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For their first year at Comic-Con, Summit Entertainment may have brought three films to present, but the crowd only cared about one: “Twilight,” the much-anticipated adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s novel about a normal teenage girl who falls in love with a centuries-old vampire. That particular panel was so popular, in fact, that 20th Century Fox actually benefited from preceding it, yielding nearly twice the audience they would have attracted had the thousands of teenage girls and middle-aged women not camped out for primo seating. Of course, Comic-Con is all about waiting, so the best was saved for last, while the rest of the audience was subjected to sit through presentations for two of the most unoriginal sci-fi movies ever made. Push (guests: director Paul McGuigan and stars Chris Evans, Camilla Belle and Djimon Honsou) 
Paul McGuigan’s “Push” desperately wants to differentiate itself from the pack as a sci-fi actioneer about psychics living in the real world, but if there’s one thing I learned from watching the opening sequence and listening to the cast talk about the film, it’s that movies like these are rarely good. When you add to that the fact that Djimon Honsou had absolutely no interest in talking about the film (let alone even remembered anything about the character he played), and you have to ask yourself: if the actors themselves aren’t interested, how the hell is the audience supposed to get excited? Thank God for Chris Evans, then, for doing his absolute best to explain everything he possibly could about the movie’s complicated plot, as well as serve as the comic relief. Dakota Fanning was late to the panel, and therefore was unable to offer up her two cents (which might have been helpful, since she is the protagonist of the film), but I don’t think even she could have helped matters. The crazy “Twilight” fans had only one thing on their mind, while the rest of us simply couldn’t wait to get it over with. Knowing (guest: director Alex Proyas) Director Alex Proyas is probably best known for making one of the most underrated films of the past decade (“Dark City”), so why does his latest movie look so bad? A sci-fi tale about a mathematical cipher that has correctly predicted every major disaster of the past 50 years (cue obligatory reference to 9/11), there’s something so eerily familiar about the set-up of “Knowing” that it’s hard to imagine it took Proyas so long to work out the specifics of the story. The movie feels like a hybrid of “A Beautiful Mind” and “Déjà Vu,” but with Nicolas Cage hamming it up as a man who is convinced that the cipher really works. Cage appeared in a similar movie just last year (the pre-cog film, “Next”), and it really makes you wonder why he signed up for something so similar so soon. The trailer (which has been available on the web for weeks) is pretty unimpressive, but the movie just feels like a disaster of its own. It would have been nice to learn more about the story, but because Proyas was so hush-hush about the plot, it seemed almost pointless that he came to present anything at all. Filed under: Movies and News and External Movies and Comic-Con and Comic Con Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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After pulling out of Comic-Con last year, the suits over at 20th Century Fox must have gotten a mouthful from fans looking forward to the studio’s 2007 slate of films. It only seems fitting, then, that Fox chose to make their grand return as the first presentation at this year’s Con, offering up previews for two of their more geek-friendly films, as well as an unexpected surprise that might just be the highlight of the entire weekend. More on that later, but first… The Day the Earth Stood Still (guests: director Scott Derrickson and stars Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connolly)
The spaceship, on the other hand, has been given a complete overhaul, and while I can’t exactly describe it in full, I will say that it looks a lot like a rotating planet. As for those involved, well, Keanu Reeves should definitely add to the campiness factor. His Klaatu doesn’t seem to be very different from past roles, and his vapid appearance onstage only seems to confirm that while he may seem like a great choice to play an emotionless alien, it doesn’t exactly help with the credibility of the project. This is one of those films where, after seeing some footage, I was neither intrigued nor put off, and while that doesn’t exactly denote that the film will be bad, it didn’t seem like the best way to kick off Comic-Con. Filed under: Movies and News and External Movies and Comic-Con and Comic Con Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
I’m not exactly sure if anyone was hunkering for a remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic, but from the response in the audience, it might just have a chance come this December. Updated with an A-list cast and special effects that obviously weren’t around 50 years ago, director Scott Derrickson seems adamant that his version can bring in new fans without losing any old ones. In order to do this, he had to be careful not to remove any of the essential elements that people loved about the original, and yes, that includes Gort. The director spoke in length about the creation of the infamous robot (including some pre-production sketches that featured him in human form), but from the little footage that we did see, it appears that Gort hasn’t changed much at all. He looks a little bigger in size, but his trademark, Cylon-like visor remains intact.
Created as part of a trilogy of animated series in 2005, “Transformers: Cybertron” is everything the new Cartoon Network-produced series ought to be. It never forgets for a moment that it’s a show about giant fucking robots, and though the action rarely lets up, it also has an original story that makes sense within the official canon. As it goes, the Transformers’ have been forced to seek refuge on Earth following the formation of a black hole near their planet. The Autobots are ordered to lay low, but Megatron and his fellow Decepticons begin scouring the universe for the Cyber Planet Keys – ancient artifacts with the power to save their home world. With the help of Vector Prime (one of the original 13 Transformers), the Autobots are tasked with tracking down the Cyber Planet Keys first, or risk suffering the consequences of Megatron’s evil ways. Jammed to the gills with Transformers (including the normal variety, as well as Mini-Cons and “Beast Wars”-like animal bots), “Cybertron” has been designed especially with fans in mind. Some might complain about the human characters that befriend the Autobots in the first episode, but compared to other iterations, the three kids that appear here are actually important to the story. The only real complaint that could be made is that the mix of animation styles (anime for humans, CG for robots) is a bit disconcerting. The other two shows in what many have called the “Unicron Trilogy” (“Armada” and “Energon”) were completely hand-drawn, and as such, they looked much better. Still, if you don’t want to blow hundreds of dollars tracking down the original series, and you’re looking for a bit of an upgrade anyways, “Cybertron” might just be your best bet. Click to buy “Transformers: Cybertron - The Complete Series” Filed under: TV DVDs and External TV and TV Anime and TV DVD Quicktakes Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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I’ve finally arrived in sunny San Diego, and while I wait for the plane carrying my Comic-Con roomies (Film School Reject’s Neil Miller, Kevin Carr and Brian Gibson) to land, it seemed like a good idea to discuss what goodies are in store over the next couple of days. Though last year’s Con may have seemed bigger, the studios (sans Paramount, of course) aren’t holding back with the amount of films and TV series being promoted during this year’s event. Below, you’ll find a list of the panels I plan on covering during my stay, as well as a little insight into the ones I’m especially looking forward to.
