Some people juggle geese!

Old News

nobody@vox.com(C) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:12:47 -0700

Meant to post this weeks ago. Thought I was going to finish it. Think I'll just start another one.

Let's start today with the latest rumors about the movie Thor. Rumor has it that Robert DeNiro and Jude Law have joined the cast.

Chris Pine, the new James T. Kirk, is in negotiations to be the new Jack Ryan.

This one's for you, Rob: Alex Proyas, director of Dark City among others, is working on a film adaptation of The Tripods. I like the idea of him as director. I like his style.

Roland Emmerich wants to make an Independence Day sequel, but won't do it without Will Smith. Which means never.

Bryan Singer is talking about returning to the X-Men fold. I would love an apology for X-Men: The Last Stand.

Joss Whedon's movie Cabin in the Woods is going to be held back a year, to 2011, to turn it in to 3-D.

ThinkGeek is actually making their April Fool's joke Taun Taun sleeping bag.

Fox and EA are teaming up to make a Spore movie. Chris Wedge is said to direct.

Did I know that Peter Berg was making yet another version of Dune?

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DVR alerts

nobody@vox.com(C) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:25:20 -0700

Two of note this week. South Park returns Wednesday at 10:00pm Eastern and Mythbusters at 9:00. They're both shows hard to set a season pass for because they run a lot of repeats during the week. So if you want to see the new episodes of these two shows, it helps to be specific. Good luck.

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Yep, it's official

nobody@vox.com(C) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:58:40 -0700

I love FlashForward. That is all.

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Sesame Street does Mad Men

nobody@vox.com(C) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:15:18 -0700

Sesame Street: Mad Men

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Random factiod for you

nobody@vox.com(C) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:07:41 -0700

Firefly was canceled with 4.5 million viewers. Dollhouse was renewed with 2.7 million viewers. This simultaneously makes me happy and very very sad.

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News post

nobody@vox.com(C) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:33:52 -0700

Been a while since I did a proper news post. The numbers in my news feed look suspiciously low, so I’m sure there’s a bunch of stuff/time missing. Forgive me, faithful readers.

The Beautiful Life (which honestly I wasn’t sure I’d even heard of) appears to be the first cancellation of the fall season.

Conan O’Brien apparently whacked his head while filming a sketch for The Tonight Show on Friday and had to be rushed to the hospital. He’s fine and back on the air.

Things are not looking good for Three Rivers. It was a show I was vaguely interested in before, but then they recast some of the actors and shot a new pilot. This new pilot didn’t go over well, so they’ve shot another pilot which will be the first episode to air and the original re-shot pilot will be the second episode. And with that, I’m out.

A potential Lost clue showed up on the new show FlashForward last week. In one scene we see an Oceanic Air billboard in the background touting its “Perfect Safety Record.” So either the bomb worked or this show is set before Lost.

ABC has announced that they’re going to do a “split launch” of V. It will start as previously announced on November 4^th, but will go off the air for some undetermined amount of time and return some time after the Olympics. There have been some rumblings of trouble for the show and there was a two-week shutdown over the summer. This seems like a bad plan to me because new shows that take long breaks early in their run don’t tend to do well (see: every new show the year of the writers strike).

The original leads of Law & Order: Criminal Intent are all leaving this season. Two of the non-original actors are taking this as an opportunity to bail. Considering this show has been demoted to USA, I think this is the death knell.

J.J. Abrams is producing an as-of-yet untitled sitcom for Fox.

Betty White has signed on for a guest spot on 30 Rock.

Surprising pretty much no one, Heather Locklear is going to be on the new Melrose Place.

Fox has also picked up a new Ron Howard sitcom about the IRS.

A new show from the folks who make Robot Chicken premiered on Sunday. It’s called Titan Maximum and it’s basically a Voltron parody.

The A-Team movie cast is coming together with the latest addition reported to be the guy that starred in District 9, Sharlto Copley.

Mad Men has already been picked up for a fourth season.

South Park returns with new episodes Wednesday, October 7^th.

Did I mention that Disney bought Marvel?

Things that don’t seem necessary: Ghost Rider 2.

Here’s a good one: David Cronenberg is rebooting his own reboot of The Fly.

This is the best sentence I get to write today. Justin Timberlake has been added to the cast of the facebook movie written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher.

Tron: Legacy is going to get a simultaneous IMAX release, December 17, 2010.

I still can’t believe they’re making a Battleship movie, but not it has a director in Peter Berg.

Bruce Campbell will be in Spider Man 4. Why they’re making a Spider Man 4 is a whole other question.

So they’re rebooting Fantastic Four? Really?

The Road has been pushed back again to November 25^th almost a year after it was supposed to be released.

Warner Bros and Mattel have parted ways over He-Man. Mattel will continue to shop it to other studios.

Guy Ritchie’s next project after Sherlock Holmes will be an adaptation of a DC comic called Lobo.

In completely unnecessary remake news, the 2007 British film Death at a Funeral is being remade in the US for a 2010 release. The original was hilarious. I don’t get this decision at all.

