(via TV Guide)
Fox News Channel may soon give The Daily Show some competition. In January the network is planning to test its own news satire show with a right-of-center viewpoint. Joel Surnow, cocreator of 24, has signed on as an executive producer.
(tvsquad.com)
Meet the Papdits
Posted Nov 8th 2006 12:01PM by Julia Ward
No doubt capitalizing on Borat fever, CBS' broadband channel Innertube is broadcasting the full-length pilot episode of The Papdits created by Da Ali G Show writer and producer Ant Hines. The show's Borat-type premise follows the misadventures of a family from Kashmir as they interact with Americans while looking for the perfect place to settle and make their fortune. Their journey begins in Arkansas.
The show, again like Borat, is a comedy/reality hybrid. You've got mockumentary, talking head shots like The Office, but also scenes in which the actors are improvising off of unwitting American dupes. The Papdits perpetuate that uncomfortable, cringe-inducing humor we've all come to know and love.
Having taken a look at the show, I can say that it's always nice to see South Asian faces on TV. The Diwali celebration on The Office just wasn't enough for me, but I'm greedy that way. Unfortunately, the pilot is going to suffer from both Borat comparisons and from being late to the single-camera, improv party. The Papdits is worth a look, but it's tough when there are so many shows out there doing aspects of what The Papdits is trying to do, but better - Reno 911, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Hines' own Ali G Show. Unless it becomes an internet phenom on the scale of PaxilBack, the only way you'll be meeting the Papdits is on Innertube.
Fri Oct 6
NEW YORK (AP)
(heavily edited)
"Smith," the Tuesday night CBS drama with Liotta leading a band of high-stakes thieves, is off the schedule, the network said Friday.
...the show's producers have been given no promise that it will return.
It faced tough competition in the time slot from NBC's "Law & Order: SVU" and ABC's "Boston Legal."
Meanwhile, NBC announced the sort-of cancellation of its Wednesday night serial comedy "Kidnapped," which stars Jeremy Sisto. NBC gambled by putting the show in the time slot held for a long time by "Law & Order," and it failed miserably.
"Kidnapped" will be moved to Saturday nights, starting Oct. 21. Its producers have been told to wrap up the serialized drama's story lines by the end of the show's 13-episode order, NBC said.
Fox has put its new comedy "Happy Hour" on hiatus, but insists it will return.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Released by NBC
Returning to the SNL repertory cast are Fred Armisen, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Darrell Hammond, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, Kenan Thompson and Kristen Wiig.
(Reuters headline)
"Studio 60," "Class" underwhelm in debuts
I saw both of these.
I thought The Class had potential based solely upon the wide array of characters they have to work with. It's up to the writers to help us get to know these characters &/or keep the audience interested in them.
When I was watching/listening to Studio 60 I thought, "oh, that's right...it's an Aaron Sorkin project." Not at all believable. Too slick. Just like The West Wing. I'm willing to give this more time than I did TWW tho if for no other reason than to see what, if anything, they do with the two main characters (the re-hired producers/writers). It could quickly become unbearable.
The first ep was fairly painful with its need to show us who the good guys are & who the bad guys are. Oy.
Here's a quote from a review I found on PopMatters:
If Sorkin intends to preach off-key sermons like this every week, “Studio 60” is going to get old fast.
TV Guide
Cheers to Peter Tolan for his inspired cameo in Rescue Me's season finale. The FX firehouse drama's co-creator appeared as Chief Pecher, who filled in for Jerry while he was recuperating from a heart attack. Pecher insisted his French surname should be pronounced like "Cher with a puh," but Tommy came up with a less PC variation.
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by Matt Roush
Damon Wayans crows about "creative freedom" as he introduces his raunchy new sketch comedy The Underground (Thursdays - Showtime). But the freedom to be crude and vulgar seems to have robbed him of creativity - unless the thought of a talking vagina cracks you up. It's not daring or topical to traffic in Iraqi or Osama caricatures, with suicide-bomb and public-stoning gags, when the writing, direction and performances are so infantile.
According to TV Guide...
(at least) "four SNL cast members, reportedly including Horatio Sans and Chris Parnell are about to be fired for budgetary reasons."
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nypost.com
August 22, 2006 -- WHAT's going on be hind the scenes at "Saturday Night Live" this month may be more dramatic than any thing you'll see on the two prime-time shows starting this fall based on the famed late-night comedy.
Four cast members are about to be fired - they know who they are, but the public doesn't.
Two others - including the undisputed star of "SNL," Tina Fey - are gone.
Auditions are about to begin for the signature spot on the show, anchor of the snarky "Weekend Update."
And because there will be two new shows that use "SNL" as their back drop - Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and Fey's "30 Rock" - the late-night comedy show will be attracting more attention than it has in years.
Lorne Michaels, the show's boss and guiding personality for nearly 30 years - and the producer of "30 Rock" - has less than six weeks to get it all done.
