours to discover the best recipes, ingredients and kitchen ware and share the findings. Meanwhile, the brand-new Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth takes viewers to cooking schools around the world and, like its sister series Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, is as much about people and destinations as it is about the growing and preparation of food.
The first embodies the New England practicality of its founder and host, the always-bow-tied, Yankee-skeptical Christopher Kimball. The other is so New York, with its jet-to destinations and lineup of celebrities who happily accompanied host Ruth Reichl on these trips.
One show is pot roast and pie -- albeit the best; the other, truffles and Courvoisier.
Program personalities aside, the two do share some interesting similarities. The largest may be that each sprang from the ashes of a dead magazine. Kimball started Cook's magazine in 1980 as an advertising-supported publication. In a very competitive niche market, it survived until 1989. Four years later, Kimball went rogue -- in the minds of those who think print exists for advertising's sake -- by starting Cook's Illustrated, an ad-less magazine that could put its readers first by reporting its research about products and wares without risking a revenue backlash. Six year's later, following the same public-first philosophy, America's Test Kitchen was begun.
Gourmet magazine, after more than 50 years of publishing, recently was put to sleep by its owner, Conde Nast Publications (part of the Newhouse family of ink-and-paper businesses -- once an owner of Cook's magazine before it could no longer stand the heat and got out of that kitchen). Reichl was Gourmet's editor-in-chief until its disappearance, and the deal made for this new series stayed on track, even after the news that the magazine had been canned.
"It's a bigger brand than just a magazine," Executive Producer Laurie Donnelly said, explaining the Conde Nast people wanted the Gourmet name to remain on the series.
The other big similarity is how each program makes food and cooking approachable. Though celebrities like Lorraine Bracco, Diane Weist and Tom Skerritt share the screen with Reichl over the initial season's 10 episodes, the attitude is down-to-earth and viewer-friendly. Each episode is as informative as it is fun and easy-to-watch. Reichl's food credentials are huge, and she wanted the series to reflect the same style and standards people loved in the magazine she led.
Perhaps no cooking show is better at explaining both the science and art of good food than America's Test Kitchen. Before a recipe gets on the air, many variations are tested repeatedly until the best one is found. That's more easily done than it would be for most cooking shows, because the impressive kitchens and full-time staff seen on television are the same ones that support the magazine year-round.
And the television show has the same editorial purity as its parent magazine. Like all public-television series, it accepts no advertising. But Kimball keeps the wall between content and marketing high by making sure the program's underwriters' products would never have an opportunity to show up on the air, says Jack Bishop, the magazine's editorial director and the man on the series who takes Kimball through the weekly blind product taste tests.
Cook's Illustrated showed editorial independence could pay off. Bishop said after only publishing two issues its subscriber list was larger than Cook's, its predecessor. America's Test Kitchen averaged a hefty 1.71 million viewers per show in 2009 -- up from 1.59 the year before, according to show publicity.
The Reichl series, though currently on the air in some cities, has yet to arrive in others. Look for it where you live. With the kind of viewer support it deserves, it also one day could celebrate 10 years on the air.
[For more information, visit the America's Test Kitchen website HERE, and the Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth website HERE.]
--
Tom Brinkmoeller, who once wrote for one of the many branches of the Newhouse conglomerate, wonders if General Motors will follow the Conde Nast example and lend the names "Oldsmobile," "Pontiac," "Saturn," "Saab" and/or "Hummer" to a TV series.
GUEST BLOG #67: Ed Martin says we need our soaps
December 17, 2009 11:25 AM
[Bianculli here: Contributing writer Ed Martin is all in a lather over how the broadcast networks are treating -- or mistreating -- one of television's oldest genres: the soap opera. And I agree with him completely...]
What's left for broadcast TV to call its own? Soaps
By Ed Martin
The '00s may be the new Golden Age of primetime drama, but for fans of daytime serials they have truly been the Dark Ages, right up until the very end. With only 14 days left until the turn of the decade, and just three months after the last episode of Guiding Light, a historic franchise that spanned 15 years on radio and 57 on television, CBS and Procter & Gamble Productions recently confirmed what had been a chilling rumor circulating for months on the internet: The cancellation of As the World Turns, currently the longest-running scripted program on television and, like Light, one of the medium's few remaining national treasures. ATWT will have its final telecast in September 2010 during its 54th season.
