FOX-related stories
Posted May 29th 2009 12:18AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Episode Reviews
(S05E03) L.A. saw Adam Shankman joining the esteemed Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy. At one point he was coaxed onto stage to perform with one of the would-be contestants, where he proved that he can still hoof it. As a bonus treat, we got to see several of the finalists from last season, including winner Joshua and runner-up Katee, critique him and give him a ticket straight through to Vegas. It was a fun diversion from the true auditions.
Mia Michaels, who showed up in Seattle, is one of the most brilliant choreographers on the show, bringing some of the most exciting contemporary routines we've seen. Which reminds me that I want to see more contemporary dancers lift their left leg instead of their right one. Just mix it up people. You can do it.
Continue reading So You Think You Can Dance: Los Angeles and Seattle Auditions
Posted May 28th 2009 2:27PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants
If the reports coming from the
Arkansas Democrat Gazette are true, maybe the news that we had yesterday about
American Idol voting irregularities is meatier than we thought. One fan that says she voted for Kris Allen over 10,000 times.
It's also interesting that
Idol rules state that power texting, the kind of texting that AT&T reps showed Kris Allen fans how to do, is
against the rules. Isn't there some sort of built-in safety net for the voting? How can one fan vote over 10,000 times for one person? Shouldn't it be one person, one vote? Or one household, one vote? Or maybe one phone number, one vote? I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with the results. I have no idea. But it does seem that a better system could be in place.
Posted May 28th 2009 11:33AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, 24, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
Freddie Prinze Jr.
will be joining the cast of 24 for the eighth season as a recently-returned marine and Jack Bauer-wannabe named Davis Cole. I think this is an example of Fox either wanting to expand or continue the franchise without Kiefer Sutherland.
Think about it. Sutherland is only getting older. He can't be Jack Bauer forever. Prinze is a younger, recognizable face (much as all of us want to forget the
Scooby Doo movie franchise). This could be the set-up for one of three things: the retirement of Jack Bauer from
24, a spin-off series, or an opportunity to have more negotiating power for Kiefer Sutherland's next contract renewal. It could even be a combination of the three.
So the question to ask is: could the series continue without Jack Bauer, or would that be the beginning of the end? Since the name of the show is
24 and not
Jack Bauer, I would think so.
Posted May 28th 2009 8:08AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Celebrities, Casting, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Reality-Free, Dollhouse
I'm not sure how many people watched both
Dollhouse and
The Sarah Connor Chronicles, though both were on Friday nights at the end, so they probably had a lot of fans in common. If you were a fan of the latter show, this news might ease the pain of knowing that show will not be returning in the fall.
Joss Whedon tells Michael Ausiello that Summer Glau, who played Cameron on
The Sarah Connor Chronicles, is going to be on
Dollhouse!
Continue reading Joss Whedon plans to put Summer Glau on Dollhouse
Posted May 25th 2009 12:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Reality-Free
When it comes to
Family Guy, I really tried. I honestly gave it my best shot. I watched the Sunday episodes, the late night reruns on Adult Swim, and even some of the DVDs from my college-aged brother's collection, including the famed feature-length
Star Wars parody. I watched until my eyes started planning a prison break from my skull.
I wanted to like it. It's goofy, occasionally satirical and completely unafraid to be silly and bat#*$& crazy. Alas, I couldn't take it. I didn't find it funny or entertaining. The jumps to the pop culture flashbacks made the whole thing disjointed and screwed up the continuity. The characters are as two-dimensional as the paper the Korean sweatshop animators draw on for each episode. The way the show just drags on certain jokes is downright irritating. We get it. Peter hurt his knee jumping out of
The A-Team van. A prom night dumpster baby musical number would be hilariously tragic. It's the one and only time I ever rooted for Cartman in an episode of
South Park.
That doesn't mean the show's creator deserves the same contempt.
Continue reading Is it possible to hate Family Guy but still like Seth MacFarlane?
Posted May 25th 2009 10:00AM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Early Looks, Reality-Free
During the pilot episode of the new FOX drama
Mental, Annabella Sciorra's Dr. Nora Skoff tells Chris Vance's Dr. Jack Gallagher that his recent decision to strip down butt-naked to help a patient deserves some of her Harvard business school advice - ask for royalties because the video of it is sure to be more popular than Paris Hilton's sex tape. To that, I offer some insight from a Syracuse University TV production graduate - there's a reason FOX held off on premiering
Mental until the summer. It's not very good.
Continue reading Mental -- An early look
Posted May 22nd 2009 12:27PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: American Idol, Celebrities, Contestants, Alumni
I am not going to pay $29.95 a year to read the blog entries of Clay Aiken. So I'm glad that someone else does and can post the following quote from Aiken. Guess the
American Idol runner-up isn't a fan of another runner-up, Adam Lambert.
I couldn't be happier with the way AI ended this year. I only turn the show on once a season and only to see what the set looks like. This year, I happened to turn it on during the minute that Adam Lambert was singing "Ring of Fire," and, at that moment, thought my ears would bleed. Contrived, awful, and slightly frightening! I wasn't really a fan and found myself surprised whenever folks told me that they liked him.
Gawker has more.
Idol fans, discuss.
