• Sorry Apple iPad fans, MAD TV was there first.
• Out of sight! HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER lands Jennifer Lopez.
• A TV first, Fans rally to save a show that’s not even a show (yet)
• Nightmare in Booth’s old high school, Elm Street star Robert Englund to play a high school janitor on BONES.
• Think there’s nothing funny about the IRS? Think again! FOX greenlights Ron Howard IRS comedy pilot.
• Prediction: Stock in Axe Body Spray stock to soar, MTV and the cast of JERSEY SHORE agree to $10,000 per episode for a second season.
Search Results for: pilot
Good News, Bad News: GILMORE GIRLS, HEROES & SMALLVILLE
Good News: GILMORE GIRLS creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and executive producer Dan Palladino are returning to the CW, with the network giving the green light to their UNTITLED WYOMING PROJECT which is said to revolve around a family horse farm in the Midwest. Bad News: For the future of Sherman-Palladino’s HBO series, remember that? [Source]
Good News: HEROES is making headlines for something other than its sinking ratings. Bad News: Adrian Pasdar busted for a DUI.
Good News: For SMALLVILLE fans, who thanks to today’s announcement by the CW that they’ve picked up a reboot of the 90’s action-thriller LA FEMME NIKITA may have found the ideal time slot companion for a possible 10th season of their favorite show. Bad News: For those of us who were hoping the success of LIFE UNEXPECTED might have paved the way for more original ideas on the network that has yet to meet a book, movie and/or 90’s franchise with name recognition that they haven’t wanted to turn into a hit. [Source]
Morning Static: BROTHERS & SISTERS, THE JAY LENO SHOW, SUPERNATURAL & More!
• Quick, someone check if hell has frozen over! NBC and Conan O’Brien back in business.
• At long last, our national nightmare is over, THE JAY LENO SHOW will be off the air by February 9.
• Good News: SUPERNATURAL to get a spin-off! Bad News: Make that a web-only spin-off.
• Home alone no more, Macaulay Culkin in talks to join BIG LOVE.
• Another Walker walk out, with Ausiello breaking the news that Calista Flockhart will be working a reduced schedule next season.
Today’s TV Addict Top 5: Things you didn’t know about LIFE UNEXPECTED
The origins of Lux’s name.
Aside from creator Liz Tigelaar’s inexplicable love for names featuring the letter ‘X,’ the origins of LIFE UNEXPECTED’s pint-sized protagonists moniker can be directly attributed to the showrunners love for the movie Virgin Suicides, whose lead character, played by Kirsten Dunst, was… you guessed it, named Lux.
What’s in a name (Part II).
The road to a title for the hit CW series was an unexpectedly bumpy one with LIFE UNEXPECTED’s originally being billed as LIGHT YEARS. “The original idea was that Lux entered Kate and Baze’s lives, illuminating things for them in a way in which they’ve never experienced before, kind of like these are their light years,” explained Tigerlaar. “Of course the title tested way too ‘Sci-fi’ so after many iterations we settled on LIFE UNEXPECTED, and what I like about it is that you can find the letters ‘Lux’ within the title.”
Morning Static: Shonda Rhimes, John Barrowman, Cory Montieth & More!
• Lost Anatomy, ABC picks up Shonda Rhimes pilot revolving around three US doctors who opt to work for in an isolated tropical clinic.
• The Gleek goes on, with star Cory Monteith confirming that a live concert tour is really in the works.
• John Barrowman is [maybe] Coming to America… in a FOX version of his UK hit series FRINGE.
• Randy Jackson in denial, thinks (hopes) Simon Cowell will be back on AMERICAN IDOL next season.
• You’re invited to… PARTY DOWN, with Starz announcing a second season premiere date of April 23. On a somewhat related note, still waiting for a release date for the season one DVD. Seriously Starz, what’s up with that?
Morning Static: Neil Patrick Harris, Joss Whedon, J.J. Abrams & More!
• Legendary News, Neil Patrick Harris to guest on the upcoming Joss Whedon directed episode of GLEE.
• J.J. Abrams pilot continues to heat up, with the stunning Jessica Parker Kennedy signing on.
• Be prepared for a prime-time shuffle, with the White House setting the President’s State of the Union for Wednesday January 27.
• Proof that dreams do come true, Joss Whedon’s next television project could land on FX.
• Hundreds get wet for Conan, braving the LA rain to show their support.
Review: LIFE UNEXPECTED
By: Aleks Chan
The pilot episode of LIFE UNEXPECTED is so unabashedly charming that I almost needed to make sure my media cabinet wasn’t grinning. This atypical new dramedy has little to do with The CW’s current breed of programming: there is nary a nude model, verklempt socialites cheering with champagne glasses, or forlorn vampires. It came out of the 2009 Upfronts buzzing with praise, most notably of which are the comparisons to Amy Sherman-Palladino’s late, great GILMORE GIRLS. I agree that this light, broadly appealing effort harkens back to The WB of yesteryear, where its young characters were often fully and complexly realized.
