September 2010 Archives

TRIBUTES: Tony Curtis, Arthur Penn

September 30, 2010 3:59 PM

Hollywood mourns, and Turner Classic Movies shuffles its schedule. Tributes to both movie/TV director Arthur Penn, who died Tuesday at 88, and golden-age star Tony Curtis, who died Wednesday at 85, have been inserted into TCM's October lineup.

Penn's Saturday tribute (Oct. 2) includes two of his '60s landmarks with Warren Beatty -- 1965's new wave-ish Mickey One (6:15 p.m. ET) and 1967's influential classic Bonnie and Clyde (8 p.m. ET), the latter coincidentally already scheduled to air as part of TCM's Saturday night showcase "The Essentials."

Curtis is remembered with a 12-film, 24-hour marathon on Sunday, Oct. 10.

(In the meantime, TCM plans to post the audio from host Robert Osborne's 1999 Private Screenings interview with Curtis as a downloadable podcast.)

TCM's Sunday tribute marathon ranges with Curtis from historical epic to frothy romantic comedy to gritty contemporary drama (all times ET on Oct. 10) -

6 a.m. - Beachhead (1954), with Frank Lovejoy and Mary Murphy
7:45 a.m. - Kings Go Forth (1958), with Frank Sinatra and Natalie Wood
9:45 a.m. - The Vikings (1958), with Kirk Douglas, Ernest Borgnine and Janet Leigh
11:45 a.m. - Operation Petticoat (1959), with Cary Grant and Dina Merrill
2 p.m. - Who Was That Lady? (1960), with Janet Leigh and Dean Martin
4:15 p.m. - Sex and the Single Girl (1964), with Natalie Wood, Lauren Bacall and Henry Fonda
6:15 p.m. - You Can't Win 'Em All (1970), with Charles Bronson and Michele Mercier
8 p.m. - Sweet Smell of Success (1957), with Burt Lancaster and Martin Milner
9:45 p.m. - The Defiant Ones (1958), with Sidney Poitier and Theodore Bikel
11:30 p.m. - Trapeze (1956), with Burt Lancaster and Gina Lollobrigida
1:30 a.m. - The Great Race (1965), with Jack Lemmon and Natalie Wood
4:15 a.m. - Don't Make Waves (1967), with Claudia Cardinale and Sharon Tate

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CANCELED: Fox's 'Lone Star'

September 28, 2010 7:21 PM

Wow. That didn't take long. Lone Star is dead. Not after a lone episode, but after just two.

Fox plugged the plug Tuesday by scheduling Lie to Me for an early return next week in the Texas saga's Monday 9 p.m. ET time slot.

Critics like me extolled Lone Star, but apparently we're the only ones who watched it. The premiere week's bad ratings actually got worse for this Monday's second episode, despite additional critical support and the online pleas of the show's creator.

Too bad. Lone Star was a provocative adult drama, exactly the kind of series viewers now applaud on cable channels from HBO and Showtime to FX and AMC. Maybe viewers just don't turn to the networks anymore for shows like these. (Except they flock to The Good Wife on CBS.) Or maybe the show's vague marketing did it no favors. (What's it about again?)

Some writers contend star James Wolk just wasn't a magnetic enough draw to get and keep people watching. Others think the lead con man's romantic double-dealing and economic scams turned off viewers.

Or maybe Lone Star simply got aced by Bristol Palin.

Did you watch Lone Star? What did you think?

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NBC finally getting new leader

September 24, 2010 1:24 PM

What the zuck? Hard to believe, but Jeff Zucker is finally heading out at NBC. Out after the Leno-Conan-Leno Tonight Show debacle. The Leno prime time debacle. The NBC-ratings-in-the-toilet debacle(s).

And none of that did it. The Comcast takeover finally did it.

Zucker told his troops Friday that he's gone as of deal-closing for Comcast to acquire the NBC Universal media empire.

