paramount-related stories
Posted Aug 7th 2009 12:29PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, Programming, OpEd, Cancellations, Ratings, Reality-Free
Earlier this week, I told you about
the real reason Without A Trace was cancelled. Now, executive producer
Shawn Ryan reveals the real reason The Unit was cancelled. "Listen, if the show had been owned by Paramount and
Medium had been owned by 20th Century Fox, we'd be making the fifth season of
The Unit now." You see, TV fans, it's comes down to money. CBS owns Paramount so it would earn more in the long run if
The Unit made more episodes, went into syndication and reaped revenues for years to come. However, Fox owns
The Unit. Get it?
Continue reading The real reason The Unit was cancelled
Posted Jul 16th 2009 6:07PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Video, Reality-Free, Star Trek: Original Series
To celebrate the release of the second season of the original Star Trek on Blu-ray, Paramount will be
handing out free Tribbles at the San Diego Comic Con. Not only that, but they are asking people to upload digital photos of them and their Tribbles in unusual circumstances.
This might not be the best of ideas. All it takes is one wise-ass uploading a Tribble while in a compromising situation involving leather, chains and whipped cream to ruin it for everyone else.
Continue reading Paramount wants a photo of you and your Tribble
Posted Jun 9th 2009 5:40PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Reality-Free, Star Trek: Original Series
Okay, I understand the mock phasers and the shirts and the action figures. But when someone releases a
Star Trek casket and/or urn for when you die, I have to scratch my head a little.
Admittedly, I've heard of
Star Trek weddings and even known people who have attended them. I guess since
Star Trek fans are getting up there in age, caskets and urns are the next step. Hell, they probably still run
Star Trek-themed weddings at
Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas.
The truth is that most of the original cast is getting up there in age. I cannot help but wonder if someone is going to buy one of them a casket or urn from Eternal Image.
Besides all that, the real
Star Trek fans would want a Klingon funeral. That's where they scream on top of the recently deceased body then let anybody else dispose of it however they wish.
Posted May 12th 2009 7:00PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Reality-Free, Star Trek: Original Series
Over at ComicMix, Alan Kistler has
written annotations for the new Star Trek movie and how well it fits into the overall continuity of the show. It's a pretty impressive list and does prove that despite the blatant contradiction of the show's history as a result of time travel, they were actually pretty good with getting the details of the characters correct.
Spoilers follow this paragraph. You have been warned.
Continue reading Everything you didn't want to know about the Star Trek movie
Posted May 6th 2009 1:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Reality-Free, Star Trek: Original Series
Admittedly, I haven't seen anything from
Atom Films in a while, but someone brought my attention to this cute animation they did for a supposed "missing"
Star Trek pilot from the 90's that deals with Kirk's years at Starfleet Academy. All the high school movie clichés are present and accounted for.
Actually, there's a lot of
Trek stuff that's been brought to my attention floating around the Interwebs in anticipation of the
Star Trek movie opening this coming Friday. There is this beauty of
William Shatner serenading George Lucas. Or this
lovely Christmas ornament. Or this great article about Shatner
being the one, true Kirk.
I have my trepidations about recasting these television icons. In the new cast, as far as I know, neither of the actors who play Kirk or Spock are Jewish. Chris Pine isn't even Canadian, for Spock's sake.
Despite all this, I'm still seeing the movie opening weekend. In the meantime,
Trek Yourself is after the jump.
Continue reading Trek Yourself and other Star Trek tidbits
Posted Apr 12th 2009 10:00AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Reality-Free, Star Trek: Original Series
In what may be the most frightening piece of nostalgia ever produced, someone has posted their video from Paramount's
Star Trek Adventure online, which was at Universal Studios way back when. Judging by the ages of the original actors, it was probably produced sometime around
Star Trek IV or
Star Trek V (or possibly VI) and serves as a wonderful example of how quickly everybody involved with this American icon was willing to sell out.
Of course, Roddenberry himself was selling IDIC medallions by season three of the original series, so this blatant commercialism should come as no surprise. Does anybody out there actually have a video of themselves participating in this? If so, did you have to wait on line for it? If I did something like this ever, I would likely bury the videotape somewhere and hope it was never discovered again.
Someone's embarrassing video is after the jump.
Continue reading A Star Trek blast from the past - VIDEO
Posted Apr 7th 2009 5:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, Video, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
Long before he was host of
The Daily Show (well, about five or six years before), Jon Stewart hosted a late-night talk show, titled
The Jon Stewart Show. It was a good show (first on MTV then syndicated), very casual and rock and roll and young, and probably should have lasted longer, though I guess he wouldn't have gone on to do
The Daily Show.
After the jump is footage from the last episode, where David Letterman was the guest. Letterman doesn't do many talk shows, so Stewart probably immensely appreciated the fact that he'd take the time to do his last one (probably one of the reasons why Stewart looks up to Letterman to this day). Letterman talks about Paul Newman, why getting canceled doesn't mean you're a failure, and hosting the Oscars (which is funny, considering Stewart would do the same thing years later).
Continue reading David Letterman on the last episode of The Jon Stewart Show - VIDEO
Posted Mar 31st 2009 10:01AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen, Casting, Reality-Free, Star Trek: Original Series
Arguably the twelfth movie in the franchise (or the second movie in the rebooted franchise), Paramount and J.J. Abrams are showing a lot of faith by already
hiring the writers for the Star Trek "sequel". These scribes are frequent co-conspirators of Abrams: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof.
Orci and Kurtzman wrote the upcoming "first" movie (and are also responsible for the first
Transformers movie, although the bulk of the blame for that should go to Michael Bay). Lindelof is a co-creator of
Lost. Abrams is "staying within the family", as it were.
