Posted Aug 20th 2008 11:05AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Pickups and Renewals, Casting
Personally, I don't think it's fair that some of these Hollywood folks get to just keep on making television shows. Especially the ones who don't age like the rest of us. I mean, what if I was waiting for Valerie Bertinelli to get too old for television? Or John Stamos, or Michael J. Fox? These people never look any older. I think they've found the Tuck's secret spring and have been sipping it for decades. In the end, there can be only one and my money's on Dick Clark. I think he
is one of the Tucks.
Bertinelli has just been signed to star in a TBS sitcom as a mother of two. Good lord,
One Day at a Time was more than thirty years ago! By my estimations that would make her ... let's see, she was a teenager then ... yes I know you can find her birthday easy enough online ... cross-reference how much hotter she was than Mackenzie Phillips ... then carry Schneider's creepy factor of 9.5 and you get ... one hundred and thirty two years old! Amazing! She doesn't look a day over forty-eight. I've gotta find that spring.
Posted Aug 15th 2008 8:04AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Programming, OpEd, Video, Reality-Free
After years of reaching US audiences as only a series of forwarded video clips and teh internetz, the original Channel 4 British sitcom
The IT Crowd is finally coming to American TV. The IFC Channel has picked up the series and will begin airing it September 29.
I had to make an extra point to specify that this is the UK
IT Crowd and not the NBC remake starring original cast member Richard Ayoade and Joel McHale. No, no, that project is still dead. As much as I love Ayoade and McHale, I couldn't help but feel a little relieved that the show didn't take off. I'd rather get my fix from
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and
The Soup than see them attempt to tip-toe through that dangerous territory of American remakes.
Continue reading Original IT Crowd finally comes to America - VIDEO
Posted Aug 13th 2008 9:01AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Programming, OpEd, Ugly Betty, Reality-Free
This seems like an odd one.
ABC is bringing the 2002
Jennifer Lopez movie
Maid in Manhattan to the small screen.
I'm a sucker for romantic comedies, and I actually liked the movie (probably one of the few who did). But even I think it's a weird project to be
adapting into a TV series.
The movie features Lopez as Marisa Ventura, a struggling single mom from the Bronx who works as a maid at a posh Manhattan hotel.
Ralph Fiennes plays a rising politician who mistakes her for a wealthy socialite. They fall in love, yada, yada, yada. Those two stars had very little chemistry (and yet I still liked the movie).
Continue reading Maid heads to ABC: Are there no new ideas in Hollywood?
Posted Aug 13th 2008 8:02AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Video, Reality-Free
The script for the
IT Crowd's third season has just been completed, and folks from the show are looking for some help to
dress up the set. Calling all geeks with decent knowledge in pop culture! If you've never seen the show before, it's basically the geekiest show about IT guys in the history of British programming. "Did you turn it off and on?" is a recurring joke, so that should say enough.
Continue reading Add some geek love to the IT Crowd set - VIDEO
Posted Aug 12th 2008 2:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Video, Short-Lived Shows, Reality-Free
I have a special place in my heart for syndicated comedies. I don't really know what it is, because a lot of them can be quite terrible, but I seem to like them more than the next person. Maybe it's the fact that I watched a lot of them as a kid and that has stuck with me. You don't really get syndicated comedies that much anymore, but here's one I remember fondly from the mid-80s.
It was called
Throb, and it was about the goings-on at an indie record label. It focused mostly on a single mom, played by Diana Canova, who was cute and always good in everything she did. I can't remember one single plot from the show, other than the basic plot that ran throughout the whole show, Canova's attempt to juggle being a single mom and also running a business (and dealing with the cast of characters at the label, of course).
Continue reading Short-Lived Shows: Throb - VIDEO
Posted Aug 11th 2008 3:27PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Celebrities, Casting
Most people don't turn in to Fine Living Network for laughs, but all that's about to change on
September 16, at least for as long as a new comedy series called Whatever, Martha! runs. Imagine, if you will, an entire clip show culled from
The Martha Stewart Show.
