kelsey grammer-related stories
Posted Oct 17th 2009 1:31PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
In what must be a major slap in the face to Kelsey Grammer and the creators behind
Hank,
ABC is pre-empting the show on October 28th with the Halloween classic
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Wait, it gets worse. It's pre-empting the show with a
repeat of
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown from the night before. Granted, the previous night will be the expanded, hour-long version, but still...
Admittedly, opinions of
Hank haven't exactly been stellar. Quite the opposite, in fact. While the show has not actually been canceled, it does not seem long for this world. Its only consolation is that it lasted longer than
The Beautiful Life.
Kelsey Grammer will never be able to get away from Frasier Crane, much like Carroll O'Connor was never able to get away from Archie Bunker. It's a shame since Grammer is a better actor than that.
Posted Oct 15th 2009 2:03PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free
Let me give you a quick inside look at how things operate here in online entertainment journalism land: ABC sent us an invite to talk to Kelsey Grammer (and his co-star Melinda McGraw) during the same whirlwind
"defending Hank" tour that Bob mentioned in his post yesterday. As much as I wanted to talk to Grammer, the conditions just didn't seem to be right.
For one, we would have had maybe ten minutes to talk to him. For another, he'd be defending a show that is a) terrible and b) on the verge of being cancelled. I want to talk to Grammer about comedy,
Frasier,
Cheers, his heart attack, and lots of other stuff. I wasn't particularly interested in him telling me how good he thinks
Hank is for the whole interview.
But, when he told The TV Addict that last night's episode
was going to be funny, it got me curious; maybe they had figured things out and made a leap in quality. So I tuned into last night's episode. I wish I hadn't.
Continue reading Hank is truly painful to watch
Posted Oct 14th 2009 4:30PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Celebrities, Reality-Free
All of the new ABC Wednesday night comedies --
The Middle,
Cougar Town, and
Modern Family -- have been
picked up for the entire season. Actually, one new sitcom is missing from that group.
Kelsey Grammer's
Hank isn't getting any love from viewers and it's not getting any love from critics. Ratings aren't that good and the critics don't like it. So Grammer is doing a bunch of interviews for tonight's episode, including
this one over at The TV Addict. He promises that tonight's episode is funny -- really! -- and we should all watch it.
Continue reading Kelsey Grammer says tonight's episode of Hank is funny
Posted Oct 9th 2009 8:37AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Cougar Town, Modern Family
I've always heard that three out of four ain't bad. But if you're Kelsey Grammer, it's a whole different ball game. While there's been no word on the horrid
Hank, ABC has ordered
full season pick-ups for the rest of their Wednesday comedy block. At this point, I'd say that was inevitable. ABC's bold experiment of a whole new night of programming seems to have worked out.
Early buzz on
Modern Family particularly brought people to sample the wares, and luckily that show delivered.
The Middle has been impressive as well, and would probably fare even better if it switched places with
Cougar Town. Courteney Cox's latest vehicle is much better than I expected, but not up to the creative caliber of its lead-ins.
As for
Hank? Well, it is the only multi-camera comedy on the night, so it stands out a bit in that respect. Oh, and its derivative and lacking in any originality or, and this one can be a bit of a problem, comedy. So there's that to deal with as well.
Posted Aug 8th 2009 7:01PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Industry, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free
The title of this post seems far-fetched: How could a big TV star like Kelsey Grammer think that Kevin Reilly, the programming head of FOX, had something to do with the
heart attack he suffered a year ago?
If you heard Grammer speak about it during the panel for his new ABC comedy
Hank, it's not hard to connect the dots. "I had an event they thought was stress related. You can make of that what you will. It was a rough year," said Grammer, whose FOX sitcom
Back to You was cancelled after its first season.
His beef was that he pitched the show to Reilly when the exec was still at NBC, and he passed. Then Reilly got the position at FOX after they bought
Back to You. So, basically, the show was airing on a network whose entertainment head already passed on it somewhere else. That, according to Grammer, caused conflict between the network and the writers of the show.
Continue reading Does Kelsey Grammer think FOX president gave him a heart attack? - TCA Report
Posted Aug 4th 2009 2:01PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Programming, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Alyssa Milano's career resurgence continues (or begins, it depends on your perspective, I guess). ABC is expected to
order 13 episodes of Romantically Challenged, a sitcom about a thirtysomething man dealing with his new girlfriend (Milano) and his needy best friend. If picked up, the series will air midseason on ABC, around the same time the network plans to premiere three dramas,
Happy Town,
V, and
The Deep End.
This news comes almost a year after the network dumped Milano's last shot at a sitcom,
Single With Parents.