20th Century Fox kicks off Thursday with an exclusive look at the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and the big-screen adaptation of “Max Payne,” and along with having Keanu Reeves and Mark Wahlberg in person to discuss their latest projects, both films also promise to have plenty of footage to show off. Following Fox’s panels will be ones for Summit Entertainment’s trio of sci-fi/fantasy films (“Push,” “Knowing,” and the much-hyped “Twilight”) and Disney’s remake/sequel of “Race to Witch Mountain.” The day gets much better from there, however, as Warner Bros.’ first of many Comic-Con panels will include exclusive looks at Guy Ritchie’s newest film, “Rocknrolla,” and the Wachowski brothers’ “Ninja Assassin” (top right), which could erase the bad memories of their last film quicker than you can say “Go, go, Speed Racer!” Neither film is a particularly high-profile release, but suffice it to say, I’m really excited for both. Rounding out the first day will be Lionsgate’s late-night trio of panels for “Punisher: War Zone,” “Saw V” and “Repo: The Genetic Opera.” Of those three films, only “Repo” really interests me, and I can’t wait to see if Darren Lynn Bousman’s rock opera really can be the successor to “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” If Thursday is the appetizer, then Friday is the main course. The day begins with the most anticipated panel of the Con as Warner Bros. brings director Zack Snyder and the cast of “Watchmen” (bottom right) to the illustrious Hall H to show off footage from the film and talk about the difficulties of adapting the greatest graphic novel in history. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this wasn’t my most anticipated panel of the weekend as well, but I still wish Snyder had held off on premiering the official trailer until after everyone at Comic-Con saw it first. The rest of the day is packed with plenty of other treats including a panel dedicated to Rick Baker’s makeup work on Universal’s “The Wolfman,” a first-look at Warner Bros.’ “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” and an Entertainment Weekly Visionaries panel with directors Zack Snyder, Judd Apatow, Frank Miller and Kevin Smith. And speaking of Miller and Smith, both men will also be headlining panels for their own films (Lionsgate’s “The Spirit” and The Weinstein Co.’s “Zack and Miri Make A Porno,” respectively), a double-header that should prove to be jam-packed with laughs. After all, there’s only one thing better than seeing Samuel L. Jackson in person, and that’s seeing Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Smith in the same night.
Saturday isn’t quite as star-studded as Friday, but there’s still plenty to look forward to. Last year, I was unable to catch any of the TV panels due to their overlapping time schedules with the movie-related stuff, but apparently, NBC’s “Heroes” and ABC’s “Lost” have become such cultural icons that they’ve finally been deemed ready for the big show. This year, the cast and crews behind both shows will be holding panels in the enormous Hall H, and thanks to my colleague Will Harris’ excellent coverage at the TCA over the past two weeks, I might just be able to sit back and enjoy. Then again, I’m sure there will be plenty of exclusive news and footage released to the Comic-Con crowd, so expect to hear something on that front. Also being featured in some capacity on Saturday is Warner Bros.’ “Terminator: Salvation” (sans Christian Bale, unfortunately), Pixar’s new film “Up,” and a Universal panel dedicated to upcoming releases like “The Mummy 3” and “Death Race,” as well as a first-look at “Land of the Lost.” Sony wraps up the night in style with the boys of “Pineapple Express,” and though I missed out on Seth Rogen and Co.’s antics last year during the “Superbad” panel, there’s no way I’m skipping out this time around. Expect big laughs and tons of footage. For anyone that’s still around, Sunday is the day for catching up (on work, sleep, and anything else you may be seriously deprived of), but that doesn’t mean there still aren’t a few things going on. If time permits, I hope to check out panels for Focus Features’ “Hamlet 2,” the DVD release of New Line’s “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay” (where Neil Patrick Harris will likely be asked more about “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog” than his work on the film), and Warner Bros.’s “Friday the 13th” reboot. Like I said, nothing particularly exciting, but news is news. Filed under: Movies and News and Comic-Con and Comic Con Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
Much like M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening,” “The Last Winter” is an eco-thriller that tries so hard to deliver its Big Message that it forgets all about being scary. Set in Northern Alaska where oil pumps beneath the ground like blood in veins, the film stars Ron Perlman as Ed Pollack, the leader of a small team of oil scouts who have just discovered that not all is right with the frozen tundra. The group’s resident scientist (James Le Gros) warns Pollack that the permafrost is melting (thus making it impossible for the oil rigs to be delivered by truck), but before he can do anything about it, his fellow team members are slowly driven crazy and then killed by some unseen evil. Ridiculous on so many levels, “The Last Winter” is indeed terrifying, but not like you might think. The performances are wooden, while the long stretches of silence (supposedly meant to add to the suspense) just make it that much easier to fall asleep. Of course, when the audience is finally shown the evil that’s causing all of this, you simply won’t believe your eyes. I’m not one for spoilers, but the nature spirit that’s punishing these people for simply doing their jobs looks like Harry Potter’s Patronus. No joke. It’s literally a blue, CGI spirit in the shape of a moose, and while I applaud writer/director Larry Fesseden for attempting to comment on the world’s ecological troubles by way of a horror film, he’s better off just leaving that sort of stuff to people like Al Gore. Filed under: Movie DVDs and Reviews and External Movie DVDs and Movie DVD Quicktakes Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
 Well, as I mentioned a few posts ago, I wasn’t around for any of The CW’s panels after their “90210″ presentation…which, as it happens, was their very first panel. Fortunately, however, the beauty of being a member of the TCA is that I can still provide you with highlights from the panels I missed. God bless transcripts, that’s what I say… Even before we offer up the “90210″ coverage, however, let’s take a gander the info that emerged from the executive session hosted by the President of Entertainment at The CW, Ms. Dawn Ostroff.
