PatriciaHeaton-related stories
Posted Nov 22nd 2009 4:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, OpEd, The Closer, Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad, Reality-Free, Mad Men, Burn Notice, Glee
Thanksgiving is coming and for many of us it's time to eat, drink and watch football. It's also a time to reflect on the things you're grateful for and since TV Squad is all about television, here's what I'm grateful for this holiday season, with regard to the tube.
Mad Men season finale
There was really nothing as satisfying in the entire year for me. Matt Weiner promised a game-changing episode and he delivered it with a whopper of a wrap up. Actually, nothing was really wrapped; it was more like the cards have been dealt and we're still waiting to see how the hands are played.
Continue reading What Allison is thankful for
Posted Nov 19th 2009 11:15AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E07) Right from the beginning,
The Middle had me in familiar territory. I remember rushing around the house gathering trash and trying to get it out to the curb before the trash truck finished at the neighbor's house. And I remember just missing it; what a horrible feeling that was.
From there, while I was still able to enjoy the episode for the laughs it offered, I was just as equally terrified. As a parent, I've often wondered just how close we are to having the state take our children away. How innocent a comment or statement would it take before these agencies swoop down on our lives with all their self-righteous glory and scare the living crap out of us that they're going to tear our families apart?
From the moment when the police officer told Mike he wasn't even allowed to touch Brick in the principal's office, to the social worker refusing to tell Frankie and Mike how the evaluation went until she filed her report, it just seems like way too much power for some outside entities to have over our families.
Continue reading Review: The Middle - The Scratch
Posted Nov 18th 2009 9:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
When you think of
Brooke Shields, you think glamor and fashion and high style... Well, I do anyway. She's
Suddenly Susan and one of the hot ladies on
Lipstick Jungle. I do not think of her as a suburban mother of four in Orson, Indiana. However, that's exactly what she's going to be on an upcoming episode of ABC's sitcom
The Middle.
As oxymoronic as it seems, I love the idea of
Brooke on The Middle. She'll be going deep into the heart of the heartland to play a character who's supposed to be like Fran Heck,
Patricia Heaton's character on The Middle. There's nothing as liberating for an actor as the chance to let loose and break the mold.
Continue reading Brooke Shields is getting in The Middle
Posted Nov 5th 2009 1:22AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E06) Something big is going to happen with Axl, and I can't wait for it. Yes, he's doing the same bored, sleeping, lazy teenager act that we've seen a million times before, but I like the way he works off of both Neil Flynn and Patricia Heaton. And I think there's real potential for him to break out into something unique; like when he put his clothes on for the bus in two seconds.
The writers have already crafted both Brick and Sue into wholly unique, and bizarre, children. By comparison the only thing odd about Axl so far is his name. He's just so ... ordinary! Ordinary was enough, though, for him to be part of a pretty funny storyline that pitted him at odds with his father.
It also makes me terrified of the upcoming teen years. Maybe I'll just ship mine out to some other family to deal with. Maybe he can move to Orson, Indiana and I'll just let Mike and Frankie take care of him. Better send him with an extra coat. You never know when a door might go missing.
Continue reading Review: The Middle - The Front Door
Posted Oct 29th 2009 1:10AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E05) Things are starting to settle into a familiar and comfortable pattern. There was nothing particularly groundbreaking in the presentation or even the subject matter of this episode, but it was still enjoyable. It's the love within the Heck family, even within Axl, that makes this a heartwarming comedy.
It doesn't have the sharp wit and cleverness of its follow-up
Modern Family, but it's still leaps and bounds better than its lead-in -- Oh, that's right. ABC went with a re-airing of
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown instead of
Hank. Didn't they air that last night, too. That's okay, Kelsey. It'll be just fine. You'll get that back nine order any day now.
This week, we focused on Brick. The more I see of the little whispering weirdo, the more I like him, and while I hate to keep bringing this up, the more I need the show to address his physical ailment. Commenter 'Jeremy' said he has found evidence pointing to it being osteogenesis imperfecta. This is the same thing
Carnivale's Michael J. Anderson has.
