Thanksgiving week”¦a great time to eat and see family; a bad time to try and fit in time for a television column”¦
**I hope you’ll forgive me but with the holiday weekend here and family expecting to see me, I had to do some major cutting to fit it in”¦I’ll try to be back next week in full force”¦**
THE OPENING CREDITS: It may be Thanksgiving week, but that doesn’t mean the IP TV staffers aren’t busy!
** I talked about college football’s BCS, how much it sucks, and what should be done about it!
** I won’t give up”¦Maybe Katie from Road Rules will notice me some day”¦
In the mean time, read about the fun she had during her day off while at the Real World/Road Rules Challenge.
** Hey Nick! Great guest spot on American Dreams! You definitely looked like a young guy in 1965 trying to hold onto his job! “You’re fired!”
Anyway, Nick also has more great commentary from Season 2 of The Apprentice up on IP TV and you should check it out!
** Women ruling the island is all the talk in Survivor land right now. Considering it’s unprecedented and the men are being pegged like it’s a game of paint ball, it’s worth talking about. Former contestants Jake and Sandra offer up their commentary”¦
** Our faithful IP TV Editor, Murtz, tells us ALL about his weekend in Toronto with “Boston Rob.”
** I think Cheri really did provide the most comprehensive guide to holiday TV than anyone on the Internet. Her research skills have helped her considerably”¦
** Miss Didey talks about The O.C., L.A.X. among others”¦ I wonder if she’s heard the news about the latter”¦..Oooohh..stay tuned”¦
** I’m not sure what Mark Polishuk was talking about in his column this week. I just know he talked about Survivor and spelled FAVORITE wrong”¦
** Great opening to Sarah Quigley’s column this week about The Apprentice“¦
If I learned one thing from this week’s episode of The Apprentice, it’s that the ass is the most important element of any business transaction. And clearly, if one doesn’t focus enough on the rear, they’ll feel a sharp kick in that very area when faced with the judgment of the Donald. Of course, I’m not sure how much stock I set on the opinion of someone who can’t even get his verb tenses straight (“From the time I’m two years old, I’m wearing Levi’s.”) and incessantly talks about his girlfriend’s butt at a business meeting. Not that Melania doesn’t have a conversation-worthy derriere, it’s just that there were more important issues on the agenda, such as Wes’s spinelessness and Maria’s shrill, obnoxious conduct on the Levi’s task.
** Carlos breaks down the last Saturday Night Live before Thanksgiving. He was disappointed and so was I but definitely for different reasons.
Smigel hits a home run just about every week with the TV Fun House sketch and his scathing indictment of not only republicans and conservatives but several celebrities as well this week was brilliant. As for “Weekend Update,” I’m tired of Schwarzenegger impressions, no matter who’s doing them and the part of the skit with Amy Poehler pulling the Bop It toy like she was giving a guy a hand job was horribly predictable and about as funny as a Congressional filibuster.
U2 did kick ass though. Though, they shouldn’t be the part of the show that is the best”¦
** My DVR ran out of space on Sunday, so I missed Desperate Housewives. So, I owe thanks to John Duran for recapping it for me”¦
Some TV NEWS to keep you warm for the weekend”¦
** Chances are, you’ve heard this already, but I’ll talk about it anyway”¦ – Legendary television journalist, Dan Rather, will step down from his heralded post as anchor of the CBS Evening News as of March 9, 2005. That date is significant because it’s 24 years to the day after taking over the post from another legend, Walter Cronkite.
Rather won’t be leaving the industry completely as he will still be working as a correspondent to both weekly editions of 60 Minutes and other special news reports the network puts together. But he will turn his anchoring spot over to a new up-and-comer that hasn’t been named.
According to a statement posted in a Zap2it.com story, Rather said the following:
I have always said that I’d know when the time was right to step away from the anchor chair. This past summer, CBS and I began to discuss this matter in earnest — and we decided that the close of the election cycle would be an appropriate time. I have always been and remain a ‘hard news’ investigative reporter at heart. I now look forward to pouring my heart into that kind of reporting full-time.
Of course, neither Rather nor CBS made any mention of Rathe’s hit in credibility after a Sept. 8 story Rather reported a story for the Wednesday edition of 60 Minutes that was supposed to show that President Bush had holes in his service record as a member of the National Guard. But holes in the documentation was discovered almost immediately after the story aired. Both Rather and the network had to apologize for going forward with the story.
But I guess this wasn’t the time for that”¦at least from CBS’s point of view”¦
** Kudrow “revives her stalling career” – In what I find to be a bit of a surprising move, former Friends star Lisa Kudrow is jumping right back into scripted television as HBO has picked up a 14-episode order Comeback. The show will star Kudrow as “a former sitcom star trying to revive her stalled career” according to Zap2it.com.
The show is dripping with irony considering Kudrow just finished a 10-year run on one of the greatest sitcoms of all time with Friends on NBC. Also, in another brush with television greatness, Kudrow co-wrote the pilot script for Sex and the City’s Michael Patrick King. He also directed the pilot episode. Considering that another Sex alumnus (John Melfi) and Kudrow’s producing partner, Dan Bucatinsky will also be executive producers, it almost seems wrong that all these successful people would try to produce a sitcom about a woman with a stalled career.