* Like last year, The CW brought us details of a new reality show. This time, however, it’s not as underwhelming a pitch as “Crowned” or “Farmer Wants A Wife.” Not that I didn’t end up watching those shows, but “13 - Fear is Real” is one that I actually want to watch, since it’s executive-produced by Sam Raimi and Jay Bienstock. “The best way to describe this show is ‘The Blair Witch Project’ as a reality show,” said Ostroff. “It’s a competition show, but there’s certainly a lot of tension, a lot of fear, and it’s different. There’s an environment that they created in the bayou of Louisiana where, of course, they know it’s a reality show, but the intensity of the situation that they’re living in and the kinds of challenges that they’re faced with really feel real to them while they’re in it. This is hot off of the editing bay…this week, as a matter of fact…and it was shocking to see how invested these contestants were. I mean, they really felt the horror.” * There wasn’t much “Reaper” news, unfortunately, except that it definitely has a place on the schedule in mid-season. “It’s a great show for us to have in our arsenal,” said Ostroff. “It’s a show that we believe in, which is why we picked it up.” Yeah, but let’s call a spade a spade: they only believed in it enough to pick it up as a mid-season replacement, not for a full season. We can only hope that, come mid-season, the show’s fanbase has built up enough steam to keep it rolling for a third year. * There is currently no plan for another season of “Beauty and the Geek.” There is also no formal word of cancellation, however. * And I’ve saved this bit for last because, frankly, I don’t want to believe it, but…ugh…Ostroff claims to have been happy with the time-jump on “One Tree Hill.” “Our expectations were we would do something different that felt, certainly, in line with the show, because the actors had gotten older,” Ostroff said, “and they were excited about the idea of playing characters closer to their real age. We know that when characters often go into college years on a show, it’s sort of hard to keep them together, and the storylines aren’t quite as relatable, so the idea of jumping the show four years forward, having the characters outside of college, in the working world, being young adults, just felt like the time was right. We knew we would have interesting storylines for each of the characters, and Mark Schwahn is just a really good writer. He took all of these characters and put them into young adulthood, created new arcs, new situations, and the show had a renaissance. I mean, it was a great idea, and it really did pay off for us.” Pft. The results still felt trite to me, and I’m not backing down on this. Okay, now we move on to… Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Dramas and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and Reality TV and Fall TV Preview and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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It’s rather gratifying to see Showtime continue to grow into its own as a premium cable network that can compete with HBO. For so long, they were hovering just a shade higher than Cinemax in the eyes of viewers (I don’t know about anyone else, but I distinctly remember seeing many a bare breast on the network back in the day), but now they’ve got a reputation for having at least as much quality original programming as the folks over at Home Box Office, and their popularity is such that the network earned their own executive session.
Matthew Blank offered us a heartfelt introduction, along with the announcement that “Inside the NFL” will be coming to Showtime next season, then promptly passed the buck to Robert Greenblatt, the network’s President of Entertainment, who provided us with several other revelations about upcoming programming: * Coming soon: “The United States of Tara,” which stars Toni Collette and John Corbett, is executive-produced and based on an idea by Steven Spielberg, and is written by Diablo Cody. * There are very serious discussions about an “L-Word” spin-off, though it seems to exist predominantly on paper at this stage of the game. “Eileen Chaiken is creating that for us,” said Greenblatt. “We’re going to be shooting it right after ‘The L Word’ wraps this year, and it will star one of the girls from ‘The L Word’ as a sort of crossover. The storyline at the end of ‘The L Word,’ the final episode in the final season, there will be an open-ended component to it. And Eileen is going to carry that story along on the Internet, which we think is an interesting way to keep ‘The L Word’ experience going. Then if we decide to go ahead with the spin-off that storyline will segue into the new series.” He would not, however, commit to which girl was intended as the star of the spin-off, mostly because the actress hasn’t even been told that she’s under consideration yet! * Another season of “Penn & Teller: Bullshit!” has been ordered, and with this 7th season, it will officially become the longest-running series in the history of Showtime. * There will be a new reality documentary series called “Locked and Loaded,” which is not about Denis Leary but, rather, about a gun store in rural Colorado. Greenblatt described the series as “sort of a fly-on-the-wall show. You see many, many different kinds of people coming into a gun store, and you see the reasons why they buy handguns and rifles and all kinds of other things.” * Based on the creative success (but, ultimately, due in no small part to the ratings success) of “Weeds,” the network has ordered two more 13-episode seasons of the show. * After much discussion on the ‘net about the possibility, Greenblatt confirmed that the Edie Falco pilot, currently known as “Nurse Jackie” (a title which may or may not stick), has been ordered to series. She plays what Greenblatt describes as “a very complicated nurse in a New York City hospital,” and based on the clips we saw, by “very complicated,” he means she’s a drug addict. And, yes, someone else did bring up the similarity to “House,” but Greenblatt assured us that “it’s not going to be big medical story of the week necessarily. I think it’s a different take on a medical show that’s grounded by a really iconic, caustic character played by a great actress.” * Even though they’re limited by history, Greenblatt thinks that there’s at least another two years of plot possibilities left in “The Tudors.” “The third season is the next two (wives of Henry VIII), Anne of Cleves and Jane Seymour…I love meeting people who think Jane Seymour, the actress, is in the show…and then the following season, I think, will be the final two wives,” he theorized. * The future of “This American Life” is murky. “Ira (Glass) is not only the most dedicated person in the world, he’s a perfectionist and he doesn’t want to put any episode out that isn’t really extraordinary,” said Greenblatt. “And I will tell you that’s not true of all producers. He’s also doing a radio show, and he will not let anything affect the quality of the radio show. And the same people are doing the radio show and the TV show. So every year, we step back and have a conversation with him. ‘Can we do ten? Can we do eight? Can we do six?’ There may be a year where we do a couple of long-form specials with him and we don’t do episodes of the show, per se, because it’s really hard to find those stories. They don’t just fall into his lap.” To put a fine point on it, a third season has not officially been ordered, but per Greenblatt, “We’re talking to (Ira) about how many he wants to do and what form it might take.” * Showtime is currently planning to air the three seasons of “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” - one’s already aired in the UK, Season 2 premieres there in September, and the third has been commissioned but hasn’t yet begun filming - and reserves the right to consider airing any future seasons, should there be any. “But,” added Greenblatt, “it looks like a Okay, that’s that. Now, we move onto a panel described as “Showtime’s SHO Stoppers,” which featured the stars and producers of the network’s four signature series: Weeds (Mary-Louise Parker and Jenji Kohan), Californication (David Duchovny and Tom Kapinos), Dexter (Michael C. Hall and Clyde Phillips), and Brotherhood (Jason Clarke and Blake Masters). Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Comedies and TV Dramas and TV Action and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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You may have noticed that my postings have slowed down. You might not have cared, but you’ve probably at least noticed, if only because you haven’t gotten four or five Diggs from me every day. Well, there are two reasons for that: the first is that we’re dealing with days with one broadcast network as opposed to five or six different cable networks, and the second is that my wife joined me on Friday, and given that I hadn’t seen her since July 7th, I wanted to focus more on her than my work for a change. C’mon, I earned a break! And it’s not like I wasn’t still attending all of these panels for you…well, except for the majority of The CW’s panels. I must admit that, after the “90210″ presentation, we hit the road and went to Universal Studios…and, yet, even then I was working, so be sure to stay tuned for my coverage of the new ‘Simpsons’ ride, which was awesome. But, okay, enough of my apologies. Let’s continue with CBS’s presentations, shall we? The Mentalist: I’d like to take this moment to give a shout-out to my mother-in-law, who was interested in this series before it was even on my radar. When I told her I had started to get my usual flurry of advance screeners in preparation for the TCA tour, the first question she asked was, “Hey, have you gotten one for that show ‘The Mentalist’ yet?” In fact, I had just gotten one that day…and when I told her, she all but flipped out. “We need to watch that when I come over for dinner on Friday!” she informed me. She kept trying to tell us about the shows that the series’ star had been in, except that she was blanking on both his name and his other shows, but a quick trip to IMDb.com solved both problems, at which point she gave a look of disdain when I admitted that I’d never actually seen an episode of Simon Baker’s previous series, “The Guardian.” Finally, as we began to screen the pilot, the truth came out: she thinks he’s hot.
I can’t speak to the man’s inherent hotness because I don’t want “The Mentalist” to fall victim to what is henceforth to be referred to as “The ‘Moonlight’ Effect.” I really, really dug what I saw, possibly because it reminds me of what “Psych” could be if James Roday didn’t grate on my nerves. It’s a drama about a guy named Patrick Jane (Baker) who has honed his observational skills to a degree where he was able to make a living as a TV psychic, but he’s since given that up and become a detective. He’s got a major ego, but it’s warranted, given how good he is at what he does. Still, it’s been known to backfire on occasion; he has a dark history which is hinted at during the course of the pilot and will be explored during the course of the series. Baker admitted that he got particular enjoyment out of playing the flashback scenes to his character’s early days. “That was a lot of fun,” he said, “because you’re playing an actor and you get to actually comment on the shallowness of acting. You’re commenting on yourself, so it’s sort of self-deprecating in a sense. I love that the character is a fraud and is aware of his fraudulent nature.” Baker did not, however, have an opportunity to do much research for on playing a TV psychic, given the speed at which things happened with his casting and the pilot’s subsequent filming. “I was flown in from Australia, met with Bruno (Heller, producer) the day I arrived,” said Baker, “and a day and a half later, we were shooting, basically. So Bruno said, ‘Have a look at a few different people on YouTube,’ and I had a look at stuff. Next thing, I had my whole family around me, we’re all going, ‘Oh, my God, how did he do that? How did he do that?’ And then on YouTube, there’s also people posting other clips where they debunk, explaining how these tricks are working through NLP, neurolinguistic programming.It’s just tip-of-the-surface of the knowledge that these people have, so I didn’t ask anything. We had a consultant from the Magic Castle, who was more of a sleight-of-hand guy, but he had a few different hypnotizing tricks and stuff like that. And Bruno furnished me with a bunch of literature, holiday reading. It’s very heady stuff. What these guys get into and the skills that they have and then the capacity to remember things and move forward is…it’s too much for me. I’m pretending totally 100 percent to be a mentalist.” To bring things full circle, let us note that Heller is aware of the similarities to “Psych,” but he’s not worried about critics making snarky comments. “Patrick Jane isn’t pretending to be a psychic,” explained Heller. “He was someone who worked as a psychic but now is very honest and direct about not having those powers, so there’s no pretense. They’re two quite different shows. You can always draw parallels with other shows, but this is much more like Sherlock Holmes than (’Psych’).” I second that emotion. Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Dramas and TV Action and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and Fall TV Preview and Pilots and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you can’t deny that CBS has been talked about quite a lot in the last couple of years. First, “Jericho” got the network lots of press as a result of their decision to resurrect the show for a second season because of fan demand, then it got them even more when they canceled the show for good after it failed to win the appropriate ratings. In recent weeks, they’ve been dealing with bitter vampire fans who can’t believe that “Moonlight” managed to win the People’s Choice Award for Best New Series, only to get canceled when it, too, failed to win the ratings necessary to earn it a sophomore season. Last year, Mandy Patinkin’s abrupt decision to bail out of “Criminal Minds” was all the talk of the TCA Tour, and, now, William Petersen is leaving “C.S.I.,” which is also chat-worthy. CBS President Nina Tassler took all comers in her Executive Session, and here are the highlights…besides that bit about “Moonlight,” of course.
