If you’re anything like this TV Addict, odds are fairly certain that you spend an inordinate amount of time scratching your head over some of the shall we say more curious decisions TV Networks make when it comes to some of your favorite shows. But what about the actors involved in the shows themselves? As one might imagine, having starred in BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, the short-lived pilot-turned-internet-phenomenon NOBODY’s WATCHING and NBC’s less-than-successful KNIGHT RIDER reboot, actor Paul Campbell has a unique perspective on such matters. One that he was only too happy to share during a recent one-on-one promoting ALMOST HEROES, a new original comedy series that recently premiered on Showcase in Canada.

As a young actor you made the decision to leave BATTLESTAR GALACTICA fairly early on for a larger role on a potential pilot that didn’t end up getting picked up. Do you ever look back at decisions like that and wonder, what could have been?
Paul Campbell: No. I found that this is the business that you can’t afford to ever look back and say what could have been. Because when you have those sort of decisions to make — decisions where I either stick with a show [BATTLESTAR GALACTICA] where there are no guarantees that this character [Billy] is ever going to be more than a sideline player or try my luck with a pilot I had just booked — there’s no value in looking back. I’m constantly faced with those decisions. Should I take this Canadian series that I’m on, should I got to Romania and shoot a movie, what am I missing, as an actor, there is always going to be that “What If?”

As an observer on the periphery of this business we call show, it’s always interesting to uncover the thought process that goes into those type of seemingly career-altering decisions.
Well I was in Los Angeles testing for PSYCH which is on USA Network and I got a call from Ron Moore saying that we just got wind that you’re testing for this show. This was very early on in Season 2 and that point I wasn’t on contract with BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, I was a per episode basis where there were no guarantees, so I would constantly find myself flipping through the script to see if my name was on the cast list to see if I had been killed. So I thought, “Why not?” I have an opportunity to test for this big USA show and he called me while I was at the Universal lot right after my test for PSYCH and he said look, you’re going to either have to commit where we lock you down for 5 years or we’ll probably have to start thinking about writing you out. And I decided that ultimately it was best if we went our separate ways and they were really great about writing another 10 episodes for me before Billy finally bit the bullet so to speak.

But on the plus side, Billy’s death is one of those cool ones that really stuck with fans. After-all, if you want to die in a series that is destined for greatness, you want to do it early on and in a big way like Ian Somerhalder on LOST, rather than in the fourth or fifth season when nobody really cares anymore! But we digress. Your next experience was on a pilot called NOBODY’s WATCHING produced by Bill Lawrence that after not getting picked up turned into somewhat of an internet sensation. What was that experience like and what was it like working with Bill Lawrence?
Yeah NOBODY’S WATCHING was actually the project that first took me away from BATTLESTA GALACTICA. That was the pilot that I booked after the miniseries. It was phenomenal working with Bill and actually, Bill co-wrote that script with Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan who are showrunners on COMMUNITY, which is phenomenal. For me it was the first time doing comedy and because it was a hybrid of single camera stuff — which I actually preferred — and a live action studio audience it was the best of both worlds. When the show failed to get picked up, Bill Lawrence very savvily leaked the pilot onto YouTube. I remember being back in Vancouver having taken he news very badly after almost being guaranteed that we were which is the dream and all of sudden I got a call from my manager saying that you guys are on CNN and they’re doing a feature on NOBODY’S WATCHING. Within a week it just went from zero to millions of hits, we where doing talk shows, on CARSON DAILY, and because Warner Bros. had sold it at the time, NBC who originally passed said we’ll order 6 scripts but contingent on your ability to build an online following. If you guys build a big online fan base we’ll have a big built in audience when we go to air. So we spent 4 to 6 months — Bill, Neal, Garrett and Taran [Killam] who is now on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE — shooting viral videos. We had such an incredible outpouring of support that it looked like NBC was going to pick us up, until the last minute. When they changed their mind and said we’re going to give you an hour of Primetime for a special. There was a big announcement at TCA [The Television Critics Association Press Tour], and the next day they phoned and said we have no intention of ever doing the show. That was my first Hollywood wake up call.

And not the first time NBC would completely screw you!
NBC has such a wonderful history of shooting themselves in the foot. I don’t know what’s going on over there but they have a really hard time of getting things right. Which is not to say they don’t have some really great shows, some of their comedy — COMMUNITY, 30 ROCK of course — but man they just can’t seem to make it work.

