June 3, 2007 · 12:49 pm

Weekend Box Office (June 1st-3rd) – Insert “Knocked Up” Pun Here

Well, while it wasn’t #1 at the Box Office this weekend, the big story from the weekend’s box office is the success of Knocked Up, director Judd Apatow’s follow-up to the 40 Year Old Virgin. With rave reviews (It’s the highest rated wide-opening film of the year on Metacritic) and positive word of mouth, the film basically made back its entire budget at the box office this weekend with its solid #2 finish. How’d the Top 5 go down?

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

$43, 188,000 (-62%)

Total: $216 Million

The 3rd Pirates film falls hard in its second weekend, although not as poorly as Spider-Man 3 percentage wise. Still, after opening weaker, the film looks to struggle in order to match the box office receipts of even the 1st Pirates film.

2. Knocked Up

$29,284,000 (NEW)

Total: $29,284,000

Seth Rogen steps into his first leading role and knocks it out of the park with this one, opening over 40% stronger than Steve Carell’s The 40 Year Old Virgin. This opening proves that word of mouth still has a role to play in this day and age, and with some strong holds over the coming weeks the film could perhaps outperform the 100+ Million of its predecessor. Standing in the way, however, is Ocean’s 13 opening next weekend.

3. Shrek the Third

$26,704,000 (-49.7%)

Total: $254,611,000

It’s a decent drop off for Shrek the Third this week, although there are still concerns as to whether it can continue at this pace. Certainly, with a glut of competition, the film isn’t quite able to provide as much staying power as its predecessor. The real test will be how it can perform against next week’s Surf’s Up. Cute penguins may just be Shrek’s downfall after all, it appears. The road seems clear, however, for Ratatouille unless Surf’s Up is a blockbuster success.

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June 3, 2007 · 11:02 am

For Your Consideration: Supporting Actors – Jack McBrayer and Dominic Monaghan

[In Week One of Cultural Learnings’ 59th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations Preview, we’re looking at possible contenders for the Supporting Actor awards in both comedy and drama. Today, we present our third set of candidates. For all candidates, Click Here]

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Jack McBrayer (Kenneth the Page)

30 Rock

Kenneth the Page is perhaps one of the simplest characters in all of television. A lowly NBC page for the cast of the fictional The Girlie Show, Kenneth believes in the power of television and little else. We see glimpses of him talking to his skeletal mother, we see moments of absolute naivety, and on occasion his innocence can seem quite exaggerated. And yet, what we originally believed was cluelessness was actually just a different perspective, simple without being stupid. Kenneth believes in the magic of television, and I, as a result of Jack McBrayer’s performance, believe right along with him.

What McBrayer brings to the role is just the right balance of simple and smart, which is such a hard thing to balance. When Kenneth becomes a poker all-star, Jack spends days trying to figure out his tell. However, the point is that Kenneth has no tell. He is capable of looking and acting entirely smart, even when he’s really clueless. However, on the other hand, he is often able to be entirely smart even when he seems simple on the outside.

And it is that innocence that makes McBrayer’s performance so difficult: in the hands of the writers, McBrayer needs to walk the fine line between stupid and naïve every single episode. And yet he always achieves: while certain episodes are worse than others, Kenneth always is as endearing as he could possibly be, and completely funny when required. For being able to strike that balance and create a scene-stealing supporting character, Jack McBrayer is worthy of an Emmy Nomination.

Episode Selection: The Head and the Hair (Airdate: January 18th, 2007)

While the episode’s title refers to a storyline unrelated to Kenneth, and there are technically three stories at play within this episode, Kenneth has by far his finest moments within it. The reason is that he gets copious amounts of screentime with Alec Baldwin, who as per tradition is taking over Kenneth’s job for the day. We get to see Kenneth’s dirty work, the things he has to put up with on a regular basis, plus Kenneth gives multiple impassioned speeches about television. And then, at the end of the episode, he sells his game show idea to NBC executives. While Kenneth plays a major role in other episodes, here his story arc is touching, complete, and funny in a way that is deserving of Emmy Attention.

YouTube – “The Head and the Hair”

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama

Dominic Monaghan (Charlie Pace)

Lost

I would not be putting Dominic on this list three weeks ago, which I guess is somewhat contradictory. Charlie has been absent from key storylines for a very long time this year, and I was amongst many who was happy to see that he was fated to die according to Desmond’s flashes. And yet, perhaps spurned on by his imminent departure from the show, Charlie began to become likable again. No longer saddled with nothing of consequence, Dominic delivered a performance towards the end of the season that almost made Charlie likable before finally nailing it by season’s end. And that delivery, making me actually care about his fate, is enough for me to deem him worthy of a potential Emmy nomination.

