Good News: The first episode of Mindy Kaling’s (THE OFFICE) new web series HOUSE POOR is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Bad News: There’s something terribly wrong with Network TV when Kaling’s three minute and eleven second video illicits more laughs than almost every comedy currently on TV. [See Video Above]
Good News: Wednesday’s episode of PUSHING DAISIES saw its ratings climb 16 percent to 6.6 million viewers. Bad News: Yet still managed to finish fourth in its timeslot up against Obama, Obama and yes, you guessed it, more Obama. [Source]
Good Great News: SCRUBS creator Bill Lawrence is teaming up with ex-FRIEND Courteney Cox for COUGAR TOWN. A new comedy set to air on ABC revolving around an attractive and newly single 40-year-old mother and her teenage son. Bad News: Ummm… Bill Lawrence and Courteney Cox teaming up for an ABC Comedy… the only bad news there is that it most likely won’t hit the airwaves until Spring 2009! [Source]
Boy, when creator Bill Lawrence announced that he was looking for a ‘big name’ to play Dr. Kelso’s successor on SCRUBS, he really wasn’t joking. Direct from the Lord of the Scoop™ himself, Michael Ausiello: “J.D., Elliot and Co. have a new friend! Sources confirm to me exclusively that Courteney Cox is joining the cast of SCRUBS for a three-episode arc as Sacred Heart’s new Chief of Medicine.”
Of course such exciting news begs three important questions. 1) How bad is NBC looking right now for dropping what’s shaping up to be one helluva fantastic season of SCRUBS? 2) How confusing will the SCRUBS set be now that there are two Cox’s on the lot [That's Dr. Cox and Courteney folks.. get your head out of the gutter!] 3) TV Guide will report this news when?
Since FX was kind enough to send me the first two episodes of the second season of DIRT, I have to say that I’m pretty excited / interested in what they’re doing this year. Here are four reasons to check out Season 2 of DIRT, premiering tonight at 10PM on FX.
1. Courteney Cox is really great as magazine editor Lucy Spiller. We’re used to seeing her as a loveable “Friend” or as a cutthroat news reporter in the Scream movies. She is something else in the role of the editor who was stabbed at the end of season 1. She’s back with a bit of a vengeance, trying to make her magazine succeed. I’d be afraid to work with her character, for sure.
2. I feel more invested in the relationships this season. The friendship of Lucy and Don Konky (Ian Hart) is really celebrated. He’s on his meds to treat schizophrenia, and she’s really there to help take care of him. Holt McLaren (Josh Stewart) still loves Lucy and you get the feeling in the first two episodes that there might be hope for them. And Lucy and Willa (Alexandra Breckenridge) have reached a détente, and they seem to work better this year.
Recently I had the great opportunity to interview one of my personal favorites, Courteney Cox, star of DIRT [and that little show about six friends and a coffee shop]. In anticipation of DIRT’s second season, premiering this Sunday March 2 at 10PM on FX, Monica, umm… I mean Courteney was kind enough to spend a half an hour chatting it up with some of the sleazy and underhanded brilliant and good-looking reporters that DIRT so easily loves to dish about.
I was wondering, this season feels a little bit more ripped from the headlines, and we were just curious to know if that was something of a conscious choice, just following the past year of what’s gone on, or if it was just accidental?
Courtney Cox: No, it’s absolutely a choice. We thought that would be a good way to just start the season, and it is absolutely ripped from the headlines. We usually do a hybrid of celebrities and then add to the story like maybe what happened to cause this to happen to them or sum it up in a different way just for fun. But yes, it’s definitely relatable this year and I think it makes for just a more exciting television show.
Are there any other celebrities, because right now we have some story lines that are a little bit a la Nicole and Paris and David Hasselhoff, are there any other celebrities that we can expect to see something from? Any little tidbits you can give us on that?
Well, there is definitely going to be, in almost every episode you’ll see something that you will recognize, and that’s kind of hopefully the fun of it that you’ll be able to guess who this person we might be talking about, even though it’s not really about them. It could be about, like I said before, just a couple of people or a couple of situations. But yes, every episode there is that relatable kind of relatable story line.
Courtney Cox’s return to television starts tonight on FX, as the network launches its new show DIRT (10PM FX Network). Cox stars as ruthless tabloid editor Lucy Spiller, who’s job is to dig up ‘dirt’ on celebrities (hence the title!). While I have yet to see the pilot (*cough cough* thanks for the screener FX), I’m very much looking forward to the show. Sure, word on the street — and by street I of course mean the internet — has been less then positive. But Courtney Cox and an intruging premise makes DIRT must see TV for this TV addict (or at least must give a chance TV). Check out what fellow critics around the net are saying:
“There’s little verve in any of “Dirt’s” depressing Hollywood machinations.” Maureen Ryan
“Dirt will be a love-it-or-hate-it proposition for most viewers. And, frustratingly, I can’t decide which side to take.” Zap2it
“The show takes basic-cable porn about as far as you can imagine, and there are drugs and deception and other displays of human weakness that we somehow account more awful and interesting when magnified by stardom.” LA Times
“Based on the first three episodes provided for preview, “Dirt” is a rare misfire from the drama-development folks at FX. It’s a show where neither the world being created nor the characters populating it are remotely convincing - or interesting.” NY DailyNews