Here is continually updated reporting from Deadline Hollywood's Nikki Finke, who has minced no words over the years in wondering how this continual zuck-up could keep his job (speaking aloud what most reporters covering the media only whispered among themselves).

Now that the news is in, the only thing left is the spin. And there will be plenty of that in media circles -- conveniently, for Zucker, over the weekend when nobody's paying attention.

The only other place he could have buried the news deeper was on Jay Leno's 10 p.m. Tonight Show.

NOTE: More bury-the-lede Friday shakeups, this one at CNN. Click here for more.

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SPOT ON: Worst commercials vote

September 22, 2010 11:46 AM

Now here's a public-voted award I can get behind. Who can resist categories like Most Annoying Animated Spokesthing?

So make your choices among the Worst Ad in America 2010 nominations from The Consumerist website. Vote from this list, which includes videos if you're into further self-torture.

Other categories include Creepiest Commercial (Mr. Mayhem, definitely; or is it "no more used catheters"?), Most Grating Performance by a Human, Celebrity Who Must Have Lost Most Money in Housing Crash, and the ultimate, Absolute Worst Ad in America.

Too bad there are only five nominees.

(Voting ends Tuesday, Sept. 28.)

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READ THIS: Why 'House' is a hit

September 20, 2010 4:13 PM

House has many things going for it, of course, but Numero Uno is star Hugh Laurie.

It's not just that the British import is a fine actor, a diligent American-speaker, and all that.

He's one very funny fellow.

That wit comes through on House, and even more obviously in a letter recently sent by Fox to critics along with the new-season screener DVD of fall's first two episodes.

While it's true these little suck-up missives are often written by publicists or producers, this one evinces the Laurie wit we've savored in A BIt of Fry and Laurie, Fortysomething and his other comedy-heavy credits.

That wit is what keeps his misanthropic Dr. Gregory House from being the biggest $#@!& on the planet, so horrible you'd want nothing to do with him. Yes, Laurie evokes House's vulnerability and pain, blah blah blah. But mostly, it's that wit shining through to keep you completely on his side.

Click the letter to open a larger window where it's easier to read.

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NEW COLUMNIST: TVWW faces reality (shows)

September 19, 2010 10:27 PM

I don't watch a lot of "reality" TV. You can tell by the quotes around the word that it's hard for me to take most of it seriously. But the best of any genre is worth watching, and like anything else, reality TV has its good and its (really, really) awful.

Now TVWW has a columnist who specializes in sorting those out. Ronnie Gill's new Altered Reality column debuts today -- and her keen analysis is worth your attention.

Lots of internet readers know this already, having followed her American Idol blog, I'm the One That You Want, for years. Now Ronnie joins the ranks at TVWW, bringing us her expertise in assessing what works in reality TV, what doesn't, and why things fall on either side of that assessment.

Ronnie and I worked together for years at New York's much-honored newspaper Newsday, covering television intensely in the days when daily print was riding high and newspapers like our multi-Pulitzer winner spent lots of space, manpower and money covering this most pervasive of the mass media.

Now, of course, most newspapers -- or should we call them "content providers"? -- have cut back on space and ambition. They mostly devote their precious column/web space to the celeb-of-the-moment, who's in court, who's in rehab, et al. But that doesn't much help the quality viewer, faced with hundreds of channel choices (not to mention DVD, VOD and more), to find the rare wheat among the overwhelming chaff.

So much the better for us here at TV Worth Watching. We're here to offer what so many others can't or won't -- a tight focus on the best that's out there, and a critical look at why what's good or what's awful ends up enriching/polluting the airwaves.

Ronnie Gill extends our mission to unscripted TV, where there's plenty that stinks but also some truly wonderful watching. Count on Ronnie to help you figure out where to find it.

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TV UPDATE: He is not 'Spartacus'

September 18, 2010 11:44 AM

If you want to see Andy Whitfield as Starz' hot gladiator Spartacus, you'd better buy this week's new Season 1 DVD/Blu-ray of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

Whitfield won't be back in the role anytime soon, if ever. Starz announced late Friday that Whitfield's cancer, thought to be in remission as he prepared to resume the role next year, now requires "aggressive" treatment, and he won't return for Season 2 as had been planned.