I mean, damn -- Guiding Light was the soap that so many of our grandmothers listened to on the radio, before television came along, while As the World Turns was the one everyone's mother watched while doing their ironing during the '50s and early '60s, when television came into its own. Don't they deserve better than this?
How ironic that ATWT should die this way at this time. This was the first soap opera to enjoy an alternate life on YouTube and elsewhere, in the form of viewer-made short videos lifted from episodes and cobbled together by character or storyline, making it easy for people to watch 
only the stories and characters they were interested in. (The groundbreaking love story of gay teens Luke and Noah has been an internet sensation all on its own.) What a shame that nobody on the network or production level could figure out a way to make this very dynamic viewer interaction work on the show's behalf.
This would seem to be the perfect time for me to state the obvious, as I have so many times before: Daily daytime drama is virtually the only form of ongoing programming that remains unique to broadcast television. With the exception of big-ticket sports events, and a couple of awards shows, there is simply nothing left that broadcast can call its own. There are no daily soap operas on cable networks, and while there are a host of new serials on the web (many starring unemployed actors from daytime dramas), these mini-soaps are a long way from the television variety.
What's killing the genre, even though it remains popular with millions of viewers of all ages and still supports franchises that are instantly recognizable to tens of millions more? How about the fact that soap operas have been under attack from the outside and the inside for so long that long-term survival is no longer an option? External enemies include the handful of network executives in whose hands the fate of daytime drama has been placed -- men and women who understand little about soap operas and care about them even less -- as well as clumsy audience measurement techniques that don't come close to reflecting the breadth and depth of the popularity these programs enjoy, nor the loyalty their viewers tend to feel toward the networks that broadcast them and the advertisers that support them. While it is true that changing American lifestyles have had a negative impact on daytime drama viewing patterns, don't believe all that crap about cable and the internet killing them off. Twilight-like madness still follows when popular soap stars gather together for promotional or industry events.
The internal problem is a creative one that to some degree has been so consistently enflamed by some of those external enemies referenced above that it has become positively cancerous, literally eroding the soaps from within. For the last 10 years, and to some degree much longer, the soap operas on every network have remained in the clutches of a small group of head writers and executive producers who ran out of fresh ideas and interesting initiatives a long time ago. Successful innovation seems to elude the people who are paid to innovate. As a result, there hasn't been a soap opera on broadcast television that has actually been fun to watch on an ongoing basis 
since NBC's Days of Our Lives in the early and mid-'90s, when the late lunatic genius James Reilly took control of the show and put its characters through wild trials (including demonic possession and trips to alternate universes) that made Days more exciting than all other soaps combined. Those ever-essential young viewers were especially impressed.
For most of the last 10 years, though, the experience of watching just about any daytime drama on a consistent basis has been one long depressing chore, only occasionally punctuated by brief periods of engaging storytelling. These sporadic swells have been so surprising that they have felt like happy accidents. As the decade progressed, the soaps largely lost their ability to tap into the moment and reflect the fantasies, desires and expectations of their viewers. This happened once before, way back in the '70s, but a handful of skilled producers (mostly on ABC) identified that problem and fixed it.
It would be unfair not to point out that there have been a handful of strong and satisfying stories and performances on every soap opera during the difficult '00s. The producers and writers of 
One Life to Live [ABC photos at top and at right], for example, have been especially fearless for many years now, consistently keeping their canvas populated with colorful and diverse and sometimes controversial characters, most of whom feel very contemporary -- even the veterans. Given the new audiences OLTL has reached out to in so many creative ways, I can't believe its ratings aren't stronger. Then again, as mentioned above, I don't put much stock in daytime audience measurement.
Days of Our Lives has recently experienced actual audience growth by bringing back popular characters from years past. CBS' The Bold and the Beautiful continues to be a powerhouse on the international market. ABC has very publicly given votes of confidence to All My Children (by relocating it from New York City to a dazzling high-definition studio in Los Angeles) and One Life to Live (by moving it from its outdated studio space on New York City's Upper West Side to the network's high-def downtown studio where AMC had been located). Still, I fear that none of this is enough to halt the genre's overall slide, let alone reverse it.
