Results tagged “er”

Ten days ago we bitched about NBC's cancellation of "Southland" and we had a lot of dialogue about that. Now the industry wonders if this move will result in creatives avoiding NBC because why work for a place that would cancel the best-reviewed and highest-rated freshman series in 2008-09? Oh yeah, and it was a series created by John Wells Productions, the guys that created, among other things, "E.R.", which only won about a jillion Emmys and provided NBC with hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising dollars.

The TV Junkie braved the stunning heat last Sunday to put on a monkey suit and attend the red carpet ceremonies at the Gibson Amphitheater for the 2009 TV Land Awards. This event is a favorite of TV fans as it's an opportunity to see the creators and talent of some of the best TV from ages past, most of whom are also involved in current TV projects as well.

Tonight is all about the final episode of "ER" and/or how to avoid it. NBC is pretty much devoting all of its prime time programming to "ER", what with retrospectives, and the two-hour finale. We admit that we used to watch "ER" about 10 years ago because we had a girlfriend that was an "ER" addict, kind of like the way one becomes a vegetarian because one's significant other is a vegetarian. At some point though, the show jumped the shark - was it the multiple helicopter crashes? The myriad of fatal diseases stalking their way through the staff? The constant replenishment of characters so that the "young" part of a "young doctors in love" soap opera could still fit the definition?

So what do you think of the beards on Letterman and Conan? I thought everyone did pretty well, particularly Conan. Leno's show was practically unchanged (same old crap) while Letterman gave lots of props to the WGA.

When I sign on to AOL this morning, the first headline on my homepage is “Did You Miss It Last Week?” Underneath it says “A lot happened on ‘Greys’ ‘Office’ ‘Chuck’ Download full episodes for free.” Then there’s a link to a site where you can download full episodes of dozens of television shows for FREE. All you have to do is sit through some ads. The numbers for yesterday are making the rounds,...

A couple more days of this visual and mental assault. I've discovered that drinking really helps though. 7:30pm Where Eagles Dare TCM - Here's your chance to bypass most of the new and quite possibly very mediocre offerings this evening by watching this classic. Richard Burton is wooden and robotic in this good guys vs. the Nazis flick, Clint Eastwood is fantastic and there's lots of cool explosions and Nazis getting shot and stuff. 8:00pm...

A Word or, I dunno, like 80: It seems to be coming together a bit on Lost - another good episode last night. If you want the producers' perspective, they're on tonight after Grey's. Delay goes to his base tonight on Colbert. Tonight the networks will have the typical struggle between comedy and young-doctors-in-love, what will you succumb to? Tonight - Thursday - May 17, 2007 Angels @ Mariners (Fox Sports, 7:00 p.m.) Bob...

A Word or 17: Season finales are upon us friends, keep your eyes open for your favorite shows wrapping things up. Tonight - Thursday - May 10, 2007 Indians @ Angels (Fox Sports, 7:00 p.m.) Dodgers @ Marlins (PRIME, 7:00 p.m.) Survivor: Fiji (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Major challenges this evening. My Name Is Earl/The Office/Scrubs (NBC, 8:00 p.m.) Season Finale!/Will Michael be replaced?/JD and Turk head to a surgeon convention Smallville/Supernatural (the CW, 8-10:00...

I collected baseball cards growing up. Baseball cards taught me math (ER*9/IP=ERA!!). Baseball cards taught me the art of negotiation ("I'll give you a Griffey Upper Deck rookie for that McGwire '84 Olympic card"). And, perhaps most importantly, baseball cards taught me last names. From Assenmacher to Zeile, I know 'em all. While I typically forget someone's first name 30 seconds after meeting them, their last names always seem to stick with me ("Wait, your last name's DeJesus? Any relation to David? No? How about Ivan??").

A Word or 157: It's all about the Prime Time tonight. The Office and 30 Rock have a real chance at getting some serious viewership since both Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy are simply rehash episodes (even though they are billed as 'New'). Tina Fey has been hitting everything from Good Morning America to Conan (and Baldwin made an appearance on Letterman last night) in an attempt to push 30 Rock more - it's...

Goodbye O.C., a shame that the show is better now than it has been for the last couple seasons. Hey, who is the amazing Thai girl that was in Lost last night? Lots of new shows tonight, am going to have to order that second Tivo.

My son has pink eye and I've had to watch daytime TV, a truly terrible terrible thing to have to subject yourself to. I dunno if I'll be able to turn any of the following on.

A Word or 36: Hopefully the jerkoff session over the Aqua Teen Hunger Force is winding down and we can get back to real topics like: is Paula Abdul getting replaced by Courtney Love on Idol? And other such ilk. Tonight - Thursday - February 1st, 2007 College Basketball: Oregon @ UCLA (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) Ugly Betty (ABC, 8:00 p.m.) With cameos from Tim Gunn and Katharine McPhee My Name Is Earl/The Office/Scrubs (NBC,...

A Word or 12: Dirt - I forgot to mention Dirt yesterday, someone just kill me please. Tonight - Wednesday - January 31st, 2007 The Spiral Staircase (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) This nifty thriller from the '40s features a strangler that follows a mute maid through a dark New England mansion during a storm. Lakers @ Celtics (KCAL, 5:30 p.m.) Monster (IFC, 6:00 p.m.) Charlize Theron transorms herself in an Oscar winning performance. Worth watching just...

A Word or 42: There's nothing funnier than watching pundits try to fill in the 7 minutes after a Presidential speech ends and before regular programming resumes. Great delivery on the speech though, it reminded me of the animatronic Lincoln I saw at Disneyland in 1977. Tonight - Thursday - January 11th, 2007 "Smallville" (the CW, 8:00 p.m.) Tori Spelling guests "My Name Is Ed"/"The Office"/"Scrubs"/"30 Rock"/"ER" (NBC, 8-11:00 p.m.) ALL NEW "Ugly Betty"...

