Austin360 blogs > TV Blog > Archives > 2005 > September
September 2005
‘Lost’: Walt was backwards, the raft returns
Last week was the hatch; tonight is the raft.
“Lost” fans have been salivating all week about the double-edged mystery that was only half-solved in last week’s season opener for the ABC Emmy-winning drama.
The hatch was opened, and we went right in — with Kate and Locke. But we’re still not sure what we entered. Or who the guy is who’s been living down there for heaven knows how long.
The Internet has been buzzing for days about what young Walt was mumbling in the woods. And how he got there, dripping wet, after being kidnapped by the baddies on a fishing boat in the May cliffhanger.
According to various sites, Walt was walking and speaking backwards (just like the dancing dwarf on “Twin Peaks”) and said, “Don’t push the button. The button is bad.” That clears things up, doesn’t it? What button are we talking about here, and who’s getting ready to push it.
Anyway, tonight (at 8 p.m.), presumably we’ll learn the fate of the guys on the raft, who went searching for rescue and wound up in a mess of trouble. And maybe we’ll find out why wee Walt is suddenly backwards.
“Will & Grace” start the season live
Don’t be surprised if one or several of the main characters on Thursday night’s season opener of “Will & Grace” messes up. What would be the point of doing an episode live if everything went off without a hitch?
In fact, Eric McCormack (Will) told “Entertainment Tonight” last night that viewers can expect the cast to crack each other up and probably commit several goofs.
The show’s eighth and final season debut (at 7:30 p.m. Thursday) hopes to be reminiscent of the Golden Age of TV, when Carol Burnett cracked up Tim Conway and Harvey Korman on a regular basis, and Lucy and Desi sometimes lost track of a scene.
McCormack and Megan Mullally (Karen) are stage vets who are thrilled about the live episode. Sean Hayes (Jack) has made no secret of the fact that he’s terrified of the prospect (he told “ET” he would be wearing several pairs of underwear), and Debra Messing (Grace) apparently has begged for cue cards in case she freezes up.
All of which adds up to Must-See TV in my book.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
Look quick, before they’re gone!
Looks like patience will be at a premium this season, as networks search fast and furiously for the Next Big Hit.
Monday, as reported in this very blog, Fox yanked the comedy-drama “Head Cases” after only two episodes had aired. Look for a string of other cancellations to come not far behind.
ABC already has pushed back the debut of the negatively reviewed “Freddie,” an unfunny sitcom starring Freddie Prinze Jr. Instead of Oct. 5, the show will now … maybe … arrive Oct. 12. We’ll believe it when we see it. Of course if it really does arrive Oct. 12, nobody will see it anyway because major league baseball playoffs will be in full swing.
NBC’s “Inconceivable,” ye olde fertility clinic melodrama, debuted last Friday to piddling ratings, so look for that one to take a hike, possibly before Halloween. Possibly sooner.
ABC’s creepy alien drama “Invasion” came out of the blocks last Wednesday in good shape, and CBS’ “Ghost Whisperer,” with Jennifer Love Hewitt yammering up a storm with dead people, did well in its first outing last Friday.
Not surprisingly, the glowingly reviewed “Everybody Hates Chris” is a hit for UPN, and “My Name Is Earl” has finally given NBC a new comedy that’s funny and popular.
But hits will be outnumbered by the misses. So, today’s lesson: if you’re planning to check out new series, do it now because some might be gone before you get to them.
You’re pregnant!
Will The Donald announce his pending daddy-hood on “The Apprentice?” Will one of the tasks in the NBC reality show’s fourth season be to build the mega-rich tyke’s fabulous nursery in Trump Tower?
More importantly, will the new spawn — the fifth in The Donald’s brood — have Tang-colored hair like daddy?
Yep, the 59-year-old mogul and his latest bride (since January) Melania, 35, have announced that she is pregnant. The Baby will arrive in the spring.
Melania is Mrs. Trump No. 3. Mr. Trump has three children, all grown, with original wife Ivana and an 11-year-old daughter with Mrs. Trump No. 2, Marla Maples.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
Sunday season openers shine
Last night’s season premieres were fabulous … looks as if my Sunday-night viewing is set for the foreseeable future.
I did actually remember that “The West Wing” had moved to 7 p.m. Sunday, which I feared I would not since the show has been on Wednesdays its entire life. It was worth all the sticky notes I left for myself.
There wasn’t much of Alan Alda, who plays the Republican presidential nominee, but he’ll be back in future episodes to challenge Jimmy Smits’ Democratic nominee. I loved the rancor between the White House staff and the Matt Santos (Smits) campaign staff.
This is politics at its best, with no real lives or livelihoods at stake!
And “Desperate Housewives” was fantastic. Everybody’s talking about it, at least at my office they are.
Did you love Bree propping up her dead husband, in the middle of his funeral, and changing the hideous tie his mother had put on him? I laughed so hard my deaf dog woke up.
And who’s that shackled in the Applewhite’s basement? That was a pretty creepy scene, wasn’t it? Betty and son Matthew (Austin’s Mehcad Brooks) served dinner on a silver tray to someone in their basement, who may or may not be the husband/father of the family and who may or may not be nuts. Loved the bud vase. That was a swell touch.
Also loved Lynette’s job interview, for which she was forced to arrive with her baby because babysitting dad had thrown his back out. How many takes were necessary to get that diaper to stick to the glass wall?