After the Australian actor was diagnosed last March with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Starz worked around him by creating a prequel miniseries to air between Spartacus Seasons 1 and 2. That production, focused on the gladiator stable owners played by Lucy Lawless and John Hannah, is set to air on Starz in January 2011.

The series' delayed second season was being readied to include Whitfield, and he appeared at July's Comic-Con to emphasize his enthusiasm for returning.

Here's Starz' press release.

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DVD DEAL: 11 Best Picture winners

September 18, 2010 11:24 AM

This isn't strictly a TV DVD set, but if you love Turner Classic Movies, it might as well be.

Saturday's deal of the day at Amazon is the 11-film Best Picture Collection from Columbia Pictures -- a $58 eye-popper that includes must-sees spanning almost 50 years, from 1934's It Happened One Night to 1982's Gandhi.

Also included: 1938's You Can't Take It With You, 1949's All the King's Men, 1953's From Here to Eternity, 1954's On the Waterfront, 1957's The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1962's Lawrence of Arabia, 1966's A Man for All Seasons, 1968's Oliver! and 1979's Kramer vs. Kramer.

The list price is $135, and Saturday's deal drops it from Amazon's price of $102. For $58, it's just over $5 a film.

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FLICK PICKS: Dirty movies!

September 16, 2010 9:09 PM

Disgusting, offensive filth! That's what Turner Classic Movies spotlights on Friday night. Movies so vile, they were condemned!

In the 1950s, that is.

The Moon Is Blue (8 p.m. ET), The Man With the Golden Arm (10 p.m. ET) and Baby Doll (12:15 a.m. ET) challenged the movie industry's mid-century content requirements by dealing with (gasp!) virginity, (horrors!) drug addiction, and (trash!) a thumb-sucking bride hot for action.

They formed a sort of "adult" triumvirate in which directors like Otto Preminger (the first two films) and Elia Kazan (the third) pushed the boundaries of what Hollywood officialdom then deemed allowable, in an era when all movies were supposed to be suitable for everybody.

Their early daring would lead to even more explicit '60s films like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? which finally forced the industry to create a content-ratings system -- G, R, X -- so stories intended for grown-ups could be truly adult.

Count on TCM host Robert Osborne to put it all in a smart historical context Friday night.

Or go online to this TCM web page to read more about the films that put the screws to Hollywood's long-limiting Production Code.

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TUBE NEWS: More ads, less show

September 13, 2010 3:31 PM

Does it seem like commercial breaks are getting longer? Like the show itself may never "be right back after this message"? You're not imagining things.

Ad Age reports breaks are getting "supersized" on cable channels like Spike, where individual breaks can reach "something approaching an eyebrow-raising 10 minutes in total." But guess what? Advertisers are unhappy about it, too.

The long breaks have shown up in Spike's Entourage episodes, which are scheduled in 45-minute blocks. Ad Age counted more than half of that length occupied by ads/promos, and quoted ad folks furious at being buried in all that clutter.

Lucky you, though: Now you can watch Entourage in broadcast syndication. HBO's male-skewing adult comedy is premiering this week in late-night on local stations, like New York's WPIX/11 (12:30 a.m. ET Monday-Friday nights) and Philadelphia's WPHL/17 (11:30 p.m. ET Monday-Friday nights).

Those stations are scheduling it in half-hour slots, which should mean a bit less buy-me bother.

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THIS WEEK: Season finales!

September 13, 2010 10:20 AM

No, not fresh finales. Last May's finales.

But that's okay. Watching them again will refresh your memory for the new seasons starting next week.

Prime among them: House and Glee.

