February 2009 Archives

WATCH ONLINE: When TV had 'SOUL!'

February 23, 2009 12:01 PM

Now that TV offers pretty much everything all the time for everybody, it's hard to imagine a time when it didn't. But on into the 1970s, with just three commercial networks and a public TV system only beginning to take shape -- and with cable still serving as a delivery device, not a content originator -- whole swaths of the American population were essentially ignored, both as viewers and as performers/producers.

Which makes the online arrival of SOUL! this month a most welcome reminder that our TV heritage has more to offer than incessant repeats of Andy Griffith and Bonanza. This groundbreaking public TV music series, which ran 1968-73 out of New York's WNET/13, showcased a wide range of black talent left out of the era's Ed Sullivan Show variety mix of Top 40 singers, Broadway stars and Topo Gigio the mouse puppet.

Six full episodes of SOUL! now streaming online at WNET's web site illustrate how the series covered the musical waterfront -- jazz (sax man Rahsaan Roland Kirk, drummer Max Roach), R&B/soul (songwriter-singers Ashford & Simpson), a cappella (The Persuasions), Latin (Tito Puente, Willie Colon), and the mashup of pop, jazz and soul known as Earth, Wind & Fire.

The series was even produced by a black crew, at a time TV trades were hardly models of inclusion. They knew enough to let the acts not only play but talk, too, about society and their own lives, and how the two fit together in a tumultuous era of explosive change.

The SOUL! site includes an episode guide, original press releases about this landmark arrival, and links to further exploration. Its web pages promise more features in the future (about the hosts, for instance), and hopefully, more vintage video, too.

Also up from the archives at thirteen.org: Broadcasting While Black, which widens the focus to other New York/national productions. A must-read introduction puts the shows in their historical context in the post-civil rights era -- a time of hard-fought struggle hard to fathom today. That leads into streams of further landmarks, like the current affairs report Black Journal and the grassroots street show Inside Bed-Stuy.

There's also a list of black shows from around the country, and links to learn more, not to mention additional streaming video, including amazing clips from Petey Greene's Washington. Culled from the D.C. show hosted by the tell-it-like-it-is ex-con portrayed in Don Cheadle's film Talk to Me, the raw segments include How to Eat Watermelon and a frank chat with a young Howard Stern -- in blackface.

Black TV wasn't always bling videos aimed at harvesting commercial dollars. In the barrier-smashing era of "black liberation" a generation (or two) ago, an entire people who'd never been able to tell their stories to the wider world finally got the chance. And they exploited it, boldly and smartly. No Coffy or Truck Turner here. Not that there's anything wrong with pure entertainment. But these often bare-bones shows aspired to do more -- to inform, illuminate, celebrate and enlighten.

They were the bridge to the multicultural future we now inhabit.

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FLICK PICKS: At both Oscars and TCM, simpler works better

February 23, 2009 11:43 AM

If this year's Oscar ceremony was pretty much an all-over-the-place mess with a couple good ideas thrown in, then it's mirrored by this year's 31 Days of Oscar stunt at Turner Classic Movies, which for me can't end soon enough. (But doesn't, unfortunately, until March 3.)

Trying to theme each day's films around "classes" at some pretend TCM University just isn't working. Monday's Ranch Management mix tries to find unity among old Hollywood's soul-selling saga The Devil and Daniel Webster, James Dean's 1955 intensity-fest East of Eden, and Cicely Tyson's '70s breakthrough Sounder. Wednesday's Neurological Disorders slate throws together Bette Davis' '30s weepie Dark Victory and Robin Williams' deep 1990 Awakenings. OK, so Friday's American Elections slate actually makes some sense (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, All the King's Men, The Manchurian Candidate, The Best Man). But it's a stretch to find sensible flow in Thursday's too-smart-for-its-own-good Hydrogeology schedule connecting The African Queen, A River Runs Through It, Chinatown and Death on the Nile.

