The Weekly Pulse: Mr. Coogan's Groove Tube Update

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A shout out to Road Rules‘s Katie, The O.C stuff and LOADS of TV news”¦

Look at this”¦

** The Surreal Life 4 baby!!! VH-1 is not screwing around when it comes to pumping out seasons of these bad boys out, huh?

I won’t spoil the surprise of who’s going to be a part of this cast for you. However, I’ll say that any time a former WWE valet/wrestler, a Brady, and a “little person” are thrown together, you KNOW it’s going to be whole bunch of crazy!

Interesting to note as well: For the first time, the cast has been expanded to seven people and will feature four women (depending on your definition of that word) and three men.

I know you’re dying to know”¦so, go to it!

** When did Meadow Soprano become such a hot commodity? Sure she’s attractive, but c’mon!

** DON’T WORRY!!! Everything is FINE with Nick and Jessica”¦ Just to let you know”¦
9

** Asshole”¦You deserve what you got.

THE OPENING CREDITS: What has the IP TV staff done this week?

** I revisit Law & Order franchise because everyone should know the difference between the three shows.

** I like Road Rules’ Katie Doyle”¦a lot. She don’t take shit from nobody. She talks about the Road Rules/Real World: Battle of the Sexes third episode ice mission and how she formed an important alliance while she was there on the show. Good lessons.

I liked the last line to her second column:

ps. If any cast members read this and don’t like my commentary, too f*cking bad. It’s my column, get your own and you can talk all the shit about me you want. It’s my version and opinions, so get over it. Those who like reading it: thanks guys!

I’m reading yours”¦are you reading mine?

** Nick Warnock now has a new favorite person to root for on the second season of The Apprentice. He’s right about the job this person has done. But I’m not sure if I’m exactly “rooting for him.” Click on over to find out who we’re talking about.

** Helen had a lot of good things to say about last week’s Survivor. Meanwhile, Sandra remained largely diplomatic.

** God Bless Bob Reiss”¦He had the courage to not only attack the new Fox “fall” lineup (it was 38 degrees here in Syracuse, NY on Thursday), but he wrote a column about the media coverage of the presidential election too. Phew”¦

** Denny Crane”¦I mean”¦Ms. Didey sums up the action of several shows across the television landscape”¦I am loving the love she shows for Dead Like Me.

** Cheri analyzes age on reality television. She does a great job of bringing in several shows from several different networks to prove her point. Part of me wishes I could make a joke here, but I wouldn’t know where to start”¦

** NEW COLUMN ALERT! Brian McLoone debuts his new column devoted strictly to the happenings on cable television. Not a bad idea at all”¦Good job!

** What did Carlos think of last week’s Saturday Night Live? Well, if you’re a devoted fan who only wants to read positive press, don’t bother clicking over”¦

TV NEWS

Pay attention!! New drama on FX! Steven Bochco’s involved!!!

I feel like that if there was (at least) one match made in television heaven, we may have found it as Steven Bochco will be developing a drama for FX.

FX seems to have a knack for developing critically acclaimed dramas like Nip/Tuck, The Shield and now Rescue Me.

Meanwhile, Bochco has won 10 Emmys in his career as a writer and producer on such as shows as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and NYPD Blue (which will end its 12-season run on ABC early next year).

According to Zap2it.com, the two will team up with FX greenlighting Bochco’s new show Over There. It will tell the story of a U.S. Army unit on its first combat tour in Iraq. The show will also chronicle the soldiers’ families and how their family members’ service affects them. (I smell heaping amounts of infidelity!!!) Bochco and Chris Gerolmo (1988’s Mississippi Burning) are writing the pilot, and Gerolmo will direct.

Casting will take place this month and filming will begin in December. Considering this schedule, the show isn’t likely to air until the middle of next year though neither Bochco nor anyone at FX would confirm an air date.

However, those worried about the content matter, John Landgraf, president of entertainment at FX said (in the Zap2it.com article) that the show will deal more with the lives and feelings of the soldiers rather than ragging on President Bus’s foreign policy for 44 minutes every week…He said:

We’re thrilled that Steven and Chris have responded to our overture by creating a series that portrays our front-line troops in Iraq with such accuracy and emotional honesty that it transcends partisan political rhetoric.

The show is in its very preliminary stages right now so it’s hard to comment too much on what’s to come. I just know that if Steven Bochco, despite also creating Cop Rock, and FX are teaming up on a project, the viewing audience will be the winners here.

What do you get when you combine Lorne Michaels, The Apprentice and Last Comic Standing? Something like this”¦

According to The Hollywood Reporter receiving information from NBC sources, there’s going to be a spot available on NBC’s Saturday Night Live“¦and the application process is going to be aired on national television.

