The TV Addict 

In an effort to attract more eyeballs to their brilliant, yet perennially under-watched Thursday night lineup, NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker will announce at tomorrow’s NBC Up Front that he’s turning to a few of his old friends for a little help.

Six very famous friends to be more precise.

Turns out, that true to their theme song, they will be there for us. And come this fall — just when we [not to mention NBC] need them most — fans will once again be able to catch Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe and Joey each and every Thursday night at 8PM.

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If there’s one thing that Ben Silverman has taught us during his first season as NBC President, it’s that he isn’t one for re-inventing the wheel. KNIGHT RIDER! AMERICAN GLADIATORS! ‘CELEBRITY’ APPRENTICE! Who says television networks need to air original content?

Yet rather than continue to kick a guy when he’s down. This TV Addict is going to take the high road and offer to lend a hand as we inch closer and closer to the launch of the new fall season.

Mr. Silverman, how would you like a show with a built in audience of desirable demographics, a proven concept, a familiar brand and a cast that the public is already in love with?

Now I know what you’re thinking. Madison Avenue buzz words already fooled you once [see: the disastrous ratings of myspace darling QUARTERLIFE]. But trust me. This idea is a winner.

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Let’s face facts: The last time THE APPRENTICE actually captured our attention was when NBC canceled the show in 2007 and Donald Trump basically responded with, “You can’t fire me! I quit!”

That was probably the smartest thing the walking combover had done since hiring reality-star-in-the-making Omarosa several seasons earlier. But the moment NBC came back to Trump and asked that he return to the boardroom, Trump folded like a cheap suit. In a desperate attempt to revive the failing franchise, it was announced that the new edition would feature the Trumpmeister firing celebs.

And that’s when things went tragically awry.

Already, the series had been showing a serious lack of creativity during the previous season, in which it was decided that the show could “re-invent” itself by relocating from New York City to Southern California. The only other major twist involved having each week’s losing team sleep in tents outside the mansion in which their winning rivals were living it up. Worse, the weekly tasks began to feel both repetitive and more like commercials than challenges.

The season was a bomb, the show was canceled and then, mysteriously, brought back to life and returned to Trump’s home base, New York City.

Did we mention this season has celebrities?

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GOOD NEWS: CBS has taken the pressure off HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER by switching its 8PM timeslot with rookie sensation THE BIG BANG THEORY. BAD NEWS: While funny, BIG BANG THEORY is no HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. Worse still, CBS once again illustrates that either they have absolutely no confidence in HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, or they just don’t know funny.

GOOD NEWS: NBC gave FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS break out star Taylor Kitsch permission to take a major role in the upcoming WOLVERINE movie. BAD NEWS: Thus putting what looks like the final nail in the coffin for a third season of [all together now] television’s most under-appreciated gem.

GOOD NEWS: NBC announced that they’re going to start streaming classic 80’s shows such as A-TEAM and MIAMI VICE online. BAD NEWS: The most popular of which, NBC will undoubtedly butcher into a two-hour re-imagined KNIGHT RIDEResque movie/series.

GOOD NEWS: AMERICAN IDOL and APPLE have teamed up to make your favorite IDOL performances available on iTunes. BAD NEWS: Did you watch last night’s performances?

In the days before Must-See TV, more than a few Hollywood big-wigs joked that NBC stood for “Nothing But Carson.”

Three decades later, with the former king of late night gone and megahits FRIENDS and SEINFELD having been replaced with THE BIGGEST LOSER and DEAL OR NO DEAL, what’s left of the network’s non-reality line-up leaves this TV Addict ready to declare that NBC might now stand for Nothing But Commercials.

A prime example: last week’s installment of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, which devoted a good deal of time to cash-strapped Jason’s new job at the local car dealership run by Dillon’s next mayor (trust me, it’s coming), Buddy. The uplifting saga culminated in Jason achieving what passed for the impossible dream at the dealership: selling a Chevy Tahoe to a customer whom the entire sales staff had given up on. It was a small victory for Jason and, more importantly, a nice moment for fans who’ve spent the past two seasons watching the downtrodden Jason struggle with his depressing post-football life.