House (Monday at 8 p.m. ET, Fox) ended, you may remember, with Hugh Laurie's title character and Lisa Edelstein's boss/nemesis in the kind of romantic clinch they've been dancing around all six seasons. I've seen the new season's first two episodes, and last spring's finale certainly helps explain how House and Cuddy got together. Seeing them next try to navigate coupledom makes for great drama -- and even more comedy.

Glee, too, is good fun, with the first season's final two episodes encoring back to back (Tuesday 8-10 p.m. ET, Fox). Sure, you'll catch up to the story, but you'll also get such must-see musical numbers as Queen's epic Bohemian Rhapsody.

Other encore finales this week include NCIS (Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, CBS), Fringe (Thursday 8-10 p.m. ET, Fox), and Grey's Anatomy (Thursday 9-11 p.m. ET, ABC).

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WATCH THIS: Star Trek is 44 years old

September 8, 2010 2:59 PM

Wow.

Watch the beginnings of Trekkie-dom.

I'm posting this video in honor of the show's 44th anniversary. Yep, Star Trek premiered on NBC Sept. 8, 1966.

The action takes place at a 1975 Star Trek convention - one of the first - but also perhaps one of the last for decades that featured appearances by all 7 core cast members of the 1966-69 Original Series.

The grainy 8mm film only adds to the retro feel. (This was long before home videotape.) So do the groovy clothes and shaggy hairstyles of cast members who look impossibly young here. (Compare this George Takei to the guy on the current Sharp LED TV commercials!)

How many people suspected that this middling-rated three-season series would spawn a billion-dollar empire still flying high nearly a half-century later?

Wow.

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DVD DEAL: Monty Python, Hugh Laurie

September 8, 2010 11:58 AM

Get with the Brits for Wednesday's deal during Amazon's big fall TV week of deeper tube discounts.

The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus 16 Ton Megaset drops to $35 -- not bad for 16 discs -- while Jeeves & Wooster delivers 23 episodes of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry for just $21.

The Monty box is the 2005 edition, slimmed down into a narrower slipcase, and also including Monty Python Live.

The Jeeves complete set is 2009's DVD release, on 8 discs, of the comedy team's 1990 take on the P.G. Wodehouse novels about a dim aristocrat (Laurie) and his quick-thinking valet (Fry).

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DVD DEAL: Take a 'Taxi'

September 7, 2010 9:54 AM

It's fall TV week at Amazon.com, so the tube deals just keep on comin' -- Tuesday it's Taxi, the complete series, five seasons, for $72.

That's less than $15 a season for Judd Hirsch, Andy Kaufman, Marilu Henner, Tony Danza, Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd's Rev. Jim, mainstays of quality TV before people even used the term.

The minds behind Taxi (1978-1983) would go on to give us Cheers, Frasier, The Tracey Ullman Show, The Simpsons, Newhart and other tube treats.

Also in Amazon's deal box Tuesday, but less worth watching, are the first 4 seasons of Happy Days for $50. Can you say "jump the shark"? (Actually, that's the first part of the fifth season.)

Taxi's $72 deal comes down from a list price of $180. Happy Days' list price is $125.

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DVD DEAL: Ken Burns for Labor Day

September 6, 2010 10:52 AM

Two of Ken Burns' PBS docu-classics are on sale as Amazon's Monday deal of the day -- The Civil War on DVD for $38 and The War on DVD for $50.

That's down from list prices of $100 for Burns' 1990 career-maker exploring the War Between the States and $130 for his 2007 look back at World War II.

Burns' latest work, The Tenth Inning, an update to his 1994 docuseries Baseball, debuts on PBS Sept. 28-29.

This new four-hour chapter covers the '90s to today, including the notorious steroid era.

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FLICK PICKS: 'The March of Time'

September 3, 2010 5:29 PM

In our instantaneous age, it's hard to imagine people getting their latest look at world news in movie theaters many days or even weeks later. But that was the norm during Hollywood's studio heyday, from the 1920s into the '50s.

