Carol Burnett Visits Wisteria Lane
Posted by Christopher Stone Categories: Drama, ABC, Desperate Housewives, Talent, News,
On Sunday, April 9, a television legend will be ringing Bree Van De Kamp’s Wisteria Lane doorbell. That’s when Carol Burnett guest stars on Desperate Housewives as Bree’s bad seed stepmother Eleanor Mason. Don’t expect the veteran comedienne to be the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down on Wisteria Lane. At Carol Burnett’s request, Marc Cherry, Housewives’ creator and executive producer, is writing Eleanor as an evil woman. In that case, she’ll be a good match for Bree’s son, Andrew, or he is more commonly known at my house, Satan’s Spawn. Should Burnett’s evil turn catch fire with viewers, TV’s legendary funny lady is open to reprising the role in subsequent episodes.
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| USA Today
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Commander in Chief: New Day and Time
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Drama, Prime Time, ABC, Commander In Chief,
If the writing on the wall wasn’t already obvious for ABC’s Commander in Chief, it’s clearly evident now. The troubled show is now being moved to the competitive 10pm Thursday night time slot— during May sweeps. Due to the bump, Primetime will temporarily move to Thursdays. You can watch Geena Davis again (or not) starting Thursday, April 13th.
If after eyeballing Sharon Stone this weekend at your local multiplex in Basic Instinct 2, you want to see even more of the sexy siren, relax. La Stone is coming to a television screen near you on Sunday. The blond bombshell, who makes 48-years-old look like the new 30, has a three-episode story arc on Showtime’s Huff, beginning with Sunday’s season premiere.
Sharon plays a hard-drinking public relations executive who dumps her legal woes, and herself, in the well-deserving lap of the attorney played by Oliver Platt. Does Stone go all the way? Let’s just say, once again, the star follows her basic instinct, and she doesn’t leave in a huff.
I can almost hear the great big cosmic laugh emanating from some metaphysical location. The source of the laughter is gay-closeted, deceased The Brady Bunch patriarch, actor Robert Reed. In addition to the guffaw, he’s giving his two eldest television sons a “thumbs way up.” Barry Williams and Christopher Knight, brothers Greg and Peter Brady on The Brady Bunch, are together again, this time, playing a gay couple on the “Josh and Jeff” episode of Fox’s That ‘70s Show. Taped in January, the episode, in which the former Brady siblings share a screen kiss, is scheduled to air on April 27. We know Robert Reed approves. But what would Marcia say?
The Sopranos: Mayhem
Posted by Christopher Stone Categories: Prime Time, Cable, HBO, The Sopranos, Features,
Watching Paulie Walnuts barge in on Colombian money launderers in the opening moments of this episode evoked memories of Eliot Ness busting Al Capone in The Untouchables. Of course, Paulie doesn’t look much like Kevin Costner, and Ness didn’t limp away with a million in cash and a wounded nut-sack. At “Mafia General Hospital,” Carmela and her children waited impatiently for Tony’s vitals to stabilize. Did viewers believe for a nano-second that Tony would die? Let’s get real. Without Gandolfini’s full participation, Season Six of this series wouldn’t have happened.
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I love Monk on the USA Network. For one thing, Adrian Monk, the obsessive-compulsive, but lovable, detective played to Emmy-winning perfection by Tony Shaloub, reminds me of some of my own obsessive-compulsive, but lovable, family. For another thing, I’m fascinated by the thought processes that allow Monk to solve San Francisco’s most puzzling crimes.
I loved the series even more when his nurse-assistant was Sharona Fleming, played to perfection, if not Emmy-acknowledged, by Bitty Schram. Beginning in the second half of Season Three, Monk’s sidekick became Natalie Teeger, well-limned by Traylor Howard. The chemistry between Shaloub’s Monk and Howard’s Teeger is very good. The chemistry between Shaloub and Schram was Brangelina great.
In announcing Schram’s departure in the Summer of 2004, USA claimed producers were looking to take the series in a different direction. But rumor was Schram believed that she wasn’t getting enough screen time. I hope the rumor was untrue. With 99% of the Screen Actors Guild living below the national poverty line, mental cruelty, illness, family emergencies, and better roles, should be the only reasons for an actor to quit a hit, award-winning gig. As for screen time, how much has Bitty Schram grabbed in the two years since leaving the goose that laid her golden, award-winning egg?