Like last Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, TCM's monthlong event is lovingly thought-out and often cleverly presented, but it's simply not the best way to serve the audience. The 31 Days programmers clearly wanted to give us something different from the same old same-old. So did the Oscar folks -- dumping clips of individual nominees as their names were announced, in favor of a gang-of-five mass personal tribute presented by previous winners; weaving current and vintage clips together in one conglomerate then-and-now best picture montage; and that artsy approach to the annual In Memoriam tribute, flashing visuals from each deceased name's work across multiple screens above Hollywood's Kodak Theatre stage.

But really, don't we want to see the work the nominees have actually been nominated for? (Especially in a year with so many obscure films.) Shouldn't we be able to tell which snippets actually belong to the current films nominated for the award being presented? And wouldn't we like to be able to read the departed souls' teeny-weeny names and see their distant faces clearly on our home TVs, instead of being dizzied by a camera weaving in and out among those theater screens like a drunk staggering through the various parts of a Calder mobile?

Sometimes, the answer to a tough problem is the simplest option. The more complex it looks, the plainer it just might be. Perhaps something has been done the same way for years because it works that way. Show the clips individually already. Put the faces front and center. And line up each day/night's TCM Oscar titles in the simplest possible way -- Katharine Hepburn or Paul Newman starring, Alfred Hitchcock or Sydney Pollack directing, logical themes like this Tuesday night's festival from Japan (including Rashomon, The Seven Samurai and even The Burmese Harp from one of this year's In Memoriam folks, director Kon Ichikawa) or Saturday's boxing movies.

Don't try to dazzle us with your inventiveness. Just put together something clear and common-sensical. That's what keeps us watching.

By the way, here's this year's In Memoriam montage in decipherable form, up close and sans inebriation effects:

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WATCH THIS: 'Jericho' marathon

February 20, 2009 11:28 AM

[UPDATE: Episode streaming link below.]

See what all the fuss was about. Monday's marathon of the initial episodes of Jericho (Feb. 23, 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Sci Fi) reminds us why so many viewers cared so much about a show that could have been great.

And often was, I hasten to add, lest fans think I'm dissing what they're devoted to. When CBS' September 2006 debut of Jericho was getting so-so reviews, mine was definitely positive -- filled with hope and admiration for a show about people fighting for their lives and values, a show that looked to be smart enough for the discerning, exciting enough for action fans, warm enough for family viewing, and topical enough to really mean something.

That's a lot to juggle, and the producers of Jericho did pretty well most of the time, crafting a gutsy portrayal of a small Kansas town reacting to a nuclear attack that devastated major American cities and threw their own cozy community into disarray as it was cut off from civilization. Some citizens got small and selfish. Others got big and brave. And some fit both categories as circumstances snaked their way through all kinds of deprivation situations. (Some nifty intrigue, too, what with that new guy/furtive spy in town.)

Jericho thus aspired to be both sweeping and intimate, encompassing pretty much every aspect of humanity, at a time most network series were content to focus in on The Case of the Week or even The Microscopic Evidence of the Week. That's what really drew such devotion: Viewers flocked to feel, and think, and indeed share the sense of community the show celebrated.

You know the rest -- especially the "nuts" that fans famously sent to CBS executives after the show was canceled (playing off the "Nuts!" response of the heroes to a bad-guys offer worth refusing). That grassroots outpouring persuaded CBS to order a truncated second season. It wasn't as satisfying, with a chopped budget requiring wholesale excision of key characters, leading to a lessened sense of family and an emphasis on "opening up" to new viewers.

(Which you and I know never works, serving only to talk down, water down and tick off those who're already on board -- i.e., The John Larroquette Show.)

But Jericho was a solid success in one way -- proving there's an audience for smart TV, ambitious TV, even if it maybe isn't network-sized. Eventually, somebody will realize there's an entire channel in that, and one that viewers would actually be willing to pay for.

