Posted Feb 8th 2010 11:00AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: 24, Ratings, TV Squad Lists, Emmys, Reality-Free
What is going on with Jack Bauer? Have you been watching '24' this season, the first time set in New York City? There were high expectations that this might be the best season yet for
'24' because we'd be seeing a lean, mean, older Jack who has been through the wringer and knows all the tricks and turns of the business. Comparisons were made to Jason Bourne, but with the Bauer edge.
Unfortunately, we're not seeing the vim and vigor of
'The Bourne Identity' or any of the other Bourne pictures. We're not even seeing the quality of
'24' from seasons past. Instead, '24' has turned into something else entirely -- an empty shell of its former self. It's time to call it a day for '24.' The show has definitely jumped the you-know-what.
Continue reading Six Reasons Why '24' Has Jumped the You-Know-What
Posted Feb 5th 2010 1:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, Emmys, Reality-Free
When I was working the
TCA beat on the west coast last month, I had a bit of cognitive dissonance when NBC aired the
Golden Globes live at 5 PM. I watched it with a bunch of critics in a conference room we reserved for the purpose, then watched the rest in my room. After Ricky Gervais bid everyone goodnight, I started stretching and thinking it was time for bed, like I do at the end of every grueling award-show watching experience I ever had.
Then I turned and saw the clock: It was 8 PM. I could have gone for dinner and come back and still had time to work before calling it a night. It was disconcerting and refreshing all at once.
NBC is hoping people have that same experience with the Emmys on August 29, as they're toying with the idea of dumping the west coast tape delay and
broadcasting the ceremony live across the country, according to Broadcasting & Cable.
Continue reading NBC Wants to Dump Emmy West Coast Tape Delay
Posted Jan 31st 2010 1:29PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Celebrities, Awards, Casting, Emmys, Reality-Free
You could say that most people's interest in a
new comedy from Friends' star Matthew Perry called Mr. Sunshine, would be pretty high. He's a popular actor.
Friends was a popular show. People reacted favorably to Courteney Cox's new comedy
Cougar Town... You see where I'm going here.
Well, the interest meter just moved up considerably because
West Wing Emmy-winner
Allison Janney will co-star with Matthew in Mr. Sunshine.
Mr. Sunshine is an ABC pilot they'll be filming, and it's about a guy who reaches his 40th birthday and wonders if he can continue just getting by on his charm and nonchalant style.
Mr. Sunshine is set in San Diego, where Perry's character manages an aging stadium. Janney is playing Crystal Cohen, the lady in charge of the place. That's right; she's Matthew's boss.
Continue reading Allison Janney joins Matthew Perry's Mr. Sunshine
Posted Jan 25th 2010 1:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, The Office, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, 30 Rock, Ratings, Judges, TV Squad Lists, Emmys, Reality-Free, Modern Family
A couple of weeks ago, Kona wrote about the campaign to convince
ABC to save Better Off Ted. Despite these grassroots efforts, the rating for
Ted continue to be dismal and ABC probably has "cancel
Better Off Ted" on the corporate to-do list.
That's a shame, because the more I watch of
Better Off Ted, the better I think it is. Smart, funny, observant and surreal,
Ted is an office comedy that makes deserves to survive. If more people gave it a shot, I think it would be a success. Maybe not a monster hit, but there aren't many of those in the sitcom field right now. Emmy winner
30 Rock is anything but a ratings hit.
Continue reading Five keys to saving Better Off Ted
Posted Jan 13th 2010 8:33PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Celebrities, Casting, Emmys, Reality-Free
Daytime soaps have always had a sketchy history when it comes to life and death. In short, like science fiction and fantasy, death is not a finality. Soap characters can return from the dead, not really have been dead at all, reappear as missing twins, turn out to have been victim of a coffin switch, and if all else fails, death become a way to bring a character back as a ghost or guardian angel. All that is part of Soaps 101, a college course taught at most universities today, I believe.
That was a long introduction to reveal that fan fave and multiple Emmy winner
Cady McClain is returning to All My Children. Cady was more recently on
As the World Turns as Rosanna, but left about a month ago when her story line wrapped. That means she was free to sign up with another soap and ABC came a callin' for the actress.