And speaking of not making it work, your next project was on KNIGHT RIDER, a reboot which on paper seemed like a sure bet. At what point as an actor did you realize that this wasn’t going to work?
Almost immediately. And this happens with a number of projects that I’ve done — there are so many friggin’ cooks in the kitchen on both the production and executive level — where everybody has got to get their two cents in yet nobody really is willing to take a risk. Everybody wants to play it so safe and with KNIGHT RIDER, they tried so hard to appeal to everybody, they appealed to nobody. Patrick Massett and John Zinman, who had written a lot of stuff for FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS which was one of the best shows on TV (again, NBC dip-shits!) those guys wrote a couple of episodes for KNIGHT RIDER. I read their first draft before they had submitted to Network and it was fantastic, I mean we would read it and get so excited about it. Really, dark, really edgy stuff that would finally allow us to make episodes that would force audiences to sit up, take notice and take us seriously. But when they come back with the shooting draft, following notes and revisions from NBC, it was a piece of shit. Everything good about the script, they dumbed it down, brightened it up, saying we wanted to have dads watch with their sons and then they would throw in a bunch of woman in bikinis. What Dad is going to have their son watch a bunch of woman strut around in bikinis? I mean are you appealing to the kids, or are you appealing to the 18-49? That was the problem! There was one episode when the Kit Cave had been raided, it was all blown up and the set decorator came in and they put colored streamers everywhere, bright pastels saying the show was too dark, we want to “happy” the place up a bit. At that point the cast all looked at each other and went, that’s it, we’re cancelled. Like who is making these decisions? It’s so frustrating to see something that has a lot of potential just go through that filter and come out a big streaming turd.

At least you’ve been able to keep your sense of humor through all of this.
I’ve been in the business for 8 going on 9 years — and by the way, for the record, I hate it when people say 8 going on 9 as if you don’t know what the next number in the sequence is! But I’ve gotten to the point where I’m really starting to enjoy being relaxed about everything and much happier taking control of my own choices. Saying, you know what, maybe that’s not the greatest script or maybe that has the potential to not be the greatest project, but it sounds like a lot of fun, let’s do it.

Is that the type of thinking that brought you to Canada?
Actually, that was Visa issues! Immigration seemed to get really really strict in California really fast.

So what was it specifically that attracted you to ALMOST HEROES?
It couldn’t be more of a comedy if it tried. It’s one of the most fun things — I say that NOBODY’s WATCHING was probably the most fun I ever had in part because it was the first comedy I ever did — but this is the second most, if not equally the most fun I ever had. Ryan and Jason Belleville who created the show, I’ve known for years. I actually met through Taran Killam. They pitched the show a couple of years ago to CBS who really liked but didn’t have room on their schedule, so they ended up selling it to Showcase. ALMOST HEROES is a single camera half hour comedy about these two brothers. One of whom went off to Harvard, the smart savvy cool brother, while the other stayed home to goof off and live behind their Father’s comic book shop. When the father passes away, the Harvard brother comes back to the funeral and ends up sticking around to help his brother run this failing comic book shop in this shitty strip mall set in Toronto.

ALMOST HEROES airs Thursday nights at 9PM on Showcase in Canada.

This Sunday, THE CLEVELAND SHOW will end its sophomore season with a trip to a Comic Convention where Donna will confront a horrified Robert Rodriguez after discovering that the auteur is going to screen a film (“Hot Cocoa Bang Bang”) that she starred in when she was younger. But before you bemoan the fact that a TV series taking their act to “Comic Con” is quickly becoming #6 on our list of “Very Special Episodes” every show eventually does, you should probably be aware of the fact that said adventure allows for guest voice appearances by BONES’ Emily Deschanel, DOLLHOUSE’s Eliza Dushku and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA’s Katee Sackhoff. More first look photos wf which can be found after the jump.

THE CLEVELAND SHOW airs Sunday at 9:30PM on FOX

“Game changer” just does not mean what it used to.  In fact, it means virtually nothing these days simply because the over-use of the term has diluted the very meaning of it.  When did the phrase “game changer” turn into such a snooze-fest? Back in the good ole days, when you heard that a television show was going to air a “game changer” episode, it meant something so much more thrilling — something so significant and unexpected that viewers were shocked and could not believe their eyes.  A “game changer” used to mean that a key character was being killed-off, someone was coming back from the dead, or there was going to be so mind-blowing that you could not foresee it happening.  But nowadays, it could mean anything from the addition of a new character, a character losing their job, or even less gasp-worthy, a character getting pregnant.

Great examples of “game changers” were LOST, 24 and TORCHWOOD’s willingness to kill off key characters.  Another show particularly adept at game-changers was the J.J. Abrams’ series ALIAS, such as when it took down SD-6 with one swift blow during the second season or when it surprised viewers with the 2 -year time jump.  Game-changers are risk taking and shocking.  The viewer should be sitting on their sofa wondering why the world felt like it had just tilted.