Wrapping up a busy night of season openers, “Grey’s Anatomy” returned with a vengeance, too. Sandra Oh is quickly becoming my favorite actress on TV right now. Seemed like there were more comedy elements this time, which isn’t a bad thing.
I’m still ticked off that “Boston Legal” was bumped from the slot now occupied by “Grey,” but I guess I’ll get over it.
And the quick-ax award goes to …
Fox’s “Head Cases,” a comedy-drama starring Chris O’Donnell and Adam Goldberg as emotionally challenged lawyers, was yanked after its second episode Wednesday.
The series was in fifth place, which is not a good place to be, and attracted less than 3 million viewers, which is about how many people watch test patterns by mistake.
The fact that it had to compete with “Lost” didn’t help.
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Rita TV
Once again that ugly orange blob has swirled across the screen on cable news networks as Hurricane Rita blows into the Gulf of Mexico.
Seems like only yesterday that Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans, and the blob drew us to the tube for more hours than we had to spend.
Thursday the Rita focus was split between the traffic jams outside of Houston and the big orange blob wobbling toward the Texas coast. Split screens heightened the drama of this pending disaster.
CNN and Fox News Channel shifted some of their personnel from Louisiana and Mississippi to the Texas Gulf Coast, as Rita whipped into a Category 5 — and then sighed a bit down to a 4.
The lessons learned from Katrina? Get your main folks on the air and keep ’em there. NBC hit pay dirt with Brian Williams anchoring coverage, Fox’s Shepard Smith got the best reviews of his life for his passionate reporting and CNN’s Anderson Cooper proved he is more than just a filthy-rich heir to the Vanderbilt fortune.
For the Texas chapter of hurricane season, ABC sent anchor Charles Gibson, who reported from Houston yesterday and will stay through the weekend. Stone Phillips and Matt Lauer also are familiar faces for NBC, and CBS, after giving him a quick break from New Orleans, flew John Roberts into the storm along with Harry Smith.
Storms are big business for TV news, and Katrina, which doubled and sometimes tripled cable news’ ratings, taught news execs how to feed the frenzy.
Friday night debuts
For a night that increasingly doesn’t matter to broadcast networks, there sure are a lot of new shows on the schedule. Makes you wonder if programmers are paying attention to the size of the audience, which is only slightly less than the lowest-of-the-week Saturday audience.
If you happen to be one of those people who is home on Friday nights, here’s a quick rundown of the new stuff:
“Three Wishes” (8 p.m., NBC) is a shameless, do-good reality series with Amy Grant stirring up tears of gratitude in small towns across the country. It owes its weepy concept to ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” complete with in-your-face product placement. (Hello, Ford.) The opener grants wishes to a brain-damaged child, a football coach with leukemia and a child longing to be adopted by his stepfather.
“Inconceivable” (9 p.m., NBC) is a treacly drama about all manner of conception and childbirth. The handsome doctor (Jonathan Cake) in charge of the fertility clinic has a very active sex life, the attorney (Ming-Na) on board is in charge of conscience and Angie Harmon has been added as a doctor with firepower. Not my cup of tea, but the cast is good.
“Ghost Whisperer” (7 p.m., CBS) features Jennifer Love Hewitt seeing and chatting with dead people. She’s helping them find loved ones and settle pre- and post-death problems. Has its moments, but only if you buy into ghosts.
“Killer Instinct” (8 p.m., Fox) is possibly the most gruesome crime drama of the new season. The focus is on a San Francisco police squad called the Deviant Crime Unit, and the pilot deals with death by tarantulas, bugs and a finger found in the throat. Eeew.
Permalink | | Categories: News coverage
Happily lost in ‘Lost’
I’m still not sure what happened last night on the season premiere of “Lost”, but I liked it.
How did that guy down in the hatch get there? How long has he been there? Where the heck is Kate?
The mystery guy in the hatch was Desmond, the stair-climbing dude Jack met running stadium steps in the flashback … wasn’t he?
Next week we’re supposed to get the scoop on what happened to the folks on the raft. We’ve already seen a semi-ghostly vision of young Walt, who was kidnapped by those mean-looking guys on the boat. But that might not have been real. Maybe it was just a vision.
Nobody will ever accuse “Lost” of being predictable. Or calm. I still have marks in my palms where I dug my nails in last night.
Martha: out of jail and looking for help
Donald Trump looks like an ogre next to his spinoff partner Martha Stewart. On last night’s premiere of NBC’s “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart,” she revealed her version of The Donald’s trademark show-ender, “You’re fired!”
Martha is softer, sweeter. Contestants may wonder if they’ve really been axed when they hear her whisper, “You just don’t fit in.” What kind of firing is that? Well, it’s a polite firing. Plus, she writes the departed a nice, hand-written note of farewell in the closing scene.
Austin attorney Amanda Hill was deep beneath the radar in last night’s episode. If she said more than three words, I missed ‘em. But she was on the winning team, and she could turn out to be one of those quiet but forceful types who rises to the top.
Stewart came across as completely lovable, which maybe she really is and maybe she really isn’t. But she’s a lot more pleasant to watch than Tang-haired Trump.
You’ll love ‘Chris’
UPN might not be a network you turn to on a regular basis, unless you’re a fan of “Veronica Mars” (good for you) or “WWE Smackdown” (bad on you).
But punch in that channel tonight at 7 and check out “Everybody Hates Chris”](http://www.upn.com/shows/everybodyhateschris), a hilarious new sitcom based on the childhood of stand-up comic Chris Rock. It’s a feel-good, slightly edgy show with a fabulous cast (including Tyler Williams as Chris, Tichina Arnold as his tough-talking mom and Terry Crew as his dad) and and terrifically wry narration by Rock.