Romantically Challenged almost ended up on ABC's fall schedule, reportedly due to the strong buzz surrounding Milano's performance. But the network decided to push it back, presumably to make room for its
other new comedies, including Bill Lawrence's
Cougar Town and
Hank, starring Kelsey Grammer.
Continue reading ABC set to pick up Alyssa Milano comedy for midseason
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 Apr 23rd 2009 7:01PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Reality-Free
The networks are going to unleash their new fall schedules in a few weeks. Which new shows are in the running? Well, Juliana Margulies is going to be an attorney (again), Kelsey Grammer is going to be a Wall Street CEO who gets canned (you knew you were going to see at least one show with that premise this fall), Lauren Graham is going to be a self-help guru, Chevy Chase and
The Soup's Joel McHale are going to be community college students, and Thomas Jane is going to be ... well,
Hung.
AOL has a list of the 30 shows that have the best shot at being on our TV screens when the fall rolls around. Not all of the shows will make it, of course. Some we'll never see at all, unless the pilot episode is leaked online. I'm still ticked that
ABC didn't pick up Marlowe (with
Life on Mars star Jason O'Mara) a couple of season ago. The gallery is after the jump.
Continue reading Which of these new shows are you most looking forward to?
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 Oct 1st 2008 8:00AM by Paul Goebel
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Ask TV Squad, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Reality-Free, Stump the King
This week's letter comes from a fan named Jim Rodrigues.
Jim writes...
"I just saw an episode I've never seen before! This was rare indeed. It involved the crew of the Enterprise devolving into different creatures. Barkley became a spider. Captain Picard was becoming a lemur. Warf (sic) was biting amphibian Troi. It was my favorite episode other than one of the best T.V. episodes ever, "Cause and Effect." I was wondering if this "monsters running around" episode was released for Halloween? It would be the perfect October 31st episode. If someone knows the title and the date of release, I surely would appreciate it."
Continue reading Stump the King: Star Trek: TNG
Posted Jun 2nd 2008 4:14PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free
According to
People magazine, Kelsey Grammer is in a Hawaiian hospital after suffering a mild heart attack. A rep for Grammer says it happened Saturday morning as he was paddle boarding with his wife near their home in Hawaii. He immediately went to the hospital where doctors determined it was a mild heart attack. He'll be in the hospital for a few days for observation.
Grammer was most likely enjoying a little time off before he returns to television this fall. His Fox sitcom,
Back to You,
was recently canceled but he quickly rebounded and
took a role on an ABC comedy called
Roman's Empire. He'll have the title role, actually, as Roman, the wacky patriarch of a wealthy and eclectic family. This new comedy is a departure, of sorts, for Grammer. Rather than the
Frasier and
Back to You-style sitcoms with multiple cameras, his new project is a single-camera venture.
Posted May 24th 2008 2:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Casting, Reality-Free
It didn't take long for Kelsey Grammer to bounce back from his
Back to You flop stint. The Fox sitcom, a high profile one at that with Emmy-winner Patricia Heaton as his co-star, was dumped by the network recently.
Kelsey was so bummed out that he even tried to get other networks, CBS in particular, to pick up the news room comedy. No dice.
Back to You was a dead shark.
Now, less than two weeks later,
Kelsey Grammer has been cast in a new ABC sitcom called Roman's Empire. This is big news for a big star and he's the emperor in the title. He's playing Roman.
Roman's Empire is not a three-camera, traditional sitcom, which has been Grammer's playground since
Cheers. Frasier may have been one of the best three-camera sitcoms ever. As an actor, Kelsey's accustomed to having an audience watching him work.
Empire is a single-camera comedy -- like
The Office or
My Name Is Earl or
Samantha Who? -- and revolves around a nice guy named Leo (Nick Thune), who's dumped by his heiress-like girlfriend (Christine Woods), but remains connected to her crazy family, the Prettys. That's especially true of Roman Pretty, the family patriarch, an outspoken, outrageous character.
Continue reading Back to...work: Kelsey Grammer lands new sitcom
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 13th 2008 8:02AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Cancellations, Reality-Free
I think Back To You producer Steven Levitan is echoing the sentiments of many TV viewers when he says about the show's cancellation, "we were surprised, but not shocked...nothing surprises me with [FOX Broadcasting] anymore."
As we told you earlier, FOX decided to dump Back To You but keep 'Til Death. This surprised many fans of the show, as they thought that out of the two of them FOX would probably go with the Kelsey Grammer/Patricia Heaton/Fred Willard show instead of the Brad Garrett/Joely Fisher show. Funny how Garrett played Heaton's brother-in-law on Everybody Loves Raymond and now it's his show being renewed while she is kicked to the curb.
Continue reading Back To You producer never wanted to be on FOX anyway
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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