chicago-related stories
Posted Oct 15th 2009 8:08PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Casting, Reality-Free
Since January 2004, the UK's
Shameless has been bringing to life the story of a drunken working-class father and his nine children. Snippets of this long-running hit; going into its seventh season; have aired in the US on BBC America and Sundance. And for five years, it's been in development hell.
The show has been tied to NBC, with Woody Harrelson in consideration for the lead role of Frank Gallagher, and more recently at HBO. Now, finally, original creator Paul Abbott and John Wells Prod. have
signed a deal to bring Shameless to Showtime with William H. Macy in the lead.
Continue reading Willam H. Macy is getting Shameless for Showtime
Posted Oct 6th 2009 4:27PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, Video, Watercooler Talk, Talk Show, Reality-Free
I don't usually watch the Olympics, so it wasn't too devastating to me that Chicago lost out to Rio De Janiero in the bid to host the 2016 games. But that doesn't mean I was rooting
against Chicago, like some people were, as this clip from last night's
Colbert Report shows.
Posted Sep 2nd 2009 9:02AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV Royalty, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Michigan Avenue, also known as the "Magnificent Mile" in Chicago
will be closing down part of the street so Chicago's own Oprah Winfrey can do a live location taping to open her 24th season. It will no doubt be a show so ostentatious and so grand that it could only be Oprah. Naturally, since Oprah is generous to her people, the show and its accompanying performance by the Black Eyed Peas is free and open to the public.
It's hard to believe that Oprah is going into her 24th season. Actually, it's not that hard, as it feels like Oprah has always been around. Oprah is likely such a big part of the economy of Chicago that she probably has the Mayor in twice a week to clean her apartment.
If this is how the Queen of Daytime Television is starting her 24th season, how is she going to top it when she starts her Silver Anniversary season? Will she simply given a thousand bucks to every person in Chicago?
Posted Aug 7th 2009 2:28PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Late Night, Video, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Reality-Free
I don't understand the decisions that public school systems make sometimes, like the Chicago Public Schools deciding that the guy who sings the song "Birthday Sex" would be a good choice for a back-to-school promotion. Stephen Colbert doesn't get it either.
Posted Jun 17th 2009 2:32PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Interviews, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
There are some big names on the bill for
Ellen DeGeneres's variety show,
Ellen's Bigger, Longer & Wider Show, which airs June 27 on TBS. Kanye West will be a big part of it, and magician David Blaine and comedian Nick Cannon will also appear.
Even the Chicago Cubs will make an appearance, as DeGeneres tapes a segment at Wrigley Field, singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch June 16 (the rest of the show will be taped June 17 at the Chicago Theatre).
But the thing DeGeneres seems most excited about is comedian Joe Wong, whom we first wrote about in April when he made his
network television debut on
The Late Show with David Letterman. She'd love to see more comedians like Wong on television.
Continue reading Ellen's Bigger, Longer & Wider Show features acts big and small
Posted May 25th 2009 12:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Reality-Free
When it comes to
Family Guy, I really tried. I honestly gave it my best shot. I watched the Sunday episodes, the late night reruns on Adult Swim, and even some of the DVDs from my college-aged brother's collection, including the famed feature-length
Star Wars parody. I watched until my eyes started planning a prison break from my skull.
I wanted to like it. It's goofy, occasionally satirical and completely unafraid to be silly and bat#*$& crazy. Alas, I couldn't take it. I didn't find it funny or entertaining. The jumps to the pop culture flashbacks made the whole thing disjointed and screwed up the continuity. The characters are as two-dimensional as the paper the Korean sweatshop animators draw on for each episode. The way the show just drags on certain jokes is downright irritating. We get it. Peter hurt his knee jumping out of
The A-Team van. A prom night dumpster baby musical number would be hilariously tragic. It's the one and only time I ever rooted for Cartman in an episode of
South Park.
That doesn't mean the show's creator deserves the same contempt.
Continue reading Is it possible to hate Family Guy but still like Seth MacFarlane?
Posted Apr 14th 2009 6:03PM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free, Press Kits Unwrapped
Let's just get this out of the way:
My Boys isn't a very good show. Calling it mediocre is even going too far. However, I can't be the only one that's watching it, because the TBS sitcom is already a few episodes into its
third season. That's right -
My Boys has actually been somewhat of a minor success for TBS, partially due to some wise scheduling. Save for the first half of season one,
My Boys is always on during the spring and summer months when - surprise - there isn't much else to compete with. The show might not be great, but hey, new TV is better than no TV.
Continue reading Press Kits Unwrapped: My Boys, season three
Posted Apr 3rd 2009 1:01PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
No, George Clooney did not show up for the series finale of
ER.
But it was a pretty good finale anyway. It's impossible to please all fans of a long-running show in a series finale because we expect too much, and what we expect can change depending on whether you've been watching it since the beginning or just started four years ago. Do they focus on the old cast members coming back and focus on the people who have been there for the past few years? Do they tie up all loose ends neatly in a bow or leave things open-ended because that's how life is?
ER managed to do both last night.
After the jump, the good and bad about the last episode of
ER.