* The future of “Swingtown” is ambiguous at best. “I’m very proud of the show, I love the show, everybody knows how passionate I’ve been about it,” she said. “I wish the ratings were better, but this is the life we’ve chosen for ourselves. But right now, we’re behind the show and we are proud of it.” When further questioned as to whether “proud” translated into “second season,” however, she wouldn’t commit. “We haven’t made that decision right now, but I am proud of the show. Creatively, I think they’re doing a great job.” (She also reiterated her disappointment in the ratings, which is surely not a good sign.) * Despite much prodding, Tassler claimed to have no actor in place to fill the shoes of “Billy Petersen” in “C.S.I..” “I don’t think you replace Billy,” Tassler said, “but you sort of look at adding elements to the show that are really going to invigorate and contribute to the alchemy of the show where it is today. They’ve created a great character. He’s a doctor, a scientist who’s got a very interesting DNA that is going to inform the duality of the character. Like I said, it’s not necessarily replacing Billy, but it’s adding an element that is going to sort of inform the dynamic of the team today. What I know of him so far…Carol (Mendelsohn) and Naren (Shankar) are still working on him…is that he is an outsider coming into the CSI unit. When Gil Grissom leaves, he’s the head of the unit, (but) this character doesn’t come in at the beginning as the head of the unit. He comes in a little bit as an outsider, someone who is ultimately going to work his way up within the team and ultimately become the head of the unit. But he has an interesting genetic profile that, in certain sort of medical contexts, they’ve noticed that many times serial killers have that same genetic profile. And this gentleman knows this about himself and is sort of in this journey and to discover who his true character will ultimately become.” The gentleman in question, however, has not yet been cast, and if there’s anyone under discussion, his name did not leak out during the course of the panel. * Disappointingly, “Harper’s Island,” the new thriller series starring Bill Pullman, is not scheduled to debut ’til mid-season. (Okay, granted, it’s probably not any better than your average slasher flick, since that’s clearly what it resembles, but I was still entertained by the teaser reel they sent us.) * There is no controversy over the omission of Jay Mohr’s new sitcom, “Gary Unmarried,” from the panels. “Jay is re-taking his vows with his wife and her entire family on the other side of the world someplace,” Tassler explained. “He planned this about a year ago, and he flew over his in-laws and his whole family, so that’s why he’s not here right now.” * Sophina Brown has joined the cast of “Numb3rs,” and Rocky Carroll has become a regular on “NCIS.” * Despite doing relatively well on CBS this summer, there are no plans to continue re-running “Dexter” on CBS. * There are six more episodes of “Password” being filmed, but there is no concrete time-frame as to when they will air. There is no word on the return of “Power of 10,” though CBS apparently reserves the right to bring it back. (At the very least, Tassler never said it was canceled.) * There will also be more Hallmark movies aired on the network, though no specifics were offered. * Despite rumors to contrary, there is no plan for an overhaul of “The Price Is Right.” “We are very respectful of the brand and the integrity of that show,” Tassler assured us, “and probably about a year, two years before Bob finally stepped down, there was a multiyear strategy to perhaps put a fresh coat of paint on some of the games that hadn’t been touched in years. As you’ve seen, the sets have been refurbished, but certainly respectful of what those doors looked like, what the lights looked like, but this is all basically it was a plan that was put in place years before Bob left just to sort of make some minor adjustments to the show.” * Tassler revealed that Sarah Chalke will be doing multiple episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” this year (hey, maybe Bill Lawrence was right!) and that Jason Alexander and Luke Perry would be turning up on “Criminal Minds.” * As to the problems with “Two and a Half Men” becoming “Three Men,” Tassler says, “You’re going to see Angus is going to be going through typical teen things. I mean, he’s 14. So it opens up a whole new treasure trove of stories. Charlie’s got a whole host of issues that he has to deal with in terms of having a teenager in the house, so it forms a great season of new storytelling for them on the show.” * “Flashpoint” may return. Or it may not. “Like I said, we’re in the ratings game,” said Tassler, “and if they do well, it’s certainly something for us to consider.” And that’s the end. From there, we move into… Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Comedies and TV Dramas and TV Action and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and TV Sci-Fi and Fall TV Preview and Pilots and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Last night’s episode of “The Next Food Network Star” featured the remaining three–Adam, Lisa and Aaron–in another Las Vegas battle to decide who would reach the finale. This week’s guest was Guy Fieri, who won this very competition in Season 2 and is now a star on the network with two shows of his own, “Guy’s Big Bite” and “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.” The three finalists look at Guy and know that they want to win badly. So the first challenge was all Vegas. They had to each perform in front of the camera for a 30-second promo. But of course, there is that walking and chewing gum at the same time thing again. Lisa went first and had to be one of those “wine angels” in a restaurant that has a very high wine rack and uses people in harnesses to bring them down. Lisa was asked to go up really high while doing her lines. Yikes. I mean, what if she was afraid of heights? Then, Aaron was asked to do his promo in a casino while throwing craps. Clearly that was the easiest of the promos. Adam was asked to do his on a stage with two showgirls at his side. Then it was on to the main challenge. Each contestant was asked to come up with a Vegas style buffet (Read the rest after the jump.) Filed under: TV and Reality TV and Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen and The Next Food Network Star Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Because for the second year running, he bought us pizza for our TCA meeting.
Filed under: TV and Actors and News and TV Comedies and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Even though each of these panels was its own entity, it just seemed best to combine them all into one posting, since I think most people really just want the bullet points about what we can expect from the new season. If I’m wrong, don’t be afraid to tell me so, but in the meantime, here’s what was doled out… Desperate Housewives
* The big news, as noted in the previous entry, is the five-year jump between last season and this season…or the “One Tree Hill”-ing of the series, if you will. (Look, I’m telling you, this description is so fetch. It’s totally gonna take off.) * Gale Harold is playing Susan’s new love interest. “He’s kind of an interesting artsy guy who’s very much very different from the previous man in her life,” says executive producer Marc Cherry, “and he will present her with all sorts of new challenges, especially the fact that she kind of doesn’t really even want to be in a relationship. She’s not sure. So that’s kind of some of the colors we’ll be examining there.” * There are no immediate plotlines planned which surround Andrew’s gayness, but “but some part of Andrew’s personal life will come up and probably cause problems for Bree soon enough,”says Cherry.