Posted May 22nd 2009 10:14AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: American Idol, Subtle Subtitles, Reality-Free
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption!
Last week we had a picture from the crazy season finale of
Lost. Our winner is
Ryan, with this caption:
"Sorry Ben, but the tribe has spoken and you're voted off the island."
This week it's a picture from the equally crazy finale of
American Idol, with Adam Lambert and friends.
Posted May 22nd 2009 9:05AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: American Idol, Watercooler Talk, Ratings, Judges
The week before the
American Idol gigantic-mahunga-godzilla two-hour-plus finale aired, Simon Cowell predicted it would be a
"ding-dong finale." Of course, that brilliant prognostication was hype personified, but Simon did his job. The finale drew 28.8 million viewers. Ironically, the buzz in the biz when those figures were revealed skewed it as a bad thing.
It was the lowest-rated American Idol finale ever. But it still drew a tremendous amount of eyeballs, so why is it being characterized as a flop?
The answer is simply this:
American Idol is competing with itself. It's expected to exceed its highs year after year, and generally speaking in television, that just doesn't happen. Older shows decline, and yes, even superhits like American Idol can't stay on top forever. Look at
ER or
CSI.
Continue reading American Idol's finale was a flop?
Posted May 20th 2009 1:05PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, Video, Upfronts, Reality-Free
Past Life is another new show that
FOX has coming next season, and it looks like a cross between a
Ghost Whisperer/
Medium-type drama (someone seeing visions of...something, maybe a past life or visions of death) and a
Bones-like investigation drama (a man and woman team trading barbs while investigating a crime). Add a dash of
Cold Case and you get
Past Life. This clip has lots of close-ups of dogs growling and lunging and hands coming toward us. Not sure if it's one mystery (the teen who has visions) or a new case every week. I think the latter.
Posted May 19th 2009 7:26PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, Pickups and Renewals, Upfronts, Reality-Free
I liked the
original version of The Human Target in the 90s. It starred Rick Springfield and looked a little more sci-fi-ish than this
new version with Mark Valley. It's going to be on Wednesday nights at 9 starting next year. Here's a sneak peek. I'm assuming that this train is only in one episode. Otherwise it looks like they dusted off
Supertrain and shipped it to FOX.
Posted May 19th 2009 3:18PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, Video, Pickups and Renewals, Upfronts, Reality-Free
I'll admit that it looks like Tyler Labine is doing his best Jack Black in this clip from the new FOX sitcom
Sons of Tucson, but you know what? It actually looks like a cute, funny show. The premise seems a little far-fetched (at least one stretched to season length and not just one episode or one movie), but I'm going to check this out.
So
what does this mean for Reaper?
Posted May 19th 2009 9:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Early Looks, Reality-Free
If you heard about Fox's new musical drama/comedy
Glee and thought it's probably going to be something like
Disney's High School Musical, you're wrong. Gleefully wrong.
Glee is one of the best entertainments I've seen on television in a long, long time.
Writer/producer/director Ryan Murphy describes the show as a hybrid, and he's right. It is. For me, I saw elements of the movie
Election, plus
Fame and
Friday Night Lights, with a bit of
The Wonder Years thrown in, only it's not nostalgia.
Glee is all the best parts of all the above, plus music and dancing and great characters and really witty material.
Continue reading Glee -- An early look
Posted May 18th 2009 11:59PM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: OpEd, 24, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Episode Recaps
(S07E23/S07E24) "You don't know what I've done." - Jack
When 24 first premiered back in 2001, we were all taken off guard. It was so different, innovative, and action packed - like nothing we'd seen on TV ever before. But do you remember why it worked so well? Sure, there was a vast conspiracy that enshrouded the whole day in darkness, but for the most part, it was all about Jack and his family. The Bauers were what made Day 1 so memorable.
You felt horrible when Jack held Teri's lifeless body in those final seconds, and it was because the season focus was weighted towards them and not Drazen or Nina. Because of that formula, the show took off and with each season from then on, 24 became bigger than itself and so did the conspiracies. Then the bubble burst with Day 6 when it all came crashing down - we'd seen enough nukes, bio-pathogens, and Middle Eastern terrorists. The difference? All of that became more important than Jack. After Day 7's stellar finale, I think we can all agree that 24 has found its roots again.
Continue reading 24: 6:00AM - 7:00AM / 7:00AM - 8:00AM (season finale)
Posted May 18th 2009 4:25PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Music and Variety, Reality-Free
When you write about the television business, one of the little perks is
receiving the press kit for a new or returning program. Occasionally, some little trinket will be included -- Kona got a whistle for
Sit Down, Shut Up, there was a tee-shirt with
My Boys -- but for the most part, the thing you remember about a press kit ultimately is the show.
When the press kit for
Glee arrived, it made me laugh. The package was like a long, CD box (remember those?), all in red and looking like a typical high school locker. It even had a combination lock, which gave me the willies as I recalled the apprehension I had that first day in school when I wasn't sure I'd remember the combination in time to make it to home room! There was also a small mirror on the left side -- which I guess qualifies as a trinket -- and it caught my smile in its reflection.
Continue reading Press Kits Unwrapped: Glee
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