‘The Apprentice’ was designed as an opportunity for Donald Trump to spread his business knowledge…on paper. In reality, it was all an attempt to spread his massive ego. I don’t know if it is because he’s delusional, but Donald Trump seriously believes that he is the moral guideline for the nation. And it is this side of Trump, this side of self-involved tomfoolery, that emerges within FOX’s in-development ‘Lady or a Tramp’.
Series, which will combine the competition and self-improvement aspects of reality television with the sizzle of the tabloids, is an adaptation of the British series “Ladette to Lady.” On that show, party girls are sent to the U.K. charm school Eggleston Hall, where they are taught “how to go from throwing a kegger to throwing a tea party,” Goldman quipped. Girls are required to wear tweed skirts and pearl necklaces, and taught the finer points of skills like flower arranging and needlework. Contestants then face challenges in those areas, with one girl expelled from the school at the end of each episode. “Tramp” will follow a similar format and also show ample footage of the girls partying.
Now, Variety notes Trump’s attempts at self-improvement, but I believe that this is once again a feeble attempt to extend his fame. Producers of the show are quick to admit that they’re cashing in on (I’d say exploiting) the tabloid rumours swirling around Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, and really that’s all that is occurring here. And it’s mildly alarming.
When CBS announced that it planned to air reruns of Jericho this summer in anticipation of the show’s upcoming midseason return, I had personally thought that they would re-air all of the season’s episodes starting at some point in June, perhaps doubling up on certain weeks in an attempt to fit in all 22 episodes before September came around. Well, CBS seems to think differently, and their official schedule features only 13 episodes from Jericho’s first season. And, well, I think it’s a good schedule.
The Jericho Summer Rerun Schedule
Friday July 6th
9pm EDT – Episode 1 – “Pilot”
Friday July 13th
8pm EDT – Jericho Recap Show (Eps. 1-11)
9pm EDT – Episode 12 – “The Day Before”
Friday July 20th – September
9pm EDT – Remaining Episodes of Jericho’s First Season
Firstly, this schedule will currently take them until September 21st, which would mean the final repeat would air after the official start of the fall season. As a result, a two-hour event here or there might well take place.
After learning this news, I first felt it was a bit of a copout. However, I’ve since decided that it is strong plan that makes a lot of sense for a variety of reasons.
Emphasize Your Strongest Features
The pre-hiatus Jericho was a slow-moving, never-ending post nuclear society struggling with food shortages and your regular post-disaster scenarios. The interest parts (Hawkins’ behaviour, the conspiracy rumblings) can be covered in the recap special, and the show can move into its strong post-hiatus period creatively.
Judy Greer is perhaps best known to television comedy fans for her stint as receptionist Kitty on Arrested Development. Rob Thomas is best known for creating Veronica Mars, the beloved UPN/The CW drama that was recently canceled. Combining these two elements seems like good science, and apparently all parties think so. A last-minute addition to the ABC Pilot lineup, “Miss/Guided” was seeking guidance and has found it in Thomas, who will lead Greer and Co. as showrunner starting at midseason according to E! Online.
This means a few things: first, yes, Veronica Mars is definitely canceled. However, I think that fans (and everyone else) should look on the bright side knowing that Rob Thomas is still in television. While I think that he has yet to prove himself a consistent showrunner over multiple seasons, and the fact that he hasn’t created the show is certainly going to make for a different experience, the first season of Veronica Mars was some of the most exceptional television of the decade. If Thomas can develop his vision and keep it from spiraling out of control, I believe that he is the right person for this job.
Second, I’m now that much more excited for Miss/Guided. I was happy to see it picked up, considering Judy Greer is both very engaging and very funny, but now the series has a great deal of potential. The show is certainly not all that original, actually seeming to play just a little bit like Ugly Betty in a public school, but I think that this type of fish out of water story is exactly the type of thing that Thomas is good at capturing. The best parts of Veronica Mars were when she was a total outcast, struggling not to fit in but to survive not fitting in. Much as Veronica developed her own way of doing that, I believe that Greer’s Becky Freeley can do the same.
