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September 2008 Archives
FLICK PICKS: Paul Newman TCM marathon
September 30, 2008 10:48 AM
Turner Classic Movies comes through. TCM just announced a 24-hour Paul Newman marathon for Sunday, Oct. 12 -- awhile to wait, but then we get 11 straight Newman films, including some not often seen.
Like Rachel, Rachel, Newman's 1968 directing debut, with his wife, Joanne Woodward. And his 1956 Korean War brainwashing drama, The Rack, from a Rod Serling script.
Here's the full lineup for Oct. 12 (as described by TCM):
6 a.m. ET -- The Rack (1956): Paul Newman plays a Korean War veteran who has been brainwashed and is now on trial for treason in this taut drama based on a Rod Serling teleplay. Walter Pidgeon and Wendell Corey co-star.
8 a.m. ET -- Until They Sail (1957): This drama directed by Robert Wise tells the story of four sisters each struggling to find love and happiness in New Zealand during World War II. Newman plays a Marine captain who falls for one of the sisters, a widow played by Jean Simmons. This film marks Newman’s emergence as a matinee idol.
10 a.m. ET -- Torn Curtain (1966): An American scientist pretends to be a defector in order to get some vital information in this Alfred Hitchcock thriller co-starring Julie Andrews. Newman’s fight scene in a small farmhouse is a brilliant but disturbing Hitchcock set piece.
12:15 p.m. ET -- Exodus (1960): Otto Preminger directed this epic adaptation of Leon Uris’ history of the Palestinian war. Newman plays an Israeli resistance leader, while Eva Marie Saint co-stars as an army nurse. Ernest Gold won an Oscar for his memorable score.
3:45 p.m. ET -- Sweet Bird of Youth (1962): Newman and co-star Geraldine Page reprised their Broadway roles for this adaptation of the Tennessee Williams drama. In it, Newman returns to his hometown with an aging movie queen in tow. Ed Begley won an Oscar for his performance as the town boss.
6 p.m. ET -- Hud (1963): This modern western, based on a book by Larry McMurtry, features impeccable performances by Newman and Oscar winners Patricia Neal and Melvyn Douglas. Newman plays a restless youth who destroys nearly everything he touches. Also earning an Oscar for this drama was cinematographer James Wong Howe.
8 p.m. ET -- Somebody up There Likes Me (1956): This Robert Wise-directed biography of boxer Rocky Graziano traces his rise from the streets of New York to packed arena. Pier Angeli co-stars.
10 p.m. ET -- Cool Hand Luke (1967): Newman gives a powerful and endearing performance as a member of a prison chain gang in this drama laced with ample doses of anti-establishment humor. Co-star George Kennedy took home an Oscar for his performance, while Strother Martin nearly steals the film as the warden.
12:15 a.m. ET -- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958): Tennessee Williams’ classic drama comes to the screen with an outstanding cast headed by Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. The story involves a rich Southern family of greedy vultures hovering around while their patriarch, played by Burl Ives, prepares to die.
2:15 a.m. ET -- Rachel, Rachel (1968): Newman co-stars with is wife, Joanne Woodward, in this sensitive drama about a spinster trying to come out of her shell. This film marked Newman’s directorial debut.
4 a.m. ET -- The Outrage (1964): Newman stars as a Mexican bandit accused of rape in this adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. Edward G. Robinson, Claire Bloom, Laurence Harvey and William Shatner co-star.
RETROVISION: TV Land, down the tubes
September 29, 2008 11:58 PM
Sorry, TV Land. It's over between you and me.
And that's sad, because I loved you like mad when you launched in 1996, suffused in affection for Our TV Heritage.
You brought back shows we hadn't seen in years -- everything from '50s monochrome delights like Sgt. Bilko [above] to '80s game-changers like Hill Street Blues, with treats like Flip Wilson's '70s variety hit or Anne Francis' groovy Honey West sleuthery in between. You ran shows from every TV genre, sprinkling them with cool vintage ads, calling them Retromercials. You even dug up nuggets like tube auteur Rod Serling's 1958 Time Element pilot that led to him getting the Twilight Zone series.