The peacock is in talks to develop a reality series searching for the next big comedic talent for the show. Essentially, the series will feature a group of comics (number yet to be determined) vying for that ultimate prize: a spot in the cast of the famous variety/comedy sketch show starting next season.

Creator/Executive Producer Lorne Michaels will be heavily involved in the reality show and play sort of the “Donald Trump” role as he will assist in judging the talent and dismiss them every week in what appears to be some sort of dramatic “board room” ceremony.

It appears the show will air next summer, just in time for the new cast member to join the SNL team before new episodes start airing in the fall.

I don’t know”¦seems a bit desperate, doesn’t it? Saturday Night Live has always been the bastion of the pop culture horizon. Even though some of the sketches aren’t very funny and the cast isn’t particularly great now, the bottom line is the show has always been great about taking a step back and mocking popular culture and the society we live in, not jumping in and becoming part of it.

Plus, if this show debuts next summer, generally a time of year when shows get lower ratings, it could garner low ratings. It just seems to have a stench of desperation to put Lorne Michaels and SNL out there like that all in the name of maybe 8-10 million viewers during a summer series.

Then you have to ask, well, is this the way the show will get all its talent? It would be a joke to think that in the future, the cast could be half-full with reality show winners.

The concept just scares me”¦Part of me feels like Lorne Michaels is selling his soul to the devil, if he hasn’t already”¦

Sweeps casualties

This time of year known as “sweeps” has always been a little bit strange to me. November, February and May are the months that advertising rates are supposed to set. If a network and its shows do well, then they will make a lot of money from the advertisers.

OK”¦that makes some sense. But since those are the three months when the networks are going to “bring out the big guns” that means low rated shows will get dumped, all sorts of “specials” will air and all the biggest celebrities will appear on various networks in some way, shape, or form. The networks really load up for these months, but tend to be a little softer with new material and the celebrity guest stars in the other months of the year. It’s not a real fair representation of what the networks are doing, is it?

I mean, this is kind of like a professional athlete trying really hard in the last year of his contract before entering free agency to get a really big deal for the next four-to-seven years after that so he’s set for life. I mean, that doesn’t really happen, does it?

Oh.

Well, the networks are at it again during sweeps. The O.C.‘s second season debuts this week, NBC is airing six straight episodes of ER and ABC is going to crank out (and promote the hell out of ) new episodes of Desperate Housewives and Lost.

It goes the other way though as two new high profile series are being yanked for the month of November, likely meaning the beginning of the end. And the “winners” are”¦

** Father of the Pride – This computer animated series by Dreamworks based on a mysterious, magical place in Las Vegas where Siegfried and Roy’s white lions hang out with other talking animals just hasn’t measured up in the ratings and in the comedy quotient to this point. The goal of the show was to kind of be a quirky show somewhat in the same mold as The Simpsons. However, the show’s writing isn’t strong (to be gentle) and compared to other quirky shows on the air like Arrested Development and its Tuesday night airing partner, Scrubs, the jokes seem boring, contrived and predictable. This makes whatever silly stories they come up with even worse because they don’t have good jokes accompanying them.

The audience seems to agree for the most part too as only 9.6 million people are tuning in every week to the show. That’s three million fewer people than the final season of Frasier which had been suffering some of its lowest ratings in its run itself.

Combine this with the fact that it takes a lot longer than a normal series to create one episode, it makes it a lot easier to get rid of it before the staff gets too deep into production, especially when it’s wildly expensive as well.

NBC has announced that six new episodes will air starting in December. But after that? It just doesn’t seem to bode too well for those poor lions”¦

The network will replace Pride with expanded episodes of The Biggest Loser for the most part.

** Dr. Vegas – Poor Rob Lowe”¦He took some chances by leaving the acclaimed The West Wing and now his second series in as many years could hit the skids before even completing its first season.

On CBS’s Dr. Vegas, Lowe plays Billy Grant, a doctor who has an office at a prestigious Las Vegas casino. Technically, he isn’t the “casino doctor” but any time a medical issue arises in the establishment, Lowe’s character is the one that’s called. However, he’s deeper than just the medical fix-it guy. He’s a doctor but he also loves Las Vegas and is in love with all its vices, including gambling. While it’s never brought to the forefront, it appears that the character has some sort of gambling problem, so seeing him around the gambling atmosphere is interesting, especially when he attempts to search that place in his head where Mr. Morals lives.

It’s not a bad show, but it’s not destined to be a classic either. Considering CBS decided to stick the show on Friday nights at 10 p.m. after Joan of Arcadia and JAG also hasn’t helped its cause as it’s only averaging just under 8.2 million viewers per airing. So, the show will be replaced by a repeat of Without a Trace on Friday (Nov. 5) with Cold Case, CSI: Miami and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation holding down the 10 p.m. fort in subsequent weeks until December.