So, while it is perhaps no consolation for losing Veronica Mars, I look forward to seeing what he is able to cook up for Miss/Guided. Perhaps with a creative resurgence the sitcom might actually get a timeslot confirmed; if it replaces Cavemen (Which better not succeed), I shall be most pleased.
Also of Note: Christina Applegate comedy “Sam I Am” is now listed as “Untitled” on ABC’s fall preview. Looks like changes are afoot on more shows than one over at ABC.
[In Week Two of Cultural Learnings’ 59th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations Preview, we’re looking at possible contenders for the Supporting Actress awards in both drama and comedy. Today, we present our fifth set of candidates. For last week’s Supporting Actor candidates, and an index of all candidates, Click Here]
Supporting Actress in a Drama
Patricia Wettig (Holly Harper)
Brothers & Sisters
Fans of FOX’s Prison Break will know Patricia Wettig from her stint as (Vice-)President Reynolds on the show’s first season before she mysteriously disappeared in its second, returning only for a brief cameo. Well, for those fans who might not be so interested in primetime family dramas and who skipped ABC’s Brothers & Sisters, it was the reason why she was absent. With her husband Ken Olin (A prolific director/producer on Alias) producing the ABC series, Wettig was drawn away from her presidential role for one somewhat different. And, while I’m sure it mucked things up over at Prison Break, Wettig made the right decision in the end. In Holly Harper, Wettig has a character with emotional depth beyond her introduction. Beginning as a volatile plot device from the Walker family’s departed patriarch’s past, Holly has since developed into an honest-to-goodness part of this ensemble cast. While some of the other supporting performances were perhaps more showy (Mainly Rachel Griffith’s turn), Wettig brought to Holly a sense of loss and independence worthy of Emmy contention.
Holly Harper was the other woman, the one that Nora Walker knew existed and yet didn’t believe was ever a real problem. The key theme of the season was Nora dealing with her husband’s past haunting her even after his death, and Holly was a big part of this. As she became an inheritor, and as she bought herself into the family business, Holly was a thorn in Nora’s side in a real fashion. However, Holly was rarely out to get Nora in the beginning. Wettig brought to the role a sense that she was willing to be civil, willing to be honest, willing to let things slide. Then, of course, things hit the roof and Nora couldn’t take it anymore.
Their tension was palpable, and it drove the show forward. As Holly battled with Sarah and Nora, she was often somewhat vindictive and it would be easy for Wettig to fall into that pattern. However, once Holly’s daughter Rebecca entered the picture, Wettig was given a more emotional side. We began to see the life she led without having to relate to this family, the life as the other woman with a daughter and a life to live. It is easy to immediately condemn the other woman, but I found myself warming to Holly by season’s end. Wettig brought to the role a sense of honesty, a knowledge of her sins and yet an acknowledgement of needing to move on from it. From beginning to end in her series run, Patricia Wettig embodied Holly Harper in a way that she could never have achieved with Prison Break’s cold-hearted president. Not only did Wettig make perhaps the best career move of the year, but she also delivered a performance worthy of Emmy consideration.
Episode Selection: “Grapes of Wrath” (Aired May 6th, 2007)
Holly is at her most vicious here, reeling from the news that her daughter has moved in with the Walkers and the tension between her and Nora is most certainly at a fever pitch. Wettig has a lot of fun seducing Nora’s date for the weekend, her creepy writing teacher, but the real kicker comes from an end of episode food fight that is both funny and yet evolves into something much more substantial. Holly breaks down after the fight, realizing that she still misses William (Nora’s husband, her lover). That breakdown is the first time I really looked at Wettig for this award, and I think it convinced me she deserved it. It puts into context Holly’s actions, Holly’s inability to move on, just as it did Nora’s inability to move on before she put William behind her at some point earlier. Actually, Holly’s actually better at moving on than Nora is. And Wettig makes this very clear, matching Sally Field line for line and delivering an Emmy-worthy performance.