But now? Oh, the horror! In recent years, you've stuffed your lineup with shows we've seen 10,000 times already. (The Jeffersons? Please!) Gone are the obscurities. Gone, in fact, is practically everything that isn't a run-to-death sitcom. And then, you started making those original shows. C'mon now -- high school reunions and baby boomer supermodel contests?
But the final straw arrives Monday -- and it is soooo heavy, it doesn't just break the camel's back, it could also squish an elephant.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition takes over TV Land prime time Sept. 29-Oct. 5, from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. You're promoting this as The Extreme Makeover Takeover. You say (in the press release), "The show's theme of redemption and renewal resounds and deeply connects with our viewers in their 40s and 50s."
Yuck. Maybe on Oxygen. Or HGTV. Someplace else. Anyplace else! TV Land is supposed to be the home of "classic" TV shows, not product placement, not reality TV (unless it's an ancient episode of Queen for a Day or Real People), certainly not the flavor-of-the-moment. TV Land is for shows that are enduring, or influential, or quaint, or campy. Shows that changed the face of TV, took a snapshot of a bygone era, or made a potent pop culture splash.
I'm not the only one who feels this way, TV Land. Read your own online forums. Read the comment boards across the internet where onetime TV Land fans are blasting away. They're even turning to Amazon, for cripes' sakes, taking a moment out from ordering vintage show DVDs to locate the TV series forum headlined "The cable network TV Land: What ARE they doing?" They've only posted 393 enraged comments there so far this year.
Just like me, they used to loooove you, TV Land. The same way we loved your progenitor, Nick at Nite. Your channels radiated a winning personality that grabbed us, welcomed us, made us feel at home, and gave us a sense of ownership that today makes us feel all the more shafted. First Nick at Nite threw us over, and now you -- foregoing our intense loyalty to showcase flash and, frankly, trash that may attract passing viewers. Perhaps even more viewers, in passing. But soon they'll head on to the next fickle fun thing. And we former devotees will be long gone, to places more worthy of our spurned affections.
We sure won't be watching you, TV Land. Too bad, so sad.
FLICK PICKS: Paul Newman movies
September 28, 2008 11:39 AM
[UPDATES BELOW, including Wednesday night Sundance Channel Iconoclasts hour with Robert Redford interviewing Newman -- see times below.]
Paul Newman may have died Friday, but his performances will live on via TV and DVD for decades to come. The first thing we did upon hearing of his passing was check the movie listings for Newman titles scheduled to air. Channels like Turner Classic Movies will probably announce last-minute program changes adding Newman to their lineups, but here's what we found in the meantime:
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (Tuesday at 5 a.m. ET, MoreMax) -- John Huston's 1972 comedy western ("If this story ain't true, it shoulda been") co-stars Anthony Perkins, Stacy Keach, Roddy McDowell, and even Huston as Grizzly Adams.
Harry and Son (Tuesday at 7:05 a.m. ET, Showtime2) -- Would-be writer Robby Benson clashes with Newman as his hardhat dad in a 1984 drama.
The Making of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (late Tuesday/early Wednesday at 3:15 a.m. ET, Sundance) -- The offbeat western hit is explored in this 1994 hour featuring Paul Newman, co-star Robert Redford, director George Roy Hill and scripter William Goldman.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Wednesday at 6:30 a.m. ET, ActionMax) -- Here's the 1969 blockbuster itself, winner of four Oscars, for Goldman's original script, Conrad Hall's cinematography, Burt Bacharach's score, and his song with Hal David, Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head.
ADDED -- Iconoclasts (Wednesday at 6 p.m. and 3:30 a.m. ET, Sundance) -- Robert Redford's wide-ranging 2005 discussion with Newman expands past movies to encompass charity and entrepreneurship. Followed at 7 p.m. ET by The Making of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.' Both shows repeat Saturday (at 2 and 3 p.m. ET).
ADDED -- Biography (Wednesday at 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET, BIO) -- Hourlong 1995 Paul Newman profile.
Cool Hand Luke (Saturday morning at 4 a.m. ET, MOJO) -- Here's an HD screening of prisoner Newman's 1967 "failure to communicate" with overseer Strother Martin.
