ThePhilanthropist-related stories
Posted Oct 28th 2009 10:00AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
For the longest time, I've kvetched about the fact that the television industry has stopped programming for Saturday night. For years, Saturday was a great night of television. I remember
M*A*S*H and
The Mary Tyler Moore Show, not to mention guilty pleasures like
The Facts of Life and
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Even NBC's thrillogy,
The Pretender and
Profiler were fun. All those shows were Saturday night hits (some bigger than others).
Well,
I'm not alone in missing Saturday TV; Oscar-winner Barry Levinson feels the same. Levinson is also a TV producer -- he did
Homicide: Life on the Street and
The Philanthropist -- and he thinks the networks are making a big mistake by not seizing on Saturday primetime. He knows the business pretty well and he's confused by the networks' strategy.
"I don't think the answer is to retreat," he told the New York Daily News. "When you give up Saturday night, you open the door for people to go somewhere else. Basically, they're shrinking their own audience."
Continue reading Barry Levinson urges TV to take back Saturday night
Posted Sep 30th 2009 1:29PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Ask TV Squad, Celebrities, Reality-Free
The "Ask TV Squad" column, published every Wednesday, answers your questions about current and past TV shows, as well as about the celebrities appearing on TV. Every week, I will pick a question (or more) sent to us and provide answers in the column. If your question is not picked for a column, it may be answered in a subsequent column. To submit questions to the "Ask TV Squad" column, you can post them below in comments or email them at asktvsquad@gmail.com.
This week, I answer questions about Flash Forward, Eureka, NCIS, The Philanthropist, and V.
Continue reading Ask TV Squad
Posted Aug 17th 2009 8:10AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, Cancellations, Ratings
It's not really possible that every summer premiere on the great
American broadcast TV schedule crashed and burned, is it?
But, out of all the original programs that premiered on the major networks after the completion of the fall 2008 season, not a single one got traction.
According to
analysis reports, you can take your pick from any of the following shows:
Defying Gravity,
The Superstars,
The Listener,
Mental,
The Philanthropist,
Hitched or Ditched,
Merlin and
Great American Road Trip. All of them bombed -- each hovering just above a one market share.
In fact, you don't need numbers to prove that the fall crop crapped out. Ask your friend what his/her favorite summer replacement show was. You'll be waiting awhile.
Continue reading Entire summer TV schedule declared a failure
Posted Jun 24th 2009 2:02PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Early Looks, Reality-Free
NBC has been promoting the crap out of their new summer adventure series,
The Philanthropist, for weeks now. Starring
James Purefoy as Teddy Rist, a billionaire playboy who decides to save the world, The previews held absolutely no interest for me. Now, after having seen the pilot, I realize that my first impression was the correct one.
Premiering tonight at 10 PM,
The Philanthropist is basically an hour of an insufferable rich dude talking about how awesome he is. We watch the premise of the show unfold through the eyes of Rist himself, as he tells his tale of heroism (saving a Nigerian boy from drowning; surviving a shoot-out and a snake bite in order to deliver some Cholera vaccines to a village) to a bored bartender.
Continue reading The Philanthropist - An early look
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