There is something to be said for an actress finally finding the right role for them. Vanessa Williams has jumped around, struggling to find her role in the television and film universe. Outside of appearances in films such as Soul Food or Shaft, or her short-lived runs on Boomtown or South Beach (Which existed, believe it or not), she has never found a niche in the acting world. As a result, most people know her best from performing ‘Colours of the Wind’ in Disney’s Pocahontas and her other singing accolades. However, Williams is not happy just being another Pebo Brison; she appears to have been waiting for the right role to finally come along. And, well, come along it has: as the scheming Wilhelmina Slater, Williams has elevated her game with a conniving and devious performance that skirts the line between villain and hero so well that I’m still not sure where I stand. However, either way, Vanessa Williams has finally found the right role, and it is one worthy of Emmy Awards attention.
For those of you who realize that I am in fact Canadian, and that I spent a fair amount of time covering American Idol, you might be wondering why I have yet to even care to mention the recent launch of the summer programming juggernaut that is Canadian Idol. And, for those few of you who meet that description, I have this following explanation: it’s not at all compelling for me.
While the audition stages are always a huge draw for the American Idol audience, and for good reason, I believe that Canadian Idol has never quite figured out how to achieve the desired effect. On American Idol, the audition stages provide a glimpse into the future of the competition: with each episode you get an idea of a certain level of talent, and you connect with these people. I think a lot of it has to do with the judges: the dynamic that Simon, Farley and Paula have created is something consistent, set in stone. When people step before them we can immediately predict their reaction, or approximate it at the very least. This is, in actuality, a good thing: it allows the candidates to be judged on a fairly consistent set of standards.
I don’t know what it is about Canadian Idol’s judging panel, but I swear they’re all of them schizophrenic. They outright jeer certain contestants like an over-sized peanut gallery, but then fawn over others who are merely average. One second Farley’s Mr. Nice Guy, the next he’s destroying some poor contestant. Sass usually has nothing of import to say, and yet she can’t even decide whether she’s mean or nice in the process. Yes, I know most of this is purely natural behaviour: Zack isn’t a villain all the time, so why should be play one on this show? These people have to like people at some point, so what’s the problem?
[Yes, while I have shifted to exclusively talking about television gradually over the past five months, I will be interluding with gems of information like this one.]
Pixar has been a studio that hasn’t taken a whole lot of risks with the subject matter of its films, even if technological and storytelling risks were certainly taken in the process. I say this because, technically, all of the films appealed to younger or established demographics. Toy Story was about toys, A Bug’s Life about cute bugs, Monsters Inc. about furry monsters, and The Incredibles about superheroes. Even Ratatouille, despite being very different story-wise from most animated films out there, remains firmly in the realm of the types of characters that can be made into furry stuffed animals if need be, or at the very least action figures.
However, news broke today that Pixar appears to be breaking out of this mold in a big way. With Disney’s own animation studio ramping up and beginning to deliver more films, and with Lasseter at the helm, Pixar is letting itself roam free…and roam ‘Up’.
Pixar is going a little older than its typical demo in 2009.
Toon studio revealed Monday that’s its release that year will be “Up,” about a 70-year-old man who teams up with a Wilderness ranger to fight a cadre of beasts and villains.
“Monsters Inc.” director Pete Docter is co-directing with Bob Peterson, an animation vet making his helming debut. Ronnie Del Carmen, a Pixar story supervisor, is writing the script.
This, my friends, is the best decision that Pixar has ever made. With Ratatouille I believe that the studio has its first chance at true box office disappointment, even with what looks like a fabulous film. With so many animated films flooding the market, oversaturation is going to keep Ratatouille from making as big of an impact as it might have years ago. The film will be a success, surely, but it won’t perhaps be a blockbuster. But, Pixar doesn’t need to make blockbusters, and that’s the whole point of their new development strategy.
Next year, Wall-E is a film with a lead character devoid of dialogue and who is a garbage collecting robot. And now, with Up, they’ve developed a film about a 70-year old man and a wilderness ranger teaming up to fight creatures of unknown origin. What we’re seeing is Pixar breaking free of its boundaries, free of the problems that plagued them when forced to develop Toy Story 2. While it is one of my favourite Pixar films, once can only wonder what original material they were cooking up…and now we don’t have to.