The Verdict (Saturday at 5:10 a.m. ET, Cinemax) -- Newman should finally have won an Academy Award for Sidney Lumet's 1982 drama of a burned-out lawyer taking on the system. But he'd have to wait until 1986's consolation Oscar for The Color of Money.
FLICK PICKS: Gender-benders
September 23, 2008 2:26 PM
He or she or -- ? Gender-benders fill Tuesday night on Turner Classic Movies with masquerades, impersonations and serious/silly sexual confusion.
Kicking off the quartet at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday is Yentl, Barbra Streisand's 1983 tale of a woman going guy to study the Torah. Then it's Julie Andrews singing from both sides as Victor/Victoria (10:30 p.m. ET), Blake Edwards' 1982 gem costarring James Garner and Robert Preston at their best.
Two flat-out comedies round out the night: Billy Wilder's 1959 delight Some Like It Hot (1 a.m. ET; photo above), with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon (and one of cinema's best-ever final lines); and Sydney Pollack's 1982 Tootsie (3:15 a.m. ET), where Dustin Hoffman plays a soap opera "actress" alongside Jessica Lange and Teri Garr.
Stay tuned for some real-life and reel life confusion this weekend when cable runs a first-season marathon of ABC's soon-to-return Dirty Sexy Money (Saturday 9 a.m.-7 p.m. ET on SOAPnet). The big-money melodrama includes transgender actress Candis Cayne as the mistress of William Baldwin's would-be U.S. senator (photo at right), only one of the wacky, wealthy Darling family members who form the nighttime soap's center. Peter Krause, Donald Sutherland and Blair Underwood help get the juicy action going, setting the stage for Lucy Liu to join the fun when ABC debuts the second season Wednesday, Oct. 1 at 10 p.m. ET.
EMMYS: Everybody great ever on TV
September 22, 2008 11:10 AM
In case you missed last night's Emmy Awards -- and really, the final game at Yankee Stadium on ESPN was a much more exciting place to be -- ABC.com has a clip of key acceptance speeches on its Emmys web page.
There's also the Thank You Cam into which the winners babbled backstage about their triumph. (And we do mean babble.)
But best of all, there's a 60th-year Emmys celebratory collage of great characters from throughout TV history -- complete with a key to identifying them, since there are more than 400 faces included.
Good luck!
SITES TO SEE: NBC premieres online
September 17, 2008 6:58 PM
Why wait to catch those new fall shows on TV? Start early online. NBC is posting its freshman pilots all over the place this season, trying to generate buzz and ratings.
The remake of '80s fave Knight Rider may not be TV worth watching, but next Tuesday's entire premiere episode is viewable now for free, via Hulu and Amazon UnBox. Next week's return hour of Lipstick Jungle (on TV Sept. 23) is streaming free at the same sites, introducing Mary Tyler Moore as Brooke Shields' mom. [Photo above.] Yet to stream for a week before their TV premieres are the season starters for Chuck and Life (online Sept. 22), plus the new sitcom Kath & Kim (online Oct. 2) and Emmy-winner 30 Rock (online Oct. 23).
Also coming to Amazon will be Christian Slater's actioner My Own Worst Enemy (online Oct. 6) and the global epic Crusoe (online Oct. 10).
Rather watch on TV? Some digital cable systems are offering the same shows in advance, often in HD. Lipstick Jungle and Knight Rider are now available on-demand in HD on my Comcast system. NBC says the shows will also be up on Cox and Charter systems, plus DISH Network and Verizon FIOS TV, for a week before their TV premieres. Check your provider's listings.
STAY TUNED: Vintage campaign ads
September 17, 2008 1:07 PM
When it's just too depressing to watch today's mudslinging campaign commercials -- which is pretty much all the time -- you can turn instead to a priceless collection of previous presidential campaign spots. In other words: You can see how we got to the fine mess we're in today.
The Living Room Candidate is an online archive of 300 vintage ads, reaching back to the 1952 Eisenhower-Stevenson race considered the first "TV campaign."