Now, picture a couple of chicks sitting around and making fun of said clips. That's the concept for
Whatever, Martha!, and if this idea reminds you of
Mystery Science Theater 3000 -- sans puppets -- that's a good thing.
Fine Living has gotten Martha's blessing for the show. Heck, she's leading the laughs by allowing the clips to be used. Also the two women who'll be presenting the show and mocking her every half-hour are close to her: Alexis Stewart, her daughter, and Jennifer Koppelman Hutt, whose father -- Charles Koppelman -- is the chairman of Martha's media empire.
So, this is all in the family for the Stewart camp, and whatever jokes, cracks and observations made by the women will be with the Martha Stewart seal of approval.
Continue reading Did you hear the one about Martha Stewart?
Posted Aug 9th 2008 12:01PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Casting, Reality-Free
When Johnny Galecki joined the cast of
Roseanne to be the love interest for the dour Darlene (Sara Gilbert), I thought they had a wonderful chemistry together. In fact, it was his turn on that show that lead to me ever even tuning into his new hit show
The Big Bang Theory. Well, that and the fact that it was populated with people who reminded me more of myself and many of my college friends than I should probably admit.
It was quite a treat when Gilbert appeared in three episodes throughout the last season as acerbic Leslie Winkle, intellectual equal to Galecki's Leonard, and just as socially out there. The chemistry between the two was immediate, and I found the dominance she established in their relationship to be a blast. The fact that this nerdy chick was more alpha male than any of the four male leads in the series is brilliant. So
Sara Gilbert joining the cast of The Big Bang Theory as a series regular is a great move for the show.
Continue reading Theory has it that Sara Gilbert is a good fit for Big Bang
Posted Aug 8th 2008 2:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Casting, Reality-Free
Okay, you know how on
How I Met Your Mother there's a big, ongoing story about who is actually the mother? Well, I think CBS has spilled some of that storyline over to
Two and a Half Men, the show that usually is paired with
HIMYM on Monday nights. Why do I say this? Because they seemed to have cast a mother!
Actress
Rena Sofer has been cast on Two and a Half Men as someone who played a significant role in Charlie's life and she comes back into it on September 22, the season opener. She brings along a child when she returns, a little boy -- her son -- who may have some connection to Charlie.
Now, the connection hasn't been spelled out, but if he has an affinity for booze, plays the piano, wears bowling shirts and chases little girls, you can bet he's Charlie's child. Of course, the writers will probably be more subtle, but this would be an interesting wrinkle in the show if that's the direction in which they're going.
Continue reading Rena Sofer booked on Two and a Half Men
Posted Aug 7th 2008 4:22PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Hell has officially frozen over. A DVD I expected never to exist finally has. The complete series of the television show
Quark is being released on DVD this coming October. This lost icon from the 1977-78 season was created by
Get Smart co-creator Buck Henry and lasted a grand total of eight episodes.
The show stars Richard Benjamin as the captain of a garbage-hauling spaceship who yearns to be given more important duties. The show is pretty much a satire of
Star Trek and parodies the standard plot devices of sci-fi television and movies up to that time (such as the concept of "evil" parallel universes). Conrad Janis (of
Mork and Mindy fame) is particularly funny as Otto Palindrome.
The show didn't last that long, but thanks to the Internet
fan sites of the show have sprung up enough to likely garner the attention of some executive looking to make some easy money (note I didn't say a quick Buck. That would have been too easy). Had it been made today...well, it probably still would have been canceled (particularly if it was on Fox), but the DVD release would have happened much sooner.
Posted Aug 5th 2008 4:22PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
First they
changed the title from Project Gary to Gary Unmarried, and now we have another change coming to Jay Mohr's new
CBS sitcom.
Ed Begley, Jr. has been cast as the therapist who treated Mohr and his ex-wife, played by Paula Marshall. The role of the therapist in the pilot was played by comic Larry Miller, who just did a guest turn on
Burn Notice (maybe this will give him time for more appearances on that show).
