Archives for May 2011
An Evening Celebrating the Mysteries of FRINGE
On May 19th, the Paley Center for Media hosted a night to celebrate the end of FRINGE’s spectacular third season. With special guests Anna Torv, John Noble, along with writers/producers Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman and Akiva Goldsman, the evening allowed fans to find out what exactly is going on in the increasingly murky world of FRINGE.
With Emmy season underway, it was only fitting to showcase the episode “Entrada” in which Anna Torv and John Noble magnificently portrayed both sets of doppelgangers: Olivia Dunham and her doppelganger Fauxlivia, and Walter Bishop and his doppelganger Walternate.
As fans of the show already know, the third season of FRINGE took the show out of its procedural pace and focused much more heavily on the underlying mythology of the collision of two universes. Adding to the craziness and sense of urgency, the season began with the principal hero, Olivia Dunham, having been replaced by her alternate and made captive in the alt-verse with her memories wiped and false memories implanted. The show really took things to another level and it played out beautifully over the course of the season until the final moments when Peter Bishop’s sacrifice may have erased himself out of existence.
It was that final revelation that sent shock-waves through the fandom. So it was no surprise that the moderated portion of the evening began with moderator Ralph Garman boldly asking: “Is [Josh] Jackson looking for work?” After John Noble quickly reassured everyone that Josh would have been there for that evening’s panel but for the fact he is working on a film in New Orleans, J.H. reassuringly said, “He’s not looking for work,” and Jeff added, “He will be back for Season 4.” J.H. expanded his response with, “At some point, in some capacity.” As Jeff explained, “The studio and network were very nervous about not having a lot of Josh in early Season 3,” but as he concluded, “And that worked out okay!” So he and J.H. said that the fans will simply have to trust them again for the 4th season that they have a plan to ensure Josh, as Peter Bishop, will be incorporated back into the FRINGE-world in a fun and surprising way.
Morning Static: THE FINDER, OPRAH, MODERN FAMILY & More!
• Locating a new co-star… will be THE FINDER’s first mission.
• TV By the Numbers: How every broadcast show ranked this season.
• Leaving on Top: Why there will never be another Oprah.
• Mark Your Calendars: DAMAGES to premiere on DIrecTV on July 14 at 10PM.
• Is Mindy Kaling the next Tina Fey? Read the first 24 pages of her new book and find out for yourself.
• MODERN FAMILY Scoop: Will Cam and Mitchell get another kid? Is it time to recast Baby Lily?
• Report: Cheryl Cole replaced by Nicole Scherzinger on THE X FACTOR.
Faux Your Emmy® Consideration: TWO AND A HALF MEN
Yesterday, theTVaddict.com kicked off our “Faux Your Emmy® Consideration” series (Also known as our take on how Networks and Studios might wish to consider campaigning for 2011 Emmy® nominations on behalf of their shows and actors) by shining the spotlight on THE MIDDLE star Eden Sher. Today, we continue doling out free advice for Warner Bros. Television properties by offering up our take on how TWO AND A HALF MEN might wish to position itself for award consideration. Oh, and on the off chance co-creator Chuck Lorre is reading this, no need to thank us, a Vanity Card shout-out to theTVaddict.com will suffice.
Editor’s Note: Giving credit where credit is due, the “Faux Your Emmy Consideration” title was the brainchild of Twitter Follower @WriterWarrior
On TV Tonight: Wednesday May 25, 2011
NET | 8PM | 8:30PM | 9PM | 9:30PM | 10PM | 10:30PM |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | The Middle | The Middle (R) | Modern Family | Cougar Town | Happy Endings | |
CBS | The Big Bang Theory (R) | The Big Bang Theory (R) | Criminal Minds (R) | Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior | ||
CW | America’s Next Top Model (R) | America’s Next Top Model (R) | ||||
FOX | American Idol | |||||
NBC | Minute to Win It (R) | Minute to Win It (R) | Law & Order: Los Angeles |
Is it Time to Change Actors’ Episode Commitments?
Deadline reports that Chris Meloni will not be reprising his role as Detective Elliot Stabler on the next season NBC’s long-running procedural, LAW & ORDER:SVU Meloni and his phonically-pleasing co-star Mariska Hargitay — who previously announced that she will be scaling back her presence on the show — have anchored the Dick Wolf series for 12 seasons.
This comes after news broke that Lisa Edelstein, one of the two female stars of Fox’s testosterone-leaden medical drama HOUSE, will not return for the show’s eighth and final season. This is a particularly tricky development considering how the show finally consummated her’s and Hugh Laurie’s character’s own Sam and Diane-esque relationship. In fact, Edelstein’s exit wasn’t made official until after the season finale had been shot, so there’s a chance that her character, Lisa Cuddy, will just disappear without a proper goodbye.
Both actors play pivotal roles in their respective shows: Can they survive without them? In both cases, it doesn’t really matter. HOUSE is ending and SVU, like others in the L&O franchise, shouldn’t have a problem with a cast change. But could this be the beginning of a change of how closely actors’ contracts tie them to their shows? Hopefully. Take Chris Noth’s with CBS’ THE GOOD WIFE as a potential antecedent: He always gets “special guest star” billing in the credits, but by appearing in 14 of the second season’s 23 episodes, you can go ahead and call him recurring. This is actually better, for the show creatively and Noth, who’s made it clear in the past — just like his Mr. Big in SEX AND THE CITY — that he doesn’t like to be tied down.