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June 2, 2007 · 10:09 pm

‘Save Jericho’: Why the Emmy Awards Could Be a Turning Point

Over the past few days, and over the next month and a half, Cultural Learnings will be spending some time letting it be known which actors, actresses and series deserve the attention of Emmy Voters as they prepare to make their decisions for the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards to be held in September (You can find the first two installments in Supporting Actors Here and Here). An Emmy nomination is often a way for a series to gain credibility, and for a network to gain a certain level of prestige with that particular program. As a result, each studio sends out a deluge of “For Your Consideration” materials for the performers and series that they want to consider giving awards attention to. And, despite canceling the show, CBS is doing so for Jericho.

TheGreenCampaign.com – CBS Emmy Nominations

The above website presents full episodes from each show that CBS is entering for consideration, and amongst them is Jericho. With fans rallying behind the show, its mindshare is perhaps at its greatest level yet; whether this translates to more voters, however, we can’t say for sure. However, I would suggest that the ‘Save Jericho’ movement has a real opportunity here. With the Emmy Awards comes a lot of press, and a lot of opportunities to prove CBS wrong. Sure, the Emmys are as much of a sham as the Nielsen ratings, but they’re still a prime opportunity for fans of the series to show CBS that they made a terrible error. If, on July 19th, someone from Jericho makes it onto the Emmy nominations list, it will either show CBS they made a mistake, or perhaps even reaffirm their decision to renew the show.

So, my suggestion is that the ‘Nuts for Jericho’ campaign come together in an attempt to build support for the series and its stars on the internet. There are multiple ways this can be achieved:

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June 2, 2007 · 3:34 pm

The End of ‘Battlestar Galactica’: The Search for Earth Concludes in 2008

This news broke yesterday, so I can’t attempt to claim that I am bringing you fresh information. However, more than many news pieces, this one really requires some sober thought before discussing it. One of the most compelling dramas on television is officially coming to an end next year, and that’s something that takes some time to get used to. There had been persistent rumours that had indicated this could be the case, but to have it finalized is something very different. As a result, I needed to evaluate how I felt about Battlestar Galactica’s fourth season being its last.

I’ve discovered my answer: it feels right.

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June 2, 2007 · 10:48 am

For Your Consideration: Supporting Actors – Jeremy Piven and Michael Hogan

[In Week One of Cultural Learnings’ 59th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations Preview, we’re looking at possible contenders for the Supporting Actor awards in both comedy and drama. Today, we present our second set of candidates. For all candidates, Click Here]

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Jeremy Piven (Ari Gold)

Entourage

HBO’s Entourage has been receiving attention from the Screen Actor’s Guild and the Golden Globes for the past two years, and it is about ready to break through in a big way in the series category at the Emmys this year. However, ahead of the show itself, Jeremy Piven won an Emmy in this category last year. While there is no question that the show as a whole has its merits, it is Piven’s performance that has often garnered the most attention, and for good reason.

Ari Gold is a high-powered Hollywood agent, but you wouldn’t know it from his behaviour. He’s crash, rude, vulgar, quick to anger, neurotic, and usually out of sorts for a variety of different reasons. All of these things could become overbearing, but Piven’s performance sells us on Ari’s inner sanity while still providing some hilarious and occasionally touching character moments.

And that is what makes Ari such a strong supporting player: despite being outside of the titular entourage, Ari is constantly a presence in their lives, and when the show cuts to Ari’s non-Vince related projects it’s actually a welcome break. He’s strong enough to sustain his own storylines, but plays a fantastic role within the core ones as well. He’s a strong foil, a brilliant performer, and without a doubt is going to garner his third straight nomination for this role.

Episode Selection: Manic Monday (Airdate:April 22nd, 2007)

While Entourage’s entire third season will be eligible, it is this episode from just a month ago that represents Ari’s finest moment. Asked to fire an agent, Ari is unable to pull the trigger (despite it being an experience he relished in the past). His therapist tells him that it’s because he’s still hung up over losing Vince as a client. Ari, still unable to get it out of his system, tracks down his therapist on her day off (on a golf course) and in the process gets his anger back and delivers a memorable firing to the agent in question. It is an arc that deals with his emotional connection with Vince, his more hilarious moments, and even his relationship with his wife. It’s over-the-top, but grounded. And it’s the best performance to win Jeremy Piven his Emmy.

YouTube: “Manic Monday”

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama

Michael Hogan (Col. Tigh)

Battlestar Galactica

While I am personally more fond of the performance of James Callis as Gaius Baltar, I cannot deny what PopWatch and others are saying: if there is ever a chance for Battlestar Galactica to get some attention, it might well be in Hogan’s performance as the alcoholic mess that Sol Tigh became on New Caprica after the occupation. Newly eyepatched after time spent in a Cylon prison, he emerged from that experience a broken man.

