Results tagged “30rock”

Did you make the mistake, like us, of watching the original "V: The Final Battle" on Syfy last weekend? We can't believe that series was such a big deal when we were kids but here's good news, the remake of the series that airs tonight at 8pm on ABC takes the premise and completely owns it in a very slick and well done (at least for the part of the pilot that we've seen) rendition. We'll be watching and not remotely comparing.

One thing most people don't see is what happens in the Press Room at the Emmys. After the winners leave the stage, they have the choice to do interviews with the likes of ET's Mary Hart and other outlets. They also have the choice to go into the press room to answer questions from the 300-or-so members of the press assembled there.

The TV Junkie survived the 100+ F temps of the downtown concrete furnace to bring you these video interviews with actors, producers, writers, comedians and reality show performers. We've divided up our footage into comedy, drama, and reality television segments.

One of the things we really liked about "Fringe" was the fact that the commercials were limited - a segment would end with an announcement of "Fringe will be back in 60 seconds" and sure enough, the show would be back on, we even timed it. FOX did this by charging advertisers more for each break and then limiting the breaks. The experiment is over and "Fringe" will now be as riddled with commercials as any other show.

There's a ton of season finale's this evening but the most compelling TV is KCET's "SoCal Connected" and then just about everything on NBC from "Parks and Rec." through to 11pm - much like yesterday, late night has a lot of good options, although "Daily Show" and "Colber(t)" have been a little lackluster this week, so check out the full listings. Unless you tell us differently - please give us your suggestions.

The TV Junkie Plan: "SoCal Connected", "Parks and Recreation", "The Office", "30 Rock", "Southland", Kimmel, Fallon.

The TV Junkie Plan: "Parks and Recreation", "The Office", "30 Rock", "Fine Cut: KCET's Festival of Student Film", "The Daily Show", Leno, Ferguson

Jon Hamm aka Don Draper aka Dr. Drew Baird is available for a date ......for charity. Paul Rudd, Kevin Smith, Nathan Fillion, Patrick Duffy, David Schwimmer, Julianna Margulies and others are also available for dates so take your checkbook to the Adrienne Shelley Foundation website who is auctioning off these wonderful people on eBay.

Nielsen says that President Obama's latest press conference slipped in the ratings and that the CW series, "Reaper", gained (the implication is that Obama is suffering from overexposure). I'm not sure how many teens would be that in economics, much less everyday Americans. I guess former President Bush avoided these kind of comparisons by not doing press conferences and by spending more time on vacation than any other president.

The big news for TV and for LA is that President Barack Obama will be a guest tonight on "The Tonight Show" - we know what we'll be watching at 11:35pm (sorry Colbert).

CNBC's host of "Mad Money", Jim Cramer, will appear on "The Daily Show" tonight to finally have it out face-to-face with Jon Stewart, who castigated the network for a skewed perspective that was harsh on President Obama's stimulus plan but soft on CEOs. Stewart has also pointed out specific stock recommendations made by Cramer last year that were wildly misinformed at best, if not downright criminally negligent.

If you thought that the local news was boring claptrap that only idiots watch, then you are outside of the ever-increasing popularity of the local newscast - Nielsen is reporting a 20% year-over-year increase in viewership. For TV, a fractional percentage change is big news but 20% is incredible.

Jerry Seinfeld will be returning to TV as the producer and creator of "The Marriage Ref", a new series for NBC. No premiere date or time slot has been selected.

While we still don't believe that Joaquin Phoenix's schtick on Letterman last night isn't anything other than a stunt, it doesn't mean that show's like "Late Night" need to go along with it. Do the producers of his latest movie, we don't even remember what it's called, think that this has helped them? What's your take - is Phoenix faking or tripping?

LAist went to the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Awards and asked* the likes of Tony Shaloub, Keith Powell (from "30 Rock"), Preston Bailey and Christina Robinson (from "Dexter"), Oscar Nunez (from "The Office"), Julie Benz (from "Dexter"), Cloris Leachman, Charles and Max Carver (from "Desperate Housewives"), and Dana Delaney about their favorite places to get late night food in Los Angeles.

For those of you that watched the 2-hour premiere of "Lost" last night, are you enjoying that old familiar feeling of not knowing what the hell is going on?