* Eva Longoria’s character, Gabrielle, is looking decidedly haggard after the five-year jump, but, then, that’s what happens when you pop out a pair of chubby little darlings in a short amount of time. (Yes, you read that correctly.) * When asked where Edie’s character would be going this season, Nicolette Sheridan instantly deferred to Cherry, who would only say that “Edie will come back to Wisteria Lane in a very surprising way, and we’re not telling you anything more than that.” * Neil McDonough is going to be moving onto Wisteria Lane. “He will be bringing the mystery with him,” says Cherry, “and all I’m going to tell you is he has revenge on his mind.” * Even though he and Susan are no longer together, you will see Mike Delfino in the show. “It will be revealed what happened to Mike and Susan,” said Cherry, “and that’s all I’m going to tell you.” (Do you sense a recurring theme here?) * The time jump has resulted in some of the actors and actresses playing the kids on the show to fall out of the show by necessity, but at least in the case of Andrea Bowen, who played Julie Mayer, Cherry says, “We’re going to bring her back and try to come up with stories to bring her back,” with fellow producer Bob Daily adding, “I think we’re hoping to see some of those kids in flashbacks.” * In further discussion of the five-year jump and how much in the way of flashbacks we’d be seeing, Cherry reiterated that they were very much committed to staying in this new time period, with Daily clarifying, “I think the fun for us and the audience is revealing in dribs and drabs what you missed in those five-year periods. Sometimes that will involve flashbacks and sometimes it won’t. I think we’re trying to parcel that out over the first half of the season and then leave some mysteries open.” Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Dramas and Desperate Housewives and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and Fall TV Preview and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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When you see as many movies as I do, it’s easy to understand why some films are released in theaters, while others are relegated to DVD, but I must admit that “Meet Bill” – which left the film festival circuit without a major studio’s backing – threw me for a loop. The movie has everything that makes an independent film marketable these days, and more importantly, it’s actually good. Aaron Eckhart stars as Bill, a successful businessman who hates his job has a wife (Elizabeth Banks) who is cheating on him with the local news anchor (Timothy Olyphant). When he’s forced into participating in a mentorship program with his former preparatory school, Bill is matched up with a smug teenager (Logan Lerman) who ends up mentoring him on how to turn around his life. Though the story goes south midway through the film, the performances help to keep it afloat – namely Eckhart, whose nuanced portrayal of the title character is alone worth seeing the film. Additionally, Jessica Alba’s role as a sexy lingerie saleswoman may seem completely pointless (in fact, her introduction marks the beginning of the story’s downfall), but it’s some of the actresses best work to date. Supporting turns by Kristen Wiig and Craig Bierko are also enjoyable, as is the dark comedy peppered throughout the script. “Meet Bill” may have been considered a failure by some, but one could only hope that all direct-to-DVD releases were as good as this. Filed under: Movie DVDs and Reviews and External Movies and Movie DVD Quicktakes Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Confirmed: Shannen Doherty is returning to “90210.” So sayeth producer Gabe Sachs.
At first, we thought he had hired her as a director of an episode, but, in fact, there will be an episode where West Beverly High puts on a musical, and Brenda Walsh will be the director of that musical. Per the official press release handed out by The CW after the “90210″ panel, Brenda’s departure for London resulted in her ultimately becoming a successful theater actress, splitting her time between London and New York. She soon transitioned into directing for theater and had equal success in that career, which is why West Beverly High has approached her to return to her alma mater as a guest director for the school’s musical production. And like you haven’t already heard, but Jennie Garth will be returning as Kelly Taylor (now a West Beverly High guidance counselor) and Tori Spelling will be back as Donna Martin, who now owns an upscale boutique. More importantly, though, Joe E. Tata will be back as Nat…and, yes, he’s still the owner of The Peach Pit. Well, he’s the owner of *a* Peach Pit, anyway. It’s not quite the same place you remember, apparently…but more details on that when I write up the “90210″ panel in its entirety. Filed under: TV and Actresses and News and TV Dramas and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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This was a nice idea: get the show runners for ABC’s returning dramas on one panel, and let the critics pummel all of them with questions at one time. It kinda worked…but it also kinda didn’t, with the biggest issue being that the panel ended up being dominated by the producers who also had panels for their own shows. Obviously, I would’ve liked to hear a lot more from Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (”Lost”), but I guess it really wouldn’t have mattered a whole lot even if they hadn’t had Marc “Chatterbox” Cherry, producer of “Desperate Housewives,” off to their left, since those guys aren’t exactly known for their loose lips. Here’s some of the info we managed to gleam from the various show runners… Lost: * We were given no answers as to when the Oceanic Six will return to the island, nor when the two timelines of the show might merge. “Season 5, obviously we’re not going to talk too in depth about,” admitted Lindelof, “but suffice to say, it’s very exciting for us to be 86 hours into the show. We’re going into Season 5, and the fact that people are still asking us, ‘What is the show going to be next year? How are you guys going to tell stories?’ It’s enormously cool. All we can say is it will take place in some time.” (This was the most illuminating thing offered by Lindelof during the entire panel, just so you know.) * When someone pressed the issue and asked if the Oceanic Six and those remaining on the island would spend any quality time on screen…perhaps a visitation, perhaps a dream sequence, Cuse responded, “Obviously, the turn that’s happening with the characters off the island is that the island does seem to be drawing them back, and Ben makes it kind of clear at the very end of the finale that it’s important that they go back to the island. So that, hopefully, is going to be something that you see a lot of in Season 5, and that’s something we are excited about: the journey about how those six kind of return to the island…or contemplate returning to the island.” * Lastly, Cuse provided the only actual fact about the upcoming season: “There will be more of Daniel Dae Kim in the series in some form.” Grey’s Anatomy: * Shonda Rhimes was - shocker! - tight-lipped about the reported major plotline for Izzie (Katherine Heigl’s character), saying only, “Storywise, we have a really great story worked out that we’re all very excited about.” The end. Ugh. * She did, however, open up a bit about the lesbian storyline that was introduced