A problem faced by network shows with large casts and episodes orders is fatigue. Stretching the narrative over nine months and 22 episodes is creatively challenging even for the best shows (THE GOOD WIFE included, which had its share of duds this season). And while I’m sure being paid for 22 episodes is fine by most actors, we’re beginning to see with Noth and Calista Flockhart (who reduced her role from series regular to recurring on BROTHERS & SISTERS before it was canned) that it might be just as exhaustive a commitment for them, too.
Could a more cable-like approach be better? Sure, much has been made of how the broadcast nets should have 13 episode seasons: the stories are tighter and better for it. But we might also consider reducing just how many episodes each actor is in during the season. Had Chris Noth’s Peter Florrick been in every episode of the season, then the producers would have had to devote more time to pad out his story, potentially cutting time from far worthier story lines (like Alicia and Kalinda, or Cary at the State’s Attorney’s office). No doubt, Noth’s character is integral to the show (there wouldn’t be a show without him), but he doesn’t need to be in every episode to effectively tell his story; so he isn’t.
Of course, beyond the show’s main star (you couldn’t have THE GOOD WIFE without Julianna Marguiles every week), most shows could benefit from not being forced to address all of its principal actors in every episode. Not only is it logistically difficult carving out time for every character in every episode, it strains the story and if there are too many plot lines, confuses the viewer. How about leaner seasons that take time to really flesh out a handful of characters? It’s better for us to watch and surely more rewarding for actors to play. And if there are fewer episodes in a season, then ostensibly more shows could be on air in a year; that’s more opportunities for acting.
But these high-profile actor exits put the spotlight squarely on an obvious issue: payment. For everyone to be a little happier, there needs to be changes to attitude along with structural adjustments. Future actors might need to accept that their money might not be coming from just one series regular TV gig; it might be from multiple. Will TV networks let this fly? (You’ll remember the trouble Neil Patrick Harris ran into when he wanted to guest star on GLEE last year.) For now, I’d likely receive a flippant, yeah, right; but if network TV continues down its current path, I wouldn’t be surprised if we could downgrade that response to a speculative maybe.
Aleks Chan is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas. You can email him at alekschan.thetvaddict@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter (@aleksnotalex).
TV Ratings: Tuesday May 24, 2011 (America Votes for DANCING Over THE VOICE)
Time | Network | Show | Rating | 18-49 |
---|---|---|---|---|
8PM | ABC | American Idol | 18.51 | 5.6/18 |
CBS | NCIS (R) | 9.94 | 1.7/5 | ABC | Dancing with the Stars (R) | 9.80 | 1.9/6 |
NBC | Biggest Loser: Couples | 7.10 | 2.6/8 | |
CW | One Tree Hill (R) | 676,000 | 0.2/1 | |
9PM | ABC | Dnacing with the Stars | 19.81 | 4.2/11 |
FOX | Glee | 12.54 | 4.8/12 | |
CBS | NCIS: Los Angeles (R) | 9.37 | 1.7/4 | |
NBC | Biggest Loser: Couples | 8.59 | 3.3/8 | |
CW | Hellcats (R) | 619,000 | 0.2/1 | |
10PM | ABC | Dancing with the Stars | 21.44 | 4.6/11 |
NBC | The Voice | 8.68 | 3.8/9 | |
CBS | NCIS (R) | 8.63 | 1.7/4 |
Start Spreading the News: It’s Time for GLEE to Hire an Actual Writing Staff
On last night’s season finale of GLEE, the gang from New Directions took Manhattan. Unfortunately, they left logic and reason back in Lima Ohio.
Note to writers Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy (pictured above): When it comes to your hit Fox show, we’re willing to forgive an awful lot. So if we’re expected to believe that New Directions — which has spent the better part of two seasons trying to make Nationals would leave it until the VERY LAST MINUTE to write, not to mention choreograph and costume an original song — so be it! If you want us to buy into Mercedes and Sam as a couple — who at last count have shared, what… two scenes together — fine! That said, we have to draw the line somewhere and what we are completely and unwilling to look past is last night’s absurd opening scene that had Rachel Berry — who we’re fairly confident could hit a high note before she could take her first step — buy 13 tickets to Broadway’s Cats, a show that even Quinn knew closed 11 years ago! Suffice it to say, it’s precisely that type of lazy and mindless writing that has us wondering if penning 22 episodes of GLEE per season has simply become too much of a burden for three people to bare.
Morning Static: LOUIE, GLEE, TRUE BLOOD & More!
• Trailer Park: LOUIE Season 2
• TV By the Numbers: Fox wins broadcast season, CBS tops in viewers.
• Change We Can Believe In: GLEE’s Jane Lynch in talks with TV Academy about hosting the Emmys.
• Sink Your Teeth Into this… TRUE BLOOD Teaser Poster.
• From the man that brought you SURVIVOR, THE APPRENTICE and COMMANDO NANNY comes… The Bible!
Faux Your Emmy® Consideration: THE MIDDLE’s Eden Sher
With the deadline for 2011 Primetime Emmy® Nominations fast approaching, one of the things you may-or-may-not have begun to notice across “industry” websites such as Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter are “For Your Consideration” ads. And while we certainly are the first to applaud any attempt on behalf of either the Networks or Studios to shine the spotlight on deserving talent both in front and behind of the camera involved in some of your and our favorite shows, we couldn’t help but find ourselves somewhat underwhelmed with the tone of the ads. Which is why, we here at theTVaddict.com thought it might be fun to take a stab at concocting a few slightly tongue-in-cheek advertisements of our own, starting with the always deserving star of THE MIDDLE Eden Sher.
Editor’s Note: Giving credit where credit is due, the “Faux Your Emmy Consideration” title was the brainchild of Twitter Follower @WriterWarrior