America’s Next Top Model: The Girl Who Kissed a Roach
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Prime Time, Reality, UPN, America’s Next Top Model, Features,
This week’s lesson? It doesn’t matter what situation you find yourself in. You must always remember to wear clean underwear… and always make sure you look pretty. Always.
There comes a time in every season when a girl must finally master the dreaded runway—and this was that week. Making the lesson more difficult, the girls were asked by their runway coach, Miss J, to walk their walk in formal dresses. Dresses that could prove quite tricky to strut in depending on the length and size. Unfortunately, very few were able to walk away from criticism. Even usually cocky Jade came down the runway a little too ‘safe’ to impress. Miss J wondered whether her spirit had been broken by all the judges’ comments. But the highlight of the day was wobbly Danielle. Had she not managed to quickly brace herself, she would have fallen flat on her pretty face.
Click to continue reading America’s Next Top Model: The Girl Who Kissed a Roach
“The world needs Bill Maher!” Or so says the New York Times in reviewing his HBO series Real Time With Bill Maher. We tend to agree. When it comes to debating vital issues with clarity and intelligence, offering razor-sharp commentaries, and volleying humorous, shrewd observations, Real Time, live on Friday nights from CBS Television City in Hollywood, is the authentic “must-see” TV. Over at NBC, “must see” is little more than an over-used ad slogan in need of retirement.
Whether or not you agree with Maher’s progressive politics, he’s an Independent, and humanely enlightened world view, for one hour weekly, he and his eclectic guests, everyone from Newt Gingrich to Gloria Steinam, lay bare society’s smoke and mirrors, political postures, and illogical conclusions. With laser precision, they expose the venal, corporate-owned politicians behind Washington’s curtains, who, indifferent to Planet Earth’s well-being, are waging a war on terra, and not on terror.
Maher understands that if we don’t heal our imploding environment, poisonous diets, outdated beliefs, as well as our greed and selfishness, fighting terrorism over there, or even right here, will be among the least of America’s problems.
In the case of Real Time With Bill Maher, it isn’t television; it isn’t even HBO. It’s simply the real deal.
Commander in Chief - A Lame Duck Series?
Posted by Christopher Stone Categories: Drama, ABC, Commander In Chief,
When the 2005-2006 broadcast network television season began in September, ABC-TV’s Commander in Chief was the highest-rated new series. But the honeymoon and high ratings ended prematurely for the Geena Davis drama. Only two episodes had aired when Commander‘s creator and executive producer Rod Lurie was replaced by NYPD Blue auteur Steven Bochco. Focusing on high tension world issues, rather than on the family life of the series’ first female president Mackenzie Allen, the Bochco episodes were unpopular with viewers. Making matters worse, a five-week holiday hiatus saw the series’ audience turning elsewhere for entertainment.
Now Bochco is out and Rod Lurie crony Dee Johnson is in command. But, even if Johnson returns to Lurie’s original vision of a series powered by First Family events, Commander in Chief may be a lame duck. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to regain momentum. Commander‘s last episode aired two months ago, and the next episode is almost a month away.
Read More | TV Guide
I stopped watching movies on broadcast television when I moved out of my parents’ home and into an apartment with basic cable. To me, motion pictures are art. Even a godawful movie is art, if bad art. I equate them to bad paintings. You know the ones that I mean: those huge canvases, empty except for a black dot in the middle. Tone-y art galleries peddle them for about $7500.00 a pop. I don’t want the breasts covered on my Venus replica, and I don’t want my movies edited for content, length, or commercial interruptions.
For years, I loved watching full-length, uninterrupted movies on American Movie Classics. Then the network began interrupting the classics for commercials. I haven’t watched AMC since, maybe you haven’t, either. Right now, my favorite destination for watching classic movies on television is Turner Classic Movies. That network has the most impressive library of motion pictures on TV; they are shown unedited and uninterrupted, and movies filmed in a widescreen process are most commonly broadcast that way.
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