last season. “We have a really interesting, wonderful, funny way of laying out the story of Callie and Erica that I’m pretty excited about,” she said, “that I feel like is not necessarily your typical — if there can be a typical — way of dealing with the storyline. What I love is we sort of sat down with GLAAD and talked about women who figure out that they’re lesbians later in life and what that means, and we really were able to find some really great, humorous, and serious emotional stuff to play that’s going to feel really interesting and also affect their lives in the hospital.” Private Practice: * Rhimes really only offered one thing for her other show: “Our medical cases this season are really laid out in terms of having real medical and ethical dilemmas and the problems that doctors sort of face every day: what do you tell a patient? What don’t you tell a patient? I don’t think that we’re talking about less soap per se, in that word, but I think that we are talking about sort of making the medical cases stronger so that the soap is supported.” Desperate Housewives: God love Marc Cherry. If you looked up “hoot” in your Funk and Wagnalls, there’d be a picture of him. But he spent more time talking about how there should be less sports metaphors in conversation and more Broadway musical metaphors, and that ate up a sizable amount of time during the panel. Funny stuff, but not illuminating from a show standpoint. But we still managed to glean a few items of interest… * As already leaked by Marcia Cross, the show has jumped ahead in time by five years, thereby inspiring accusations that the series is pulling a “One Tree Hill.” (Actually, no-one even remotely said this, but I’m trying to popularize it, so don’t be afraid to say it to someone yourself.) Of the primary cast members, Eva Longoria has apparently suffered the worst as far as how her character looks. * Carlos will still be blind…for a little while, anyway. Ugly Betty: * Silvio Horta was asked if he’d always intended to get rid of Henry or his departure was to do with Chris Gorham, the actor who played the character. “You know, it was neither,” said Horta. “Part of it was going into the strike and having that time to really think where this was going. I think we kept rushing it and thinking we were going to continue the relationship. We had no end point in sight. And thinking about it and where we could go, I just didn’t see where there was a place that was exciting that I wanted to write about and where I thought the audience wanted to watch it. So it just made the most sense to part ways. Chris is great - this is the second show I did with him - and hopefully he’ll be a part of this at some point. It doesn’t mean that the door is closed to him being a part of this at any point. But it just felt like it was time to move on.” It is perhaps telling…or, okay, perhaps not…that, when asked if Henry would be back at all in the new season, Silvio replied, “I can’t tell you.” Brothers & Sisters: * Greg Berlanti only got one question about this show, too, and that was when someone asked if he was repeating himself by having a missing sibling in the last season. “Hopefully, as it plays out, people won’t feel that way,” he said, “and we certainly aren’t designing the story in the same way. I mean, I definitely, toward the end of the year…I think it was a byproduct a little bit of the strike in terms of we had wanted to lay out the story a little bit better initially, and we wanted to dismount from the story a little bit better. And everything was sort of abbreviated. So I don’t think we quite pulled it off entirely. But I’m looking forward to this year. I think people will enjoy the way it plays out.” Dirty Sexy Money: Not a word. Maybe Berlanti was saving his strength for later in the afternoon, when the show got its own panel. Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Dramas and TV Action and Desperate Housewives and Lost and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and TV Sci-Fi and Fall TV Preview and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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My Disney Channel coverage is going to consist solely of me saying that there’s a new Cheetah Girls movie on the horizon where the gals take on India (”The Cheetah Girls: One World”) and that, while they might be hot, the Girls were way too damned perky for a 9:00 AM panel, constantly giggling and talking over each other. (Pity the poor transcriptionist.) Despite some insidiously catchy songs and Bollywood-styled production numbers, there’s no chance in hell that I’m going to be watching this…well, that is, unless my daughter wants to watch it. But she’ll only be three when it airs, so I’m hoping she’s not quite of “Cheetah Girls” age yet. If your kids are in that demographic, though, God speed to you. Okay, how about a little ABC Family Channel love? This network keeps impressing me with its programming, even if they aren’t necessarily aimed at people my age. They first caught my attention with “Kyle XY” (which returns in January), kept it and held me rapt with “Greek” (returning on August 26th, woo-hoo!), and now that they’ve added “The Middleman,” they’ve secured a position where I’m instantly curious about pretty much anything they put on the air. Of course, by casting Molly Ringwald as the mother of a pregnant teen in “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” (which just got picked up for 13 more episodes, by the way), they’ve made an entire generation feel really, really old, but at the same time, that generation suddenly has ABC Family Channel on their radar, and I sense that will pay off handsomely for them in the future.
Coming in September is a six-hour miniseries event from the producers of “Alias” and “Gossip Girl” that should really grab those of us who appreciate a chick who knows how to kick ass: “Samurai Girl,” starring Jamie Chung, Stacy Keibler, Brendan Fehr, and Kenneth Choi. Though “Samurai Girl” is based on a popular series of books by Carrie Asai and Annabelle Verhoye, producer Andre Nemec says we shouldn’t be looking for a precise translation from print to screen. “We really took the spirit and the archetypal nature of characters from the books,” said Nemec, “but because we didn’t really want to tell a story that had already been told, we spun a little bit of a different web. You can read the books, and they’re exciting and they’re wonderful and, obviously, the base for all of this, but the show goes off into a different direction in terms of the overall arc of the story, so it’s exciting and new.” Hmmm. That sounds a little dodgy, but having checked out some of the miniseries, I do have to admit that it looked great and flowed nicely between drama, action, and even comedy…but, most importantly, Jamie Chung kicks some serious ass…and looks good doing it. Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Comedies and TV Dramas and TV Action and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Man, I love “Scrubs.” I’m not gonna tell you that I love every episode equally, because I think even the show’s most diehard fans would concede that it hasn’t entirely been firing on all cylinders for the last year or two, but even the episodes that weren’t consistently great invariably still had moments that made me laugh out loud. So when Bill Lawrence says he’s excited about the prospect of this new season and that he’s feeling creatively reinvigorated, I couldn’t be happier.