"The history of 'SNL' has been that people step up," Michaels told the Post yesterday. "It's just been that way, at least so far. I think there are people there now who are going to be brilliant."
The man who has shared the headwriter's job with Fey for years, Seth Myers, is expected to become the show's sole head writer.
And Fey's second bannana on "Weekend Update," Amy Poehler, is also expected to be back, even as Rachel Dratch leaves to work on "30 Rock" full time.
"It's always hard when you're giving up good people," he says. The show has motored over rough road - most memorably in 1980 and 1995, when the show underwent wholesale cast changes and which, by no coincidence, were the two worst-received seasons ever.
"After about four years . . . there's a staleness that comes over the show," Michaels says.
This will be one of the few seasons that he doesn't bring in at least one new cast member. Knowing that budget cuts were looming for this fall, Michaels last year hired an exceptionally large cast - so that when the ax fell, he would already have a fresh, experienced cast ready to go.
"I think everything that was strong last season is back," he says. Among those are "SNL" vet Darrell Hammond and white-hot newbie Andy Samburg.
"For me, the most important thing is keeping the show on the air," he says.
"Faith. That's another word for ignorance, isn't it?"
-Gregory House
TV Guide
Life doesn't imitate art for Brad Garrett. Though he's coproducing and starring in this fall's marriage-themed Fox sitcom 'Til Death, Garrett recently revealed that he and his wife of seven years, Jill Diven, were divorced earlier this year. "I believe that marriage all in all is a very irrational, improbable endeavor," Garrett told TV Guide earlier this summer. "It is something that is almost biologically and psychologically an impossibility."
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Cheers & Jeers
Cheer of the Week to Martin Landau for his poignant guest role on Entourage. The Oscar winning actor did typically award worthy work as Bob Ryan, an over-the-Hollywood-hills producer who manages to interest rising star Vince Chase in an old script about the Ramones.
Cheers to Stephen Collins for his good-natured cameo on the season finale of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The 7th Heaven star sent up his squeaky-clean image by playing the long-long biological father of Dennis and Dee. Collin's international do-gooder was the antithesis of the guy they'd always thought was their dad, Danny Devito's despicable Frank Reynolds. After all those years on the TV-G Heaven, it must've been fun for Collins to visit the TV-MA Philadelphia for a change.
Cheers to Denis Leary for continuing to hire old coworkers from The Job for Rescue Me. The star and executive producer hasn't forgotten his fellow cops from the tragically short-lived ABC comedy, having already employed Lenny Clarke and Diane Farr on his FX firefighter drama. Another Job alum, the hilarious Adam Ferrara, recently guest starred as the captain of a crosstown firehouse.
The creators and producers of Comedy Central cable channel program 'South Park', Matt Stone (L) and Trey Parker, take part in a panel discussion at the Cable Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, California, July 13, 2006. The adult-oriented comedy series is celebrating its tenth anniversary and premieres October 4. REUTERS/Fred Prouser
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Thu Jul 13
AP
LOS ANGELES - "Trapped in the Closet," the controversial "South Park" episode that skewers Scientology and its popular proponent Tom Cruise, is hitting the airwaves again.
Comedy Central plans to air the Emmy-nominated episode on July 19. It was last scheduled to rerun in March but was abruptly pulled by the network.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Released by NBC
BURBANK, Calif. -- June 27, 2006 -- NBC's hit comedy "The Office" (Thursdays, 9:30 - 10:00 p.m. ET, moving to 8:30-9:00 p.m. ET in the fall) goes digital when the first of 10, original stand-alone webisodes premieres on NBC.com on Thursday, July 13. The serialized, weekly arc will star the accounting staff of the Dunder Mifflin paper company in an edge-of-your-ergonomically-designed-seat whodunit.
A New Webisode Premieres Every Thursday Through September 14
http://blog.myspace.com/fredgoss
Saturday, July 01, 2006
For those of you holding out hope that Sons & Daughters might find new life on another network, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but that just isn't going to happen. We tried, but it just wasn't in the cards. The actors have all been released from their contracts which means that Sons & Daughters is officially dead. Nothing left now but the promise from NBC/Universal of a timely DVD release of the first (only) season. It will include the missing final episode, "Paige Returns". It's a good episode and a nice season finale. It might prove to be a frustrating series finale. I won't say why. I love that you all feel the same way about the show that I did. We will probably never really know why ABC didn't stick with it. It's easy to blame the numbers, but I think there was something larger at play. Some reason why the network didn't nurture and take their time with the show the way they said that they would. Some reason why we were placed in the worst possible time slot imaginable. I'm done wondering and I'm tired of lamenting. I can only look toward the future at this point and promise you all that we will continue to produce what we feel is quality television. If the powers that be continue to disregard it, so be it. At the end of my work day, I have to be proud of what I've done. I have to feel like I've done something that will give an audience a little something in return for the time they've given me.