The resultant damage is terrible to see, and not only for viewers. With Guiding Light dead, As the World Turns soon to be snuffed, and All My Children relocating to the West Coast, this is truly a catastrophic time for the New York acting community. 
Countless movie and television stars began their careers acting in New York City-based soap operas. (Soon, OLTL will be the only one left.) For example, it was only a few years ago (eight, to be exact) that Matt Bomer first attracted a following as nice-guy turned psycho-killer Ben Reade on Guiding Light. Bomer is one of this year's most popular breakout stars thanks to his lead role on USA Network's sparkling new crime caper White Collar.
I wonder if any daytime soap operas will remain when the next decade comes to a close. I wouldn't count on it. All I can really say at this point is that I'm glad I was around to enjoy them when they were at their best. And even when they weren't.
----
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.
Perfect Timing: Smothers Brothers Pop Up on "The Simpsons," and Are Dreamy
December 16, 2009 8:05 AM
When I interviewed Matt Groening for my book Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,' about how strongly Tom and Dick Smothers had influenced his sense of comedy, Groening told me, almost in passing, that he was about to record the siblings for an upcoming episode of The Simpsons. So I knew their animated appearance was coming -- and Sunday, I featured it sight unseen as a BIANCULLI'S BEST BET.
What I didn't know, until it was sight seen, though, was how cleverly they were used, and, even in cartoon form, how funny they were...
The 21st-season episode was titled "O Brother, Where Bart Thou?," and dealt with Bart's sudden yearning for a younger brother. In a lengthy first-act dream sequence, Bart walks through a dreamscape populated by famous brothers: the athletic Manning brothers, the plane-flying Wright brothers, the cough-drop-sucking Smith Bros., even the videogame-playing Mario and Luigi.
Capping the dream, though, was when Bart came upon a bandshell in which Tom and Dick Smothers were singing "Cabbage," a song from their early nightclub act, as a Tiffany-style logo for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was displayed behind them.
In this dream world, the Smothers Brothers profess their love for one another, then Dick says that if Tom hadn't fought CBS so hard in the Sixties, the network never would have fired them. "We quit," Tom insists. When Dick doesn't buy that, Tom shifts to, "YOU were fired," and they argue some more, until Tom pulls out his yo-yo. Then, at the end of the show, their voices reappear in the closing credits, riffing with Dan Castelleneta as Homer.
For a limited time, this is available to see on Hulu.
To see just the dream sequence featuring the Smothers Brothers, click HERE.
Or, to watch the entire show and see the scene in context, and hear the goofy closing-credits dialogue, click HERE.
Meanwhile, the Smothers Brothers continue their current pop-culture resurgence. This month, The Simpsons. Next month, an induction into the Emmy Hall of Fame.
The month after that, who knows?
TV Presents a Full-Scale Puppet Show: The 1,000th Episode of "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" on CBS
December 15, 2009 8:27 AM
Tonight, to celebrate the 1,000th installment of his CBS talk show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, the host is taking the night off -- and turning over the program to his popular alter ego puppet, Wavy the crocodile or alligator. (Even Wavy isn't sure which.) As a TV concept, it's a blast from TV's most distant past -- but also a clear indication why Ferguson, in late-night TV terms, is the wave of the future...
Puppets go back to TV's infancy -- to Kukla, Fran and Ollie, to the Muppets, to the puppet friends of Mister Rogers and Captain Kangaroo, and, counting marionettes, all the way back to 1947's Howdy Doody. But in the right hands, so to speak, they're still really entertaining today, as Robert Smigel has proven for more than a decade with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
Ferguson started playing with puppets as part of his "cold open," having them mouth to old recordings from time to time -- usually, dusty old songs with yodeling involved. Then he began pulling out other funny-looking puppets -- a monkey, a dinosaur, a shark -- until he stumbled upon Wavy, and gave the snaggle-toothed reptile a Cajun accent and a womanizing manner.