Of course, this moment was immediately followed by a commercial for… wait for it… wait for it… oh, dang, yougot there before me, didn’t you? That’s right, a Chevy Tahoe exactly like the one Jason had sold!

That’s right. Jason’s uplifting plot was, with one 30-second spot, reduced to product placement at best and, to those of us a tad more cynical, a storyline conceived as part of a nasty little mating dance between show execs and potential advertisers.

Not coincidentally, if you head on over to NBC.com, you’ll find a nice big ad for… come on, you can finish this sentence, right?

When an NBC rep was asked which came first — the story or the advertiser — they declined to comment.

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By: Amrie Cunningham [My Take on TV]

I say this all the time, but seriously, one of the greatest things about being a part of thetvaddict.com, besides the ability to have an excuse to watch hours upon hours of TV during any given week, is the really wonderful interviews I get to do. Last week, I had the chance to talk to Maite Schwartz, who plays Lisa on Quarterlife. From the creators of My So Called Life, the internet-based show follows 20-some-things interacting, loving, hating, learning, growing, etc., in 8-10 minute increments on a bi-weekly basis. As the show readies itself for a February premiere on NBC, Maite (who I’m sure is poised to become a serious household name) and I chatted for a bit about why she wanted to play Lisa, why acting has had such an amazing impact on her life, and why guys who play with food for a living are pretty awesome.

I’m completely addicted to Quarterlife. Seriously, when I know there’s going to be a new episode, I jump on the computer to make sure I catch it. I think it’s really gotten that way for a lot of viewers.
Maite Schwartz: My sisters are in college and a bunch of my friends who were like yeah I’m not going to get into it, a bunch of them are like, yeah, I’m addicted to it. It’s also cool, because you get the snippets that make you want more.

You only have 8-9 minutes of these people you get invested in; it’s a lot easier to say “I need to see more.”
Exactly. As much as I love watching a full hour episode, sometimes it’s like all at once, and then you’re like damn, I have to wait for the rest of the week and it’s just nice that you can get two shots a week. And I like that they have all the message boards and people can talk amongst themselves about that, so it’s pretty cool.

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After two months off the air in support of the WGA strike, LENO, CONAN, LETTERMAN, FERGUSON and KIMMEL all returned to the airwaves with brand new episodes.

Which begs the obvious questions: Am I the only TV Addict who thought LENO was the most entertaining host of the night? Was anyone else incredibly disappointed my Letterman’s low-key return and thinks its time for Conan and Kimmel to shave their beards? Post away with your thoughts.

Last week, theTVaddict.com’s Special West Coast Correspondent Steve C. attended the KNIGHT RIDER Media event on the back-lot of NBC studios in Burbank. The following are Steve’s interviews with actors Bruce Davison, Deanna Russo and Sydney Poitier.

Bruce Davison (Charles Graiman)

Steve C: Hi Bruce…ok so to get started, it’s been revealed that your character is actually the genius who created KITT 25 years ago…but your character was never mentioned in the original series…
Bruce Davison: Yeah he was pretty hidden, I was sort of sequestered, but now I’ve been discovered!

So how do you play into the other characters that used to be connected to KITT in the original series like Devon Miles and Wilton Knight
Well I was part of the Foundation (of Law and Government) and was sequestered since the invention of it (KITT) and now the foundation has been resurrected

Now there have been other incarnations of this series like Knight Rider 2000 and Team Knight Rider, do those extended universes play any part of this movie?
We certainly acknowledge our birth and origins, and we’re advancing from the Trans-Am to the Shelby. It’s a new generation and a whole new show, it brings in a whole new perception, and the villains of the world have changed as well. But the same type of tongue in cheek feeling will continue…