They gotta catch up to us someday.

(By the way, you can also watch every episode of Jericho on DVD.)

[UPDATE: CBS must still have some faith in Jericho -- episodes continue to stream online (some with commentary) here.]

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SMART STUFF: Economic Collapse 101

February 12, 2009 11:07 AM

Hard as I try, I still don't think I really understand how the economy cratered. But in the coming days I've got two good shots at smartening up about it.

First comes House of Cards (Thursday at 8 p.m. and midnight ET, CNBC), a two-hour chronicle of how our current financial quagmire took shape. David Faber puts together "first-hand accounts from key participants, from home buyers to investment bankers and investors, to an interview with Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan," who CNBC says "admits that even he didn't understand the details of the more complex securities on the market." Like you and I had a chance? See slideshow outline here. (CNBC repeats House of Cards Saturday at 7 and 10 p.m. ET, and Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.)

Frontline gets into the game Tuesday with Inside the Meltdown (Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on many PBS stations; check local listings). This hour examines not just the financial shenanigans but crucially how the government responded to trouble at Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and AIG. Watch program excerpts here. (Entire program online starting Tuesday.)

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REALITY CHECK: Lil' Kim and Woz go 'Dancing With the Stars'

February 9, 2009 1:43 PM

I'm always a sucker for Dancing With the Stars, and I think I may be a bigger sucker starting March 9. ABC's latest lineup of celebrity achievers and/or embarrassments, announced Sunday, includes an even wider and stranger variety than usual.

From perky teenage Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson to hulking NFL linebacker Lawrence Taylor, with husband-and-wife rodeo/music stars Ty Murray and Jewel, and such polar opposites as ex-con rapper/babe Lil' Kim and Apple co-founder/bulky uber-nerd Steve Wozniak -- this should be a DWTS to remember.

Of course, we thought that last spring about the "brilliant" casting of 82-year-old livewire Cloris Leachman. Now her unending "antics" (in lieu of aptitude and discipline) are something we're trying to forget.

Looks as if she may have poisoned the elderly well, too. After Leachman (and 61-year-old Susan Lucci) last time, nobody is older than fiftysomething this time.

And lots of them have previous "reality" show experience. (But no Kardashians. We promise.)

Here's the new lineup of 13, with bullet-point info:

Belinda Carlisle -- lead singer of '80s group The Go-Gos.

David Alan Grier -- DAG starred in a sitcom of that name after In Living Color, then broke out last year with Comedy Central's in-your-face Chocolate News.

Shawn Johnson -- 17-year-old Iowa gymnast, Olympic all-around silver medalist.

Lil' Kim -- busting-out-all-over rapper, went to jail rather than snitch on a New York shooting, thus starred in BET reality show Countdown to Lockdown.

Gilles Marini -- French actor, Sex and the City "naked guy."

Ty Murray -- seven-time all-around rodeo champ and Professional Bull Riders co-founder, ran CMT reality competition Ty Murray's Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge, married to . . .

Jewel -- singer-songwriter (Who Will Save Your Soul), published poet, second half of DWTS' first married couple to compete the same season.

Steve-O -- one of the title stars of Jackass.

Nancy O'Dell -- Access Hollywood co-host.

Lawrence Taylor -- NFL Hall of Fame linebacker (New York Giants).

Denise Richards -- Charlie Sheen's ex-wife, star of E! docusoap It's Complicated, will dance with returning pro hottie Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

Chuck Wicks -- country singer, dating his prospective DWTS pro partner, Julianne Hough.

Steve Wozniak -- The Woz, co-founded Apple, left for teaching and philanthropy, dated Kathy Griffin (as seen on My Life on the D-List).

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SMART STUFF: Lincoln and Darwin turn 200

February 8, 2009 6:47 PM

[UPDATE: Lincoln program added below.]

