4:26PM: T-Minus four, wait, now three minutes until HBO’s TRUE BLOOD panel. Or as I like to call it, the only way to guarantee our seats for the DEXTER panel that follows immediately thereafter.
4:32PM: Since theTVaddict.com doesn’t endorse illegal downloading, I finally got a first look at TRUE BLOOD courtesy of a trailer HBO produced exclusively for Comic Con. It’s pretty much X-MEN, but with really sexy Vampires. Oh, and fellow Canadian Anna Paquin.
4:44PM:Creator Alan Ball [SIX FEET UNDER] promises to avoid the big three Vampire clichés: Blue light, Contact lenses and Opera music. Which is all well and good, but if you ask me, the big thing Ball should concentrate on avoiding is cancellation! Moment of silence for MOONLIGHT…
4:49PM: Because Anna Paquin’s protagonist Sookie Stackhouse is telepathic, she has remained a virgin. Take that ABC Family’s SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER.
Well, it’s Friday night, and you know what that means. A fresh episode of MOONLIGHT! Sorry, was that a bit too cruel? It would have been a reality if bone-headed CBS hadn’t cancelled the show, which was pretty damned fang-tastic. But I know, I’m preaching to the choir here.
HBO is hoping that they can fill the gap left by the stake of cancellation with their new Alan Ball series TRUE BLOOD. Ball is moving deftly from working with the dead in SIX FEET UNDER to the undead in this adaptation of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire novels. A psychic waitress, a 173 year-old vampire, lots of sex… what could go wrong?
Ball came across Harris’ books when he showed up early for a dental appointment and went to the Barnes & Noble to kill time. The tagline “Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend wasn’t such a good idea” caught his eye, and he couldn’t put the book down. Apparently when you’re Alan Ball and that happens, it means there’s a TV series in it.
One of the perks of running theTVaddict.com, aside from the millionsthousandshundreds tens of fans and the occasional trip to Hollywood, are all the interesting things I get in the mail. For instance, yesterday I received the first six episodes of the recently cancelled HBO series 12 MILES OF BAD ROAD accompanied by a hand written note [see above photo].
Revolving around a wealthy Texas matriarch who must balance her booming real estate business and immense wealth alongside her [surprise!] dysfunctional family, 12 MILES OF BAD ROAD, at least on paper, seems like the perfect fit for the cable network that brought us THE SOPRANOS, SIX FEET UNDER and BIG LOVE. Unfortunately, HBO didn’t think so and decided to shut down production following the recent WGA strike. But not before six episodes were already in the can [which is TV speak for completed].
To their credit, executive producers Linda Bloodworth-Thomason [DESIGNING WOMEN, EVENING SHADE] and Harry Thomason are not about to give up so easily and have sent out the six completed episodes to critics across the country with the hopes of generating positive buzz and finding a new home for their fictional family.
As exciting as it is that HBO has finally stopped pretending the internet is a just ‘passing fad’ by making available some of their most popular shows for download on iTunes. At first glance, this TV Addict can’t help but be a tad underwhelmed.
Where is CARNIVALE, SIX FEET UNDER, THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW and JOHN FROM CINCINNATI? Sure I’m kidding about that last one. But I really was looking forward to finally getting the opportunity to appreciate [read: start watching] some of HBO’s most fascinating dramas that I may have missed in my youth.
Here’s hoping that HBO’s limited offerings are just the start a bold new [read: existent] digital strategy.
Thanks to the return of REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER, tonight’s second season finale of BIG LOVE and the always entertaining ENTOURAGE, isn’t it time anonymous Showtime executives pulled back on the ‘HB-Over” rhetoric? [see related NY Times article]
Speaking of BIG LOVE, which by the way I’ve absolutely loved this season — who creeps you out more — Alby Grant, Roman Grant or Rhonda Volmer?
Tonight’s TEEN CHOICE AWARDS are being hosted by self-proclaimed ‘Teen Queen’ Hillary Duff and Nick [why am I still famous] Cannon. Two actor-musician hyphenates who in this TV Addict’s humble opinion, are far too old to be hosting the TEEN CHOICE AWARDS. Anyone else think Duff and Canon were simply the last resort — after the entire cast of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2 turned FOX down?
