CBS Cancels 'CSI: Miami,' 'Rob' & 'NYC 22,' Renews 'CSI:NY'
Mad Men Recap: "Mad Money"
EDITION: U.S.
new series
ABC picks up pilot from Kids in the Hall alum
by Julia Ward, posted Jan 25th 2007 12:12PM
The career trajectories of the former Kids in the Hall have been fascinating to behold. Dave Foley went from a starring turn in News Radio to a funny, but strange co-hosting gig on Celebrity Poker Showdown. Mark McKinney appeared briefly on SNL and now sits around the writer's room of Studio 60 hoping Aaron Sorkin will throw him a bone and actually let him write something. Kevin McDonald turns up in bit parts everywhere and keeps a steady gig as the voice of Lilo and Stitch's alien life form Pleakley. Scott Thompson visits Conan every once in awhile, but my favorite Bruce McCulloch's post-Kids appearances have been few and far between. McCulloch served a brief stint as a SNL writer and wrote and directed the forgettable film Dog Park.Will the Muppets finally return to primetime?
by Adam Finley, posted Jan 24th 2007 10:02AM
While the Jim Henson Company works away on film and TV projects, we've been constantly teased with the promise of a new Muppet series. The last time this happened was with the short-lived Muppets Tonight in the '90s. Attempts to bring the gang back to television haven't come to fruition, including a pilot in 2004 for America's Next Muppet that was never picked up as a series.
Two new shows from MythBusters creators
by Julia Ward, posted Jan 8th 2007 2:31PM
The production team behind the Discovery Channel's MythBusters have two new shows in the works for the science-loving channel. First up is Prototype This, a 13-part series that looks at the viability of gadgets seen in sci-fi movies. As in, they'll actually try to build some of these futuristic marvels. I'm sure the military will be ecstatic. I'll just take my Jetsons personalized jet pack and robot maid, thank you very much.The second show, Cool Stuff: How It Works, is a four-part series that takes a look at how the wonders of the modern world work - fireproof suits, robotic bomb detonators, etc. No word on whether or not they'll be able to explain TiVo, the electoral college or how a penalty kick shootout is fair, but they're smart guys. I'm sure they'll get around to it.
Pushing Daisies coming to ABC
by Adam Finley, posted Dec 14th 2006 3:02PM
Slap another "supernatural" series on the pile. Heroes writer and executive producer Bryan Fuller is creating a drama pilot for ABC called Pushing Daisies about a man who can bring people to life just by touching them. I'm pretty sure there was a book that used this same idea. Now what was it called? Oh, right, the New Testament. Damn, if only Jesus stuck around for the TV age he could be rolling in dough right now. I mean that literally: he would have so much money he could buy lots of cookie dough and roll around in it. You may think that's sacrilegious, but my God is a party animal.
iF Magazine quotes the dailies, which are calling the new series a "romance-tinged procedural." A procedural of what, exactly? Resurrection? Is this a common practice with an actual procedure that must be followed? Are there classes one has to take to learn to raise the dead? I assume all of these questions will be answered when the show debuts this pilot season.
Little Mosque on the Prairie comes to Canadian TV
by Julia Ward, posted Dec 8th 2006 2:39PM
How's this for the premise to a sitcom - a young Muslim man abandons his burgeoning law career to become the new imam (Muslim prayer leader) of a small Canadian town called Mercy? When we meet said imam, he's in line at the airport talking on his cell. "If Dad thinks that's suicide, so be it. This is Allah's plan for me." Cue security. And so begins Little Mosque on the Prairie, CBC's newest sitcom. Premiering in January and being pitched to US networks this month, the series has been forced to confront two big questions since its inception: 1. Can the post-9/11 world take humor about Muslims living in North America? 2. Will Muslims riot over the depiction of said funny Muslims?
I was wrong about Heroes
by Keith McDuffee, posted Oct 25th 2006 11:24AM
Back before Heroes aired for the first time and I'd already seen the first three episodes of the series, I really didn't "get " the show. It just didn't click with me, as though the show lost its way before it even began. I held onto this opinion even with everyone raving about it, including the trades. I just didn't get why people were so hung up on this show. And then I saw the fourth episode last week, and everything changed.Maybe it's just me, but it's as if the writers stepped it up a notch after the third episode. That ending last week wowed me like I remember being wowed at the end of the first episode, only then the stuff surrounding it wasn't all that spectacular for me.
