Results tagged “fx”

Today marks the release of "The Shield: Complete Series" on DVD. This series pushed the boundaries of what could be done on cable television, in terms of content, quality of writing and production, and talent (Academy Award winners galore guested or had long-running storylines). "The Shield" paved the way for current darlings of the critics and viewers like "Damages", "Mad Men", "Breaking Bad", Saving Grace", etc. High quality, aggressive and unapologetic storytelling is not limited to premium cable anymore because of "The Shield".

Has anyone been watching "Sons of Anarchy" and "Nip/Tuck" on FX? The motorcycle gang drama (see our interview with series creator Kurt Sutter and series star Katey Sagal) seemed to get back on track last night after last week's somewhat scatter-brained and ridiculous plot turns (gang members riding around as back up for the deputy police chief? Randomly shooting up cars without repercussions? etc.). Tonight we have another round of the pseudo-pornographic "Nip/Tuck" which can range from being a pointed indictment of our superficial culture to being an overwrought train wreck of excess. We admit to being a rubbernecker that just can't not watch it. At least FX is presenting some non-pedestrian series and it appears that it's getting viewership as a reward with these programs earning impressive ratings for scripted programming.

While we applauded the addition of a couple more female players to SNL, it has meant the departure of two: Michaela Watkins and Casey Wilson. We met Wilson right after she joined SNL a year and a half ago and she was very sweet and we always thought she was great on the show. Lucky for LA, she will be joining the Hollywood Upright Citizens Brigade on September 24. We hope to see them on TV again very soon.

LA has a diverse cast of characters. Whether it's the characters with stirring stories or interesting occupations or the people who are just simply characters, this town has them all. In an effort to get to know some of those characters a little better, we've created "Seven Questions with..." If you have a suggestion for a future Seven Questions subject send us an email.

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?

Tonight's season finale of "Damages" promises to be a nail-biter - we know where we'll be at 10pm. As it approaches, we wonder how there could possibly a third season after this, but that's the result of great writing. Unfortunately it's conflicting with the season premiere of "Reno 911!" but we take solace in the fact that it airs again later, because we're cheap that way.

Late night news: TBS is building a late night show around comedian/actor George Lopez (whom we have loved as Mayor Hernandez on "Reno 911"). The hour-long show will air at 11pm, Monday through Fridays but we're not so sure that it's a good move to go head to head with local news. We'll see what happens when the show launches. TBS has dabbled in late night comedy, with the Frank Caliendo vehicle, "Frank TV", which has not been renewed, and the admirable "10 Items or Less", headed by John Lehr, which is up for renewal now.

Ad spending in the US dropped by 2.6% in 2008, with only cable increasing ad revenue for the year. TV and cable still retained a leadership position as the preferred media, taking more than 60% of all ad dollars.

Tonight NBC is going to attempt to out-Gordon Ramsay FOX with Chef Marco Pierre White's new show, "Chopping Block". Our guess is that White will not have as foul a mouth as Ramsay but will have all his other TV-worthy qualities: intimidation, rage, and viciousness. May the most evil bastard chef win.

Critics are being rather forgiving of Jimmy Fallon's (only slightly shaky IMHO) "Late Night" debut: they brought out DeNiro who is always a tough interview and Fallon kind of made it work, and Timberlake kind of saved the first show - not sure why they had Van Morrison on, are they trying to reclaim the age 55-and-up demographic?

Who watched the new "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" last night? How did you like it? It's on our Tivo and we will watch it later but let us know.. We'll update you with the Nielsen numbers later this week - should be interesting.

Kenny Johnson has been in a ton of movies and TV shows over the last couple decades but he's currently best known for his roles as Detective Curtis 'Lemonhead' Lemansky in FX's "The Shield" and as Detective Hamilton 'Ham' Dewey in TNT's "Saving Grace". We were pleased to see Johnson reappear on TV in "Saving Grace" almost immediately after 'Lem' was dramatically assassinated by 'Shane' in "The Shield" and we've been more than pleasantly surprised by the quality of the show, its great writing, and superb performances.

It looks like Andy Richter will be returning to the side of Conan O'Brien when he fires up his version of "The Tonight Show" starting on June 1st. Richter will be the announcer for the show and will appear in comedy sketches but it's not clear if he will be a fixture on the guest couch a la Ed McMahon. Now that the Academy Awards are over with and Conan has shut down production, late night TV is a wasteland this week other than Jimmy Kimmel.

We have a host of finales tonight but the ones to keep an eye on are Timothy Hutton's "Leverage" (10pm on TNT, pictured right) and John Lehr's "10 Items or Less" (11pm on USA). Of local note, KNBC will be doing a special at 9pm on their historical 60 years of broadcasting in Los Angeles. KNBC helped define the medium of television and is due many accolades for it's services to the community over these 6 decades.