He's been riding the Wavy wave ever since. And a few months ago, when David Duchovny somehow ended up being interviewed by Wavy instead of by Ferguson, a new late-night star was born. Later, another guest, Lauren Graham, showed up -- as a talk-show guest one night, but also appearing on another show as a guest puppeteer.
The show is pulling out the stops for tonight's 1,000th show. Jason Segel, who unveiled his Dracula puppet in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, will be there. So will that film's co-star, Kristen Bell, one of Ferguson's favorite and most playful guests. And Jason Schwartzman and Maria Bello -- and, I'm told, lots of other puppets, and even a few sexy dancers.
All presided over by Wavy, not by Craig. Sounds like fun. And sounds different enough, and wild enough, to suggest that the Ferguson folks are having a blast, while several others in the TV talk game right now just seem to be going through the same tired motions.
And for the record, last night's 999th show, which was full of Craig, was laugh-out-loud funny. His opening rant against Continental Airlines, and his at-the-desk rant against TMZ, were brave, bold, honest, completely hilarious diatribes.
So watch tonight, at 12:35 a.m. ET on CBS, and see if you enjoy riding the Wavy.
By the way: There's an easy way to ascertain whether Wavy is a crocodile or an alligator.
I've grilled both. Alligator tastes like chicken. Crocodile tastes like conch...
"Dangerously Funny," Week 3: Fun, Pivotal, Scary Thrill Ride
December 13, 2009 1:58 PM
Today ends the first two weeks of publication of my Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.' Tomorrow begins week three -- or, as I try not to think of it very often, the really, really scary week...
I'm very proud of how the book has been received so far. Kirkus Reviews called it "a fast-paced, informative reminder of the importance of speaking out." Publishers Weekly called it an "entertaining and well-researched bio." Library Journal, in a starred review, called it a "deliciously informative and entertaining story."
The Daily Beast made it one of last week's "Hot Reads," and People magazine gave it 3 1/2 stars, calling it "a stunningly alive portrait of the '60s and of two very different men... who 'refused to shut up' and thereby made TV history." On TV, the book and I were featured on ABC's Good Morning America and CBS's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
Terry Gross interviewed me about the book on Fresh Air Nov. 30, the day before its publication (thanks again!), and that's what initially catapulted the book to a higher level. On Amazon, its ranking rose from about No. 43,000 pre-Fresh Air to No. 194 the evening it aired. And as of Sunday afternoon, two weeks later, it's still ranked No. 232.
Things continue to proceed. Monday morning, Dec. 14, I appear for an hour (11 a.m. ET) on Philadelphia's local WHYY-FM talk show, Radio Times, hosted by good buddy Marty Moss-Coane. I'm doing some satellite radio interviews, so you may hear me on one of your local stations sometime soon. And there's a possibility for more TV and radio coverage next month, as the Smothers Brothers are inducted into Emmy's Hall of Fame.
But the scary part is that this week is when the reviews should really start rolling out, including Newsweek and, one of these Sundays, perhaps, The New York Times. Nervous? You betcha.
Meanwhile, there are other book-related activities to distract me. A friend, flying out of LAX airport this weekend, noticed my book on display at the airport bookstore. I never thought I'd GET in an airport bookstore, except as a customer, so that makes me smile.
So does Simon & Schuster's recently posted, well-made video feature on the book, which includes clips from the show and an interview with me, and which you can watch by clicking HERE.
On the same website page, you can see a listing of some of my upcoming book readings and appearances, including bookstore signings in January at both New York and Marlton, NJ. I'll do more of my own horn-tooting on that next month, rest assured.
And, elsewhere on the Simon & Schuster site, I make a brief appearance during a feature on authors' favorite holiday movies, alongside such other budding authors as Stephen King. You can see that HERE.
And, as always, you can poke around at the book's main website, DangerouslyFunnyTheBook.com, which can be found HERE.
Thanks, all of you, for being so supportive as this baby of mine is ushered into the world. After all these years of work, it's a lot of fun -- but I'd be lying if I didn't admit it was a little nerve-wracking.
I'll keep you posted.
Another Shopping-Weekend Reminder: "Fresh Air" and TVWW Recommendations
December 11, 2009 3:50 PM
Make your holiday shopping easier: I just broadcast a report on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross about recommended TV-shows-on-DVD sets to give as gifts -- and Diane Werts has assembled her own foolproof lists, sure to have something to please anyone. Come check it out...