In recent television, FRINGE’s reveal that there was an alternate universe qualifies as a game-changer, but the over-hyped Fauxlivia’s pregnancy did not feel as mind-bending.  Likewise on V, the fact that Anna could bliss humans did not feel as big a game-changer as it should have been.  Nor the fact that Katie was carrying a super-human baby on NO ORDINARY FAMILY.  True game-changers would have been to find out that Father Jack was a mole working for Anna since the beginning on V; or that Katie was a plant by Dr. King to keep an eye on Steph’s research from the get go.  Even the fact that Orwell was afflicted by a similar mental illness to her father’s in THE CAPE did not feel as startling, as it should have been.

To be worthy of the label “game changer,” something must be not be foreseeable.  It must be unexpected to such a degree that everyone is talking about it, altering the way you look at a show completely.  Unpredictability is essential:  a previously unknown relationship, a major deception such as a traitor or mole, an unveiling of another layer of reality, a shocking and unexpected death of a key character.  All of these things send a show spiralling out of control or in a different direction.

Anything that can be foreseen or which is just a blip on the radar of a show feels less game-changing and more like a predictable event within a storyline. Perhaps over the years, television viewers have simply seen too much and things that would have surprised us a decade ago, now feel much more mundane.  Having just seen that DEXTER killed off Dexter’s wife, Rita and that LOST killed off Sun, Jin and Sayid in one quick swoop, even primary characters are not safe on television these days and we have come to expect that shows will take such risks – even with beloved characters.

Other classic game-changers in television included:  Angel losing his soul in BUFFY, THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, the Cylons taking over New Caprica on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, the death of Marisa Cooper on THE O.C., the Veronica-Logan kiss on VERONICA MARS, watching Michael kill Ana Lucia and Libby on LOST, and Fox Mulder’s abrupt departure from THE X-FILES.  Each of these events were shocking, surprising and game-changing for each of these shows.  It propelled storylines in new directions and left viewers wondering what the heck was going-on.

Imagine today if such scenarios played out:  if Peter is the real villain of FRINGE; if DEXTER were killed leaving his sister to avenge his death; if the crew of Destiny were enslaved by the Lucian Alliance for an entire season on STARGATE: UNIVERSE; if Clark Kent or the Powells lost all their super-human abilities for an extended period of time and had to live normal lives on SMALLVILLE and NO ORDINARY FAMILY.  All such scenarios would be truly game-changing.  Unexpected, horrifying and mind-boggling.

It would be a fun change of pace to truly see a genuine “game changer” on television and not feel let down when the hyped game-changers are merely a minor reveal and not shocking at all.  Let’s bring back true “game changers” so that we may all savor the fun of being surprised once again!

Tiffany Vogt is a contributing writer to The TV Addict. She has a great love for television and firmly believes that entertainment is a world of wondrous adventures that deserves to be shared and explored – she invites you to join her. Please feel free to contact Tiffany at Tiffany_Vogt_2000@yahoo.com or follow her at on Twitter (@TVWatchtower). Tiffany also writes as a columnist for NiceGirlsTV.

Tiffany Vogt is a contributing writer to The TV Addict. She has a great love for television and firmly believes that entertainment is a world of wondrous adventures that deserves to be shared and explored – she invites you to join her. Please feel free to contact Tiffany at Tiffany_Vogt_2000@yahoo.com or follow her at on Twitter (@TVWatchtower). Tiffany also writes as a columnist for NiceGirlsTV.

If NO ORDINARY FAMILY is going to go down — like any good superhero — it sure as heck is not going to go down without a fight. No really. In an effort to reverse the unfortunate ratings slide that has one of our favorite new shows’ renewal chances firmly planted on the proverbial “bubble,” ABC’s action-packed family drama is pulling out all the stops by bringing on board two BATTLESTAR babes. And here with your first look at Tricia Helfer and Lucy Lawless, the latter of which will be kicking off the first of a multi-episode arc next Tueday as the mysterious Mrs. X who tasks the sexy and dangerous Sophie (Tricia Helfer) with putting Jim and Stephanie’s marriage in jeopardy is theTVaddict.com. More first look photos of which can be found after the jump.

Today is a momentous day in television history.

After countless hours of research and tens of millions of dollars in grant money, theTVaddict.com is beyond thrilled to unveil our latest discovery in the field of E.C.D. [Early Cancellation Detection] No, really. From this day forward you can forget about reading those time-consuming ratings reports or finding your inbox inundated with tedious Eric Balfour Google alerts because we have crafted a surefire way to let you, the all-important fan, know when your favorite show is on the brink of cancelation. We call it, our “Totally Frakked!” theorem* and it goes a little something like this: If your show of choice has just announced that its latest guest star is in any way connected to BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, you can stick a fork in it, because it’s pretty much, you guessed it… “Totally Frakked.” See for yourself after the jump.

