Posts with tag NeilPatrickHarris
Posted Jul 23rd 2008 8:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Entourage, Emmys, Reality-Free
Don't get him wrong; Jon Cryer is thrilled to be nominated for an Emmy again. This is his third nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series as Alan Harper, the sad sack, divorced brother of Charlie Sheen on
Two and a Half Men. In 2006 and 2007, he lost to Jeremy Piven, Ari Gold on
Entourage, and
Jon Cryer is ticked off: "Laugh all you want, [he] is my nemesis. He's a force of nature."
If it's not Piven -- again! -- Jon has another nemesis lined up: "I think this time Neil Patrick Harris (Barney on
How I Met Your Mother) will win."
Cryer is good natured about his chances and not seriously miffed. He's planning to bring his new wife, entertainment reporter Lisa Joyner. "When we heard the news, she was thrilled for a moment, then filled with dread as she started to worry about what she'll wear. But she'll be there with me -- or I'll be very lonely."
Continue reading Jon Cryer not counting on that Emmy
Posted Jun 27th 2008 3:04PM by Brett Love
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Video, Web, Celebrities, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel
Technically it is Buffy/Angel week, but all things Whedon have a way of just melding together into one big stew. So it's a fortuitous bit of timing that a trailer for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was released this week. For those still unaware of just what Dr. Horrible is, I think it was summed up best by Nathan Fillion in a recent interview. It's about a super-villain (Neil Patrick Harris) who falls in love with a girl (Felicia Day), and the super-hero (Nathan Fillion) who blows it for him. The super-hero is kind of a dick. And... it's a musical. I think it could be very much more than that. More on that, and the new trailer, after the jump.
Continue reading Is Dr Horrible the One? - VIDEO
Posted Jun 6th 2008 11:59PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: How I Met Your Mother, Celebrities, Casting, TV Squad Awards
As if Britney Spears wasn't having a bad enough year, she is also now the TV Squad staff choice for the most egregious case of miscasting during this 2007-08 season. Yes, friends, for her turns as Abby on
How I Met Your Mother, Brit-Brit is the first recipient of The What the *#@#%! Were They Thinking? Award.
Competition for this one was pretty fierce. Michelle Ryan of
Bionic Woman barely edged Spears out on the readers' choice poll, and to me she seemed like the obvious choice; there were a lot of things wrong with
BW, but Ryan's stiff performance was probably the worst of what was wrong. But by an overwhelming margin, the Squadders thought Britney's casting was the worse offense.
Looking back on her appearances, I can understand the vitrol. It's not that she was awful on the show -- opinions about that are mixed. It's the whole idea and motivation behind her guest stint that most people seem to find so patently offensive.
Continue reading The What the *#@#%! Were They Thinking? Award: Winner - VIDEOS
Posted May 30th 2008 3:22PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Game Show, Early Looks, Reality-Free
Here's the thing about game show revivals: you have to satisfy people on two levels. For fans of the old show, you have to make the gameplay of the new show familiar enough to keep them happy and coming back. And, in order to attract new fans, you have to modernize and add touches that will suck in viewers and help build drama. That's one of the reasons why most new game shows have
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-style darkened sets with swirling lights, and depend on ominous music and tight camera angles to create drama.
Million Dollar Password, premiering Sunday at 8 PM ET, has all of that. They even nabbed
Millionaire's original American host, Regis Philbin, to give it that extra bit of primetime oomph. But does it work? Well... sorta. Fans of the Allen Ludden / Tom Kennedy / Bert Convy incarnations might be dissatisfied with what they've done to their old favorite, but even an objective observer can see that the gameplay has some flaws that are going to need to be worked out for the show to succeed.
Continue reading Million Dollar Password -- An early look
Posted May 19th 2008 10:35PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Video, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E20) Wow, talk about a jam-packed episode. We saw major character development, flashbacks upon flashbacks, some issues resolved and others completely thrown into chaos, and a whole lot of funny talk of miracles.
Oh, and we saw Sarah Chalke,
as Carter Bays told me last week. That was just cherry on the sundae, though.
Since so much stuff happened, let's just get to it after the jump, OK?
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Miracles (season finale) - VIDEO
Posted May 12th 2008 11:44PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Video, How I Met Your Mother, Celebrities, Episode Reviews
(S03E19) I'm going to be speaking to Carter Bays and Craig Thomas tomorrow afternoon, and I think that one of the first questions I'm going to ask them is if Britney Spears is going to be a recurring guest on the show. It's starting to look that way, based on what we saw tonight; the way things ended, I can just imagine crazy Abby popping up once or twice per season, just to make Ted's life miserable. And since Brit Brit established the role, I'd imagine she'd come back and reprise it.
And that's not altogether a bad thing. Once she becomes part of the fabric of the show, the episodes will be less about her presence and more about the story. Somehow (heh), Brit pulls off the nutty stalker role well enough, and maybe her acting will get a bit more refined the more she appears. At least I hope it does.
Why am I prattling on about Britney? Because there isn't much more about this episode that really stood out.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Everything Must Go - VIDEO
Posted May 5th 2008 11:57PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Video, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E18) You know how I keep saying that guest spots ruin the chemistry of
How I Met Your Mother? Well, that's not an absolute; sometimes, guests integrate well into the ensemble, or the story they're given is so good, that it just works. This week was one of those weeks. In fact, it was doubly good, since
both Sarah Chalke and Will Forte did a good job of fitting in, with Forte being his usual creepy-funny self and Chalke being... well, anyone who reads my
Scrubs reviews knows how I feel about Sarah.
What? I have respect for her acting ability! That's all...
Ahem... now, where were we?