My Fresh Air holiday roundup, which aired on Thursday, can be heard by clicking HERE.
That'll give you a good start, about sets as Charles Kuralt, the Golden Age of Television and Ally McBeal... and a lot more.
And then, our two TV WORTH WATCHING holiday gift pages, compiled by our own Diane Werts, are available on the banner links above BEST BETS, or by clicking the links below.
For the TV WORTH WATCHING HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE, click HERE.
And for the more narrowly focused TV WORTH WATCHING CHRISTMAS SHOWS ON DVD list, click HERE.
By now, I hope, you know where to find Diane's ongoing list of holiday programming shown on television this year -- but in the spirit of the season, let's make it easy.
Click here:
- TV Christmas Family Favorites (animated shows and more)
- TV Christmas Movies
- TV Christmas Episodes
- TV Christmas Specials (music, unscripted and more)
Holiday Shopping Steal of the Day: "Seinfeld" DVD Set at 1/3 the Price!
December 10, 2009 9:45 AM
This is too good a deal to pass up -- and, if you're looking for spongeworthy holiday gifts, you can't do much better. For today (Thursday, Dec. 10) only, Amazon is offering the complete Seinfeld series box set at a 66 percent discount...
The set retails for $250, but Amazon is offering it today at $84.99 -- a savings of $165. Check it out by clicking HERE. (And while you're there, don't forget about that OTHER nifty holiday gift, that new book on the Smothers Brothers...
GUEST BLOG #66: Ed Martin Bestows Mercy Upon NBC's "Mercy"
December 9, 2009 1:52 PM
[With all my Smothers distractions, some pieces by the other regular TVWW contributors have been piling up like airplanes approaching LaGuardia. Here's one by contributing critic Ed Martin, coming to the defense of NBC's Mercy, which airs tonight at 8 ET...]
Standing Apart From the Critical Pack -- Proudly
By Ed Martin
Speaking as a television critic, it's always interesting to find yourself on the opposite side of the fence from the majority of your peers. What do you see or not see that they perceive in so different a light?
I'm not just standing on the other side of the fence -- I'm way over on the other side of the field -- in my appreciation of NBC's Mercy, a soap operatic medical drama about the hard-working nurses and doctors who toil at an inner-city New Jersey hospital. Mercy may not be as bold as Showtime's Nurse Jackie or as hefty as ABC's Grey's Anatomy, to name the two most obvious genre comparisons, but it isn't so bad as to warrant so little attention in the media.
Granted, the 2009-10 fall season has delivered a particularly strong group of new broadcast series, including ABC's Modern Family, The Middle, Cougar Town, FlashForward and V; Fox's Glee; CBS's The Good Wife; and The CW's The Vampire Diaries, so there may not be a lot of enthusiasm left for a show that sounds like (but is most definitely not) a low-rent Grey's clone.
Maybe critics just wrote it off after watching its mediocre pilot. I suspect that many of them are smarting over the fact that they singled out Community as the NBC freshman most likely to survive and thrive, only to sit back and watch the audience reject it, while they mostly dismissed Mercy as stale junk food.
If that's what they were thinking, they were wrong. Mercy is more like fresh comfort food, which likely explains its status as NBC's most successful new series here at the end of what has been a very trying year for everyone. The characters on its canvas are not only easy to take, they're easy to like, something that can't be said about many of the self-absorbed, silly talkers over at critics' fave Grey's.
What's more, Mercy will likely always be remembered as the program that launched the career of Taylor Schilling, the highly watchable young actress who plays Veronica Callahan, the nurse around whom much of the drama revolves.
Thankfully, there is no McSteamy or McDreamy nonsense at no-frills Mercy Hospital, though there is a handsome doctor named Chris Sands (played by James Tupper of Men in Trees), fresh off a tour in Iraq during which he met and enjoyed a brief affair with Veronica, only to end up working at the same hospital as she when they both returned to the States.