Since BATTLESTAR GALACTICA left the airwaves, its incredibly talented, and let’s face it, not-to-shabby-looking cast, have been in very high demand. That’s the good news. The bad news is that more often than not, their job offers tend to be akin to booking passage on the Titanic. Take Tricia Helfer for example. Aside from just announcing (via twitter) that she’ll be dropping by an upcoming episode of ABC’s NO ORDINARY FAMILY (Gulp!), her resume also includes untimely stints on TNT’s DARK BLUE, ABC’s THE WHOLE TRUTH and most terrifying of all, an upcoming episode of FOX’s LIE TO ME (Double Gulp!). See where we’re going with this?

Remember how James Callis was going to save FLASHFORWARD, how did that work out? Unfortunately about as well as things ended up for DOLLHOUSE, 24 and NUMB3RS, all of which employed a plethora of BSG alums including Tricia Helfer, Jamie Bamber, Michael Hogan, among others. What’s that? Still not buying it! Take a look at the roster of guest stars for FOX’s HUMAN TARGET, which has featured not just Helfer, but Tamoh Penikett and Grace Park as well. Suffice to say, a BATTLESTAR GALACTICA guest star is the new canary in a coal mine. Don’t shoot the messenger.

* Patent Pending

Good News: The CW has given full-season orders to freshman dramas NIKITA and HELLCATS as well as veteran sudser ONE TREE HILL. Bad News: For LIFE UNEXPECTED, which was conspicuously absent from the network’s plethora of pick-ups despite a recent order for two additional scripts. [Source: Ausiello]

Good News: Syfy has given the greenlight to BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: BLOOD & CHROME, a 2-hour pilot that chronicles Young William Adama’s adventures in First Cylon War. Bad News: For CAPRICA, or at least that’s the rumor FOTVA [friend of the TV addict] @rural_juror is irresponsibly starting via twitter.

Good News: Contrary to reports, ABC has not axed THE WHOLE TRUTH. Bad News: Although the show will have only one more episode to prove itself before ABC benches it for November sweeps. [Source: EW]

In September, you very own TV Addict was given the opportunity to visit the set of 24. And while I’m not at liberty just yet to share my photos of the unbelievably cool looking new and improved CTU (Think: Apple Store with orange highlights) or interviews with the cast (including new addition Mykelti Williamson and everybody’s favorite analyst Mary Lynn Rajskub), I did want to share — to coincide with last week’s release of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE PLAN on DVD — an unexpected and hilarious somewhat not-safe-for-work tale of Edward James Olmos’ directing the movie, courtesy of Katee Sackhoff. Enjoy.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE PLAN.
After sitting through the Edward James Olmos direct-to-DVD movie released this week, this TV Addict thinks he’s discovered what NBC/Universal’s ultimate plan was: To FRAK us fans by milking as much money as they can from the franchise with a glorified clip show. Not cool.

The CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM controversy.
InsideCatholic.com’s Dean Hudson is entitled to his opinion. Which is why, if he really found Larry David’s ridiculous antics on Sunday’s CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM — that had David’s potent stream of urine inadvertently splash-back on a painting of Jesus Christ — offensive, rather than the absurdist and ridiculous humour that it was, so be it. But what really grinds our gears is Mr. Hudson’s statement to (surprise!) FOX News, in which he blasts the show by arguing that, “If the same thing was done to a symbol of any other religions — Jewish or Muslim — there’d be a huge outcry. It’s simply not a level playing field.” Which begs the question, has Mr. Hudson ever watched CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM? Surely, if he had, he’d have recognized that not only is no subject safe from Larry David (Who earlier this season spent an entire episode strategizing ways in which to dump his Cancer stricken-girlfriend), but the show itself isn’t exactly a glowing advertisement for us Jews.

Media outlets prognosticating show’s fates, TOO SOON!
Yes, we get it. Not every show will survive to the fall (RIP: TRAUMA). But you know what certainly doesn’t help? Media outlets such as TVGuide, The Hollywood Reporter among others taking it upon themselves to cancel shows less than two months into the Fall season! Frankly, articles like this morning’s TVGuide piece which asks “Is Your Favorite Show on the Bubble” or The Live Feed’s “Survival Report” do nothing yet hurt the industry as a whole by continuing to perpetuate the already far too accepted stereotype that Network TV as we know it is doomed. Sure shows like THE FORGOTTEN, DOLLHOUSE and FRINGE aren’t exactly doing great, but by continuing to hammer that fact home, media outlets are really doing nothing but hurt shows further. After-all, who really wants to tune into EASTWICK after TVGuide has all but cancelled it on their website. Or to put it in terms the media industry might appreciate a little more, does The Hollywood Reporter really want to play the ‘which print magazine won’t be around this time next year’ game? Didn’t think so.

THE JAY LENO SHOW.
‘Nuff Said.