WandaSykes-related stories
Posted Nov 12th 2009 12:35PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E07) I guess the fate of Marion Ross was handled off-screen, because Matthew and Richard are settling into her old digs, and she was nowhere to be seen this episode. Now that I think about it, though, she could be shacking up in Matthew's old digs out in the backyard. It would make for a pretty funny callback to have her character pop back up. Maybe even act as if Christine didn't even know she'd moved in back there.
I wasn't as impressed with the forced obligatory "we're different but now we're roommates" storyline for Matthew and Richard. Hopefully, now that it's out of the way, the writers have some ideas of some fun things they can do with the mismatched pair. In five seasons, we've not seen a great deal of interaction between them, but their differences could make for some good comedy.
Continue reading Review: The New Adventures of Old Christine - Nuts
Posted Nov 6th 2009 3:02PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Jay Leno
Good news, everyone!
The Jay Leno Show was funny this week. There were some funny guests, genuinely funny comedy correspondent moments, and another
Real Housewives quiz show, this time with the ladies from Atlanta.
Jay even managed to get a quick jab in to the bosses at NBC during an archery "Earn Your Plug" with Wanda Sykes. "This is NBC," he said to her. "I'm used to getting shot in the back." I've grown to respect Leno during his 10 o'clock experiment. He's a trouper doing what NBC is paying him to do, but you can tell he thinks the whole situation's about as screwed up as we do.
Even better, there were only two "10 @ 10" segments and no "Green Car Challenge" races, which allowed for more room to bring on Frank Calliendo and Sebastian Maniscalco to do stand-up routines. This is what I was expecting Leno to be doing, showcasing comedy rather than driving around a track trying not to hit Al Gore.
Continue reading Leno Weekly: Paranormal Activity, 2012, Rachael Ray and more!
Posted Nov 5th 2009 12:50AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E06) Little Ritchie is growing up so fast! This week he's going to a school dance ... with the most popular girl in school!? Could Christine's whole world be changing? How can the meanie moms be mean to her if her son is dating the most popular girl in school? How can Christine screw this up? By being herself.
Meanwhile, Richard realizes he can no longer live at New Christine's house -- which is really his house -- so he starts to look for a new place to live, and finds a place where I'd sure as hell want to live. But there's a major problem with it, and he and Matthew have to tackle that before anyone can move in.
All in all, I think
Christine is continuing a solid run of quality episodes. It helps that of the shows on ABC's Wednesday night comedy block, this veteran is up against
Hank. And Louis-Dreyfus and friends are doing a fine job of beating it week after week.
Continue reading Review: The New Adventures of Old Christine - The Curious Case of Britney B
Posted Oct 9th 2009 6:30PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Jay Leno
Welcome to the inaugural edition of "Leno Weekly." As you may have noticed, there were no daily reviews of
The Jay Leno Show this week. We felt that while it was important to cover the show for the first few weeks, the time for daily reviews has passed. NBC had promised that this would be a bold new comedy venture for prime-time network television. It's not.
That's not to say that it doesn't have its value or historical significance. Whether it succeeds or fails, it's still a big deal that NBC abandoned scripted television at 10pm. It's kind of like when ABC threw
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on fourteen times a week to prop up their broken schedule a decade or so ago.
For those of you still interested in how the experiment is playing out, "Leno Weekly" will be a weekly roundup of the highlights and lowlights of Leno's primetime show, including clips. For those who don't think
The Jay Leno Show deserves any kind of coverage at all on TV Squad ... now you only have one article a week to ignore!
Continue reading Leno Weekly: Jamie Foxx, Wanda Sykes & more!
Posted Oct 8th 2009 3:27AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E03) I don't think it's giving anything away to say that the entire cold open to this episode of
The New Adventures of Old Christine was done in the nude. I kept expecting Daniel Radcliffe to come traipsing through Christine's bathroom door. And for the record, I don't think I'd ever be comfortable enough around any ex to be able to have a normal conversation with both of us completely nude.
I've been a fan of this show since the first episode, and in all honesty, as we're sitting here in the fifth season, I'm surprised every year that it comes back. Not because I don't think it's a good show, but because it never has a huge audience and it seems to fly completely under the radar. And I say that with Julia Louis-Dreyfus having been nominated for her work on
this show.
Continue reading The New Adventures of Old Christine: The Mole
Posted Jul 24th 2009 3:05PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Reality-Free
If Wanda Sykes' appearance at the
White House TV Correspondent's Dinner was a taste of
her new FOX late night show, then get ready for the appetizer.
Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily scored a copy of the audition packet the show's producers sent out to prospective comedy writers that included a few choice bits that would make David Letterman's Sarah Palin punchline squad blush.
These are not bits that have been confirmed as part of Sykes' first show. They are just examples designed to guide the prospective writer towards the kind of work they are looking to produce when the show hits the air next fall. But even for random examples, they make my diseased mind wonder what could actually get on the air and how many strokes it will cause for elderly housewives across the nation.