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Week one

nobody@vox.com(C) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:56:57 -0700

We've finished the first week of the new TV season, so I thought I'd give a little recap.

How I Met Your Mother, House, The Big Bang Theory and Castle all returned strong. The House premiere was the best of the lot. I’d kinda gone off house a little last season, but I’m completely on board now. I haven’t seen Heroes yet.

Despite what I said about Modern Family I didn’t watch it and therefore it looks like I won’t. It’s still getting good write-ups though, so if you’re looking for a sitcom, well, you should watch The Big Bang Theory, but if you need a second sitcom, this one might be worth checking out. CSI:NY is as ridiculous as ever and I still haven’t watched Glee despite all the good things I’m hearing about it.

Week one of Fringe was outstanding. Week two of Fringe was creepy and weird. I shouldn’t have watched it right before bed. CSI is still CSI, and the premiere was worth the price of admission for the opening sequence alone. Holy bullet time, Batman. I didn’t set a recording for week two of Community, so I guess there’s another one I’m not watching. It’s also getting good reviews, so if you need a laugh, go for it. I was hooked ten minutes in to FlashForward. Set your season passes now, and if you missed the first episode go watch it on Hulu. Now. Seriously. What are you still doing here?

You back? Good.

Friday used to be a boring night of TV. Less so now. Law & Order came back for its 20^th season with a story about prosecuting Dick Cheney for war crimes. Ah, L&O, tell us how you really feel. I honestly don’t know why I watch Smallville any more. I don’t really have any idea what’s going on because I usually have it on while I’m doing something else. The only thing I really know is that they’re heading toward breaking the producers’ first season promise of “no tights, no flying.” Dollhouse was a little confusing, but returned strong. I might have to watch it again to get the full gist.

I just watched The Simpsons premiere and I gotta say, I’m not impressed. They’re making a big deal about it being the 20^th season of the show, but if it continues this way, I probably won’t keep watching.

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New information has come to light, man

nobody@vox.com(C) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:17:46 -0700

Tonight I scored a last minute ticket to KFOG's fall TV preview hosted by SF Chronicle critic Tim Goodman. It was an entertaining and informative four-ish hours at Kelly's Mission Rock in San Francisco. Tim showed us screeners of the first episodes of five shows, four of which are new shows.

First up was Community, a new comedy on NBC Thursday nights this fall starting this week. It was a lot funnier than I thought it would be and will be giving it a shot in my season pass list.

Second was Modern Family, the sitcom on ABC that I had thought looked mildly interesting. That assessment hasn't changed. It's not afraid to be politically incorrect, but that's not enough to make me want to watch. Funny, but not enough to hold my interest. Plus, don't we have enough "mockumentary" style shows?

Third up was a new show on HBO called Bored to Death. It's an interesting premise and a good cast, but not enough to make me want HBO. This is a rental if it's anything.

The fourth show we got was the season premiere of Parks & Recreation, on NBC. This non-Office spin-off held exactly no interest for me when they ran a short six episode season last spring. I have to admit, I thought it was pretty funny. Again, not enough to make me set the Tivo, but a lot better than I expected and apparently a lot better than the first set of shows. The writing was snappy enough, I just don't think I can handle that much Amy Poehler on a regular basis.

The last show we saw was an animated show that will be on FX sometime in 2010 called Archer. This was flat out brilliant. FX is giving Archer a super secret sneak preview this Thursday after the season premiere of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I neglected to mention the return of Sunny in my fall preview, so consider this your reminder of its return. The Thursday episode of Sunny is showing up as an hour long on the Tivo. The second half of this hour is Archer. See? It's sekrit. So even if it doesn't show up in the listings, and it won't, record Thursday's Sunny, because even if you don't watch it, and you should, you should check out Archer.

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Fall 2009 TV Preview

nobody@vox.com(C) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:54:21 -0700

It’s that time of year again. My Entertainment Weekly Fall TV Preview has arrived. That means it’s time to do a night-by-night breakdown of what’s ahead for fall. Bear in mind that some of my favorites aren’t returning right away this fall. Lost and 24 return in January and Chuck is supposed to come back in March.

SUNDAY as usual doesn’t have much going on. At 8:00 The Simpsons (Sept. 27) goes up against The Amazing Race (Sept. 27). It’s not my thing, but Family Guy returns the same day as The Simpsons. There’s one possibly interesting new show on Sunday. It’s the first in what will be a recurring theme: a medical drama. The networks are all in love with medical dramas this year. Not only were there a handful of nurse-centric dramas this summer, but there are at least three new medical dramas this fall. Everyone is apparently trying to capitalize on the gaping hole left by the conclusion of ER. Sunday’s entry in to the medical drama race is Three Rivers (Oct. 4) on CBS in the 9:00 hour. The star, Alex O’Loughlin, you might recognize from the fan favorite but quickly canceled Moonlight. The angle of this show is that it’s about transplant surgeons in Pittsburgh. Last spring it looked promising, but since then the network has recast almost everyone except the lead and remade the pilot. So it’s something I might check out, but I’m not holding my breath.

