The TV Addict 

NEW & NOTABLE:
Always quick to capitalize report on a tragedy, ABC will air a prime-time special about Jackson’s life at 9PM, followed by FARRAH FAWCETT: HER LIFE, HER LOVES, HER LEGACY, a special edition of 20/20 hosted by Barbara Walters.

Over on NBC, the peacock network will dedicate the 9-11PM slots to retrospectives on both Jackson and Fawcett’s remarkable careers while CBS will air a prime-time special on Jackson at 10PM which may also include coverage on Fawcett’s career.

BURN NOTICE (9PM USA)
While Michael is away infilitrating a gang in order to take down a highly sought-after criminal, Sam must face down his most challenging foe yet: The IRS (Da-Da-Duh!)

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE (9PM FOX)
Two more dancers have their dreams crushed on national television. Awkward.

In our continued effort to save you money during these tough economic times, theTVaddict.com is thrilled to be able to giveaway four copies of BURN NOTICE: SEASON TWO on DVD.

Combining the best action/thriller elements with surprising humor and an iconic new breed of espionage, the second season heats up as blacklisted spy, Michael Westen hones his unique skills for new clientele.  A season that can be yours should you be able to answer this highly challenging skill-testing question in the comments below: In what city does BURN NOTICE take place in?

One winner will be chosen at random and notified via email on June 26, so be sure to enter using a valid email address. Not a winner? BURN NOTICE: SEASON TWO is now available on Amazon for only $25.99.

Between playing numerous variations of “Six” on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, the hard-nosed handler of former agent Michael Westen on BURN NOTICE and an upcoming stint as the mysterious Agent Alex Ford on NBC’s action-comedy hybrid CHUCK, model-turned-actress Tricia Helfer may in fact be the busiest woman in show business.

Which is why this TV Addict was thrilled that she was kind enough to press pause on her busy schedule and take the time to talk to various members of the media about what the future holds for some of the most exciting characters to grace the small screen in recent memory.

On what fans can expect from the last two episodes of BURN NOTICE:
Tricia Helfer: It’s kind of hard without giving too much away. I will say I’m really excited to see the last episode. There’s a great stunt at the end that I’m just so excited to see. It’s not even my stunt, but I’m really excited to see it and I think it’s going to be a great finale. It really comes to a culmination point and Carla has kind of had it with Michael Westen and she realizes he’s just basically run her around in circles after she’s put some trust into him that he’s going to find the bomber and help give her the name, which essentially is a rogue agent, but she knows it is, and he disappoints her, so it comes to a culmination.

On whether or not she’ll be involved with season three of BURN NOTICE:
Tricia Helfer: I’m not on board for next season. As I like to say, I was the baddie of the second season, so yes, my last two episodes are this week and the finale, March 5th.

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By: Amrie Cunninghame [My Take on TV]

I don’t think I’m overstating anything when I say that this summer has given us some of the best TV I’ve seen in a long time. I’m still not caught up on the few weeks I missed due to our trip to San Diego, but I still feel like I’ve seen some quality TV that I’m glad we have in the summer so these shows don’t have to compete with my regular fall viewing. Here are my favorite shows from the summer (if not listed, it’s because I’m just not caught up and I can’t say it’s my favorite if I haven’t seen it…I’m talking to you, THE CLOSER).

My five favorite summer shows this year:

BURN NOTICE – Ever since my visit to the set, I feel connected to this show. I’ve had the chance to spend time with the people that make the show possible, so to me, that makes season 2 even more spectacular than season 1. Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) is a great character – he’s sarcastic, which is perfect for me – I sometimes feel like sarcasm should be my middle name. I love Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar, who I can’t say enough good things about) and I think she’s even better this season than last. No one compares to Sam (Bruce Campbell) and, say what you will about Madeline (Sharon Gless), I think she’s a fantastic character. I have enjoyed every episode of Season 2 so far. It’s funny, whip smart, and just an easy way to pass the time. I understand the plight of viewers who think the Carla thing has dragged on a bit too far, but I personally am on the edge of my seat, waiting to see how the mid season “finale” goes (since we’ll get more BURN NOTICE in January this year) and what more we find out about the mysterious Carla (Tricia Helfer).