With Wall-E (Which will debut its teaser trailer in front of Ratatouille) and Up, Pixar is moving into a niche knowing that its name will carry with it some level of success. Fans of Pixar as a filmmaker, not just as a commercial enterprise, should be excited at this idea. No longer do action figure sales dictate the determined path of a film for the studio, and the result is two films that could return Pixar to its attempts to revolutionize computer animation in terms of its storytelling, its technology and perhaps even its audience. I don’t see toddlers getting a kick out of a senile old man cutting down demons…but I can’t wait.
When I blogged about the efforts to save Veronica Mars last week, they were fairly insignificant. There was no real momentum, no real content, no real drive, and it felt like an attempt to copy the successful campaign for CBS’ Jericho. However, while there is certainly inspiration to be found within Jericho’s triumphant defeat of network executives, the two situations are not the same, and Veronica Mars fans are likely fighting a losing battle. Despite what is perhaps a cynical perspective, I want to make something very clear: I believe that fan movements are never valueless. And as the campaign formed into an extensive Mars Bar, Snickers and Marshmallow Fest over the weekend, I guess I became a bit more nostalgic about it.
Stage One: Purchasing Mars Bars from The Indian Food Store, later becoming Snickers bars when Mars Bars ran out (Note: We in Canada have plenty, and they’re good. Really good). Later, deciding that Marshmallows tied in with the series, fans began to send the poofy treats as well.
Stage Two: Fans are instructed to order the show’s season finale, ‘The Bitch is Back’, on iTunes on Tuesday June 12th in an effort to raise it to the top of the charts and show support for the show. There are no current plans to bulk purchase David Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars?’, but considering that it is both an awesome song and that international viewers can’t buy TV shows from the store, I think it might be cool.
There has been criticism that fans are “wasting their money”, or squandering their time; I would argue that this could never be the case. Television is a medium that people connect to in a way that just doesn’t occur with movies or books, and the result is often a sense of fan support that creates a community. That community is something that, for better or for worse, has been part of those people’s lives, and television is something you talk about. Chatting about an episode, a character, is something that brings people together with a common goal in a way that politicians can only dream of.
[In Week Two of Cultural Learnings’ 59th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations Preview, we’re looking at possible contenders for the Supporting Actress awards in both drama and comedy. Today, we present our fourth set of candidates. For last week’s Supporting Actor candidates, and an index of all candidates, Click Here]
Supporting Actress in a Drama
Kelly Bishop (Emily Gilmore)
Gilmore Girls
This year, for the first time, Gilmore Girls is submitting in the drama category. This decision will certainly benefit the series, I believe, as it more directly represents the show as a whole. However, at the same time, it will also directly benefit who is arguably the series’ most important supporting player. Kelly Bishop has portrayed the Gilmore matriarch for seven seasons with a sense of grace, but she was rarely given a chance to be “comic” by popular standards. Sure, Emily Gilmore can be hysterical, but it makes more sense for her to be considered as a dramatic performance. As a result, as the series shifts over, so too do Bishop’s chances of finally getting her due. In the show’s final season, Kelly Bishop portrayed Emily Gilmore as a powerful wife, mother and grandmother in a way that was always real despite her wealth and status. As a dramatic performance, Bishop deserves to be considered for an Emmy Award.
This past season has been an opportunity for Emily to come to terms with her own life, as opposed to that of her daughter. Her life changed when her husband suffered a heart attack, and all of a sudden she was alone in many things. That sense of loneliness sent the always on the edge Emily over the cliff, in a sense. Faced with a new reality, a change in her routine, it required a lot of dramatic range from Bishop. At that age, where retirement and everything else kicks in, people are faced with a change of lifestyle, and Bishop portrayed it with a subtlety and vulnerability that was in line with Emily’s past actions.
Perhaps most importantly, however, was that Emily’s journey felt complete. After seven seasons of tense relations with her daughter, the season ended with her attempting to ensure that her connection with Lorelai would continue even as Rory is graduating. Their strained relationship was always important to the core dynamic, and to see it resolved in the finale was perhaps the most important moment from my personal perspective. What Bishop always brought to the role was a sense that Emily held a grudge, but that she also very much loved and cherished her relationship with her family. In her finale season, Bishop lived up to that history and delivered a performance worthy of Emmy consideration.