Everybody’s going to be talking about this show — along with NBC’s weird and wonderful “My Name Is Earl” — so you might as well get in with the “in” crowd early.
Permalink | | Categories: Entertainment
‘Lost’ is back, ‘Invasion’ is here!
First the hatch, then the lights.
Tonight’s the night for lovers of all things creepy and sci-fi to hunker down in front of the TV.
For those who are worried they’ll be lost tuning into the first episode of the second season of “Lost”, which nabbed the best drama Emmy on Sunday night, ABC has kindly offered an hour-long retrospective of the first season.
The recap show is at 7 p.m.; the season opener airs at 8.
The May cliffhanger of the castaway adventure ended with a delegation of plane-crash survivors setting off on their homemade raft in search of rescuers. They were thrilled when a fishing boat signals and stops, but then the evil-looking guys on the boat kidnapped young Walt, shot Sawyer and blew up the raft.
Meanwhile back on the island, another group of survivors set about opening the mysterious hatch. Annoying the heck out of loyal fans, the cliffhanger revealed nothing about what was inside. Tonight, creator J.J. Abrams promises the hatch insides will be revealed.
But we’ll have to wait until next week to learn the fate of the rafters.
Stay tuned for ‘Invasion’
Stay put after “Lost” for the next intriguing sci-fi show, ABC’s “Invasion”, the best of a trio of alien dramas. (The others are CBS’s “Threshold” and NBC’s “Surface.”)
This show is more of an “X-Files” adventure, with creepiness and human drama intermingling. Because of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, ABC pulled the earlier promos that featured a massive hurricane sweeping over the Florida coast and into the Everglades, where this yarn takes place.
The hurricane remains in the pilot, but the natural disaster apparently is masking a decidedly unnatural disaster: aliens arriving to join aliens, looking very much like humans, who are already there. Strange lights, dazed-looking people and unusual smells take hold, and pretty soon it’s hard to tell the invaded from the noninvaded.
There are a couple of good jolts, but mostly there’s just a chilling, spine-tingling feeling throughout.
Welcome to prime-time, Martha
If you’ve been holding your breath for Martha Stewart’s new “Apprentice”, you can exhale. The domestic diva competition arrives tonight at 7 on NBC. (KXAN, Channel 36)
One of the contestants is Austin attorney Amanda Hill, 30, who works here with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She’s a Texas Tech law school grad and eye cancer survivor.
No zing to “E-Ring”
NBC’s Pentagon drama “E-Ring,” yet another Jerry Bruckheimer production, also debuts tonight (8 p.m.), but it’s a big disappointment.
Benjamin Bratt struggles mightily to make this show watchable, and Dennis Hopper brings lots of fabulous camp to the party. But there’s just no there there.
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‘Nip/Tuck,’ good ‘n’ gross, returns
“Nip/Tuck” the most gorgeously filmed TV show with the biggest gross-out factor, opens its third season tonight (at 9 on FX).
The Carver, the serial murderer/rapist whom we last saw slashing a temporarily paralyzed Dr. Christian Troy (Julian McMahon), is back. Does the randy doctor survive? Well, the show is about two morally complicated cosmetic surgeons in Miami, so what do you think?
The surgery scenes have always made me squirm. In fact, I cannot watch those icky facelifts and breast augmentations without having at least a couple of fingers blocking my view.
Tonight’s season opener has a feel-good story line that displays Dr. Sean McNamara’s (Dylan Walsh) humanity, but it’s accompanied by possibly the most impossible-to-watch surgery ever. And that’s saying something.
I won’t give the whole scenario away, but I will warn you that it involves an enormously obese woman, who has been confined to her sofa for three years, being extricated from the sofa. We’re not talking about a simple lifting here. It’s beyond sickening, but the woman herself forces both Sean and Christian to see beyond her incredible weight.
It’s enough to make you dizzy with nausea, which always makes me wonder why I like this show so much. I think it has something to do with the intriguing characters and daring plotlines. Sex and twisted stories have something to do with it, too. Shocking can be addictive, apparently.
“Nip/Tuck” is not for everyone, which is why I don’t often recommend it.
When last we saw them, Sean and Christian were deep into moral conflicts. Sean’s marriage to Julia (Joely Richardson) was collapsing, Christian was revealed to be Sean’s son Matt’s biological father and Matt (John Hensley) was unknowingly having a fling with a transgendered man.
With the Carver still at large, seductive Det. Kit McGraw (Rhona Mitra) on the case and sexy Dr. Quinton Costa (Bruno Campos) joining the practice, “Nip/Tuck” is heading for another gasp-a-minute season.
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More Emmy mulling the morning after …
My favorite acceptance speech came from S. Epatha Merkerson, who won best actress in a miniseries or movie for her fabulous work in HBO’s “Lackawanna Blues.”
Best-known as the down-to-earth (and sometimes blend-into-the-background) Lieut. Van Buren on “Law & Order,” Merkerson raced to the stage clutching her chest and giggling like a school girl.
“I wrote something, but it’s down there!” she shrieked. Her acceptance speech, which she had tucked into the bosom of her dress, had slipped from cleavage to tummy and become irretrievable.
Felicity Huffman, something of a surprise winner over “Desperate Housewives” co-stars Marcia Cross and Teri Hatcher, thanked husband, Emmy-winning actor William H. Macy, “for taking a chunky 22-year-old with a bad perm out into a cow pasture and kissing me and making me his wife.” Sweet.
