Smallville is Big for WB
Posted by Christopher Stone Categories: Action, Drama, Prime Time, Cable, WB,
100 episodes into its five-year run, Smallville continues to deliver big numbers for the WB. Above and beyond muscular Nielsens, the series about the super adolescent has been a winner in other arenas, too. Smallville‘s Seasons 1-4 DVDs have grossed in excess of $100 million for Warner Home Video. In 2004, ABC Family picked up the super series for syndication, paying $400,000. per episode for the privilege.
As WB and UPN morph into the CW, Smallville is definitely among the neophyte network’s most valuable assets.
Read More 
| The WB
Gallery: Smallville is Big for WB
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Do Your Homework Before Another Year at Degrassi
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Cable, Degrassi, Features,
Time to get bed early kids—a a new school year at Degrassi starts again this Friday, April 7th. In case you were forgot what your fellow classmates were up to before the long winter break, here’s a quick reminder:
- Spinner was still trying to redeem himself after Jimmy Brooks was shot. He recently started dating a new girl, Darcy, who has very strong religious beliefs.
- JT and Liberty were struggling with her unplanned pregnancy
- Manny was trying to keep her head high after her nude video was leaked on the internet by Peter
- Emma started having a flirtatious relationship with Peter behind Manny’s back
- Ellie and Manny were fighting for Craig’s attention. Manny appeared to have won it in the end.
- the kids of Degrassi just finished participating in a movie directed by Kevin Smith
BUT THERE IS A SO MUCH MORE!!! If you visit the Degrassi website, you will discover that a lot more has transpired during the break. There you can find nine Degrassi minis. These minis (about 2 minutes long each) are basically like snippets of a regular episode. What is unclear is whether or not you will have needed to watch these minis before the new season begins. Will those without access to a computer be missing a huge chunk of the characters’ storylines?? In case you don’t have the time to watch the minis for yourselves, study up on the following notes to make sure you’re ready for your return to school.
Click to continue reading Do Your Homework Before Another Year at Degrassi
Gallery: Do Your Homework Before Another Year at Degrassi
Sharon Stone Knocked Out On Television And At Box Office
Posted by Christopher Stone Categories: Drama, Prime Time, Cable, Showtime, Ratings,
The Huff: Season 2 Premiere, guest starring Sharon Stone, Sunday night on Showtime, was less than a lusty success with viewers. According to the AC Nielsen Company, the initial airing of the episode was watched by a scanty 372,000 viewers, losing 36% of Huff‘s lead in show, the Oscar-winning Crash.
It was a difficult weekend for the 48-year-old sex star elsewhere, too. Movie-goers didn’t exactly roll out the Welcome mat, much less the red carpet, for Stone at the nation’s box offices, either. Despite a media blitz of advertising and publicity, the opening weekend of Stone’s Basic Instinct 2, a sequel to her early ‘90s’ mega-hit, grossed a dismal $3.2 million, placing 10th on the list of last weekend’s top-grossing motion pictures.
Gallery: Sharon Stone Knocked Out On Television And At Box Office
Raunchy Oz Star Clean, Sober On Desperate Housewives
Posted by Christopher Stone Categories: Comedy, Prime Time, ABC, Cable, Desperate Housewives, Rumors,
Lee Tegersen, for six seasons compelling as Tobias Beecher, convicted of Vehicular Manslaughter on HBO’s unflinching prison drama Oz, has resurfaced on the last two episodes of the Alphabet Network’s Desperate Housewives. What’s more, the good-looking actor, frequently in scenes of full frontal nudity and Brokeback-like prison sex on Oz, is playing a clean, sober, and straight recovering alcoholic on Housewives.
Tegersen’s character, Peter McMillian, was Bree’s Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor in his first episode (March 26). In his second Desperate outing (April 2), Lee as Peter fled the Van De Kamp house after Bree kissed him. It’s not that McMillian is immune to the charms of Wisteria Lane’s hottest redhead. As it happens, Peter is not only a former alcoholic, he’s also a recovering sex-aholic who’s not quite ready for dating.
In his real, not reel, life, Lee Tegersen, 40, is rumored to be dating 60-year-old Cher. I say, “What’s a mere 20-year age difference between lovers if your squeeze is a show business legend?”
Read More | HBO
Gallery: Raunchy Oz Star Clean, Sober On Desperate Housewives
Showtime Renews Weeds For Second Season
Posted by Christopher Stone Categories: Comedy, Prime Time, Cable, Showtime,
Watching a Weeds rerun on Showtime Friday night, I was reminded that the Mary-Louise Parker, Elizabeth Perkins series is one of the smartest half hours on television. From it’s contagious opening theme song, “Little Boxes,” to its dark, offbeat characters, and skewed situations. Weeds is always worthwhile.
The series is a filmed comedy noir about the dirty secrets just beneath the squeaky-clean tract facade of fictional, suburban Agrestic, California. Parker plays a widow and mom who peddles pot to Agrestic in order to maintain her family’s lifestyle. Earlier this year, she won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series Comedy. Even so, Weeds’ first season played to a small, if devoted, audience.
Three cheers to Showtime for not taking the Weed Whacker to the award-winning, critically popular series. Au contrare, the network has ordered a 12-episode second season. Now in production, Weeds’ devotees can see fresh episodes this summer.
