Study Finds Fewer Gay Characters on TV
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Comedy, Drama, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, Desperate Housewives, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, The CW, The Office,
OK, so here’s a curious study—finding that the number of homosexual characters on television has decreased for the 2006-2007 season. Only nine homosexual characters will be on network-TV series, down from 10 last year. This information was released from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Interesting, I suppose, since the study looked at 679 series lead or supporting characters in the new season, and only about 1.3 percent are gay, lesbian or bisexual. GLAAD looked at the 95 new prime-time comedies and dramas from six major networks. While shows like Ellen and Will & Grace paved the way for more diverse roles, the numbers are still relatively low when looking at the total number of characters that the study analyzed. The characters were identified on the following shows: Help Me Help You (ABC), The Class (CBS), Brothers & Sisters (ABC), Fashion House” (MyNetworkTV), and Hidden Palms on the CW network. Returning shows include Desperate Housewives (ABC), The Office (NBC), and ER (NBC). Recurring gay, lesbian or bisexual characters are also in the series Ugly Betty, Big Day, The Simpsons, The War at Home and Grey’s Anatomy. GLAAD president Neil Giuliano commented on the study, saying, “It’s clear that the broadcast networks have a long way to go before they accurately reflect the diversity of their audience and our society.”
Read More 
| CBS News
Advertisement
Jane Krakowski Joining 30 Rock on NBC
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Comedy, Prime Time, NBC, News,
Just on the heels of the announcement that Rachel Dratch’s role on 30 Rock would be facing some changes, the latest word is that Jane Krakowski will be taking over the part originally filled by Dratch. Krakowski will be playing the star of “The Girlie Show”—the fictional show around which 30 Rock centers. If you’ve been following the fall premieres, you may recall that this is the role that Dratch was set to star in. The recent news from Lorne Michaels, executive producer of the series, was that Dratch would now be taking on a variety of characters on the show. Says Michaels of Krakowski joining the series, “Jane is enormously talented and everyone is thrilled that she is joining the cast. I think it’s going to be a perfect fit.” The show also stars Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan. You may remember Krakowski from Ally McBeal; she is also a seasoned stage actress—but I have fond memories of her as cousin Vicki in the movie Vacation.
30 Rockwill debut on October 11.
Read More | AOL Entertainment
Entourage: What About Bob?
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Comedy, Prime Time, Cable, HBO, Entourage, Features,
In last week’s episode, Turtle was waking up to a big day…this time, it was Drama. Nervous about his first day shooting the pilot, Johnny gets all dressed up. Unfortunately, his outward appearance does not mask the ball of nerves inside. When Turtle jokes to Drama about playing Vince’s ‘brother’ in the Ramones movies, Johnny lashes out at him. Worried that he will suffer a panic attack, the boys suggest ways that he can relax: either take some Xanax or ‘relieve’ himself before filming. Drama decides to go with neither.
Click to continue reading Entourage: What About Bob?
Fall Programming Begins Now
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Drama, Prime Time, FOX, Prison Break, The O.C.,
ATTENTION TIVO USERS: IT’S TIME TO START FIRING UP THOSE SEASON PASSES..
The official start of Fall may still be a month away, but fall programming for the major networks begins tomorrow. Okay—maybe only for one network. Forced to deal with the upcoming Major League Baseball playoffs, FOX is hoping to whet our appetites now by teasing us with their lineup. Once we’re properly addicted, the network will then regular interrupt our candy intake with sports coverage.
So come this Monday, August 21, we will see the return of last year’s hit, Prison Break. When we last left the convicts, the boys had just made their escape from the big house and the feds were still hot on their trail. This season, we will see the addition William Fichtner (Invasion) as an FBI agent brought in to find the jailbirds.
Following Break will be the debut of another drama, Vanished. Vanished’s premise will revolve around a senator’s wife who is mysteriously MIA. Those investigating the missing persons case will eventually discover that her disapperance has to do with a centuries-old plot. I wonder how long they can keep that one up?? I predict the show will be gone before we know it.
As for the rest of the FOX lineup—we will see the remainder of the premieres in the weeks to come, with the bulk of the shows airing the first week of September. Then there’s The O.C. The Mischa Barton-less show won’t even crack its premiere until November 2nd. Apparently finding a waif to fit in her shoes takes time.
Come and get it—MSN Video has the first episode of this season’s Weeds. The Showtime show, starring Mary-Louise Parker, has become a critical darling and Golden Globe winner. The season premiere aired on Monday and now the complete episode can be seen for free on MSN Video. Good news for sad little folk like myself who don’t have Showtime and don’t have access to cool shows like Weeds. Mary-Louise Parker stars as a suburban mom who makes her living selling marijuana. Truly a series concept that has not been done before, and with Parker, you can’t go wrong. So, while I was excited that I could view the first episode in its entirety, sadly, there are no future plans to stream additional full-length episodes. See—that’s how they get you hooked—give you a little and leave you wanting for more. Instead, the site will show short clips from the series and that’s it. So what’s a girl without Showtime going to do to get her fix? Add Showtime to my cable lineup? More likely I’ll just wait for the show to come out on DVD.