You can watch the infamous 1964 anti-Goldwater "daisy" ad with the mushroom cloud.
A 1968 spot consisting of simply laughter at the prospect of a vice president named Spiro Agnew.
Ronald Reagan's "morning in America" ads.
The 1988 "Willie Horton" commercial targeting Michael Dukakis.
The Living Room Candidate makes itself easy to use, too, breaking out ads by campaign year, by candidate, by political party, by issue (corruption, taxes, war), by type of spot (family, biographical, real people, "fear"), and even a curator's choice playlist of most effective ads.
The collection is an ongoing project of New York's far-too-underrated Museum of the Moving Image. (Based in the Astoria section of Queens, in an old movie studio used by the Marx Brothers, it's off the beaten path, but worth the detour.)
The project's just-posted 2008 cycle adds informative text commentaries on the top spots, with political scholars creating their own annotated playlists. Online resources lead to further details about the funding and production of these ads, to archival versions of previous campaign websites, and to teachers' lesson plans about commercial campaigning.
Plus, there's ongoing tracking of current McCain/Obama TV and web ads.
But here's a taste from way back when:
WEIRD & WILD: 'Lost' 2.0 starts on G4
September 15, 2008 9:49 AM
We're about to get lost in Lost. David Bianculli's Monday best bets pick the Sci Fi repeats (also available in HD!), but I'd also like to point you toward the cycle beginning Monday on G4, otherwise a gamer/geek channel.
(Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
This run offers ABC's standard Lost episodes Monday-Friday at 4 p.m. ET -- then switches at 9 p.m. ET weeknights to what G4 calls a "2.0 interactive version of the series." Like the channel's pop-up plays of Star Trek, the 2.0 airings add chat-like onscreen factoids and trivia about what you're watching, aimed to illuminate elements of the plot and characters.
(Not to mention get you to watch another hour of G4 programming.)
In this case, the info overload is probably a boon -- Lost is so dense sometimes, so loaded with obscure "clues," that you're not sure who's who, where's where, when's when, or which magic numbers actually add up to anything. Maybe G4 can help clarify.
HOT SPOT: Fewer commercials! Brilliant!
September 10, 2008 11:23 AM
So how fast did Fringe fly by? Know why? Judging by Tuesday night's premiere, it's not the show itself, whether you love it (I'm nuts for twitchy star Anna Torv) or don't (all that pseudo-science can get tiresome).
It's the commercials. Or lack thereof. Fox is trying short commercial breaks in this show every week -- as short as 60 seconds, instead of the 4-minute drag-on breaks to which we've become accustomed. Or unaccustomed, as steadily sliding network ratings might indicate.
In other words, don't try leaving the room during Fringe for eats or other needs. Don't even try flipping through channels. Fox warns you ahead of time the break will only be 60 or 90 seconds, and they mean it. We quick-flipped to catch a baseball score during one Fringe break, and got back after the show had already resumed. Think we'll do that again?
Very cagey, that Fox. And very smart. I've been saying for years that networks should try shorter breaks, even if it means jacking up individual ad prices. Which they should be able to do. Because viewers will be paying attention. Which we haven't been. The networks' ever-longer commercial loads have trained us to basically take an intermission at each break, strolling to the lobby to load up on treats or visit the facilities or maybe even leave the theater altogether if the attraction is not so hot. Which it often isn't.
Fringe is the way TV used to be. One-minute breaks were standard through the '60s and beyond. When I was a kid, I'd try to make a potty stop during commercial breaks, and couldn't get back before the show resumed, even on a dead run. I learned not to leave. Now this may not be the toilet training my mom had in mind, but it sure did get me hooked on the medium of television. And kept me hooked. The shows sucked me in and held on till they were through with me.
Fringe proves it's possible for the networks to do this again. Of course it helps if the show is worth watching. (Dear Fox: Do not try this with Wednesday's premiere of Do Not Disturb.) But it's simply a blessed relief to not be bombarded with blaring ad after blaring ad, all jacking up the volume and flashing-image onslaught like some combat attack, so desperate to be noticed. They might instead try being the only ad, or one of two, in a break so brief we almost can't stop watching the screen.