Patricia Arquette, a big surprise winner for stalking around the psychic drama “Medium,” at least had the correct response: “They really did say my name, right?” she asked on stage. “I’m not hallucinating, am I?” This Emmy really should have gone to Glenn Close for “The Shield.”
My favorite serious moment was David Letterman’s heartfelt tribute to his idol and mentor, Johnny Carson, who retired from “The Tonight Show” in 1992 and died last year.
“Johnny Carson’s star never cooled,” Letterman said.
Was the choice of Letterman to deliver this tribute a slap in the face of Jay Leno, who beat out Letterman to become Carson’s “Tonight Show” replacement? Maybe. If so, the insult was compounded when Letterman received loud cheers and sustained applause when he arrived on stage.
Leno was in the audience and smiled throughout, even when Jon Stewart, in his own acceptance speech later, heaped praise on Letterman.
“The way that he (Letterman) feels about Johnny Carson is the way all of us, the comedians of our era, feel about him,” Stewart said.
Ouch. Keep that gigantic chin up, Jay.
“Kitchen Confidential” star had chef dreams
Bradley Cooper, who stars in tonight’s new Fox sitcom “Kitchen Confidential” (7:30 p.m. on KTBC, Channel 7), grew up with an Italian grandmother who loved to cook.
Now he’s playing a top-notch chef on TV whose life is based on real-life culinary master Anthony Bourdain.
“Every flat surface in my grandma’s house was filled with dough,” Cooper said in Los Angeles in July. “I worked as a prep cook when I was 15, and since every chef is a self-proclaimed rock star, I grew up wanting to be a chef.”
But Cooper’s cooking skills lost out to an acting career, although he says this particular sitcom is just as exciting as the life-and-death situations in a restaurant kitchen: “Working with fire and knives, which we do on the set, is pretty dangerous.”
By the way, the show is pretty darn funny.
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Creepy ‘Threshold’ worth a look
For those who remember fondly when Friday was home to “The X-Files,” CBS’s “Threshold” premieres tonight (at 8 p.m.) hoping to stimulate similar affection.
The two shows aren’t the same quality sci-fi. “The X-Files” was in a superlative category by itself. But “Threshold” is intriguing — and it stars Carla Gugino, known by some for her short-lived but brilliant outing in the detective series “Karen Sisco.”
And, really, what else is there to watch on Friday nights?
In “Threshold,” Gugino plays Molly Caffrey, a contingency analyst for National Security whose specialty is coming up with a response to an alien invasion. Probably a job she never thought she’d actually perform, but in tonight’s pilot she’s put to work after a really creepy incident involving a U.S. Navy ship in the Atlantic.
The crew of the ship witnesses a UFO, prompting the men, one by one, to go nuts and begin killing each other.
Deputy National Security Adviser J.T. Baylock (Charles Dutton) calls in Caffrey and her team of experts to examine the ship. Expect a few chills and jolts as the distressed vessel is explored: The dead aren’t just dead, they’re semifrozen and deformed.
And, even more jolting, there’s a dazed and creepy survivor. You will not be surprised to learn he’s not normal.
As the team of experts watch a video that was taken by the crew predemise, they begin to have nosebleeds. Others have nightmares — and learn that their colleagues had the same nightmares.
What brought this alternate life force to Earth and what does the future hold? Those big questions are the driving force of the series. The real question, though, is whether “Threshold” the series can sustain the suspense and creepiness of the “Threshold” the pilot.
And whether anyone will want to say home on Friday nights to watch.
Lance & Sheryl: They’re everywhere!
Seven-time Tour de France champ and Austin hometown hero Lance Armstrong and his rock star fiancee Sheryl Crow talk about life, love and their plans to marry on tonight’s edition of “20/20” (9 p.m. on ABC, KVUE Channel 24).
Maybe Armstrong will settle his yo-yo thoughts on whether he’ll return to the Tour for an eighth time. First he said he was finished, then he said he was so ticked off at the French he might return, then he told American-Statesman reporter Suzanne Halliburton in today’s article that, no, he really is finished. But who knows? He’s changed his mind before, right? Maybe he’ll tell Elizabeth Vargas something entirely different.
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‘Survivor’ — Again?!?
Here’s the common reaction among friends, colleagues and loyal readers who have taken the time to notice tonight’s season premiere of “Survivor”:
Is that show still on the air?
Who watches that show?
Well, folks, here’s the startling truth: “Survivor,” which begins its 11th edition at 7 tonight on CBS (KEYE, Channel 42), remains one of network television’s enduring hits. Last season there were two installments — set in Palau and Vanuatu — and both wound up in the Nielsen Top 10 rankings for the year.
The latest installment takes place in the Mayan ruins of Guatemala and promises to be “more grueling” than past adventures. Hopefully that doesn’t mean we’ll see more dramatic weight losses or gut-wrenching slime ingestions.
The 16 new castaways, as usual, are en eclectic mix, ranging in age from 21 to 63. There is only one contestant from Texas — a Dallas real estate broker/model named Blake Towsley (a guy).
There is one semifamous contestant: former Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Gary Hogeboom, who is now a 47-year-old real estate developer in Michigan.
Among the occupations represented are a farmer, a nurse, a sports radio talk show host, two Ivy League students, a zoo keeper, a magician’s assistant, a fishmonger, a water ski instructor, a retired firefighter, a cop, a hotel doorman and a makeup artist.