But the show I would really compare it to is JJ Abrams’ FELICITY: both feature a female lead with a mane of hair in a world so bizarre to them (in this case its being part of a family, however dysfunctional) that they travel listlessly in search of understanding – of themselves, what it means to be where they are in their lives and how those situations relate. And though creator Liz Tigelaar (who’s previously worked as a producer on BROTHERS & SISTERS and Abrams’ own WHAT ABOUT BRIAN) hasn’t shown any intention to ratchet the tension any higher than that of a romantic comedy, it remains promising.
[Read more…]
We Preview the New Season of 24 with Mary Lynn Rajskub
Although its only been eight months since Jack Bauer’s last really bad day, a lot has changed. There’s a new setting (CTU goes underground in New York), new cast mates (Freddie Prinze Jr, Katee Sackhoff, Chris Diamantopoulos and Anil Kapoor to name a few) and of course a new threat (Something to do with a peace conference, terrorists, moles, you know, the usual!)
That said, as the saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same. And while Jack Bauer busies himself with saving our butts, fans will be able to count on one familiar face returning to CTU. Turns out, Mary Lynn Rajskub’s Chloe O’Brian is going through a crisis of her very own. An economic one. No seriously. In what is one of 24’s most surprisingly plot twists to date, it’s a lack of funds that brings O’Brian back into the CTU fold. And here to talk about her return, what it’s like to work with a whole new slew of agents, and the finer points of picking a wardrobe that one will be stuck with all year, is the actress herself, who was kind enough to take some time in between takes on the new and improved set of CTU to offer up some intel on the new season.
The TV Addict: Tell us everything you can tell us about this season.
Mary Lynn Rajskub: Well, um… This season there’s a terrorist threat and there’s this peace conference happening that’s disrupted. You’re like, “I didn’t really want to hear about the plot of the show.”
Today’s TV Addict Top 5: Reasons Why You MUST Tune Into the Season Premiere of LIFE UNEXPECTED
LIFE UNEXPECTED has that old-school WB feel.
It only took four years, but the network that GILMORE GIRLS and 7th HEAVEN built finally seems to remember it roots. “It might not be a typical show in the way of GOSSIP GIRL, but if you consider the CW as a merge of UPN and the WB, the show is very much in the same vain as EVERWOOD, FELICITY and DAWSON’S CREEK,” explains creator and co-executive producer Liz Tigelaar during a recent one-on-one with the TV Addict at last week’s Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena. “[Series star] Kristoffer Polaha said it on the press line, we’re the only show on all of television that’s a character driven show. It’s not a remake, there’s no high concept, there just isn’t that hook. It’s a group of people in this coming of age story about how these grown ups grow up.”
It’s not a high school show.
Putting aside for a moment that LIFE’s plucky young protagonist, 15-year old Lux, played by SWINGTOWN’s Britt Robertson (Who Tigelaar says was “hands down the best actress we could have gotten. There’s no one better!”) will of course attend high school, one of the most unexpected treats about LIFE UNEXPECTED is that thanks to some serious drama between genetically blessed bio-parents Cate and Baze (Shiri Appleby and Kristoffer Polaha respectively), there’s actually a reason for people over the age of 21 to tune in. Promises Tigelaar, “While we want to use the high school as a backdrop to tell stories [The high school that Lux is going to will be the same one Cate and Baze attended.] The set piece of the school is more of an emotional one. If we do a story about the Winter Formal it will resonate because Cate got knocked up at that Winter Formal, rather than an episode about who’s going to ask Lux on a date.”
Review: HUMAN TARGET and 24
By: Aleks Chan
When Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) hears a knock at the door in the eighth season premiere of 24, both the viewer and our weary, retired super agent are in a shared consciousness: Here we go again. An old informant of Jack’s shows up at his doorstep bloodied and short of breath, desperate for help. Jack, who’s taken up full-time grandpa duties and has finally decided to settle down with his family, reluctantly agrees. There’s a hit out on the president of the fictional Kamistan, Omar Hassan (Slumdog Millionaire’s Anil Kapoor, in his first TV role), who’s stateside to hash out nuclear arms business with President Taylor (Cherry Jones).
Needless to say, Jack takes to the streets of New York, firearm in hand, kicking ass and busting knees with Sutherland’s usual grizzly machismo. He ends up at a newly reinstated CTU, packed with techno wizardry, a sleek, futuristic (almost science fiction-y) design, and a stable of new faces and one old, sour one. Even after setting off a nuclear bomb, sicking a cougar on Elisha Cuthbert, and assassinating a president, Mary Lynn Rajskub’s sardonic computer whiz Chloe O’Brian and her perpetual scowl has turned a character that could have so easily been overdone and made her a lovably prickly, impeccably smart source of much needed wit.
The opening four hours move along in 24’s usually well-paced, recognizable rhythm – it’s evident that this assassination conflict will quickly resolve itself before opening up into another story altogether. Methinks a plot involving botched tech will surface before season’s end, given the focus on current CTU director Brian Hastings’ (Mykelti Williamson) technological tunnel vision, as contrived and strained a tension it is. It’s funny that a show that seemingly helped pioneer the use of preposterous gadgetry on TV would turn around and wag a finger.