Posted Nov 21st 2009 1:07PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Steven and Stephen are getting together. That is to say that Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks TV are working with Stephen King to make a television
movie based on King's latest novel Under The Dome.
The novel is about one of those small New England towns that King enjoys writing about suddenly finding itself trapped in a force field. Unlike
The Simpsons Movie, the concept is not played for humorous effect.
The idea is reminiscent of those stories where people are trapped in a confined space and lawlessness sets in. There have been many similar concepts done in TV and film, although I can't think of any particular ones off the top of my head.
As he gets older, King's television presence becomes less. For a few years it seemed like a different TV show based on his work was being produced every year. He may be starting that again. So much for retirement.
Posted Nov 20th 2009 6:02PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
The producers of
Tin Man, Syfy's dark and splashy spin on
The Wizard of Oz, are back with
Alice, a twisted take on Lewis Carroll's classic
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In a conference call with reporters,
Alice director Nick Willing and star Caterina Scorsone talked flying flamingos, Tweedledee and Tweedledum's torture tactics, and what Wonderland would look like 150 years after Alice's original adventure.
We'll have an advance review of
Alice next week, but for now you can head after the jump for an inside look at the miniseries, premiering December 6 on Syfy. Spoilers follow.
Continue reading Going through the looking glass with Syfy's Alice
Posted Nov 20th 2009 12:38PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Oh my God! It's a zombie! Quick! Get a shovel or something heavy that will remove a human head or destroy its brain! Yes, TV shows can become zombies too.
NBC has revived its once doomed drama
Trauma giving it a full 13 episode order plus a few more after
they canceled it last month.
What made the network breathe life back into the expensive action drama? Apparently the show saw a brief boost in the ratings and NBC had a change of heart, assuming of course that they have one in the first place.
Posted Nov 18th 2009 6:31PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, The Daily Show, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
The second funniest guy on
The Daily Show named John is finally getting his own corner of Comedy Central's airspace.
John Oliver has been tapped by the network to do a six part stand-up series cleverly titled
John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show. The specials will feature Oliver's signature stand-up as well as performances from his personal favorite comedians including Janeane Garofalo, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins and fellow
Daily Show correspondent Kristen Schaal.
This is bound to be a real treat. If you haven't seen Oliver's stand-up either in person or from the comfort of your living room, you are missing out on some quality, edgy satire. His first special,
Terrifying Times, was a real eye opener on American culture, politics and media. It should have been by the CIA as evidence to put Domino's on the "no fly" list (if you saw his special, that makes more sense, sort of).
Posted Nov 17th 2009 11:06AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Chris Elliott is quite possibly the most famous person few people have heard of. His early '90s sitcom
Get A Life is a classic and he's had runs on TV shows like
Late Night With David Letterman and
Everybody Loves Raymond as well as some memorable movie cameos. And now he's in
a new TV show.
It's called
Eagleheart and it's about an over-the-hill action star who uses his television show of the same name "as a soapbox for his right-wing politics and conservative paranoia". He'll likely be more carictaure than character. Is the character based on Chuck Norris, I wonder?
It is produced by Conan O'Brien's production company. Conan actually co-created a pilot with similar themes (an over-the-hill star trying to remain relevant) in the early 90's called
Lookwell starring Adam West.
It's got the right star and the concept certainly sounds amusing. But did it have to be Cartoon Network? Isn't the word "cartoon" in the network's title? Yet another example of
channel drift.
Posted Nov 16th 2009 11:04AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Okay, maybe it's not a "clone" per se, but the premise reads like an episode of
The Big Bang Theory. Coming to NBC: a group of small-town fanboys try to make continuing episodes of their favorite sci fi series after it is canceled. Larry Charles, who was behind such fare as
Seinfeld,
Curb Your Enthusiasm,
Borat and
Bruno,
will be behind the production.
The new idea is also "semi-scripted", which means it'll likely be heavily improvised much like most of the series and movies that Charles has been involved with. Warner Bros. TV is the company producing and they also do
The Big Bang Theory, so they're in effect competing with themselves. This is a good thing because they win either way.
Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing this premise played out on an episode of
The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon gets the idea and, using his sly coercive techniques, makes everybody else play along. Since he knows no other females, he coerces Penny (who is an aspiring actress anyway) to play the token female in the series. Quick! Call Chuck Lorre!
Posted Nov 13th 2009 12:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Josh Friedman, the creator behind
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, is now
getting behind another movie franchise to bring to ABC. This time it's
Charlie's Angels. Okay, this one started as a television franchise then moved to the movies and now is moving back to TV. Well, you get the idea.
Also involved would be Leonard Goldberg, who worked with Aaron Spelling to produce the original series, and Drew Barrymore, who produced and starred in the movie versions. My guess is that this new version would something like
Charlie's Angels: The Next Generation. Will John Forsythe return as the voice of Charlie? I hope so.
Revival-mania continues strong on network television. Success has been a mixed bag. For every
Battlestar Galactica there are several
Bionic Womans. A new version of
Charlie's Angels certainly has a shot in today's market and the movies did well. Aaron Spelling tried to revive the franchise in '88 and that didn't work. Now could be a better time. What do you think?
Posted Nov 10th 2009 2:30PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Cancellations, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
A couple of weeks ago, I did a post about the shows that were "on the bubble," the ones in danger of being canceled. Now AOL TV has
given the odds on what shows might not be coming back.
A lot of shows on the list won't surprise us:
Hank,
The Forgotten,
Numb3rs,
Gary Unmarried, and
'Til Death (each either gets low ratings or has been on for a while), but there are several that I think will actually make it to a another season, including
The Good Wife and
Parks and Recreation.