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June 1, 2007 · 10:29 pm

TV Real Estate: Searching for a New Home for ‘Jericho’

With news from Jericho’s Executive Producer Carol Barbee that they are working behind the scenes with both CBS and other networks, one has to wonder: what other networks would be in a position to take the show on? And why would they be interested in getting a show like Jericho with a dedicated fan base and a high value? Cultural Learnings investigates.production

TNT

Why They Should be Interested: TNT showed a willingness to take on first-run programming earlier this development season when they made a pitch to NBC for Law & Order to move to the network. In the end, NBC chose to keep Law & Order, and kept Criminal Intent in the NBC family, so TNT was left out in the cold.

Concerns: TNT has already moved towards developing more drama series: Saving Grace (Starring Holly Hunter) and Heartland (Starring Treat Williams) both debut this summer, so their development slate is actually fairly full. Plus, for better or for worse, Jericho would be the network’s first foray into non-procedural television. Still, there’s no better place to start than with an already established series that could pull in numbers similar to a well-established syndicated series.

Showtime

Why They Should Be Interested: Showtime, like HBO, operates on a subscription basis: any show that can bring with a dedicated set of fans is something that they should be interested in. Plus, the cable channel was very interested in Arrested Development, which had even lower ratings (Although that show was perhaps the best comedy of the decade, and (with apologies) I don’t think Jericho has quite as much critical pedigree. Still, it’s a sure-fire way to boost subscriptions.

Concerns: Showtime, like TNT, has been developing a lot of their own shows recently. Weeds, for instance, has made a big splash for the network, and The L Word is buzzworthy. As a result, Jericho doesn’t seem to fit: even Arrested Development was closer to their core audience-base. As much as it’s about expanding that audience, Jericho doesn’t seem like a Showtime type of show. Of course, change can often be a good thing.

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June 1, 2007 · 6:37 pm

For Your Consideration: Supporting Actors – Neil Patrick Harris and Michael Emerson

[In Week One of Cultural Learnings’ 59th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations Preview, we’re looking at possible contenders for the Supporting Actor awards in both comedy and drama. Today, we present our first two candidates.]

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy
Neil Patrick Harris (Barney)
How I Met Your Mother

I started watching How I Met Your Mother at the beginning of May, and have gone through the entire two seasons within a month. After watching the pilot when it premiered in 2005, I remember thinking closely about the performance of the former Doogie Howser. In the pilot, you can tell that he was meant to be wacky, with the focus on catchphrases like “Suit Up!” and “Legendary”. And, as a result, part of me wrote the character off as I lost touch with the series. I now realize that this was a terrible mistake, and after a fantastic two seasons of work Neil Patrick Harris deserves an Emmy nomination.

Barney has become something more than a womanizing flack with a high-end job and a lair-like apartment over the past season, and the result was some strong character moments. We saw the inside of his apartment, we learned that he had played a major role in Lily’s return from San Francisco, and we got to become an Uncle to his gay brother’s adopted boy. The character got a fair amount of dynamism in his storylines to go along with his usual strong supporting comedy, and that is the mark of a great supporting actor. When he needs to be simple and foil for the leads or other characters, he is fantastic at quips, comebacks, and all of that fluff. However, when the show asks more of him, Neil Patrick Harris always steps up to the plate. Even in its more derivative moments, Neil Patrick Harris raises How I Met Your Mother to whole new levels of awesomeness.

Episode Selection: Showdown (Airdate: April 30th, 2007)

There is no better example of Neil Patrick Harris’ finest moments than within this tour de force that literally becomes the Barney show in its last act. Believing since childhood that Bob Barker was his biological father, Barney finally gets the guts to travel to Los Angeles and confront him live on the show. From his price memorization (He knows everything) to his fake surprise, it’s all fantastic comedy…but then the moment where he prepares to inform Bob that he is his father is just heartbreaking, and the arc actually means something to him as a character to see that he couldn’t go through with it. If Emmy voters see this episode, I do not see how Neil Patrick Harris won’t be on the ballot.

YouTube: Showdown

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama

Michael Emerson (Ben)

Lost

Last season, Michael Emerson made an impact on Lost as Henry Gale, the captured Other who was kept within the Hatch for an extended period of time. He gave an eerie and compelling performance, but we were not yet truly introduced to the character in question. It is thus impressive that Ben, the leader of the Others, has managed to develop into a full fledge part of this ensemble cast with mysteries, intrigue, and a fantastic performance from Michael Emerson worthy of an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama.

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June 1, 2007 · 2:51 pm

For Your Consideration: Cultural Learnings’ 59th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations Preview

Here at Cultural Learnings, we pride ourselves in presenting the most comprehensive coverage of major award shows. Our extensive Oscars coverage should no doubt prove this, including an extensive and mind-blowingly long Oscar Liveblog. However, although I can’t prove this to you right now, Cultural Learnings is even better at covering the Emmy Awards.