Continue reading ER: And In The End ... (series finale)
Posted Jan 27th 2009 3:03PM by Eliot Glazer
Filed under: Video, Music and Variety, Children
We may not live in Chicago, but we know the value of a legendary public access show when we see it. That being said, Chi-town's already-legendary homegrown variety show
Chic-a-go-go -- on the air since 1996 -- seems to fit the bill, at least according to the footage we've seen online.
According to the astounding amount of nostalgic praise littered throughout the web, the fan favorite is a dizzying version of
Soul Train for kids, if
Soul Train employed children, hipsters, and whomever wanders into the studio to dance to oldies, indie rock, and everything in between.
Hosted by a puppet rat MC named ... wait for it ... Ratso, and his human co-host,
Miss Mia, the show has rather unsurprisingly yielded a comparison
to "an early David Lynch movie" and been described by another blogger as "
frenetic, [yet] friendly and familiar."
Continue reading Chic-a-go-go, that toddlin' cable access show - VIDEO
Posted Jan 2nd 2009 2:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, OpEd, Festivus, Celebrities, Reality-Free
What was the top TV story of the year? The choice was obvious to all of us, and probably all of you, too: The election. The 2008 race for the White House was not only historic, it was dramatic and played out more on TV with recognizable star personas than any election in recent memory.
And like a great TV show, it was a season-long run of highs and lows, tension and release, defeat and victory. Along the way, Americans made a choice about who will run the country for the next four years, but they were also entertained by a near constant barrage of media coverage in the form of maximum cable news, thousands of commercials, daily political commentary both serious and comic, a plethora of debates, and -- naturally --
Saturday Night Live's take on it all.
It all started about a year ago in the cold of Iowa and New Hampshire...
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2008: The election - VIDEOS
Posted Nov 24th 2008 9:22AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, Reality-Free
Can two cable shows about the advertising world co-exist? Of course they can. With 12
Law and Orders, 9
CSIs, and 57 reality shows where sexy people live in a house, I think we can have two shows about advertising.
Trust Me is the new name of the TNT series
Truth in Advertising. It stars Eric McCormack (
Will and Grace) as Mason and Tom Cavanagh (
Ed) as Connor, best friends who also run an ad agency. Unlike
Mad Men, it's set in the present day. Also unlike
Mad Men, it's set in Chicago. See? Two big differences right there.
Continue reading Truth in Advertising is now called Trust Me
Posted Nov 10th 2008 11:14AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free
My favorite moment in last week's
30 Rock, in which
Oprah Winfrey made a guest turn -- and a good one -- was when Liz accepted a piece of Rhode Island salt water taffy from O. This lead to Oprah rattling off some of her "wonderful favorite things" for this year -- paisley tops, sweater capes, Calypso music, Chinese checkers, high-heeled flip-flops.
Well, you don't have to be Liz Lemon -- or wait for the annual Christmas show -- to check out Oprah's real faves.
The Oprah Store is launching online this Friday. There's been a real store since last January located in Chicago across the street from the Harpo Studios, but this site, which will be an expansion of the mini-shop that's been online for a while, will capture the breadth and scope of the year-old brick and mortar store.
Continue reading The Oprah Shop goes online
Posted Nov 5th 2008 12:46AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, OpEd, Reality-Free
MSNBC has summarized how historic this is -- Keith said it best. "This is man on the moon historic." He's right. Nobody will ever forget where they were when the first African-American U.S. President was elected.
11:18 John McCain is conceding. He's a class act. A person sometimes shows more about himself in defeat then in victory. McCain recognizes that this is a great moment in history and he must acknowledge it gracefully. He's doing it well. I especially like his mentioning the passing of Obama's grandmother. He's taking the blame for the loss and calling for unity. I think he couldn't say it any more plainly or with courage. Call me crazy, but this sounds like the McCain of 2000. Very classy.
Continue reading Election Night: MSNBC (Part 3)
Posted Nov 2nd 2008 9:56AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Video, Reality-Free
If you need one example as to how 1950s television was different than 2000s television, here it is: this show ran for three years and they made 117 episodes.
This is a complete set in the most literal of ways. It has every single episode of the show, and they got them not just by digging into studio archives but by also asking fans for help. This set was originally going to be a "best of" set because they didn't have all of the episodes. But fans actually filled in the gaps with episodes that they had on tape for one reason or another. So now this is truly a set that was "completed." So you get to see every episode of a show that was rather groundbreaking.
And you also get to see where the cult classic
Police Squad! got a lot of its structure.
Continue reading M Squad: Complete Series - DVD review - VIDEOS
Posted Sep 8th 2008 1:05PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
Question: is there anyone out there who still thinks that Robin Williams is funny?
I ask this because he's the very first guest (well, after the adorable niece and her drawings) on
The Bonnie Hunt Show, the new talk show from the veteran actress/comic, and he pretty much ruins the episode. The first half anyway. The guy just can't shut up, and I suppose that would be rather great if he was funny, but with Williams, quantity doesn't equal quality. There are very few moments to breathe when Williams hits a talk show couch, and I think the only reason I get through his segment was because halfway through Joe Mantegna showed up with pizza for the audience.
Continue reading The Bonnie Hunt Show: Series Premiere
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