TVSquad

The Golden Globes has always been my favorite awards show. the stripped-down presentation and the giant bottles of champagne on the tables make for a decidedly non-tedious and drunken affair. Plus, the Hollywood Foreign Press can only be taken so seriously, which makes for some delightful acceptance speeches. My favorite from last night was probably Tina Fey's speech for her Best Actress in a Comedy win.

It was short, sweet, to the point, and most importantly, it was funny. When Fey called out the internet commenters who have given her grief over the past year, I, like most people assumed she was making up screennames for effect. Well, it turns out that "Dianefan" and "BabsonLacrosse" are actually real people who had not-too-nice things to say about the erstwhile 30 Rock star and Sarah Palin impersonator.

The Emmy nominations won't be announced until July 17, but we can tell you right now without a doubt that Ugly Betty's Rebecca Romijn will not be among the outstanding supporting actress in a comedy category at the Emmys. No, we're not psychic. It's just that her spokesman has confirmed that her name was never actually submitted. DOH! And why was that, you wonder. No good reason, said her rep, "It was an oversight."

According to L.A. Times' Tom O'Neil, this isn't really that far-fetched an occurrence. Tim Allen, at the height of his Home Improvement success, missed a chance for an Emmy nomination when somebody fumbled the ball. The next year, his paperwork was hand-delivered, accompanied by the University of Southern California marching band.

Romijn's omission -- on the surface -- looks like a mistake. Yes, it's true that her status on the show is going from series regular to recurring, but I don't believe she purposely kept her name out of the running to in some way act out in protest against the show. It makes no sense? How is she hurting Ugly Betty by not getting an Emmy nomination? No, this was a screw up, nothing more.

What a difference 24 hours make. Yesterday, it looked like fans of Jericho might have been successful in their campaign to resurrect the canceled show. Today, it looks like they really are successful. Both Variety and the LA Times are reporting that CBS is in hurried negotiations with producers, writers and actors to resuscitate the show for an eight episode run, to return mid-season.

"The idea would not be to bring it back for eight and out, but to bring it back for eight with the hope that it would keep going," executive producer Carol Barbee told the LA Times. Barbee also said that when the fans initially responded to the cancellation, CBS suggested a two-hour movie to wrap up the series. But Barbee said 'no', because that wouldn't do justice to the series.

Barbee also makes an excellent point about the way networks are going to have to start looking at ratings. She says, they're going to need to consider online fan communities and online viewings and, "I think they have to understand that the Nielsens are not telling the story anymore." The networks need to find the coveted 18-49 demographic by going online. I thought they had figured that out by putting so many shows online, but apparently CBS wasn't taking that online community seriously.

**UPDATE: CBS officially announces Jericho is back... for seven episodes. The full letter is in comments (Thanks, Mark!)

When someone remakes a TV show or a movie, they often go more serious or darker. Is it because producers and directors feel they have to go "serious" to justify a remake? Do we live in more cynical times? Do the producers feel that they can't make a quality show that also happens to be light?

Kenneth Johnson, the creator of the original Bionic Woman series in the '70s (a spinoff of The Six Million Dollar Man), tells the L.A. Times that he's worried about the remake. I guess I would, too, if an NBC exec called my show "kind of cheesy." Although Johnson has been impressed with the work of producer David Eick on Battlestar Galactica, he's not so sure they're doing the right thing with the remake of his show.

Interesting post by Tom O'Neil over at his LA Times blog. O'Neil is the guy you see on many of the awards shows, especially the Emmys, giving his analysis and predictions. He worked with Joan and Melissa quite a bit, and knows why they were let go by the TV Guide Channel. And it didn't have anything to do with money.

The reason? Entourage (and not the HBO show). I guess the two women have too many people around them and it got to be more of a hassle than it was worth to the network.

O'Neil also says that Joan and Melissa are a lot nicer and more generous than they've been made out to be. He also reveals that several producers at the TV Guide Channel wish they had been kept on (the same with E! execs, because Star Jones drove them nuts on the red carpet). I'm sure we'll be seeing the two women again with another deal soon.

Lloyd Grove reports in his New York Daily News column that Julia Louis-Dreyfus spilled the beans about one of the bits she's doing for SNL, which she hosts this weekend. Her misstep occured during an interview on New York radio station WKTU. If you want to see it, it's the fourth item down on this page. However, if you don't want the surprise ruined, I can understand; though we're talking SNL, not Lost here...

If you want to satisfy your JLD jones, though, here is a pretty good LA Times interview with her, where she talks about her pre-upfronts anxiety, who came up with the "Seinfeld curse", and her relationship with Old Christine creator Kari Lizer.

[via Pop Candy]

TV Squad and about 9 million other media outlets reported last week on the death of Gerry Thomas, creator of the TV dinner back in the 50s. Now comes word from The LA Times that the story is actually a hoax. Well, Thomas did die, but his story about "inventing" the TV dinner was just that, a story. Roy Rivenburg has all the details. 

Joel Stein, writing for the LA Times, has a hilarious (and thought-provoking) take on the recent PBS debate. Stein's view is that more people complain about lack of funding for public broadcasting than actually watch it. He also contends that if PBS were to be tossed in the garbage that cable networks would be scrambling to pick up the most popular shows: "Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel would be in a bidding war for Sesame Street, and they'd be willing to produce a lot more episodes than the 26 a year that PBS has squeezed it down to." I've always been an advocate of public broadcasting, but I like Stein's no-nonsense approach. Even if I don't ultimately agree with him, I can't dismiss his viewpoint entirely.