Anyway, I was wrong. But I'm glad I didn't simply give up on the show and decided to give it past what I saw early. I only wish I could say the same about some of the other new shows this season. I hope Heroes can keep this up, and judging by the episode Monday night, it looks like they are.
Oxygen gets ready to Tease
by Adam Finley, posted Oct 21st 2006 1:03PM
Production has just begun on a new competition series for the Oxygen network that will pit hairstylists against one another in an attempt to go one-on-one with a famous hairstylist. The new series, hosted by SoapTalk's Lisa Rinna, is called Tease. Robert Verdi of E! and Style will judge the competitions along with salon owner Peter Ishkahns and booking agent Frank Moore. Six episodes of the new series are currently in production and slated to air in January. I'm clearly not the target audience for this new series, since to me the only thing more boring than getting my hair cut is watching someone else have their hair styled. Then again, if the series is as frantic as they're making it out to be, maybe we'll see a lot of accidental head stabs, third degree burns and eye punctures. If that's the case, then I may have an excuse to tune into Oxygen for the first time since that network debuted.The Devil Wears Prada being developed for FOX
by Adam Finley, posted Oct 16th 2006 4:05PM
The feature film The Devil Wears Prada, based on the chick lit novel of the same name by Lauren Weisberger, is being adapted yet again, this time for television. Robin Schiff, who has written for such shows as Party of Five, Almost Perfect, Grosse Pointe and The Bad Girl's Guide will serve as writer and producer for the TV series, which will use some elements from the film but will also differ from the film and book in several ways. Neither Weisberger not David Frankel, the film's director, will be involved with the TV version. The show is currently in development, and there's no word yet on when it will air. I figure as long as they're adapting the hell out of this concept they might as well continue and develop it into a Broadway musical, a radio play, and finally, a pamphlet they stick under people's windshield wipers. The point is to wring as much cash as possible out of an idea. That's how this business works.LaPaglia developing series for FOX
by Adam Finley, posted Oct 14th 2006 6:03PM
Anthony LaPaglia of Without a Trace has been developing shows for CBS and FOX through his production company, Last Straw Productions. The actor is currently developing Damnation for FOX, a supernatural series created by actor Timothy Busfield about a man who thinks he's wrongly been sent to Hell and begins to harvest souls for the Devil in exchange for his freedom. Busfield is set to executive produce and direct. There's not a lot of specifics about the new series, which I assume is a drama, though this premise could easily be a comedy, as well. All I know is that it's about time Satan got some equal airtime. The Dark Prince has been sorely absent from the airwaves for too long, and frankly, I've missed him quite a bit.Alyssa Milano is back in new ABC comedy
by Joel Keller, posted Sep 21st 2006 1:04PM
Those of you who watched Charmed solely because you had an unyielding crush on Alyssa Milano can come back off the ledge. Your favorite gal has signed on to do a new comedy pilot for ABC, tentatively titled Me and Everyone Else. In the multi-camera comedy, she'll play what producer Dan Bucatinsky (who last worked on Lisa Kudrow's The Comeback) calls "Rhoda with a sex life." In other words, she'll play a strong thirty-something woman trying to make her way in the world. But unlike Valerie Harper's classic role from the seventies, Milano's character, Mia, will have a boyfriend. The show will also look at the lives of the two of them as well as Mia's brother and her brother's boyfriend.Do all these details really matter, though, to most Alyssa fans? Not particularly. As long as she's there and somehow shows off her chest in every episode, most of them will be happy.
Where's Voltron?
by Adam Finley, posted Jan 21st 2006 9:26AM
Will there ever be a new Voltron series? More importantly, why can't
anyone come up with an original idea anymore? Well, I'll lament that on my own time. Let's focus on the (non-existent)
new Voltron animated series. The original Voltron was a staple of many a Saturday morning TV diet in
the early 80s, and fans began to salivate when it was announced last
year that a brand new series was in pre-production. Unfortunately, that's the last anyone has heard about it. The flow of information
simply stopped and no one is quite sure exactly what the deal is. However, Kick Start Productions still lists
Voltron as "in production" on its Web site.
I'm rooting for the show to make it to the air, though my enthusiasm is diluted somewhat by the fact that revamping old
shows rarely makes for good television.
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