Continue reading What are the odds your favorite (or least favorite) show will be canceled?
Posted Nov 10th 2009 10:41AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
CBS has picked up a new comedy based on the
ramblings of someone's father from a Twitter account called
Shit My Dad Says. The title will likely change when it gets to the small screen.
Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are behind it so it has some legs.
The creator of the Twitter account, Justin Halpern, has become an Internet star. Actually, this is the second Twitter account to get a sitcom, the first being TextsFromLastNight (which is being produced by Sony TV and Adam Sandler's people).
Based on the sample tweets, I can see this actually working as a sitcom where a twenty-something or early thirty-something is forced to live back with his parents. His father would be a pessimistic Larry David or Ricky Gervais character, saying awkward things all the time to humorous effect. I think the only trick would be to tone down the profanity, or perhaps just use bleeping.
This is why I have to start a Twitter account.
Posted Nov 9th 2009 11:02AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Cartoon Network is getting deeper into the live action series game.
Yes, I know that's like Fox Sports getting into the daytime soap opera business, but you can't get too upset about the network inappropriate name game. Remember when Bravo was the fine arts network? I rest my case.
As for
Cartoon Network's new non-animated shows, a release from the network says
Tower Prep and
Unnatural History are headed our way in January, 2010.
According to the network, Tower Prep is "an action thriller telling the story of rebellious teen, Ian (Drew Van Acker), who wakes up one morning to find himself trapped at a mysterious prep school." In other words, it's a teenage remake of
The Prisoner -- the original 1960s version -- or "Jim Henson's
The Prisoner Babies."
Continue reading Ironically-named Cartoon Network picks up live action shows
Posted Nov 9th 2009 9:33AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Curb Your Enthusiasm reruns are
coming to basic cable. First they will be shown on the TV Guide Channel next year (doesn't everybody get that channel? I thought it was just a guide to what's on television. They have shows?) and then TV Land in 2013. Any event that brings Larry David's sense of humor to the masses can only be a good thing (Who had the idea for the humor in awkward situations first, Larry or Ricky Gervais?).
Mind you, the show's language is somewhat racy for basic cable. There will be some bleeping here and there. At least there's no prevalent nudity in any episode that I recall. There is some adult subject matter, but nothing basic cable hasn't seen before. Hey, if
The Sopranos can make it to basic cable then Larry David should have no problem.
Given Susie Essman's vocabulary on the series, she may have every third word bleeped. That could possibly make her lines even funnier.
Posted Nov 6th 2009 8:04PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Sports, News, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Part of me is surprised that this deal took this long to happen. But when you watch the recent crop of new shows on the Chortle Network (with the exception of
Tosh.0), it really shouldn't surprise anyone.
Comedy Central has ordered a half-hour scripted pilot based on the Onion's Sports Network. The OSN is part of the popular satirical magazine's
online TV news network that launched a little under a year ago.
This isn't the first time the network has tried to do a satirical sports show. Comedy Central also shot a pilot for a
Daily Show-esque sports show called
Sports Central that died in the pilot stage. This incarnation sounds much more promising since it will spoof not only sports figures and stories, but also the tone and style of sports media. Sweet sassy molassey, this is gonna rock!
Posted Nov 5th 2009 5:03PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
I'm all for more Westerns on television. It's a genre that lends itself well to the ongoing storytelling format that a regular TV series allows. So when I saw an article that FX was gearing up
Reconstruction, a series set in the post-Civil War era of American history, I was pretty excited.
Creators Joshua Brand and Peter Horton thought it would make a good allegory for today's world, dealing with the economic crisis and even the ongoing war. "How does one heal after (a war)? How do you find your humanity again?" asked Horton. These are things the show hopes to deal with.
It centers around Jason, an East Coaster who comes back from the war changed. He finds refuge in a small town in Missour, where the saga will unfold. All of this was great, until I got to one line in the
Reuters story: "Brand, the co-creator of
St. Elsewhere, is
writing the script for the project, which will include magical elements, with
thirtysomething actor-turned-director Horton attached to take the helm." Magical elements? What?! Why?
Continue reading FX is bringing back the Western with Reconstruction
Posted Nov 5th 2009 11:10AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
The Cartoon Network is stepping away from cartoons yet again. This time they're
creating a new reality show in which scrawny teenaged boys ages 13 to 16 will be put through high-tech training an effort to stop them from being bullied or to get back property that has been borrowed and not returned. The series will be called
Going Commando. Insert joke here.
I'm somewhat ambivalent on this show. On one hand, teaching kids problem-solving skills is a great idea. On the other hand, the show should also teach the kids the discipline needed to use their knowledge for good rather than evil (perhaps the show could be sponsored by Google?).
I'm sure many of us nerdy types were bullied in our youth and would have enjoyed the use of "night vision, hydro reconnaissance or rappelling" in an effort to fix the problem or at least make it go away. So what do you think? Is this program a good idea or a disaster waiting to happen?
Posted Nov 4th 2009 9:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
CBS Monday night comedies have been doing pretty well so far this season, as far as the ratings are concerned.
The Big Bang Theory is challenging
Two and a Half Men for top Nielsens for a sitcom;
How I Met Your Mother is doing as well or better than last year, and the new kid on the block,
Jenna Elfman in
Accidentally on Purpose, has benefited by being smackdab in the middle of all that established comic success.
CBS has ordered five additional episodes of Accidentally on Purpose. It's not a ringing endorsement, but it does give the show a chance to improve on what it's done thus far.
Continue reading CBS orders a bit more Accidentally on Purpose
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