“I’m really proud of the show this year,” he assured us. “If you go online, there’s a lot of nerds and blogs…I say “nerds” affectionately…that love to say this season was the best or that season was the best. But I’m going to put some of the shows that we’ve done this year out to people that are interested early before we premiere because I’m really proud of them, and I think they’re as good as anything we’ve done.” Let’s start off with a few revelations that Lawrence laid out during the course of the panel: * Ken Jenkins will remain a regular on the show. “Dr. Kelso won free muffins for life on the show,” Lawrence reminded us, “which gives him an excuse to hang around the hospital and be somewhat of a different character.” * Courteney Cox will be appearing for a three-episode arc as Dr. Kelso’s replacement as Chief of Medicine, and “we would have her back in a heartbeat,” said Lawrence. “I wrote on the first year of ‘Friends,’ so I know her a little bit, and her greatest attribute, besides the fact that she is hilarious and just a great actress, is that she is what we call a gamer. She is up for anything, and I don’t think you get that all the time with high-profile actresses.” * Don’t hold your breath waiting for another musical episode. “I think we were not the first people to do a musical, nor do I think we are definitely the best people to do a musical, even though I liked ours,” said Lawrence. “I think for us to do another one would be slightly insane, but, as always on this show, there’s a huge musical presence and already there’s a fantastic song that we wrote called ‘Steak Night.’ But probably not another musical.” Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Comedies and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and Fall TV Preview and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Just a quickie for all you “Moonlight” lovers out there, CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler had this to say about the cancellation of the show: “Well, everybody knows I love vampires…werewolves, warlocks, I love ‘em all…but the response to ‘Moonlight’ was actually more actor-centric, so I think it certainly measures our decision on the show. Right now, I don’t question the decision we made.” Okay, what did I tell you people? If you’d just toned down the “Alex O’Loughlin is a hunka hunka burning vampire” stuff, maybe this show could’ve been saved… (For the record, though, she did say that she’d be glad to have him back on CBS again…in another series.) Filed under: TV and News and TV Dramas and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and TV Sci-Fi and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: 15 Comments Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Life on Mars: As you may (or may not) have read in my previous posting, there have been a lot of rumblings on the ‘net about how this show has had to deal with the dreaded “R” word. That’s right: retooling. It’s one of the dirtiest words in the TV business, since it implies that something’s gone so horribly wrong with the show…or, more likely, it never gelled in the first place…but whether or not this is truly the case with “Life in Mars” depends on how much you trust the ‘net.
The original series told the story of Sam Tyler of the Greater Manchester Police, who, after being hit by a car in 2006, found himself in the year 1973, where he split his time between being a cop and trying to figure out what the hell happened to him. But what’s going to happen when this thing gets Americanized? According to producer Josh Applebaum, the differences aren’t quite as dramatic as you might want to believe, but there was a version by David Kelley at some point. “I think the main difference,” said Applebaum,” is that we’re moving the show to New York, which, for us, is a huge part of it. We’re New Yorkers. We think the show kind of will live beautifully being set in New York. When we think of the early ‘70 cop genre, it speaks so much to New York as a whole, and that’s primarily the difference. David’s version was set in Los Angeles. We’re moving it to New York and just trying to recapture the spirit of the British version. “We actually spoke to the creators from the BBC, and we sort of asked their permission to change the mythology of what’s going on with Sam Tyler, because in their version, ultimately, he was in a coma. And for us, to be doing hopefully a long-running series where you know that the whole thing is a dream or that he’s in this coma state, it felt unsatisfying. So with their permission, we are changing the mythology. And each week, we’ll be kind of deepening that mystery as to what’s going on with him. They have the three options that they sort of posed. Has he traveled through time, has he lost his mind, or is he in a coma? ” Time will tell which of the three it is. We certainly don’t have a clue; the original pilot was scrapped, of course, but no new pilot was available for our perusal. As stands right now, I guess we should just be glad that the clips we saw did indeed feature the Bowie song which gave the show its title. (American tastes in the ’70s were just nowhere close to as cool as the UK’s tastes.)
We’re psyched that Michael Imperioli decided to sign onto the show, given that his only truly notable post-”Sopranos” appearance has been a short, underrated stint on “Law & Order”….and even that was only a temporary gig. “Well, I definitely was picky,” admitted Imperioli. “I mean, something like ‘The Sopranos’ that fulfills your creative drive for such a long period of time and challenges you is a hard act to follow. If I’m going to commit to something that hopefully is going to be on for a long time, you want something juicy and you want something different. That’s really what I was looking for. I got the script, and I was not familiar at all with the British show. To be honest, I’d never heard of it! But I thought it was very well written and a really cool idea, and the idea of doing New York detectives in 1973 really, really appealed to me a lot, just of the flavor of it and the period. Culturally, what the city was like then…the ’70s is a period of time that I have an affinity for - the music and just politically what was going on - so I was really into it. And the character…I thought there was a lot of truth to the character, and I thought he’s different enough from what I had done in the past…although it seems to be most of the stuff I’ve been doing is either a cop or a robber! But if that pays the bills, that’s okay. The other thing was that it shot in New York, which was something that I was hoping to do; if I was going to do another series, it would be in New York. So it kind of satisfied all those things at once.” Not much else to tell you, really, except that all the Anglophiles in the viewing audience will be ready to rip this thing to shreds, so they’d better come roaring out of the gate or be ready to face the consequences. No pressure. Opportunity Knocks: While you have to pat the guy on the back for carving himself a niche as a television producer when just about everybody expected him to fall flat after “That ’70s Show,” I’ve never been a huge fan of Ashton Kutcher’s reality series. “Punk’d,” like all hidden-camera prank shows, had its moments, and as a self-professed geek, it would be a lie if I didn’t find myself rooting for the the guys in “Beauty & The Geek” once in awhile, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never actually seen an entire episode of either series. As such, there was really only one reason I stuck around for the panel for Kutcher’s new traveling game show, “Opportunity Knocks,” and that’s that…well, I just wanted to see Ashton Kutcher. (He’s a pretty big deal, you know.)
As it happens, the panel ended up being a lot of fun. The premise of the show is that the producers of the show go to the contestants’ houses, talk to their friends, family, employers, and even their friendly neighborhood postal carrier, and then they ask personal questions that, in theory, they should know the answers to. Or sometimes they’ll flip it around and play it “Newlywed Game” style, where they asked the contestant a question about themselves, and people close to them have to get it right before they reveal the answer. The show’s host, J.D. Roth, decided that the best way to get the critics involved in the series was…well, to get them involved in the series! They called TV Guide’s Matt Roush up to the stage, and when he arrived, they revealed that, while he’d been out at the TCA |