The Fringe premiere kept us glued through the plot's weird conniptions and weak spots -- a shrewd tactic, actually, when all is not as easy to digest as it might be. Imagine flash-fast breaks in those moments when you were ready to give up on the conniptions of Lost or Heroes, or even ER. Smart, also, to pull us deeper into the personal dramas of something like Grey's Anatomy.
How does The Sopranos' spell hold up with commercial breaks on A&E? What about the deadly dealings on Dexter during its CBS run? Part of the appeal of those shows on premium cable has been their ability to fully enmesh us in their particular worlds, without pauses to assault the senses with pitches for car leases, trendy electronics and, um, 4-hour erections.
It'll be interesting to see if all the networks, or even just retro-innovator Fox, can make the shorter-break strategy work longer-term and more broadly across the schedule. Fox promises to try the same with Dollhouse, the midseason secret-agent show coming from genre king Joss Whedon. Genre shows lend themselves to the tactic, thanks to their skew toward compatible ads from theatrical films, video games and other products also needing to immerse in distinct moods. Something tells me shampoo makers and department stores will be a harder sell.
So we may yet revert to that harder sell. Fringe is either the new frontier or just fun while it lasts.
(If you missed the extended Fringe premiere, Fox repeats it this Sunday, Sept. 14, 8-9:35 p.m. ET, with the same low commercial load.)
WEIRD & WILD: Captain Jack, pre-'Torchwood'
September 8, 2008 2:27 PM
While Torchwood fans wait for in-production Season 3 to premiere on BBC America, we can time-trip back to the introduction of John Barrowman's hot ambisexual hero, Captain Jack Harkness.
Doctor Who (Tuesday noon-4 p.m., Sci Fi) introduced the character back in 2005, during the first season that ace writer Russell T. Davies reimagined the 1960s family fantasy fave by employing the adult wit of actor Christopher Eccleston (otherwise known on these shores as Claude, the invisible Heroes villain; or is he?).
Captain Jack arrived in a multi-episode arc to tantalize the Doctor's human companion, Rose (Billie Piper, otherwise known on these shores for Showtime's The Secret Diary of a Call Girl or PBS' Masterpiece outing Mansfield Park) -- and to exhibit the hots for the Doctor himself. Also to try to help save the galaxy, of course, again, one more time.
But the thrill of Torchwood really comes in Barrowman's steamy, sassy, sorrowful performance as the undying 51st century loner who wishes he could just find the right girl, or guy, or other sentient being, to help him recover from all that weekly alien-battling action.
His beginnings are a bit less noble, as revealed in Tuesday's four Doctor Who repeats, which take place during World War II's Nazi bombings of Britain, then fast-forward to yet another futuristic adventure with the dastardly robot Daleks. It's juicy, breezy fun -- yet carries more bite than you'd expect. Davies' work is delicious that way.
FLICK PICKS: Politics, Hollywood style
September 3, 2008 10:34 AM
With this year's presidential race shaping up fact to be wilder than fiction, perhaps the scripted stuff offers more true insight than reality can.
Hollywood political films play Wednesday nights through September on Turner Classic Movies, starting with such on-screen campaigns as 1958's The Last Hurrah with Spencer Tracy and 1972's The Candidate with Robert Redford -- a savvy double feature this Wednesday (Sept. 3) at 8 and 10:15 p.m. ET.
They're followed by Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson in 1964's The Best Man (Wednesday at 12:15 a.m. ET), Robert Altman's 1975 Nashville (2 a.m. ET, photo above) and the 1932 Guy Kibbee-Bette Davis comedy The Dark Horse (4:45 a.m. ET).
Congress is at the heart of such Sept. 10 titles as Advise and Consent and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. On Sept. 17, it's presidents in action, both real and imagined, from Raymond Massey's Abe Lincoln in Illinois [right] to James Coburn's '60s romp The President's Analyst. Corruption comes into play Sept. 24, in All the King's Men and Preston Sturges' The Great McGinty.
See all the titles and times at TCM's rich American politics minisite here, along with some fun vintage movie trailers.
