the middleman-related stories
Posted Sep 8th 2009 10:02AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Casting, Reality-Free

Somehow I don't think this new gig will be as much fun as her old one. But out of love for
The Middleman, I will be happy that
Natalie Morales has been upgraded to series regular on White Collar. The job started as a two-episode guest spot, so I guess somebody was impressed with our Dub-Dub. If I can't have one of the best shows of the past several years, I should at least be satisfied when the people that brought it to life find new gigs.
The premise of
White Collar puts it in that procedural category that generally doesn't appeal to me. But the twist on the formula is fairly novel. Con artist captured by the Feds offers to work with them to nab other criminals in exchange for his freedom. Morales joins the mix as a junior FBI agent who has enough smarts and attitude to hold her own with both the men in uniform and the criminals they're tackling.
Continue reading It's a White Collar job for The Middleman's Natalie Morales
Posted Aug 2nd 2009 3:01PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Celebrities, Reality-Free, Comic-Con

When the San Diego Comic-Con opened its doors to allow
every corner of television onto their floors, they weren't kidding. After seeing the roster of panels, I'm surprised the original panel from PBS's
Washington Week didn't field questions from guys dressed in Transformer cosplay.
Apparently, Warner Brothers set up a panel for just about every television show that have in development including Patricia Heaton's new ABC sitcom
The Middle, making it the most "fish out of water" selection for a panel at the geek confab.
And so did the geeks in attendance. The panel only drew
around 75 attendees and studio heads ordered Heaton not to introduce the panel because the crowd was too small.
Continue reading And the most out of place Comic-Con panel award goes to...
Posted Jul 27th 2009 6:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.I have a feeling a lot of DVD sets are going to be sold this week. Rabid fans of
Battlestar Galactica,
Dollhouse,
Doctor Who, and
Torchwood all have something to buy. If you didn't/don't watch any of those shows ... well, you can always buy season two of
The Donna Reed Show. That's one classic sitcom that I never really got into. Not sure why. I loved
Leave it to Beaver and
I Love Lucy and
Father Knows Best, but not
The Donna Reed Show. Probably because it wasn't on as much as those other shows.
- Battlestar Galactica - Season 4.5 and Complete Series
- Doctor Who - Planet of the Dead
- Dollhouse - Season 1
Continue reading New TV on DVD releases this week
Posted Jul 24th 2009 5:05PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free, Comic-Con

Wouldn't it be great if
The Middleman DVD, available July 28, sold so well that ABC Family had no choice but to put the show back in production? Of course it would. There wasn't a smarter or more clever show of its type on television at the time (sorry
Chuck).
Laura Hudson had a chance to sit down with the series creator in San Diego. In her interview over at
Comics Alliance,
Javier Grillo-Marxauch says that if DVD sales are great, The Middleman would probably go back into production. I suspect his enthusiasm had more to do with the excitement that comes with being at San Diego than anything ABC Family has indicated.
The fans stopping at the booth are excited about the show and that fever can be infectious. They'll do what they can to spread the word, but I just don't think that fan-base is big enough to change the network's minds. Or that ABC Family is interested enough to care.
Continue reading Could the Middleman follow Family Guy and Futurama back into production?
Posted Feb 16th 2009 3:08PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Casting, Reality-Free, Dollhouse

I first noticed actor Matt Keeslar in Whit Stillman's 1998 comedy
The Last Days of Disco. In that film, Keelsar played a squeaky-clean FBI agent who stood out like a sore thumb among all the coked-up club owners and yuppie partygoers on the screen. His straight man-routine -- and his hilarious dissection of
Lady and the Tramp -- is unforgettable, and it's one of the best things about the film. I'm sure that performance helped him land the title role in
The Middleman.
Continue reading It's The Middleman vs. Echo on Dollhouse
Posted Feb 2nd 2009 1:08PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Reality-Free

ABC Family
announced its new lineup this week. The cable network's upcoming slate is full of what some might call "chick TV" with female-oriented series like
Perfect 10,
Ruby and the Rockits and
10 Things I Hate About You (yep, it's based on the movie) all receiving 10-episode orders.
This might be good news for young female TV-addicts, but sci-fi fans are no doubt bummed that
Kyle XY and
The Middleman will not be returning to the network.
Kyle XY will end after its current third season, and the prognosis is not good for the wonderfully zany
Middleman. Though the fate of
The Middleman was not mentioned in the new lineup announcement, it's probably fair to say that we've seen the last of Matt Keeslar and Natalie Morales fighting talking apes and evil Lucha Libre wrestlers. According to
SyFy Portal, sources at ABC Family say the network has no plans to order any new episodes of
The Middleman, and Morales seems to have moved on. She's starring in the
Boldly Going Nowhere pilot, which is expected to be picked up by Fox.
Continue reading The Middleman is probably dead, but fans can look forward to DVD
Posted Dec 4th 2008 3:02PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: OpEd, Desperate Housewives, Smallville, TV Squad Lists, Eli Stone, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl, The Mentalist, The Big Bang Theory

A little over two years ago,
Joel posted about
five episode naming patterns such as
Friends' episode titles always starting with "The One" or
Grey's Anatomy's usage of songs in lieu of titles. Since many series have come and gone since Joel first posted about episode naming patterns, let's revisit the subject. After all, episode titles are an integral part of a TV series and can add to the viewers' entertainment.
Here I bring you a list of seven episode naming patterns of series that currently air on a TV near you.
Continue reading Seven shows with episode naming patterns
Posted Jul 15th 2008 1:15PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Episode Reviews, The Middleman