That was the week that was -- 200 years ago. Both Lincoln and Darwin were born, and suddenly, TV can't get enough of these bicentennial boys. They're big news in new shows on channels like History, NatGeo and PBS all week long.

First comes Charles Darwin, who was not only born 200 years ago Feb. 12 but whose book On the Origin of Species was published 150 years ago this week, too. The evolution revolution gets a two-night salute on National Geographic Channel, starting with Morphed (Sunday 8-11 p.m. ET, NatGeo), a three-parter using computer animation to portray creatures evolving in the way his landmark writings theorized. (All parts repeat on NatGeo Thursday 8-11 p.m. ET.)

Tuesday brings more, with Darwin's Secret Notebooks (Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET, NatGeo), exploring the records he kept during his HMS Beagle journeys, and Explorer: Monster Fish of the Congo (Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET, NatGeo), showing how tiger fish in that river embody his theory in action today. There's also What Darwin Didn't Know (Thursday at 10 p.m. ET, Science Channel), illuminating how his work has been examined and validated in the decades since his groundbreaking book.

Abraham Lincoln gets his from PBS starting Monday, with the new American Experience documentary The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Monday at 9 p.m. ET on many PBS stations; check local listings). This one doesn't offer much new, compared to, say, History Channel's detail-packed The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth, but it's starkly filmed to evoke 1865's stunning first-time murder of an American president.

Other PBS offerings this week (check local listings) include Lincoln: Prelude to the Presidency, exploring his Illinois' law career before he ran for public office; Young Lincoln, assessing how his Midwestern childhood shaped his life; Lincoln and Lee at Antietam: The Cost of Freedom, about that horrifically deadly Civil War battle, and the new Looking for Lincoln, where historians Henry Louis Gates and Doris Kearns Goodwin examine myths and misconceptions about this American icon.

History Channel has a load of Lincoln lined up Thursday on his actual birthday, including Lincoln: The Untold Stories Part 2 (6 a.m. ET, following Wednesday's Part 1 at 6 a.m. ET); the three-hour biography Lincoln (8 a.m. and 2 p.m. ET); Lincoln: Man or Myth? (11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET), and Conspiracy: Lincoln Assassination (noon and 6 p.m. ET).

UPDATE: Program added -- The new profile The Real Abraham Lincoln (Saturday 9-11 p.m. ET, NatGeo) traces Lincoln's entire journey, from his youth to his losing political campaigns to his presidency, exploring the Civil War, emancipation and finally the stunning assassination plot. This film views America's 16th president from a different perspective: international. It's written and directed by Germany's Wilfried Hauke and produced in association with European TV (ARTE, NDR, EU MEDIA funding, the Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Film Fund).

Lincolnmania extends into next week with the premiere of Stealing Lincoln's Body (Monday, Feb. 16 at 9 p.m. ET, History), a bizarrely riveting account of the many times the slain president's remains were interred, disinterred and even plotted to be held for ransom.

There's lots more Lincoln, including video, speeches, letters and teachers' lesson plans (even Thursday's live Lincoln teach-in webcast), at History's Lincoln site.

Find more Darwinmania online from Science and NatGeo.

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WATCH THIS: A taste of 'Torchwood' Season 3

February 5, 2009 7:01 PM

As fans anticipate Season 3 of smart hot actioner Torchwood, arriving later this year, an official trailer has just hit the BBC America site and YouTube. "Children of Earth" will be a five-night arc kicking off with the title characters stopping in movement simultaneously all around the world.

(The trailer contains fantasy violence, four-letter words and guy-on-guy smooches -- all those things Torchwood fans love.)

The trailer debuts in conjunction with this weekend's New York ComicCon and its Torchwood panel featuring actor Eve Myles and director Euros Lyn (Saturday at 4:15 p.m. ET at Manhattan's Javits Center).