Continue reading Get a taste of the Wanda Sykes show through her writer's packet
Posted May 14th 2009 10:03AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, News, Reality-Free
Every year, C-SPAN looks forward to a sharp boost in ratings while the White House press secretary cringes towards a sharp drop in approval points in the long shadow of the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner.
It's a chance for the current administration to let their hair down and show everyone that they can take a good joke and stand some pointed criticism in the K-Street jungle. That should explain why the last Bush administration hired
Rich Little to do their show in '07.
Continue reading Sykes gives us a taste of her talk show, right cross
Posted Apr 2nd 2009 9:03AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Reality-Free
The earlier announcement that
comedienne Wanda Sykes might be one hair pulling development meeting away from getting her own late night show was a promising one.
She's got a good bit of star power to boost her ratings. She's had a good bit of experience as a late night comedy writer, most notably with
The Chris Rock Show and least notably with
The Keenan Ivory Wayans Show. She's also damn funny.
If Fox turns her into their newest late night comedy show host, it raises a worrying question: what will become of Spike Feresten?
Continue reading Will Sykes' Saturday show sink Spike?
Posted Apr 1st 2009 10:01AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Late Night, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Aside from being a very funny performer, nobody would ever accuse
Wanda Sykes of being a shrinking violet. She's a strong, determined and no-nonsense woman and if I was in a foxhole, I'd want her with me.
Therefore, it's my belief that
Sykes' deal with Fox for a Saturday night late night show will succeed. It won't be easy, going up against the giant of Saturday night comedy
Saturday Night Live, but Wanda's a good bet to give them a good challenge.
Continue reading Wanda Sykes heading to Fox
Posted Jul 9th 2008 12:41PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Reality-Free
Michael Ausiello has an odd bit of news about the Julia Louis-Dreyfus sitcom,
The New Adventures of Old Christine. In a
blind item he posted a few days ago, Ausiello alluded to a crazy curveball that writers were planning to throw on a "sort-of hit" comedy. The twist is supposed to be so huge that it will completely change the direction of the show in question. He
reveals the blind item in this week's Ask Ausiello, and if it's true, it's a doozy.
(Warning: Potential spoilers ahead!)Continue reading Is this old Christine's new adventure?
Posted Mar 3rd 2008 8:03PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities
Jenna Fischer: This is one of those "I've arrived!" moments. Seriously. There's, like, little milestones... Like, being on David Letterman for the first time and then, like, being in
Vanity Fair.
Chelsea Handler: ... I knew I arrived when I got my period.
Everyone: [groans and laughter]
Yeah, I know how most of our male readers are. They like their ladies funny, smart, and painfully out of their league. Well, start lurking around the magazine stands, boys, because the upcoming
Vanity Fair has a new Annie Leibovitz photo spread featuring
some of the funniest ladies on the scene. The impressive list boasts Sandra Bernhard, Susie Essman, Tina Fey, Jenna Fischer, Chelsea Handler, Leslie Mann, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Amy Sedaris, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, and Kristen Wiig, each of them doing very typical "Hollywood bad girl" things. I especially love Maya Rudolph's hair and how Silverman manages to do Amy Winehouse better than Amy Winehouse.
Continue reading Fine ladies of comedy in Vanity Fair
Posted Jun 20th 2007 5:57PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, TV Royalty, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show
Charlie Rose: Carla Del Ponte and Vanessa Redgrave - The Daily Show: Fareed Zakaria
- The Colbert Report: Will Schwalbe
- The Late Show With David Letterman: Matt Damon, Dario Franchetti, and Bright Eyes (repeat)
- Jay Leno: Samuel L. Jackson and Jesse Malin
- Jimmy Kimmel Live: Anthony Anderson, Matt Dallas, and Kalai
- Tavis Smiley: S. Epatha Merkerson
- Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Wanda Sykes, Pamela Anderson, and Nick Offerman
- The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Mo'Nique and Big and Rich
- Last Call With Carson Daly: Avril Lavigne
Posted Jan 29th 2007 11:46AM by Elizabeth Chan
Filed under: ABC, News, Daytime, Grey's Anatomy
You are not a true tabloid celebrity unless all of your roads lead towards a one way ticket to rehab. Celebrities wear their Chanel sunglasses and hats low, like a badge of courage, as they are driven in their chauffeured SUV's through the Mojave Desert on their way to places with names more appropriate for a nursery school than to a place for those down the downward spiral of celebrity excess.
Common pre-requisites for rehab include an undying love for cocaine, a struggle with food or a co-dependency on the bottle.
But say you don't have a problem with any of the above and find yourself being publicly scrutinized by society who seek a social remedy for your reprehensible behavior on national television?
We make foul discriminatory language a new reason for rehab and make Isaiah Washington our example.
Unfortunately for Washington, one of the side effects of going to rehab for foul language is being the butt of many jokes, from Wanda Sykes on Ellen to even your own co-worker at The SAG Awards.
It's only a matter of time before we find Harry Potter in rehab. Let me be the first to make this prediction after his...
Continue reading TV's Top 5!: Isaiah's in rehab but what's with Harry Potter?
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Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