Continue reading Review: The Middle - The Block Party
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 1:08AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E04) Okay, there's clearly something going on with Atticus Shaffer's legs, or leg. It's not a big deal, but at the same time I can't help but notice it when he's limping around. I wish the show would just address whatever it is, so I can stop thinking they're trying to pull a fast one over on us and pretend there's nothing there. It's like when
How I Met Your Mother was horribly trying to cover up two pregnant bellies all last season.
Brick can have a medical condition, and we'll still love him as much as ever. In fact, it would make the family even more "just like the rest of us." Regardless, Brick was hilarious this week with his new girlfriend. I remember when my son was getting his first little girlfriends, and it seemed to go down about the same way. Not the point where his new girlfriend gives me a verbal beat-down on my own front porch, but maybe we're just not to that point yet.
The other main plotline had us finally finding something that Sue is good at! I'm as shocked as you are.
Continue reading Review: The Middle - The Trip
Posted Oct 17th 2009 9:03AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free
I wasn't really prepared to like
The Middle. I had no expectations, really, because aside from knowing that it was
Patricia Heaton's latest sitcom, there had been very little scuttlebutt about it. So, when I tuned in, I expected the typical Patty Heaton I had seen for years on
Everybody Loves Raymond or the upscale version I'd watched on
Back to You.
Well, what a surprise when I saw her on
The Middle. This is a Patty I had never seen before, and I not only liked her character, I admire her performance.
Continue reading What Patricia Heaton is doing right in The Middle
Posted Oct 15th 2009 5:03AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E03) We already know that Sue Heck has no discernible talent, but a ton of enthusiasm. This week we learned that her cluelessness goes even beyond physical activities. She's as earnest in her social endeavors as ever. Unfortunately, she's also as oblivious to the reality of her actions and their consequences. I love everything about it.
The moral of this episode, I guess, is that a mother is never allowed even fifteen minutes of time alone. Granted, it appears that Frankie's fifteen minutes happened to coincide with the worst chain of events possible, but the moral remains the same. A mother's job is never done, and she's never off the clock. At least she has the love of her husband to help her when the time comes, and he came through in a big way for her.
Continue reading The Middle: The Floating Anniversary
Posted Oct 8th 2009 2:30AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E02) I didn't realize it as much in the first episode, but the Hecks are living the exact Midwest life that I had growing up. Okay, not exactly, but our run of luck and struggle went about like theirs did. I even remember when our dryer leaped across the room and died, though it wasn't nearly as melodramatic as theirs was.
The Middle surprised me last week by premiering with a really strong debut episode. Maybe, I thought, it's because I just watched
Hank. Watching my grandmother shave her armpits would be high entertainment compared to that.
Well,
Hank was so horrible I managed to convince myself that ABC's comedy lineup didn't start until 8:30 on Wednesday, so I tuned in fresh and ready to see how
The Middle came out of its pilot. And it actually got better. Just about everything that happened in this episode was funny, and it was absolutely packed with things happening.
Continue reading The Middle: The Cheerleader
Posted Aug 2nd 2009 3:01PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Celebrities, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
When the San Diego Comic-Con opened its doors to allow
every corner of television onto their floors, they weren't kidding. After seeing the roster of panels, I'm surprised the original panel from PBS's
Washington Week didn't field questions from guys dressed in Transformer cosplay.
Apparently, Warner Brothers set up a panel for just about every television show that have in development including Patricia Heaton's new ABC sitcom
The Middle, making it the most "fish out of water" selection for a panel at the geek confab.
And so did the geeks in attendance. The panel only drew
around 75 attendees and studio heads ordered Heaton not to introduce the panel because the crowd was too small.
Continue reading And the most out of place Comic-Con panel award goes to...
Posted Jun 30th 2009 11:10AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Good news for all you Chris Kattan fans. The
Saturday Night Live veteran has
snagged a regular role in the new ABC single-camera comedy
The Middle. He will play a car salesman alongside series star Patricia Heaton.
Based on what I've read, this sounds like one of those safe, non-controversial, family comedies that the networks love and I loathe, such as
According To Jim and
Two and a Half Men (nowadays I prefer sitcoms like
How I Met Your Mother and
The Big Bang Theory). As a result, I doubt we'll be seeing characters such as Mango make an appearance (that and the fact he's on a competing network to NBC and would likely be sued for doing so).