Tonight’s opener, host Jeff Probst told TV critics in a recent teleconference, features an 11-mile hike through the steamy heat of a Central American rain forest. Some contestants collapsed and, of course, threw up. What’s a “Survivor” episode without hurling?
#### Bush speech messes up schedule
President Bush’s speech about the Katrina catastrophe, which airs live at 8 tonight on all the broadcast and cable news networks, has forced CBS to reconfigure its carefully laid out “CSI” premieres.
Last season’s breathtaking “CSI” finale, directed by Quentin Tarantino, was supposed to air tonight, but has been bumped to the night of Sept. 21 by Mr. Prez. To accommodate that “CSI” repeat next week, the season opener of “CSI: New York” has been delayed from next Wednesday to the following week, Sept. 28.
And the second episode of Fox’s new series “Reunion,” scheduled for tonight, has been put off until next week.
ABC and NBC are basically ditching reruns.
This had better be good, Mr. President. We hate missing our premieres.
Permalink | | Categories: Reality TV
Fox’s ‘Head Cases’ is quirky fun
“Head Cases,” Fox’s new legal comedy-drama (8 tonight on KTBC, Channel 7) about a couple of lawyers battling mental illness, won’t appeal to everyone.
If the mere sight of Adam Goldberg, who has made a career of playing characters that can best be described as Woody Allen on speed, makes you cringe — or twitch — this show isn’t for you.
“I love this role,” said Goldberg, beady eyes darting, nervous leg pumping during a July interview in Los Angeles. “It’s cathartic because I get to act out my own personal problems.”
Oh, swell, you may be thinking. Why can’t these emotionally challenged actors just go into therapy like the rest of us? Why do they have to inflict their woes on a national TV audience?
But they can be fun to watch. And Goldberg, who is definitely offbeat and twitchy, probably isn’t nearly as nuts as the guys he plays.
But I digress. “Head Cases” begins with WASP-y corporate attorney Jason Payne, played by preppy Chris O’Donnell (Robin in “Batman Forever”), suffering a nervous breakdown as his marriage collapses while he’s clawing his way toward a partnership at a top Los Angeles law firm.
He winds up in a mental hospital with Russell Schultz (Goldberg), a public defender battling something called “explosive disorder,” which causes him to leap across tables and punch out the opposition during depositions.
Released from the hospital, Jason is partnered in his recovery with Russell. After his firm fires him because the top guns are embarrassed about his breakdown, Jason also partners — reluctantly — with Russell in a new practice.
It doesn’t sound like a workable setup, but the chemistry between these two guys works like a charm. O’Donnell’s blue-eyed sweetness is the perfect counter-punch to Goldberg’s dark-eyed, furtive intensity. Basically Schultz is mad as a hatter, but in an oddly amusing way.
Count on this seedy, beach-front legal duo to take on only the most bizarre cases. Schultz kidnaps a witness (which turns out to be the wrong guy) to “help” Payne win a nasty divorce case. For his own case, defending a nymphomaniac, Schultz calls Dr. Ruth to the stand.
The biggest challenge facing “Head Cases” is the competition. When all the shows in this Wednesday time period arrive, the Fox newcomer will face ABC’s mega-hit “Lost,” CBS’s new crime procedural “Criminal Minds,” NBC’s new Pentagon drama “E-Ring,” WB’s new family drama “Related” and UPN’s top-notch (but under-appreciated) teen detective drama “Veronica Mars.” Talk about a tough road.
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TV poll finds too much reality
The overwhelming majority of viewers — a whopping 80 percent — say there are too many reality shows on the air now.
And half of the people surveyed believe there are too many crime shows.
The Associated Press and TV Guide checked out public opinion for two days last week to determine how people are feeling about TV as we head into the new fall season. The poll was conducted by Ipsos, the same organization that told us Sen. John Kerry was going to win the last presidential election.
One section of the survey was pretty interesting. Nearly 60 percent of the respondents felt that most reality shows — such as “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” — distort the truth. A mere 2 percent believe they are “as true as real life.”
You might think that would have an impact on the appeal of reality shows, but you would be wrong. Almost half of those surveyed said it doesn’t matter whether reality shows are truthful or not.
In other words, as long as “The Biggest Loser” is fun, inspiring or shocking, it doesn’t matter if the overweight contestants are really going through what we think they’re going through. That should give producers license to lie even more, no?
People seemed content with the sitcom status quo. About half said the prime-time lineup has the right amount — which is considerably less than the number of dramas. Only 28 percent said there were too many and 20 percent said they wanted more.
Talk shows? Too many. News programs and game shows? The right amount.
I might be nervous about one category if I were a producer on last season’s red-hot “Desperate Housewives.” A mere 13 percent of respondents said they were looking forward to the show’s return (Sept.. 25). But then again, maybe these were the same folks who told Ipsos they were voting for Kerry last time.
Ex-con Martha, happy at last!
A cheerful, happy-to-be-free Martha Stewart returned to TV Monday with her new syndicated daytime talker, “Martha” (weekdays at 9 a.m., KEYE Channel 42).
The domestic goddess was more open and warm-hearted than she has been in the past, and the first show generally received good reviews.
But a number or TV blog readers here said they were distracted by the noise of the live audience. Maybe the attendees were just particularly raucous on the first day. Or maybe someone should tell them to be quiet. Martha’s a perfectionist, so she’ll figure it out.