Episode Selection:“I’d Rather Be In Philadelphia” (Aired February 6th, 2007)
A moment of crisis is always rife with drama: in this case, Emily is faced with her husband’s heart attack and struggles in the hospital to pull together. Her reaction is real, honest, and Bishop portrays her anguish with just the right amount of denial. While I think she had better performances, this is the one where she was placed in a tougher position. Remorse, anger, it’s all there. It wasn’t perhaps the most subtle of her performances, but I think it is certainly the one that might get a good amount of Emmy related attention.
I watched the first two seasons of How I Met Your Mother in the span of a few weeks, and in the process I warmed up to Cobie Smulders in a big way. I was, for the most part, ambivalent towards her as the seasons progressed, but over time I began to come to terms with her contribution to the series. While Alyson Hannigan is perhaps the bigger star, Smulders often has the more difficult role to play. Her relationship with Ted needed to seem worthwhile, honest, and it always did. She brought to the role a sense of comic timing that was always somewhat offbeat, and she always played the role of the outsider in the right way. And really, I’ll be honest: while I believe that her performance as a whole is deserving of attention, I’m really only listing her for one reason: Robin Sparkles.
So, the interwebs have been inundated with reviews of HBO’s new show, ‘John from Cincinnati’, that debuted tonight after The Sopranos Finale. Many lament that series creator David Milch exited Deadwood prematurely to helm this series about surfers. Others comment on how the language from his previous series is certainly back in full force. However, a majority of reviews have something in common: this is one screwed up show.
I was therefore heading into last night’s premiere with a certain perspective. On one hand I knew the series had a certain pedigree, and that some reviews were quite positive. On the other, however, was an underlying knowledge of how strange the series was purported to be. And, in the end, I find myself somewhere in between the two extremes presented: I think the series has some level of potential, but that its weirdness just seems that, weird. I don’t see any reason, any direction, within its premise. And yet, I want it to have direction and might follow it until it finds it.
I was up late at night trying to get to sleep and stumbled upon something on my snowy antenna reception in my dorm room that caught my attention: much as I had, months earlier, stumbled upon an episode of The Office (US) that got me hooked on the show, this series became of interest. That show was ‘The Loop’, a comedy that debuted on FOX last year to, well, not so great numbers despite an American Idol lead-in for a brief period. After catching up with the series, I found it to be an entertaining little diversion with an incredibly engaging lead actor in Bret Harrison. However, when it was surprisingly renewed for a 2nd season, there was talk of changes, and a fair amount of people worried that the show would lost its integrity when it airs two episodes tonight at 8:30 EDT and 9:30 EDT on FOX. I am not one of these people.
The reason I was unconcerned is that the reboot of the show maintains all of the elements I liked, and gets rid of elements to which I felt little to no connection. The show was designed as a young executive who, despite moving up in the corporate world, still exists in the world of his youthful friends. Thus, he was stuck between two worlds: it was a decent concept, let’s be honest, but the problem was that it was the corporate world that was the most entertaining. Philip Baker Hall was hysterical as his out of touch boss. Mimi Rogers was bitingly funny as his Milf co-worker, and most importantly his over-educated and resentful secretary was the source of the show’s most consistent comedy.
When CBS announced that it planned to air reruns of Jericho this summer in anticipation of the show’s upcoming midseason return, I had personally thought that they would re-air all of the season’s episodes starting at some point in June, perhaps doubling up on certain weeks in an attempt to fit in all 22 episodes before September came around. Well, CBS seems to think differently, and their official schedule features only 13 episodes from Jericho’s first season. And, well, I think it’s a good schedule.
Supporting Actress in a Drama
Supporting Actress in a Comedy
For those of you who realize that I am in fact Canadian, and that I spent a fair amount of time covering American Idol, you might be wondering why I have yet to even care to mention the recent launch of the summer programming juggernaut that is Canadian Idol. And, for those few of you who meet that description, I have this following explanation: it’s not at all compelling for me.
Supporting Actress in a Drama
Supporting Actress in a Comedy
Cultural Learnings 