That wouldn't be nearly so dramatic a set-up were Veronica not married to a very regular guy named Mike (Diego Klattenhoff, another star on the rise) who is none too pleased that his wife cheated on him, even if she was in a war zone at the time and perhaps not acting like her normal self. All three characters in this emotional triangle have grown increasingly sympathetic as the season has progressed.
The rest of the Mercy cast is similarly likeable, especially Michelle Trachtenberg as naive Chloe Payne, a newbie nurse who's all heart, if somewhat unbelievably clueless about certain things (like expecting to be taken seriously after wearing Hello Kitty smocks to work). I've always felt that Trachtenberg came on too strong as cloying supernatural construct Dawn on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I find her annoying in her recurring Gossip Girl role of rich witch Georgina Sparks. But I enjoy watching her balance the twin pressures Chloe faces as she tries to build both a grown-up career and an adult personal life, often flailing or failing at both but never growing cold or cynical in the face of multiple defeats.
Strikingly beautiful newcomer Jaime Lee Kirchner as Sonia Jimenez, the other nurse at the center of the Mercy drama, is yet another talent to watch. Dealing with problems at the hospital or navigating her rocky love life, Sonia is about as subtle as a jackhammer, and she can be difficult to care about except when she is caring about others. She is currently dating a young police officer named Nick (Charlie Semine) who is perfect for her, all tough on the outside but a sensitive soul underneath his law enforcement exterior. In fact, Sonia and Nick are so great together that I fear the writers will plot to have Nick killed in the line of duty. Like I said, Mercy can be very soap-operatic.
I'll admit, the stories on Mercy haven't exactly been groundbreakers, but they've been perfectly satisfying, with nice (if sometimes predictable) emotional payoffs throughout. Mercifully (no pun intended), the November sweeps period has passed without one of those mad-crazy sweeps stunts that have so grievously compromised Grey's over the years (the ferry boat crash, Meredith's extended death, Denny's ghost, etc., etc. and so forth).
Perhaps it's the simplicity of those stories, but it isn't difficult to understand the motivations of any of the characters on the Mercy canvas, a frustrating glitch over on the otherwise stellar Nurse Jackie. (I still can't figure out why the title character takes as many drugs as she does, especially with two beautiful little children at home, or why she has a lover on the side when she's married to the greatest guy on earth.) But what I like best about Mercy is that everything about it looks so real, due in large part to the fact that it is actually filmed in New Jersey. It seems unlikely that the perfectly ordinary Mercy Hospital will ever be known as a sterling showplace for state of the art medical technology and contemporary architecture, like Seattle Grace or the title institution in CBS's perfectly dreadful Three Rivers.
Mercy works as lightweight entertainment, but I'll give it props for its timely relevance, too, in that Veronica (and, to a lesser extent, Sands) is having a tough time fully integrating into civilian life after experiencing the unspeakable horrors of Iraq. Also, and of even more importance, it's clear that the hospital in which she works could use a bailout or two.
Given the current collision of our declining economy with our eroding health care system and the fact that millions of Americans are suffering as a result -- including those who are paying a small fortune for medical insurance and are still having difficulties -- it would be impossible to believe the storytelling in any contemporary medical drama that did not keep economic challenges faced by hospital employees and their patients alike at its center.
----
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.
And the Smothers Stuff Just Keeps on Coming... Now, New Web Pages At A New Website
December 8, 2009 2:19 PM
My dual web gurus, Eric Gould and Rich Baniewicz, have done it again: This time they've added new pages to my Smothers Brothers book website, where you can find not only the latest reviews, but the full chapter-by-chapter detailed notes...
The website is www.dangerouslyfunnythebook.com, which you can link to by clicking HERE. The main page, which has been up for a while, now provides new active links on the left side.
One clicks to the latest reviews of my book, Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' -- and I'm already behind on loading those, but most of them are there.
Another active link clicks to the chapter-by-chapter notes, an index of which is pictured above. This tracks my research, for anyone who has the book and wants to know my source material. It saved bogging down the book with hundreds of footnotes -- and many pages of extra bibliographic material.
I'll continue to keep giving updates here on TV WORTH WATCHING. It's my site, and I can double dip if I want to. But I just wanted to let you know that my "sister" site will be the repository for book reviews and notes.