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Early Emmys came Sunday
They’re almost always overlooked, but the Creative Arts Emmys, formerly known as the Technical Emmys, usually have some noteworthy nods.
In case you didn’t know — and I bet you didn’t — they were handed out Sunday in Los Angeles.
As the Primetime Emmy Awards have gotten longer and longer, the Creative Arts Emmys have picked up a few more categories, such as Guest Actor and Actress honors. Not exactly technical, huh?
Amanda Plummer won Guest Actress in a Drama for her appearance on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” and Ray Liotta received the guest actor award for “ER.”
In the Guest Actor and Actress Comedy category, Kathryn Joosten won for “Desperate Housewives” and Bobby Cannavale won for “Will & Grace.”
“Desperate Housewives” won the award for the Best Casting for a Comedy series, and “Lost” won for Best Casting for a Drama.
“Lost” also won for Best Music Composition (the dramatic underscore), and “Desperate Housewives” won for Main Title Theme Music.
For some strange reason, the Emmy for Best Reality Series is in the Creative Arts section, too, and ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” won.
Once again, the crudely drawn “South Park” received the Emmy for Animated Program.
Children’s programming had two winners: “Classical Baby” on HBO and “Nick News with Linda Ellerbee” on Nickelodeon.
“The Tony Awards” on CBS won in the Variety, Music or Comedy Special category, and PBS’s “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson” won for Nonfiction Special.
The bigger, flashier Emmys — “The 57th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards” — will be handed out Sunday night on CBS, with Ellen DeGeneres hosting.
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Fall TV just for me …
Our big-fat Fall TV Guide is here. You can also find commentary and minireviews of 31 new shows, plus a look at the new prime-time schedule, in the Life & Arts section of Sunday’s American-Statesman.
And Tuesday’s TV column will give you a rundown of returning series: when they will start new episodes, and some of the cast and plot changes to expect.
Ah, fall. When leaves and temperatures fall, and reruns are gone — at least for a few weeks.
So, what, some might wonder, will I jot down for my personal appointment viewing this season?
Like most people, I’ll return to old favorites: “The West Wing,” “Cold Case,” “Arrested Development,” “The Simpsons,” “Nip/Tuck.”
But there are new shows that, in the early going, look promising enough to make my schedule.
Sunday: Nothing new worth watching.
Monday: “Kitchen Confidential,” a funny comedy based on edgy super-chef Anthony Bourdain’s autobiography, and “Prison Break,” a darkly intriguing drama about brothers, murder and government conspiracy. Both are on Fox.
Tuesday: NBC’s “My Name Is Earl,” another new sitcom that will actually make you laugh. Dimwit guy wins lottery, gets run over, finds karma, decides to right the wrongs he’s committed in life. Hilarity ensues.
Wednesday: “Head Cases,” a bizarre Fox comedy-drama about two lawyers with mental problems who join forces on cases and rehab, and ABC’s “Invasion,” the best of the slew of sci-fi dramas.
Thursday: “Everybody Hates Chris,” on UPN, is based on Chris Rock’s life and is almost as funny as the stand-up himself. Maybe Fox’s “Reunion,” a murder-mystery that will romp through a year in the life of six high school friends, from graduation to 20th reunion, every week for 20 weeks.
Friday: CBS’s “Threshold,” another alien invasion saga, might be worth an appointment, but Friday nights are not typical viewing nights for yours truly.
Saturday: Never even turn on the TV.
Las damas de Wisteria Lane hablan español
ABC will offer its entire prime-time lineup in Spanish this season.
“George Lopez” has been available in Spanish from the get-go, but now Spanish-speaking viewers can check out the foolishness on “Desperate Housewives” and the creepiness on “Lost” in their own language.
ABC is the first major broadcast network to provide this service, an acknowledgement that during the summer, Univision beat the stuffings out of English-language networks in some big TV markets — Miami and Los Angeles. Surveys indicate about half of 41 million Hispanic households watch only or mostly Spanish-language TV.
“Desperate Housewives,” “Lost,” “George Lopez” and the new comedy “Freddie” will be dubbed, along with theatrical movies and specials. The rest of the lineup will be close-captioned.
Media gets passionate about Katrina
While some folks are criticizing the increasingly critical tone of TV reporters, others, such as Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz applauds it:
“Maybe, just maybe, journalism needs to bring more passion to the table — an not just when cable shows are obsessing on the latest missing white woman,” Kurtz said.
Cable coverage has indeed turned into advocacy journalism on some days. Tim Russert turned beet-red pressing Homeland Security guru Michael Chertoff last Sunday, and CNN’s Anderson Cooper has chastised several government officials for saluting the recovery instead of answering tough questions about the failure of the response.
Of course, it’s one thing for Ted Koppel to ask tough questions and another for Fox’s Geraldo Rivera to showboat for the cameras in the middle of a rescue. Passion has its place, but its place is in seeking to inform the public.
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Intriguing ‘Reunion’ debuts on Fox tonight
Sometimes a quirky format is distracting and self-conscious. Other times, as is the case with Fox’s new teen serial drama “Reunion,” the experiment pays off.
The description of “Reunion,” which debuts tonight at 8 on Fox (KTBC Channel 7), sounds more complex than it feels when watching it.
The pilot opens with a present-day funeral. We don’t know whose death is being mourned, but we know it’s a suspicious demise that’s being investigated by a cop.
