the hollywood reporter-related stories
Posted Apr 6th 2009 1:09PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Programming, Reality-Free
It's strange how barely anyone has noticed that The CW has slowly started weeding out their half-hour comedies. The few that remain are stuck on Friday night. The rest, with the exception of the always interesting
Reaper, are the same tired boy-meets-girl teen dramas that every high school guy who hopes to score on his prom night has to watch and fully document.
One sitcom, however, isn't going down without a fight. It is scratching and clawing its way through earth and sand as it dangles on the edge of a cliff and tries to maintain its identity...by completely changing it.
The Hollywood Reporter says that the half-hour sitcom
The Game will completely re-pitch itself to The CW
as an hour-long comedy- drama. Some call it a "dramedy," but I like to call it a "comma" just to #*$& with people's heads.
Continue reading The Game calls for a trick play on fourth and long
Posted May 12th 2008 3:21PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Video, Web, Celebrities, Reality-Free
It seems that Alec Baldwin isn't content with starring on NBC's 30 Rock (and possibly running for office). He also wants to get into producing TV shows. Over at the Hollywood offices of The Hollywood Reporter (gah, new logo!), Baldwin pitches his new show, which he describes as both a family drama and a show where the entire cast has sex in a space capsule over and over again. He says it's a combination of Falcon Crest, Star Trek, and Girls Gone Wild.
In the video after the jump, someone off camera suggests the title Last Tango on Saturn, while Baldwin suggests Interplanetary Pie, though I don't think the networks would go for that. Maybe this is a plot they should squeeze into 30 Rock. Hey, they already had M.I.L.F. Island, right?
What's your title suggestion? How about Melrose Planet? Gossip Aliens? Sex and the Galaxy? Let us know in the comments below.
Continue reading Pick a title for Alec Baldwin's new show - VIDEO
Posted May 7th 2008 3:25PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Web, TV Squad Lists
The Hollywood Reporter has always ranked high on my list of entertainment sites, but that might change with the site's new makeover. Or rather, makeunder. It's awful! Let's break it down:
1. The Header. They've ditched
the classic logo with "Hollywood" in script font for a blocky, robotic logo (see picture). Say what?! As my TV Squad buddy,
Joel, says, "It's like changing the Ford or GE logo ... shouldn't be done." And as my other TV Squad buddy,
Bob, says, it looks like the logo for "some generic Internet business newsletter." Agree on both counts.
2. The Colors. Bland, bland, bland. Are they harking back to that old saying, "What's black and white and red all over?" Those colors just don't do it for me. Yes, I realize the old design included those colors, but not in such a "plumbing and heating business" kind of way.
Continue reading Five reasons why I hate the new HollywoodReporter.com
Posted Jun 30th 2006 11:17AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, OpEd, TNT, The Closer
According to
The Hollywood Reporter, TNT has already renewed
The Closer for a third season. The show is on fire now, and we're only three episodes into its second season. It broke a ratings record for a basic cable original scripted series with 8.3 million viewers. TNT has ordered another 15 episodes for 2007.
I started watching
The Closer when it premiered last season because I've always liked Kyra Sedgwick. She plays a great fish out of water as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson, with her 'Thank Yous' that mean a thousand things and her heinous wardrobe. I think the writing dramatically improved this year over last. Several times last year, I solved the crime at least twenty minutes before Brenda did, but so far this year the writing is more complex and storylines are getting more creative. My one request is to see Brenda fail. She can't knock it out of the park each time with suspects. I want to see how her character reacts to professional failure (we've seen her fail at her personal life time and again).
Posted May 1st 2006 8:01AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, ABC, Desperate Housewives
It's a rough spring for the cast and crew of
Desperate
Housewives. Last week, Teri Hatcher
suffered an eye injury
when a light bulb burst. And now, word that one of the show's top producers walked off the set. The Hollywood Reporter
(via
Reuters)
says that Tom Spezialy, executive producer and show runner, left the show on Friday following "an unspecified
falling out." Spezialy didn't quit but THR says he may be replaced next season.
Posted Mar 29th 2006 9:59AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, FOX, CBS, Talent, Love Monkey, The CW
Kelsey Grammer is returning to comedic television,
but only behind-the-scenes. He has agreed to direct the CBS comedy pilot,
My Ex-Life, about about two divorced
couples and the way they deal with life after divorce. Former
Love Monkey and
Ed actor Tom Cavanah
snagged a lead role in this show.
Despite a list of cancelled shows, The CW doesn't think that Wayne Brady
is bad luck. The new network has picked up a comedy pilot called
Flirt, starring Brady as the only man working
at a women's magazine.
Bo Derek has joined the cast of
Secret Obsessions, a telenovela-style,
primetime soap opera on My Network TV, the network that
FOX is creating out of its UPN stations
that
lost their affiliation earlier this
year.
Secret Obsessions is about the glamorous, yet ruthless world of fashion. Derek will play Maria Zianni, a
mega-bitch who runs a fashion corporation.
[Via
The Hollywood
Reporter]
Posted Mar 24th 2006 12:46PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Talent, Industry, Daytime
Patricia Heaton,
who spent her entire time on
Everybody Loves Raymond nagging at Ray Romano, may be the host of her own daytime
talk show.
The
Hollywood Reporter says Heaton is in talks with Buena Vista Television for a show, which would debut in 2007.
Luckily, the plans are for multiple hosts, like
The View. I say 'luckily' because, here on the West Coast, we
have to suffer through Patricia Heaton commercials for Albertsons grocery stores that make me want to throw my remote
through the television set.
Posted Feb 26th 2006 1:03PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, Talent
I may have just died and gone to heaven. I'm only
speculating here, because
The Hollywood Reporter didn't exactly say for sure, but it's a pretty good bet that
Alan Tudyk and Joshua Jackson have been cast in the same drama that's being created for CBS. Earlier this month,
I reported on Jackson landing the
lead in a Carol Mendelsohn law drama about a young lawyer whose career takes a turn when he takes a death row case.
The Hollywood
Reporter is now saying that Alan Tudyk (aka 'Wash' in
Firefly) has been cast "in CBS' untitled
Carol Mendelsohn drama". It describes the show as being about brilliant legal minds and that Tudyk will play
"a competitive and arrogant Ivy League graduate." That sounds like the same show to me. Now, if only David
Duchovny would join the cast.
Posted Feb 6th 2006 8:02AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, Celebrities
Despite his career-long hesitation to work in series
television, Ray Liotta has signed on to a new crime drama on CBS. Virginia Madsen, who had a stint on
Frasier
and co-starred in the wine-soaked flick
Sideways, has also signed on to the project. The series, called
Smith, is a crime drama told from the point of view of a crew of career criminals. Amy Smart and Franky G are
also on-board this project.
Liotta may have decided to come to television because of the producer and
director on
Smith. The producer is John Wells and the director is Christopher Chulack, both of whom Liotta
worked with when he had a guest appearance on
ER. Wells is an
ER producer and Chulack directed
Liotta's episode, called
Time of Death.
I like the idea of a crime show from the other perspective.
Sure, there's
The Sopranos on HBO but we haven't seen a new episode forever and they're about to end the
series. I'm tired of all the cop and court shows on television. It's time to root for the bad guy!
[Via
The Hollywood
Reporter]
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