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By: Amrie Cunningham [My Take on TV]

In the fifth of our series of interviews with the cast and creative team of BURN NOTICE, theTVaddict.com proudly presents a Q&A with the Executive Producer Jeff Freilich — who was kind enough to spend time with theTVaddict.com Senior Editor Amrie Cunningham [as well as numerous other media outlets] on a recent visit to the set.

Can you say your name for the tape?
Gabrielle Anwar.

[Everyone laughs]
We have the most remarkable hair and makeup department. Most people don’t recognize me on South Beach. It’s amazing, because in front of camera, I wear a Triple 0 and off camera I’m a 34 waist. The people in Miami just can work magic! So Jeff Freilich.

It is pretty amazing when you walk around this set and see what’s involved and all the people involved. Do you ever just take a moment and say “yeah, I put all this together” and how difficult is it to put all this together?
I only say that when there’s no blame attached. Miami really hasn’t seen a television series of this kind of scope since the days of Miami Vice. The only other show that stayed in Miami before this, between Miami Vice days and now was South Beach, which was a short-lived series. A lot of shows come here to shoot just to get beauty shots. Dexter shot its pilot here. They shot a few more episodes and then they moved to Los Angeles. CSI: Miami shot part of a season here. They come here a couple of times a year to pick up the look of Miami. That’s something that we can’t afford to do. We’re on a different budget than these shows. One of the disadvantages of shooting a show for cable television is that you’re working on budget that’s no more than 60% of the budget of a standard prime time network television show, so you have to be a little bit more creative in the way that you spend your money. We couldn’t afford to shoot in Los Angeles and come to Miami three times a year to get shots of Ocean Drive and the Brickell area. If you’re going to dive into Miami, we had to dive in with both feet. And the problem was that we also had to start shooting last season and this season right at the head of hurricane season. Ideally, if there had been no Writer’s Guild strike, we would have been starting to shoot at the end of January and we would have wrapped in June. We would have had much different weather. We would have had probably more consistent sunshine with lower temperatures which is much more conducive to doing this ambitious a series in only 7 days per episode. People just tend to get slow in the summer. It’s not because the crew isn’t really wonderful. It’s because you die, you kill yourself to get too much work done. Plus we also run the risk of heavy rain and other things which is why most of the series don’t shoot in Miami.

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By: Amrie Cunningham [My Take on TV]

In the fourth in our series of interviews with the cast and creative team of BURN NOTICE, theTVaddict.com proudly presents a Q&A with the the ever so cool Jeffrey Donovan — who was kind enough to spend time with theTVaddict.com Senior Editor Amrie Cunningham [as well as numerous other media outlets] on a recent visit to the set.

Panel: [laughs] Uh oh!
Jeffrey Donovan: How’s it going? Have you had a good day today, so far? You got to interview everybody exciting so far…

We’ve been waiting for you!
It’s all downhill from me. All downhill.

Sharon Gless talked you up a lot.
Oh, my mama. My mama. [laughter] Isn’t she amazing?

She said nothing but lovely things about you.
She’s been like a mother to me down here. She is so great. Her and her husband, Barney – you know famous producer – they’re just so great. I wish they were my parents.

She seemed like she’s pretty much adopted you.
Yeah, she has, she has. I’m filing papers next week.

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By: Amrie Cunningham

…Michael Westen had bid Fiona a fond farewell, shared a bro-goodbye with Sam, and was ready to accept the fate that he may have said good-bye to his friends for the last time, as he drove into the back of an 18-wheeler.

The season premiere, airing tonight on USA Network pick up a short time after that. As we find Michael trying to get himself out of the truck. He gets a phone call from a mystery woman (Carla, we come to find out), who lets Michael know that he now works for the people who burned him, whether he likes it or not.

Following a slightly lackluster resolution to last year’s finale, the first two episodes take off – they’re full of action and the fun we’ve come to love from BURN NOTICE. There are some great scenes between Michael and Fiona. Gabrielle Anwar gets to show another side in the premiere that just made her climb higher on my favorites list. I love the Sam and Michael relationship – everyone needs a best friend like that. Michael’s continued exasperation with his mother is classic. Jeffrey Donovan and Sharon Gless share a scene that just kicked my sappy ass, so I’m interested to see where the mother/son relationship heads this year. I am starting a petition right now for more Fiona/Sam scenes. They’re great!