The story then flashes back to Bedford, N.Y., in 1986 and the graduation celebration of six friends, including Will (“American Dream’s” Will Estes), a jock looking to escape his hometown on an athletic scholarship; Craig (Sean Faris), a spoiled rich kid heading to the Ivy League; Craig’s girlfriend Samantha (Alexa Davalos), who learns she’s pregnant but the baby may not be Craig’s; Jenna (Amanda Righetti), who wants to be a movie star; Aaron (Dave Annable), who loves Jenna but she doesn’t love him back; and Carla (Chyler Leigh), who loves Aaron and wants to leave Bedford but whose father wants her to stay.
In tonight’s opener, we meet the gang, get a taste of all the quirky storylines to come and romp through the summer after graduation. The biggest development is Craig persuades pal Will to take the fall for him in a drunken-driving incident, and poor Will slumps off to jail.
Next week’s episode leaps forward a year to 1987, and another year passes the following week. Over 20 weeks — the entire first season — “Reunion” will cover 20 years from high school graduation to the class’s 20th reunion and the aforementioned murder. The season-ender in May will reveal who is dead and who is responsible.
Assuming subsequent episodes are as well-done as the first ones, the show does a fabulous job of evoking each year. The soundtrack, costumes, car’s and current events referred to transport us back to that specific time. Not only are the characters rich, but the period settings are rich, too.
The show asks a lot of the audience: a full-season commitment before the payoff. That’s an iffy proposition in this age of quick remotes and hundreds of choices. But it’s a risk Fox is willing to take.
But what happens if “Reunion” is a hit? Producers told TV critics in Los Angeles that there is a plan for another season, but they declined to explain. I guess they could spin the story 20 years into the future, from 2005 to 2025. But that might look too much like “The Jetsons” for a teen drama.
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Martha & Bree: Together at last!
Martha Stewart’s new syndicated talk show “Martha” will debut Monday morning (9 a.m. on KEYE Channel 42) with the ex-con/domestic diva welcoming a recently widowed desperate housewife.
Marcia Cross, who is engaged in real life but mourning the death of her TV husband Rex on “Desperate Housewives,” is Stewart’s first celebrity guest. Seems appropriate since Cross says her portrayal of the icy Bree was inspired by Stewart.
Teri Hatcher’s Susan is funnier, and Felicity Huffman’s Lynette is more realistic. But Cross’s Bree Van De Kamp is the show’s most tragi-comic character.
Don’t we all know women who try to have perfect homes and cook cuisine every night instead of dinner? My favorite Bree scene was when she sent soon-to-be-dead hubby Rex downstairs to wait for her to transport him to the hospital because he was having a heart attack.
The poor guy waited and waited … while Bree put on her best sweater set and pearls, put up her hair and carefully made up the bed.
But we digress … back to Martha. The woman who prides herself on using white linen napkins for every meal, including breakfast, seems to have loosened up a bit since her incarceration. She has even made fun of herself from time to time.
So presumably “Martha” will not be one long, dry how-to show — like the “Saturday Night Live” parodies — with Stewart painstakingly teaching us how to make washcloths into swans for the guest bathroom.
After Cross’s appearance on Monday, there will be an episode devoted to women who made ponchos like the one Martha wore the night she left jail. Guests the first week include comedian David Spade, who played Stewart in one of the aforementioned “SNL” spoofs, and Sean (P. no more) “Diddy” Combs.
Press material says Combs will teach Martha to rap, and she’ll teach Combs to wrap — food and gifts. We’re not making this up.
Oh, no! Not Geraldo!
Fox News, the top-rated cable news network, has been turning out “fair and balanced” news coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Anchor-turned-field-reporter Shepard Smith spent all of last week in the murky, body-strewn water that used to be New Orleans. By the weekend, Smith was expressing outrage about the slow to nonexistent government response. Passionate but solid reporting.
Then there was Geraldo Rivera, who never met a tragedy he couldn’t become part of, diving uninvited into rescue efforts. If he’s not part of the story, Geraldo isn’t happy. Recently, however, Rivera has been more hyperbolic than usual, holding up dangling babies for the cameras and bawling about the horrors before him. We do not need to see this.
There’s advocacy journalism, which is perhaps understandable in this situation, and there’s hysteria, Geraldo too often slips into the latter. Settle down and get a grip, please.
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Next for Katrina coverage?
Like millions of other Americans, I continued to be glued to Katrina coverage over the weekend.
Ratings for cable news networks were up 300 percent, and the prime-time specials on the broadcast networks out-performed previous installments of “Dateline,” “Primetime Live” and “60 Minutes.”
It will be interesting to see how long the wall-to-wall coverage continues on cable — and how the TV cameras will handle the recovery phase of this rescue-and-recovery mission.
If officials in New Orleans are right, there could be 10,000 bodies on the ground after the flood water is pumped out of the city. The pictures could be beyond grim, and I bet executives are pondering right now how much will be too much.
This is a much more gruesome task than the 9/11 aftermath. Most of the thousands of dead were virtually disintegrated in the blasts.
New Orleans and coastal Mississippi are another story entirely. We’ve already seen quick shots of bloated corpses floating in the streets. And we’ve seen the huge tents that have been set up for medical examiners to try to identify the dead. The worst is yet to come.
Out of sensitivity to survivors who have already been through too much, let’s hope the graphic images are minimal.
Sick of Andy’s mojo?
When I wasn’t watching Katrina coverage over the Labor Day weekend, I was watching coverage of the U.S. Open Tennis Championship on CBS (daytime) and USA Network (prime time).