Continue reading Cady McClain returning to All My Children
Posted Jan 11th 2010 7:54PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, TV on DVD, Emmys
The best thing about making fun of the daily failings of celebrities and other public figures, as is Kathy Griffin's bread and butter, is that you can write a new act every few weeks. Griffin's Bravo special,
She'll Cut A Bitch, originally aired in April of 2009, and comes out uncensored with a few extra routines (about 12 minutes total) on DVD January 12.
She also released a CD last November, called
Suckin' It For the Holidays, which had almost nothing to do with the holidays. There was very little overlap between the special and CD. Griffin has released a steady stream of specials for the past several years, in addition to shooting her reality show,
My Life on the D-List.
Continue reading Kathy Griffin's She'll Cut A Bitch on DVD
Posted Jan 11th 2010 7:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Emmys, Breaking Bad, Reality-Free
On March 21,
Breaking Bad is back. That's right, AMC is bringing back one of the best dramas on television that's not
Mad Men when
Breaking Bad returns for Season Three with an episode starring and directed by Emmy-winner Bryan Cranston.
The episode, "No Mas," means "No More" in Spanish and it will be interesting to see how creator Vince Gilligan picks up the threads from the Season Two finale. For fans of the show, that means we're finally going to know what's happened to Walter during and after the plane crash. That's just an assumption because when it comes to
Breaking Bad, you're never truly sure what's going to happen next.
Continue reading Breaking Bad returns in March
Posted Jan 8th 2010 1:15PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Casting, Weeds, Emmys, Reality-Free, Nurse Jackie
When I first heard the title of Laura Linney's new show for Showtime, I thought it was going to be something salacious. Well, I was wrong. It's about cancer. And now
Showtime has greenlit The Big C, placing an order for 13 episodes.
The title, actually, is altered from the original announcement. Instead of
The C-Word, it's now
The Big C. Linney's character is a wife and mother who is diagnosed with cancer and her life is dramatically altered.
That sounds like a simple -- perhaps obvious -- situation. However, cancer is something that has touched nearly everybody's life in some way and
The Big C should have instant universal appeal.
Continue reading Laura Linney's The Big C gets Showtime pickup
Posted Jan 1st 2010 5:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Video, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
On soaps, every now and then the powers that be -- usually the head writer who's overdosed on Red Bull and jelly beans months before -- comes up with the idea of doing a special episode. They'll focus on a single character and think outside the box. Sometimes they hit the jackpot; sometimes they create a clunker.
The Young and the Restless offered a very special New Year's Eve episode yesterday and it was a home run.
Headwriter Maria Arena Bell and her talented team, including
Hogan Sheffer, decided to put the character of Billy Abbott under the microscope and, as it turned out,
Y&R pulled off a great episode.
It wouldn't have worked nearly as well if not for the riveting performance of actor Billy Miller. He rose to the occasion and this could be an award-winner if it's submitted for the next round of Daytime Emmys. If you haven't seen it yet or it's in your DVR waiting to be viewed, be warned that there are SPOILERS ahead.
Continue reading The Young and the Restless serves up a winner
Posted Jan 1st 2010 11:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Battlestar Galactica, Grey's Anatomy, Celebrities, Awards, TV Squad Lists, Damages, Emmys, Reality-Free
More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about the best dramatic actresses of the decade.
Television has always been good to the ladies. Actresses have flourished in dramatic series, and in the past decade, we've seen some amazing performances. There have been lawyers, cops, a U.S. president, nurses, doctors, judges, mothers, daughters and even a real housewife from New Jersey whose husband was in the waste disposal business.
Many of these women have already been honored with Emmys and Golden Globes... and now they get the recognition of TV Squad.
Here, then, without further vamping, the best dramatic actresses of the past ten years:
Continue reading Best TV of the '00s: Dramatic Actress
Posted Dec 25th 2009 2:08PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, CSI, Video, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
Have you received all your Christmas gifts? Would you like one more? Okay, here it is, when
Burn Notice returns for the winter season on January 21, the first episode will include guest star Tyne Daly. That's right, Tyne will be reuniting with her
Cagney & Lacey co-star
Sharon Gless. This is will be the first of seven new
Burn Notices till next summer.
There's another
Cagney & Lacey story in the news.