But like I said before, if the network doesn’t like the show in November, why should we think it’s liked all that much in any other month?

I like crossovers”¦I think they’re cool

No, I’m not talking about cross DRESSERS, I mean crossover episodes of television series. That’s when two shows come together, combine characters, and tell one story that’s fits in both shows.

NBC is doing it with two of its hour-long dramas, Las Vegas and Crossing Jordan starting with the latter on Sunday, Nov. 7 titled What Happens in Vegas Dies in Boston and concludes on Monday, Nov. 8 with the Las Vegas episode Two of a Kind.

It isn’t clear what the storylines will revolve around, but it appears that the general premise is that a high roller at the Las Vegas casino, the Montecito, who owes the casino a lot of money ends up dead and handcuffed to a briefcase full of money on Jordan’s (Jill Hennessey) coroner table.

Danny McCoy (Josh Duhamel), a casino security operative, has traveled to exotic places to try and track down the criminal and the money. This time and Mike Cannon (James Lesure) as McCoy’s right-hand man (and former parking valet) has joined in the fun, so they both end up with Jordan in Boston for the episode of Crossing Jordan.

From there, Jordan and Detective Woody Hoyt (Jerry O’Connell) end up at the Montecito for the episode of Las Vegas for what we assume is tied to the case of the dead man with the suitcase, but it isn’t abundantly clear.

(I guess we’re going to HAVE to tune in and find out, right?)

I’ve always liked crossover episodes. After all, it’s almost as if each television show is in its own world, its own dimension even. While a show may take place in Las Vegas or Boston or New York City, it doesn’t always feel that way. Instead, it’s more like that the show is supposed to take place in these cities, but in reality, it’s somewhere else where the characters only interact with each other unless the writing dictates otherwise.

However, with crossover episodes, we are reminded that in fact these shows kinda, sorta mirror real life and that these people might actually leave the area where the show is supposed to take place in and interact with an entirely different group of people in another dimension as is happening with Las Vegas and Crossing Jordan. You almost have to shake your head and check yourself to make sure you aren’t dreaming because these groups of characters would never be involved with each other. Yet, there they are though. Jordan’s talking to Danny and Woody is talking to Mike.

Unfortunately, since most television shows follow the traditional filming format and air their episodes from September to May with a few breaks mixed in for the sake of sanity, it’s difficult for many shows to get together for fun story telling arcs like this. And working with other networks? Good God”¦why doesn’t President Bush team up with Osama Bin Laden to take out the Chinese?

It’s a shame, but I’ll still take my column space and say”¦crossovers are fun! We need more of them!

Don’t look now, but that ESPN series just got a whole lot more interesting”¦

Next year, ESPN will debut their newest attempt at a scripted series with an offering called Tilt. The show will follow (and largely dramatize) the lives of professional poker players, not only during the tournaments, but outside of the tables in the casinos as well.

First, they attracted Chris Bauer (The Wire) and Eddie Cibrian (Third Watch) to be supporting players in the cast. The network also got Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who co-wrote the 1998 poker movie Rounders, to write and direct the pilot.

Now, they’ve secured the star of the show and it’s a mighty fine choice:

Michael Madsen.

Yes, the guy who played sadistic bastard from Reservoir Dogs and the cool, calculating, greedy assassin from the Kill Bill movies will be invading Las Vegas and the poker scene. Madsen will play Don “The Matador” Everest, a top poker player who’s in town for the fictional World Poker Championships. According to ESPN’s statements, Everest is also “the center of conflict … and most influential man in Vegas gaming.”

It appears ESPN is taking a lot of care in planning out this show, not only in choosing writers and directors but in casting as well. They had a good thing going with Playmakers before the NFL threw its weight around and basically forced the show’s cancellation. The all sports outfit wants to come up with something equally great this time around.

While I’m still not sure an organization formerly devoted to strictly news, analysis, and airing live events should be straying too far from that goal, it’s hard to say that they aren’t trying to put together quality television programming.

But about those made-for-TV movies”¦..

The rest of the news in 500 words or less”¦GO AHEAD! COUNT!

** HBO, Clooney and Soderbergh try again – George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh are going to work with HBO again to bring an improvised show to air. The show, fittingly titled Unscripted will star three actors who have experienced moderate success in acting but aren’t working regularly – Krista Allen, Bryan Greenberg and Jennifer Hall. They will play themselves as actors trying to get work and dealing with the more mundane aspects of the entertainment industry. The situations will be developed ahead of time, but they won’t have any actual scripted dialogue.

I’m intrigued”¦

** The Late Late Show replacement coming soon?First there were”¦20″¦Now, it appears CBS is ready to seriously find a replacement for Craig Kilborn on The Late Late Show.