About 9 p.m. on Friday, I became officially sick of Andy Roddick. Not Andy Roddick the tennis champ and part-time Austin resident. I could watch that Andy Roddick smash fuzzy yellow balls all day.
But Roddick was bumped in the first round of the Open. What remains of him now is constant commercials, the most annoying of which is an American Express spot with a guy who identifies himself as Andy’s missing mojo.
The mojo ad has run so many times it’s ridiculous. During one half-hour period on Sunday, CBS ran the spot five times. USA loves the spot even more.
I am this close to cutting up my American Express card.
Roddick apparently thinks this ad is tons of fun, and he has a “where’s Andy’s mojo” contest on his Web site.
The Lexus ads aren’t as frequent or as annoying, but doesn’t this All-Andy-All-the-Time just draw attention to his early exit?
So far, no Andre Agassi or James Blake ads, but that could change this week.
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Katrina’s TV aftermath
By now the images of reporters battered by wind and rain are long gone, replaced by much darker scenes of corpses on curbs and sobbing survivors.
Hurricane Katrina is a made-for-TV story if ever there was one, and the coverage is redefining how we think of natural disasters and their impact on our wealthy, technologically advanced country.
More than one TV reporter has described the devastation and deprivation in Louisiana and Mississippi as “Third World.”
We’re not used to seeing scenes of misery on our own shores: abandoned elderly, dying children, hopelessness and anger. We’d better get used to them because they’re not going away.
Telethons and relief concerts will be sprinkled among the horrible images this weekend, but we can expect Katrina to dominate television and our national consciousness for months to come.
“Invasion” ads pulled
Sensitivity concerns have caused ABC to stop running promotions for “Invasion,” the new sci-fi series about strange, alien-connected goings-on in the Florida Everglades in the wake of a hurricane.
The show, as of now, is still scheduled to debut Sept. 21, but depending on the unfolding tragedy in the Gulf Coast, that decision could change. “Invasion” is set in Homestead, a small town crushed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
No “Idol” auditions in Memphis
“American Idol” has canceled its Memphis auditions that were scheduled for Monday. Anyone who was bumped from the Austin auditions who was planning to try again in Memphis will have to make other arrangements.
Next stop on the “Idol” audition circuit is Denver on Sept. 11, followed by Chicago on Sept. 16.
Memphis is one of several cities taking in thousands of Katrina refugees, and city officials felt “Idol” auditions would be too complicated to handle now.
Aging “ER” gets new blood
Multi-talented actor/comedian John Leguizamo, whose ‘95 Fox series “House of Buggin’ ” was praised by critics, will join NBC’s “ER” in October. He’ll play “nontraditional” supervising physician Dr. Ernesto Clemente.
Leguizamo, who had prominent roles in the movies “Moulin Rouge” and “Land of the Dead,” will appear in 12 of the show’s 22 episodes this season.
“ER” also hopes to get a boost from another new cast member, Kristen Johnston, formerly of the NBC sitcom “3rd Rock from the Sun.” Johnston will have a recurring role as a supervising nurse.
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24-hour Katrina coverage continues on TV
Expect wall-to-wall coverage of Katrina to continue for some time on cable news, along with occasional specials and evening news coverage on the broadcast networks.
This massive tragedy is not going away any time soon. In fact, the aftermath is likely to deepen the crisis.
Fox News continues to be the most-watched cable news network, but CNN has the biggest contingency of reporters covering it. CNN has more than 100 reporters, producers and camera operators on the ground in Louisiana and Mississippi. Fox has about 50.
Among the broadcast networks, ABC has the largest contingency, with 70-plus newsies, followed by 60 for CBS and 35 for NBC. Affiliates in Houston, Dallas and Miami are helping keep the ground troops supplied with food, gas and necessary news-covering supplies.
You can tell by watching that this is not an easy story to cover, on many levels. Logistically, TV newsies are having trouble getting in and out of the region, with some reporters using video phones, cell phones and even Blackberries to communicate.
Like many of the refugees, reporters and staffers are sleeping in vans and existing on energy bars and bottled water. Many of the on-air crew are beginning to show signs of fatigue and distress.
CNN’s Jean Meserve, for example, spent all day Monday and Tuesday on the ground, delivering hard news about the unfolding tragedy. By the time she appeared on Aaron Brown’s prime-time show the second evening, her voice was quivering and she struggled to control her emotions. The devastation and misery have simply become overwhelming.
Not surprisingly, viewers are riveted to the horror. Prime-time coverage on the cable news networks is totaling about 10 million viewers a night. Ratings for the networks’ prime-time specials are not yet available, but competing mostly with preseason reruns, the viewership is expected to be high.
“Yes, Dear” and “Earl” producer: “That’s not what I meant.”
Greg Garcia, executive producer for the critically praised new NBC comedy “My Name Is Earl,” phoned me yesterday to complain about Tuesday’s TV column about the resurgence of comedy in the new season.
Garcia, who also helms CBS’s critically lampooned sitcom “Yes, Dear,” said I misunderstood what he said during a press conference at the Television Critics Association meetings in Los Angeles. I understood him to say that pans of “Yes, Dear” fueled him to be funnier on “Earl.”
“It upsets my cast when it looks like I’m bad-mouthing that show (‘Yes, Dear’),” Garcia said, clearly upset. “All I meant was, when I got bad reviews on ‘Yes, Dear’ it fueled me to get up and work even harder on ‘Yes, Dear’ every day… . I came up with ‘Earl’ because it was time to come up with another show. I’m extremely proud of both shows.”
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