And here I thought Kattan would end up like one of those obscure
SNL celebrities like Garrett Morris or Rich Hall. In a tough economy, he's got a job. More power to him.
Posted May 18th 2009 10:40AM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, Pickups and Renewals, Upfronts, Reality-Free
ABC will make official pick up announcements Tuesday, but the trades are already reporting that the network has
ordered a large number of new shows for the upcoming fall season.
Along with some dramas and mythology-laden shows, it looks like ABC is playing it safe by picking up four half-hour family comedies starring some well-known TV vets.
Joining the already renewed
Scrubs and
Better Off Ted will be
Hank, a multi-camera family show starring Frasier's Kelsey Grammer and
The Middle, a single-camera comedy with Grammer's former
Back to You co-star Patricia Heaton. Both shows seem to have pretty tired concepts. Hank is about a washed-up Wall Street deal maker who moves back to his home town, and
The Middle is about a middle-class mom who is approaching middle age. Hopefully the stars, and the jokes, will make these shows worth watching.
Continue reading ABC picks up new comedies starring TV vets
Posted Jan 7th 2009 6:06PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Casting, Reality-Free
Do you think there are times when Patricia Heaton wishes she was still working on
Everybody Loves Raymond? What about Kelsey Grammer...don't you think there are days when he reflects on how lucky he was to have played Frasier Crane first on
Cheers then on
Frasier all those years, winning awards and having job security, critical acclaim, the knowledge that you were at the top of your game? That's not to say that either Patty or Kelsey are not on the top of their game now, but the failure of Fox's
Back to You last season must have been a shock to the system.
Now they're both working on new sitcom projects and hoping for the best.
Scrubs' Neil Flynn has joined Patricia Heaton in The Middles, an ABC sitcom pilot about a middle-class family living in middle America struggling in these tough economic times. They have three kids, too, just like the set up in
Everybody Loves Raymond. Meanwhile,
Kelsey Grammer's also doing comedy for ABC. The network has ordered a Grammer pilot about a corporate big shot who tries to reconnect with his estranged family.
Continue reading Grammer and Heaton: back to TV
Posted May 16th 2008 8:00AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Cancellations, Reality-Free
Frasier has left the building, but Kelsey Grammer hasn't. Or maybe he just doesn't want to. The actor, whose Fox situation comedy,
Back to You, was canceled after just one season, doesn't want to call it quits. He wants the show to continue and he's so determined, he's even lobbied for the show personally. The Emmy award winning star phoned CBS executives -- including CBS CEO Les Moonves -- to plead the case for
Back to You.
When Kelsey phoned, Les took the call, and he even told Grammer that he'd "think about it," that is, moving
Back to You to CBS. However, when Kelsey followed up with a call to Nina Tassler, CBS Entertainment prez, she dismissed it. There really was no room on the
CBS schedule for another sitcom; even
Rules of Engagement (which CBS has a vested interest in bringing back) won't be broadcast till mid-season next year. There's no mention of Kelsey calling ABC or NBC; perhaps they didn't take his call?
Continue reading Kelsey asks CBS to save Back to You
Posted May 10th 2008 12:36PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Cancellations, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Fox has made the call, and it's a big "see ya later" for Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton. But their loss is someone else's gain. The pilot for
the Jason Bateman directed comedy series The Inn has been picked up for a 13-week commitment, while Back to You has been axed. The Brad Garrett-Joely Fisher sitcom,
Til Death, meanwhile, has been given another year.
Bateman, who starred in
Arrested Development -- the Emmy-award winning comedy that the network dumped unceremoniously because of low ratings -- was behind the camera for
The Inn pilot. The show, which is about the haves and have-nots in a fancy, five-star New York City hotel, has a promising cast of funny folks including Niecy Nash (
Reno 911!), Jerry O'Connell (who looks like Jason's twin), and the really hilarious Jesse Tyler Ferguson (remember him on
The Class -- he was so funny!).
Continue reading The Inn is in, but Kelsey & Patty are dumped
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