And tomorrow, we'll have contributing critic Ed Martin on NBC's Mercy, and start getting back to basics...
(Meanwhile, a week after publication, the book is ranked #217 on Amazon... Hooray for our side!)
"Dangerously Funny" Update, But Also Back to Business: Watch TNT's "Men Of a Certain Age"
December 7, 2009 1:49 PM
I'm back from L.A., trying to get back to basics -- so today's blog will be a mixed bag, with some news about my Smothers Brothers book, but also pointing out some TV worth watching: Ray Romano's original, very entertaining new TNT series...
First, book news.
Publication ended with a nice troika of publicity: My deer-in-the-TV-lights appearance on CBS's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on Friday, a 3-1/2 star review in People magazine, and a Fresh Air Weekend replay of my interview last Monday with Terry Gross. The combination kept the book in the Top 200 on Amazon, where it's been pretty much since publication day. Even I, the eternal pessimist, see that as good news.
The Ferguson appearance, by the way, you can see by linking HERE.
My Fresh Air interview with Terry can be heard by clicking HERE.
And last Tuesday's Good Morning America piece on the Smothers Brothers can be seen by clicking HERE.
Still to come, according to my publisher: reviews from Newsweek, The New York Times and others. Whether or not they're GOOD reviews, though, only time will tell...
--
Now, back to the TV Worth Watching business.
I really, really enjoy TNT's new Men of a Certain Age, starring Ray Romano, Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula as friends with problems, unrealized dreams, and very dry senses of humor.
What won me over was the opossum. But it's not fair to explain it, just to try to persuade you to tune in and enjoy it. I've loved Braugher ever since Homicide: Life on the Street, and this is a role he clearly can do a lot with. He, Bakula and Romano all are showing different sides of their talent here -- and what we're seeing is impressive, and very likable.
TNT, it's clear from even just the pilot, has another solid hit on its hands. And cable has another intelligent show that the broadcast networks could have done, but didn't.
"Dangerously Funny" Week: What a Whirlwind, Part 2: Ferguson and Skirball
December 4, 2009 11:53 AM
I'm here in Los Angeles, and I survived. Thursday night I gave my first public reading lecture for Dangerously Funny, at the Skirball Cultural Center -- and also taped my appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, which will be shown Friday night (early Saturday) at 12:35 a.m. ET on CBS.
As today's BEST BETS describes it: "SEE the author of Dangerously Funny on tonight's Ferguson show! WATCH as he's too afraid to look at the audience! GASP as he freezes, and hems and haws, like Ralph Kramden on 'The $99,000 Answer'!...
I was absurdly nervous and apprehensive about going on Ferguson, even though I knew I was totally among friends. To their credit, everyone involved with the show coddled me, like the TV equivalent of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, and held-held me at every step, up to the point when I was waiting in the wings, just offstage, for the previous guest, Emily Blunt, to walk off, and for my turn to enter.
I could have chatted with Emily Blunt, star of The Devil Wears Prada and the new The Young Victoria, beforehand in the Green Room, but I stayed in my own dressing room area instead. I was nervous enough, without having to fumble through small talk with a gorgeous and talented actress. All I wanted to do was avoid anything that would make me more nervous, including, at that moment, beautiful British women.
And that approach might have worked, except for Craig Ferguson himself. After Emily left, but just before he introduced me to the audience, Craig snuck to my edge of the studio and said, with a mock-villainous affect, a raised eyebrow and a playful sneer, "So, at last we meet on the field of battle." Or something like that. The whole thing's pretty much of a blur.
I do remember admitting, right from the outset, that TV critics should be watching TV, not on it, and that I couldn't even LOOK at the audience. I remember, when asked what shows I hated, offering up Jay Leno -- so don't look for me on THAT show soon. As in ever. And I remember Craig being really, really nice, and playful, and pulling me through the whole thing.
And, at some point, getting to see Wavy the Crocodile or Alligator up close. That's Wavy with David Duchovny at left, from an earlier show.
(Wavy, Craig's most popular hand puppet, doesn't know which one he is. I could have told him, but, on national TV wasn't about to. I used to cook a lot of exotic meats: alligator tastes like chicken, and crocodile tastes like conch or calimari. I don't expect Wavy would have appreciated the taste-test ID option.)