A lot of programs return to or make their premiere on premium cable this Sunday including: "Big Love", "The L Word", "The United States of Tara", and "Secret Diary of a Call Girl". What we most eagerly anticipate is the season premiere of "Flight of the Conchords". The pair of musicians and their hapless manager, all hailing from New Zealand, might not have made a second season due to low viewership but their cult like following gave us one more. So enjoy every episode like a smooth New Zealand Merlot, savor it, because this might be their last run, on HBO at least.

The Sundance Film Festival starts today which not only means cool movies being screened and attended by celebrities in their hippest Dumb & Dumber apres-skiwear but it means a lot more content for the Sundance Channel for the year. There will be live blogging of the festival's events at the Sundance Channel's (really cool!) website and head on over to iTunes to pick up a free short film from Sundance every day from now to January 25th.

Fans of "Beverly Hills, 90210", and we mean the real original fans, might be elated to know that, yes, Tori Spelling will be joining the cast of the new "90210" sometime around the 19th episode this season so I guess you had better start watching now so that you know what the heck is going on when she makes her debut.

CBS head honcho, Les Moonves, says that the network TV model of programming and advertising "ain't broke" despite reports to the contrary as well as the evidence of the past decade. Moonves was confident in the easy bet that "CSI: Miami" will beat Jay Leno's new 10pm show on Monday night, he didn't offer much additional perspective on the 3 1/2 hours of nightly talk shows that NBC is planning in 2009.

The sour economy is hitting NBC which announced layoffs in its ad sales and news departments. This is on top of reports from CNN that the news broadcaster will be cutting personnel from their environment, science and technology bureaus - because, really, why would we want to report on that? No word on whether they will be cutting staff at their celebrity stalking bureau.

It's Thursday so it's got to be all about NBC, right? First of all, you've got Jan (Melora Hardin) from "The Office" going off to Broadway to do "Chicago", then you've got Jennifer Aniston (pictured, right) guest-starring on "30 Rock" (a triumphant return to NBC-Thursdays?), and then we see that NBC finally cancelled the oft-maligned but truly terrible, Christian Slater series, "My Own Worst Enemy" along with the equally terrible "Lipstick Jungle".

Barack Obama's win on Tuesday means that not only will there be a changing of the guard at the White House, but entire new teams of television reporters will be heading to Washington D.C. as well. Evidently reporters who did exceptionally well on the death march of a campaign trail will be rewarded with coveted D.C. assignments, but at this point the networks aren't issuing any specifics.

Besides the 30 Rock premiere, there's nothing too special about major network primetime tonight.

Bye-bye Robert Redford - Sundance Channel is being bought by Cablevision. Why "bye-bye"? Because even though Redford will remain "involved", he will not have an ownership stake and without ownership Redford will essentially be a figurehead.

The New York Times says that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Screen Actors Guild will not be reaching an agreement anytime soon. In less than 60 days the SAG contract is up and all motion picture and TV production will stop on a dime with the exception of game shows, reality TV, and the news. I might actually get outside this summer!

"Lost" is back! Thursday night is truly the best night on TV, hands down.

So while TV is still recovering from the writers' strike another strike looms on the horizon. According to Variety, the Screen Actors' Guild signed a pact with producers of indie films that will ensure that an indie film in production will be completed in the event that SAG goes on strike. This sounds like a good thing but it's being interpreted as a move to put pressure on major producers to get inline with SAG demands but per the experience of the WGA strike a few months ago, it's unlikely that the producers will just roll with the punch. While this may appear to be fantasy the reality is that all major productions currently in the works are all scheduled to be completed by June 30th, the date that the SAG contract expires - not a coincidence. Gird your loins my friends,it could be a long summer.

The above is a clip for tonight's "30 Rock" that hasn't even been posted on NBC.com, check it out. Before the writers' strike, Thursday was comedy night, with "30 Rock" vs. "Ugly Betty", etc., so I'm glad this dry spell is over.

The Writer's Guild of America (WGA) didn't hold a gala ceremony this year (who can afford a gown when you're not getting paid?) but they did take a break on the East coast from discussing the possible end of the strike to announce the winners of their annual awards. This year's very informal and somewhat unusual gathering "was decidedly looser than past ceremonies and peppered with references to the likely strike settlement. 'WGA on Strike' signs filled the ornate lobby of the Hudson Theatre in Times Square, and writers gathered by the open bars, comparing notes about the membership meeting earlier in the day when they finally heard the details about the tentative deal."