MONDAY kicks off what can best be described as NBC’s ill-fated 10:00 experiment, The Jay Leno Show, which will run every weeknight, thus eliminating five hours of actual programming. I can’t imagine a circumstance that would have me tuning in to this unless he’s got some celeb guest I can’t miss. Jay’s main competition on Monday nights is Castle (Sept. 21), which I found to be a confection of a cop show last year and am happy to see it back on the schedule. The 8:00 hour on Monday is the problematic one with How I Met Your Mother (Sept. 21), Heroes (Sept. 21) and House (Sept. 21) all vying for the two tuner slots on the Tivo. I’m pretty sure the way it’s going to shake down is HIMYM and House on Tivo and Heroes on Hulu unless Heroes stages some amazing comeback and becomes good again. The 9:00 hour has a new entry in my must watch list The Big Bang Theory (Sept. 21) at 9:30 against the next medical drama entry Trauma (Sept. 28). Big Bang Theory became a must watch after I saw a panel at Comic Con and devoured the first season after returning home. It’s geek humor at its finest. Trauma is a drama about EMTs that is set in San Francisco. So far I’m hearing middling things about it, but it might be worth a look.

TUESDAY brings us the reboot of Melrose Place (Sept. 8). I wish I was kidding about that, but the CW had decent enough success bringing back 90210 (Sept.8) and made the next logical leap, I guess. I’m not watching either, I just thought you’d like to know. Tuesday has exactly nothing else I’m planning on watching until November when the reboot of V (Nov. 3) happens. It has a solid cast and the previews I’ve seen so far look promising. I don’t really remember the original, so I won’t be offended if they deviate. I’m looking forward to this one.

WEDNESDAY isn’t too crowded either. ABC is taking a huge risk and bringing an entire night of new shows. There are four sitcoms from 8:00-10:00, the only one of which looks even remotely interesting is Modern Family (Sept. 30). The drama entry that follows the sitcoms is Eastwick (Sept. 23). It’s a TV version of The Witches of Eastwick. I wish I was kidding about this one too. The only two shows of interest on Wednesday night appear to be CSI:NY (Sept. 23) at 10:00 on ABC and Glee (Sept. 9) at 9:00 on Fox. I still haven’t watched the first two episodes of Glee, but I’m hearing good things. The problem with Glee is that it sounds quirky and it’s on Fox, so I’m not going to get too attached.

THURSDAY has one of the other few train wreck hours of the week with the 9:00 collision of three shows I watch and two popular shows I don’t. The most anticipated of this set is Fringe (Sept. 17). It only got better as the season went on last year. I can’t wait to see where it goes this year. Also returning at 9:00 are CSI (Sept. 24) and 30 Rock (Oct 15), which is coming back late so NBC can try to launch another sitcom in its slot and then move it. The new sitcom is called Community (Sept. 17). It looks ok, but it’s not really on the list. Of course, 30 Rock’s lead in is: The Office, which I once again will not be watching. The other popular shows at 9:00 are Supernatural (Sept. 10) and Grey’s Anatomy (Sept. 24). The big new show on Thursday this year is Flash Forward (Sept. 24). It’s being touted as a sci-fi drama and has a hell of a cast that includes Dominic Monaghan, John Cho, and Joseph Fiennes. I’m going to check this one out for sure. Flash Forward goes up against the 19^th(!) edition of Survivor in the 8:00 hour.

FRIDAY used to be a total dumping ground, and maybe it still is, but there are a lot of popular and good (not always the same thing) shows on Fridays this fall. The most important of these is the second season of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse (Sept. 25). In the 9:00 hour it goes up against several other popular shows that have all shifted nights: Ugly Betty (Oct. 9), Medium (Sept. 25), Southland (Oct. 23) and the encore airing of America’s Next Top Model. NBC has moved the original Law & Order (Sept. 25) to Fridays at 8:00 for its 20^th season. NBC just can’t seem to kill this show no matter how hard they try. It goes up against the also relocated Smallville (Sept. 25). I keep promising I’m going to stop watching Smallville, but it’s a bit like a big traffic accident. I just can’t help myself.

SATURDAY has nothing to recommend except the fact that with the right set of channels you can watch college football from 9:00 am to 11:00 pm without stopping. This is often what I find myself doing.

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Quick programming note: Glee

nobody@vox.com(C) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:57:47 -0700

I'm still waiting for my Entertainment Weekly Fall TV Preview issue to come. It usually arrives after the fall season starts anyway, so I've got one show to talk about before it comes. This Wednesday Glee starts on Fox. There was a sneak preview back in the spring, which I still haven't watched, but the critics seem to think it's going to be fun. It's about, yes, a glee club in high school. So a bit of a musical. I'm going to check it out.

Most everything starts next week or the week after, so I'm hoping to get the EW and get my preview done for you, faithful readers.

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