Here's the official BBC America release:

"In one epic story told over five nights, the new series, airing later this year on BBC America and BBC One in the UK, re-joins Captain Jack (John Barrowman), Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) and Ianto Jones (Gareth David Lloyd), who are still coming to terms with the death of two of their closest friends. Despite their pain, they have a job to do. This time, they are faced with their fiercest threat to date -- one which throws the future of Torchwood and the entire human race spiraling into danger. They battle against the odds, but do they stand a chance of saving mankind?"

There's more at bbcamerica.com/torchwood, including a Season 3 blog and previous seasons' "Inside Look" featurettes. But it's more fun savoring those juicy first two seasons on DVD (first season also on Blu-ray).

If you haven't yet tuned in to Torchwood, trust us -- it's a smarter show than you think. And hotter. And cooler. We sure carry a torch for it . . .

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REALITY CHECK: 'Jockeys,' 'RuPaul's Drag Race,' more

February 5, 2009 11:43 AM

There's a reason I put "reality" TV in quotes: Most of it isn't. Scripted shows tend to have more relationship to the real world than The Real World.

But some non-scripted shows rise above the others, because even bad genres have better offerings. Here are a few new series worth at least a look:

Toughest Cowboy (Thursday at 11 p.m. ET, Spike) -- Forty real-life rodeo athletes compete for 12 spots in "the most dangerous rodeo tour ever." Since I'm a sucker for rodeo (living 12 years in Texas puts it in your blood), this one's fun, watching guys ride saddle broncs and bulls, overseen by judges like eight-time champion bull rider Don Gay. What Toughest Cowboy isn't is slick, even though it's produced by Survivor kingpin Mark Burnett. Rodeo guys are laconic, and their drama leans away from love lives toward lack of health insurance. They bring their dogs with 'em. But the show (which premiered last week) does deliver the promised "bone-crunching, body-slamming, death-defying action." And it's hosted by a woman whose name is Brandi (of course it is), wearing a Daisy Duke-tied midriff-baring shirt. Which means it's got more "real" in its (probably broken) pinky finger than most "reality" shows.

Jockeys (premiering Friday at 9 p.m. ET, Animal Planet) -- Ignore that on-air promo boasting it's from the producers of Laguna Beach. The people on this show have actual jobs. And apparently authentic lives -- at least as authentic as they can be while taking place before constantly rolling cameras. Followed through the monthlong Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita outside L.A. are seven jockeys -- a mix of weary veterans, cocky newbies and, here's the handy part, two hot (also hard-working) women. They've got spouses/lovers and kids and house payments and hazardous jobs that make for an "emotional roller coaster" since jockeys are hardly paid unless they win. The show is slickly put together -- plenty of quick-cut montages and thumping music -- but it's also crammed with information about a sport and occupation unfamiliar to most of us these days. Jockeys even has heart. Plus grit to burn.

RuPaul's Drag Race (Monday at 10 p.m. ET, LOGO) -- It's raining men! Men dressed as women! The title 6-feet-7 drag queen is in search of "America's next drag superstar," and s/he's putting nine top competitors through their high-heeled paces. In Monday's series premiere, designer Bob Mackie was the guest judge of a challenge to concoct fab-u-lous outfits from items found at -- horrors! -- the dollar store. At least this "reality" show admits from the get-go that everything's fake. And do these entertainers ever know how to work it, chile. By definition, they're drama queens with a capital Q. And doesn't host RuPaul look smart in a (man's) suit?

Click series links to find repeat airtimes and online episodes.

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OH REALLY?: Commercials make TV better!

February 5, 2009 10:35 AM

So posits a study in the Journal of Consumer Research that suggests "commercial interruptions can actually improve the television viewing experience. Although consumers do not foresee it, their enjoyment diminishes over time. Commercial interruptions can disrupt this adaptation process and restore the intensity of consumers' enjoyment."

Our Hollywood Reporter friend Jamie Hibberd didn't buy it, either, so after reporting the study, he asked co-author Jeff Galak to defend its conclusions. Read his Galak Q&A here.