Continue reading Another change for Jay Mohr's new show
Posted Aug 5th 2008 1:20PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Industry, Programming, Boston Legal, CSI, Desperate Housewives, ER, House, Law and Order, Rescue Me, The Shield, The Simpsons, Smallville, Grey's Anatomy, Family Guy, Entourage, Prison Break, My Name Is Earl, Bones, Supernatural, Numb3rs, Criminal Minds, How I Met Your Mother, King of the Hill, The Office, Dancing With The Stars, 30 Rock, Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters, NCIS, Damages, Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Private Practice, Life, Dirty Sexy Money, Samantha Who?, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Lipstick Jungle, Eli Stone, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl
It's coming. The table is set, the players are on the field, the sails are raised, and the pretty maids are all in a row. Of course, I speak of the 2008-09 television schedule. In just a few short weeks viewers will be able to dine on a number of favorite and new dishes that are being served by the networks as well as the increasing number of cable channels who are delving into original programming.
While other fall seasons have come and gone with nary a whimper, this season may be different. Due to the prolonged Writers Strike many shows ended their seasons quite early. Programs like Life, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, and Heroes haven't aired original episodes since the end of 2007. Heck, there hasn't been a new episode of The Shield since June of last year! So, the beginning of the 2008-09 season will be a second chance for some of these shows, particularly the ones that premiered last season, to show their worth to fans and the networks.
Continue reading TV Squad presents the 2008-09 fall schedule
Posted Aug 5th 2008 8:38AM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
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(
S01E08) Like so many of the episodes this season, this one felt too short. The show is good but when it feels too short, it often feels underdeveloped too. Despite the lack of development in places, Belle did get some closure. And I think it's pretty obvious that closure in a season finale is important. I, for one, was glad to see her satisfied with her situation at the end.
Tonight Belle tried her hand at being a courtesan. Wow, semantics makes all the difference, huh? There's your street-walking hookers, your pimped out prostitutes, high class escorts, and your professional courtesans. As she explained how courtesans were different than even highly paid call girls like herself, I thought of one of her very first asides on
Secret Diary of a Call Girl. In the season premiere Belle told us that it didn't matter which way you slice it or what you call it, she gets paid to have sex.
Continue reading Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Episode 1-08 (season finale)
Posted Aug 5th 2008 7:33AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Weeds, Reaper, Reality-Free, Mad Men
Hey, let's all mark our calendars, because it's a big day in the TV world. Now all the people who aren't watching
According to Jim on TV can
not watch it on DVD.
Season one of the
ABC comedy (it's a comedy, right?) will be released on Oct. 21, 2008. It's part of a deal ABC Studios inked with Lionsgate Home Entertainment to distribute select titles on DVD. Season one of
Reaper is next on Nov. 4, followed by
Boy Meets World (which was
discontinued in 2006),
Hope and Faith, and
8 Simple Rules.
That's interesting, because I've got Season one of
8 Simple Rules here (no, I didn't buy it, a publicist sent it to me), and it's from Buena Vista Home Entertainment. So Lionsgate must be taking over distribution.
Continue reading According to Jim on DVD. Yippee.
Posted Aug 5th 2008 5:07AM by Paul Goebel
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Reality-Free, Stump the King
This week, I got a question from Jonathan Myers that reads...
"There was a short lived television show in the late 60's or early 70's - sitcom - where the characters dressed in dog outfits. Part of me thinks it was related to Rob Reiner? Any idea what show this is?"
Well, after scouring my memory and doing a little research, I was able to dig up some info on an unsold pilot called McGurk.
Continue reading Stump the King - Barney Martin
Posted Jul 31st 2008 3:20PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Reality-Free
I'm surprised that someone hasn't thought of this before.
The owners of the Quality Foods supermarkets are now the owners of
the boat used on Gilligan's Island. The company plans to send the boat on a promotional tour for Quality Foods, and might even get Dawn Wells (Mary Ann on the show) and Russell Johnson (The Professor) to take part in the event.
Continue reading How would you like a ride on the S.S. Minnow?
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Giveaway Monday: Transformers Animated - season one
Giveaway Monday: Dexter season two