Which is why I’m scrapping the proposed end of season report cards (I tried writing one about three times before giving up) and skipping right to the most extensive Emmy coverage you’ll find on the web. What does this mean for you, the reader? Well, it means that some busy weeks are still ahead.

As For Your Consideration ads start to clog your favourite entertainment sites and screeners are sent out to voters, Cultural Learnings will offer its own candidates for consideration. Over the next 5+ Weeks, we’ll be highlighting the shows and performers that most deserve the attention of voters and viewers. Each week, starting today June 1st, we’ll be focusing on one group of actors: for example, this week will be Supporting Actors. Each day, we’ll have one candidate for comedy and one for drama, resulting in 7 (Or more) potential candidates.

In the coming weeks, we’ll follow with Supporting Actresses, Actors, Actresses and of course Series nominations. After this five week period, we’ll focus on the writing and directing categories, along with guest stars and other such awards, before finally narrowing down the lists into our predictions for the 59th Annual Emmy Award Nominations on Thursday July 19th, 2007.

However, I still want your feedback on this one: if you have an actor or actress, or series, that you think we should highlight for consideration, let your voice be heard: send off an email to cultural.learnings @ gmail.com and chances are we’ll mention them at some point during this process.

And thus, Week One begins with our first two candidates that follow. If you want to see all of my chosen candidates as they are posted, I’ll be posting Pages in the header at the top of the page for each week in order to collect all of the information, so stay tuned for that.

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June 1, 2007 · 2:48 pm

Why the ‘Lost’ Season Three DVD Isn’t Coming until December

This week, ABC Studios is announcing their official release dates for their upcoming season DVD sets. Of these shows, the most anticipated is the Season Three release for ‘Lost’. And yet, it is also the one that would be most difficult to schedule.

On one hand, the series’ third season was its least watched by a wide margin, and yet ended so strongly that it is creating a lot of buzz with people who gave up on it midway through the season. As a result, there are likely a large number of people who want to catch up, and will want DVDs with which to do so.

On the other hand, Season 4 of the series is not premiering until February. In order to best make use of the marketing tools used when launching a DVD series, they are always designed to also advertise the pending return of the show. Launch the DVD set too early, and you lose that opportunity.

In the end, Lost followed the lead of fellow Spring drama 24 by deciding on a mid-december release date (December 11th, 2007) for the Season Three DVD. This puts them in the heart of the Christmas shopping season, and creates some momentum that the network can take advantage of over the following two months before the 4th season begins.

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June 1, 2007 · 12:14 pm

‘Pirate Master’ Walks the Ratings Plank

Edit for July 24th 

Pirate Master has officially walked the plank for good, as CBS has pulled the show from its lineup and will stream the remaining episodes online each Tuesday. For more info, head to Variety. Or, really, less info, it’s not very informative.

So, Overnight Ratings are in, and Pirate Master was not embraced by viewers. At all. This highly advertised CBS Reality series was supposed to make a big splash, but it wasn’t appointment television for viewers [You can read Cultural Learnings’ full recap for more info]:

In series-premiere news, Survivor-clone Pirate Master on CBS did not fool the audience, with just 7.09 million viewers (#2) and a 2.4 rating/ 8 share among adults 18-49 (#2) from 8-9 p.m. Considering how tired the Survivor franchise is, what sense did it make introducing the same show with a different title this summer? Wouldn’t it have been better resting the format, and filling the hour with a game show? Bad move, CBS.

Now, there’s multiple reasons this probably took place.

1. Competition

The show faced competition from Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grade? and the Scripps National Spelling Bee, along with repeats of My Name is Earl and 30 Rock. A special event, an established reality series, and some solid comedy reruns: that’s a tough-ish draw for the summer.

2. The Jericho-fan led CBS Boycott

I’m not entirely convinced that the Jericho numbers are substantial enough to skew things at this stage, but CBS is certainly having some trouble launching what was supposed to be a sure-fire success. That’s got to count for something, and is definitely a buoy for the campaign. Yes, that’s right, a buoy. A Pirate Buoy.

3. The Mark Burnett Curse

Survivor might be surviving, but with The Apprentice gone and FOX’s On the Lot falling fast, Mark Burnett has gone from reality-tv poster child to washed up failure. Well, not quite, but still: his days as Midas have ended.

4. People were all Pirated-out

With At World’s End tearing up the Box Office over the past week, were people just already too mired in pirate-talk to really embrace such a series?

5. It was boring

While I think the premise has potential, the first episode definitely wasn’t a fast-paced affair. It was more of a “Here’s what could be interesting in the future”, which would turn people away fairly quickly.

Will this signal an end to CBS’ reality dirge? It is unlikely, considering they’re likely to just develop more. Still, for new summer reality series, things are not looking good in the least.

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