CSI creator Anthony Zuiker wants to revive the show for CBS. For those who don't recall,
Cagney & Lacey was the top female cop drama of the 1980's -- actually of all time. It was a serious police drama, unlike something jiggly like
Charlie's Angels or safe and pedestrian like
Police Woman.
Continue reading Cagney and Lacey reunite on first Burn Notice of 2010
Posted Dec 21st 2009 2:29PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
The Emmys have been the reigning king of awarding television excellence and snubbing true television excellence since the dawn of the medium.
Many have tried to topple the immovable giant, but none have succeeded. That doesn't mean no one is willing to still try.
The Paley Center for Media is shopping their own television awards show to the networks.
So far, none of the networks have made an official deal and the Center denies that their show is attempting to knock Emmy off the face of the Earth, but the timing seems to suggest otherwise. The Emmys' deal with the network runs out next year and has grown tired of its stale ratings and favoritism towards the cable shows. Well maybe if the networks stopped airing the Emmys, they would have more time for shows that are actually good.
Posted Dec 20th 2009 9:24AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Industry, Programming, OpEd, Lost, Celebrities, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Ratings, NCIS, TV Squad Lists, Emmys, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Burn Notice, The Big Bang Theory, Parks and Recreation, Nurse Jackie, Glee, Community, Cougar Town, Modern Family
What a year! Once we got over the WGA strike, the networks kicked it into high gear and got busy making TV. Except for NBC. Even
Jeff Zucker has admitted that NBCU has failed to respond to the need for new programming.
Fortunately, the other channels have been busy and there's been a lot of great television... and some that's just plain awful. But I'm a half-glass full kind of person and I have good feelings about 2009. However,
since I don't want to repeat my list from last year, I'll just mention that I could put these 2008 best choices --
Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, NCIS, The Big Bang Theory and
Mad Men -- on my list again. But I'm going to go for an all new list and, thankfully, I had plenty of 'bests' to choose from.
Best
1. Glee. If there was ever a show that was made just for my personal taste, this is probably it. I love the singing and dancing. I get the characters. It even tickles me that I had just as much angst with bullies in high school as these kids. Every episode hasn't been perfect, but it's perfectly fine that they keep striving.
Continue reading Best and Worst TV of 2009: Allison's list
Posted Dec 16th 2009 10:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, House, Festivus, Celebrities, Friday Night Lights, TV Squad Lists, Emmys, Breaking Bad, Reality-Free, Mad Men, The Big Bang Theory, Glee
On the eighth day of Festivus, TV gave to me ... eight stars a shinin'!
There are a lot more than eight wonderful stars shining in the TV pantheon for 2009, but these eight are a remarkable bunch who have been exemplary this past year. They've left us with memories that'll last long after this Festivus has ended. So, in no special order, here are the eight stars a shining from the year gone by.
1. Jane Lynch. If the Emmy doesn't already have Jane Lynch's name engraved in a statuette for
Glee, it will by the time the awards are handed out. Lynch has been the perfect villain, the villain you love to hate. But if she were just a one-note nasty, it wouldn't work. Lynch has shown the other side of Sue Sylvester. Her "swing" date showed Sue in love, and her visit to her sister Jean was a soft earthquake emotion. Jane delivers week in and week out. Her star is glowing.
Continue reading The Twelve Days of Festivus: Eight stars a shinin'
Posted Dec 1st 2009 1:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Video, Celebrities, Emmys, Reality-Free
Where has the time gone? Is it really
20 years that Peter Bergman's played Jack Abbott on
The Young and the Restless? Amazing, but true. Not only has Bergman been tearing it up as Jack for two decades, he's pretty much eradicated the memory of his tenure on
All My Children where he was nice guy, Dr. Cliff Warner. Say what you will about Jack, he's not a nice guy. He can have his good moments, but this character is too complicated, too selfish, too diabolical ever to be confused with a noble man like Cliff.
Which is what has made Peter Bergman's time on
Y&R so remarkable! The character had been so sharply defined by Terry Lester that it was going to be tough for any actor to take over the part.
Continue reading Peter Bergman celebrates 20 years on The Young and the Restless
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Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on 'Faces of America' and the Beer Summit
Six Reasons Why '24' Has Jumped the You-Know-What
The Super Bowl Commercials: The Best