Even though the majority of eyes are focused on Sunday's Oscars, this Saturday, the Writers Guild of America will be doling out their awards and a sampling of scuttlebutt with regards to TV leaders include "Mad Men", "30 Rock", "The Office", "The Wire", and "True Blood".

Today AMC launched the beginning of a series of webisodes for its excellent series, "Breaking Bad", in advance of its new season starting on March 8th.

Last week we went to a sneak preview of Demetri Martin's new show on Comedy Central, "Important Things With Demetri Martin", which premiere's tonight at 10:30pm. The show has been in the works since last Spring so we are happy to see it make it on air.

So "American Idol" fans, round three of the Hollywood auditions start tonight - we haven't seen a lot of chatter about this season here at LAist and wondered what your thoughts were. Has the show jumped the shark yet? Because if you're not into the show we'd just as soon not list it here. Your comment is your vote.

Truth is stranger than fiction - or life imitates fiction? Something like that: Anna Torv and Mark Valley, the stars of FOX's "Fringe", have married in real life. Fringe also did pretty good in yesterday's Nielsen numbers, with a 10+% increase in viewership over last week, but that increase is getting attributed to the popularity of its lead in, "American Idol".

Sir Paul McCartney will pay a visit to Comedy Central's "The Colber(t) Repor(t)" tonight - we're wondering if Colber(t) will succeed in performing a song with yet another famous musician. [Also Colber(t)-related is his latest "remix challenge", so all you audio-tweakers should check out the details here.]

Looks like the national executive director of the Screen Actors Guild, Doug Allen, has had to step down because of the strike, or lack thereof, and a deal with producers, or lack thereof.

Yesterday's inauguration of President Barack Obama spiked traffic for all the venues that attempted to carry streaming video and audio of the proceedings. The NY Times has more details in this report which was made further enjoyable because they quote an analyst named "Woodcock".

We're shattered over the death of Emmy-award winner Patrick McGoohan who died yesterday in LA at the age of 80. McGoohan made his first mark on TV in the series "Danger Man" (released in the US as "Secret Agent") and won his two Emmy awards for his work on Peter Falk's "Colombo" which he acted in, produced, directed, and wrote several episodes.

There's only three weeks to go until the Super Bowl and NBC still has to sell some ads so they're looking to the movie studios to fill up the remaining (10%) of slots. So what we're saying is that at least 1 out of 10 ads will be for a movie, with all the ads adding up to over $200 million for NBC.

HBO has acquired the exclusive rights to air Barack Obama's inauguration kick-off events on January 18th. The actual inauguration ceremony will be carried by several outlets but the 90+ minutes of live performances preceding the ceremony will exclusively belong to HBO. In 1993, paid $1.5 million to air the performances preceding Bill Clinton's inauguration but unlike that year, HBO says it will provide access to all viewers and not just HBO subscribers.

The big news yesterday was that the TV Guide Network was sold for $255 million to Lionsgate, and apparently not sold to investor Allen Shapiro for $300 million as had been announced less than 3 weeks ago. While we're not sure who should be disappointed and who should be elated, what we're sure of is that $255 million seems like a lot of money for a brand as stale as TV Guide.

The TV Junkie says "welcome back" to you all, to a new year and a new "Winter Season" of TV. Premieres we are looking forward to this month are "Nip/Tuck" (FX 1/6), "Damages" (FX 1/7), "24" (Fox 1/11), "Battlestar Galactica" (SciFi 1/16), "Big Love" (HBO 1/18), and "Lost" (ABC 1/21).

2008 was a year where TV saw viewership decline for at least the 8th straight year. We saw even more film stars make their way to basic cable (USA, TNT, TBS, FX, etc.) to star in their own series and we saw the big three networks make even more forays into the realm of cheap reality TV at the expense of scripted programs.

A "Wallace and Gromit" Christmas special was leaked to YouTube by some Grinch - very sad and naughty! The little Whos of Whoville must be screaming.

Tonight ends Christian Slater's foray into network TV, "My Own Worst Enemy". Did any of you out there watch it? To us it seemed to cement the stereotype that Slater has a one-dimensional style even though we know he can do more than that. High budget + Star Name + Low Concept = Failure. Did we need another spy/assassin/crime series? No. There's worse shows out there that could use the ax so let's see them use it. How about Holly Hunter's "Saving Grace"? It's true that she showed off her bare bottom about 1.2x per episode but that shouldn't be enough to save that series. Any suggestions of shows you'd like to see go away?