Read More | Reuters
The Rachael Ray Show to Feature Oprah
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Daytime, Food & Home, Talk Shows, Oprah Winfrey Show,
For better or for worse, Rachael Ray will debut as talk show host in mid-September. If you’ve never caught her Food Network Shows, she is the self-proclaimed 30-minute meal guru. What started with a cooking show on the Food Network, soon snowballed into other programs on the network, then her own magazine, and now—naturally—her own talk show. I, for one, have a hard time listening to her talk (and I’ve seen the same complaint on bulletin boards), so it’s interesting that she’ll be chatting it up on The Rachael Ray Show. Of course, she does have appeal. For the complaining I do about her goofy little expressions (yummo! or EVOO to abbreviate Extra Virgin Olive Oil), I still watch her cooking shows and my kids absolutely love it. I even have one of her cookbooks and have thumbed through an issue or two of her magazine. The Rachael Ray Show premieres September 18th, with Oprah Winfrey among the guests slated for the first week. Initially surprising that such a high-profile guest as Oprah would appear—then again, the show is co-produced by King World and Winfrey’s Harpo production company.
Read More | People
CBS Will Offer Full-Length Episodes on Innertube
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Drama, Prime Time, Reality, CBS, Desperate Housewives, Lost, Survivor,
CBS will soon be adding full-length episodes of prime-time series this fall. Did I mention they’ll be free? CBS’ broadband channel, Innertube, launched in May on their website. Beginning in September, CSI (all three varieties), Survivor, NCIS, Numb3rs, and Jericho will be available on Inntertube the day after they are aired on the network. Each will be available for four weeks, with the exception of Jericho and Survivor, which will be available all season. Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media, said that it will “further help us extend the reach of the CBS brand [and] provides a new avenue for advertisers to engage with our programming, which in turn creates a new source of revenue for our company.” Commercial-free versions of CBS’ shows are also available at iTunes for $1.99 per episode. You may recall that ABC first started offering free episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives last season—this was an initial test to see how much interest the downloads would generate.
Read More | Yahoo! News
Cityslicker Bruno Kirby Dies
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Entourage, Announcements, News,
Actor Bruno Kirby died this week in Los Angeles after a battle with leukemia. Widely remembered for his role in the 1991 movie City Slickers, he also played a large role in another Billy Crystal classic, When Harry Met Sally. Sadly enough, Entourage fans just recently saw him in probably one of his last roles. He was the producer who had his Shrek doll stolen from Dom.
Bruno, 57, was only recently diagnosed with the disease. His family has asked that all contributions be directed to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.
Read More | ABC News
New Pilot for ABC: Miss/Guided
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Comedy, Prime Time, ABC, The Office,
Coming soon to ABC—a pilot called Miss/Guided, from 20th Century Fox TV and Ashton Kutcher’s studio, Katalyst Films. The single-camera comedy was written by a staff writer from The Office and is the story of a woman who returns to her high school as a guidance counselor. The show will be directed by Todd Holland, who is a three-time Emmy winner for Malcolm in the Middle and The Larry Sanders Show. It’ll be interesting to see what impact Kutcher will have on the show. I’ll give it a shot anyway—good writer and director pedigrees—and, ok—I’m a closet fan of Punk’d, I’ll admit it. No word yet on when Miss/Guided will air or who will star in the comedy.
Read More | Reuters
Celebrity Duets Announces Crooners
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Music, Prime Time, Reality, FOX, American Idol, Talent,
We previously reported on one of Fall’s talent competitions, called Celebrity Duets, matching celebrities with famous singers to see who amongst them has the greatest singing chops. American Idol’s Simon Cowell brings the latest entry to the talent show genre, proving that celebrities who are not famous for their singing can sing with the best of them.
The lineup includes: Chris Jericho (WWE wrestler), Xena‘s Lucy Lawless, Cheech Marin, gymnast Carly Patterson, Alfonso Ribeiro (of Fresh Prince fame), Queer Eye‘s Jai Rodriguez, Hal Sparks of Queer as Folk and actress Lea Thompson. Each week, they will be paired with a different “recording superstar” (Clint Black, Michael Bolton, Belinda Carlisle, Taylor Dayne, Peter Frampton, Macy Gray, James Ingram, Wynonna Judd, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, Kenny Loggins, Richard Marx, Brian McKnight, Aaron Neville, Smokey Robinson, Randy Travis, Dionne Warwick, and Lee Ann Womack have so far been announced).
Celebrity Duets premieres Tuesday, Aug. 29th on FOX.
Read More | Access Hollywood
Advertisement
© Gear Live Media, LLC. 2007 – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.