(S01E05) The basics of the show are established by the fifth episode and now it's up to the characters and the premise to sustain it. With this episode,
The Middleman proves that it knows how to dance that fine balance between the campy silliness of its plotlines and snappy dialog and the deeper relationships between the principal cast.
I wasn't sure early on if Wendy's supporting cast, namely Lacey and Noser, were going to work in the long run on the show, but I think the normalcy they represent in Wendy's life is as important as the work-driven lunacy that the Middleman and Ida represent. In fact, those two are almost caricatures in their personality, which juxtaposes them even moreso with Noser and Lacey, who are gaining depth and complexity without sacrificing the innate quirkiness that made them work in the first place.
Continue reading The Middleman: The Flying Fish Zombification
Posted Jul 7th 2008 9:42AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Video, Web, Reality-Free, The Middleman
I don't know a lot of people who really like Mondays. Off the top of my head, the only one that comes to mind is Seattle radio personality The Groz.
The Groz loves Mondays. Most of us, I think, would prefer that Monday was another stop on our weekend tour. It makes it hard to get things going on occasion. If you're having that problem, I have just the cure. A girl in a bear costume, dancing to the title track from that Camp Rock movie. It's embedded after the jump, and really, it will brighten your day.
The scene is an outtake/bonus cut from last week's episode of The Middleman, where we learned of Lacey's fondness for dressing up in a bear costume. But wait, there's more. That little gem came from the Livejournal of Middleman head honcho Javier Grillo-Marxuach. It's a handy link to keep checking back to. And if the dancing bear isn't enough Middleman goodness for you, head on over to ABC Family and watch the entire table read for the episode "The Sino-Mexican Revolution." It's a fun behind the scenes look.
Continue reading It's Monday, here's a dancing bear - VIDEO
Posted Jul 3rd 2008 11:23AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Video, The Closer, Reality-Free
All things considered, the summer television season is off to a pretty good start. I've been enjoying My Boys, The Middleman, Fear Itself, and So You Think You Can Dance, to name a few. The schedules might be a little heavy with the reality programming at the moment, but that's changing soon enough. Over the next few weeks we have the likes of Eureka, Psych, Burn Notice, Stargate: Atlantis, Monk, The Closer, and Saving Grace all making their returns.
With those last two in mind, I thought I would point everyone to some handy recaps the fine folks over at TNT put together to get us back up to speed before the shows return on July 14th. Each of the videos manages to crunch the last season down to about four and a half minutes, and I've embedded them after the jump.
Continue reading Catching up with The Closer and Saving Grace - VIDEOS
Posted Jul 1st 2008 11:20AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Industry, Programming, OpEd, PVR Wire, Reality-Free

At least that's the somewhat sarcastic conclusion I'm jumping to. As I started watching the east coast feed, an email bounced into the TV Squad inbox from reader 'Jay.' He noted that when he tried to record The Middleman on his PC, he was greeted with an error message. I had to wait three hours for the regular airing on the left coast, but I dusted off an old Media Center PC and got that very same error, as you see in the picture. I like to think that Wendy is showing her shock and outrage at the snafu in that shot. But wait, there's more ... after the jump.
Continue reading ABC Family doesn't want you to watch The Middleman
Posted Jun 30th 2008 4:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 8, ABC has two new episodes of The Bachelorette, followed by a new episode of The Mole.
- NBC has a new American Gladiators, then a new, two hour Nashville Star.
- USA has the U.S. Olympic Trials at 8, then a new Monday Night RAW.
- At 9, PBS has a new History Detectives.
- Food Network has a new Unwrapped at 9, about cereal.
- There's a new World Poker Tour on GSN at 9.
- VH-1 has A Concert For Nelson Mandela at 9.
- At 10, ABC Family has a new episode of The Middleman.
- Showtime has a new Weeds at 10, followed by a new Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
- Food Network has a new Drive-Ins, Diners, and Dives at 10.
- E! has a new The Soup Presents at 10.
- Also at 10: MTV has a new Legally Blonde.
Check your local TV listings for more.
Posted Jun 23rd 2008 4:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 8, ABC has a new episode of The Bachelorette, followed by a new episode of The Mole.
- NBC has a new American Gladiators at 8, then a new Nashville Star.
- USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 8.
- ABC Family has a new episode of The Middleman at 8.
- There's a new Good Eats on Food Network at 8.
- History Channel has a new Modern Marvels at 8.
- Also at 8: TCM has the Harold Lloyd movie Movie Crazy.
- At 9, GSN has a new World Poker Tour.
- At 10, Food Network has a new Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
- MTV has a new Legally Blonde at 10.
- VH-1 has a new I Love The Millennium at 10.
- Showtime has a new Weeds at 10.
Check your local TV listings for more.
Posted Jun 16th 2008 4:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 8, ABC has two new episodes of The Bachelorette, then a new episode of The Mole.
- NBC has a new American Gladiators at 8, followed by new episodes of Nashville Star and Dateline.
- ABC Family has the series premiere of The Middleman at 8 (repeated at 9).
- At 9, USA has a new Monday Night RAW.
- Lifetime has the movie The Memory Keeper's Daughter at 9.
- Food Network has a new Unwrapped at 9.
- At 9:45, HBO has a First Look at the Get Smart movie.
- At 10, Showtime has the season premiere of Weeds, then the series debut of Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
Check your local TV listings for more.
Posted Jun 14th 2008 9:02AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Web, Celebrities, Reality-Free
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