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THAT'S FUNNY: But George Carlin was also important

February 4, 2009 4:10 PM

He didn't live to see it, and that makes me so mad, I could say all of the seven words you can never say on TV. But instead, I'll just watch The Mark Twain Prize: George Carlin (Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on many PBS stations; check local listings for premiere/repeat times).

Heartfelt tributes to Carlin's comedic genius fill the posthumous ceremony, taped in November at Washington's Kennedy Center, featuring the likes of Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Lewis Black, Margaret Cho, previous Twain recipient Lily Tomlin, and many others.

But it wasn't just Carlin's sense of humor and his jazz-like facility for verbal rhythms that made him a great stand-up. After coming to fame in the '60s with fairly benign routines (Al Sleet, the hippy-dippy weatherman), Carlin turned in the '70s to sharper cultural observations, ushering in a new era of topical comedy -- not hard-edged like earlier practioner Mort Sahl, but genially, slyly trenchant. And even more broadly effective. (Consider his baseball/football comparison with its cultural take on idyllic/aggressive.)

Carlin also delivered the small-things scrutiny that many folks attribute to Jerry Seinfeld, most memorably in his routines about "stuff."

The Twain special pays honor to all of Carlin's four decades of genius. But it's even better to hear it yourself. Carlin's official site offers a smattering of streaming audio/video (including the "seven dirty words"). And MPI has released the DVD trove George Carlin: All My Stuff, collecting his 30 years of HBO stand-up specials (save his 2008 finale It's Bad for Ya) on 14 discs to explore at your leisure.

This is great "stuff."

Several of Carlin's stand-up specials also show up on TV this week:

• George Carlin: You Are All Diseased, 1999 (Thursday night/Friday morning at 1:55 a.m. ET, HBO Comedy)


• George Carlin: It's Bad for Ya, his 2008 finale (Friday night/Saturday morning, at 1:25 a.m. ET, HBO2)


• On Location: George Carlin at USC, his 1977 HBO debut (Saturday at 6 p.m. and later at 3:45 a.m. ET, HBO Comedy)


• George Carlin: On Campus, 1984 (Sunday night/Monday morning at 3:05 a.m. ET, and Thursday, Feb. 12 at 5 a.m. ET, both on HBO Comedy)

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HOT SPOT(S): Anything but the Super Bowl

February 1, 2009 10:38 AM

Burned out on Super Bowl before it starts? We've found some quality TV alternatives to that pigskin thing. You know there's a winner among Hugh Laurie, Lucille Ball, Kyra Sedgwick, Tony Shalhoub or Tony Soprano.

Sunday's marathon alternatives include:

• Monk (6 a.m.-6 a.m. ET, Sleuth) -- Tony Shalhoub solves murder cases but not his own compulsive problems.


• I Love Lucy (8:30 a.m.-3 a.m. ET, Hallmark) -- Among the all-time classics showcased here is Harpo Marx'' "mirror" routine at 5 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. ET.


• House (11 a.m.-4 a.m. ET, USA) -- Hugh Laurie diagnoses medical mysteries but not his own misanthropy.


• The Closer (noon-11 p.m. ET, TNT) -- Kyra Sedgwick breaks down crooks and takes home awards.


• The Sopranos (noon-midnight ET, A&E) -- The final season of the Jersey "family" drama wends toward . . . you know.


• CSI (noon-4 a.m. ET, Spike) -- Two-parters are in the spotlight, including Grave Danger (buried alive) 4-6 p.m. and midnight; A Bullet Runs Through It (friendly fire?) 6-8 p.m.; Built to Kill (Cirque du Soleil) 8-10 p.m., and Living Doll/Dead Doll (Sara kidnaped) 10 p.m.-midnight, all times ET.


• The Andy Griffith Show (7-10 p.m. ET, TV Land) -- This show takes place pre-Super Bowl era. But you know what the men of Mayberry would be watching.

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