Nonetheless, the show is a go and will join Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage and the Steven Soderbergh/George Clooney produced improv show Unscripted as HBO’s comedy lineup.
Zap2it.com also stated that Malin Akerman, Robert Bagnell, Lance Barber (Faking the Video), Robert Michael Morris, Laura Silverman (Dr. Katz, Home Movies) and Damian Young (The Guru) co-starred in the pilot.
** Al and Peg return to TV together”¦sort of”¦ – Isn’t it fun when two stars from a former hit show come back together as two different characters on a different show?
Maybe I’m the only one excited about it, but it’ll be happening on ABC’s 8 Simple Rules as Ed O’Neill (Al Bundy on Married..with Children) will return to the small screen with former television wife Katey Segal (Peg Bundy on Married”¦) for a February sweeps stunt.
According to Zap2it.com, the stunt will feature Cate Hennessy looking up an old high school boyfriend for fun (O’Neill) only to find out that he still pines for her and accepts her call as fate that they belong together and he drops everything in his life to make that happen. Whoops.
Ed O’Neill pining over Katey Segal? After ten years of not seeing that on Married”¦with Children, it will be weird to see otherwise, but it will be fun and might even attract a few more eyeballs”¦.And that’s part of the point of sweeps stunts like this”¦.
** Another NBC drama bites the dust”¦ – According to various sources, including TVGuide.com, NBC has halted production on the Heather Locklear and Blair Underwood led airport drama, L.A.X. after airing just 10 episodes and completing production on 13. It’s unknown if those last three episodes will ever air considering that various specials are set to air in the 8 p.m. Wednesday timeslot over the next three weeks, but it’s a safe bet that we’ve seen the last of Heather Locklear working in a Los Angeles airport. In other news, I managed to save one episode of the failed series on my DVR that I will copy onto a VCR tape and will auction it on eBay with a starting bid of $0.06.
** Desperate Housewives and Heather Locklear? Oh, the rumor mill”¦ It would be like Shaquille O’Neal joining the NBA Champion Detroit Pistons; it would be like Randy Johnson or Barry Bonds joining the World Series Champion Boston Red Sox. It’s the rich getting richer and the rumor is out there. What is it?
Heather Locklear joining the cast of ABC’s Desperate Housewives.
Since L.A.X. appears to be a colossal bust, Locklear is looking for work, so why not join the most successful show on television?
Well, it’s not exactly that simple”¦Rumors are often more tantalizing than the truth. According to TvGuide.com’s Michael Ausiello, An unnamed ABC press rep, denies rumors that Locklear is in talks to join the cast of the hit suburban dramedy/dark comedy. “It’s not happening,” the spokesperson said. “I don’t know where that rumor got started.”
Hey”¦press representatives know how to cover things up too. So, I suppose we can all hold out hope. But if Locklear did sign up, what would she do? Would we see Melrose Place Heather or Spin City Heather?
** Hirings – One sentence each, simply because they deserve to be noted but don’t deserve significant analysis: Paul McCartney has been tapped to lead the new and improved (a.k.a. safe and subdued) Super Bowl halftime show and the nation collectively breathes a huge sigh of relief”¦”¦Howard Stern sidekick Robin Quivers has signed a deal with Sony Pictures Television to host a daytime talk show and Steve Coogan openly wonders if this is 1998, the time where everyone and their mother had a daytime talk show”¦”¦ Soap star Annie Parisse (As the World Turns) has been tapped to take over for Elisabeth Rohm as Jack McCoy’s (Sam Wasterston) young, hungry, determined, easy-on-the eyes A.D.A. on NBC’s Law & Order.
THE CLOSING CREDITS: Some Thanksgiving related questions”¦
** Are the two Thanksgiving Day NFL games really worth watching? (Well, Peyton Manning plays at noon against the Lions, so half the answer is yes anyway”¦)
** Do you have a reason to watch the University of Texas play Texas A&M University this weekend? (Yes. If they win, a school from Idaho, Boise State, could end up playing in a major college football bowl game”¦)
** Why are there so many Christmas television shows on in November? Could someone please explain to me the advantage in programming stuff that early?
** Follow up to that: Why are there so many Christmas themed shows and so few Thanksgiving themed shows?
** I’ve always felt that MTV and VH-1 don’t get into the Thanksgiving spirit enough”¦Am I the only one who feels that way?
** Why didn’t The O.C. do a Thanksgiving episode? Actually, now that I think of it, school just started in Orange County a few weeks ago. How are the writers going to skip to “Chrismukkah” so soon?
**TNT is doing a 12-hour Law & Order marathon this week. How much of that will YOU be watching? If I were a betting man, I’d say the over/under on that increases dramatically as the age demographic of the viewer increases”¦
** If you had your own cable network, what would YOU put on this weekend? Movies? Show marathons? Infomercials?
** Let’s be honest”¦how much TV do you actually watch this weekend anyway?
** Will you have a good Thanksgiving weekend? I hope you do”¦
See you next week!
— Coogan