Were you ever a fan of the original series?
Yeah I was actually working on the lot when David was doing the original and I’ve known him for 30 years…

What’s the inherent pressure and expectation to be the next generation of the original cult show?
Well everything is different, it’s like what’s happened to Batman and what’s happened to the Bionic Woman, things change and shift and they’ll either fit into a new generation or they wont…but we’ll see, I’ve got real strong feelings about this though and its real interesting because like I mentioned, the villains have changed a bit and the corporate specter and the military specter are much more of a bad guy but at the same time there is an irony and a tongue in cheek about the show and its about what it is…and w/ the special effects and the car, I think there’s a lot of room for lightness and adventure

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By Steve C, theTVaddict.com Special West Coast Correspondent

It was a terribly cold California morning the day of the Knight Rider Press/Media event on the back-lot area of NBC studios just outside of the Jay Leno studios. All the outlets of TV, Print and Internet huddled together for warmth, steadily eating pastries for nourishment and chugging hot coffee to keep warm as we waited around. But it wasn’t long before an announcers voice prepared us for the event we’d all gathered to cover. And suddenly the cold was a thing of the past as our bodies filled with adrenaline and warmth as our blood was racing in anticipation, for we were about to get a look at the all new Knight Industries 3000 and meet the cast of this 2-hour movie event.

A roar of engines ignited behind a closed gate at the end of the lot as 3 versions of KITT prepared to roll out. Gone is the classic Pontiac T-Top Trans Am we fell in love with in 1982, this was the new Ford Mustang Shelby GT5500KR. The 1st to pull up was the “Remote KITT” a totally 2-person operated remote-controlled car, which until the show airs we won’t see what we’ve been told is a vehicle that can change shape and color. It roared out, no driver, pulled to a stop and the door opened up. Cool!!! Next was the “Stock KITT” car, the hero car in its natural state, it pulled up with bunch of passengers inside which a few minutes later we discovered was the cast of the show. Just as the hero car slowed to a halt the 3rd vehicle sped out, this was what was referred to as the “Attack KITT”, it quickly was enveloped in a cloud of smoke as it began burning rubber by spinning and doing donuts. Once it pulled ahead and parked, the on-lookers and fellow media attendees all applauded. The cast was then introduced, they exited the Hero KITT and the interviews began.

Now some devotees of the original super car crime fighting drama hold some hard-core attachments to a show that spanned over a good part of the 1980’s. There was a dynamic between the futuristic talking Knight 2000 and it’s Captain Kirk’ish debonair ladies man; Michael Knight that has yet to be matched between a human and a computerized counterpart. So how will this new 2-hour movie event with potential to be a whole new series take to a generation who may never have seen the original series in anything but occasional reruns, or to the generation who last saw KITT race across their TV screen in 1986? As a die-hard fan of the classic show I was honored to be present today to witness the re-birth of the franchise and do truly wish it can garner the speed and recognition it’s creators hope it to achieve. In this incarnation we’re apparently now flash-fowarding 20+ years and seeing a whole new generation of characters including Michael Knight’s son and a newly designed KITT. The cast seemed to be quite laid-back and excited to meet and greet the media, and I was bursting with anticipation to meet them, so began my interview…

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GMMR is reporting this morning [via E!Online] that JOURNEYMAN’S journey may be over following episodes 11 and 12, set to air December 17 and 19 respectively. Thankfully, showrunner Kevin Falls saw the writing on the wall and promised in an interview with EW.com that “We do answer quite a few questions so fans will get a feeling of closure.”

Needless to say, fans wishing to save the show need to make their voices heard now. Head on over to savejourneyman.net to find out how you can help.

On a totally unrelated note, is anyone else wishing we could harness Dan Vasser’s time-traveling abilities and knock some sense into VERONICA MARS mastermind Rob Thomas. How nice would it have been if Thomas saw “the writing on the wall” and crafted a proper ending for everybody’s favorite spunky blonde detective? Just a thought.