(And since the franchise is being rebooted from scratch and all the rules can now be broken, can we have Kirk fight the Borg? I've always wanted to see that.)
I know that advanced planning like this is normal in Hollywood, but In the event the movie bombs (not bloody likely, admittedly), they're going to have eggs on their collective faces for their presumptuousness.
Posted Mar 16th 2009 5:03PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Celebrities, Reality-Free, Star Trek: Original Series
Harlan Ellison is a great writer and also one guy you don't want to piss off.
He wrote the classic
Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever" (often called by best episode of the original series by fans and non-fans alike), and
now he's suing CBS-Paramount over what they have done with the story since he got paid for writing it in 1967. He got paid for the script and got residuals, but in the years after the episode aired the studio has not only published a sequel trilogy with Pocket Books based on the episode, they even had a "Guardian of Forever" talking Hallmark Christmas ornament that said Ellison's lines from his script, so he wants his money.
Continue reading Harlan Ellison suing Paramount over Star Trek stuff
Posted Mar 9th 2009 8:24AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen, OpEd, Reality-Free, Star Trek: Original Series
Star Trek will be in movie theaters on May 8, 2009, and with it the hopes and fears of Trekkers worldwide. I'm one of those longtime fans who is both excited and apprehensive about
J.J. Abrams' take on Gene Roddenberry's vision of
Wagon Train to the stars. Yes, that was once all it aspired to be. It was just going to be a TV show. Roddenberry optimistically referred to a five year mission in the intro hoping it might last that long.
Of course, that's a long, long time ago -- in a galaxy far, far away, if you mix sci-fi metaphors. Now, we're poised to see a new incarnation of
Star Trek, and
the new trailer is online. Take a look at it after the jump.
Continue reading I'm trying to be excited about the new Star Trek trailer - VIDEO
Posted Nov 22nd 2008 3:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, TV on the Bigscreen, Reality-Free, Star Trek: Original Series
Two new posters have been released for J.J. Abrams' upcoming
Star Trek movie reboot. They are of Zoe Saldana as Lieutenant Uhura and Eric Bana as the evil Romulan Nero. Large versions of both posters can be seen
here.
Zoe Saldana looks to me the spitting image of the young Nichelle Nichols. She does carry a different hairdo than Nichols (more ponytail than bouffant) in the classic
Trek but even her hairstyle seems like one women would have worn during that era. It's retro without seeming dated. Of course, unlike the original series, based on the trailer, we know that this version of Uhura will be taking off her shirt at some point.
Eric Bana's character seems like some sort of biker or a cast member of
The Road Warrior. What's with all the tattoos? My idea of the Romulans differ slightly than the director but after
seeing the kick-ass trailer in the theaters, I have more faith in Mr. Abrams' vision.
Posted Jul 10th 2008 10:20AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Video, Retro Squad, Reality-Free, Cheers
"Deedee Chappel. Get ready to unzip your pants!" - Lowell
That's one of my favorite lines in TV history, and I'm happy to say it was uttered in a show I had the pleasure of being an extra in many years ago, NBC's Wings. A great friend of mine, Suzanne, worked on the show and, since I was going out to Los Angeles for a vacation, she got me on the set as an extra. The episode was titled "If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother" and guest-starred Debbie Reynolds. It was filmed in October of 1994 and aired on November 22.
Continue reading Wings: Behind the scenes - VIDEOS
Posted Jun 19th 2008 4:20PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, TV on DVD, Reality-Free
By now, TV fans are getting used to some of their favorite shows being edited when they are released on DVD. Sometimes this is because syndicated versions of the shows are used (why I have no idea) and sometimes it's because they couldn't get the rights to use certain music/songs on the DVD so they have to take them out and/or replace them with different music. It's this latter point that has fans of The Fugitive up in arms.
For the release of The Fugitive: Season Two, Volume One (oh, I hate these volume releases, but that's for another post), CBS Home Entertainment not only replaced music in certain scenes and certain episodes, they completely stripped all of the music (except the title theme) from certain episodes and did it over with soundalike versions. They also replaced the music that plays over the closing credits.
Continue reading Fugitive fans ticked at CBS; CBS responds
Posted May 16th 2008 12:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Daytime, Talk Show
It's the end of an era today. One of the longest running syndicated talk shows is airing its last show.
The Montel Williams Show wraps today after 17 years of discussion, controversy, interviews and inspiration. But just because the show is ending, that doesn't mean Montel is going away. At the final New York City taping in March, he explained to the adoring throng, "I'm not retiring. I am stopping
The Montel Williams Show, but I am not, in any way, shape or form, stopping anything else that I'm doing."
Williams' show has actually been one of the more dignified syndicated daytime talk shows, a step above
Jerry Springer and
Maury Povich, but not quite
The View or
Ellen DeGeneres. His style could be compared to Phil Donahue, especially in his desire to be a change agent. He really cared about the people who appeared on his program; it wasn't about being a ring leader to a freak show, as Jerry is, or confronting people with DNA tests like Maury does. Montel was not into that stuff.
Continue reading Montel Williams airs his last show today
Posted May 5th 2008 12:28PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV on the Bigscreen, Video, Reality-Free
Get your paper clips and elastic bands out because there is a
MacGyver movie in the works!
According to the Dark Horizons website,
MacGyver creator Lee David Zlotoff announced over the weekend at Maker Faire 2008 that a big budget movie based on the series was in the planning stages.
Sadly, he revealed no specifics about the movie other than he got the movie rights a few years ago and has total control over the movie.
Continue reading A MacGyver movie? - VIDEO
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