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By: Amrie Cunningham [My Take on TV]

In the third in our series of interviews with the cast and creative team of BURN NOTICE, theTVaddict.com proudly presents a Q&A with the radiant Gabrielle Anwar — who was kind enough to spend time with theTVaddict.com Senior Editor Amrie Cunningham [as well as numerous other media outlets] on a recent visit to the set.

Panel: Do you enjoy working in Miami?
Gabrielle: I actually love it. I would much rather be too hot than too cold. I’m perfectly happy melting all day long. Jeffrey has to wear full on suits and ties, poor thing, and Bruce too. Although he gets to wear Hawaiian shirts a lot too. He’s Mr. Tommy Bahama.

How do you handle doing the martial arts and hand to hand combat that Fiona does?
Smoke and mirrors. Jeffrey’s actually incredibly advanced in martial arts. He’s like triple billion black belt or whatever, he’s pretty high up there. Although I don’t know who actually judges that stuff. But I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s basically just choreography. I did dance, so that comes in handy. But as far as hitting the right artery or chopping the right part of the body, I have no idea what I’m doing.

Do you know any martial arts?
No, I don’t.

You look like you do?
Well, thank you, but I can tell. When I’m working and I’m looking at the dailies, I go, ‘Oh, God, I hope they cut around that one.’

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In the second in our series of interviews with the cast and creative team of BURN NOTICE, theTVaddict.com proudly presents a round table discussion, well really rectangular table discussion with Bruce Campbell — who was kind enough to spend time with theTVaddict.com Senior Editor Amrie Cunningham [as well as numerous other media outlets] on a recent visit to the set.

What is, in fact, the latest and the greatest?
Bruce Campbell: You’re, you’re, you’re looking at it right here. Uh, the TV show that sparked a new industry in southern Florida. I mean since we’ve started, things have been going crazy here. We had to kick Owen Wilson out for loitering.

What happened to the productions in Miami, because I was…
Well, it’s coming back. I mean, it’s back with a vengeance, I think. Because, uh, for some reason, this has become a facility now. I mean, it’s an old convention center and they were going to tear it down. And, and uh, the BURN NOTICE guys thought it would be a good facility to just start it from scratch. So that’s what we’ve been doing; building a facility, at the same doing a show.

At one point it seemed like everything was shot in Miami.
Yeah.

And then it just disappeared.
Could be a lot of things are, uh, insurance rules would change what a state, or what insurance companies won’t cover for hurricanes, and producers get a little skittish, you know. So it’s about that, it’s about incentives that the state offers. So, you know, it’s all about where producers can save dough and have a show that looks good.

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Can’t wait a week until the second season premiere of BURN NOTICE? Neither can we!

That’s why theTVaddict.com will be helping to pass the time by posting a new interview from Senior Editor Amrie Cunningham’s recent trip to the set of BURN NOTICE each and every day leading up to July 10th premiere.

Today’s interview: BURN NOTICE star and legendary TV icon Sharon Gless.

Panel: So what’s it like to be a TV icon?
Sharon Gless Oh my goodness! Am I?

Yeah, absolutely!
Well… I’ll tell you, I don’t know if I’m an icon, but I’ve really been… working more than most my age. And I come from gratitude every day – it makes me cry – I come from gratitude every single day. Because I have so many friends, you know, my age, who I was in the industry with, who aren’t working any more. And it feels like a really swell thing that I get to keep working.

Do you fellow cast members look up to you and come to you for career advice?
[Laughs] Um, well, I don’t know if they look up to me, but Jeffrey when we first started just wanted to know, ‘How did you do it?’ Just the stamina that it takes to be, as he is, in every single scene, which Tyne and I were in CAGNEY AND LACEY. It was devised that way on purpose. There was never a scene we weren’t in. But that’s how this show’s been devised. I think this year they’re giving him a little break, because you can’t kill the golden goose. But normally he’s in every single scene. So last year, sort of the only advise he would ask me was, ‘How did you do it?’ I said, ‘You have to get an assistant. You just have to be able to give stuff to other people and just focus on your work.’ He’s so amazing.

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