The long drought is over my friends -- regular programming is back, we have new shows and new series coming on every day. My life has some purpose again. My thumb was blistered from almost 2 weeks of endlessly scrolling through channel after channel of repeats and other unwatchable TV - I had almost depleted my tin of Bag Balm. Thank you TV, thank you networks, I may have said some harsh things last week but it was the blackberry brandy talkin', I swear.

So LAist admits to being one of the five people to actually watch most episodes of the FOX freshman series Vanished. When it launched late in the summer, the promos tempted viewers with the promise of a mystery wrapped in an enigma, a la The Da Vinci Code with all the action of 24. But after watching the so-called “series finale” on the web this weekend--which was a real letdown--LAist would like to call FOX out on this false advertising.

Tonight - Friday "NBA Basketball" (PRIME, 5:00 p.m.) Clippers @ Spurs "NBA Basketball" (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) Hawks @ Lakers "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Yup, the original, with Burl Ives -- come on misfits, tune in! "Primetime" (ABC, 9:00 p.m.) Diane Sawyer visits North Korea "Battlestar Galactica" (Sci Fi, 9:00 p.m.) New episode! "Charlie Rose" (PBS, 11:30 p.m.): journalist John F. Burns, Stephen Colbert(!!), billionaire Anthony O'Reilly "The Tonight Show With...

Thursday Night Lights Can you believe the powers-that-be let Emmitt take the disco ball last night? Awesome. "College Football" (PRIME 42, 4:00 p.m.) Oregon @ USC "NHL Hockey" (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) Flyers @ Kings "College Basketball (PRIME 42, 7:30 p.m.) South Carolina @ USC "Once Were Warriors" (IFC, 7:50 p.m.) Dysfunctional Maori family in this award-winner "Survivor: Cook Islands" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Survivor flirtations raise the ire of "the Others", oops, am suffering...

In a secret contest to see which Republican can implode the freakiest, this afternoon's winner is clearly Nevada GOP Congressman Jim Gibbons, who while running (and winning by ten points, if you believe polls) threatened to rape a casino waitress during a drunken "party" at an upscale steak joint. The woman, a cancer survivor who sounds like a younger Courtney Love made three 9-1-1 calls alleging that the Congressman threatened her life. Close behind...

Six Degrees doesn't start at 10:00 pm. It starts at 10:01 pm. Ohhhh, but LA Times says 10:02 pm. Now that's true drama. Does it really matter? No. That's because at 10:00 pm, a Los Angeles based show begins. Spike Lee directed this pilot episode of Shark. 8 pm My Name Is Earl (NBC) 8:30 pm The Office (NBC) 9 pm Grey's Anatomy (ABC) 10:01 pm Six Degrees (ABC) 9 pm CSI (CBS) 10...

Still no word on the future of Bart DeLorenzo's Evidence Room company, but an email on the sadly quiet company mailing list this week recommends two "ER-related offerings": actress Pamela Gordon's poignant last film, The Dogwalker, premiering tonight at the Laemmle Music Hall, and a new novel, The Glass Books Of The Dream Eaters, by ER playwright Gordon Dahlquist (Delirium Palace (2001), Messalina (2003)).

The Angels' #1 pick in 2004 was called up a month ago and bro hasn't lost a game yet. The 6'7" brother of teammate Jeff Weaver, has been raising eyebrows by only giving up four ER in 26.1 innings and going 4-0 in four starts. Exactly what Anaheim needed once their ace Bartolo Colon went down.

Just about everyone around here, except our friendly neighborhood Weekend Editor, made the extra long holiday weekend an excuse to get away from the computer. We'll be back to a regular posting schedule tomorrow but for now - the week that was:

Every Thursday we're entertained with a fantastic view of the ER consisting of ridiculously attractive doctors with egos the size of small volcanoes. On Thanksgiving, this particular LAist editor saw the less glamorous reality: a group of everyday people pulling an unenviable holiday shift, with nary a complaint from the bunch.

Live television these days has pretty much been handed over to a select few veterans, like the morning shows, sports, and most awards extravaganzas. LAist was jazzed a couple of years back for the live broadcast of ER, and we were even more jazzed this week for (and, okay, in the dorkiest fashion, during the days leading up to) the live season premiere of NBC's Will & Grace. W&G is, in our humble opinion, the last of a dying breed. Sitcoms just don't seem to have the staying power, and comedy has found an edgier niche over on the cable channels, because four letter words and the occasional bared breast just seem to spell funny in a way the networks can't handle. But back in 1998, a little sitcom that could--and did--blur the boundaries made its debut, and now, in its eighth and final season, ventured into the rarely chartered waters of live television.

Bart DeLorenzo is the artistic director of the Evidence Room, one of Los Angeles's most unique and adventurous theatres for new works and for avant-garde writers. At the ER, Bart has directed over 20 shows, including (LAIST reviewed it here.) He has received many awards and nominations for his work, including a 2001 Local Hero Garland Award for Direction. Bart is active in the development of new works for theatre in Los Angeles and nationwide, and his company is known for being a playwright's theatre.

Most actors fancy themselves to be a jack (or jane) of all trades.... Few actually are. We were therefore surprised when we stumbled upon an older, but noteworthy recording by Santa Barbara native Kathleen Wilhoite. Although she's an accomplished musician, Wilhoite is probably best known for her 1996 stint as Chloe Lewis on ER. Don't let that scare you away. She warrants a listen.