The pre-taping ended at 7, and I was supposed to speak, across town, at the Skirball Cultural Center at 7:30. In Los Angeles traffic, at rush hour. My magician of a driver, snaking through empty streets in Beverly Hills I never knew existed, somehow got us there at 7:35, and I rushed to the stage -- still wearing makeup from, and shaken by, the Late Late Show appearance -- and gave a 90-minute lecture on the Smothers Brothers.
The audience was attentive and supportive, and the setup felt very much like one of my lecture-hall classes at Rowan University, so I instantly felt comfortable, and on solid ground. I think it went well, I signed a bunch of books afterward, and people who came to see me included Ken Fritz (one of the Smothers Brothers' managers and producers, and a key interview for my book), Paul Brownstein (producer of the new, and fabulous, Time Life DVD Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour sets), and my son, Mark, who lives in Los Angeles.
The Skirball folks, like the Late Late Show crew, couldn't have been nicer. Thanks to all, really, truly. And now, for the weekend, I get to take a breather, and steel for the reviews. (Damned critics.)
People magazine's Caroline Leavitt, in the Dec. 14 issue, just gave it 3 1/2 stars, and called it "a stunningly alive portrait of the '60s." That's a great start...
"Dangerously Funny" Week: What a Whirlwind, Part 1
December 2, 2009 8:19 PM
As I write this, I've just flown to Los Angeles, preparing for a taping of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS and Thursday's book reading and signing at the Skirball Cultural Center. It's been a nonstop nutso week for me -- and I thought, since I doubt a week like this will ever come my way again, to share some of the fun parts...
The week started, unexpectedly, with a shout-out from the Daily Beast, which identified the book as one of the week's Hot Reads. Cool.
Then my interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air aired Monday. Everyone who produced and shaped the hour did me the greatest of kindnesses. Terry did a wonderful interview, which took up more than half the show. Then, with a masterful transition, she filled the rest of the show with my interview with actor Hal Holbrook. You can hear the entire hour, if you missed it, by clicking HERE.
I've been on Fresh Air since its national launch back in 1987, but I had no idea of its true clout, as a measurable component of book sales, until Monday. Amazon ranks all the books it sells, and it's a ranking only masochistic authors should spend much time perusing. On Oct. 5, for example, when my book was first offered for presale on the Amazon website, it was ranked 798,191.
I wrote it down. At least I had cracked the all-important Top 800,000.
On October 7, after I announced the book on this very website, the ranking shot up tenfold, to 71,212. Stand by, sports fans!
Then it went down, then up, and on Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving, it was hovering at 43,518. (I only looked a few times a month, but wrote the rankings down when I did.)
But in the hours after my book-related Fresh Air was broadcast, I started getting emails from my agent, editor and publicist. The Dangerously Funny ranking had shot up to 521. Then to 301. And, by midnight, was 194.
The next day, the book, Tom Smothers and I were featured on ABC's Good Morning America (mostly Tom and the book, but I'm thrilled; no complaints here, just gratitude). That pushed the ranking up, too, to 146.
And in various categories, the book is doing well: I took a screen shot when, in the admittedly limited category of Books-Entertainment-Television-History & Criticism, it was ranked Number 1. Here's proof:
Right now, as I type this, the book is back down to No. 181. I expect it to keep slipping back down, though my "Terry bump" could be followed by a "Craig bump" on Friday. I'll keep you posted.
Meanwhile, here's what's up:
On Thursday, I tape my Ferguson appearance, which will air Friday night (early Saturday) at 12:35 a.m. ET on CBS's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
And as soon as that taping session is over, I fly over to the Skirball Cultural Center for a speech, video presentation and book signing. If you're around the L.A. area, please, please come by: 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. It's at 7:30 p.m. local time, costs $5, but is free for students.
More stuff soon, but please forgive my erratic posts this week -- and my erratic posting schedule, as well. I've been building up to this for -- in the words of George Harrison, "a long, long, long time."
By the way: I still haven't made it to a bookstore. So if you have a Dangerously Funny sighting to report, let me know!