Read More | Weeds
Gallery: Showtime Renews Weeds For Second Season
Bitty Schram Catches Thief, Speaks Out
Posted by Christopher Stone Categories: Drama, Prime Time, Cable, Talent,
Bitty Schram, wonderful as Sharona in the first seasons of Monk, returns to prime time as an art gallery owner in two episodes of the new FX crime drama Thief, airing April 4 and 11.
Schram has never spoken out about the real reason that she left Monk at the height of its popularity - that is, until now. In the April 3-9 print edition of TV Guide, Bitty reveals that she didn’t want to leave Monk, but she suspected that she “was being paid less than many people who got raises,” and she couldn’t “work out a new contract.” She went on to call Monk “the best experience of my career.”
We’re certain Schram wasn’t earning Screen Actors Guild minimum, but, nonetheless, a pay dispute is a better exit issue than the long-circulated rumor that Bitty walked because she wasn’t getting enough screen time.
Gallery: Bitty Schram Catches Thief, Speaks Out
The Cancellation Of Rollergirls and Why America Hates Bad Girls
Posted by Rhys Alexander Categories: Reality, Cable, Cancellations, Editorial,
The recent cancellation of the reality show Rollergirls wasn’t a huge shock, but it was a huge disappointment. The show follows the triumphs and crises of several all-women teams competing in the intense sport of Roller Derby. There isn’t a shrinking flower among the bunch: these women are tough, both physically and mentally, and will quite literally knock anyone to the ground who gets in their way.
They are, in short, true “Bad Girls.” No wonder the show was cancelled.
American television likes you to think they appreciate bad girls. But that’s a lie. TV’s idea of bad girls includes sexy vixens and man manipulators, women who use their cleavages and ruby-red lips far more often than any sort of physical and mental prowess to achieve their goals. Even Sydney Bristow of Alias, touted as the baddest of bad girls, is conventionally pretty and achieves successful missions with skintight, skin-baring outfits, always perfectly made up and groomed. No mater how grueling the life of a double agent, Sydney always manages to get her lipstick on.
The women of Rollergirls appeared on camera without disguise, and although none could be called TV-pretty, they all have a distinct charm. With names like Miss Conduct and Punky Bruiser, they never fail to capture our attention, and often, our respect. With their trailers, love for beer, love for their children they are often raising by themselves, and their strong, muscled bodies, these women are guilty of one TV sin - they just don’t fit into the mold of Acceptable Television Women. The cancellation of the show is a loss in more ways than one.
Read More | Rollergirls Official Site
Gallery: The Cancellation Of Rollergirls and Why America Hates Bad Girls
The Sopranos: The Fleshy Part of The Thigh
Posted by Christopher Stone Categories: Drama, Prime Time, Cable, HBO, The Sopranos, Features,
It’s head-spinning how rapidly highly paid television stars recover after surviving life-threatening health catastrophes on their shows. Tony on The Sopranos is a case in point. Comatose for most of last week’s episode, Tony was conscious and on his feet Sunday night. Beyond that, everyone and his brother visits Soprano to pay homage. The near death experience did nothing to cleanse Tony’s potty mouth. “Get out of my room you sick c***!” he bellows at an insurance company representative.
The episode’s best bedside visit is from two Jesus zealots who want Tony to accept Jesus Christ as his Personal Savior. Given Soprano’s “wink and nod” approach to the Catholicism in which he was raised, the attempt to see Tony Born Again is simultaneously comic and ironic.
Click to continue reading The Sopranos: The Fleshy Part of The Thigh
Gallery: The Sopranos: The Fleshy Part of The Thigh
HBO has television’s best track record with comedy specials. That’s why I’ll be watching tomorrow night at 10 PM ET, when the network premieres its latest comedy fest, Assume the Position, starring Robert Wuhl, formerly of the HBO series Arli$$.
In the special, Wuhl appears as a guest “professor” before an actual classroom of New York City College students to satirically explore the stories that made up America and the stories that America made up.
I hope he includes one of my personal favorites: After the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria landed on our shores, the ships’ crews were highly disappointed. Everything in the New World was closed in celebration of Columbus Day.
Read More | HBO’s Assume The Position
Gallery: HBO Assumes The Positon
Oscar-winning Best Picture “Crash” on Showtime
Posted by Christopher Stone Categories: Award Shows, Drama, Prime Time, Cable, Showtime,
This must represent a record: Less than one month after winning the Best Picture Oscar, Crash is premiering on Showtime, Sunday, 8:05 PM, ET/PT. Even better, the Crash TV debut is part of Showtime’s Free Weekend Preview.
I saw the triple Oscar-winning Crash last May at the Writers Guild of America, West, Theater in Beverly Hills. Following the screening, Crash‘s Oscar winning writer/producer/director Paul Haggis took the stage for a Question and Answer session. He claimed to have been inspired to write Crash after he and his wife were car-jacked on Wilshire Boulevard’s Miracle Mile in Hollywood, after renting videos at Blockbuster. Sunday you can see the acclaimed motion picture in the privacy of your own home, no rental or late fees apply.
Gallery: Oscar-winning Best Picture “Crash” on Showtime
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