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Rebound Bro - VIDEO
Posted May 1st 2008 1:04PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Industry, OpEd
Many people think that the term "cougar," which is loosely defined as "older woman on the prowl for younger men to date" was introduced on last season's
How I Met Your Mother episode that had
Jane Seymour seduce Neil Patrick Harris' Barney. But like I said in my review back then, I had heard that term before that episode aired. But we can definitely say that
HIMYM popularized the term.
Now it seems like TV Land, which is becoming the network for reality shows starring people over 35, has decided to pick up a
Bachelorette-esque series where a number of young men will be
competing for the affections of "sexy and accomplished mature woman." The show is being produced by Mike Fleiss, who was the executive producer for the network's version of
High School Reunion.
Continue reading TV Land orders dating show for Cougars
Posted Apr 29th 2008 7:41AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: How I Met Your Mother, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
We knew it was coming. Since
her first appearance on
How I Met Your Mother broke ratings records for the series, it was inevitable that Britney Spears would return as crazy receptionist Abby. Last week we reported that
Spears would be reprising her role on
HIMYM. Today,
CBS confirms the news and dishes about the episode that will mark the singer's return.
What's interesting about Britney's upcoming storyline in
HIMYM is that she'll be paired with Neil Patrick Harris. If you recall the actor was recently
misquoted saying that
the show didn't need guest stars like Britney Spears.
Spoilers ahead!Continue reading Britney definitely back on How I Met Your Mother
Posted Apr 28th 2008 11:11PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Video, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E17) Interesting ending to this one, huh?
I'll get to that after the jump, for those who are spoiler-phobic. This was an episode full of story and character development, and some glimpses into the personalities of all five members of the
HIMYM gang. And it was pretty damned funny. The show's starting on an end-of-season roll, and with some big emotional and interpersonal issues coming to a head right now, the last few episodes are looking very promising.
Now, about that goat...
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: The Goat - VIDEO
Posted Apr 21st 2008 10:42PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Video, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E16) Bless the peapickin' little hearts of Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. All week, they've been setting us up, telling us about the return of Robin Sparkles, saying that we were going to get an episode full of eighties and nineties goodness, complete with James Van Der Beek, Tiffany, and Alan Thicke. We even
got a video (full video is after the end of the review) as a taste.
But all of it was a ruse. A week-long ruse to distract us from realizing what was
really going to happen in this episode. Since I don't want to spoil it for anyone, come with me to the after-jump portion of our review and then we can talk.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Sandcastles in the Sand - VIDEOS
Posted Apr 21st 2008 8:03AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Casting, Reality-Free
You can stop the prayer. Your wish has been granted.
Britney Spears will be making a return appearance to
How I Met Your Mother.
The singer/actress has recently had a high-profile appearance on the CBS comedy as a receptionist who falls for one of the show's main characters, played by Josh Radnor. The response to her appearance was generally positive.
Watching the clips on the AOL Television site, Britney
does give a cute and funny performance. The character she plays is naive, sweet and tries not to offend people. She acted the role well and in the end her character gets taken advantage of by Neil Patrick Harris's character (sort of).
Britney's first appearance gave the episode phenomenal ratings. A return appearance was inevitable, particularly given Britney's real-world problems at the moment (she has a family to support and a lot of lawyer fees to pay). Some positive exposure would undoubtedly be good for the woman.
Posted Apr 20th 2008 10:08AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Celebrities, Game Show, Casting, Reality-Free
In an announcement that most who remember the older versions of Password would consider a no-brainer, it has been revealed that Betty White will be returning as a guest panelist on CBS' new Million Dollar Password series. And, really, if she wasn't even being considered would it even be Password?
White, who is 86-years-young, was a staple of the original version of Password when it started back in 1961 as well as the revived 70s and 80s versions of the show. Much of that connection came from her marriage to original Password host Allen Ludden. White and Ludden were married in 1963 and remained together until his death from stomach cancer in 1981.
Continue reading Betty White to appear on Million Dollar Password
Posted Apr 14th 2008 10:57PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Video, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E15) The original name of this episode was going to be "The Simmons Report," according to IMDb and Epguides. But, as we all know, there was a report in the episode, but it got a much different -- and much cooler -- name. In fact that little joke is one of a number of silly throwaway jokes that made this episode one of the funniest of the season. And what was interesting was, in the middle of all that goofiness, we got serious advancement of story in the deal. And, refreshingly, the story wasn't the relentless pursuit of the mother's identity. No, we find out more about Marshall's career and come a step closer to seeing why he became a bald mess by 2030.
Oh, and we also got to learn about the chain/circle/pyramid of screaming. I wish I knew about that when I used to be a corporate wage slave. It would have made my life a lot easier.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: The Chain of Screaming - VIDEO
Posted Apr 10th 2008 8:30PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Here is Reason #243 why I like Neil Patrick Harris, or NPH as people have taken to calling him: He thinks that
How I Met Your Mother is perfectly OK without all the guest stars. And, yes, that includes that nutty gal from Louisiana.
"I worry that if they start
Will and Grace-ing us too much, that the show will suffer, " NPH told Erin Carlson of the AP. He's referring to the fact that
W&G spent many of its later years building comedy around a parade of high-profile guest stars. He went on to say that "we're all really proud of the content of the show. I mean, viewership is not our game. It's the network and the studio's game, you know. It's the promotion department's game."
NPH feels he's in "the minority" with his view, according to the article, and he thinks the fact that the show is opposite
Dancing with the Stars (or, as he calls it, "an awkward reality dancing competition") has caused the network, as well as creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, to scramble for viewers.
Continue reading HIMYM doesn't need guest stars like Britney, says Neil Patrick Harris
Next Page >
The Dharma Initiative wants you - VIDEO - Comic-Con Report
Forget the Knight Rider movie, say the series creators - TCA Report
Giveaway Monday: TV Funhouse