According to multiple sources, including Zap2it.com, Damien Fahey (TRL), comic D.L. Hughley, Michael Ian Black (Ed and various VH-1 series) and Craig Ferguson (The Drew Carey Show) have been invited for return engagements later this month and into next month. Those four comics, as well as other possible returnees, will do one week stints starting next week in preparation for a final choice. Ferguson will host the first week of shows (Nov. 8-12) followed by Hughley (Nov. 15-19), Fahey (Nov. 22- 24) and Black (Nov. 29- Dec. 3).

** That Scrubs creator dude is HOT right now! – Last week, I talked about a new show Scrubs creator/executive producer was developing for the WB. Now, NBC is going to hire him again along with “Scrubs” co-executive producer Tim Hobert to write a script for a pilot starring Brian Regan, a stand-up comedy veteran.

Regan will star in the show, playing a guy whose wife and best friend are constantly pulling him in different directions.

** An example of a statement that isn’t a surprise: Ken Jennings won another game of Jeopardy.

He’s now set the all time record for most winnings on a game show with $2.197 million after winning his 65th straight game on the episode aired Wednesday, Nov. 3.

Watch out though, there are still reports out there that the supersta’s run will come to an end after his 75th game, which should air in a couple of weeks.

** An example of a statement that is a mild surprise: GSN will join the fray and start airing their own poker tournaments.

Staring Dec. 7, the network will begin airing Poker Royale: The WPPA Championship. The show will chronicle the inaugural tournament organized by the World Poker Players Association.

Considering the popularity of televised poker, this isn’t a huge surprise, but why add to it when several other channels are already heavily involved and doing a good job of cornering the market? It could be overkill”¦

** An example of a statement that is a complete surprise: Believe it or not, 8.5 million people watched the Oct. 31 Sunday evening NFL game, supposedly a low number.

People did know the 1-5 Chicago Bears were playing the 1-5 San Francisco 49ers, right?

THE CLOSNG CREDITS: The O.C. BITCH!

Slight spoilers from The O.C. are here in this final part of the column”¦.Be aware”¦.

As of when I’m writing this, the brand new season of The O.C. has finally debuted on Fox, nearly six months after the first season finale. Thank God I had other quality television to keep me occupied during that time or I could have gone insane.

Anyway, Daniel Fienberg of Zap2it.com wrote a great article revealing some minor (but possibly important) storylines to consider for the next season”¦It looks like it’s going to be a wild ride”¦.

** Remember the Peach Pit on Beverly Hills 90210? It looks like The O.C. is going to get their own version of that called “The Bait Shop.” But instead of modeling the place after the Peach Pit After Dark with huge acts, creator Josh Schwartz wants to model it more after clubs like New York City’s CBGB. I suppose it’s good if the kids get out of their mansions and rich schools and find a nice place to hang out.

** Several new characters will be introduced including Alex (Skin star Olivia Wilde), a bad girl who runs the Bait Shop and “serves as The O.C. equivalent of the Peach Pit’s Nat, only vastly hotter” (his words, not mine”¦)

** In addition, three more characters will be introduced to throw off the happy Seth/Summer and Ryan/Marissa relationships. They include Anacondas co-star Nicholas Gonzalez who will appear as a yard guy who provides some “unexpected temptation” for Mischa Barton’s lonely slightly alcoholic Marissa. In addition, temptation for Rachel Bilson’s Summer arrives in the form of Zach (Michael Cassidy). Shannon Lucio rounds out the new addition as Lindsay a new girl at the Harbor School who may appeal to a different side of Ryan.

** Speaking of Ryan, supposedly he’s more than just a pretty boy trying to be James Dean. This season will reveal some “intellectual gifts” that nobody quite knew he had”¦

** Additional big news out The O.C. camp is that FOX has confirmed that Emmy winner Kim Delaney (All My Children, NYPD Blue) will stir things up this spring in at least five episodes as an old flame of Peter Gallagher’s Sandy Cohen. There’s also a possibility she will join the cast full time. However, her appearances won’t appear until early next year and her future hasn’t been determined past those five appearances.

** In case you wondering, despite the fact that all of these people act and look older than they are, it appears that the kids are all JUNIORS in high school this year. According to Fienberg’s article, Schwartz has said the kids are that “vague TV high school age.”

However, you can conclude that they are juniors by this statement from Schwartz:

I foresee at least this year and next year in high school, and then cross that bridge as we come to it at the end of Year Three, should we be lucky enough to come back for Year Four.

Not that it really matters”¦all the kids are going to end up going to “Orange County University” (a west coast Ivy League school, right? Kind of like Stanford?) and live at home in their mansions anyway.

But just in case you were wondering”¦

That should tide over in the biggest fans of the show. Now that it’s finally back on the air, people will only have to wait an unbearably long seven days between airings of episodes as opposed to a positively excruciating six months.

Welcome back to The O.C., bitches!

— Coogan