And finally, while the TV Addict in general doesn’t enjoy watching people humiliate themselves on TV — Miss South Carolina wins this weekend’s award for perpetuating the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype. Take a look at this soon to be classic YouTube clip.
One of the TV Addict’s absolute favorites returns to the airwaves tonight, proving that contrary to popular belief, HBO is not “HB-Over.”
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER kicks off yet another fantastic season with actor Tim Robbins, journalist Michel Martin and writer Stephen Hayes. Click here to check out a conversation with Bill Maher, and be sure to tune in tonight at 11PM.
Sidenote: When will a Canadian Network get their act together and start carrying REAL TIME?
Having just finishing the season (hopefully series) finale of HBO’s JOHN FRON CINCINNATI I’m left speechless. Did David Milch lose a bet? Was the entire series some sort of sick joke? A final screw you, greenlit by recently ousted network president Chris Albrecht? Seriously folks — someone, anyone, please tell me what the frak was going on in tonight’s finale (or the entire series for the matter.) Surely I’m not the only TV Addict who just didn’t get it.
EXTRAS
On Thursday, HBO announced that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant will wrap up their brilliant follow-up to THE OFFICE — EXTRAS, with a one-hour special. Said president of HBO Entertainment Carolyn Strauss, “It’s been an honor to present this hilarious series on HBO and I can’t wait to see how Ricky and Stephen will wrap up the saga of Andy Millman.”
On a related note, this TV Addict will now wait with bated breath to discover which way NBC’s inevitable ‘Americanization’ of EXTRAS goes. Will fans get another success like THE OFFICE, or be subjected to the horror that was COUPLING? Stay Tuned.
DEADWOOD
Speaking of waiting, we’ve got some bad news for DEADWOOD fans. The pair of two-hour DEADWOOD TV movies that you were promised last year, well, don’t hold your breath. Word from the TCA’s is that creator David Milch is exhausted, having just finished up season one of JOHN FROM CINCINNATI. Apparently, Milch has had just as hard a time running the show as we’ve had figuring out what the frak is going on.
NIP/TUCK
Korbi and Jen [who are filling in for Kristin while she’s on her honeymoon] did such a fantastic job covering yesterday’s NIP/TUCK panel that we thought it best to simply link to their report. It goes without saying, that after devouring Bradley Cooper’s brilliant-but-cancelled series KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL, we’re counting down the days until NIP/TUCK’s October premiere.
With THE SOPRANOS reaching its conclusion (Tony’s Dead. Deal with it.) and SEX AND THE CITY a distant memory, this TV Addict thought he’d end the week off by giving you one question to ponder over what will no doubt be a gorgeous June weekend.
QUESTION: There’s only enough money in your household budget for one additional speciality channel. HBO or SHOWTIME, which channel do you choose?
Post away with your answers — answers which I imagine will give executives of both networks something interesting to read all weekend long.
JOHN FROM CINCINNATI
Raise your hand if have absolutely no idea what last night’s premiere of JOHN FROM CINCINNATI was about.
Raise your hand if you’re so confused by Papa Yost’s inexplicable ability to levitate himself off the ground that you may actually give this series another chance.
Raise your hand if you don’t even care what’s going on, but are now really inspired to learn how to surf.
2007 TONY AWARDS
Raise your hand if you’re annoyed that CBS didn’t pony up the money to broadcast last night’s Tony Awards in High Definition.
Raise your hand if you think SPRING AWAKENING is the most over-hyped Broadway musical ever and you don’t understand (because you’re not fourteen) why exactly watching teeangers embrace their sexuality has been hailed as the ’second-coming of the modern musical?
BIG LOVE
Raise your hand if you’re excited for tonight’s long awaited return of BIG LOVE?
Raise your hand if you actually started to raise you hand while reading this post.
Raise your hand if your co-workers are starting to stare.
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