Turner Classic Movies offers a great taste of old-time newsreels this weekend, saluting The March of Time for four hours (Sunday 8 p.m.-midnight ET).

TCM unreels restored versions of 10 chapters that premiered on movie theater screens between 1937 and 1950.

This most famous series of news-documentary short subjects is actually more like a newsweekly than a newspaper -- less a what-happened digest than a broader-perspective examination of topical subjects, from the Dust Bowl to World War II to Jews resettling in Palestine, even cultural trends like alcohol use or restless youth.

"Inside Nazi Germany" (Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET on TCM) may be the series' most celebrated episode, filmed in 1937 with hidden cameras in Berlin. It gave many Americans their first close-up look at an Adolf Hitler little understood in those pre-war years.

The entire documentary series, which ran in theaters 1935-1951, has been restored by HBO Archives (a fellow Time Warner company to TCM) in partnership with The Museum of Modern Art to celebrate the series' 75th anniversary.

There's lots more about it, including dozens of cool video clips, at the March of Time Facebook page.

TCM's website hosts its own storehouse of info about The March of Time. And here's the on-air lineup this Sunday, Sept. 5:

8 p.m.- "Dogs for Sale" (1937), "Dust Bowl" (1937), "Poland and War" (1937)
8:30 p.m. - "Inside Nazi Germany" (1938)
9 p.m. - "Show Business at War" (1943)
9:30 p.m. - "Youth in Crisis" (1943)
10 p.m. - "Palestine Problem" (1945)
10:30 p.m. - "American Beauty" (1945)
11 p.m. - "Problem Drinkers" (1946)
11:30 p.m. - "Mid-Century: Halfway to Where?" (1950)

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BUY THIS: Roku price drop for watching Netflix, Amazon, more

September 1, 2010 1:15 PM

[UPDATE 9/5/10 - Roku SD now seems to be out of stock. But the HD versions are great options at not much more money. You know you'll go HD eventually.]

If you read my July review of the Roku streaming video box that delivers Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand and dozens of other viewing choices, you may want to jump on a new price cut for the amazingly handy little box.

The Amazon deal of the day price I was touting back then has just been made the regular price for Roku's top-of-the-line HD-XR model. At $100 now, that's a $30 savings.

Roku's other two models have dropped in price, too. The plain HD player, which streams at wireless-G speed rather than the speedier wireless-N dual band, goes for $70 (was $100). The SD box for standard-def hookups is now $60 (was $80).

Click here for info/purchase on all three Roku models.

This is an especially great solution for that bedroom, office or kitchen, where you can't use or don't want a big component box. (The Roku box is smaller than the wireless router you will need to use it.)

Be aware that the streaming features once dominated by Roku are now available in the latest HDTVs, Blu-ray players and gaming systems, too. So if you're in the market to update one of those in the near future, you might not need Roku.

But this device is one of the easiest to hook up and use, and Roku is rapidly adding program providers to broaden its video (and audio) streaming selections.

We mostly use ours for Netflix, though -- unlimited streaming for a minimum $9 monthly subscription -- and we suspect that's what others do, too.

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GET REAL: 'Survivor' cast contract

September 1, 2010 11:36 AM

Here's a fascinating peek inside the "reality" TV world -- the cast contract and "rule book" agreed to by contestants on CBS' competition-genre granddaddy Survivor.

Andy Dehnart at RealityBlurred.com also reports this week on a CBS challenge to his posting of this hush-hush material.

A few Survivor contract highlights:

Contestants can't have their own web presence during competition, and preexisting sites must go "under construction." The network can register a web domain in the contestant's name "in perpetuity." Players can never write a book about their experience. (Yes, "never.") All family members have to sign their own agreements.

And you'll be shocked! shocked! to learn Survivor contestants have to allow themselves to be portrayed "with such liberties and modifications as CBS determines necessary," including "fictionalization" and "dramatization" of themselves, perhaps to "humorous or satirical effect" or "an unfavorable light."

Take a look, and see why it's always "reality" TV to me.

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